Deciding on Which Path part 1

Jonas couldn't say why, but when he woke up the next morning, he couldn't help but feel restless. He couldn't be sure if it was because of the diverging paths that they could see ahead of them, if he just didn't sleep very well, or if it was something else altogether.

Regardless of the reason, he was quite confident that it wasn't going to be an easy day for him. Not with everything else that they had to consider as well in regards to picking a path to take.

"Any thoughts of which path we should choose?" Kim asked conversationally as they were finishing their breakfast.

"Good morning contestants!" the announcer's voice boomed, interrupting Kim's thoughts. "We have another bonus challenge to offer this morning! There is a piece of weaponry that doesn't belong in this world that was accidentally brought here. Whoever can find the weapon and melt it down will have achieved this objective.

"Aside from that, we have nothing else to report. Sadly no one has been willing to let our audience watch their gruesome deaths, with the only positive about that being no one has died at night during that time. So, we can only wait to see when the next bit of excitement for our audience will be."

Jonas sighed as the announcer finished. As usual, he was as much of a ray of sunshine and compassion as he had always been. Where he'd rather have whoever it was just stop altogether and maybe even just let them all return to their own worlds, like this had never occurred in the first place. No matter what else happened because of that.

"Anyway, any suggestions on which path to take?" Kim asked again after a minute when it was clear that the announcer was done talking.

Elmo looked like he wanted to say something and Jonas was half expecting him to, but then he didn't even open his mouth, which made Jonas wonder if there might be something going on with Elmo again. Like when he was looking for a way to ditch their group. Not that he thought Elmo was thinking about doing that again, just that he was potentially getting to that point again.

"Why can't we just continue on with this same path?" Elin asked, apparently not worried about sharing her thoughts.

"We could, but that doesn't mean we should," Jonas answered before Kim could say anything in response. "We don't know which path we should take or which one would be most helpful to where we ultimately want to go, but that also means that any path is just as good as another."

While Jonas felt that he'd been clear in what he'd said, Elin only looked at him in confusion. He couldn't think of how to simplify what he'd said, so he couldn't think of what else he could say to dispel her confusion.

"He means that we can take any path and we're just as likely to make the right choice as if we stayed on this path," Kim replied.

"Uh…" Elin said, looking unsure about what she was about to say. "Then why shouldn't we just stay on this path anyway?"

While he really didn't find the situation that funny or really appreciate Elin's question, Jonas couldn't help but to start chuckling about it. He was rather amused about it regardless, as if it was a funny situation.

"What's so funny?" Elin asked, sounding a little annoyed.

"Don't mind him," Kim replied, looking at Jonas reproachfully. "It's not that we think we have to stay on this same path, it's just that we want to make sure that the path we're take is one that we can agree on."

Elin didn't look convinced, but she also didn't look like she was going to say anything more. Like she wasn't going to budge from her stance on the issue. Which Jonas couldn't really fault. After all, it really didn't matter to him if they stayed on this same path and ignored the other ones.

"Well, we could at least take a path that leads to the top of the canyon to see if there's anything we can see that would help us out," Kim offered.

"What do you mean?" Elin asked doubtfully.

"Just that if we get to the top of the canyon, we might be able to see if this path would continue on farther or if maybe there's a path we could take to shorten the distance some," Kim answered.

Elin opened her mouth to reply, but then closed it, her expression rather thoughtful.

Jonas looked at each of them and considered what else might need to be said, but when nothing came to mind after a couple minutes, he started to get to his feet. If nothing else, they really needed to start moving or they'd hardly make any progress for the day when they did start to move.

"If there's any other thoughts, we can hear them at any time," Jonas said. "Until we fully commit to any path, we can always change our minds on the matter."

No one offered any objections to Jonas' statement, they all just got to their feet and they started out. Taking their time as they walked along,

Jonas was tracing where the various paths that could be seen led. He counted ten different paths, although one led to a cave that he couldn't be certain actually led somewhere other than a dead end.

While there were several natural bridges crossing over the river here, Jonas could see that many just created paths that connected the paths in multiple locations, so that if they really wanted to, they could essentially walk in perpetual circles. Which merely made it a little more complicated on which paths there were to choose from overall.

"This is like a hive," Elmo remarked quietly. So quietly that Jonas was certain that if he didn't have his Keen Ears skill, that he wouldn't have heard him say anything. Elin and Kim certainly hadn't.

"Can you see a path that would get us to the top of the canyon faster?" Jonas asked Kim as they reached the first natural stone bridge.

Kim shook her head. "It's hard to see which would be the most optimal without taking our time to map them out completely, but if we take that next one that rises up, we can then climb up to the next one that then connects to that bridge there before moving up that path," Kim replied, pointing to the various bridges as she explained. "If there's anything past there, I can't really see it right now, but maybe I'll be able to say differently once we cross the river the first time."

Jonas nodded. Though, the bridges Kim pointed to looked thinner than most of the others, which didn't help him feel very good about it, but it wasn't like he had any better suggestions. Especially since he didn't know this area any better than Kim did. Which made him wonder if he should have merged with the shadows the night before and did a little mapping of the area himself.

He couldn't say how quickly he'd have been able to do that, but he thought it might be a good thing to do at some point if they countered this situation again another time.

The day moved on and as they started to climb the first stone bridge, Jonas started to appreciate just how old they were when a few rocks separated from the bridge falling into the river below, making Jonas feel a little uncertain about how structurally sound any of these bridges were. Which merely made Jonas question if Elin had the right idea of only staying with the path that they had been following.

Aside from those rocks, nothing else fell from the bridge and they were able to reach the other side safely, if a little winded from the climb, which a short rest was able to cure. Which Jonas was very grateful for. Not that he felt the worst was over yet. When they had finished the rest and were getting ready to continue their climb, Jonas noticed some clouds in the distance that he didn't like the look of.

There wasn't a chance for them to get a weather forecast here, son he couldn't really tell what the chances of rain or any other weather condition that could potentially come up, but he at least recognized that it was a thunderhead. The only question for him was if it was going to head in their direction or if it was going to just stare at them threateningly.

When they reached the next bridge, Kim paused to examine their route. With the different angle of view, even Jonas could see that they'd need to cross another bridge before they reached the top of the canyon, unless they wanted to take a rather long detour.

The only positive for Jonas with that fact was how the other bridges looked more stable than the first one they'd crossed. Plus they were at least twice as wide, providing extra defense against sliding off the sides.

The sun was starting to get close to the horizon when they finally crested the top of the canyon walls. At first Jonas thought that'd be the worst part of the day, but when they looked at the canyon, Jonas felt his hearts sink with how winding and big it was.

Not only did it look almost like the amazon river, from what he could see, with all the forks and tributaries, but Jonas wondered how far it might extend. He couldn't really tell with how uneven the top of the canyon walls were along most of it. All he could tell was that they'd have at least a couple days of travel if they could have just walked across it as the crow flew, rather than following the winding passages of the canyon.