The Systems Challenge

Elmo wasn't sure what had happened. All he knew was that suddenly Elin first went to her knees, then to the floor while her body began convulsing or something. He was worried she was having a seizure or other issue. She'd taken out most of the skeletons they were facing and it looked like the only ones left were the five in front of Kim and Jonas.

Kim seemed to be almost done with the two in front of her, Elmo had nearly destroyed one of the skeletons in front of Jonas while Jonas was working mostly to keep from getting hit by the skeletons.

As the skeletons in front of Kim collapsed and were no longer a threat, Elmo noticed movement in the darkness down the hallway that the skeletons had come from.

Was there another skeleton that had been lagging behind the others? Elmo wondered.

However, as Kim began helping Jonas finish off the three skeletons in front of him, Elmo saw a blue orb of energy come out of the darkness. He couldn't tell if was Kim or Jonas who was the target, but like Elin's Sacred Shot and his Magic Burst, it was clear it was only a single target spell.

"Look out!" Elmo cried, but didn't have time to indicate to Jonas or Kim about what he had been talking about, as the energy orb went straight through the skeletons and hit Jonas directly. Not that it looked like Kim or Jonas had really heard him.

Jonas looked like he'd been hit and was disoriented for a moment before collapsing on the ground. Kim had gotten the attention of two of the skeletons who had been facing Jonas, but the other still had Jonas in it's sights.

Elmo took the staff he had, since he was pretty sure he was low on MP and wasn't sure if he should use all of it or keep some in reserve, just in case. He swung his staff like he was trying to chop wood, like he had when his family had visited his uncle a couple years ago and he'd been shown how to chop firewood.

His first strike on the skeleton didn't seem to do anything other than make the skeleton focus on him. Which actually Elmo considered a good thing. It would at least keep it from attacking Jonas, who looked like he was completely helpless on the floor.

Elmo wanted to attack right away, but the skeleton reached out for him and he had to dodge or get struck by those bony fingers that looked like they would hurt if they made contact with any part of him. Then after his third dodge, he saw an opening. He jabbed the staff in like it was a spear and struck the breast bone of the skeleton.

He assumed the bones were just old and brittle already when the breast bone shattered and the skeleton crumpled to the ground in a pile of bones. As it collapsed, Kim finished off the other two skeletons.

"Not a bad workout," Kim remarked as she put her sword away and turned to find Elmo was the only one still standing. "What the hell happened?!"

Elmo shrugged. "I have no idea about Elin, but Jonas was hit by some energy orb and collapsed," Elmo said, a sense of panic starting to rise up now that the immediate threat of the skeletons was over. He struggled to keep it down, but not only did he not know what to do, but at the same time, Kim was the only other one still conscious and he was the only one who would be here if she decided to take it out on someone.

However, Kim merely sighed. "Well, if we're going to do anything, we should first make them comfortable," Kim said, much to Elmo's surprise. "As much as I hate to say this, but I'll take care of Jonas and you get Elin." Kim sighed as she knelt down to lift Jonas. "I don't know what happened to them, but we should at least move them back to where they had been sleeping."

Elmo nodded, and gently picked Elin up. She was lighter than he'd expected. He wondered if she was okay, as she was continually shaking, and it didn't feel like it was because of her being cold. It felt more like convulsions. Erratic and without a pattern.

Regardless, he couldn't do anything more than what Kim had suggested. Elin was the one with healing magic, so he didn't have anything in his system that would tell him what he could do anyway.

In the end, he gently placed her where she had been sleeping, still covered in her robe. When she was settled, even though her convulsions didn't subside, he moved away, over to where Kim was putting Jonas.

"Damn he's cold," Kim muttered her herself as Elmo approached.

"What do you mean 'he's cold?'" Elmo asked.

"Just that," Kim growled as she laid Jonas on the ground, putting his head on the wrapped clothing he'd been using as a pillow. "He's freezing cold."

At that moment, the fire that had been giving them the meager light they'd been working with went out. Elmo couldn't say he was surprised that it went out. What surprised him the most was the fact that it had lasted as long as it did.

"Just fucking great," Kim screamed. "You, Elmo. Find a way to warm Jonas up. I'll look after Elin, okay?"

Elmo was almost afraid to move as he heard Kim angrily make her way over to Elin. However, as she didn't seem to be interested in lashing out at him, at least for the moment, Elmo instead reached down to touch Jonas.

As his hand touched Jonas, he was surprised to feel his hand start to freeze. Even after he pulled his hand away, his hand still felt the cold. Almost as if Jonas was a furnace for cold at the moment.

He carefully put his hand around Jonas' body, his legs, feet, arms, head, and chest. All of them seemed to be emitting cold rather than heat. He couldn't help but wonder if nothing was done, if Jonas could die from hypothermia, since it was clear his body was below the temperature it should be.

Elmo shook his head to get rid of stray thoughts and decided even though he couldn't be sure what Jonas would think of this, he at least knew that skin-to-skin contact was the best way to transfer body heat. That was the only thing he could think of that he knew he could do in order to try and bring up Jonas' temperature.

So, he pulled off Jonas' shirt, took off his own, laid on Jonas, making sure that as much of his chest touched Jonas'. After he had that done, he placed the shirts over both of them like they were blankets.

Even though he would have loved to do this with Jonas since he first saw him, Elmo couldn't lament that he was in this position due to other circumstances, and that Jonas probably wouldn't be as thrilled with being in this position once he was better.

Elmo refused to entertain the thought that Jonas wouldn't wake up. Even if Jonas hated him for doing this, especially with how Elmo could feel his own body reacting to being in this position with his crush, he wasn't going to think about Jonas dying from this.

Although, that didn't stop Elmo from fantasizing what could be if Jonas did in fact return his interest. Especially since there wasn't much else to do at the moment and it was rather dark.

Elmo couldn't help but close his eyes, despite the cold he felt entering his body from Jonas, and slowly start to fall asleep. As he drifted off, he snuggled as close to Jonas as he could, relishing the sensation of Jonas' body against his. Even if it was just this one night only, he felt like he was tasting heaven as entered the blissful slumber that took him away from the nightmare he'd been in since he woke up in that room before he'd learned about being in this freaky reality show.

+++

Kim sighed as she settled down next to Elin, pulling Elin's head onto her chest, to give her a pillow, like she'd promised the girl before they went to bed when it was starting to get dark in here. She wasn't sure what was wrong with Elin, but if she could make the girl comfortable, then at the very least, that would get the girl to maybe hold Kim in a higher esteem than she had been.

Especially since Kim so badly wanted to just take what she wanted from Elin right then, but didn't want to force the girl. Mostly because she wasn't going to fall to the level that men were at. She had control of herself where she knew men didn't. That was one of the fundamental differences between men and women that existed.

Though, given Elmo had taken the first watch and Jonas was down for the count at the moment, she figured that meant it fell to her to take then next watch. She had a feeling they wouldn't need to worry too much about further danger, as Elmo's comment about whatever this was not wanting them to die at night, but still get something to show for 'highlights' made sense to her. She would say they got at least a few good things to show, with Jonas and Elin collapsing.

She couldn't say if they'd consider that enough, but at the same time, they needed whatever they threw at them to be easy enough that they could survive it, at least this early in whatever they were doing. If she was able to find a way, Kim was going to 'get in touch' with whoever was running this… whatever and let them know exactly what she thought about it. Whatever it was, she was confident it had 'patriarchy'' written all over it.

The dark usually wasn't something that would make Kim want to go to sleep in and of itself, but with Elin's body pressed against hers, she somehow found it relaxing and had to fight to stay awake. She wished she didn't have any clothing keeping Elin's body from hers, but wasn't going to complain. At least not yet.

However, she was so caught up in her own thoughts that it took her a moment to even realize when Elin's convulsions started to slow and subside. When she did become aware of it, she breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like whatever had happened to Elin, she was going to recover.

Kim looked towards where she knew the ceiling would be. Even though there wasn't anything to see, she still imagined that there were stars covering the ceiling. If nothing else, it gave her something to do, and she found it rather easy at th e moment, given she knew she didn't have to worry about Elin at the moment.

She wasn't even sure when Elin woke up. All she knew was there was movement against her and Elin's hand touching her chest, though not in the way Kim would like, but rather in a way of seeing what it was she was laying against. Regardless, she did enjoy Elin's groping, even if it wasn't the same as if Elin was trying to feel her up.

"Kim?" Elin whispered. "Is that you?"

Kim couldn't help but smile happily. "Yeah, me gem. It's me," Kim whispered back.

She felt elin breathe out a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad that wasn't worse," Elin said, then her head moved suddenly. "Oh, did Jonas get mad at what I did?"

Kim wanted to ask Elin what happened to her, but decided to first let her know what she was aware of what happened to Jonas.

"Actually, he was hit by some sort of blue energy or something," Kim said. "He's unconscious right now and Elmo is trying t help warm him up."

"Will he be okay?" Elin asked.

"Probably," Kim said, even though she wasn't sure. "If nothing else, you can take a look at him in the morning. But first, get some rest. I don't want you to have a relapse of whatever happened to you."

"Alright, but I don't plan on having ti happen again, myself," Elin replied, snuggling up against Kim, much to Kim's pleasure.

"Okay, sleep well, my gem," Kim replied, stroking Elin's head as she enjoyed the feel of Elin's hair in her fingers.

While Kim had decided that she would take the watch for the rest of the night by herself, she wasn't able to make it. Maybe it was the warmth of Elin's body, maybe it was the fact she was relaxing with Elin out of danger, or even maybe it was because of how tired that fight had made her, but she fell asleep soon after.

She wasn't even aware of when footsteps started to be heard coming down the stairs towards them.