"Is it true? You ran the Band out of the neighborhood?"

"Out of existence, I heard!"

The barroom was packed that night. It had been a week since the Band had stopped patrolling the streets, though she didn't advertise that it had been her actions that had caused it. Fortunately, at least so far the lawlessness hadn't ramped up too much.

Marge had taken the slowly-but-steadily increasing money and invested in some quality food and drink, and was now acting as cook in the kitchen. Kreet was vaguely bothered by that. She didn't feel much like the owner of the place, but she couldn't fault Marge's business sense. Instead, Kreet was out mingling with the rather sizable crowd.

"Sort of. I didn't ask for it, though I've..."

Before she could finish, a cheer went up and mugs were raised. "To Kreet!"

Kallid had taken up his natural position at the bar, and she saw him raise a glass from the dishwater underneath and cheer her too with a half-clean empty mug.

"Kallid!" she half-whispered. "Stop it! They won't be so happy when the criminals find their way back in!"

"Ha! Any criminals will probably be out-of-work Band-ers."

Kreet looked across the barroom as the locals settled back to their various conversations. Sure, they were happy now. What would they be saying a few weeks from now though? It was just a matter of time.

She felt the heavy hand of Sigmundurr slap her back, nearly sending her sprawling to the floor.

"Oh relax, You've done them two big favors girl. Let tomorrow take care of itself. Here, have a drink."

He handed her his own mug, but she pushed it away. "Have I? We still don't know who walled up the sewers. For all we know they could be walling it back up right now. As for the Band, I have a bad feeling that Avelyn was right."

"Well, damn it Kreet, if you won't celebrate then you might as well start thinking what to do about it."

"I have been. Think the King would see me? Maybe I could get him to send the City Guard in again?"

There were other patrons nearby that heard her.

"The King? Audience with a kobold?" laughed one. "Oh that's a good one!"

"I could just see it! King Ulther looking down his royal nose at a kobold!"

"Sorry Kreet," said another. "No offense, but kobolds... well, we know better of course. But the King barely sees his own people."

"I am one of his people now," she stated, though she certainly understood the man was probably right.

"Hey, if we all marched on the Palace..." said the woman across the table from the first man. "He'd have to see her, wouldn't he?"

"Yeah! HEY!" shouted the first man, and he stood up on the table. Kreet noticed it wobbling threateningly, but he managed to steady himself.

"HEY! EVERYBODY!"

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The room quieted down somewhat.

"Stand down before you fall down, John!" said another woman, but the man on the table ignored her.

"HEY! Why don't we all march up to the Palace with Kreet? She wants to see the King! Who's with me?!"

Kreet looked around alarmingly. Clearing up the sewers was one thing. Even getting the Band out of the slums - lucky as she'd been - was another. But leading a mob to the Royal Palace... That's the sort of thing that gets you beheaded!

"Now hold on!" she shouted. "Hold on! Wait, no! Look, thanks but the last thing I want to do is call that sort of attention..."

But the refrain began. "Kreet! Kreet! Kreet!"

No one was listening to her.

She looked desperately to Kallid, but he could only shrug. She looked to Sigmundurr.

"Well, you started this ball rolling. Looks like you're going all the way with it, girl."

She looked back at the crowd. Hands grabbed her and lifted her onto someone's shoulders. The crowd flowed out of the Baby Dragon and into the street.

Locals asked what was going on, and Kreet heard someone answer that they were taking Kreet to the Palace. Word spread quickly as the crowd grew and she was carried up the street. The crowd that flowed out of the slums was fast becoming a mob - exactly what she most feared. She looked around but couldn't see Sigmundurr or Kallid anywhere as she was carried along to shouts of "Kreet! Kreet!"

"I guess I'm along for the ride," she thought. "Wow, I really didn't want this!"

She looked skyward. "Pelor, please, please guide me here. This is getting too dangerous for me!"

The crowd marched up the streets through areas of the city she'd never seen before. She noticed the buildings becoming increasingly more grandiose. Heads peered out of windows and down balconies. She wanted to shout that they were a peaceful mob, but no one could hear her over the shouting anyway. And she did desperately want to believe they would be peaceful.

Then the palace came in sight as they rounded an incredibly wide street. It lay at the end of a grand road and could be nothing else. But what really worried her wasn't the impressiveness of the huge building, nor the iron fencing around it. No, her real worry were the soldiers standing shoulder-to-shoulder in front of it. The mob outnumbered them ten-to-one. What she really feared was conflict.

Kallid struggled off the back of the man that was carrying her and scurried through the forest of legs and butts that stood between her and the Palace Guard. As those in front slowed, she finally broke through the front line and ran into the no-man's land between the mob and the guard. She could see the flash of steel as the guardsmen drew their swords, but she turned her back on them to face the mob.

"STOP!" she shouted as loud as she could. "I DON'T WANT THIS!"

The mob began to quiet in the front.

"Please! I beg you, go back to your homes people! You're my neighbors! We're not this kind of people! You. John..."

"Pebbleton," finished the man she recognized from the bar.

"John Pebbleton. Your children are back at your home. Why are you here?! Look, I know you all are trying to help me, but this isn't helping anyone! Please. Go back!"

A face she recognized came forward. Marge.

"Marge! Who's running the Inn?! Please, go back!"

Slowly the mob began to disperse, and Kreet drew a deep sigh of relief before she began heading back as well. She saw Sigmundurr finally, with Kalllid riding on his shoulders.

But a voice came from behind her. A voice she recognized.

"Kreet," it said, and she turned back to see Avelyn behind the palace gates.

She pointed to herself as if to say, "Me?"

"No. The other pregnant kobold. Yes you. Please come in. Someone wants to have a word with you."

Kreet swallowed hard and turned back to see Kallid climbing down off of Sigmundurr's shoulders.

"No Kallid. I'll be alright. Go back with the others."

But he wouldn't stop.

"Sig, please. Don't make me Hold him. Take him back."

Sigmundurr grabbed the little kobold's hand.

She heard him beg the big man.

"She'll just put a Hold on you anyway," he said, trying to calm her husband down.

Kallid turned back to her, his eyes begging. "Kreet. Let me come with you!"

She rolled her eyes, and Sigmundurr let go. He was at her side in an instant.

Sig looked at her, asking the obvious question, but she shook her head.

"Wait for us at the Inn. We'll be back," she assured him.

"Good luck, my friends," he said with a sad look, and turned away to follow the thinning crowd back into the slums. Kreet was impressed. This was a situation he knew he couldn't solve with his kind of solution. She wasn't sure he was that self-aware.

She felt Kallid's hand lock into her own. His eyes glowed as blue as ever, and she realized just how much she had fallen in love with him over the time they'd been together.

"Okay. Want to go see a human Palace?"

"Sure!" he said, apparently as eager as ever.