Me and Cosmia walked into the building, and she lead me to the mayor's dining table.
She looked at the girl in my arms, and said "You need to lay her down somewhere. Go put her on the sofa over there.".
"Good idea." I replied, walked over to the sofa, leaned over, and carefully let the girl slip off my forarms and onto the sofa.
Cosmia followed closely as I walked over to the sofa, and then took a few steps back when I turned around. I understood that she just wanted to assist me if I had any difficulties, so I didn't mind her being there. Then I walked over to the dining room, and sat down at the table. Cosmia went to the hallway, and walked to the doorway between the dining room and the foyer. I guessed that she probably did that because she saw the mayor and wanted to be able to keep an eye on the elf girl.
"Mmmm..." The mayor walked in with a slightly grumpy face and sat down. Then he looked at me, and changed to a business smile.
"Alright Henry, why did you call me in here?" He asked in a stern business tone.
"Well, I just came to report that the goblins have been taken care of. I should note that there were hundreds of them and their fortress was large. They also had dozens of livestock, which could be retrieved and repurposed by the local farmers and sherpherds. There were plently of items in their buildings, some of which stood 4 floors tall, but you know that I don't have the free time to loot them. Finally, and arguably more important than any of those other details, I found and retrieved one small, young elf girl who seemed to have been trapped or kidnapped by the goblins."
"You brought back a rescuee? That's new, especially for you. I thought folks in these parts knew to be careful in that forest. And it was only one person? Please tell me you checked everywhere." The mayor dropped his business smile and started talking to me in a more casual tone.
"Yeah, it was only one person. I set her down on the sofa over there." I turned and pointed to the foyer. The mayor looked there and asked Cosmia "Hm, is that correct?"
"Yes." Cosmia answered with enthusiasm.
"Hm... And did you check the settlement for other escapees?" The major restates the question he implied before.
"Not exactly, since I didn't open all of the crates and chests in the settlement. As you know, I usually avoid looting places. I heard this girl speak when she was inside a wooden crate. After breaking the crate open, I realized that it seemed she had been locked in from the inside. And now that I'm thinking about it, there were nails that seemed to have been embedded into the walls from the inside of the crate, and there was a lot of structure glue too. So, it seemed, or seems, that the girl might have intentionally trapped herself in the crate, but I don't really understand why."
The mayor: "Perhaps she was trying to hide from the goblins... but wouldn't they smell her?"
"No, I don't think so. She was also covered in a lot of mud. And I mean the kind with seeweed and reads in it."
The majoy's eyes widened. "If that was an intentional choice by her or someone else, than I am kind of impressed. However, what she did, or what is seems that she did, might be a common tactic among monster-kidnappees. Anyways, it sounds like there might be more kidnappees in the settlement. Hm, I need to see this girl..."
The mayor pushed his chair back, left the table, and walked straight to the sofa in the foyer. I followed him, and he inspected the girl on the sofa. He seemed just as worried as me and Cosmia were about the girl's condition.
"Did you give her any food or healing potions." He asked me plainly.
"I fed her half a loaf of bread and then she passed out."
The mayor put his fingers on the girl's neck. "Well, you should try to feed her once every 2 hours. Cosmia, be a good girl, and go ask Dianne to cook some food for this girl and the rest of us too. And offer to cook with her over at the guild."
"Alright sir. She might want payment though."
"Here. 1 should do." The mayor handed Cosmia a silver coin.
The mayor then sat down in one of the foyer chairs, and gestured for me to sit opposite to him.
"So there might be more kidnappees at the settlement?"
"Well, I don't think it's likely anyone else is there, since the likelihood of anyone getting kidnapped by monsters in these parts is low to begin with."
"Fine, fine. I understand. You stay here. I'll make sure the looters know to lookout for kidnappees and search every container carefully." The mayor got up and quickly walked out of the building. I followed his order, and kept watching the girl, while I used magic to clean some magical herbs that I found in the forest today.
The mayor came back after about 30 minutes had passed, and said "See if you wake that girl up, and let's go to the guild. Dianne and Cosmia should have lunch ready any minute now.".
"Understood, Mayor Shalamarch." I stood up, put a foloroot I was cleaning back in my item bag, and took 2 steps towards the sofa.
"Wake up." I grasped and shook the girl's shoulder lightly as the mayor walked out.
"Hnh..." The girl made a quiet noise and barely opened her eyes while mostly squinting them. [Ugh, yeah I know it's hard to wake up, especially in that state.]
I picked the girl up in my arms, like earlier, and started walking to the adventuring guild building.
"We are going to feed you. Do you want food or are you hungry?"
I looked at the girl and asked her some questions while carrying her. She opened her eyes slightly, again. [I guess that means she might be listening to me. I'm glad she's being responsive. Well, I say 'responsive', but it might not be an intentional response. She might just be instinctually curious about me talking to her or something.]
I got to the guild building, and Cosmia ran over when she recognized me. She gestured for me to give the elf-girl to her, so I did, and she rushed to one of the tables, where there was a bunch of food, and sat the elf-girl down. I walked over, and Dianne comes out of the kitchen. We got there at about the same time.
"Are we all eating together then?" I asked Dianne.
Dianne: "Yeah. Go ahead."
I sat down, and prepared a plate for myself with the dishes of food that were placed on the table. This was one of the few times I had had a nice meal like this in this town. It was a small town, but no one in this town was overly friendly.
Cosmia had sat to my right, with the elf-girl in her lap. She grabbed an orange, peeled it, separated the slices, and tried giving a slice to the elf girl. After a few seconds, the elf girl opened her eyes and ate the slice, slowly. Cosmia fed the girl some corn, and mashed potatoes too. She was super soft and gentle, unlike me. Well, I tried to be gentle earlier, but I knew I was not as good as Cosmia. Then she fed her 3 large meatballs. I was kind of surprised by that, but there were a lot meatballs on the table, and I had already eaten 4 myself. They were really soft, and tasty. Cosmia also got the girl to drink some milk, before feeding her even more vegetables.
Cosmia was so focused on eating her food that she didn't even notice me for the 1st 12 minutes. I was trying to focus on my own food, and think about other things... [but you know how hard that is, right?]. [Yeah.]
Cosmia looked at me and we made eye contact. "Hmm..." she said, "You um, do you ... you care about this little girlie, dontcha? I don't think anyone around here is super interested in taking her in, including you, but maybe you could at least take her to the capital or somewhere nice, after we make sure she is back up to snuff and stuffed with nutrition."
The mayor chuckled and chimed in "Hey, Cosmia, are you familiar with the song, snuff and stuff for a buzzypuff?"
Cosmia: "No, I'm not, Mr. Perhaps you could familiarize us all."
The mayor: "Ohoho, gladly." The mayor then
I smiled. [This had been pretty fun.] Then I looked over to Cosmia and remembered her question.
"I would love to at least supervise her and chaperone her to an orphanage in the capital."
"Well then, it's a plan. You're the one who found her after all." Cosmia smiled and responded while feeding the girl some green beans.
"Oh..." Then Cosmia seemed to have a though. "Oh you said you would 'love' to do that. Heeheehee. I guess you really do care, but be careful what you say. That's a pretty serious word, you know. *wink*"
Cosmia's imposing reaction surprised me a bit, but I did understand that love is a 'somewhat' serious word. After thinking for a moment, I realized that I really did care, because I felt responsible for the girl whose life I had saved today.