Somewhere, West Virginia, USA.

It was dark when Kilpa left the Harvest Festival. After Hamish and Clive both had a bit much to drink she was confident enough that she could get any information about the kobolds from either.

Clive however couldn't hold his drink very well and what she could get from him wasn't ideal. Hamish was a better source. While he didn't give her their EXACT location it was enough of a start.

So she left the festival and the two drunkards as she sprinted down the dirt road. She didn't take any of the ponies incase anyone got curious and noticed that both it and her were gone. She wanted this mission to be as stealthy as possible.

Unlike most halflings, she was used to long and hard journeys. So by the time she reached the town she wasn't too out of shape. Now she just had to find out where the kobolds were. With them gone she can reconcile with Clive! As long as she could get in and out without his human friend noticing. If he found her then he could tell Clive and this whole plan will have been for naught!

She had on her black sack cloth. It was difficult to get armor for halflings, she would either have to modify children's clothes or cobble together something herself. Fortunately she was so small that a simple dark sack was enough to usually keep her hidden in shadows.

She ducked to the side of a brick building as she spied greenskins! She peered around the corner and noticed a tan one was leading nine green ones in what looked like a patrol pattern. They weren't the only ones. She could see other guard patrols nearby and even some stationary sentries guarding the entrance to some buildings.

She darted through the shadows, avoiding the light illuminating from the light poles that lined the street. It was second nature to her after her many years on the road. Not only avoiding bandits in the woods but robbers and other ner-do-wells during their stay in cities.

CLANG!

She held stiff still as her foot nudged a tin can! She held her breath as a nearby greenskin looked in her direction with beady yellow eyes. He peered at the spot she was in as he made his way closer. Eyes scanning the area, looking for any movement.

"What are you doing out of formation?!" A harsh voice called.

"Fot I 'eard somfin'!" The greenskin called back.

"Well is there?!" The harsh voice called again.

The greenskin scanned the area once more. Kilpa was getting a little woozy from holding her breath and she hoped he would leave soon. After a long minute he snarled and returned to his patrol.

Kilpa slowly breathed again. That was too close, she was getting rusty, she thought as she continued on her way. From what she could get from Hamish, the kobolds were near the town. It wasn't a large down, but it would still take her some time to search for any signs of the lizardmen.

As she searched she noticed that the greenskins were concentrated on the south-east part of town. So much in fact that it seemed like they had occupied it! She watched as several came and went down a road that led further south from town. Most were the typical goblins, though they were all more muscular than the regular goblins she was familiar with, and they all wore strange clothes. Especially the tan ones.

They wore a crimson tricorn and wore what looked like some sort of soldier uniform that was white, blue, and gold. Around the shoulders was spattered red with something but she didn't know what. They were the only ones wearing a standard uniform though. The other goblins wore a hodgepodge of rags and cloth that looked sewn together and formed some kind of ragged outfit and sported none of the crimson caps the tan ones did.

She spotted one of the tan ones talking with a human woman. She was too far away to make out what they were saying though and she didn't want to risk getting closer and being spotted by the goblins. While they had yet to actually see her, their affinity for dark spaces gave them great night vision. So far she had been lucky that the amount of light around town helped to both hide and hinder her. The shadows were darker but all she had to do was brush the intense light and any of them would notice the movement.

So her search was hobbled as she had to gingerly sneak around not only the lights but the goblins as well. She ducked into a dark alley as a patrol came her way. She hid behind a dumpster and waited for them to march by.

It was only by her keen senses, honed by years of adventuring, that she noticed the goblins getting ready to ambush her in the dark! These were neither the tanned nor green goblins though. These had a greyish skin that helped them to blend in with the dull stone that was common around town.

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She pulled out her daggers and decapitated one as it fell upon her. The others hissed as she fell into a combat stance. They charged her with numbers. But being small and dexterous had it's advantages. The greyskinned goblins sought to swarm her but she slid and glided around them. Twirling her daggers as she sliced and stabbed goblin after goblin that threw itself at her.

But even she was having trouble fighting off against the tide of goblins. They seemed to come from the very stone that surrounded her! She was tempted to shout and call the other goblins. What little she's seen of the interactions between the two groups they weren't friendly. But she didn't want them to know she was here either.

Fortunately she didn't have to call for help.

A greyskin was caught mid-air by some force and dragged back into a deep blackness that had appeared. The other greyskins hissed and shrunk away from it as they retreated to their holes and hovels.

Kilpa readied her daggers, prepared for yet another fight. She was surprised however when Travis appeared out of the dark!

"Travis?! Wha' are you doin' 'ere?!"

"Aw Kilpa! I'm glad to see you are alright!" Travis said with a type of sincerity that put Kilpa off-guard. He was never one for kindness despite being a member of the clergy of the Goddess.

"I'm glad yer alright too. But, why are you 'ere?" She asked. She had yet to put her daggers away though. Something about his presence here made her nerves and mind scream.

"I'm merely doing what I have always done. Serving The Mother in any compacity I can!" Travis stated as he moved closer to Kilpa. As he got closer to Kilpa, and the traces of light from a lamppost, she noticed that he was no longer wearing the pure white robes of his order. Instead he wore a heavy dark purple robe and instead of his usual holy book he carried around he had strapped to his hip a wicked dagger that unnerved Kilpa just to look at it.

"Well, I thank you fer yer aid. But I've got no time fer chattin'." Kilpa said and made to leave. The more she talked with Travis the more itchy she got. Something wasn't right.

"Come now Kilpa! Is that any way to treat an old friend? Wouldn't you like to come with me and we can talk more about how our friends are doing? Maybe reminisce about past adventures?" Travis asked as he slowly advanced on Kilpa. A smile that radiated a coldness was on his face.

"Wha' happened ta you Travis?! Yer not actin' right!" She hissed as she looked between the circle of light behind her and her friend and adventuring comrade in front.

Travis stopped and the usual sneer he had returned to his face, replacing the unnerving smile.

"What happened? WHAT HAPPENED?! What happened, Kilpa, is that my Goddess ABANDONED ME!!! I prayed and served her faithfully for YEARS! And do you know what my reward for it was? NOTHING! She sent me to this heathenistic backwater town and she took all of her blessings from me! I couldn't so much as channel a simple prayer to heal a scrape on my arm!"

As Travis spoke he continued to advance on Kilpa. She was but a single step away from the circle of light.

"That sanctimonious cunt left me in the middle of nowhere with NOTHING! No way to defend myself from heathens! But do you know who did?"

She was contemplating between dealing with Travis or the goblinoid guards.

"The Mother! She who rests in the mountains! She who would reclaim what was stolen from Her! It was SHE who gave me power! Not that bitch that I wasted so many years in service to! HER!"

"'Nd why are you tellin' me this Travis?!"

The sneer vanished as the smile returned.

"Why Kilpa. It's because I want to reform our little group. We would be adventurers in HER service! The power She wields flows through my very core! And it will for you too!"

"I don't know wha' yer on. But I want none o' it!" Kilpa shouted as she dashed into the light. Immediately shouts came out as the goblin guards spotted her small form and gave chase.

Travis meanwhile looked at his fleeing friend as she vanished into the night, goblins chasing after her.

"Even the light must give way to darkness Kilpa. You will learn that as will the rest of this town."

Then he vanished into the darkness.

Kilpa ran like her life depended on it. Which it probably did. She didn't know what the goblins would do to her, nor what Travis had in mind either. But she didn't want to deal with any of it.

Unlike before, she darted from light to light. While the darkness around didn't give that oppressive feeling as before, she still was leery of jumping back so soon into it. Even if it meant that she was having a hard time losing the goblins.

She rounded a corner and ran into a human dressed in a black suit. The older human looked down at her, then towards the shouts of the goblins.

"Come with me young lady. Unless you WANT to become well acquainted with them."

She nodded and followed the man into his room. She hugged the door and waited for the sounds of shouts and feet to vanish into the night before she sighed in relief. She looked at the man, who sat at a desk with some old machine that he typed away at. Another, much younger, man stared at her with a mouthful of food.

"Who-"

"Someone in need Agent Doe. Someone in need. Isn't that right young woman?"

She nodded again as she looked around the worn room she found herself in. Despite it's well worn look the two men wore quite clean and presentable suits.

"Thank you fer tha aid, but who-"

"Top Secret Ma'am. On a need to know basis and for the time being you are not in the need to know."

She looked taken aback by being interrupted by the man.

"Well, I beg ta differ! I should know who it were tha' came ta my aid!"

The older man stopped his typing and turned to look at Kilpa.

"No Ma'am. You don't. You THINK you should know, but you don't. There are a VERY select group of people that know who we are and you Ma'am are not one of them. Those guards are gone. And we've done our good deed for the day. So with your life no longer in any danger I would ask you to leave so that my colleague and I can get some rest."

"WAIT?!" Kilpa shouted a little too loudly.

The older man cocked a brow and waited for her to explain.

"Uhm. Would it be possible ifin I could, stay 'ere. At least 'till daybreak?"

The man looked at her for a long, uncomfortable, moment before he finally spoke.

"Very well. But I should warn you. Not only is the food here questionable, but so are the beds. And floors. And most other furniture. Oh, and Agent Doe snores."

Kilpa nodded and took a spot on a worn chair that faced the curtained window. She pulled the curtain slightly and peered through the gap. She couldn't see anything. Not the guards nor Travis. But she didn't want to travel back home in the dark. So she let go of the curtain and settled into the uncomfortably firm chair and tried to relax.

While Agent Smith continued typing up reports for the agency, Agent Doe kept looking between him and the small halfling woman that was now apparently a guest. He wasn't sure quite what to do. Should he offer her food or a drink? Though as Agent Smith stated. Both the food and drink here were barely edible.

In the end he decided to just return to his own activities and went to get changed for bed. Smith however continued to type on the old typewriter. Kilpa meanwhile continued to stare at the window.

As dawn broke Kilpa left the two Agents and went home. She was exhausted by the time she got back. She barely slept last night for many reasons though the main one was that the dark still made her nervous. As she trudged to her tent for some actual sleep she decided that the kobolds were the least of her troubles. With greenskins so close and now seeing Travis, the idea of some lizardmen in a to-be-determined location seemed more like an annoyance.

But that was an issue for another time. She needed sleep. She would reconcile with Clive when she woke. From what she saw of him the past few days, he needs something to occupy his mind.