Kreet slept for a long time. It had been long since last she’d slept. She vaguely wondered why her mother hadn’t woken her by now, but the rocking of her bed was too soothing, so she remained sleeping.

But then the rocking stopped, and she opened her eyes., Then she remembered her circumstances, and began to cry quietly.

“Kreet? Are you awake?”

“I am awake, Ka'Plo. I am sad.”

“I know Kreet. I’m going to take the cover off your cage. It’s night now, and we’re outside.”

The darkness was lifted, but the light wasn’t too bright now. Kreet looked at the man she knew as Ka'Plo. He wore plain pale cloth that was wrapped with a similarly colored belt. He looked nothing like the other Adventurers she had seen.

“I have to pee,” she said to him.

“That may be a problem, Kreet. I’ll need to let you out of your cage. Will you run away if I let you out?”

Kreet looked around her. They were on a hill beside a large boulder. There were woods not far away, and a road ran by them in front of the woods. She considered if she should run away.

“No. I have nowhere to go. You haven’t hurt me yet. I’ll stay with you.”

“Okay, Kreet. I don’t want to keep you as a prisoner, nor as a pet. If you don’t want to stay with me, you don’t have to. But you will probably die if you leave me, Kreet. I don’t want you to die, and I don’t think you do either. So please, don’t run away.”

“I will run away if I want to, Ka'Plo. But I don’t want to now. I want to pee.”

He laughed at her again. “Okay Kreet. You go do your business and come back when you’re done. I’m tired though, and need to sleep soon.”

The door of the cage lifted and she looked around, then up at Ka'Plo. She noticed then that he had white hair, both in his beard and on his head. “You’re old,” she said, then looked around for an appropriate place.

“Yes, Kreet. I’m old. Does that bother you?”

Kreet found a suitable place nearby and relieved herself. “Yes. You are easy to kill. If someone wants to kill Kreet, you won’t stop them.”

“Fair enough,” he said, turning away. “But I will try not to let that happen. Also, you really shouldn’t pee in front of other people, Kreet.”

“No,” she agreed. “It is a vulnerable position. But you are my friend, right? You won’t kill me, so it’s okay.”

“I suppose so,” Ka'Plo said as she finished and stepped back into the cage.

“Kreet, you don’t have to go back in the cage.”

“No? Where should I go?”

“I meant what I said before, Kreet. You can leave, if you want. I’m hoping you won’t want to leave, but you can. I can’t be guarding you day and night.”

“I don’t want to leave. But where should I go if not back in the cage?”

“Well, anywhere you want, really. Are you hungry?”

At this Kreet’s eyes lit up - quite literally - in the dark.

“Food! Do you have food? I am very hungry!”

“Sure,” said the man, pulling some things out of his pack. “Here, I’ve got a lot of jerky, and I picked some mushrooms and moss while you were sleeping. When we get back to my home tomorrow, I have much more.”

Kreet snatched up the food eagerly. She gobbled the moss instantly, though it wasn’t the sweet kind she liked best. The mushrooms, she picked through.

“You pick bad mushrooms, Ka'Plo; some of these would kill me. But it’s okay - I know the good kind from the bad kind.”

“I’m sorry, Kreet. I know kobolds, but I don’t know mushrooms, I’m afraid. Would it be okay if I light a fire? I’d like to make some soup.”

Kreet looked at the man’s eyes. “A small fire, right? I don’t like big fires.”

“A small fire, I promise,” he assured her, and set to work. Kreet nibbled some more mushroom and then crept up behind the man. She watched him work his flint until he managed to light some dry grass, then he stacked on some small sticks until they caught as well.

“You are a mage,” she said flatly.

The man coughed again, then said, “No Kreet. I’m no mage. I just know how to make fire. This kind of stone makes the sparks, see? Then I just make the sparks go into a little dry grass.”

“My father was a mage. He could make fire. Sometimes,” she said, watching the flickering flames as if entranced.

“Did he use stones like these?”

“No. He used a special stick. But it took longer. Big People do everything better.”

“I doubt that, Kreet.”

Later on, when the soup was ready, the man offered her some.

“Be careful, it’s very hot. Just sip it, like this…”

Kreet took the perfectly shaped bowl carefully, marveling at it’s craftsmanship.

“OW!” Kreet cried, unable to duplicate the sipping that the Big Person had done.

“Oh, I’m sorry Kreet! Just wait till it cools down.”

“My tongue hurts,” the little kobold cried.

“Here, have some cool water,” he said, offering her a cup. “There, does that help?”

Kreet nodded. But a few minutes later she was fine and tried the soup again. The taste was very strange, but also very good. Finally, when she’d had enough, she sat back against the rock they had sheltered by.

“What are those? Are they stars?” she asked while Ka'Plo doused the fire.

“Oh yes, they are! Do you know about stars?”

“My brothers used to tell me about them. They’re beautiful sparklies!”

Ka'plo laid out his bedroll and crawled inside while Kreet watched.

“You will sleep in there?” she asked, curious.

“I will. It gets cold outside at night. I have an extra blanket if you need one.”

Kreet crawled under the bedroll with the man. “I don’t need one. You are warm enough.”

The man seemed startled, but then carefully put his arm around her. Soon he was sleeping. She was surprised how much his snoring sounded like her clan’s. She wasn’t sleepy herself, yet she was very warm and comfortable. She decided against killing Ka'Plo in his sleep after all. He was a good man, and, importantly, he wasn’t one of the murderous Adventurers that killed her clutch. Instead she wriggled all the way under the blanket with just her snout pointing out, and eventually, she went to sleep too.

She had a brief moment of panic when the man turned over in the middle of the night. She was afraid that he might crush her, but he shifted to make room for her, and she got her tail out from underneath him, finally managing to go back to sleep.