So anyway, I guess we're parents now.

I did something I've never done before today. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I risked my hide against a coven of Dark Ones, of the ugliest sort. I don't know what came over me.
 
Here's what happened. We were making our way to that walled city. It it the one Irena called Bawovya? Maybe that's the name of the village she came from. Who can keep it all straight. After a short hike from the bridge, we came to a clearing, big field or something, full of blighted plants but lots of tasty snacks crawling around. I spent a couple minutes having my lunch, while the others were talking about something or other, but then I took notice of a run-down looking windmill a little way down the clearing.
I sniffed the air, and underneath the tasty smell of rot there was something unwholesome-- smelled like those gamey meat pies. I had a real bad feeling about the situation, there was really no good reason to explore this thing, and we had already gathered that hag selling meat pies was one of the Dark Ones. Like Big Man, but ...smaller.
 
Fine, I says to them, "If you are absolutely dead set on going in there, let me at least cloak you in shadows." So I had them join hands, and I held up the shin-bone of that noble girl like it was a magic wand, and sure enough the darkness gathered around us. The bone probably wasn't necessary, but I was taught to always misdirect the source of our power.
 
So we crept closer, and a giant raven took a roost at the top of the windmill and got to cawing loudly, and soon enough an ugly woman -- different from the one we had seen in the village -- stuck her head out the door and got to cursing at the bird, who was cursing back at her twice as loud now, and under the ruckus we got pretty close to the building. Several stories high, a run-down old windmill, just like it looked from afar.
 
The others were climbing up and peeking in windows, but didn't seem to have much luck. I was distracted for a little while hunting after centipedes and cockroaches, but after I'd had my fill I saw that my companions were no longer there. Perhaps they had gone inside? It also came to me that my thinking is a bit clearer than it once was, on account of not having Big Man talking in my ear all night and day, telling me what to do and what not to do.
 
I was sitting completely alone in that yard. The thought crossed my mind then that I might just slip away altogether, maybe make my way back to the Vistani... I probably had enough in silver for my own passage through the Mists. But I didn't know how well my luck would go finding the Vistani alone, and there was a feeling growing in my stomach that I hadn't quite felt before. It was like a stomach ache, but not from having eaten too much or too little.
 
I think that stomach ache made me go inside, and hunt around. I saw nothing on the first couple floors, aside from bags full of children's bones and the powder they had made of it, and so quiet as a mouse I made my way up to the third floor. (After taking a little bone souvenir.)
 
There I discovered I didn't need to be so careful-- there was a lot of commotion from the shadowed portion of this floor, shrieking and moaning, and I tiptoed several more feet before I froze in utter horror. My illithid traveling companion was in his disgusting natural form, seeming to float several feet above the bed while a different one of the hag creatures thrust and writhed beneath him. She was in what I imagine to be her natural form as well, giant, wrinkled and haggard, covered in gnarled purplish skin. At first I thought he might be fighting for his life, but I quickly saw that this was not so. His face tentacles seemed to stand still in the air while the rest of him moved, his octopus eyes placid and yet fiercely present. I was so fascinated and grossed out that it took me several moment to notice that there was a small child locked in a tiny cage near the foot of the bed, wide eyed and terrified.
 
I didn't have Big Man to ask advice, and didn't even have my companions. I don't know what came over me. Maybe it was the stomach ache. I stole across the room as the shaking and moaning continued, and tried to pick the lock. It was no good, I needed the key. The child was too terrified to speak, but she pointed towards the hag with a shaking finger.
 
I saw the smeared dirt on its face, the look of abject fear, knowing she was about to be turned into bone meal, and I couldn't help but think of myself, all those years on the streets with Talin. So what if I had to poke him to keep alive? But that didn't mean I had to... Oh to hell with it! Before I knew what I was doing, I spied the glint of metal, and was on the bed, gingerly feeling for the key around her neck. I cut it lose with a knife and rolled off the bed, and with a finger pressed firmly to my lips I shared the cloak of shadows that veiled me, and led the child across the room and down the stairs.
 
On the next floor we met our next obstacle, as another one of these creatures was now rummaging around in her foul belongings. I used my training and emulated the sound of the raven cawing loudly from outside, which had the desired effect, and so while she shouted at the bird, and for her sisters to come join her, the two of us were out the door. We met up with the Belmont fellow a short distance away, and with an uncomfortable swallow I mentioned that our... associate would be along as soon as he was properly dressed.
 
I didn't mention that I had shamefully risked my life up there to free this little creature, and there hadn't been anything in it for me. If the Society finds out about this... I'd never hear the end of it.
 
"I'm Murtle," it said.
 
So anyway, I guess we're parents now.