Travelling Upriver

In the end, Guy seemed to be more than eager to be the one who stayed behind to manage building the defensive structures to form the beginnings of a mountain town in hostile territory. He was so enthusiastic about it that Kim would have been suspicious of his motives if she didn't know much about him in the past.

She had a feeling that he wasn't as eager to continue travelling with them as he originally had been. Though, she wouldn't be surprised if he would rather continue travelling with them rather than return back to the capital where his family had their home in the city.

Yet, what confused her the most was the fact that they hadn't established a city, or even a town, in these mountains to begin with. Especially since they seemed to already know so much about these mountains already.

Yet, while she wondered about it, she didn't care enough to actually ask about it. Or even learn about any reasons for why the discrepancy existed in the first place. Maybe if she ended up stuck in this world, then she might inquire about it, but otherwise, she was content to just let it go and move on to other matters.

Even though she had hoped that they'd have been able to leave behind 'her' entire army, she felt more than a little appalled at how half the army was still moving with them. She at least understood that most of the army wanted to stay where she was, even though she really didn't care to be considered their general. She couldn't say why, just that it felt like she wasn't really made to be a leader or head anything like an army.

Still, as they moved on, she couldn't help but feel a little refreshed as they walked along the banks of the river that flowed through the mountains. They were walking upstream and Kim wondered if there was a way for them to catch some fish to add to the stew that kept getting made for everyone every day.

She normally wasn't that big on fish, but with how they'd been having the same things for the stews for over a week, she had to admit it was getting a little old and would be good to have at least a little more variety in the flavors. Even if the flavor had to be one that she wasn't especially fond of.

The travel wasn't difficult, the worst part was when they occasionally reached a small bog, marsh, or otherwise swamp. Kim felt like these should be located in the mountains, but it wasn't like she spent much time of her life outside of cities. So, it wasn't like she had much experience in knowing what kinds of terrain to predict.

Her only real comfort was that Elmo was handling the changes worse than she was. Not only had he lost his boots on more than one occasion when they got stuck in the mud and his feet came right out of them. Kim felt more than a little amusement at his problems, but she had to admit that he was at least doing his best to endure the difficulties he was experiencing without complaining. Which she couldn't say the same for others in the army.

The complaints continued on, and Kim was more than happy to let Lance field them, as he had been 'her' second-in-command in 'her' army. However, Jonas pulled her to the side when they stopped for lunch after their second bog and a third in sight ahead of them, when Lance tried talking with Kim about them.

"You realize that if you don't do anything, their morale will hit rock bottom sooner rather than later, don't you?" he asked.

"Why should I care?" she retorted. "You know as well as I do that I never wanted an army of my own."

"Doesn't matter," Elin said, startling Kim.

Why did she have to chime in on this? Kim asked herself grumpily.

"If you don't take their issues seriously, you might find that you're going to have more problems later on. Address them now and you'll be able to earn their trust more than you have right now."

Kim was starting to feel like they should just rest for the night already. She knew she had plenty of stamina left, but she still couldn't help but feel tired. Especially with having to deal with this issue after all that had happened already.

"Lady Elin is correct," Lance added. "Even if you can't solve the problem, they'll at least feel better if you at least address the problem. Maybe we could try to do more than use planks to get the wagons through." Lance glanced purposefully at Elmo. "Such as using magic to dry out the bogs."

Kim looked at Elmo, waiting to see what he'd have to say about it. She seriously doubted that he'd have anything like that, but she didn't feel like saying anything in response until he spoke about it. Especially since she had a feeling Elmo would be able to shut the idea of using magic down better than she would have been able to.

It took Elmo a few minutes before he realized anyone was looking in his direction, and looked rather uncomfortable about it.

"What?" he asked.

"Lance suggested you could use your magic to dry out the bogs," Kim answered, letting Elmo take the statement as he would.

Elmo suddenly looked baffled. "Wait, what? What kind of spells do you think I have?!"

"We don't know what spells you have, master mage," Lance replied, sounding more respectful than Kim knew she would have herself. "We're just looking at ways that we can solve the problems of the bogs."

Elmo sighed, looking at Kim like he blamed her for this, which just seemed rather amusing to Kim. "Look," Elmo said, sounding like he was trying to be extra patient. "My magic is more for combat purposes. I could use my magic on the bogs, I guess, but it's not like I can guarantee it'd have any effect. I haven't even gotten any spells that are supposed to have any direct effect on terrain."

"Why not at least try," Kim said, feeling like she was poking a sleeping tiger or bear for some reason, and finding the experience more than a little enjoyable. "If nothing happens then we'll know that you can't do anything about it."

Elmo looked at Jonas with a pleading look, like he thought that Jonas might be able to save him from this predicament.

Jonas merely shook his head while chuckling. "Sorry, but there's nothing I can do about it. It's all on you," Jonas merely said.

"Look at it this way," Elin said. "If you can do something about this, even if for only a few minutes, you'll know that you can do more than just what the descriptions of your spells indicated."

Elmo sighed. "Could we try this tomorrow then? I'd rather do this when I'm better rested and have more MP."

Kim merely shook her head. "Sorry, but we'll need you to do something to the next bog. Once we're ready to continue on, at least."

Elmo looked like he wanted to protest more, but didn't say anything. Kim couldn't help but wonder if he felt as tired as she did, even though she really didn't plan on making things easy for him, regardless of if it was true. After all, she had to deal with these complaints herself anyway.

"I'll use one spell," Elmo said after a few minutes of silence. "If nothing happens, we'll leave it at that, okay?"

"That'll be fine, but which spell?" Kim asked. "I'm pretty sure you can't use your Terror or Sleep spells on the bogs. You'll need to use one that would be likely to have more likely to have an effect on it."

Elmo sighed as if she'd figured out what he had planned. "Brimstone Flare," Elmo answered. "I probably could use Open Earth, but I doubt it'll do much before we want to continue on, since we're not going to stay the night."

"Why would that have any effect on it?" Jonas asked.

Kim did her best to keep from smiling. While she was more of a city girl, she at least understood the method Elmo was looking at. As in if he created a hole, the water in the bog might drain into it, which would then essentially drain it. She'd come across the method in a book some time ago, but couldn't really remember exact details about how it worked.

"It'll reduce the water in the bog," Elmo answered. "Essentially, I'd make a hole for the water in the ground to flow into, which should lower the water table."

Kim wanted to say something, but stopped when she noticed the look on Lance's face. His eyes had a glazed over look, like he heard what Elmo said, but wasn't able to follow the logic. She merely waited until Lance came up with something to say or ask, doing her best to keep her amusement from showing.

"Well, if nothing else, we can do that later on if there's another swamp where we stop for the night," Elin said, dashing Kim's hopes to see what kind of statement or question Lance would have been able to come up with.

"Sounds good to me," Jonas said, his tone indicating to Kim that he really didn't care either way.

"So, when do you want me to try?" Elmo asked, looking rather resigned to what was clearly expected of him.