Chapter 114: Returning to the Village
In total, it took them three days to get back to the village. It might have taken them longer, but they'd encountered Patrick and Patricia as they were leaving the dungeon, who weren't anywhere nearly as worn out as Elin felt and was sure the others in her group were.
Both of them took turns keeping watch during the night, which Elin really appreciated, as she really didn't like getting woken up at night and expected to stay awake with nothing to do but look out in the darkness. Not only that, but she would have to do that without having Kim's arms around her. As such, she was grateful for them to not make her do that.
Patricia seemed to take charge and insisted they take a slower pace than Jonas had wanted to. Elin wouldn't have minded a faster pace, because she knew how nice the beds at the inn would be, but didn't argue. After all, it wasn't like those were going anywhere.
The young women seemed to be alright from what they'd had to have experienced, though it seemed like they didn't have much memory of what had been done to them, so often they seemed more confused than anything.
Yet, despite that, they kept to themselves and didn't talk much, though Elin suspected that they appreciated the clothing that she and Kim had put on them. They also looked like they were ready to move at a faster pace, but they also seemed to dread going back. Elin didn't understand why, but couldn't think of a way to bring it up that didn't make it look like she was trying to pry into their affairs.
When they finally did make it back to the village, Elin felt herself relax more than she had since they'd started the trip back to the dungeon to close the portal. Maybe it was the fact that they'd been dealing with overwhelming numbers or maybe because so much of the trip had Elin fighting for her life herself, and not from the safety of the back line, but it could also be that she didn't seem to have been able to sleep very well with that first looming ahead of them, and second from having danger constantly around them.
Then there was also the fact that she wondered how Heather and Sonya had been doing while they were gone. As well as if there had been any goblin attacks while they'd been dealing with the primary threat of the goblins.
However, Elin was happy that they first went to the inn. From what little she could see about the village, they weren't taking shelter in a single building at this point, though they had started to work on building a wall around the village. It hadn't gotten more than a tenth built, but it was clear that they weren't going to let what happened previously happen again. At least not any time soon. Although, it wasn't until the young women they'd saved, along with Patricia and Patrick, were gone that she even realized that they'd left.
"What're you looking forward to the most, my gem?" Kim asked Elin as they neared the inn.