As Kim was removing her armor for the night, she couldn't help but notice how nervous Elin seemed to be. It had taken some coaxing to get Elin to take her MP restoring dress off, but even then she seemed rather on edge.
Kim was concerned that if she didn't get Elin to calm down, their nightly activities together in bed might be impossible to engage in. Primarily because Elin would either be distracted or wouldn't be able to get in the rhythm of it. Both of which would certainly make it less enjoyable for Kim herself.
"What's eating you?" Kim asked, not sure if she should be the one pressing the matter, but unable to think of how else to handle the situation at the moment.
"Didn't you think there was something… not tirght with Aquis?" Elin asked.
Kim nodded. "Yeah, but unless he shows himself an enemy directly, then there's nothing I'd care to do about him," Kim replied as she finished taking off the plate armor.
"So, you're okay with him trying to deceive us?" Elin asked, looking rather horrified.
Kim sighed as she started on the leather armor. "Look, from what little I know about dragons, I can't be sure anything the dragon said was trustworthy, but he did know more about the competition than we told anyone, so he has that going in his favor."
"But what about-" Elin started to say, but Kim quickly interrupted her.
"It doesn't matter. As long as Aquis isn't going to attack us, then we don't need to create more problems for us. While most mythologies involving dragons that I'm aware of show them as hostile towards people, if this dragon isn't going to attack us, then I don't see a reason to try and make him. We already have enough problems with trying to find this fire dragon in the first place. Why should we add more to the problem?"
Elin was quiet for a minute, and when Kim turned to look at her, she realized she'd screwed up. She wasn't sure how, but the pained expression on Elin's face said that her words had her her lover.
"I'm sorry if I said something that hurt you," Kim said pausing in taking the leather armor off, hoping her words wouldn't chase Elin away. Even if they weren't able to have sex, she at least would like to have Elin's body against hers as they slept. "Would you at least be willing to tell me why you think that we should do something about Aquis?"
Elin glared at Kim. "Are you going to interrupt me again?"
Kim wasn't sure why, but it almost felt like she was dealing with a spoiled child. Not that she was surprised, seeing as how it hadn't been too long ago that Elin had been away from her father's house, and the sheltered life she'd lived there. At the most, it'd barely been two months, so she didn't see a reason why Elin would have matured much in that period. Even though she had shown significant growth in her knowledge, she still had many ideas that Kim hadn't been able to get Elin to let go of.
Nor did she really think that she should. Part of Elin's charm was her naiveté, her innocence about the way the world worked. If Elin lost that, Kim wasn't sure if she'd still be the same person. Which is something she loved about Elin, even though she couldn't really explain why.
"I'll try," Kim admitted. Arguing with Elin wasn't her favorite pastime, but she did admit that there were times when she should let the girl say her own piece, even if she didn't agree with what she was hearing. If only for the sake of peace between both of them.
Elin took a deep breath. Then as Kim started to continue removing her leather armor, Elin said, "The problem is I don't think Aquis was telling us anything that would help us. I can't say why, but it felt like he was making up most of what he'd said about fire dragons."
When Elin stopped talking, Kim stayed quiet, not sure if Elin needed some times to gather her thoughts or if that's all she had to say, but when the silence continued, Kim asked, "Is that it?" Or is there something else?"
Elin walked over to Kim as she finished taking the leather armor off, leaving her completely bare. "It feels like Aquis is planning something. I can't say why I feel this way, but I can't shake it. I wasn't even sure if that's what I was feeling until we got back here."
Kim pulled Elin into her arms, part of her mind reveling in the skin to skin contact. "Whatever Aquis is planning, I assure you, we'll meet it head on together, okay?"
As Elin looked away from Kim, Kim smiled as she used the fingers from her right hand to push Elin's face to look at her, while keeping Elin held in place with her left arm. "Whatever happens, you're still my gem. That's not going to change."
Elin looked like she didn't want to smile, but her lips made a smile anyway. Watching the struggle play out on Elin's face made Kim chuckle. She couldn't help but find Elin adorable when she wanted to stay mad but couldn't. Especially when she knew how to make Elin's face go completely red.
"Want to learn more about what you'd overheard from the servants when you eavesdropped on them?" Kim whispered seductively, enjoying how embarrassed Elin got at just the mention of those conversations she'd overheard now.
If Elin wanted her to stop bringing those up, Kim would be fine with it, but she could tell that Elin still had many questions about those conversations. Which only made it more enjoyable for Kim to be the one who 'taught' her about that sort of thing. Even though most of Elin's questions were merely variations of questions that Kim had already answered.
Not that Kim didn't enjoy 'answering' the same question multiple times. She just couldn't help but wonder when Elin might run out of questions. She doubted that they'd cease their 'night-time fun' in that case, but she suspected that she wouldn't be able to tease Elin as much about it when that happened.
+++
Kim was comfortable in Elin's arms after their lovemaking. She couldn't think of anywhere else on this world that she'd rather be at that particular moment. Elin had already fallen asleep and Kim couldn't help but wonder if there was some kind of magic spell or something that would let both of them have a child together if things didn't work out and they were stuck on this world after the competition was over.
She didn't plan on it ending like that, but at the same time, she had to be realistic. She couldn't predict the future, and she certainly wasn't going to try. As far as she knew, she might not even survive. Yet, if she found herself in a situation where she knew she was going to die, she would want to make as certain as she could that Elin would survive somehow.
Not that she could guarantee that she'd be able to do something like that. Just that she knew that's what she would want to happen if events took that kind of a turn.
Pressing her face against Elin's head as she took a deep breath, inhaling Elin's scent as much as she could, or as much as her nose would register of it. Since she didn't know if something like that might happen in the next day or in however long they still might have left until the competition was over, she couldn't help but want to try her best to memorize everything about Elin, even if it was just the way she smelled at this particular moment.
If she was the same as she was when she'd first entered this world, she was confident that she'd be mocking herself about this. That she'd allowed someone to get this close to her emotionally, even though she was aware that she'd wanted something like this, even then. She just hadn't been able to allow herself to open up to anyone like she had with Elin.
Although, on the other hand, it wasn't like she'd had people who were anyway like Elin she'd known before coming here. Even removing the sheltered naiveté, she couldn't think of anyone she'd known who was like Elin. No one who wasn't calculating for their own advancement or didn't have their own agenda in starting the relationship.
Although, as she thought about it, she couldn't imagine that everyone could be like that and started to wonder if she'd maybe been seeing things that weren't there with people. Just because she had become jaded over something she couldn't even remember.
Assuming it stemmed from one thing, at least.
As far as she knew, how guarded she'd become had been due to feeling alone for so long. To the point where she had started resisting letting anyone get close to her. Where she'd make sure that no one got close enough that they could hurt her.
Kim closed her eyes, her breathing evening out as she started to fall asleep. At this moment, the world was perfect and she just wanted to lay there with Elin. Sleeping next to the woman that she wasn't sure if she'd be willing to stay in this world after this competition was over, just to be with her.
Or even if Elin would feel the same way.
Kim wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to that either. She was merely content to let things lay as they were. Because if she asked Elin, she couldn't help but worry that Elin might take it a different way than she intended and that what they had would fall apart in front of her eyes.
What sounded like a loud clap of thunder startled her out of her peaceful haze. Kim wasn't sure what it was, but she had a feeling that it wasn't actual thunder. She wasn't sure what it was, just that she had to find out what had caused that noise, regardless of how she'd rather try getting back to being as relaxed as she had bee.
Even Elin was woken up by that, and Kim raced over to first pull on her leather armor as fast as she could before throwing on her plate mail.
"What's going on?" Elin asked, clutching their blanket to her body.
"I'll let you know," Kim assured her. "Though, if you get dressed, you can find out sooner as well."
Kim wasn't sure if Elin should come out herself, but she didn't think that it would hurt. After all, until she knew what had caused that sound, she couldn't be sure that even staying in this tent would be a safe course of action.