Before anyone could react, Harold had tackled Heather off of Sonya's back.
Elmo couldn't help but worry about Heather. While Harold hadn't had much time or chance to build up momentum before he tackled Heather, it still was faster than anyone of them could react, meaning it had to have been a powerful blow to her.
However, as Elmo turned to make a move against Harold, he couldn't help but notice that Harold was motionless. That he didn't even try to stand up.
Elmo glanced at the others, not sure what to make of this development. The only one who wasn't hesitating was Sonya. After a moment to register that Heather had been pulled from her back, she was trying to push Harold off of Sonya.
Though, the problem she was encountering was the fact that she wasn't able to get any real leverage to pull Harold's unmoving body with just her wolf jaw.
Jonas was the next to recover, Elwin a moment behind him, and quickly moved to help move Harold. Which, while it looked like Jonas and Elwin were barely able to move his body, that they were struggling to lift Harold enough to roll him over. Revealing a dagger sticking out of Harold's chest at a slight angle and a baffled expression on his face.
Heather groaned, drawing Elmo's attention back to her. With what happened, he hadn't expected that Heather would still be able to make a sound. The dagger itself was easy enough to explain: that Heather had been holding it when Harold had lunged at her.
Elmo doubted that Harold had paid it much mind. Not with how he'd been dismissive about them altogether in the first place. As such, if Heather had been holding it at the right angle, Harold's lunge would have provided the necessary force to drive it into his chest. Assuming the blade was made with quality materials and if Elmo remembered correctly, the dagger that Heather had was given to her by the king and so he would assume that it had been made to fit those requirements.
"Are you okay?" Sonya asked, as she began to inspect Heather in a more canine way than Elmo would have expected Sonya to have done.
"Umm-hmm," Heather replied, though in more of a groan than an actual statement.
"I guess you were able to make use of that dagger," Elwin remarked, as he examined the hilt of the dagger in Harold's chest. "Though, I still think that was a long shot of you needing something like that."
"Well, it shows that while it's unlikely for her to actually be able to use it, giving her a weapon can at least help her if we're unable to defend her," Jonas remarked.
"Give me space," Elin said, sounding a little annoyed to Elmo. "Even if she survived, she still might be hurt."
Elmo suddenly realized that everyone had crowded around where Heather had fallen, to the point where they were almost forming a human shield around her. Which would certainly make it difficult for Elin to be able to check on her to make sure that she didn't have anything else wrong with her. In case her semi-conscious state was just all that was wrong with her wasn't all that was wrong with her.
"Back up, everyone," Kim said, her expression not brooking any argument. Though, Elmo suspected that it was more because Elin wanted in there and there wasn't enough room for her to do so.
Everyone else backed up almost immediately and quieted down their quiet chatter, except Sonya. Instead, she looked at Kim with a challenge in her eyes as if to say 'try and make me.' Which Elmo suspected wouldn't come to that, as Elin was already moving into the freed-up space to examine Heather.
"Assess," Elin said quietly, putting her hands on Heather's head.
Elmo wouldn't have been able to hear Elin's statement if the conversation around them had continued. Elmo wasn't sure what there was for him to do, which he hoped wouldn't change, as his abilities were more combat-oriented rather than this.
A moment after Elin had touched Heather, she pulled away. "She'll be alright, though I think she'd more out of it from the shock than anything else. She might be bruised, and maybe a little disoriented, but she'll be fine," Elin informed everyone.
Sonya didn't say anything, but lay next to Heather, looking like she was curling up next to the girl in her wolf form. Much like the way that Elmo had seem some canines do to one they cared about.
"So, what do we do now?" Bart asked, looking a little puzzled. "I mean, she's okay, but should she move with us as we continue on, or should we stay and wait until she can?"
Kim, Jonas, Owen, Patricia, and Elwin all exchanged looks. Elmo wasn't sure what those were about, but it was clear that something had been communicated without him being involved. Not that he was planning on complaining about that, but he did wish that he knew what that 'look' was about.
"Well, we can just tie Heather to Sonya," Jonas suggested. "I'm sure Sonya wouldn't mind carrying Heather. Especially since she's not able to walk on her own right now."
"Any objections, Sonya," Kim asked, though her tone indicated she thought she was wasting her time even asking that in the first place.
Sonya shook her head. "No, I'd prefer it that way anyway."
Kim nodded, looking like she wished they could be on the road again rather than still talking about this matter.
"Oh, should be pull Heather's dagger from Harold?" Bart asked, reaching down to pull the dagger out. "I mean, I think she'd probably want it back."
As Bart touched the hilt of the dagger, before anyone could respond in any way, Harold twitched. Causing everyone to jump.
"What the hell was that!?" Elmo found himself crying out, not caring how juvenile it made him seem.
"You know, I think Harold's not quite dead," Jonas remarked, as if he found the whole situation fascinating rather than terrifying, as Elmo felt it was.
"If he's not dead, then how come he wasn't moving?!" Elmo demanded before he could stop himself. "Living people don't do that!"
"Well, if we think about it, her dagger was made with the teeth from those flowers," Owen remarked, as if this was a philosophical discussion. "It's possible that he's only paralyzed and is having a hard time moving."
"Should we just kill him then?" Elwin asked, sounding as if the idea disgusted him. "He can't fight back and I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be able to fight him if he wasn't like this. Not with how fast he moved."
"Well, let's let Heather decide," Owen said, looking at Heather who seemed to have fallen either asleep or unconscious. Elmo couldn't decide which, just that he knew there was a difference, even if he couldn't think of what that was right then.
"Uh, shouldn't we be trying to keep moving?" Elmo asked, not wanting to stick around Harold any longer than they needed to. He certainly didn't like the idea of Harold still being alive as he was. Especially with them around him. "I mean, we did have our breakfast as we walked, so we should try to keep moving on, right?"
"And leave him like that?" Kim asked, though her tone made it hard to know if she was concerned about Harold himself or the threat he might pose to them if they didn't make sure he was dead. "He could come after us if we're not careful."
Jonas sighed, looking like he was conflicted himself. Like he wasn't sure how to respond. Not that Elmo blamed him. This certainly wasn't the usual kind of situation. It was more one that they encountered through a lucky break than anything they'd have been able to do themselves. It felt like a mess that they might not be able to get out of without doing something that none of them liked having to do.
"We could try to reason with him," Jonas remarked, "but it's not like we can be sure we'd be able to get through to him. Instead, I think he'd take it more as a sign of how his 'plot armor' is protecting him."
Elmo couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. Harold certainly seemed to think that nothing could hurt him, or nothing that would end up with his death. As, while he was the main character in his own story, one thing he didn't seem to consider was the fact that all of them were main characters in their own stories. That they all came together to make one bigger story. Much like the tapestry of the ages that Elmo remembered coming across in a book series before. He couldn't remember what the series was, but he did remember seeing it and thinking that their situation certainly applied to that.
"If anyone doesn't want to be witness to it, then you should continue on," Kim said, her voice serious. "I'll take care of it myself."