Elwin's Ideas

Kim gritted her teeth as she tied the makeshift bandage over her wounded forearm. She'd had to use some of the dirty clothing of their attackers that had fallen, but at the moment she couldn't find a reason to complain.

The orcs that hadn't been killed had fled well over an hour ago, and had left them trying to patch up their wounds. Though, aside from Heather, Kim seems to have the worst of the injuries.

Heather also seemed a little out of it, but certainly not in any condition to use her system to do anything significant. At least Kim hoped that she'd be able to use her system after a little bit of time.

Aside from that, nothing major had happened during the fight. Unless they counted Elmo having gone off on his own somewhere. While she wouldn't put it past him to have ran off to avoid fighting, she couldn't say that he hadn't proven he had at least some courage in the past. Which meant if he did do that, he likely did it in an effort to draw attention away from Heather, as she had only recently woken up.

Although, while she'd have liked to go and retrieve Elmo, the fact that there didn't seem to be any sign of where he'd gone didn't help.

Which was a reason she wished Jonas would hurry up and return. She was confident that with his enhanced senses that he'd be able to find what signs there were of Elmo and track him down to whatever hole he'd decided to hide in.

Shaking her head to dispel the unhelpful thoughts, Kim held her left arm against her side gingerly, not wanting to do anything to make it hurt anymore than it already did.

"Any idea where Elmo might have gone?" Owen asked as Kim sat down by the fire where they had their breakfast cooking.

"Nope," Kim replied. It wasn't like she cared where he'd gone either. While his system was useful, if he couldn't remember the spells, then he wasn't really that useful.

"What I'd like to know is how I can fight so well with this staff," Bart remarked. "I never fought with a staff before."

"Actually, you have," Elwin remarked, turning the rabbit he had on a stick over the fire. "Though, I can't say why you don't remember it. Especially since of what happened to-"

Owen jabbed Elwin in the side, making Kim smile at his sudden discomfort, while Bart looked at Elwin, clear interest in what he'd been about to say.

"No need to bring up painful memories," Own said, earning a look from Bart that was mixed with annoyance, hurt, and worry.

"What we really need to do was to figure out why you can't remember your system," Kim said thoughtfully,, trying to push her amusement at what had just occurred out of her mind. "Elmo couldn't remember about his, and I have a feeling Heather might be the same. Sonya might, but since she's still sleeping, we can't ask her."

"You know, speaking of Sonya," Elwin interjected. "Has anyone seen her sleep like this as a dragon? I mean, how long do you think it'll be before she fully wakes up?"

"Well, dragons are supposed to be able to sleep for centuries and all," Owen remarked. "So, we'll just have to wait and see If that's what the issue is."

"Why not wake her up with… say a bucket of water on her head?" Bart asked. "That should work, right?"

"If you're willing to either find or make a bucket yourself and if you're willing to find a water source and carry the bucket full of water back here, then sure. Go for it," Owen returned, his tone only a little bit sarcastic.

"Any idea where the orcs came from?" Kim asked, unable to dismiss a feeling that the encounter wasn't just by chance. Not to mention to try and shift the conversation away from stupid things like that. I mean, if they were going to attack, why would two of them, the ones who were most likely their magic users, hold back and not do anything but hold torches? Not only that, but they hardly seemed to care about how many of the orcs were killed."

"You have a point," Elwin remarked. "I mean, they didn't even try o bring back any of their fallen. I mean, I don't know if that's part of their culture or if there's other reasons for it, but it felt like they merely abandoned their wounded, even if those wounded weren't likely to survive."

"You realize that that's par for the course with orcs, right?" Owen added dryly. "All I've ever read about orcs has had them not care about their losses, that they'd kill each other if they had a reason to. Even if it was as flimsy as wanting something the other had."

"Well, we've already seen that there's a number of things that are going on here that aren't in they typical mythologies," Kim added. "I mean, if I remember correctly, goblins are supposed to be like orcs and not rapists. That's not something I'd seen before."

"Maybe it just depends on what world they come from," Elwin suggested. "I mean, if there's more than one kind of goblin, then that might explain a few things, not to mention about how the ones that we fought to save Heather and Sonya from were different from the typical mythology."

"Why do you think there's more than one kind of goblin?" Kim asked, unsure if there really was a reason Elwin was getting at or if he was just trying to sound smarter than he actually was.

"Simple. There's more than one kind of bear. There's more than one kind of snake. There's more than one kind of wolf. There's more than one kind of horse. There's more than-"

"Okay, I get it," Kim said, feeling like Elwin was going to continue on until he listed every kind of animal that he could think of. "Though, that really doesn't explain why their behavior would be so different."

Elwin merely shrugged. "Maybe it's like how some kinds of the same animal have different temperaments. I mean, I remember we fought a cave bear once and it was easier to take down than a regular grizzly bear. Largely because it doesn't have the same temperament. It just isn't as inclined to fight as a grizzly is."

While she couldn't argue about that, she still wasn't convinced. Partly because she hardly saw any real differences between animals that merely had different appearances. As that hardly accounted for significant differences in behavior.

"You don't say?" she drawled, wondering if it was a mistake to have let Elwin say so much.

"Fine, how about this?" Elwin snapped. "Coyotes and wolves are part of the dog family, but their behavior is still very different."

Kim rolled her eyes. He was going down this path? "And Bugbears and hobgoblins are still goblins themselves. What's your point?"

"Ah, but if I recall correctly, the hobgoblins and bugbears that we faced weren't just part of the goblinoid family. In fact, they were merely variants of goblins there. Besides, orcs are part of the goblinoid family, but as we've seen, their behavior is much different."

Kim sighed. She couldn't deny that Elwin had a point about this. The orcs were clearly related to goblins, even though they were a lot stronger, taller, and more of a pain than the goblins had been. Although, the biggest problem with the goblins had been their sheer numbers.

"Fine, let's just say you have a point, what does this mean then?" Kim asked, feeling like her patience had run out. Especially when she didn't see the point of this topic in the first place.

"My point is that we can't be sure that the orcs are exactly like they're portrayed in the mythology. As far as we know, they were testing our defenses. The two that didn't participate might have been there to observe and report what they saw," Elwin replied.

While she had been annoyed with Elwin up to this point, when he said that, she couldn't help but feel a sinking sensation in her stomach. She didn't like the point he was making, but that didn't stop it from feeling more accurate than she'd like.

"So, what should we do about that?" Owen asked. "Our numbers aren't as good as they had been, with Jonas, Elmo, and Elin gone, but we still have our strong front line."

"Don't forget about Heather," Bart added. "Unless she's fine when she gets her bearing again, she won't be of any use, either."

"We could also wait a couple weeks and see about Sonya's wounds getting healed," Kim added, though she didn't like waiting a couple weeks to see about what that attack had been about. Especially since another could be launched at any time from here.

"Well, we could go see what we could find about it on our own," Elwin suggested. "I'm certainly willing to bet that they're not in any condition to really put up much of a fight."

Kim sighed. She didn't have a better idea and she doubted that Elwin would accept any other suggestion than what he'd just said. Which meant, that they were doing this. Whether it was a good idea or not.