The Systems Challenge-Chapter 398: Elmo Rescued

Elin was surprised to see the orc come out of the crystal and head off towards where the other orcs were. She had doubted that Jonas would be able to get it to work with them, but had at least hoped he would.

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Yes, as the orc made its way towards the other orcs without Jonas coming out, she couldn't help but wonder if Jonas had succeeded or not. As the exit for him should still be available, though he was taking longer than Elin would have expected him to.

When Jonas came out a minute after the orc had left, she looked at him, waiting for him to say something. Anything. Instead, he merely looked around, saw the orc, nodded at Elin, and started walking after it. He kept a distance, but that hardly explained anything to Elin. Which just confused her even more.

It didn't help how she'd already been feeling down, so she couldn't help but feel like she really didn't matter in this endeavor at this point, so she walked over to the pendant and took it off the branch. They could get the firebirds out of it later when Elysia and Etaina were present. Or even maybe have them pull their parents out of it. As Elin was confident that their parents would trust their daughters to know that they could leave the crystal.

Elin started to walk after Jonas, but didn't try to keep up. She was confident that she'd only get in the way somehow if she did. That it might even be better for her to return to the camp, though she worried that she might say something to get Jonas in trouble with the others with heading off to try and rescue Elmo by himself.

She wasn't sure if that would be true, but with the way things had been going for her, she wouldn't be surprised if that would happen. It certainly would be a common occurrence for anything she was involved in.

So, she watched as first the orc entered a cave, though she idly wondered if it didn't like the sunlight for other reasons. Such as how it kept it's eyes covered until it reached some shade as it have moved only to cover them again when it re-entered the sunlight.

Doing that certainly slowed the orc down, but as she thought about it, it would make sense that orcs would attack at night because of that.

Or maybe it was a different kind of orc than the ones that had captured Elmo. All Elin knew was that she didn't have enough information. Just like they hadn't with the earlier time they'd encountered orcs in the middle of the day only to learn that the armor they wore was enchanted to magically control and enslave them.

When the orc finally reached the cave, Jonas was about the same amount of distance behind the orc as when he'd first started following it, but Elin hadn't even covered a quarter of the distance. She doubted Jonas had even noticed or cared, but that didn't mean much to her since she had already determined that she wasn't important to him.

That she was merely just there because she'd been the one carrying the crystal pendant as well as the only other person who could help make sure that nothing happened to it while Jonas dealt with the orc that he was currently following.

After the orc entered the cave and Jonas followed in, Elin felt a little surprise that she didn't hear sounds of a confrontation. She couldn't say why, but she almost expected the mountain to explode or something because of the two entering that small cave so close together.

Still, she continued on at her same pace. Unhurried and calm. Letting her negative thoughts pull her emotions ever down into the dark. Almost metaphorically similar to how she was walking towards a cave that didn't have any light inside.

+++

Kim woke up, not sure what to expect. With how many things had changed in the past few days, she almost expected that they'd have completed the last challenge somehow and were about to find out who won or something.

"Morning, Kim," Patricia greeted, looking full of energy. "When do you think we should try to find Elmo?"

Kim shook her head, not wanting to deal with anything before she had a chance to talk with Elin. She had a feeling that Elin needed another conversation about what they'd talked about, almost like she needed the subjects to be simplified so she could mentally digest them and not overthink them.

However, as she looked around, she felt a little surprised that there wasn't any sign of Elin around. At all. Nor did she see Jonas.

"Where'd Elin go?" she asked, unable to suppress a yawn after her question.

Patricia merely shrugged. "Not sure. They were gone when I got up. Maybe you should ask Bart. He had the last watch."

Kim nodded absently. While she acknowledged that Bart was smart and capable with his staff, she had a feeling that he didn't really care to be around them. Which Kim fully understood. She didn't care to be around Bart that much, either. Not only was he male, but he seemed to look at the rest of them like they were stupid or something, which just rubbed Kim the wrong way most of the time.

However, in this case she really didn't have much of a choice than dealing with him. Not when he seemed to be the potentially only one who might know where Elin went. If she went off with Jonas, than she would be curious as to what they were up to.

Though, one thing Kim was certain of was that Elin wasn't going to cheat on her with Jonas. Although, with the way their relationship was currently, if Elin slept with anyone else, she couldn't say that she'd consider that cheating at the moment, personally. As technically their relationship was broken at the moment, even though both were working on repairing it.

Which meant that she felt like she couldn't even be upset with Elin if she did anything with another person, likely a woman, at this time. Although, Kim wouldn't mind it if they both let her join in.

However, she had serious doubts that Elin was up to anything like that right then. While she couldn't be certain that Elin wasn't doing something like that, she couldn't help but feel like Elin wouldn't have pushed so hard to work through their relationship problems if she was going to do anything like that at this point.

So, she had to ask Bart.

"Bart?" she asked, half thinking she should grab him by the throat so she could be certain he was paying attention to her. "Did you see where Elin went?"

Bart lifted a hand, pointing in what felt like a random direction, but Kim had to assume that it was whatever direction he'd seen Elin leave in. Though, she would at least liked it if Bart had said something rather than just pointing. Part of her couldn't help but wonder if maybe that was for the best. As then she wouldn't have to worry about if his tone which would potentially sour her mood even more.

As while she at least had a direction to go in, it was at least something to work with. Although, if Bart was wrong or actually was pointing in a random direction, any direction was then as good as another.

Though, she did worry a little at the fact that it was heading, at least a little, in the direction that they were confident the orcs were. She hoped that if Elin and Jonas were heading that way, that it was more of a scouting trip rather than an actual rescue attempt.

+++

Jonas held Elmo to him, unable to describe the emotions running through him. He could even feel his body reacting in ways he hadn't felt it react to anything in years. Reactions that made him wonder if maybe he should let Elmo have the relationship he wanted, even though Jonas wasn't sure how much he'd be able to contribute to it.

He held Elmo for a minute, listening to the sounds of orcs fighting in the distance. He knew he probably should be taking this time to just hold Elmo, but he felt like he needed that moment. Though, he couldn't say for sure if there might be more orcs heading this way at some point. As even an orc as big as that one could only last so long against however many orcs probably occupied this entire network of caves that possibly even spanned the entire mountain.

Eventually, Jonas picked Elmo up and threw him over his shoulder, just in case he needed to make a run for it with Elmo. He knew he'd waited too long, and Elmo had probably worn himself to exhaustion doing whatever he had to get this close to the exit of the caves.

If he could get Elmo back to the camp, they'd be able to make sure that Elmo would be able to rest properly, but Jonas also couldn't help but wonder if there might be mental scars that Elmo would have to deal with. As he hadn't a clue as to why the orcs had wanted to keep him alive as a captive.

But at the same time, it wasn't like he really knew orcs that well either. As shown by his inability to have negotiated with that orc that was even now going on a rampage through the other orcs. Which he hoped wouldn't haunt the rest of them later on. As that wouldn't be very good.