Another voice came down the passage, and - for a moment - she saw one of the other Adventurers. His armored plate gleamed in his own torchlight. The Big Person holding her responded in that too-loud tongue of theirs, but with anger clearly in his voice. The other seemed to shrug, said something back in an offended tone, and returned the way he had come.

“Don’t worry little one. I’m not going to hurt you. I am returning to my home and I’m going to take you with me. I’m going to have to cover your cage though; the sunlight would hurt your eyes. But I’ll be right here.”

Kreet was too young to be anything but naive, and she had no experience with anything that could talk to her except other kobolds, and they had always been trustworthy. So she didn’t hesitate to talk back to the man.

“You can talk to Kreet?”

“Oh! So you can talk? Yes little one, I can talk to you.”

“You killed my clutch? All dead?”

“Yes, I’m afraid so. Your family is gone, so you might as well come with me, Kreet.”

“Why don’t you kill me?” she wondered sincerely, as a cloth was placed over the cage and she was rocked back and forth as the man walked out of her caverns.

“Why should I kill you, little one? Would you kill me if you could?”

Kreet was puzzled. “Yes. But I can’t. I am trapped in here.”

“No, you can’t. But I don’t want to kill you, little one.”

“Why not? You killed my clutch.”

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“That was not me. The other people I was with did that. I tried to stop them, but they have Gold Fever. I will not continue with them. I will go back to my home instead. Would you like to live with me? I would like to have someone to talk to.”

Once again Kreet didn’t understand. His words were clear enough, but his meaning was beyond her. “Would I like to live with you? Kreet doesn’t understand. Kreet would like to live with her clutch, but they are dead. Kreet wouldn’t like to live anywhere now.”

“Oh, I think you would. You might even enjoy it.”

“Will there be other kobolds?” she asked hopefully, knowing that she shouldn’t think such things. Hope was not a survival factor in her life, but she was too young to have it completely removed from her psyche.

“No, Kreet. Only me and a cat.”

Kreet felt her heart sink. “Then I wouldn’t like to live there,” she said simply.

Though the cloth over her cage was dark, she could still see the light getting brighter. Then, soon, she was outside. The sounds were different. The smells were different. She’d heard of the outside before of course. But she’d never been there before.

“Are we outside?”

“Yes Kreet. Are you okay?” said the Big Person.

“My eyes hurt. It is too much light.”

“I know. I’m sorry Kreet. I’d let you go back into the caves, but there are no more kobolds there. I’ve been searching for your clan in there for a year or more. Yours was the last clan left. You’d starve or worse without them. Please accept my hospitality, Kreet. I would like to be your friend.”

“You are Big People. Big People can’t be friends to kobolds. I think you might be crazy.”

The Big Person made a weird noise. Something like coughing. But then it talked again. “I think you are probably right, Kreet. Please, I would like you to call me by my name. Could you do that for me?”

Kreet shrugged in an oddly human way, though her captor couldn’t see her. “Sure! What is your name?”

The Big Person responded with an odd noise. Though Kreet couldn’t properly form the word, she did her best given her vocabulary to repeat the sound he had made.

“Ka'Plo?”

“Yes! That is very close! Call me Ka'Plo, Kreet. Maybe we will be friends, you and me?”

“Ka'Plo is crazy. But Kreet has no choice. I will be your friend if I can’t kill you.”

“Can you kill me?” Ka'Plo asked while cage swung to his walking rhythm.

Kreet laid down and wrapped her tail around one of the bars for support. “No. I can’t kill you. I’ll be your friend.”

Then she went to sleep.