Morning Surprises Take Two

A light breeze tickled Elin, waking her up. At first she felt like she was dreaming still. That the sun couldn't be up already. At least until she started to feel just how sore her body was. Primarily her arms and legs. A dream wouldn't hurt so much.

Not that she was surprised. She had moved around a lot the night before. Plus her fight with the doppelganger wasn't exactly easy to forget. Then there was also how exhausted she felt through much of the night. Although, she couldn't understand how she got so exhausted during a few points of the evening and night.

Such as when she healed Samantha, she felt herself just get drained. She didn't understand how it happened, and it hadn't occurred before with anyone, so she couldn't say what it could have been. Especially with it being just an arrow wound. One that shouldn't have taken so much energy to heal.

Elin wanted to get up, but with how sore her body was, that proved to be a challenge for her. Partly because she really didn't want to move at all, at least not if she could help it, but partly also because she wasn't used to having any part of her sore, so it wasn't an experience she had dealt with much. Meaning that she only could tell that she didn't like the sensation. Not what she could do to make it any better or just go away.

Yet, her hunger outweighed her reluctance to move her worn out body. At least once it made itself known to her. So, with the help of the wall and windowsill, she carefully stood up and climbed out of the window.

While she knew that there would be a dining room somewhere in the manor, she didn't know where that was in relation to her current location. All she could tell was that she was in a room somewhere in the manor, likely in a back area away from the busiest parts of the day to day activities.

However, she knew that she was by an open window, so she'd be able to at least walk around to the front of the building. Which would make not only getting to the busier parts of the manor, but also to where she'd have an easier, and quicker, time finding where she could get something to eat.

As she slowly climbed onto the window sill, she was a little surprised at seeing that it was about her own height from the windowsill to the ground. She hadn't expected it to be that so high up. Not that she really had had the presence of mind to have noticed when she'd climbed through the window the night before. Even when she'd returned after having drank the stamina potion, or whatever it was, she'd been too focused to get back in to help Kim. To stop her from having to face four doppelgangers at once if she could.

Yet now, as she could see just how high up it was, she couldn't help but start to feel a little trepidation. Not because she had issues with heights, but more because she wasn't sure about if she should just jump down or try to let herself down slowly.

Either option made her stomach twist with worry, given how her body felt. She looked around her with the hope that there would be another option that she could see, but nothing came to mind with what she could see.

When she looked back to the ground she swallowed, clearing a knot that had started to form in her throat. Of the only two immediate options that presented to her, jumping down gave her stomach more knots than climbing down. So, she carefully began to lower herself, but she'd only made it to having her lower half outside the window, the bulk of her weight pressing against her waist, when her arms gave out and she fell the rest of the distance, her chin slamming painfully on the windowsill as she went down.

As she got into a sitting position on the ground, she groaned. She couldn't help but wonder if she really should have jumped or if that would have left her in a more painful state than she was at the moment.

A stray thought crossed her mind about how much HP that fall had cost her. The thought was gone almost as quickly as it had come, like a stray breeze. Yet, it brought to mind something she had forgotten entirely. She had done a lot of fighting the night before. Or at least been around others who had, aside from her battle with the doppelganger she'd fought by herself.

"Status," Elin whispered.

HP 23/56

MP 3/80

Level 17

XP 152997/153000

Stamina 6/23

Str 15

Int 40

Dex 15

Con 15

Wis 40

Mag 40

Agi 15

Cha 19

Physical Resistance 5%

Magical Resistance 30%

Skills:

Wound Identification IV 24/250

Wound Treatment, non-magical II 12/150

Combat Medic III 129/200

Holy Boost

Enhanced Mastery

Improved Resistance

Improved MP Consumption

White Magic Spells:

Life Attribute – Minor Heal IV 4mp 205/250

Life Attribute – Treat 3mp 70/100

Holy Attribute – Sacred Shot V 4mp 50/300

Life Attribute – Assess 2mp

Life Attribute – Regenerate 12 MP

Life Attribute – Restore Drain 7 MP

Green Magic Spells:

Life Attribute – Stat enhancement 2mp 20/100

Force Attribute – Physical Resistance enhancement II 2mp 95/150

Force Attribute – Minor Protection II 2mp 95/150

Holy Attribute - Sacred Flame – 7MP 0/100

Elin was mortified as she saw how close she was to the next level. She couldn't believe how close it was. Part of her felt cheated at how short she was from the level while another part wondered what she could have done to have bridged the tiny gap so she'd have been able to get the level.

However, she couldn't do anything about it given her current condition, so she had no choice but to close her stats and carefully pick herself back up, using the wall of the building to help support her balance.

She couldn't help but let her mind wander over which attributes she'd like to improve as well as what skills to learn as she slowly walked along the side of the building. She wasn't sure how long she'd been walking before she reached the main entrance, where she was seen by those guarding the door before she was even aware there was another person there.

"Lady Elin!" one of them cried out happily, startling Elin into looking up to see where the cry came from. "It's great to see you're okay!"

"Uh, I guess," Elin murmured, not sure how to react to the enthusiastic greeting. She felt like she should know who this young man was, but at the moment, her mind was only finding a blank as to his identity. Although, she thought she kind of remembered him from the day before in the inn, as one of the people Jonas had asked her to heal.

"You'll never guess what happened last night," he said, as he walked over to Elin.

"What happened?" Elin asked, recognizing he wanted her to ask. Which she couldn't think of a reason not to at the moment.

"Apparently we got some reinforcements that took out not only the front gate, but also all the soldiers that were part of the coup attempt," the young man answered cheerfully.

Elin couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm. She wished she could generate that much at the moment. Although, she suspected that she potentially could have if she hadn't been stopped short of getting the next level. Or if she wasn't so sore.

"Uh, Paul, shouldn't we be sending her in?" the other young man who was standing guard said. "His majesty did say that he wanted to see her as soon as she was up."

"Like he expected her to come through the front entrance, Nick," Paul retorted. "Besides, it's not like I expect her to want to stay out here all morning."

"That's a good thing for you," a voice said from the other side of the door as it started to open.

Elin felt a surge of energy as she heard that voice. She immediately recognized it as Kim's, even before she saw Kim when the door fully opened.

Elin quickly moved away from Paul and went over to Kim, throwing her arms around Kim, excited that Kim had survived the doppelgangers. Even though she had seen Kim afterwards, it had felt like part of a dream and that it was her mind making her think that Kim was alright. However, seeing her here made that fact feel like it was more concrete than she had before.

"Here you go," Kim said, holding something out to Elin before she could throw her arms around Kim in a hug.

Elin blinked as she looked at what Kim was holding out. At first it looked like it was piece of wood or something, until she realized it was a piece of bread that had been toasted. Something she'd never seen before. Nor did she really understand what she was expected to do with it.

While she knew that bread was food, she couldn't say if toasting it like that would still mean it was food. Or if it made it something else. She just couldn't be sure.

Kim merely smiled and chuckled as Elin didn't take the offered item, so she grabbed Elin's hand and placed what she was offering in the hand.

"Eat it. You'll like it," Kim assured Elin.

Elin could only smile sheepishly at that. She wasn't sure why she didn't think that it would still be food, but she didn't want Kim to think that she'd thought that, so she merely brought it to her mouth and took a little bite.

It was dry. More than she'd expected, but she wasn't sure what she should have expected about it. Nor could she say if Kim wanted Elin to react a certain way.

"Ah, I see Elin's up and about," another familiar voice said, causing Elin to jump in surprise. "It's about time, you know."

Elin was happy to see Patricia. "When did you get here?" Elin asked, taking another bite of her toast.

"Oh, we got here last night," came the reply. "Come with us and you can sit down at the very least."

Elin nodded, happy with the idea of sitting down. Her last bite of her toast had another surprise for her, she recognized the taste of melted butter on it, which made it much better, so she took another bite out of it as her free hand sought out Kims, which she held on to as they made their way to where the offered chair was located.