Kobolds are very cuddlesome. One of the Speakers is some other kind of person - a little taller, furless, with greenish skin and smaller upright ears and a flatter Quendi-style face - and a little less cuddlesome (and a little more curious of him) but still pretty much that.

The first thing they want to do is reassure themselves that Rána is really okay, and hear what happened - they thought she was dead, they thought the tigerfolk had finally gotten her, they thought she'd decided to do something even crazier than that, what happened? Something about magic, she's a mage now? How did that happen? And where'd the Quendi come from?

She's very patient about letting them ask all their questions and then settles in to tell them the story, petting two of them while she talks.

He can mostly follow the conversation by mindreading.

When she gets to the part about being exiled, there's a chorus of dismayed sounds and cuddling. She mostly glosses over the six months after that; she explains the teleportation to Angband as 'exploring', but several of the kobolds guess that it was a suicide attempt, on the basis that being exiled is awful and they'd totally expect that to happen. (The rest also think that being exiled is awful, but doing something that risky - and particularly taking that type of risk - seems in character enough for her that they don't especially question it.) Maitimo she gives a brief overview of: badly traumatized, dead-and-reborn and struggling with it, sort of hard to get a handle on as a person, obviously, but if you just accept the surface stuff he's nice enough; also he's the chief of one of the Quendi tribes, Tyelkormo is his egg-sibling and another egg-sibling of theirs was running the tribe but now Maitimo's doing it again. The kobolds think this is very strange - the new chief gave the tribe back? The old chief wanted that? So soon after that kind of trauma? And everybody's just okay with that? - and she explains that it's their tradition to do it that way, she's not certain he wanted it back but he was definitely expecting it back and chose to claim it, and Quendi don't seem to do tribe-switching (this gets both her and Tyelkormo some worried looks) but everybody seems to be okay with it, yeah.

Quendi do tribe-switching. Just, during a war you'd need a really good reason and everyone is hundreds of years old and has good reasons for liking their current tribe.

There's a war? The kobolds aren't happy about that.

Yeah, there's a war. Quendi're a little more prone to that than kobolds - still not very, but more - and they're trying to kill the evil god who's responsible for what happened to Maitimo, since he's also doing the same stuff to a bunch of other people.

The kobolds are alarmed! And worried for her! And want her to come home now! There is some debate about who could most easily get their tribe to take her in.

Sigh.

Don't worry, they won't force me.

I wasn't worried.

Okay.

She interrupts them to explain that she's fine, that it's been a very quiet war so far - everyone's busy, which isn't great, but there's been very little fighting since she's been there, and if there is she can stay well away from it. And she wants the god dead, too.

They aren't happy about this, but they subside, cuddling up closer to her, and she continues, telling them about the Ñolofinwëans and how she helped them out and joined their tribe, and how the Quendi got magic from the kobolds and the elves and how she's been using that, and the humans - the kobolds are confused about them not wanting babies; she explains that they don't have eggs, but that doesn't really help - and the trip to the elf city, which gets very mixed reactions - confused, alarmed, excited - and a new round of debate.

He doesn't comment unless anyone wants insight on why people might prefer not to grow an extremely inflated painful stomach, vomit all the time, go through a protracted and very painful labor, possibly die, and then end up with a child they did not want.

They aren't unaware of how pregnancy works, just confused about the resulting kids being unwanted, so, probably not.

Rána answers their questions about the elf city trip. They continue to be nervous - they agree that that trip seems to have been a good idea, but that it's still a risky thing to be doing - and she reassures them that they won't be trying it here without giving them plenty of warning, and that seems to be enough to get them to relax about it.

He sits and listens.

Not too long after that she runs out of things to tell them, and asks again how everyone is doing here.

The kobolds look at each other, trying to decide who's going to tell her. The ones cuddling her snuggle closer, and eventually one of them talks: Her old tribe is ending. Individually, nearly everyone is fine, but a solid quarter of them left for other tribes last year - they give her a rundown of who went where, to distressed noises and questions about how this one or that one is getting this or that need met - and practically all of the rest of them are courting new tribes this year. The chief hasn't quite admitted it, but if even half of the people who're intending to leave the tribe do, it won't be big enough to make it through the winter.

He doesn't feel like he should comment on that.

Rána's pretty upset. She gives lots of advice - who'd do well in which tribe, who needs to stay together, who should probably be separated, who'll need extra attention and what kind, who has tricky quirks that their new Speaker will need to watch out for - and eventually runs out of things to say and just clings while the rest of them assure her that her ex-tribemates will be looked after.

Makes sense.

Sorry, she says. Wasn't expecting this to get quite so heavy. You don't have to stick around if you don't want to.

I don't care.

Okay. She grins, just a little, tiredly.

The kobolds cuddle quietly for a while, and then one of them asks him, so, what are Quendi like?

They vary. The way Quendi are works a lot better for me than the way kobolds are but neither one works great.

Oh?

Like, imagine that a friend of mine sees a very special kind of tree that makes wood for a really good bow. And they know that I practice archery all the time and can tell the differences from the grain in the wood and for me it would be a treasured present and most people could not tell the difference. And they carve it for me and give it to me. And because bows are delicate, if anyone uses it they might break it, and also I like to leave for trips a lot and will want to take it with me. With Quendi it would be understood that people would hurt me by taking it.

That's a pretty weird hypothetical.

No, it's real. I have a bow like that, made by a friend. I have a tapestry like that, made by my dead grandmother. Quendi design delicate one-of-a-kind things to give to someone who will really like them, all the time. 

That's only part of the weirdness, but okay.

Little One'll be all right, I guess. They've always been really tolerant of that kind of thing, and I guess if they can make it alone for half a year (shudder) they'll be able to get whatever they need for themselves even if they don't have a proper tribe. I couldn't do it, though.