Kreet awoke to shouts of “Fire!” from the hallway and already knew it was bad. The smell of smoke was heavy and her head didn’t feel right. Kallid was slow to wake up as well but she got him moving quickly.

He threw open the window while Kreet checked on the children. Their room was even thicker with smoke but she grabbed both Night and Grace while Kallid threw up the kids’ window.

“Kallly! Don’t worry about the window. The air is just going out anyway. Get Kalindra!” she shouted. She heard running feet outside but there was another sound that she feared was likely the rumbling of fire.

“Mom?” NIght said, uncomprehending.

“Just hold onto me Night. And hold your sister too.”

The hallway was in pandemonium with tenants rushing both directions.

“Kally? You have Kalindra?”

“I do Kreet,” he called over the human shouting.

She soon saw what was causing the problem. The flames were coming from downstairs. Some people were trying instead to get out by the windows.

“Follow me Kallid!” Kreet yelled, then raced through the legs to the stairs going down to the tavern. While she did see flames in the kitchen, they weren’t blocking the stairs. She thought about yelling back to the people to go ahead and go this way - but, cruel as it may sound - her first priority was to get her kids out.

However, it was very hot once she got to the tavern. Grace started to cry.

“We’ll be out in a second honey,” she assured her, then ran full speed into the outside door, turning her back to it. She saw Kallid and Kalindra right behind her.

The door didn’t budge.

Kallid saw fear in his wife’s eyes, but he didn’t stop.

“The courtyard!” he yelled.

At that moment, glass shattered nearby and they raced to the other side of the tavern. Kreet saw that the windows had broken and knew that even if the door failed to open there, they could at least get out by the windows.

Fortunately the door opened and all five kobolds spilled out into the blessed air outdoors. They were all coughing by then, but Kreet breathed a sigh of relief. They were all safe.

But there were other tenants in there. It appeared everyone was trying to get out from the windows on the other side of the building.

“Kally, stay with the kids. I’m going around to the front to see if I can help.”

Kallid waved her away in between coughs and she raced around the stables and to the front of the street. There she saw a crowd of people looking at the building. Relieved, she recognized most of them as her customers.

“Marge!” she shouted when she saw her friend’s face.

“Kreet! You’re out! Kallid? The kids?”

“We’re all out. We got out by the courtyard in back. The tenants?”

“All accounted for, thank the gods. But I don’t know what we’re going to do about the Inn. There’s some people rounding up a bucket brigade, but it’s going to be too late Kreet. I’m so sorry!”

Kreet patted her hand. “It’ll be fine Marge. As long as everyone is okay. I don’t think I have anything for healing smoke poisoning, but see if you can find Dr. Stevens. He may know of something. I’m headed back to my family. Oh, and see if you can get them farther away from the building.

Kreet ran back around to where she’d left her family. But right away she knew something was wrong. Grace and Kalindra were where she’d left them, but as she got closer she saw they were both looking up at the building. Then she realized she heard Kallid yelling for NIght.

“What?!!” She shouted at her girls as she neared them.

“My puppet!” Kalindra cried and suddenly Kreet put it together. Kallid was oblivious to her as she came up behind him.

“Night!” he said when he saw her. “He just flew back in!”

Kreet looked at the glowing interior through the door they’d come out of. It was only a few steps in, up the stairs. The doors would already be open.

She grabbed Kallid by the shoulders and forced him to face her.

“Kallid.”

He looked back, momentarily uncomprehending.

“I have to Kally. Do you understand? I have to. Take care of them.”

She left him no time for to protest. She was back inside before he could think to do anything about it.

Inside, it was hot. Terribly hot. The glow from the kitchen had become an inferno, and she realized it was far too close to the stairs. But surely they would last a few seconds more.

She heard Kallid screaming something behind her, but she couldn’t stop. She made it as far as the top of the stairs before the building collapsed around her. Her last thoughts were that she hoped Night had made it out.

In fact, had she heard Kallid clearly, she would have heard his plea that Night was back. But she had not heard.

And then Kreet died for the second time.

***************

Once again she was conscious of the comforting white light that meant eternity. But she didn’t care about that light. She didn’t give a goddamned fuck about the white light. She looked around desperately for the jewel. She began screaming.

“WHERE THE FUCK IS IT, KA’PLO! I need it now! I’ve GOT to go back!!!!”

“Be at peace,” she heard a voice.

“FUCK PEACE! WHERE’S THE GODDAMN JEWEL!?”

Then she saw it. Black and menacing against the grey and white. She willed herself to it.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she cried impatiently. “Pain, coldness… I know, I know. But my damned kids are there and I don’t give a fuck about the rest!”

The darkness grew. It enveloped her. It covered her finally from head to toe and the whiteness vanished.

She was laying on her back, and she heard a steady dripping coming from somewhere. It had been a long time since she’d used her eyes in total darkness, but it came back to her instinctively.

She was underground again. But it smelled different. She hadn’t been in this place before anyway.

Suddenly her loss hit her. She began to scream. She railed against the gods - Pelor and Eilistraee and all of them. She’d have torn away the pendant that marked her as a Cleric if the damn jewel had left her anything at all. But no, it left her only life.

“I WANT MY FAMILY BACK!!!” She screamed into the empty cavern. “Oh Night, please be alright.”

She stayed that way for a long time, wailing a lament to the rocks around her. When she saw the other kobolds timidly approach, she didn’t care. She knew she would have to care soon, but she had too much grief to deal with now to be concerned with anything as trivial as life.

*********************************

Night was alright. In fact he had brought Kalindra her puppet back as promised. But his dad was screaming his mother’s name into the fire. He didn’t understand that. His mother had ran around to the other side of the building. She wasn’t in there. And his father had seen him come out of the window.

Then something gave way in the building and even his father had to step back as things started falling in on themselves inside.

His father backed up to where his three children stood, and sat down hard. The building was crumbling and they had never seen their father cry before.

“It’s okay Da,” Grace said.

Kallid turned grief stricken eyes to his daughter. She had Kreet’s eyes.

Night didn’t understand yet, but he went to stand next to his father too, and his father held them all close.

“Where’s Mom?” he asked.

“I don’t know, Night,” his father said, standing back up and squaring his shoulders. “But if she’s not in there,” he said - pointing to the ruined building that now had flames licking out its windows, “then I’m going to find her.”