While she didn't have any strength to move, she still had enough to listen. In regards to eating, Elin seemed willing to feed her, but there was something different that she couldn't quite put her finger on. Like she seemed distracted as she helped Kim eat, by bringing the steak that had been made to her mouth so she could chew the bites.
Even the color of Elin's dress of mauve wasn't any more helpful than any of the other colors it had turned, supposedly a reflection of how she was feeling. Which was difficult to work with, since there wasn't a manual about which colors meant which emotions.
"So, did all of you encounter the fire dragon at the same time?" Jonas asked as they were finishing with the dinner.
Owen shook his head. "Not really. It was Patricia and Patrick who had encountered it first. Then after they escaped, it met up with my group, but eventually it fled itself. My guess is that if it didn't realize it could have done that in the first place, it at least learned it could when Patricia and Patrick did just that on their encounter."
"Hey, don't blame us because you guys left it an opening. That's what Patrick and I used when we could tell we were getting overwhelmed," Patricia protested.
"Doesn't really matter," Bart chimed in. "It still managed to get away when we all fought it the next time after that."
"Whose side are you on, kid?" Owen asked, laughing.
"If you don't want to face the facts, that's your problem," Bart retorted. "I don't live in a world of fantasy where I can't handle facts and essentially call anything that I don't like a lie."
"I don't do that," Owen protested himself.
Bart shrugged. "Maybe not directly, but I've heard plenty of politician's do just that without saying it directly." Barth paused for a moment before adding, "It's rather annoying to be honest."
"Well, if we have that settled," Patrick chimed in, "should we start out telling them about all the encounters with the fire dragon as well as all the details about how we finally beat it?"
"Might as well," Elwin said, startling everyone. He hadn't spoken at all since they had settled in to have dinner. Kim had even started to forget he was even there with how quiet he'd been. "Though, it probably should be either Patrick or Patricia to start out the tale, since they were the ones who first encountered the fire dragon."
"Makes sense," Own remarked. "Though, if they're not interested, I could just tap into their memories and see what happened and regale you with the tale that way."
"Hard pass," Patricia replied immediately. "I'm not going to agree to that, and I've already let you know that."
"It doesn't sound too pleasant to me, either," Patrick added.
"You're no fun!" Owen stated, laughing.
"Fighting the fire dragon wasn't any fun," Bart said, making Kim wonder how much therapy the kid was going to need if he survived this contest.
"No need to be so serious, kid!" Patrick said, shaking Bart's shoulder. "You're a kid. You should be more carefree and unreliable, like any teen."
Bart looked at Patrick out of the corner of his eye. "You don't know me very well, do you?" he asked, an undertone of a threat in his voice.
"You're still a typical kid," Patrick answered. "You can't be any different from the teens I've had to deal with that live near my apartment."
"Do you know how much weight I'd need if I put my staff under your foot while you're fighting and used my staff as a lever to put you off balance?" Bart asked, making Kim wonder just how advanced this kid was.
She'd already accepted that he was very smart. It was just that she'd thought he was at the top of his class, but not any more advanced than whatever grade others his age was in. However, now she was wondering if maybe he was either in an advanced grade, if he attended an advance school for people who were incredibly smart, or if his grade level for his age would be that much more advanced on his world than it would be on hers.
"Not enough if I merely moved my foot if you tried to pull something like that," Patrick retorted. "I mean, it wouldn't be that difficult in the first place."
"Whose to say that it has to be directly under your foot?" Bart asked. "Why not just under whatever you're standing on."
"If that's the case, then how much weight you'd need would depend one whatever it was he was standing on as well as whatever it was made of," Patricia said, sounding a little annoyed. Then, she added in a sharper tone, "Both of you need to try and get along more. Otherwise we might take your weapons away from you and throw both of you in a room until you start getting along."
"Should we do that anyway?" Owen asked. "It might be worth it to get it over with sooner rather than later."
"I'll be good," Bart quickly promised.
Kim couldn't help but chuckle. She didn't know why, but the exchange seemed rather familiar. Almost like a memory that was tickling the edges of her conscious awareness.
Then suddenly Kim remembered something. Not anything that they had been talking about, but something she'd forgotten that she had told herself several times she needed to remember to do when she encountered Patricia and Patrick again.
"By the way, not to change the subject, but we came across where you fought the dragon in that canyon," Kim remarked. "We also brought the pack we're pretty sure is either yours or Patrick's."
"Really?" Patricia asked, sounding rather surprised. "I'd been wondering what happened to it."
Kim merely shrugged. "Well, if nothing else, we have it somewhere with our stuff, I think."
"We can get to it later," she replied.
"Though, as I think about it, you never did go look for Owen and Patrick earlier like you said you would. You just went over to Elwin and then to this camp and waited for them to return," Kim said, suddenly recalling something Patricia had offered when they had arrived in this valley.
"Hey, just because I offer to do something, doesn't mean that I'll be following through with it if I didn't promise I'd do that," she said, sounding rather flippant to Kim. "Besides, shouldn't we start on with the story time now? You know, about the fire dragon?"
Kim merely rolled her eyes. She could tell that Patricia was doing with changing the subject, but she couldn't bring herself to care much at the moment. Maybe it was an effect of her being so tired, but she didn't feel like putting much effort or energy into getting an actual response from Patricia about it. Although, a part of her wondered if she should then take up Patricia on the offer she'd made when they'd first met and Patricia had learned who Kim was in relation to someone she felt she owed something to. Though what 'that' was, she couldn't quite remember. Just that she had essentially promised favor or something to her.
"We can always deal with a little delay on the story," Owen remarked.
"What 'story?'" Patricia demanded. "This is what happened!"
Owen merely laughed, drawing a little bit of laughter from the others around him. Although, Kim merely chuckled at Patricia's irritation. Patricia certainly wasn't happy about the reaction Owen's laughter was eliciting, though it made Kim wonder a little. She wasn't sure if Patricia was just tired or if there was something else about her that was getting her this way.
Yet, she could tell that Patricia hadn't really changed that much since they'd first me. So, she figured if nothing came up in the story that made her feel like she had her answer, she decided that she would need to talk with Patricia about what might be going on with her after. So she could be certain that whatever was going on wouldn't end with Patricia essentially either self-destructing or something else.
Kim didn't pretend to know much about Patricia, so she couldn't say what that 'something else' might be. She just couldn't help but worry about it. Which also made her wonder about when she started caring so much about others? Even Elin's changes in her behavior towards Kim didn't have her as concerned about Elin as Patricia's did.
"Well, if you're all done laughing at me at my expense, should I get started with it?" Patricia demanded, making Kim wonder if she should see about getting the favor from Patricia to have a threesome with her and Elin. She was confident she'd be able to talk Elin into it, though she couldn't be as certain if Patricia would be interested in it.
"As long as it doesn't start off with: 'On a dark and stormy night.'" Elmo commented.
"It won't," Patricia assured him. "Here's what happened…"