When Elin opened her eyes, at first she thought the storm was still going strong. The darkness around her and Kim was all encompassing and felt like it wanted to swallow them both whole.
However, a moment later she realized just how quiet it was. She couldn't help but enjoy the warmth from Kim's body, but at the same time, she felt compelled to look outside to make sure that she hadn't merely lost her hearing.
The only problem with that notion was she couldn't remember which way led to the entrance. Assuming she was still in the same position as when she'd 'settled in' with Kim.
Since she couldn't recall which way would be the exit, Elin merely did her best to burrow further into Kim's warmth. If she wasn't able to verify if it really wasn't raining anymore, at the very least she could enjoy more of Kim's warmth. Warmth that still felt as intoxicating as Kim's scent.
Elin couldn't say if her doing that is what had woken Kim up or if Kim had already been awake, but she could feel Kim moving in response. Though, Kim didn't say anything. Or if she did, it was because Elin's hearing wasn't working. Which meant that it still could be raining as well.
Although, she thought she could hear the dripping of water somewhere nearby anyway.
If she couldn't hear at the moment, she wasn't sure if that would affect how she was able to continue with Kim, but at the moment she really didn't care. She found that she enjoyed pretending she couldn't hear and ignored the sounds of Kim's breathing.
Elin wasn't sure how much time passed as she enjoyed the feeling of her body pressed against Kim's. Yet, eventually, Kim began disentangling herself from Elin, much to her dismay.
"Just a little longer," Elin begged, doing her best to hold onto Kim.
"We really should get dressed," Kim replied softly, stroking Elin's head.
"Why? Isn't it just us?"
"I can't be sure, but I think I heard voices from further into the cave," Kim answered. "I just want to be safe in case there are others here."
Elin didn't like it, but she couldn't argue. She didn't know what Kim might have heard or didn't hear, but she at least trusted that Kim wouldn't lead her wrong. Not when it came to something like this. Although, she had to acknowledge as well that she didn't like when they had to separate from each other like this.
She wished that she could stay with Kim like that all the time, but she knew reality didn't quite work that way. Especially how often she wasn't even able to spend the night with Kim like that.
So, Elin reluctantly let Kim pull away and started searching around for their discarded clothing. Elin could hear Kim moving around, but didn't move herself. She couldn't remember where she'd tossed her own clothing, so she couldn't bring herself to start looking herself.
Though, as Kim was picking up their clothing, Elin could hear, more than see, Kim wringing any remaining water in them. There wasn't a whole lot of water, but Elin could hear a few drops come out. Enough at least for it to make a sound.
Then before she knew what was happening, Elin felt clothing being tossed at her, hitting her in the face.
"Get dressed. It'll probably start getting light out soon," Kim informed her.
Elin sighed as she sorted out which piece of clothing was which. She put her clothing on, a little unhappy with how cold they were, though, with how they were still damp, she wasn't that surprised about that point. Yet, her clothing warmed up quickly enough, even though she was less than pleased at whoever owned the voices that Kim had heard the night before. As if it wasn't for them, she probably would have been able to stay in Kim's embrace at least until the sun came up and they had enough light to see their surroundings, if nothing else.
Yet, even though Elin couldn't be sure just how long she'd been awake, she did notice that she was starting to be able to make out shapes in the darkness. It was subtle, but it was somehow comforting to her. She was able to make out Kim's silhouette in the darkness, when suddenly she could start making out a little amount of color. Mostly gray, but it was a start.
Elin looked around and could see that she was able to make out a lightening sky at one side of the cave they were in. The cave mostly was of a grayish stone, but there were flecks of other colors here and there. Which made Elin wonder if this was still part of the canyon, since that stone had been more of a mixture of brown and tan stone.
She wasn't an expert, but it still somehow felt like something was wrong here. While all the stone had the same quality that made it feel like it had a crystalline element in its makeup, the color discrepancy was a little too much for Elin, though she wasn't sure if she'd be able to explain why she found it so troubling to Kim. Especially since she couldn't say if that's just the way stone was or not.
"Good morning contestants!" the announcer's voice suddenly said, startling Elin. "Normally we wait for this announcement, but we've had some problems during this night that we needed to address. Apparently, one or more of our viewers has attempted to interfere with the competition. Whether they were trying to help or hurt the contestant isn't clear. What we can verify is that they nearly disqualified the contestant through making their system inoperable.
"Which, if that happened, we'd have to send all remaining contestants back to their own worlds and this show would be cancelled, the systems given to the contestants would be revoked, and all completed challenges would be nullified. In addition, all official bets on any aspect of the contest that hadn't already been settled.
"To keep that from happening again, we'll be setting up measures that we will not disclose to keep outside influence out of the game and identify those who do manage to somehow bypass the said measures.
"In other news, Frank Winchester, Stanley Clinton, Harold Carson, and Thomas Walker have managed to befriend a Blynx, a subset of the cat-sith. As a result, they have been awarded challenge completion in addition to whatever their new friend will do for them. What that might affect, we'll just have to wait and see. Also, the highlights of that occasion will not be shown to our viewers because of the attempt to interfere in the competition.
"Other than that, we hope that the fire dragon challenge will complete soon so we can move on to what waits our contestants next!"
Elin looked at Kim as the announcer's voice echoed in her head, not sure what to make of most of what had been said. Kim didn't look her way, but it was too dark to see if the announcement bothered her any. Elin hoped that it didn't.
Elin thought about to ask Kim if she was as bothered by the announcement as she herself was, even though she wasn't sure if she should be or not. As it wasn't anything that significant. At least not to her, or that she could tell. She felt like she should, but she still hesitated. Partly because if Kim wasn't bothered by it, she didn't want Kim to think that she was trying to create problems where there weren't any.
Yet, as she opened her mouth to say something, she suddenly heard groaning in the cave, farther where the dark was still as thick as before. Elin saw Kim's head turn towards that part of the cave and her hand moved to her sword that was somehow already at her waist. Elin couldn't be sure if this was a good thing or not, but she quickly moved to be behind Kim. Partly for the protection Kim would give her, but also partly to be in a better position to support Kim if it was necessary.
Elin didn't hear anything else from where the sound had come from, but she wondered if it was another contestant or a threat to them. She felt like it was significant, even though she couldn't say why that was. All she knew was that whoever it was, was a potential enemy.
"Whoever you are, come over here slowly and we won't hurt you," Kim called out. "We were taking shelter from the storm last night, so we'll be only here until it gets light enough to move. If this is your home, we're sorry for having barged in here like that."
Silence answered Kim's statement, though Elin couldn't say that she was really that surprised. She wouldn't be surprised if whoever it was hadn't realized that they were there in the first place. So, when a familiar voice called back, Elin was completely caught off guard.
"Kim?" Jonas called out. "When'd you get here?"