"The portents are favorable" Kali remarked, politely returning the bow. Of course they were. The gods the kobolds prayed to usually gave them good omens regardless of the actual outcomes. This was due to the fact that as far as they were concerned, the loss of a kobold or a thousand was no big deal given their quick breeding rate. "Hekaga doesn't have a king, though. Not anymore. Grand Prince Ternoc won't be coming here, either. Or if he did, I'd be surprised. He'll probably send someone else in his place." 

She turned to Rughoi and bowed down to him, and briefly leaned all of the way down to the floor to kiss his feet, a sign of submission. It wasn't so humiliating for them, given how kobolds were used to this sort of submission, and she briefly noted the pungent smell of the salve Krakas used on her son's feet. She'd have to be as humble as possible for what she was going to suggest next.

"My lord, please do not risk a war under [i]any [/i]circumstances. Even if everything goes as well as possible for us in such a conflict, we will still be utterly and completely wiped out. Our forces are down to a fraction of their strength since the battle at Traeton, and the dracons won't leave anything to chance if they have to fight us. And I have it on good authority that they are all building up their armies." Aerta had told her this, but Kali dare not mention that she was still in regular contact with Adykon's wife. "For all our sakes, we'd best devote our efforts to making this a paradise for kobolds, not a military power."