Speculations

Elmo had his doubts as to what was expected of him. While they'd managed to warm the water and mud they'd gone through in that bog after he used his Brimstone Flare spell, it hadn't really done anything to help reduce the water. Just like he had expected. Then, after that, the ground seemed to get more rocky and had less vegetation.

Which really only served to make the plans for him to use his magic on any subsequent bogs or swamps rather pointless in his opinion. Not that he really expected much else. Although, on the other hand, he couldn't honestly say that they couldn't still encounter something like that later on.

Especially since no one really seemed to have mapped these mountains out much. Nor did there seem to be an explanation for that, either.

"How long do you think these people have lived on this world?" Elmo asked, falling in step next to Elin as they walked along with the afternoon sun beginning to hang low against the mountains.

"What do you mean?" Elin asked in response.

"Well, these people don't seem to know much other than some of the basics of what to expect in this world, like what creatures live in some parts, but they don't seem to have mapped much of it," Elmo answered.

"Just because things don't follow what you would expect, doesn't mean that they haven't been here that long."

Elmo wasn't sure what to say in response. He had thought that maybe Elin would have agreed with him, though he couldn't say that he hadn't really seen this coming either. After all, he wasn't really sure if his suspicions were correct either.

"What makes you think that they haven't been on this world for that long?" Elin asked after a few minutes of silence. "I mean other than what you just said. Something that makes sense."

Elmo sighed as he shook his head. "I really don't have anything," he admitted. "It's just that if people get brought in here from the competition, but never leave, then it wouldn't be surprising that they could eventually create a sustainable population at some point."

Elin sighed as if Elmo said something stupid or that there was something he hadn't thought of that she considered rather obvious.

"And how long have they been sending people here for the competitions?" Elin asked, her tone telling Elmo that she was running short on patience right then.

Elmo blinked. He hadn't considered that point. They never asked the king just how long he'd been there, nor had they really even considered if time on this world, such as days and years, related to time on their own world. As the days here might be closer to 23 hours each day rather than 24 and the opposite could be true as well.

Then there was the point that the years might be longer here while they could also be shorter. There were too many variables that just thinking about that much made Elmo's head to spin. He felt like he really should have thought about this earlier. Like it was a failing on his part for not having done that.

Elin sighed, as if she was listening to his thoughts. "I don't know any more than you do," she said calmly. "But if you're going to think about that kind of thing, what help do you think it'll have for our current situation? What benefit would it give us for figuring those kinds of things out?"

Elmo recognized that Elin was trying to be helpful and kind, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel like she was giving him verbal jabs in very painful places. Though he was certain that she wasn't intending to do that, just that's the way things were turning out.

"Have you noticed how we're getting father away from the river?" Elin suddenly remarked, startling Elmo.

"What? But we've been walking alongside it since we started out?"

"Yes, but if you look, you'll see how far away the river is from us now."

Elmo unconsciously looked towards where the river was. Or at least had been, since he was surprised to see empty space where it was.

Elmo looked around and suddenly realized that they were walking on an upward incline. Which meant that they really were getting farther away from the river. As it was, they'd already gotten about ten feet above the river.

"When did this start?" Elmo asked, feeling like he should have noticed this before Elin pointed it out.

Elin shrugged. "I just noticed it myself."

Elmo sighed. It was almost like everything was conspiring against him to refute anything he thought or did. If not waste his time and especially MP. Including the geography of where they were traveling with the canyon that they were pretty much either entering or walking along the top part of.

Elmo wished that he had known about some of this before. Although he couldn't say what he might have done differently if he had known about that. If nothing else, it would have at least helped him prepare mentally for these things. As he really felt like he was struggling to keep up with all these changes that he wasn't used to.

"Does it look like the river splits up there?" Elin asked suddenly, pointing ahead of them and pulling Elmo out of his thoughts.

Elmo looked at where Elin was pointing. Indeed it was a fork in the river. Although, Elmo thought it was strange. From what he knew of rivers, at least in his world, they tended to merge together and didn't split apart. Where here it was clear that at least this river was dividing into two rivers.

"It does," Elmo replied absently, wondering what the circumstances for it to work like that would need to be. "What do you think is causing it?"

"Because there's something in the way?" Elin asked, sounding like what she said should be obvious.

"I get that," Elmo replied, trying to keep from snapping at Elin for what he thought was an inane question. "But why doesn't the river erode it so that it stays as a single river? Why does it split and then remain separate?"

"Uh…" Elin looked like she either didn't know what Elmo was getting at or like she didn't understand what he said, if not both.

"It doesn't matter," Elmo said, wanting to move past the topic. He didn't really care what the cause of this phenomenon was, although he would at least be interested in learning what the scientific reasons would be about the matter. Even if it was something that was more magical than scientific.

While it was strange and made him wonder what else might be in this world that was different from his world, it didn't hold his attention for long. Partly because it wasn't that big of a deal, but mostly because a shadow suddenly moved over them.

It wasn't that they walked into the shadow of a mountain or anything, but rather a shadow of something large flying over. When they became aware of the shadow as it moved, it was too late to look to see what had cast it. The skies were clear and Elmo couldn't see even the silhouette of anything that might have cast such a large shadow.

"Elin, Elmo!" Kim called from over closer to the river than they were. "Over here!"

Elmo nodded, not sure if she had noticed what the shadow was of or if there was something else. Though, at the very least, he hoped that they wouldn't expect anything out of him that he hadn't already proved he was at least competent at. Such as using his magic in combat rather than trying to change the terrain.

Although, thinking about that suddenly brought to mind how pleasant the warm water and mud was to travel through. Or at least how much more pleasant it had been as opposed to the other bogs they'd had to travel through.

Not that he had any clue why that popped into his mind. It was an idle thought that felt like it was more out of place than anything else he'd been thinking of in the past little bit.

Still, he was able to push it out of his mind by the time he'd reached where Kim was, even though he hadn't rushed over like Elin had. Which wasn't that surprising to him.

"So, what's the problem?" he asked, hoping it wasn't going to be anything serious. "Did something good happen?"

Kim looked at Elmo like he should have just kept his mouth shut, not that he accepted that. He didn't know what was going on, so he hoped that it was something good, even though he couldn't say if that was the case or not.

"Not sure if it's good or not," Kim answered after a minute. "I didn't catch what flew over us, but I have a feeling that it's not something that's going to leave us alone. Somehow I feel like we're being either tracked or hunted."