Elmo didn't mind being invited to talk with Heather and Sonya, though it did feel awkward in the fact that he hadn't really had much interaction with them directly. After all, the was the time when Heather had started healing him, then after she froze, and went back under the status condition they hadn't been aware of, she then seemed to show some signs of awareness as she kept him from leaving her alone.
Not that he had any idea of what that was about. Partly because he hadn't asked about it and partly because they didn't really talk to each other. They did share pleasantries, such as 'good morning' and 'good night' but that's hardly talking. He didn't know them, just as they didn't know him. While he would like to know more about them, he couldn't help but find himself unable to really talk to them.
It wasn't like it was with Jonas, where he found himself flustered about what Jonas would think of him with what he said and how he said it, in addition to what he was talking about. It was more like he couldn't think of anything to say. Almost like his mind went blank and nothing sounded like it was interesting at all. Even to him. Even when it was about something he wanted to know about them.
So, in the end, he hardly said anything to them and let things go. He even couldn't be sure if they would be interested in having him present as they caught up with what happened with Elin. Maybe it was how Elin viewed friends, but Elmo had always been at arms length with the friends he'd had in his own world. He couldn't be sure if it was because of an unspoken agreement, if his friends kept him at arms length or if he was the one who kept them at a distance. He couldn't say that he was good at reading social norms, so he couldn't trulyl be sure which it was in general. Not that it mattered or helped him in this case.
He merely sat quietly as he waited with Elin. It looked like SHeather was getting along in her pregnancy and Sonya was rather lively, though it looked to Elmo that Sonya was more concerned about Heather's condition than even Heather was.
While Elmo recalled that Elin took care of serving the entire room, it looked like Sonya was going twice as fast as Elin had and that was to cover about two thirds of the customers. Heather didn't look too happy about it at times, but she didn't say anything about it. It looked like they had some sort of arrangement, but since he wasn't there when it was made, he couldn't be sure what it entailed.
Then as the customers began leaving, mostly here and there, leaving more of the room unoccupied, Heather came over to sit next to Elin while Sonya took care of the remaining customers.
"What happened in the dungeon?" Heather asked. "We heard the announcement, but that was three days ago!"
"We took so long to get back because, one, the goblins had captured some other girls, like they had you and Sonya," Elin answered, "and because after we closed the portal, we were just worn out. Though, we might have taken longer to get back if Patrick and Patricia hadn't also come to clear the challenge, but we met them on our way out, so they didn't get a chance to help complete it."
Heather chuckled. ""I bet they weren't too happy with it."
"No, they weren't happy, but they weren't upset either. I think that they wanted to complete the challenge, but also didn't want to deal with the goblins as much," Elin said. "It was also nice of them to keep watch for us when we slept at night. If they hadn't then we probably would have had to travel even slower."
"So, you said you guys were worn out, but how did you wear yourselves out? Weren't the goblins easy to beat?" Heather asked, looking to Elmo like she was merely catching up on her favorite show or something.
"Well, first the night before we left, I didn't sleep very well, so when we entered the dungeon, I was falling behind," Elin explained, looking like she just tasted something very unpleasant. "Then it got too dark to move on, but I was on the stairs in the room we fought that giant troll in."
"Yeah, I remember the fight, but stairs? I don't remember seeing any there," Heather commented.
"Oh, right. You and Sonya weren't really conscious of when that happened," Elin recalled. "Well, in that room, the morning after we killed the troll, stairs come up from the ground, which led to the exit of the dungeon."
"Okay, I got it."
"So, I sat on the stairs because I knew that I couldn't go forward until I had some light and dozed off for a bit, but I was woken up when I heard a noise of some kind. I didn't know what it was, but then some goblins lit a torch and walked over to a hole in the floor that hadn't been there before."
"Did they see you?"
Elin suddenly looked sheepish to Elmo and he wasn't sure why. He also wasn't sure how much of this actually happened and how much might have just been a bad dream.
"Oh, they saw me after I used my magic to knock two of them into the hole," Elin said, looking like she'd rather just gloss over this. "Then I beat the other three and took their torch, but as I walked by the hole, I looked down in it and saw Jonas."
"Wow. Did he say anything about that later?"
Elin shook her head. "No, I didn't ask him either. I just enhanced my strength and hopped down the hole and picked him up before I jumped us out of it," Elin said casually, as if that sort of thing happened all the time.
"How deep was the hole?" Heather asked, looking a little skeptical herself.
"Uh, I think maybe about as tall as the wall on the outside of the inn?" Elin asked, looking like she hadn't thought to pay attention to that.
"And you expect me to believe you jumped that high, oh, and carrying Jonas as well?" Heather demanded incredulously.
"Huh? What are talking about?" Sonya asked, as she came up. "Who jumped how high?"
"Elin said that she jumped out of a pit trap that was about twenty feet or so deep," Heather complained to Sonya. "Oh, and while carrying Jonas with her."
"I said I had enhanced my strength," Elin protested weakly.
"How much did it get enhanced then?" Heather asked calmly, as she tapped Heather on the shoulder.
Heather glanced at Sonya with a smile on her face, almost looking like she was anticipating something from that, before getting up a little from the chair. Just enough for Sonya to sit down before Heather sat on her lap.
"Wait, are you two dating?" Elmo blurted out, before he could stop himself.
The two girls looked at Elmo as if they'd just noticed he was there. "Well, not really," Sonya said, as she wrapped her arms around Heather. "We haven't decided yet."
Elmo struggled to not roll his eyes. The way the two were sitting, it was clear they were going out. Maybe they hadn't decided to be 'official' about it, but in Elmo's experience that's really all the difference there was. Which really was a hair's difference between the two.
Not that it really mattered to him. He hadn't meant to say anything, it just came out without warning. He also felt like they weren't happy with him for having said anything, so he resolved to stay quiet from there on.
"Anyway," Elin continued, drawing attention back to her story, "after that, I took Jonas and the torch down the hallway and before we got to the next room, I met up with Kim and Elmo. After that, we were going to rest the rest of the night, but then some goblins started to come towards us and would have discovered us, so we had to fight them."
"So, you guys wiped them out, right?" Sonya interrupted, her expression more excited than Elmo would have guessed.
Elin, however, shifter her gaze to the table as she continued. "No, one escaped, so we tried to get out of there, but when we were nearly across the next room, the goblins come out from the stairs and saw us. So, Kim and Jonas took the front while Elmo and I were on the rear line. The goblins just kept coming and coming." Elin paused as she took a breath. "It was like an ocean of them and we tried holding it back, but eventually we had to run."
"Where'd that many goblins come from?" Heather asked, her eyes like saucers.
"The portal," Elin commented.
"How many were left when you guys had to run?" Sonya asked.
"I'm not sure, It was large enough that it still filled the room with them, but at that time I was working with Elmo and Jonas to get Kim out of there," Elin said, her expression turning rather troubled.
"What happened then?" Heather asked, leaning against Sonya and resting her head on Sonya's shoulder as the woman wrapped an arm around Heather, letting her hand rest on Heather's shoulder.
"Elmo and I carried Kim while Jonas struggled to keep up," Elin replied. "Then we cane to a fork in the hallway and Elmo used his Brimstone Fire spell to mask our scent so any pursuit wouldn't find us so quickly."
"Did it work?" Heather breathed.
"I think so," Elin answered. "Though, after I went to sleep, Kim and Jonas had started to run before I woke up. Kim was carrying me and Jonas was carrying Elmo."