Kim and Elin part 1

Kim couldn't say that she was in a good mood, but it certainly wasn't a bad one. She got her memories back, when she hadn't been aware she'd lost any, but that still didn't take away the fact that she'd been violated through having her memories stolen somehow.

Still, while she was confident that Jonas had something to do with it, she hoped that Elin was at least part of it, as then she could feel like she wasn't as indebted to Jonas as she'd otherwise be. With Elin, she'd happily owe her life to, just not with Jonas. No matter what.

They were sitting near Sonya, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully, though she couldn't be sure since she hadn't actually seen Sonya sleep as a dragon as of yet. Though, Heather was spending her time caring for her, part of which was just her sitting by Sonya's head, hugging it.

Bart had left to hunt some boar, since he wanted to increase their food supply and he seemed bored just sitting around, though it had been his idea to go hunting. Kim had briefly considered joining him, like Owen and Elwin had, but decided against it. She doubted he'd find much before it got dark, yet she couldn't think of a reason to try and talk him out of it.

Patricia and Patrick had yet to catch up with them, which Kim couldn't say she was surprised about. She suspected that they'd be a while yet. That Patrick was likely walking slower because of whatever it was that Patricia did to him. Although, since he was a man, she felt rather little pity for him. He did deserve whatever happened to him because he was a man to begin with.

A twig snapping pulled Kim out of her thoughts as she looked in the direction the sound came from. She wasn't surprised to find Elin and Jonas approaching, with Elin having stepped on the twig, but she was happy to see Elin. Yet, the look Elin gave her a look like she didn't even notice her. Like Kim wasn't even there.

Kim sighed as she glanced at Jonas who merely shrugged. She had a feeling that whatever had been sparking conflict between them wasn't over like she had hoped it was. Despite having forgotten about it for a while when she'd somehow lost her memories of Elin. She wasn't sure when that was, just that Elin's existence was part of the memories she'd lost at some point.

Elin walked over to sit with her back against Sonya, in-between her front and back legs, when she just sat, staring into the fire that Bart had gotten set up before he left hunting.

Kim had a feeling that not dealing with whatever was going on between her and Elin wasn't going to solve it, like she had hoped it would. So she walked over to sit next to Elin, making sure that there wasn't any physical contact between them. She had a feeling it would not only send the wrong message but that Elin would relocate if that happened.

"Would you like to talk?" Kim asked Elin, hoping that she wouldn't refuse.

"About what?" Elin asked, her tone rather indifferent.

"About us," Kim replied.

Elin shook her head, keeping her eyes on the flames. "There is no us. You made sure of that."

"Would it be possible for there to be an us again?" she asked, wondering what she'd do if Elin said 'no.'

Elin sighed, like the entire subject was irritating her. "What would be different if there was?"

Kim blinked. She wasn't sure what Elin was getting at, but at least it wasn't a flat out refusal. "What would you like to be different?" Kim asked in return, not sure how else to respond.

"Then we have nothing else to talk about," Elin said bluntly, letting Kim know that was the wrong thing to say.

Although, she couldn't think of what might have been the right thing to say. After all, Elin had suddenly gotten moody towards her and she hadn't been able to figure out why.

"You can leave me alone now," Elin added after a minute. "If you don't have anything else to say that's worth saying, you can leave."

Kim blinked. While she was happy that Elin had gotten more confident in herself and wasn't as willing to just let others walk all over her, she couldn't help but feel hurt that Elin was acting that way towards her.

However, she couldn't think of anything to say that would help out with whatever problem there was between her and Elin, so she stood up and walked over to Jonas.

"Do you have any idea what Elin's problem with me is?" she asked quietly, not wanting Elin to know.

Jonas merely shook his head. "Sorry, she hasn't said anything to me about it."

Kim sighed. "She seems to want me to say something, but I don't have any idea what she's looking for. I mean, it's not like anything happened between us before we had that fight the night she met that strange girl on her walk."

"You didn't notice anything that might have led up to that point?" Jonas sked, earning a sideways look from Kim.

Was he getting at something?

"What're you talking about?" she asked dryly. "Are you saying that I'm somehow at fault here?"

Jonas merely shook his head. "Not at all. Sometimes when a problem between a couple forms, neither party is at fault. However, that doesn't mean that you can't figure out what the problem is if you just look at what started the problem in the first place."

Kim shook her head in annoyance. She wasn't interested in what Jonas was saying, largely because it sounded like he was implying that either she missed something between them or that there was something she'd done that had caused this.

If she had done something, she knew she'd have known she did it. She wasn't the kind of person to just act without thinking, after all.

Still, she couldn't dismiss what he'd said so easily. As she thought about it, she realized that it might not be something that she did herself, but maybe something she didn't do? She could accept that, as there were times when she was focused on other things than Elin.

"What if there was something that I didn't do?" Kim asked, wondering what Jonas' response would be. She wanted to know what Elin would say, but at the moment, she had a feeling if she didn't say the right thing to her, that there was a chance that Elin might stop talking to her altogether, even if she did eventually figure out the right thing to say.

"Then you'll need to figure out what that is so you can move forward with solving it," Jonas merely replied.

"How can I figure it out when Elin won't talk to me about it?" Kim asked, feeling like she was at her wit's end with this issue. She had been willing to accept the distance between her and Elin for a while, but with the loss of her memories, she felt like she was close to losing Elin for good and she couldn't accept that. At all. Not while she still had a chance to fix things between them.

"You'll just have to think back about when things started to change between the two of you and figure out what it was that you were doing wrong then," Jonas answered. "Whether it was something you did or didn't do or something that you failed to recognize, you'll have to figure that out on your own. I can't tell you which it'd be because I have no idea what it might be."

Kim sighed. What Jonas hadn't said was that Owen might be able to help her out with that, since he could look into her mind, but she didn't want to go down that road. Not when he might peek into Elin's mind to find out what the problem in her opinion was. As if Elin got wind of that, then she might not let Kim try to work it out. She might declare an end to them altogether, no matter what else came down the line.

Still, she couldn't help but feel like there was something she was missing. Something that would help her to find the right response to give Elin. Something that she was overlooking.

Pushing her own doubts and fears away, she walked over to Sonya and sat down, leaning against her tail. A good fifteen feet between herself and Elin. A distance that should keep Elin from feeling like she was about ready to talk when she knew she wasn't. Not just yet.

Kim did what Jonas had suggested and started thinking about what was going on when she first noticed something going on between her and Elin. Something that led to the current circumstance they were in. Which was at the time when they'd arrived too late to help with the fire dragon.

However, as she thought about it, she started to realize how much earlier the problem had started. As she realized more and more how she and Elin had a rift between them, that she just hadn't noticed at the time.

Which led her to more uncomfortable discoveries that she couldn't say she was happy to have… discovered.