Discussing the Shadow

The shadow had startled Jonas. He hadn't heard anything when it suddenly passed over them, even with his enhanced ears. There wasn't anything he could see in the sky that could have cast any kind of shadow, let alone one that big and that moved that fast. Plus, while there were mountains nearby that limited their field of view, in addition to the terrain looking like it was becoming a river canyon, anything that had moved in the sky should still be seen for at least a few minutes. At least with how fast that shadow moved.

Jonas saw Kim call Elmo and Elin over and decided to head that was as well. If nothing else, having the army see all of them discussing something, even though they likely wouldn't be able to know exactly what they were talking about, would at least settle the frayed nerves that shadow had caused.

Which meant that there'd be less for them to deal with in regards to settling everyone down. Which would be important if whatever had cast that shadow was hostile. Which would be difficult enough to deal with on its own without having to deal with anyone panicking or unable to do anything useful.

While Jonas doubted things would come to that, he would at least like to avoid having to help those who were just getting in the way. At the party it was one thing, since they couldn't have prepared for all that had happened, but here, there was at least something that they could do to at least help mitigate a few circumstances before they actually took shape.

"Did you see what that shadow was?" Kim asked Elmo.

Jonas couldn't see Elmo's response, with a group of nervous soldiers blocking his view. All he could tell was that Elmo didn't say anything in response.

"I see," Kim sighed, making Jonas assume Elmo's response was in the negative. "Well, would you be able to use your check stats spell on it?"

Jonas was surprised. He hadn't thought about that potential use of Elmo's spell, but at the same time, he doubted it would work. However, none of them really knew some of the finer details of their systems, since it wasn't like they were given a manual for them and the tutorial was more limited help rather than actually being helpful.

"I-" Elmo started to say but stopped. Jonas had a feeling that Elmo hadn't thought of trying to use his spell that way either.

At that moment, Jonas finally passed by those who were blocking his view of Elmo and he could see that Elmo had a surprised expression on his face, almost dumbfounded.

"Why not try it?" Elin asked, snapping Elmo out of his daze. "What's the worst that could happen?"

Elmo sighed like he was being forced into doing something that he really didn't want to. Jonas could imagine that Elmo didn't really want to do this experiment either, but it was clear that he was going to do it anyway.

"View Stats," Elmo merely said in a monotone, devoid of any enthusiasm or emotion that he might currently be feeling.

Jonas watched those three as he approached, half hoping that Elmo would succeed and they'd find out what it was that had cast the shadow. He felt like he was on pins and needles himself, even though he knew that he wouldn't know if Elmo succeeded at it or if he failed until he said something about it.

Elmo was quiet for so long that Jonas was starting to think that Elmo had in fact succeeded when Elmo let out a disappointed sigh. With the exhale, Jonas felt his hopes get dashed as well. Whether it was actually possible for Elmo to use that spell in that manner, Jonas couldn't be sure. All he could be certain about was that Elmo hadn't succeeded at this time.

"I guess I have some good news and bad news," Elmo said, sounding more melodramatic than Jonas would have liked

In fact, if Jonas thought it might help any, he'd have smacked Elmo upside his head solely for phrasing his statement that way. Not only did it really not say what he was thinking, but it made it sound like he'd succeeded when it was clear that he'd failed.

"Go with the good news first," Kim said, her tone indicating that Elmo was pushing his luck with how he had given his statement.

"Well, I got the stats for the shadow," Elmo said, suddenly sounding like he was afraid of getting hit or something.

"So, what's the shadow of," Elin asked before anyone could say anything else.

"Uh…" Elmo trailed off and Jonas had a feeling he knew what the problem was. "you see, I saw the stats of the shadow. But it didn't tell me anything." Elmo paused for a moment before continuing, "All it said was that it was the shadow cast by a large creature."

Jonas couldn't help but start chuckling at the irony of Elmo's statement. Of course it was a large creature. They'd figured that much out already.

"What else did it say?" Elin pressed, looking like she was hoping that he'd be able to say more.

Elmo, however, merely shook his head. "That's all it said. Which is pretty much the bad news. The shadow itself didn't have any HP, MP, stamina, or any other stats."

"You know, I wouldn't be surprised if we encountered shadow monsters at some point," Jonas said, voicing the thought as soon as it came to him.

Jonas turned to look at Kim as she opened her mouth, when…

"Wait, what're you talking about?" Elin asked, cutting off whatever Kim was about to say.

"Yeah, why would a shadow be a monster itself?" Elmo chimed in.

Jonas waited a moment, looking at Kim, to see if she was going to say what she had been about to. When Kim shook her head slightly, Jonas then turned back to Elin and Elmo. "Alright. Because Elmo was able to view the stats of the shadow itself, then it shows that it's possible that a shadow could have stats of its own. However, I don't think that it's something that will be likely to occur."

"Why not?" Elin asked, sounding more surprised than Jonas would have expected.

"Simply because if they were more common, we probably would have heard about them before," he explained, hoping that his assumption about the matter was correct. He really had no idea himself. Though, he mostly said that they probably wouldn't encounter them simply because he could tell that Elmo and Elin both looked rather uneasy about the thought of a shadow monster to begin with.

"So, where would the be?" Elmo asked, glancing around as if he expected them to be nearby.

"Don't worry about," Jonas told him, wondering if he should have just not mentioned the thought. Especially with the headache he felt coming on from their reaction to it.

"Getting back on point, I was wondering if any of you thought that maybe we should try to set up camp or hope that whatever that shadow was, wasn't hunting us," Kim said.

"Was it hunting us?" Elin asked.

"It's possible," Kim replied. "I can't say for sure, since we don't know what the hell it is." Kim sighed, making Jonas wonder if they should take a day to really rest, and deal with the boredom that came with that, or continue moving on and hope that the fatigue each of them probably had accumulated with the recent events of the past couple days wouldn't turn out to be a problem.

"We also can't say that it wasn't just something that lives in this canyon and wasn't even aware of us," Kim continued after a moment. "Until we really know what it is, we can't say for certain that it isn't hunting us."

"Maybe we should just continue moving on," Jonas said. "If it is hunting us, then it might be better to find terrain that's more defensive than this is."

"What's wrong with this terrain?" Elmo asked. "It's at least not like the bogs we had to pass through."

"The problem is the fact that we have the river on one side of us and whatever cast the shadow can fly. Which means that it could come from any direction above us. If we could find a place that is a little more restrictive on large flying creatures, then that would be more beneficial to us if it came to a fight," Jonas answered. "At the very least, it would limit the directions that it could attack from, which would make it easier for us to spot."

"What does the river have to do with what you said?" Elin asked, looking towards the river.

"Simply because it could try to drive us towards it," Kim answered for Jonas. "There isn't a bank on the river, so if any of us falls into it, we could be easy pickings for it as we floated along, waiting for a place we could climb out of it."

"What if we encounter a place worse than this before we find a place that would be better?" Elmo asked.

"Then we better hope that whatever that was isn't hunting us," Jonas answered. "Though, that is a chance we would have to take as we moved along."

"Let's go anyway," Elin said, with more enthusiasm than Jonas expected. Almost like she was eager to find a worse place to encounter the creature. "Maybe we can get another challenge completion out of it."

Jonas couldn't help but chuckle. That would be good if they managed that, even though he had a feeling it might not be so simple. Although, at the same time, it wasn't like the announcer ever announced what kinds of secret challenges might be available.