It was nearing midday when Sigmundurr woke the kobolds.

"Come on, wake up. The taverner says we need to get out. I have a good idea where we are now. There's another town a few miles north and beyond that is the city of Fandain. I've been there before. It's a little rough but they have a Cathedral of Pelor there. Quite impressive, though of course I never went in."

Kreet moaned, but roused herself, then looked at Kallid.

"What's the weather like today, Sig?"

"Oh, cloudy, but it doesn't look like rain anyway," Sig said, then looked to Kallid too. "Oh yeah."

"I'll be okay, I think," Kallid said hesitantly.

"If you start getting a headache, let us know Kallid," Kreet said. She rummaged through her pack before pulling out the contraptions she called sun-glasses. She began strapping Kallid's around his head.

"I packed some travelling food too," Sigmundurr said, patting his pack. "But we'd better get moving. The owner isn't very fond of kobolds ."

In a few minutes they were ready to go, but Sigmundurr stopped them in the hallway.

"What?" Kallid asked.

"Just wait here a second, I've got to do something. I'll be right back," the big man said, but Kreet noticed the huge, incongruous smile on his face. She didn't like the look of it, but he just went back into their room, closing the door behind him.

Kallid looked at Kreet, but she could only shrug.

The door opened once more and Sigmundurr emerged with a huge grin on his face.

"What?" Kreet demanded this time, but a second later the smell hit her snout.

"Oh god! Sig! Did you...."

"Come on, we best get out of here," he laughed, and they followed him quickly down the stairs and out into the street.

"Now come on you two. We need to make some time!"

The town was a small one, and in a quarter of an hour they were out of sight of it completely.

"Are you going to explain that now?" Kreet asked, holding Kallid's hand.

"Oh, the owner made some comment about cleaning up after my pets."

Kallid understood first. "Sig! Now he's going to think we shat in his room!"

"Oh no he won't. There's no way what I left in there could have come out of either of you! Even a thick headed man like that guy would recognize that. HA!"

"Sig!" Kreet started to complain, but then she started giggling. It became infectious.

"Still," she managed a few minutes later, "I'm supposed to be sowing accord between the dark and light races. He'll not have another kobold in there anytime soon. You shouldn't have done that."

"Sorry Kreet," he said.

The day was blessedly overcast for another hour and relatively cool, but as the afternoon wore on the sun came out from behind the clouds more and more often.

"Sig," Kreet said after she noticed Kallid was looking nauseous.

"Yeah?"

"Maybe we'd better stop. For breakfast."

Sigmundurr suggested some rocks to their right.

"Um... How about those woods up there?" she countered.

"There? That must be a half mile off the road."

"Sig. It's darker in there."

Sigmundurr finally got it. Kallid began to moan.

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By the time they'd got to the edge of the woods, he'd confessed that he wasn't feeling well.

They made a small camp in the deepest shade they could find. Sigmundur set up a blanket as a sort of makeshift cave that they set Kallid in, with another on the ground.

Kreet stroked his tail while the afternoon wore on, and Sigmundurr passed around some food, but Kallid wasn't eating. Finally Kreet wove a sleep spell over him.

"Poor guy," Sigmundurr said as Kreet brought back two cups of water to where Sig sat a few feet away. "What's this?"

"Oh, I thought you might be thirsty," Kreet said, setting Sigmundurr's cup beside him.

Apparently Eilistraee's potion was flavorless as Sig drank it without noticing.

"I guess he's still not ready for full daylight walks yet."

"It's not easy for him," Kreet said, taking up a seat beside the big man and removing her own sunglasses. "It took me years to get used to direct sunlight, even with these."

"I suppose we need to travel at night then. Beasts are more common. It'll be more dangerous."

"I know. But we can see fine. We'll warn you if we see anything. He can't keep going like this."

"Tough little guy though. He really likes you."

"Enough to marry me," Kreet agreed. "I guess we should try to take a nap and get moving again at nightfall."

"Okay, but you need to stop casting those damn sleep spells on me. I'll be alright."

"Actually Sig," Kreet said, looking up. "I need to meditate for a while. Mind watching over us for a bit?"

She rose and returned to where Kallid lay. She was glad to see him sleeping peacefully, even if it had required a little divine power. And that was the reason she needed to meditate. Not only to restore her own powers, but she'd also recognized that she had been raised to a higher level. She had to meditate and consider her new abilities before she could use them.

She sat in the prescribed position and closed her eyes, praying to the great Pelor for power, guidance and wisdom to choose the correct path. While her physical position didn't really matter, it was how she was taught to focus her thoughts in the proper way. The cantrips would always be there. Though they may not be as strong as the actual spells, they were still useful. She knew that she could now cast more of the spells she had always known since the monastery, but it took longer to feel the new spells that were open to her.

She thought of the light of Pelor. She'd learned that Pelor's light was not the sun's light - though sun-dwellers like Sigmundurr might equate the two. Pelor's light was more subtle than that. It shone to reveal truth where lies dwelt, not mere darkness. It brought good where there was evil. It brought comfort where there was pain. The sun's light was not itself good, any more than the night's darkness was evil. Her master had taught her that. She wondered where he was. If he even still lived. Light was a useful tool, but it was not the same as Pelor's light.

And then she felt the paths she could travel down, but she could choose only two, so she had to choose wisely. She would likely only be travelling on the surface world, so some seemed more useful here than others. Also she was no Adventurer. She wouldn't be seeking trouble, so those that would help against the Undead seemed unlikely to be helpful. Other paths could strengthen her, or her companions in various ways. Increasing their defense could prove helpful - though she knew if it came to violence, it was Sigmundurr that would be their protection.

She chose the first. Prayer of Healing. It felt exactly right. She was - or at least wanted to be - a healer above all else. It wasn't a glamorous ambition, but it was what she wanted. She chose that path when she recognized it without hesitation.

Only one more, though, and there were so many situations possible that she might need one she didn't choose. She thought back to all the times the Guiding Bolt had saved her or her friends. It was a spell of aggression, but it had been so helpful. In different circumstances where violence was less likely, such spells shouldn't be necessary. But she had to travel through this world, and this world was dangerous. She was weak. Kallid was weaker, and Sigmundurr was not a wise man, even if he was strong.

Then she saw her choice. Hold Person. If used against an enemy, it might give Sig more time. But it's real attraction was that it could also be used on a friend, to stop them from making a rash decision. She could have used that not so long ago!

She'd made her choices, wise or not. She thought about what she'd done at Eilistraee's gate. She had almost doomed SIgmundurr to a lifetime of eunuch servitude, and herself to a quick beheading. Had it been the wisest decision? Certainly Sig and Kallid hadn't thought so.

She thought back to her old mentor, Ka'Plo. Everything had been so simple then. How had she become this person. She didn't want this responsibility. She'd never asked for it. But it had been thrust upon her whether she liked it or not. She could only do the best she could. And now she had two more lives to think about beyond Kallid and Sigmundurr. She had a responsibility to her unborn children as well.

Did she really need to risk all their lives just to find her old home? A home she'd been cast out of for daring to fall in love with a human. A home where her days were spent catering to loud drunken men and women who were more a danger to themselves than anyone else? Would it be wrong of her to settle down with Kallid and live a tranquil domestic life in some obscure cavern?

Then she remembered her family. They had not lived anything like a tranquil domestic life. In a flash, she realized such a thing didn't exist. She was already older than every kobold she had known when she was a child.

She'd grown breasts, meager though they were, that even the great Ka'Plo hadn't foreseen - because he'd never met a kobold that had survived as long as she had. She'd read about that years after he had died, and it had come as a shock that there was something he'd been wrong about. She now stood at least four feet tall and was still growing, because she now had a varied and quality diet.

No, she wasn't destined for a quiet life with Kallid, much as she might wish for it.

She opened her eyes to fading sunlight and the first stars through the trees above. Kallid was still sleeping. As was Sigmundurr. She smiled at that, though she should have been upset. Instead she lay beside her husband and held him to herself, feeling him wake and embrace her in return.

"We should be going," she whispered.