Anguish and despair rolled over her like a tangible wave of coldness. She shivered underneath them far more than the simple coolness of the air around her. How long she stayed lost in that oblivion she didn’t know. But eventually she recognized that there were moments when it ebbed and flowed. Very slowly she allowed light into her soul again. But she came out bitter.

She found herself rocking on her knees and she stopped chanting the names of her family. Around her sat two male kobolds. They were rocking on their knees as she had been doing. As the white-noise faded from her ears, she heard they were repeating the names as well.

“Kallith. Grass. Kalindruh. Nieyt. Kallith. Grass. Kalindruh. Nieyt.”

Once she would have smiled at their mimicry. Now she just thought it pathetic and annoying. They had no idea what they were saying.

“Shut up,” she said, scowling.

Both looked up, and their eager young faces annoyed her even more.

“You speak?” one asked in kobold.

Another annoyance. She switched to kobold.

“Shut up,” she repeated.

“Mysterious woman awakens?”

Another shiver of remembrance shook her. Oh, this was going to be hard. So, so hard.

One of them came to her and picked up a cloth from around her feet and put it over her back and shoulders. It felt familiar, and she realized they had done this before repeatedly - but she had thrown it off in her grief and anger.

“Well,” she thought, “If you wanted to be dead you could have stayed there. You chose to come back here, didn’t you? They’re trying to be kind. They don’t deserve your wrath.”

She looked around and stood up, drawing a deep breath of resignation. Her knees protested, and it was clear she had been here for some time. She may never see her family again, but staying down here was only a way of guaranteeing that. She had been given a chance to live again. A chance few, if any, kobolds had been given before.

She tried to release her anger at the gods. She knew instinctively that they hadn’t caused the fire - but it would have been so damn easy for them to stop it.

“But no, you couldn’t lift a goddamn finger? Did you take Night too? But you didn’t leave him a goddamn jewel, did you? Fuck you Eilistraee. Fuck you Pelor, and fuck your powers. You can blind a giant spider, but you can’t put out a spark? Well to hell with the lot of you! I’m doing this one on my own!”

The two kobolds shrank back again as she railed against the sky, seemingly angry at the cavern roof.

“She spoke before,” one kobold said to the other. “Why does she talk gibberish again?”

“She kept the blanket this time,” said the other.

Kreet stopped her ranting and she looked at the two closer. Their clothes were very much in the style she remembered from so long ago, and in the books she’d read since then. These weren’t domesticated slaves of the Drow like Kallid. These were the wild, native kobolds of her own type.

“Hello. I’m Kreet,” she said, nodding to them both in turn. Kobold greetings tended to be of one of two types - either one would supplicate to the other completely, or one would deign to nod in acknowledgement of the presence of someone underneath him. These two had already demonstrated their willingness to take the lower order. She accepted their obeisance. They may be about the same size as Kallid, but their spears were still sharp and she was defenseless.

Both bowed to her.

“What are your names?”

“I am Tokkin,” one said while the other said “I am Tonnin.”

“Tokkin and Tonnin. Are you brothers?”

Both nodded, and Tokkin continued on. “We stayed with you, Kreet. We kept danger away!”

She looked around, a little alarmed.

“Danger? What danger? Are there spiders here?”

“No. No real danger. But if there was, we would have kept it away from you!”

“Oh. Thanks, I guess. What are you doing here, Tokkin and Tonnin? Why aren’t you with your clan?”

“We don’t like our clan. We want to start a new clan.”

“You’re going to need a…” Kreet began. Then suddenly she realized what she was about to say.

“Oh. You want me to be your wife, don’t you?”

“Yes! We protect you from danger!” Tonnin said, as if he had to remind her again.

“Sorry guys,” she said, drawing the blanket around her somewhat tighter. “I already have a clan.”

Suddenly the light in both their eyes dimmed and Tokkin hit Tonnin on the back of the head with the flat of his spear.

“See? I told you she must already have a clan. She is a Mother! Even you could see that, blind Tonnin!”

“But she’s alone! Kreet, where is your clan? Maybe all dead? We could still start a new clan!”

“Sorry Tonnin. I am Mother, but my clan is not dead. They are very far away though, probably. I don’t know where they are. I don’t know where I am.”

“Ah, these are the Warrens of Goldworm.”

“Never heard of it. I’m sorry, young men, but I cannot be your wife. But you will be my servants for a little longer perhaps? Can you take me to your clan?”

Tokkin looked at Tonnin, who nodded. “Okay. We were getting hungry anyway. Do you need water before we go? Stream over there,” he said, pointing off into the darkness.

When she’d returned, she tied the blanket around her middle and a thought struck her.

Tonnin led the way with Tokken following Kreet.

“How did you know I was Mother, Tokken?”

“Teats. I told Tonnin only Mothers have teats, but he didn’t care.”

“Your Mothers have teats?” Kreet asked, surprised.

“The Outside Mothers do,” Tonnin said. “But we know all the Outsiders. You must be from Outside, but you are not from Outside clan.”

Kreet decided to let that go. Obviously they had some connection with the Outside though. That was good.

“How many clans are down here, Tonnin?”

“Three clans. Well, two clans in the Warrens and the Outside clan. We are from #1 clan. #2 clan lives on the other side of Goldworm. But we want to start a new clan.”

Kreet smiled. One’s own clan was always the #1 clan of course.

“And what is Goldworm?”

The two kobolds stopped dead in their tracks.

“You don’t know Goldworm?” Tokkin asked.

Tonnin looked at her askance. “How can you not know Goldworm? How did you get here?”

Kreet suddenly noticed both were holding their spears with both hands now. She’d transgressed something obviously.

“Of course I know Goldworm! But… I have been gone very long. I meant, has Goldworm changed?”

But that didn’t help.

“How old can you be, Mother Kreet? Goldworm doesn’t change in a kobold’s lifetime! You are a stranger, aren’t you?” Tokkin said, taking an offensive stance..

“Stranger, on your knees!” Tonnin demanded, and suddenly Kreet did so.

“I meant no harm! I am a stranger, but I mean no evil on Goldworm!” she cried, putting her hands out in the universal sign of acquiescence.

“A stranger,” Tonnin said to his brother. “She is ours then.”

“I saw her first. She is mine!” Tokkin amended.

“Aw, brother. Surely we can own her together?”

“You can rent her from me. But she is mine!”

Kreet really didn’t like the way this conversation was going.

“I am no one’s!” she protested, but Tonnin pressed the point of his spear to her back, forcing her back down.

“Keep your mouth closed, stranger,” he said menacingly.

“You can rent her from me,” Tokkin decreed.

“How much?”

“Ten bites for a day.”

“Five bites.”

“Eight bites.”

Tonnin knelt down to Kreet’s level. “Can you weave?”

“I… I don’t know! You mean, like, weave cloth? Baskets?”

But Tonnin didn’t listen. He stood back up and argued with his brother.

“She can’t even weave. Seven should be enough between brothers!”

“Okay. You can rent her for seven bites per day. Come on, stranger. Get up. Let’s go back to the clan.”

Kreet stood back up.

“You’re a fool, Tokkin. I’m worth eight bites, easily,” she said as she began to cast a Hold Person spell.