Kim was satisfied that two out of the three of Stanley's group had fallen asleep. Or at least the hope was that the first had been affected by the spell, given how the last hadn't been.
However, Kim was willing to take those chances. Especially with how the odds were increased in their favor with at least one of their opponents being taken out of the battle. If only for the time being. As by the time Elmo's spell would wear off, they'd be all done with this competition and it wouldn't matter anyway.
As they approached Stanley's group, it became apparent that the one who was still standing wasn't willing to give them a fight of any sort. Not with how he was looking more panicked than anything else right then. Plus, as they got near, Kim could make out the last one shaking the others, apparently trying to wake them up.
Which also meant that the spell had worked on the first one. That they only had one person left to contend with.
The approach hardly felt like it took any time at all, even though Kim was aware that a few minutes passed. Time that had seemed almost frozen as they had waited on seeing if Elmo's spell would work at all.
When they got close, the remaining person looked up and Kim could see that it was Stanley there.
"I take it you're somehow responsible for this happening?" Stanley asked, sounding almost dejected.
"Pretty much," Elwin replied, not bothering to hide that they were indeed the ones responsible.
"So, what now? You're just going to finish the job and eliminate me as well?" Stanely asked, looking resigned to that fact. "I mean, you've killed the others in my group, so why not me as well?"
"Actually, they're not dead. Uh, well at least not these two," Patricia remarked offhandedly, earning a glare from Elwin. "What?" she added, noticing Elwin's reaction.
"Wait, so you killed Howard?" Stanley asked, looking shocked.
"Well, he didn't give us much of a choice," Heather remarked, looking self-conscious. "He made it clear that even if we tried going back to the village that he was going to kill all of us anyway."
Stanley nodded slowly, looking like he was still processing that information. "So, you killed him because he wasn't going to let you go. What did he ever do to you?" Stanley said after a minute.
Even though Kim knew that the words were unjustified, that they had a right to defend themselves, Stanley's words made it somehow feel like they were in the wrong. That they should have let Howard kill them and do whatever he wanted to them. Just because… Kim couldn't think of a reason, just that it felt like there should be one, even though she knew, at the same time, that what Stanely was saying was completely wrong.
"What did he do? He made it clear that he wasn't going to stop until he'd killed us all. We have a right to live, you know," Heather snapped, making Kim wonder how she wasn't being affected by what Stanley had said. "We'd have let Howard live if he hadn't been so determined to kill us."
Stanley shook his head, looking like he was admonishing them and that he was in control, which Kim had to admit, it was starting to feel like he was, despite Stanley being so outnumbered. It felt a little unnerving for her. Plus, it was starting to feel like she was having trouble thinking. She couldn't say what the source was, either. Only that what Stanley was saying was making sense somehow.
"Didn't he have as much right to live as you do?" Stanley asked, his tone rather patronizing, as if he was speaking to a little child. "What made him worthy of death while all of you worthy of life?"
"What made him have the right to decide who lived and who died?" Elmo cut in, sounding like he wasn't having the difficulty thinking like Kim was. Almost like he wasn't being affected by whatever was going on with Kim.
Stanley sighed, as if he was having to explain something incredibly simple to an unruly child. "All of you were in the wrong for coming here. It's not like you had a reason to come, since you were supposed to give us the book that we asked for, right?"
"And who's to say we didn't?" Elmo retorted. "We had two books and why couldn't we try the other one? What gave you the right to decide who could come here and who couldn't?"
"Who said that I told Howard to not let you come here?"
"Howard did himself. He was very talkative before he turned violent and attacked Heather, impaling himself on her dagger."
Stanley blinked. "It wasn't a pitched battle where he died? He died… in that manner?"
"Well, it was over before we really knew it," Patricia remarked. "Though, we did have to take further action, since he was paralyzed from the blade and we knew he'd be coming after us afterwards, assuming he recovered from the paralysis. And we couldn't say if he'd actually recover if we took out the blade, so we decided to be merciful and not let him get eaten by whatever creatures there were out there."
Kim was struggling to keep from siding with Stanley on this matter. She knew that they were within their rights to protect themselves from someone wanting to do them harm, but with each word that Stanley spoke, it was getting harder to form opposing arguments on the subject. While it seemed like Patricia wasn't having the same trouble, Kim couldn't say how she was able to do that.
"It was like this," Sonya chimed in, her words somehow cutting through the fog in Kim's mind. "Last night we were attacked by a giant earth worm that nearly killed one of us and it likely would have eaten Howard if he'd been still paralyzed. Plus, we couldn't be sure that he wouldn't come after us, since he had no right himself to tell us we couldn't come to this dungeon, with or without a book with us."
"And yet, you do have a book. I'm guessing it is the book that we'd asked so nicely for that you so rudely refused to see that we were the ones who should have gotten it in the first place. As such, you're all thieves for having taken it in the first place," Stanley snapped, sounding like he was running out of patience for the subject.
"What book was that?" Owen asked, sounding almost dazed, like he had either gotten drunk or was just dazed from getting hit in the head. Neither option seemed likely at the moment to Kim, especially given how hard it was for her to think straight at the moment.
"And what right do you have to demand us give you any book in the first place?" Sonya growled, her wolf's eyes almost looking like she was looking at Stanley as if he could potentially be her prey. "You were in the library, yes, but you didn't bring anything to trade for it. Just because you don't get the last limited item on sale because you didn't bring what you needed to get it doesn't mean that the person behind you in line owes it to you."
Stanley blinked, momentarily looking confused before his smile grew back. Kim somehow felt that something was going on and she wasn't sure she was prepared to face whatever kind of fight this was. As she was sure something was happening that she was caught in, if only on the periphery. She at least was still able to think rationally, just that ability was difficult to manage without effort. Effort that was tiring her out.
"Shouldn't you have been put in a kennel?" Stanley asked and somehow Kim had a feeling the conversation had continued around her without her even realizing it. Not that she really had any evidence of that happening in the first place.
"And shouldn't you have ended up in jail by now?" Sonya quipped, Kim noticing Heather nodding with her. Both glaring at Stanley as if something had happened that Kim had missed.
"What could I have possibly done to you to earn such… hostility?" Stanley asked, Kim suddenly wanting to complain to Sonya and Heather that they were being unfair, despite not having any idea what was going on in the first place here.
However, it was clear a moment later that Kim wasn't the only one who had felt that way.
"That was uncalled for!" Elwin snapped, glaring at Sonya and Heather, as if they were disagreeing with him personally.
"You can stay out of this," Heather remarked dryly. "This doesn't concern you. You weren't there, nor were you one of the ones who… participated in that."
Kim suddenly felt like there was something she was missing here and not from the haze filling her mind, that made it hard to think. Rather it felt like it was something that she wasn't aware of that was making this situation feel like it might have become about something other than the need for the book and challenge going on right then.