He tries to fit all the names into the empty places in his head.

She sings quietly to herself. It sounds lonelier than usual, somehow.

Eventually, there's soup.

Thank you.

No problem. Anything else before I go?

I don't think so.

All right.

Hunting! Or, well, 'hunting'. It's really not the same thing when her strategy is 'sneak to within spellcasting range of some poor critter and then deprive it of its head'. Very effective, though; she can take down creatures much larger than a traditional hunting team would be able to safely tackle, like for example this herd of giant deer. She sends their hides home and takes the meat to the ice.

Where it is much appreciated. Thank you. This'll make a tremendous difference for morale even before it makes a difference for our health, and it'll help with that too.

You're very welcome.

Should I send anyone to the jungle while I'm here?

Yes, please, now that we've verified you didn't take the exploratory team to Moringotto I think they want to be put back where they were, and maybe we can send another.

All right. Oaths again, I think, from all of them; I don't have a very good idea of the Enemy's capabilities at all and I'd rather be too careful than not careful enough.

I agree completely.

So they get oaths from the exploratory teams.

How's Maitimo?

About the same. It's hard to tell, sometimes.

Yeah. 

Thank you for rescuing him.

By the time she remembers she's not supposed to hug him she's already halfway to doing it; she doesn't stop herself. You're welcome.

Well, he has no idea she thinks she shouldn't hug him; he hugs her back. He's trembling. We'll make sure the Enemy can never, ever again -

Yeah.

...she's not really letting go, either.

That's okay. She's warm, and it's been cold on the ice, and she rescued Maitimo.

..she needs to not be doing this. She needs to not be doing this. It's going to hurt Maitimo; if her guess about what his deal is with admitting to wanting things is right it's going to hurt him badly, she needs to not be doing this.

Findekáno's the first person who's touched her in six months. He's the first person she's genuinely enjoyed interacting with in six months. He's the only person who's shown any actual appreciation for what she's been doing over the last several days, who recognizes that it's been work, and hard.

She's only so strong. She could, she thinks, pull away, maybe, if it was just her own needs; tuck them away again, hurts a little more each time but she can do it. But he needs her, too; she can feel him trembling.

She's only so strong. She stays.

Being a caretaker for a scared hostile broken Maitimo sounds like a recipe to fall apart pretty fast. He would prefer Maitimo's caretaker not fall apart. Also she's so soft.

She is. Very pettable, kobolds do that. She leans into his hand; she's trembling, a little, now too.

Once he realizes you're not an Enemy agent he's going to be terribly apologetic, I promise.

...if I live that long. Ought to do something about that, she sends, a little absently.

You don't expect to live very long?

Oh. Kobolds don't, uh. We don't stop aging, we don't live forever. I'm expecting another hundred twenty-five years at most.

I'm sorry. I have no idea how to approach protecting someone from that, I've never heard of it at all before.