My Gem

Elin was confused. When she'd put her hand on Kim's belly to check for any harm that might have happened from the kobold's attack, she could tell that Kim's breathing quickened, but couldn't think of why. The hadn't been any damage and her belly felt just like it had the first time she'd touched it. So, she wasn't sure what the cause had been. Part of her wondered if she should put her hand on Kim's belly again just to make sure she hadn't missed anything.

Elmo seemed to be lost in his thoughts and Jonas had moved on ahead to continue scouting for them. Looking back at Elmo for a moment, she wondered if he was in his own world right then.

Shaking her head, she turned back to Kim. She might not be able to read what motives Kim had, but she was at least confident that Kim wasn't a threat to her. So, maybe she could trust what the woman had to say.

"Um, Kim?" Elin asked.

"Yes, princess?" Kim replied.

Elin gasped in outrage. "I told you before, I'm not a princess! I'm the second daughter of the Marquis of-"

"Yeah, yeah, I got that princess," Kim replied. "You don't need to remind me."

"Then why are you still calling me that?!" Elin demanded. "I will not accept a title above my station!"

"Relax, princess," Kim said. "Where I come from, it's kind of a nickname to give to a girl. Think of it as a term of endearment from me."

"Wh-what?!" Elin cried in outrage. How could this be? Everyone knew that you didn't use titles as 'nicknames' or 'terms of endearment.' That was just asking to have the nobility come down on you with their entire might. It was especially bad with royal titles. That meant the royal family would come down on you. "That's absurd!"

Kim merely laughed. "You're so adorable," Kim remarked.

Elin only glared at Kim until she sighed. Elin wasn't going to let this go.

"Fine, I'll stop that, but what would you like me to use then?" Kim asked.

"Why not my name?" Elin replied heatedly. She wasn't going to trust Kim right away with that.

"That's boring," Kim complained. "How about this, when we camp for the night, you let me examine every inch of you and I'll see if there's another nickname I can think of that'll work for me, okay?"

Elin was confused. This didn't go in the direction she thought it would. "What do you mean 'examine every inch of me?'"

"Just what I said," Kim whispered, moving so close to Elin that she could feel the warmth from Kim's body coming off of her, even though they weren't making physical contact.

Although, Elin had to stop herself from reaching out and touching Kim's body. Why she had that urge, she couldn't say. She even couldn't understand why her face was heating up.

"You can see every inch of me right now," Elin replied. "What more is there for you to see?"

Kim laughed, putting her arm around Elin's shoulders. "You could do that, but if I remember correctly, you only had that robe on when you first came out of the room you arrived in, and you really didn't want anyone to see what was under the robe. So, I doubt you'd want to show me all that here where Elmo could easily see, assuming no one else shows up," Kim replied.

"Wait, what?!" Elin yelped, yet leaning in to the contact with Kim. What was wrong with me? Elin asked herself, unable to resist enjoying the contact with the older woman.

"See? That's why we should wait until later," Kim replied. She looked like she was about to continue on to something else, but then it looked like a thought occurred to her. "Would you at least take the hood of your robe down? It would at least let me see what's under your hood easily."

Elin hesitated. She'd always had trouble keeping her hair in order, so since she didn't have anything to work with here, she had wanted to keep her hair hidden. Yet, she really wanted to do as Kim asked. So, for a few minutes, she warred with herself about if she should show Kim her hair.

Finally she sighed and slowly pulled her hood down, revealing her azure hair that brushed the top of her shoulders and which was almost hopelessly tangled.

Kim seemed rather surprised. Which Elin didn't understand. Was it that her hair was such a mess? She always did what she could to keep it looking proper, but she couldn't help that her hair always had a mind of its own and preferred doing its own thing.

"What a beautiful color," Kim whispered, raising a hand to pull a lock of her hair away from her head. She looked closely at the azure hair, making Elin blush for reasons she couldn't figure out.

"What's so beautiful about the color?" Elin asked. "It's a very common color. Almost plain."

Kim chuckled, further confusing Elin. "It may be common where you're from, but where I'm from, the only way to get that color would be to either wear a wig or dye it."

"I didn't dye my hair!" Elin snapped, offended. How dare she suggest that?

Kim laughed, tightening her arm around Elin. I wasn't suggesting you did that, my gem. I'm just saying where I come from, having that color as your natural hair is not something that occurs. To me it makes you more beautiful," Kim said. But then added in a tone Elin almost didn't hear a moment later, "I just can't help but wonder if your carpet matches your drapes."

"What was that about my carpet and drapes?" Elin asked, confused. What did that have to do with anything?

Kim laughed, and Elin suddenly realized Kim's hand was on her breast as she gave the breast a squeeze. "Don't worry about it. It's an expression where I come from. You don't need to worry about what it means, my gem."

Elin however, extracted herself from Kim's contact. While she was outraged again at what Kim had done, she couldn't deny that she enjoyed the contact. However, she didn't want Kim to know that. It would probably only encourage her and Elin wasn't sure what she wanted at the moment.

Before today, she had only thought of her father finding her a husband who would be able to take his title, even if Elin was the one running the family's estate and interests. She knew that was what was expected of her, since she was the oldest surviving child of her father. However, now she was wondering if she would have been content with a husband. If she wouldn't have wanted something else.

Irritated with Kim, and partly with herself, she looked at how far the corridor went ahead of them. How long is this thing? she wondered to herself.

+++

Jonas sighed. He wasn't sure how far he'd traveled along the hallway. Only that he had the vague idea that he was slowly going down. He couldn't say why, only that a part of him was saying that's what was happening.

Though, in the distance, he noticed a branch in the hallway. He hurried his pace to get there faster. Part of him wondered if he should check his stats, especially since they'd probably leveled up from that last battle, but at the moment he couldn't trust that something wouldn't appear whil he was busy with that. It seemed to him like looking at his stats right now was a quick way to die. Especially since he was by himself.

Maybe he should have done this bfore he left the rest of the group, but he hadn't thought about it. He had been focusing more on continuing on, since he really had no idea what else to expect in this dungeon crawl, let alone the entire situation he was in.

As he reached the branch, he paused, wondering if he should wait for the rest of his team, explore one of the branches to see what he might find and hope he returns before his team arrives, or if he should just try to leave a note somehow asking them to wait until he gets back.

Since he was already getting bored and he couldn't think of how he could leave a message outside of carving it in the rocks and had no idea what he could put that would be done quickly and easily and that they would recognize, he decided to move on. He estimated how long he'd been travelling, and tried to estimate how quickly the rest of his team was traveliling to get an estimate of how long he should spend on going down one of the branches.

He hoped he wasn't making a mistake as he continued on, taking the branch to the right after carving an arrow in the stone floor, indicating the direction he was taking. If nothing else, it would let him know if he got turned around and found himself in that same branch.