Elin enjoyed the conversation she had with Heather, Sonya, and Kim while they walked. At first she'd resented them being there, wondering if they might have an interest in taking Kim from her, but when Kim assured her that she wasn't going anywhere and suggested that they could all have fun together, like in the secret room, Elin found herself relaxing around them.
Although, while she couldn't think of how to broach that subject, she didn't worry. There was plenty of time to get around to it. She was sure of that.
It wasn't until they neared where the room was that the minotaurs were in that she looked around for Jonas and Elmo and was surprised to not see them anywhere. They'd stopped maybe fifty feet from the room, but it was still in sight.
"Where's Elmo?" Elin asked Kim quietly, not wanting to alert the minotaurs of their presence.
Kim looked around and sighed. "I hope he and Jonas are just taking their sweet time," Kim replied grumpily. "I'm not going to be happy if they got lost."
Elin nodded. She was ready to see what was past the minotaurs, but if they weren't all together, then she'd have to wait. Even when it was important to Elin that she wait, she'd always hated waiting.
"Should we go look for them?" Elin asked, wanting to do at least something.
"Lets give them a few minutes," Sonya suggested. "I think I saw Elmo starting to limp partway here."
"Maybe, but I healed that," Heather said. "I think I saw Jonas fall back to talk with him. Not sure about what, but I'm sure they were talking."
"How long ago was that?" Kim asked.
Heather shrugged. "Not sure. Maybe a few turns ago?"
"Well, lets go take a look," Elin declared. "If it's not that far away, then maybe we can be there when they finish their conversation."
Kim sighed. "Didn't realize you were so impatient," Kim remarked.
"I just don't like waiting if I can help it," Elin replied.
"You didn't mind waiting for Jonas to complete his scouting of the goblins yesterday," Kim teased.
"Well, you helped distract me," Elin replied, feeling her face heat up as she recalled what it was that Kim had done to distract her.
"Oooh, what'd you do to distract her?" Sonya asked, amusement clear in her voice.
"Sorry, it's classified information," Kim answered. "Though, if you're interested I'm sure we can give you a first hand demonstration."
"I see," Sonya said, a smirk tugging at her lips. "It was that kind of a distraction."
"Wait, what are you talking about?" Heather asked, looking confused.
"Don't worry about it," Kim said. "I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out if you think about it enough."
Elin was about to say something more, but just then she saw Elmo and Jonas turn the hall. She glared at them as they approached and when she was sure they were close enough that they could hear her, she told them quietly, "'Bout time you two showed up. What were you two talking about?"
Elmo looked like he was about to say something, but Jonas beat him to it. "We were talking about hardships. After all, this whole ordeal has been one big hardship in and of itself."
Elin smiled. She was glad it wasn't anything like they were considering leaving their team. "Well, regardless, we're by the minotaurs now," Elin informed them.
"Okay, well, we'll have Elmo peek around the corner and scan the minotaurs. Once we have that information, we might be able to figure out a plan to deal with them," Jonas said.
"Sounds good to me," Kim commented.
Then as Elmo walked towards the room with the minotaurs, Elin heard him mutter, "Why does it have to be me approaching them by myself? If only I had an invisibility spell, then I could do it without risking my life."
Elin was sure he said more to himself, but by then he'd gone too far away for her to make anything fo what he'd said out.
Elin wasn't sure how long she'd expected it to take, but it looked like all he did was glance in the room and then started walking back. She felt like there should have been more. Or at least he should have taken a minute there rather than just glancing in the room.
When he got back, he spoke before Elin could issue her complaint against him. "Those are 'Weak Minotaurs' I saw three. Apparently they're weakened because they've been starving to death. The one I scanned has only a fraction of it's HP left, but they're still really strong and quick. If they hit us, we might die right away," Elmo informed them, but then paused for a moment. "I think that might be how Charles McCoy died."
"Was there anything else you saw that you thought might be important?" Jonas asked after it was clear Elmo had stopped talking.
"Uh, I'm not sure," Elmo hedged. "I think though that we can use food as a way to keep them from attacking us."
Kim nodded. "Not a bad idea, kid," Kim remarked. "Though, we need to be careful we don't give them all of the food we got from the goblins."
"What about the chicken?" Jonas asked. "I remember hearing Elwin say he wanted to eat some, but Leon was telling him not to."
Kim nodded. "That could work. Though, we'd have to hope that they don't decide to collect food and then look at eating it after," she said. "If that happens then we could have trouble. So, what if Jonas and I enter first, holding out the chicken for them to take. Elmo and Elin are behind us. Which would leave Heather and Sonya at the rear."
"Why not let me towards the front?" Sonya asked. "I can shift into something that could be useful."
"Because with how you were screaming last night after we save both of you, I don't want that to occur, or anything like it, while we're dealing with the minotaurs."
"Wait, what are you talking about?" Sonya asked. "Hold on, why can't I remember anything from being in that large room where I saw all of you until this morning?"
"Yeah, that's strange," Heather commented. "I don't think I remember anything either. I mean, I was looking around and checked my status, but then I heard a voice and it felt like my brain shut off."
"Well, we saved you from goblins who had captured you," Elin said.
"Why would they capture us?" Sonya asked.
Elin was about to tell them what she was aware of what was happening to them, when Elmo spoke first, preventing her from doing so.
"Let's just say it was traumatic," Elmo said. "Owen did something to your memories so you could sleep peacefully. I think he said something about that it would wear off eventually, so when it does, I'm not sure I'd want to be that close to you when that happens."
Elin slapped Elmo's shoulder. "You shouldn't say it like that," she chided Elmo. "It makes it sound like she's not welcome."
Elmo gave Elin an incredulous look, but she ignored it. Even if she was like she was when she regained her awareness after they rescued them, she wouldn't care. Maybe she wouldn't like the screaming and all that, but she could still deal with it.
"Regardless," Kim interjected, stopping the discussion, "I at least consider both Heather and Sonya as fragile and I suspect Jonas does too. They probably will be fine, but until we can be sure that what happened last night isn't going to happen again, we'll need to continue treating both of you with kid gloves, okay?"
Sonya looked rather annoyed. "Fine, but keep in mind, I'll make sure you eat those words, okay?" she huffed.
Kim smirked. "I'd be more than happy to if you can prove me wrong," Kim said.
"Well then, let's get going," Jonas said, sounding like he'd started to get bored.
However, as they neared the room with the minotaurs in it, they noticed someone was approaching from the other way. Elin saw Kim and Jonas take the lead, and was ready to do something with her magic, but when they saw who it was, they relaxed.
It was Owen's team. Elin breathed a sigh of relief. They were allies, or at least she thought of them as that, but had the feeling that Kim and Jonas didn't quite share her impression of them.
Elin wondered if they might delay going into the minotaur room to share what their strategy to deal with all three of minotaurs in the room, but was surprised when Jonas pulled out the chicken they had gotten from the goblins the night before. It had a few burn marks on it from where it had been cooked over an open fire, but it didn't really look that cooked.
Jonas entered the room holding the chicken out in front of him. Elin saw the minotaurs look towards Jonas with interest and was ready to use her magic at the slightest hint that they were going to attack.
Yet, she was surprised again as the minotaurs accepted the chicken and didn't pay any further attention towards them. It certainly looked like giving them food was what they needed to do in order to get past them without worrying about getting killed by them.
Then as Elin was ready to continue on to the next hallway, Jonas turned to them and said, "Give me a minute. I just want to check on something."
"Go ahead," Kim replied. "We'll wait here."
Elin wasn't sure what Jonas was up to, but wasn't sure if he'd tell her what he had in mind if she asked. So, she kept quiet and waited patiently. Or at least as patiently as she could.
Although, to her relief, he wasn't gone long. Maybe a couple minutes, long enough for Owen's team to be waiting with them when he returned, and as he approached them, he chuckled.
"It seems like there's a new group of goblins up there," Jonas said. "So, if we'd gone that way earlier, we probably would have had a fight on our hands,"
"At least none of us tried going that way," Owen remarked, watching the minotaurs work on completing the cooking of the chicken they'd just gotten.
"Well, let's move on then," Kim said. "We got passed the minotaurs and we can now see the next hallway to go to. Let's just hope it's the one we want.
"How'd you figure out that giving them food would make them friendly towards you?" Elwin asked, his voice signaling how awestruck he was by that turn of events.
"Trade secret, sorry," Elmo said. "After all, if we told you, then you might not like what we had to do in order to learn about it."
Elwin chuckled. "Fine, I was just curious," he said, as they started to walk towards the next corridor.