Aggravations

Elmo opened his eyes. He'd been resting from his latest trip to the location where he'd been giving his demonstrations on 'Dark Impact.' Though, he still hadn't figured out what it was about that… spell? That… whatever interested them so much. All he knew was that the orc leaders couldn't seem to get it copied.

However, as he woke up this time, he realized he wasn't wearing anything, and there was movement around him.

"What…?" he said, not sure how else to respond.

What he saw was the orc girl who was supposed to look after him, casually getting dressed, though she hadn't gotten far at this point.

Elmo felt like he'd probably been assaulted while he slept. He certainly hadn't agreed to whatever had gone on.

"You're pathetic," the orc remarked, looking at Elmo disdainfully. "Even when I was pressing against you, you didn't react. It wasn't until I got him over here that you responded enough that I could fulfill my purpose here."

Elmo glanced over and saw another orc, a male one, getting dressed nearby, a look of disgust on its face.

Which confirmed to Elmo that he'd been assaulted, though he couldn't be sure if it had actually been rape or not. There was too much that he wasn't sure and doubted that he'd be able to learn what it was himself. As he doubted these orcs saw it the same way and Elmo wasn't sure if he really wanted to know which it was himself.

"Why would you have to do that?" Elmo asked, feeling confused over the matter entirely.

The orc girl shrugged. "The elders commanded me to. That your blood may hold the secrets to your powers," she answered. "They hope I'll give birth to a female so that those powers can be in their bloodline."

Elmo felt like this might be similar to that game he'd once seen called Bloodline, but he never actually played it, so he couldn't be sure. He'd just seen ads for it. And ignored them each time because that game hadn't interested him at all.

Elmo tried to sit up, but fell back as the world around him started to spin.

"Save your strength. I had to use a few things to get what I needed and your world's going to be a mess for the next while," she informed him as she pulled over a kind of shirt over her breasts. "Hopefully I won't need to repeat this performance. You really are a disgusting creature."

Elmo didn't respond to that. He suspected that these creatures didn't care for homosexuals, which Elmo never thought about that in regards to himself. Sure he hadn't been attracted to anyone other than Jonas, but that didn't mean he was only interested in other men.

Besides, he'd never allowed himself to explore that side of himself, since he rarely ever cared to deal with actual people. Instead, he just cared mostly to keep to himself.

So, to find out that he wasn't reacting to the orc girl, no matter how much he was confident that Kim and Elin would find attractive, as her body seemed like it did to girls that he'd seen Elin and Kim look at when it was covered. Which meant that he was pretty sure that they'd be interested in the orc girl if she was willing.

However, with whatever he'd been given, Elmo wasn't sure if he'd be able to do anything about it. Other than wait for it to work itself out of his system, that is. Since he knew that it wasn't like he could just will himself to ignore it.

In the end, Elmo knew he had to resign himself to this situation. Though, he hoped that the orc girl wouldn't feel the need to do this again anytime soon. As it would seriously affect his ability to find an exit as quickly as he could when he felt like no one was looking.

Although, on the other hand, if this wore off before too long, he might be able to explore a bit, since he doubted that the orcs knew precisely how long it would affect him. Though, he hoped it would wear off soon, because he knew that eventually the orcs would start monitoring him again at some point.

+++

Kim watched out of the corner of her eye as Sonya ate Heather out again. The campfire was out, the others were asleep, and it was Kim's turn at watch. She hadn't said anything, as it was clear the two were trying to keep her from noticing, but Kim doubted that they'd considered the fact that they made a lot more noise at night than the surrounding night did.

And that was if Kim hadn't noticed what they were doing in the first place, with Heather removing her pants before climbing into Sonya's mouth, where Kim could see the tip of Sonya's tongue occasionally pop out of the top of Heather's shirt.

Although, Kim hoped that neither of them did that when it was their turn to keep watch, since she seriously doubted that they were aware of their surroundings while they were engaging in that sort of activity.

Kim didn't mind it so much on her watch, since it was mildly distracting at worst, and it was good to know that they were at least able to keep up doing that themselves, despite the memory problems that Heather was having.

Which brought to mind Grisha. That strange man seemed to have more about him than Kim liked. That he wasn't someone that even seemed to be what he even claimed to be. Which made Kim wonder if maybe she should strike before he even knew his secret was out.

Kim couldn't be sure that there wouldn't be anything else that would occur as a result, but she worried about pretending to accept his lies would eventually get her caught in the same trap that he'd caught the others in. Which would just ensure that he'd won again, since she might not even remember her suspicions to begin with at that point.

With those thoughts in mind, Kim had a strong urge to gouge her eyes out in frustration. Not because she thought it'd do anything useful, but because it would feel better to be unable to do something because of a lack of ability rather than because she waited too long. After all, it's not like she knew when any of her fears might start to come to pass.

Besides, the giant bird in the distance that seemed intent on something a couple mountains over made her feel like the competition could be moving on without her. Which would mean that it was possible that not only she would get stuck in this world, but so would Elin.

Kim couldn't help but sigh as she thought of Elin. She wasn't sure what the problem between the two of them had been, but she could tell there was some kind of tension between the two of them. That it wasn't going to go away just because Kim missed Elin or that she'd been missing for about a week or so.

Kim hoped that they'd be able to find Elin before her sword was ready to locate something else, so she wouldn't have to be without Elin for that long. Nor would she have to worry that something hadn't happened to Elin, much like with what's happened to Elmo at the moment.

Overall, it was frustrating and the only one who seemed willing to talk to her about it at all was Sonya. Who was currently occupied with her… current activity. Which Kim didn't want to interrupt since she had the feeling that both of them hardly had much time to enjoy each other like that at this time anyway.

In general, Kim hoped for something that would allow her to do anything to fix any of the problems she had before her: Elmo having been captured by the orcs, Elin still missing, Grisha being a potential – and likely – threat, and what the current set challenge was.

While she would like to be able to figure out anything about any of them, she felt too limited on her abilities.

Maybe if she waded into the orcs to try and rescue Elmo, she'd succeed, but she doubted it'd be that easy.

If she had the stealth abilities like Jonas did, she'd be able to enter, find Elmo, and escape without alerting any of the orcs. It would be unlikely, but it at least had a better chance than her trying to fight off all the orcs to try and save him.

Though, she wished that she knew what Elmo looked like as well. She only knew that Elmo existed because Sonya had told her. Where, in addition to her suspicions about Grisha, she knew that Sonya's words held weight. Words that she accepted to have someone avoided whatever had been stealing memories without them being able to defend, in any way, against it.