Out Foraging

Elmo wasn't sure what to expect in reality. He felt like Elin was behaving strangely, but not in a way that he could identify. Then Grisha also seemed to be behaving a little differently with Elin as well.

However, since he knew even less about Grisha than Elin, he wasn't really sure if it really was strange for him or not. It was merely something that more felt different about him rather than something out of place.

Still, he didn't see a point in saying anything, especially if there really was something going on. He doubted that it would be beneficial to alert Grisha to his suspicions. Especially since if there wasn't anything going on, that he was pretty sure that Grisha wouldn't appreciate the suspicions.

"So, what're we going to do after breakfast?" Bart asked, pulling Elmo's thoughts away from his suspicions.

"Probably just try to forage for lunch," Elmo guessed. "I mean, unless Sonya wakes up, we're probably not going to be able to do anything other than sit around and wait."

"What'll we do if she wakes up, then?"

"Well, if she can at least walk, we can then either start walking back to our camp to collect the supplies we left there or we can try following the path of the bear. In all, we'd need to discuss it among ourselves, though I'm sure that if the others return to find us gone, they'll probably check to see if we went to collect the supplies at the camp before assuming something happened to us."

Bart eyed Elmo, looking like he wasn't convinced or had some other issue with his assessment. "Why would you think that?"

Elmo merely shrugged. He didn't care if Bart accepted his thoughts. It didn't bother him one way or another. "Well, unless there's signs of a struggle, there wouldn't be a reason to think that we'd been attacked. Then the fact that Sonya would also be gone would be an indication that she left with us as well, since I'm pretty sure that, as a dragon, she's rather heavy and wouldn't be able to be just carried off so easily."

Bart glanced towards Elin and Heather, looking rather uncomfortable. "Uh, you realize it's not a good thing to talk about a girl's weight, right? Some can get rather… temperamental about it."

Elmo waved his hand like it didn't matter, and he was pretty sure it didn't in this case. "I'm not commenting about her weight. I'm commenting about the weight her current shape has. Some might not consider there to be a difference, but it's not like a dragon weighs as much as a human. I mean, just from her mass, she'd have to weigh at least twice as much as a human. Besides, some species are larger when it's the female gender rather than the male. While I don't know if that's the case with dragons, I can at least say that a dragon is much heavier than a human, regardless of anything else."

"Uh, either way, you're still commenting about her weight," Bart replied dryly.

"If she has an issue with me remarking about how much a dragon weighs in relation to a human, she can talk to me about it herself," Elmo replied, starting to get annoyed about the point.

"Yeah, I'll make sure to let her know I tried talking you out of it too," Bart replied, making Elmo wonder just how nervous Bart was about that subject. After all, it wasn't like he really participated in it. If anything, he was merely present for Elmo making his comments out loud.

When everyone had eaten what they wanted with their breakfast, Elmo carefully did what he could to put out the fire, so they wouldn't need to have anyone keep an eye on it in case it wasn't completely out. After all, without any real means of getting out of the mountains fast, Elmo certainly wouldn't care to end up in the middle of a wild fire. Especially one that they'd started because they were inattentive to their campfire.

When he'd completed that, Elmo started to walk away from everyone else. While Grisha had gotten them the rabbits, Elmo didn't think that it would be good to rely solely on him for their food. Though, while Elmo didn't know what to really look for when it came to foraging, he was pretty sure that he'd be able to at least come up with something. Especially since he couldn't say what might catch his eye.

Besides, if he thought he found something that might be edible, he figured that he could at least use his 'View Stats' spell on it to see if it would give him that kind of information. Or at least how to make it edible, if there was a process needed to remove the inedible parts of it.

While he didn't have to go off by himself, he looked forward to the solitude. He didn't plan on really going far, but he felt that the time being by himself would be beneficial for him. Especially since he wasn't sure that he wouldn't get another chance like this any time soon.

He'd been around others nearly constantly since he'd been in this world, and even before when he'd try to go gather firewood or attempt to forage, he'd have others volunteering to join him. When it was others like Elin, he didn't find that as objectionable, but even then, it wasn't by himself. Which was something he was more used to being than around others.

As such, it was rather stressful to have to not get a break from the others that much.

Which was also why he planned on taking as long as he could this time.

Elin and Heather were busy with Sonya, Bart didn't seem as inclined to stick around Elmo as some of the others that weren't with them seemed to do. So, it felt almost like it was an opportunity that he couldn't just pass up without having to regret it later.

However, after walking past two hills, he could see that the sun was getting rather close to the horizon. Closer than he'd have liked, but he couldn't do anything about having lost track of time. Which he hardly felt very concerned about. He hadn't found anything useful on his way here, but he figured he could at least gather some firewood to keep his trip from being a complete waste.

"All of you seem rather tight lipped about how you got here," a voice asked, startling Elmo as he had turned around and taken a single step back to where Sonya had crashed.

"Grisha?" Elmo asked, feeling a little uneasy.

"Yeah, it's me," Grisha said, stepping out from behind a tree, so close that Elmo was surprised that he hadn't heard the young man either approaching or seen him. Especially with how he had passed that very tree mere minutes earlier.

"Where'd you come from?" Elmo asked, unable to keep from voicing his thoughts.

Grisha merely shrugged. "I was just around. I've always been good at being unnoticed and all. Which is why I need you to tell me how I'm supposed to return to where I'm from. How did you and those with you pull me and my parent's family to this place. What do you plan on doing with us?"

Elmo hesitated before saying anything. Not because he was nervous, but more because he wasn't sure where to really start. It wasn't like he knew what Grisha was talking about, but at the same time, he couldn't say that he could really give an explanation that he could be confident that Grisha would accept.

The only thing Elmo had to consider was the fact that Grisha had likely been brought here by whoever ran this competition. He wished he knew how to get out of here, but it wasn't like he would likely have the means if he did know. Or at least aside from winning the competition, which he hoped they'd be able to do, even though he couldn't say for sure since he felt like there were things that he just didn't understand.

Such as why Grisha was essentially letting him know that he was somehow tied to a challenge. Him and his family. Elmo wasn't sure in what way they were, but since they were brought here by those running the competition, then that would mean they had some purpose in it. Elmo just couldn't be sure what it was exactly just yet.

"I have no idea what you mean," Elmo said firmly. "All any of us want is to go to our own homes."

Grisha scoffed. "Yeah, if that was the case, then you wouldn't have forced a dragon to be your slave, nor would you have scared my sister off when she saw you. Even that poor bear was run off by you. All of you are just destroyers. So, where is my sister!?"

Elmo could understand what he was getting at with some of his demands, but what really annoyed Elmo was the fact that he was laying out his accusations, but not giving him any time to react to them. It might have been something that he'd have eventually given away about the competition, but at this point, he was pretty confident that Grisha wouldn't believe anything other than Elmo admitting to what he'd been accused of.

At the moment, Elmo had a feeling he might be in more of a difficult position than he had expected at this point. Especially from someone who looked like they were a much better fighter than Elmo could hope to be.