Help her

You stand before the trembling Elf, she's hoping beyond hope that you just leave her alone, on the other side of the table you're unsure how to approach her, but never let it be said that John Dweller wouldn't rescue a damsel in distress! You approach her slowly, as she notices you approaching her eyes widen.

"Stand back! Leave me!" She says in an almost pleading tone. You take a pause at her words but realize she's in no position to hurt you, so you might as well show her you mean no harm, you carry on approaching her and then notice the campfire still going, just at the right flames for cooking food, with no pots or pans nearby you think for a minute before you get an idea, taking out both of the raw salmon fillets you flayed up earlier, you skewer them on the ends of your spear like appendages and hold them over the fire loosely. This action clearly shocked the Elf beyond reason, she was wordlessly eyeing you as you roasted food across the fire. Her stomach rumbles at the smell that filled her nose.

Looking at her bemusedly, it reminds you of a ex girlfriend you once had, however your skeletal face didn't translate that humorous reaction all too well, your gaze upon her snaps her out of her shocked haze as she looks away, still scared and unsure of what's to come. She returns one of her eyes on you, still facing away from you slightly. The fish had cooked up nicely, but you still couldn't feel the warmth of the fire at all, and since you weren't taking damage you concluded cooking like this would be fine.

With the cooked fillets on the ends of your arms, you bring them to the floor bound Elf, your sudden movements causing her full attention to be drawn to you, she was still very scared of you and what you might be planning. When you bring your spear like arms to her face, tears begin to form in her eyes as she trembles, but when she notices your other arm pushing the food off of your pseudo skewer and towards her mouth her stomach rumbled. 'Even in a situation like this?' you laugh to yourself, what a hopeless woman. The young elf eagerly accepts the fish into her mouth, clearly she hadn't eaten in days as she wolfed it down, still floor bound.

After finishing the first fillet you offer her the second, this time just as eagerly she wolfs it down, finishing the food she involuntarily burps, blushing she looks away in embarrassment. Looking into your inventory, you remember you still have a potion and a vial of spring water, as you drop the items to the floor from your inventory you notice the Elf had begun to raise her body to stand on all fours shakily, she still felt the paralyses potion coursing through her body but the food had helped soak a lot of it up, and the strength the meal had given her had allowed her to gain back at least a little control.

As she brings her head up to look at you again she noticed 2 potions beneath your feet, her eyes light up at the sight of the see through liquid she spotted, looking back up to you again to meet your gaze. "Is that for me?" She asks a little gingerly, still completely shell shocked that she and this monster are having this little event transpire right now. You nod you head yes and she reaches out and grabs the vial of water with no reservation, she chugs the whole vial down quick time, following up with drinking the potion to both restore some HP and also to quench her thirst further.

Watching her you realize she must have been both very hungry and very thirsty, you decide to sit down by the fire, so as to show her you had no tricks up your sleeves and you were genuinely helping her. You know it's a risk, you saw how much damage that fireball spell can do, and you're also aware that you don't have a whole lot of HP left if she decides to turn on you. The Elf makes her way cautiously passed you and picks up her staff, looking at you curiously, she was still alert and unwilling to drop her guard down, and now that she had that staff in her hands you know that your life can be quashed or spared by her will alone, you hope beyond hope that she shows you the same mercy you showed her.

After a short while of you two simply looking at one another, the Elf motions to sit down next to you, she does so and the two of you share another long wordless stare as she thinks things through, perhaps looking for a question. But what do you even ask a low leveled skeleton? After what felt like an eternity to you she spoke.

"What are you?" She asks you, however you're unable to respond, you try to show this by opening and closing your jaw, she seems to get the gist, thinking back to earlier she recalled how you had nodded your head to her question. Yes or no answers would work, right?

"Can you understand me?" She asks again, she pulls back a baited breath as you nod your head yes. This was simply unheard of throughout all recorded history, humanoids were capable of independent thought and speech, and monsters were just mindless and hostile creations of mana's corruption. But here one stood before her, not only had he killed her ****, he'd fed her fish and offered her fresh water after days of stumbling through the caves looking for a way out. And now the two of you were conversing over a fire, like it was the most natural thing to happen.

"Are you hurt?" You nod your head yes, you're unsure what your HP stat was right now, and before you could check the young Elf extended her arms out, a green light appearing at her fingertips and traveling towards you in a wavey fashion, you felt your bones realign into the right sockets and the damage done to you by the Orc just washing away. However the Elf had to stop as she soon ran out of what little mana she had left. Putting herself in a precarious spot now, with no mana to cast her fireball you knew that she was putting the same trust you had put into her back into you again.

After a while of you just looking at each other some more, the Elf suddenly smiles. "Do you want to come with me?" she asks genuinely. You considered it for a time, it would be nice to team up with another human, even though you aren't technically a human anymore.