Tracks

Jonas moved through the trees. He found some tracks that he didn't recognize and had started following them. The could be Elin's, but he wasn't a tracker, even without his system so it wasn't like he knew what to look for when it came to determining tracks and all that.

All he could determine is that whoever, or whatever, left the tracks had feet similar to that of a human. While he wouldn't be surprised to find that he had stumbled on the tracks of a bigfoot, a sasquatch, or even a yeti, he wouldn't know until he found where the tracks ended.

It was possible that he'd reach a place where he'd lose the direction the creature that left these tracks had been going in, such as if he found where it primarily slept. However, until he did, he didn't plan on stopping.

Even if it wasn't Elin whose tracks these were, it was possible that whoever left them could know something that would help him. Though, even if they did, he had a feeling that it wouldn't be quite that simple.

Not with how complicated everything involving this competition seemed to be most of the time.

Hearing noises ahead of him, Jonas quickly melted into the shadows, so as to not draw attention to himself, just in case Elin had been captured by whoever had left these tracks. If they weren't, then he might consider risking showing himself to whoever was ahead of him, but he couldn't be sure if it would even be safe to do that regardless.

Still, he knew he had to at least take a look, if nothing else.

Yet, when he did, he was shocked to find that he'd returned to the came where he'd left the others. The only difference this time was a man Jonas didn't recognize.

He wasn't sure what to make of the man, but it was clear that the others knew him, so Jonas didn't try to get that much information about him. Maybe this person knew something, maybe he didn't. If he knew something, then he'd have to trust the others to get that information and go from there.

Jonas instead moved out again, leaving the shadows when he was far enough away that he doubted he'd be noticed. He didn't care to reveal himself to the strange man, just in case that man was involved in some way or directly with Elin having gone missing and no one even remembering about her.

Jonas took a deep breath to calm himself. It wasn't so much that he was getting worked up by Elin's disappearance, but more that he was struggling with all the twists and turns this competition has sent his way so far. While it kept him on his toes, it also made it hard to know what was going on half the time.

One thing that he felt confident about was that Elin hadn't been captured or died. If she had died, then it would have been announced at some point. Though, as far as he knew, she had died since the morning and her death just hadn't been announced because it wasn't time for the evening announcements yet.

Then if she had been captured by something, he would have expected a side challenge to have been set up. Like when Heather and Sonya had been captured by the goblins. Although, he wasn't really sure that he could count on something like that happening again. Not when he really didn't know what those running this competition really thought about some of these things.

Regardless, he recognized that he couldn't really assume that everything was fine with her just because nothing had been announced so far. He didn't like relying on the announcements for news like this anyway. It felt like he would be just delegating his own life to others if he did that.

As he continued walking, he came across some more tracks, and started following them. He was confident that these weren't ones he'd followed before and hoped that he wouldn't find that these led to the other tracks where he'd come across them. While it was entirely possible and wouldn't have been anything that he could have done to really prevent it, Jonas would have felt like he'd have wasted important time.

However, as he followed these tracks, he couldn't help but notice that the split off into two directions. Not like they'd made separate turns, bur rather one started shifting in another direction and continued going that way. He wasn't sure if either would be the one he wanted, but he was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to follow both at the same time. Especially if they got too far apart.

So, he took the one that was heading downhill first. Partly because it was easier to travel going downhill, which would ease some of the pains in his travel weary body. He doubted it was a good reason to go with that option, but it wasn't like he had any reliable information to work with that either of the set of tracks would have been either left by Elin or of any real use otherwise.

However, when he reached the bottom of the mountain hill, he noticed drag marks on the ground. He couldn't say what had been dragged, but it did look like it had gone in the direction of the camp, so he had to assume that it wasn't Elin who had made those tracks and drag marks.

Which meant that he needed to take a look at the other set of tracks. If only to make sure that those weren't also going to loop back around to the camp.

As he started to walk back up the hill, he couldn't help but wonder if all the traces of Elin had disappeared. If whatever had caused the others to forget her and taken measures to make it as if she never existed in the first place.

Pushing those thoughts to the side, Jonas reminded himself that he couldn't be sure that was the case. Even if whoever was behind this had done something like that, he was confident that there should still be some trace of her somewhere. Something that would allow him to find her, so long as he didn't miss it.

As long as he stuck with the search, he was confident that he'd be able to find her. If nothing else, he figured he could see if Kim would use her sword's ability to find Elin once it's cooldown was over. If Kim had another use for it before that, he was willing to let her to go with that first.

Mostly because he wasn't sure if it would create more problems if he did. Partly because he couldn't be sure about if Kim would take issue with him requesting that, given how she and Elin seemed to have ben at odds lately. If him making that request stirred up the emotions going on regarding that, he was pretty sure he could end up with more trouble than he'd like about the whole issue.

When Jonas started following the other set, he did his best to keep his mind from wandering. Largely because if there was something to find that could point to Elin, he didn't want to miss it because he was distracted. Though, the biggest problem was that there were so many things going on that it made it difficult to focus on what was before him. Especially when there wasn't much else that would help focus his entire attention.

Like having to fight a horde of goblins would be.

When Jonas reached the edge of the trees, he stopped. Before him was an area hat was clear the bear hadn't been at all, nor was there any reason for any of their combined group to have continued on this way that Jonas could think of. Yet, the tracks continued on until they reached rock at the base of the mountain.

Ahead of that, there was only bare mountain rock that he could see. It wasn't clear where the tracks went after that, but Jonas had a feeling that there was something there that had interested whoever had left them.

Looking into the distance, he couldn't see anything, but that didn't mean there hadn't been anything of interest whenever the tracks had been made. If there was something out there that was of interest, Jonas planned on finding out what it was. He suspected that Elin had gone that way and that she likely needed help of some kind.

It didn't really have to be from him, but he wouldn't know until he found her. If he didn't have the skills to help her, he could always return and get one of the others to help. Though, the only one that he suspected might be the most likely to be able to help Elin in ways that he couldn't would be Heather.

Though, he wouldn't be surprised if any trouble Elin was in would need to be taken care of through multiple people. Especially with how so much of this competition seemed to have been set up for whatever reason.

Still, the sooner he found Elin, the sooner he would know for sure just what was going on in general around them there.