They had yet to enter the forest, but Ves'ra felt great. Breathing the air of the forest of her birth was just great. The air felt fresher, the trees looked greener and the ground was softer. It was good to be home.

They crossed the free cities in about three months, meeting a few groups of soldiers moving south in the later part of their journey.

They asked for news from the south, but they couldn't help there - the last thing Ves'ra saw was part of the enemy army before her spell hit. They kept to roads most of the time, with Arvog and Ves'ra doing most of the hunting the other kobolds could focus on moving.

The hatchlings born after they killed the drake were off worst, being the only kobolds not evolved. Ves'ra didn't have much hopes to do anything about that until they reached the north though - the free cities made sure the surroundings of their roads were safe for all travellers.

Now she noticed Arvog's increased size had its downsides too - her familiar could no longer land everywhere, he needed a clearing to land in.

"What are we going to do now chief?" Tes'va asked.

"We are going to evolve the hatchlings while searching for more monsters like the drake." She answered.

"Arvog and I won't be able to help as much now, after all he can't see through trees and I will need to be with you as we'd lose each other otherwise." She answered.

"So we send a few of the body-enhancers, have them hunt powerful prey?"

"Yep, I'll have Arvog sweep the forest, perhaps he can find interesting things. I'm pretty sure mountains would be good, I heard powerful beings like to live there." She answered.

"And for how long, hunting powerful monsters is sure to get kobolds killed." Tes'va stated.

"Well, we do make a good village, so I'd say we search for something with high ambient energy and settle down after another evolution or two."

"So you don't have a plan." Tes'va said.

"I do." She paused for a moment, "I know what I want to do. You remember when I told you about the human wanting to take over my mind?" She asked.

"Yes, that was quite the shock."

"Well, I want her out there, but I will need to be a lot more powerful to achieve that, and extremely vulnerable when doing so, so you will need to be powerful to powerful too, to protect me when I act." She examined.

"You can count on us!" Tes'va said with fervor in her voice. "But losing all that knoege you used to train us would be a waste." She added.

"Don't worry, I know that and have a plan. I'll need to dive into the human's memory before I can start too." She said. The knowledge was useful, more than useful and she wasn't one to needlessly give up a powerful advantage.

"We will move north." She yelled. "The humans didn't explore in the direction, so the beasts should be more powerful, without adventurers hunting the most delicious."

All eyes focused on her, and they set out after packing everything.