I woke up to silence.
Which, for anyone keeping track, is bad when you're traveling with five kobolds under the age of sanity.
I sat up slowly. The hut smelled like dried herbs, soft embers, and exactly none of my companions. That meant they'd either spontaneously matured and joined the community… or more likely, they'd been adopted by it while I was sleeping.
Or eaten by it. Hard to tell with elves.
I staggered out into daylight expecting chaos.
What I got instead was functioning routine.
Relay jogged past holding a bundle of parchment-like leaf mail, three satchels, and what looked like a timekeeping stone. "Morning! I'm doing courier relay optimization!" he shouted.
"No one asked you to optimize anything."
"They did! Sort of! I asked, and they didn't say no!"
Cinders emerged from a side grove in full apron-armor, flanked by two elven culinary students. "They're still using ground root for broth. I'm here to fix their flavor crimes."
