Kim wasn't happy that they hadn't actually done anything by the time the sun went down. Since she'd been recovering from the curse for the better part of the past couple weeks, she hadn't been given a job at the inn that could occupy her time, unlike Elin and Elmo. While she could work as a bouncer, it was clear this town didn't need anything like that.
The worst that occurred was a fist fight that was over almost as soon as it began. Typically by people who were so drunk they were in as much danger of passing out on their own as they were of getting knocked out.
She tried going around trying to learn what she could about the surrounding area, but aside from the state of crops, farm animals' health, or the expected weather, she couldn't get anything useful out of anyone. The area that was especially unknown to the villagers was the direction that Kim and her group had come from. She got the sense that the spiders in there played a part in it, but mostly she got the sense that there were other reasons that no one could articulate. In addition to that, the announcement made for the evening about the competition didn't offer anything useful either.
Sighing as she sat down at the table with the rest of her group, she watched Elin working as a waitress for a minute. Elin really seemed to enjoy her job and the patrons especially seemed to enjoy her company, as brief as it was when she either took their orders or brought their drinks and occasional stew. She noticed some of the patrons tried grabbing Elin as she passed by, but she seemed to be rather adept at dodging their gropes. Part of her was annoyed at the attempts but another part was pleased at how well Elin could dodge them.
Although, she realized she'd mostly forgotten about Elin's dress being able to change color with her mood. At the moment it was a bright blue, while earlier when they were helping out Heather and Sonya, it was a pale blue.
The worst part about it was that she had no idea what the colors indicated or how to know what she was exactly feeling from the color alone. She couldn't help but wonder if it merely changed to a random color each time her emotions changed even a little. That there wasn't exactly a set color for each emotion, or maybe even combination of emotions.
Turning back to the others at the table, she asked, "So, how'd everyone's task go?"
"I'm waiting on hearing back from my contacts about what they could find out about the goblins," Jonas replied, sounding rather tired and looking like he might fall asleep before he even left the table by the end of the night.
"Hopefully they'll have better luck than I did," Sonya said, sounding tired, but not as tired as Jonas. "I couldn't find anything. But there were a lot of spider webs that kept me from being able to pass through most of the forest."
"Well, Elin and I were able to secure a few things, but mostly a handful of carrots," Heather added, sounding a little discouraged. "I go the feeling most of what they grow here is either already sold to so someone else basically, or that they just don't have anything available to sell at the moment."
"Wouldn't hurt to keep looking," Jonas commented. "Maybe something will come up later, but carrots are still good."
"Yeah, but these are just white. Not like the ones I've seen before," Heather said.
"Well, I've heard that carrots were originally white, but don't really know the details," Sonya replied. "Of course, there could be different reasons of why that is if we're from different worlds."
"If we are from different worlds, then I wouldn't mind if I ended up not being able to go back to mine," Heather said, although it sounded like she was thinking to herself to Kim.
Kim couldn't help but smirk at the subtext of what Heather said. She couldn't help but wonder what the two might do if given enough time around each other. Would they end up developing feelings for each other or just become best friends? With what Heather had said about her past, she couldn't rule out either possibility.
"How'd your search for armor go?" Jonas asked Kim, reminding Kim of what she had been supposed to have been doing with her day.
She merely shook her head. "The only metal worker they have in the village is too busy working on farming tools and things like that. He doesn't have any room to teach someone what he does, other than his daughter, so he can't hire me," Kim sighed. If they had a more definite timeline, she'd be able to at least entertain the thought of heading to another town, village, or even city to see if she could get something like that.
"Hopefully my contact will be able to give us more information about when the goblins might start coming here," Jonas said in response. "If it's not going to be for a while, then maybe we could look at ordering some armor or something. Might be more expensive, but as long as we can get it, then that's what matters."
"Or we can hope that a goblin we beat is wearing a suit of armor that would fit me perfectly," Kim retorted. "I don't care about 'what ifs.' I only care about what is present at the moment. If I don't have it with me, I can't count on it when I need it. So, unless we know for sure about something, I don't care what can be done if things work out perfectly for us."
"Are you okay?" Sonya asked Kim.
"I'm fine," Kim answered calmly. "I just don't like hearing about 'possibilities' rather than what is." Kim then sighed, maybe she needed to get some rest, as she felt rather worked up at the moment. "It's just that if you merely hope for things to work out for you, what'll you do if the don't? In the world where I'm from, if I do that on one of my jobs the worst that can happen is that I mess up and lose some money, but here, if that happens, one of us could die." Kim then looked at everyone at the table. "Are any of you willing to risk that?"
Jonas was the only one willing to meet her gaze although, he didn't say anything. He merely looked at her, like he knew exactly what she meant, but had a different opinion on the matter.
"What about that don't you agree with, Jonas?" Kim asked, more to get it out of the way rather than because she really wanted to know.
"Well, it's more that things are always going to happen that you don't expect. Even if you have something with you, like say your sword, it won't matter if you can't use it. So, refusing to consider possibilities can get us killed just as easily," Jonas answered.
Kim sighed. Even though she didn't care for that line of thinking, she couldn't argue with that. She especially did her best to not think of things that could go wrong, as she tended then to focus on that, as opposed to what she needed to be doing.
"Maybe we should discuss this in the morning?" Heather asked, drawing Kim's attention to her, where she noticed Heather looking rather nervous.
"You okay?" Kim asked.
"Y-yeah," Heather replied. "Everything's fine."
Kim looked at her levelly, not buying it, but didn't fee like pressing the issue. "Well, you can go to bed if you want," Kim replied. "I'll wait for Elin to finish her shift."
"Mind if I keep you company?" Jonas asked as Heather and Sonya left for the stairs, causing Kim to scowl at him. She'd wished that he'd have gone with Heather and Sonya.
"I'm not in charge of you," Kim remarked, doing her best to act indifferent towards his presence. At the moment she would rather him not be there, but couldn't think of a reason why he had to go.
Rather than saying anything, Jonas merely nodded. They ast that way for a while, before Kim felt herself starting to relax a little. While she would rather wait for Elin by herself at the moment, as long as Jonas wasn't talking to her, she could tolerate his presence.
She assumed she dozed off while waiting, because when she next opened her eyes, she saw both Elin and Elmo present at the table. Which startled her a little because she knew that Elmo finished a lot earlier than Elin did. Vaguely she noted that Elin's dress was dark rose.
"Glad to see you awake," Elin greeted her.
"If you can't get any armor, you can use the brown shirt until we get more," Elmo offered.
"Thanks, but I'd rather not," Kim replied as politely as she could. Just the idea of wearing the shirt after a man had been wearing it disgusted her. "Thanks for the offer, though."
"Why not?" Elmo asked, looked a little surprised, confused, and hurt.
Kim sighed. This kid was making this much more difficult than it really needed to be. "Well, there's the part where if I took it, then you'd be more vulnerable, and as a mage, that can be a problem if they target you. Then there's the point that if I do get some armor later on, if we split up, it'll be harder for me to return it to you if I do find some armor," Kim answered, happy that she was able to come up with something that sounded rather reasonable.
Elmo sighed. "Don't worry about it, kid," Jonas said. "Who knows where we might be able to get some armor for Kim. She might even find some herself without even trying at some point."
"Getting a little free with your 'possibilities' talk," Kim warned quietly.
"You want to cheer him up?" Jonas asked, just as quietly.
Kim didn't have a response to that, so e she just stayed quiet. Partly because she wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone. Except maybe Elin, if Elin wanted to bother her.
"Well, we might as well head upstairs," Jonas remarked after a minute of quiet at their table. "Regardless of what tomorrow brings, we don't be any good if we're too tired."
Kim couldn't argue with that either, so she merely nodded and got up, Elin coming over to wrap her arms around Kim as they headed towards the stairs. Kim glanced at Elin and wondered if Elin was wanting to have fun with her like in the secret room. If so, she just hoped that they were able to keep it down so Heather and Sonya wouldn't wake up from it or that they were just heavy sleepers.