After the Storm

Kim knew her ankle had been healed. Yet that didn't keep her from wanting to keep her weight off of it. Even if it meant she spent the night laying in the mud of the bog.

The problem wasn't so much that it still hurt, but more from the fact that she wasn't used to major injuries like that going away so quickly. As she didn't know if it was broken or just sprained before it had been healed.

She understood that a broken ankle was better than a sprained one, even though she couldn't say exactly why. It was just something she'd once overheard either doctors or nurses talking about. Though, she was at least aware that injuries like that tended to make it easier to occur again, but she wasn't able to say if that would be the case with Heather having healed her ankle.

Kim was also thankful that Elin wasn't the one who'd healed her. Primarily because she didn't want Elin to see what had happened to her.

She fully understood why the others had been pulling on the rope, even though it could have been worse than it had turned out to be. Such as either having sliced her body in two, torn her foot off completely, or just kept her from being able to free her foot and make her drown. Each possibility was just as likely as the next to have occurred.

"Kim?" Kim heard Elin's quiet voice near her ear ask as each of them tried to get what sleep they could with the cold, freezing rain continuing to pelt them as it continued to come down on them hard.

"Yeah?" Kim asked, not really caring if she was disturbing another's attempt to fall asleep. She doubted anyone would be able to in the current conditions, but if they were able to, she seriously doubted her voice would wake them up at this point.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice getting quieter to the point that Kim could barely hear her.

"Don't worry about it," Kim replied. "You did what we'd agreed on."

While Kim didn't like how it had worked out, she had to admit that she had essentially agreed to have had that happen to her, even though it was supposed to only be for if someone had fallen in quicksand and couldn't get out themselves. Although, Kim doubted that any of their combined group, with except maybe Elwin had actually seen quicksand themselves.

Kim knew she certainly hadn't, and so it made sense that Elin might not have known what Kim had fallen into. Especially with the rain coming down as hard as it was to the point that Kim hadn't even noticed the bog pool in the first place, when she'd been able to walk around them before without any issues.

"But you got hurt because of what I did," Elin protested.

"Don't worry, my gem," Kim said, trying to soothe Elin's worries. "You couldn't have known what was going on in the bog pool . All you knew was that I was in trouble and so pulled on the rope."

A strained groan from Elin let Kim know that Elin wasn't taking it as well as she'd like Elin to. Not that she could really think of how else to have put it. After all, it wasn't something that seemed like it was going to go away anytime soon, or even with simple platitudes that Kim doubted would have helped her out any if their roles were reversed.

+++

The day dawning hardly felt like it was anything significant. The rain barely stopped before the sky started to lighten, even though the clouds remained above them. The clouds just apparently had decided to stop dumping water on them though Kim wasn't sure if the clouds really cared what they did or not. Or at least what they did over whom.

When the sky was light enough, Kim sat up in the mud, doing her best to ignore the sensation of the pud having matted in her hair. She planned on rinsing it off at the earliest opportunity, even if that meant she'd have to dive in to ice cold water to do so.

Besides, with how cold they were right then, Kim couldn't help but wonder if doing that would help warm her up as she noticed everyone was shivering from the chill brought on by staying out under the downpour without any shelter. Though, Patricia and Patrick didn't seem to be shivering, even though it was clear they hadn't been able to get any sleep themselves, either.

"Maybe we should have stayed at the hydra's lair," Sonya groaned as the others started to follow Kim's lead, none of them clearly having been asleep at any point during the night.

"If we did, we'd be dealing with a lake in it before the storm was over, I'd bet," Owen commented. "I mean, I doubt the water would drain that quickly out of it."

"Let's just get moving," Kim said, doing her best to keep her teeth from chattering. "We can warm up doing that."

"Can't we start a fire instead?" Heather asked, looking as miserable as Kim had felt when her ankle had been injured.

"We could, but unless Patrick's willing to keep it going himself, we won't be able to keep it lit without fuel." Kim answered, not caring to soften her words any. Not when she was really to get moving, partly to warm up, but mostly because she wanted to try and reach the other side of the bog that much sooner.

"Any sign of Jonas?" Owen asked once they were all moving, if rather slowly compared to the pace that they'd set before when travelling through the bog.

Kim wasn't going to complain about it, even though she wished that there was something she could do about it. She also didn't care to ask Patricia to make them an ice shelf to walk along. Not with how worn out Kim was pretty sure all of them currently were. Though, she hoped that maybe they'd find another dry island that would allow them to rest and not in the mud of the bog.

While she doubted they'd find one, she couldn't dismiss that possibility out of hand, although she did suspect that it'd still be rather muddy if they did find one right then. As the sun hadn't yet had time to dry the rain water on it to get it to keep from being almost as muddy as the bog itself.

+++

Elmo opened his eyes, unsure about what to expect. He knew the rain had slowed down earlier and as it did, he'd fallen into a restless slumber. Even now he barely could get his eyes to focus on anything around him. Everything felt like it was a blur to him. Even Jonas.

"Morning sleepyhead," Jonas said in a teasing tone. "You certainly took your time getting up."

"Why?" Elmo asked, trying to rub his eyes in the hopes that they'd be willing to clear up so he could actually see his surroundings.

"Well, I started a fire after gathering firewood, then I used my system to get a few fish from the river nearby, and then I started cooking the fish and getting us a dry set of clothing ready."

As Elmo took his hands away from his eyes, he couldn't help but blink in surprise and that action nearly made him give up trying to clear his eyes, as they remained mostly blurry, though a few parts did seem a little clearer than before.

"There's a fire?" he asked, unable to fully process what that meant. Though he was certain that it meant something. The meaning merely eluded his awareness at the moment.

"Yeah, I started it after the rain stopped. I figured we'd need to get one going before we really started to freeze with out wet clothing and everything. Especially since we can't do anything but wait for the others to catch up."

"Wait?" Elmo echoed, feeling like he should know what Jonas was getting at. "Why do we need to wait? We were the ones who got left behind."

"And now we're the ones ahead," Jone replied, more cheerfully than Elmo was happy with. "So we get to rest while waiting for them to reach the edge of the bog as well."

Elmo sighed, not caring enough to figure out exactly what Jonas meant. His mind was just too tired to process all that had been said. So, instead of getting up and getting a fish to eat, Elmo merely lay back down to try and go back to sleep. Which only lasted a minute or so before his mind finally clicked the pieces into place and Elmo realized what Jonas had been getting at.

"How did we reach the edge of the bog?" Elmo asked, feeling a little incredulous. "I mean, we didn't go anywhere after it got dark."

"Actually we traveled through the shadows," Jonas replied, sounding a little smug to Elmo. "We were able to move faster than trudging through the mud, but at least we reached the edge."

"Why not go back for the others?" Elmo asked, feeling like there was something that Jonas just wasn't telling him.

Jonas merely sighed, as if that was too much of an ask for him. "I would, but I'm not sure how many I can ferry at once, and at this time there's not enough shadows to move through. Though I doubt that the others will be much longer anyway. I think maybe by the end of the day they should be through."

Elmo felt stunned. The others were that close to the edge? Just what else did Jonas see that Elmo hadn't the night before?