Ending: Unlikely Rescue

Penn started awake at the splash of cold water on her face. She sat up, or tried to before falling back down. Her whole body was wracked by a soreness that went well beyond anything the thief had ever imagined possible. She blinked up at the glaring blue light above her and shielded her eyes.

A small voice said something nearby. Penn’s head was spinning too much to discern what it could possibly mean. The was a light, but sharp poke to her arm and the voice sounded again. Penn blinked again and tried to focus. There was a shape over her. A non-wormy one.

“I… what?” the bedraggled woman rasped.

“I… Are you P-p-pennalee Tosscobble?”

Penn forced herself up onto one arm and looked around. She was in the same earthen chamber, but it was significantly less worm-infested. Crouched near her was a kobold in a well-worn uniform of some kind, carrying a prodigious pack on their back. The blue light came from an orb dangling from a stick that rose from the kobold’s pack. The scaly creature eyed her with concern and uncertainty.

“Who the fuck are you?” Penn asked.

The kobold flinched. “My name is Ki-ki-ki… It, ah… Kip-kip. Are you P-pennalee Tosscobble?

Penn blinked is absolute befuddlement. “Uh, yeah. Why? Where are all the slimy bastards?”

Kip-kip flashed a smile of subdued pride and tapped the globe above them, sending its odd blue light wavering across the chamber walls. “Special light. Makes them go away. Here.” They turned and rifled through their comically large pack. A second later Penn was offered a small coin purse and a note.

“The fuck is…”

“A p-p… It’s a p--ackage,” Kip-kip clarified.

Penn clenched the note in her aching hand. “I can see that! How did you find me? How did you get here?”

The kobold shrugged.

“What kind of answer is that!?”

Kip-kip cringed. “I just… find ways. Have to get the p…p-parcels delivered.”

“Okay, whatever. Just get me out of here.”

“Ah, um… I just carry p-p… Just carry stuff.”

Penn’s eye twitched, and Kip-kip recoiled.

“Okay, then I have a package for you to deliver.” That got the odd little creature to perk up with interest. “That’s right, a very important package. I have a sample of arcane components I need delivered to Oreio Smoke, usually hangs around the Porked Pig in Lutrensh.”

Kip-kip nodded. “Okay! I can do that. Where is the sample?”

Penn glared at the kobold and pointed to her stuffed belly. “Here. And more around back. And some stewing in my goddamn gut. Get me out of here!”

Kip-kip shrieked and fell back, rolling awkwardly on their huge pack until they could get up again. “Okay, okay! I’ll take you! Just… You should get in the b-b-bag.”

Penn narrowed her eyes. “What.”

“For safety,” Kip-kip insisted. They swung the bag around themselves and opened up the top of it fully. The various bits and bobs that hung from the sides of the barrel-sized sack jingled, but no jostling came from anything inside the container.

Penn brushed it off. Magic bag, blah blah, it would be fine. “Yeah, I can’t move much,” she informed the curious courier.

With a sign of resignation, Kip-kip knelt down and hefted the halfling with startling ease. They reached into the bag and produced a waterskin for Penn before gently laying her inside and sealing up the pack again.

Penn couldn’t remember anything after that. Not clearly. Vague sensations of darkness and a hollow cold that reached into her soul. She was delivered to her destination safely. Halfway across the continent. In the span of a day. Penn paid the parcel porter with the purse they’d delivered to her in the cave, which they seemed to accept readily enough. Then she passed out in front of her old friend’s door, collapsing against it with a thud.