The Systems Challenge

"Now the only thing left to figure out is do we let him know now or do we wait to see if he gets impatient at some point?" Patricia asked with a mischievous smile.

"Well, I'd say we could at least let him sweat it out a little," Kim replied offhandedly, reaching for another piece of fire-browned toast.

She really didn't care if the king was happy with a longer wait or not. He was a man, so he shouldn't be able to just make his timetable theirs. Especially since they were the ones who saved both him and his son the night before. If he didn't appreciate that, then Kim knew that even if he was on the up and up, she wouldn't be able to fully trust him going forward. Especially if there was anything that concerned Elin directly.

Thinking of Elin, Kim looked down at Elin who was sleeping peacefully again, a few crumbs of toast on her cheeks. Although, she certainly had enjoyed the fried eggs the cooks in this kingdom had made.

However, despite the agreements she was hearing from the others in the room about making the king wait, she suddenly started to feel restless and bored. Unlike Elin, she didn't really feel that tired.

Or at least tired enough to fall asleep here. For one thing, these chairs weren't nearly as comfortable as most chairs in her world were that could easily be found in waiting rooms, where comfort wasn't something the business who furnished the waiting room really cared about. Where she'd been sleeping the night before was much more comfortable than these chairs.

"So, what do we do to waste the king's time?" Jonas asked. "Should we do a game of charades and pretend that it's part of our decision making process if we get caught in the middle of it?"

"What's charades?" Leon and Elwin both asked in the same moment Owen replied, "Charades might be a little over the top here. Especially since I'm not sure we have that much time. To explain it and to have at least a round for each person to take a turn."

Kim suspected Elin wouldn't know what charades were as well. Though, with her asleep, at least she wouldn't have to explain it to her later. Assuming Elin didn't overhear any conversation about it after she woke up.

"What if we catch up on what we've been doing since we were last together like this?" Elmo suggested. "I mean, we know a little of what each other's been up to, given the announcements, but that's not really telling us what exactly has been happening with each other."

Owen laughed. "The kid's got a good point," he remarked.