Elmo first became aware of a roaring pain in his right arm. At first he couldn't figure it out, but as he opened his eyes slowly, he saw the room he was in and it came back to him what happened. The troll had essentially backhanded him into the wall.
He had been in pretty much the center of the room, so he speculated that the distance had helped keep him from becoming graffiti on the wall. Then his arm was the first part of him to make contact, so his arm being in such pain throughout it wasn't that surprising.
He looked around and was a little surprised at what he saw before him. The troll was down and smoke rose off of its body. Kim was clearly making sure that Elin was alright, though Elin was still tending to Bart, which told Elmo that he was still alive. Sonya and Heather seemed to be freaking out about something, but not in a way that involved screaming. And lastly, the others seemed to be discussing something around the body of the troll.
Elmo slowly sat up, trying to keep from moving his arm any, though he doubted that he'd be able to get much done with it, since Elin had her hands full with Bart, from what he could see, and Heather wasn't in any shape to help him at all, despite being right next to him. He wasn't sure what else he could do, but he knew that he needed to get his arm tended, even if it wasn't through magical means.
After all, He couldn't help but wonder if Elwin or Leon might know a good way to tend to a shattered arm, given they were mercenaries and from what they said about what happened before they got pulled into this, he couldn't help but speculate that they came from a world of swords and sorcery, which meant they probably had to deal with some field treatment on wounds.
So, letting his arm hang by his side, he started to walk towards the others. He'd taken a few steps when he suddenly felt a tugging on his shirt, which had its tail hanging loose.
He looked and saw Heather holding onto his shirt, her stare vacant. However, Elmo couldn't help but wonder if part of her was still in there, since her taking hold of his shirt had to be a conscious act. Not that he really knew anything about people in the kind of state he saw Heather in.
He felt torn. He could tell that Heather wanted him to remain by her, but at the same time, he needed to get his arm treated. So, unless Heather would snap out of whatever state she was in, which Elmo considered rather unlikely, she wouldn't be able to help treat his arm.
However, while he really wanted to get his arm taken care of, he couldn't in good conscience deny the request she seemed to be making of him. So, he sighed as he sat back down, careful to keep from moving his arm that much. Although, when it lightly touched the ground, he felt a searing pain light up his arm as if he'd tried to flex it or something.
Yet, as he sat down, he was aware that Heather let his shirt go. Unsure if he made the right choice, he calmly waited for the others to finish whatever they were discussing.
"Wish you could tell me what was bothering you," Elmo said to Heather, since he didn't have anything else he could think of doing without leaving her there. "At least then I might be able to offer a suggestion or something that could help."
Heather didn't even show a glimmer of having heard Elmo's statement, but he did remember hearing that people in comas could still hear what people around them say, and while Elmo didn't know what kind of state Heather was in, he was pretty sure it wasn't a coma. Which meant that, while he couldn't be completely sure, he thought it was still quite possible that she could hear what he said. Especially since she'd already made a move to let him know she wanted him to remain by her.
Although, as he thought about it, it could just be because his arm was injured and had more to do with her system, but he only considered that a possibility. After all, he could at least imagine that whatever she was going through in her mind, she wanted someone there for her. Especially since people were social creatures. While they could survive for a while on their own, they needed to be around others or their mind would start to go.
"Just take your time," Elmo said after several minutes of silence between the two of them. "If you need to say something, I'll be here."
+++
Jonas sighed. He had hoped that where they were supposed to go next would be made immediately clear, but on the other hand, the announcer hadn't said that they'd completed defeating the boss, so he wasn't sure that they'd done what they were supposed to do.
Although, the others were arguing about whether or not this really was the boss of the dungeon or if it was a hidden boss or a few other suggestions that Jonas hadn't bothered to really listen to.
All he could be sure was that the troll was down for good. If this was a 'hidden' boss or something, then it should at least be worth a challenge completion, while if it was the boss of the dungeon, then they really should be hearing about it from the announcer.
In general, he thought it would be more prudent for them to look at why the announcer had, essentially, announced anything of them defeating the troll. Yet, he couldn't say that he knew what should happen. Since he still didn't know anything about this competition thing anyway.
However, listening to the arguing was giving him a headache, so he moved away and looked around. Nothing had really changed in the room when the troll was killed. Bart was still being tended by Elin, Kim was there to check on Elin, or that's what Jonas assumed she was doing over there, Elmo was sitting up next to Heather now, Heather and Sonya were still in a kind of catatonic state. Or at least that's what he assumed they were in, but he wasn't an expert on that sort of thing.
He'd merely heard about people being like that, but wasn't going to try and figure it out. He didn't have the time or energy to deal with it anyway. Though, he figured that he should help move Sonya over to Heather, so that way both of them would be in the same place and would make it easier to keep an eye on both of them. Just in case they had any changes in their condition between the two of them.
So, he walked over to Sonya and carefully picked her up, a little surprised at how light she was. Given the fact that she was an athlete, he had figured she'd probably weigh a lot more. Yet, he had no trouble carrying her. He carried her bridal style, mostly because he didn't think it would be right to carry her over his shoulder like she was a sack of potatoes and carrying her on his back would have too big of a risk or her sliding off, since she couldn't assist in keeping her in place.
Then, as he reached where Heather and Elmo were sitting, he carefully set Sonya down next to Heather.
"What're they discussing?" Elmo asked as Jonas turned to head away, partly because he couldn't think of what he could do at the moment.
Wandering around had always been something that helped clear his mind, and at the moment, he hoped that would help him figure out if they had missed something and what that might have been. At the very least, it would help him to see if maybe the way out was hidden or something. Especially since he didn't really know what the announcer really expected of them.
However, he knew he should answer Elmo's question. "They're arguing about whether this was the boss of the dungeon or not," Jonas said, suddenly feeling tired. The kind he speculated that Rip Van Winkle experienced before his years long nap.
"Why wouldn't they think this was the boss of the dungeon?" Elmo asked.
"Because the way out hasn't shown itself and the announcer hasn't said anything about it either," Jonas answered.
"But what about up there?" Elmo asked.
Jonas glanced at Elmo to see where he meant, which was up towards the ornamental piece on the ceiling that was destroyed during the fight. Jonas still didn't understand why, but figured there was likely a reason for it. Though, as he looked at it, he could see a hallway up there. Which meant that part of the challenge might be about how to get up there from where they were at.
"Well, if that's where we're supposed to go, I guess we better settle in for the night," Jonas remarked.
"Why?" Elmo looked confused, which Jonas couldn't help but find funny.
"Because I get the feeling that Elin is going to be tending to Bart until he's well enough to move around on his own, at the very least, and I'm pretty sure most of us are rather tired and don't have the strength to climb up there or whatever it'll take for us to get up there," Jonas answered, already feeling worn out just thinking about it.
"So, in the morning then?" Elmo asked.
"Yeah, in the morning," Jonas replied, starting to walk over to their allies that were still arguing. "I'll be back once I let them know about what you saw. I'm sure they'll quiet down after that."