Returning to the Village

In total, it took them three days to get back to the village. It might have taken them longer, but they'd encountered Patrick and Patricia as they were leaving the dungeon, who weren't anywhere nearly as worn out as Elin felt and was sure the others in her group were.

Both of them took turns keeping watch during the night, which Elin really appreciated, as she really didn't like getting woken up at night and expected to stay awake with nothing to do but look out in the darkness. Not only that, but she would have to do that without having Kim's arms around her. As such, she was grateful for them to not make her do that.

Patricia seemed to take charge and insisted they take a slower pace than Jonas had wanted to. Elin wouldn't have minded a faster pace, because she knew how nice the beds at the inn would be, but didn't argue. After all, it wasn't like those were going anywhere.

The young women seemed to be alright from what they'd had to have experienced, though it seemed like they didn't have much memory of what had been done to them, so often they seemed more confused than anything.

Yet, despite that, they kept to themselves and didn't talk much, though Elin suspected that they appreciated the clothing that she and Kim had put on them. They also looked like they were ready to move at a faster pace, but they also seemed to dread going back. Elin didn't understand why, but couldn't think of a way to bring it up that didn't make it look like she was trying to pry into their affairs.

When they finally did make it back to the village, Elin felt herself relax more than she had since they'd started the trip back to the dungeon to close the portal. Maybe it was the fact that they'd been dealing with overwhelming numbers or maybe because so much of the trip had Elin fighting for her life herself, and not from the safety of the back line, but it could also be that she didn't seem to have been able to sleep very well with that first looming ahead of them, and second from having danger constantly around them.

Then there was also the fact that she wondered how Heather and Sonya had been doing while they were gone. As well as if there had been any goblin attacks while they'd been dealing with the primary threat of the goblins.

However, Elin was happy that they first went to the inn. From what little she could see about the village, they weren't taking shelter in a single building at this point, though they had started to work on building a wall around the village. It hadn't gotten more than a tenth built, but it was clear that they weren't going to let what happened previously happen again. At least not any time soon. Although, it wasn't until the young women they'd saved, along with Patricia and Patrick, were gone that she even realized that they'd left.

"What're you looking forward to the most, my gem?" Kim asked Elin as they neared the inn.

Elin leaned a little against Kim. "Privacy," Elin replied quietly, hoping that Kim would be just as interested as she was about that.

Kim merely laughed. "Yeah, that sounds fun," Kim said, though her tone told Elin she wasn't as eager as Elin was. "I'm thinking I'd like a nice hot soup before anything tlike that, though."

Elin couldn't help but pout. She wasn't starving, so it wouldn't hurt to skip a dinner here or there, right? It was just that knowing she and Kim could have time alone together that Elin wanted more than anything at the moment.

"Don't worry, my gem," Kim assured her. "I'll make sure you regret looking forward to that."

Elin couldn't help but feel a tingle of excitement at the look of mischief in Kim's eyes. She certainly wanted to know what Kim was thinking about, determined that she wouldn't regret looking forward to what they were going to do.

"I won't regret it," Elin assured Kim.

Kim merely chuckled in response, Not that Elin minded. She understood Kim was thinking that she was just trying to sound tough, but Elin was confident and determined to prove Kim wrong.

"Whatever you might regret or not, we have other things to discuss," Jonas said, as he passed Elin and Kim by.

Jonas seemed to have been discussing things with Elmo for most of the trip back, but Elin didn't know what most of it was about. Whenever anyone else got close, they seemed to stop talking about it. Either because of it being time to get moving back to the village or some other reason, or by taking about whatever topic the other person had in mind.

Elin couldn't help but feel like there was something they didn't want others to know about. While she trusted Elmo, she couldn't say that she trusted Jonas as much. Which might be part of the reason she was feeling concerned about Elmo. Not that her concerns were enough to make her want to delay her private, alone time with Kim.

"What do you think he wants to talk about?" Elin asked Kim.

Kim merely shrugged. "Who knows. Might be about how we nearly got ourselves killed in the dungeon this time, might be about what might be coming up, might be because you've been rather distracted lately, or it might be about something else altogether," Kim answered as she put her arm around Elin's shoulders, drawing her in closer. "Don't worry too much about what it might be. If it was something for us to worry about, he probably wouldn't bring it up anyway."'

Elin nodded. What Kim said made sense, but Elin couldn't help but worry anyway. Part of her wondered if maybe she had been focused too much on Kim and that maybe Jonas felt that she had contributed to how things turned out. Especially with how things had progressed through the dungeon.

If it was her, she'd have given herself the worst score possible. Not that she expected Kim would allow her to do that. Kim would probably give her some explanation about how she could only do what she could or something along those lines. While she appreciated hearing those kinds of things, that didn't dispel the doubt that remained in her heart.

She was sure that how bad things had been for them in the dungeon was at least a large part her fault. She would say mostly, but couldn't argue with what she expected Kim would say in response. As such, she couldn't help but wonder what Elmo thought about it all. After all, she was supposed to have been working with him to close the portal, but instead, she'd spent her time fighting goblins, which she knew Jonas didn't like her doing anyway.

No one had said anything about that, but she was sure that they were at least aware of that happening. Whenever she thought about that, she felt like the others had to be aware of it and would sometimes jump when others tried talking to her.

Maybe if Jonas didn't bring it up at the meeting, she should. After all, she remembered not only Kim, but also a few people in her past, had mentioned that she had to voice her doubts or they would just eat her alive. That if she kept them to herself, they could begin to eat away at her.

She never thought much about it before, but couldn't help but suspect that this might have been what they were talking about. She certainly couldn't think of anything else to compare it to.

Lost in her thoughts, she only realized they were almost to the inn when she suddenly realized that they were entering the inn. The tables were in the same locations, the chairs were the same, and Elin felt like they'd traveled back in time. Although, she couldn't help but wonder if things really had changed or if they were the same as when they'd last been here.

Elin sat at the table next to Kim, maintaining contact with Kim under the table by holding her hand. She wanted to keep Kim in physical contact with her, more for a sense of security than anything else. She couldn't help but feel nervous, even though she'd already decided what to do about what she was most worried about.

Yet, even though they were all seated at the table, Jonas didn't seem like he was planning on starting it right away. What the reason was, Elin couldn't be sure, but shortly after they all had taken a seat, Heather came over to put down a bowl of soup for each of them.

"You're working as waitress now?" Elin asked, surprised.

"Yeah, Sonya and I needed something to do, so the innkeeper offered us to work as waitresses. Not only would it cover the room where we've been staying, but he's been giving us a little money as well," Heather answered, happily, though Elin was a little surprised at how her stomach was getting larger still.

"Maybe we can talk later," Elin said as Jonas stood up at the table, looking like he was getting ready for their meeting to start.