Kim was bored. While she had wanted to find something more than just the forest, and the buildings had promised they were near some kind of civilization, she was getting the feeling that this was going to me a lot more rustic than she'd like. Judging from the fbuildings in the village or town or whatever, it was clear to her that they were either in a medieval time period of some kind of fantasy adventure world.
Which meant that there wasn't anything technological that would interest her. If they'd arrived in a victorian era, or even a 1920s time period, she was sure she'd enjoy the sights and maybe even get to see Elin in a flapper girl outfit or whatever costume that came to her mind that she might see.
Yet, she couldn't think of anything that would interest her in a world like this. Not only that, but she was quite sure it would be completely full of patriarchal bull that she'd likely have to wade neck deep through.
"Anyone have any idea what any of these buildings are?" Kim asked, feeling like the buildings all looked the same, which couldn't be right, since no village would ever survive with buildings that were all identical and served the same function.
It didn't help that she was starting to itch pretty much everywhere. She couldn't figure out why, but would like to get somewhere where she could maybe take a bath, or a bird bath if necessary, and maybe rinse off whatever it was that was making her itch.
"I'll go ask someone," Jonas said. "Worst case, we'll find out that we can't communicate easily with them."
Kim wished this was easier. She was already getting fed up with all that was going on. Although, that just might be her being tired. She wasn't sure. Although, she suddenly realized there was something wrong with her.
Her head felt hot and her surroundings felt like they were blending together. "I'm not feeling so good," Kim muttered as she felt the ground rise up to meet her.
Vaguely she was aware of two figures hovering over her, saying something that she couldn't make out. Whatever they were saying, it felt like it was muffled to the point where it sounded like she was litstening to sound tones rather than attempts at speech.
She could still feel Sonya in her arms but couldn't say for sure if the ground rising up to her level might have hurt to girl. Although, she wouldn't mind if she was able to be in more physical contact with her. Which she could just imagine, but at the same time, she knew that Elin wouldn't be happy with that, unless they could get Sonya to agree to doing both of them together.
Kim felt herself chuckling at the idea. Why she found it so funny, she couldn't say. She just knew that the world was darkening around her and the figures around her looked like they were spinning. Not that she could figure out how.
+++
Elin was struggling to keep it together. She'd already cast Assess on Kim and nothing was coming up. Though, she'd tried Treat and nothing happened. She wasn't sure what else to do, but she felt they needed to do something or Kim might be in trouble.
"Stay calm, Elin," Elmo urged. "If we lose it, then Kim's in bigger trouble."
Elin whirled on Elmo. "What do you mean? How would she be in bigger trouble?"
"Because if we don't keep it together, then she's not going to have anyone trying to help her," Elmo replied calmly. "If we stay calm, then she'll at least have two people who can take care of her, if nothing else."
Elin reached down and felt Kim's forehead for lack of anything else to do, but quickly snatched her hand back in surprise. She hadn't expected Kim's forehead to be so hot. It was almost like Kim had a furnace blazing in her head.
"Could she have gotten sick?" Elin asked.
"I really don't know," Elmo answered, looking helpless. "I've never studied anything like this, so I really have no idea if it would be from some illness or anything."
"Do you think Jonas might know?" Elin asked, feeling her heart beat faster as she felt herself starting to get swallowed up in panic.
"Maybe, but I can't really say," Elmo said. "But maybe we should go see if we can find him."
"Would you stay with Kim and Sonya?" Elin asked. "I'll see if I can find him."
Elmo nodded and Elin started running in the direction she'd seen Jonas leave in. She ran over to where she'd seen him turn a corner and stopped because she couldn't see him after that.
So, she returned to where Elmo was with Kim and knelt next to Kim, taking Kim's hand in hers, not sure what else she could do at the moment. Even though a part of her was aware that Kim might die before the end of the competition, she didn't want to see Kim die this way. If she had to die, she needed to be out in combat. Kim had the fighter system, so she needed to be fighting rather than just laying there.
"Elin, she'll be okay, I promise," Elin heard Elmo say to her, but then she turned to look at him, all she saw was a big blur. Which was the first sign to her that she'd started to cry.
Elin looked back at the blur that was her lover and felt herself breaking down. Not only was she somewhere unfamiliar, but now the woman she felt would have been able to protect herself in any combat situation Yet, here she was on the ground an neither of them had any idea what might be the problem.
She couldn't say how long they'd remained like that with her tears falling slowly down her face and onto , but she nearly jumped out of her skin as she felt someone's hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see a blurry figure that she was pretty sure wasn't Elmo, since she was fairly sure that Elmo was the burry figure on her other side.
"What happened?" Jonas asked quietly, making Elin feel some comfort that he was back.
"We really don't know," Elmo said, "She just collapsed after saying something about her not feeling good."
"She's really burning up," Elin added, her voice breaking from her swirling emotions, "and I couldn't find anything wrong with her with my assess spell and my treat spell didn't do anything."
"Okay, well, I have some good news," Jonas said, making Elin hope that Jonas knew what was wrong with Kim and knew how to get Kim to being the way she had been, yet his next words felt like a pail of ice cold water being poured on top of her. "I was able to talk with some of the people in this village. Either our systems let us to talk with other intelligent creatures, or the people here already know the language I was talking to them in, at least."
Elin sighed. She wasn't sure she cared to leave Kim in anyone else's care. Yet, she was sure that se was going to have to do just that. After all, even if nothing major happened, she still knew that she would have to let anyone who knew what was wrong with Kim treat her themselves. Though, she couldn't help but feel like she should know what to do, regardless.
"So, were you able to get a place we can stay?" Elmo asked.
"What? Kim was in charge of that," Jonas replied.
"But she can't, we need a place to take her to now!" Elin replied, feeling scared that Kim wouldn't get better. Though, she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, which only were replaced by more tears moments later.
"I see that," Jonas replied absently and sighed. Then after a moment, he patted Elin's shoulder. "I'll see what I can find. I'll also see if I can get some help carrying Kim to wherever I'm able to get us shelter. I really don't think you'll be able to carry Kim, even if both of you work together."
"Thanks a lot," Elmo retorted.
"Hey, I'm just calling them like I see them. Both of you are mages, so building your Str wasn't that important, so I doubt you have much for your Str," Jonas merely replied.
"Please hurry," Elin pleaded, hoping that whatever was wrong with Kim could still be fixed.
"Don't worry, Elin," Elmo assured her. "I'm sure whatever this is will turn out to be a common bug that goes around from time to time."
"Bug?" Elin asked. "You think it's bugs?"
"Uh," Elmo hesitated and Elin wondered if maybe he tried using an expression from his world that didn't translate to hers. "Where I come from the word 'bug' can be used to describe if someone got sick. Not sure how it came to be used that way, but it is."
Elin nodded, taking Kim's hand in hers. While Kim's head was hot, her hand was cold. Not quite ice cold, but so much colder than she'd ever felt with Kim. Her hands had always been warm and Elin hoped that whatever this was would go away and bring back the warm hands that she liked so much about Kim.