Chapter 79: Evening Meeting
Kim wasn't happy that they hadn't actually done anything by the time the sun went down. Since she'd been recovering from the curse for the better part of the past couple weeks, she hadn't been given a job at the inn that could occupy her time, unlike Elin and Elmo. While she could work as a bouncer, it was clear this town didn't need anything like that.
The worst that occurred was a fist fight that was over almost as soon as it began. Typically by people who were so drunk they were in as much danger of passing out on their own as they were of getting knocked out.
She tried going around trying to learn what she could about the surrounding area, but aside from the state of crops, farm animals' health, or the expected weather, she couldn't get anything useful out of anyone. The area that was especially unknown to the villagers was the direction that Kim and her group had come from. She got the sense that the spiders in there played a part in it, but mostly she got the sense that there were other reasons that no one could articulate. In addition to that, the announcement made for the evening about the competition didn't offer anything useful either.
Sighing as she sat down at the table with the rest of her group, she watched Elin working as a waitress for a minute. Elin really seemed to enjoy her job and the patrons especially seemed to enjoy her company, as brief as it was when she either took their orders or brought their drinks and occasional stew. She noticed some of the patrons tried grabbing Elin as she passed by, but she seemed to be rather adept at dodging their gropes. Part of her was annoyed at the attempts but another part was pleased at how well Elin could dodge them.
Although, she realized she'd mostly forgotten about Elin's dress being able to change color with her mood. At the moment it was a bright blue, while earlier when they were helping out Heather and Sonya, it was a pale blue.
The worst part about it was that she had no idea what the colors indicated or how to know what she was exactly feeling from the color alone. She couldn't help but wonder if it merely changed to a random color each time her emotions changed even a little. That there wasn't exactly a set color for each emotion, or maybe even combination of emotions.
Turning back to the others at the table, she asked, "So, how'd everyone's task go?"
"I'm waiting on hearing back from my contacts about what they could find out about the goblins," Jonas replied, sounding rather tired and looking like he might fall asleep before he even left the table by the end of the night.
"Hopefully they'll have better luck than I did," Sonya said, sounding tired, but not as tired as Jonas. "I couldn't find anything. But there were a lot of spider webs that kept me from being able to pass through most of the forest."
"Well, Elin and I were able to secure a few things, but mostly a handful of carrots," Heather added, sounding a little discouraged. "I go the feeling most of what they grow here is either already sold to so someone else basically, or that they just don't have anything available to sell at the moment."
"Wouldn't hurt to keep looking," Jonas commented. "Maybe something will come up later, but carrots are still good."