The Sounds of Explosions

Jonas wasn't surprised when he saw Elwin and Patricia watching from a distance. It let him know that they'd reached the end of the bog and likely saw the smoke from his campfire. Main reason he made it so large. He knew that they likely had determined that it was him and Elmo, so he wasn't worried about what they were up to.

The only question that came to his mind was why they seemed to be glaring at each other. If they were having problems, he wouldn't have thought that it was a good idea to have sent them together. That merely increased the danger to both of them.

Jonas then looked to the horizon in the direction that Elwin and Patricia had come from. He couldn't see any plume of smoke from a campfire or anything, so he had to assume that it was either because they had a small campfire or, more likely, they hadn't gotten any firewood just yet. Or at least assuming that they'd gotten to the edge of the bog about when Jonas assumed they had.

"Any idea when we'll be able to continue on?" Elmo asked, pulling Jonas from his thoughts. "It's getting boring just waiting around here."

Jonas nodded, he agreed to that, though he supposed that he was probably more used to dealing with boring situations than Elmo was. It was just something that he'd had plenty of experience with where he suspected that Elmo didn't have anywhere near the same amount of experience on that front that he had himself.

"If you want, we can start searching for them in the morning," Jonas offered, acting as if he didn't know that they'd reached the edge of the bog. "We can try checking that way first," Jonas indicated to the south where Elwin and Patricia were watching them," as I think I might have passed them on the north of them."

Jonas didn't care to let others know about his abilities if he didn't need to. Especially if he'd already let them know what they were and they forgot. It wasn't up to him to keep reminding them what he was able to do. As such, he didn't see a reason to let Elwin and Patricia know that he could see them slowly making their way closer to him and Elmo.

Eventually they'd reach them and determine who they were. If they couldn't, then that would be their problem and not something that Jonas would need to really concern himself about.

To keep himself occupied during that wait, Jonas merely went off to look for some more firewood. While it was nice to have a larger fire, including the extra warmth it provided, it did require more firewood than a smaller one would. Which meant he needed to collect more than usual and he could see that the supply he'd gathered earlier was already running low.

"Give me a minute, Elmo," Jonas said as he stood up and started to walk away from the firelight.

"Where're you going?" Elmo asked, sounding like he thought Jonas might be abandoning him.

"To get more firewood," he answered simply. "With how large it is, it's consuming more than it usually does for us."

"Why'd you make it so large anyway? It's not like there's many of us here to begin with."

"Well, it's at least a way we can let others know we're here," Jonas said, pausing in his departure. "That way if the others get to this side of the bog, then they'll be able to find us more easily."

"And how would they know that it's us with such a large fire?"

'they'll just have to send someone to take a look."

Elmo sighed, sounding like he wasn't happy with Jonas' response. Maybe he'd overlooked some problem with it in his haste to come up with the idea, but he couldn't say that it was something that had a better option. Though, the fact that Elwin and Patricia were present to look into the fire was already a sign to Jonas that his plan had worked. Even if Elwin and Patricia were moving too slowly in what they were doing for his taste.

As he left the firelight, Jonas could feel his vision shift so that the he could see in the dark like it was still daylight completely, where before it had been shifting so it was a little difficult at times to see. While his ability to see in the dark probably originally had another use that it was supposed to be used for, it certainly made it rather easy to locate firewood in, even if it was more like smaller pieces of sagebrush at the moment rather than tree branches. However, it wasn't like they had any say in what the flora in any given area would be like.

Jonas was able to collect a small armful when a loud explosion shook the ground. He wasn't sure what the cause was, but he could tell that it was from the camp. Although, he suspected Elmo might be the cause, he didn't want to jump to conclusions. After all, as far as he knew there were other things about these mountains than he was aware of. Such as potential volcanic activity.

Jonas dropped the firewood as he started running back to the camp. If Elmo was the cause, then he knew that Elmo wouldn't have used anything like that unless he felt he had reason to. While Jonas wouldn't mind normally, he suspected that Elwin or Patricia had done something that set off a chain reaction with Elmo who might have overreacted to something simple. Such as some dislodged pebbles that startled Elmo.

Jonas hoped that there weren't any casualties, but he couldn't be sure, especially since there were so many possibilities to work with at the moment since he wasn't at the camp right then.

As he reached the camp, another explosion soared into the air and Jonas could see that it was Elmo using his magic to cause the explosions. Only, he with the fires going because of those explosions, and the fact that Patricia and Elwin had been approaching from that direction.

Jonas couldn't help but take a deep breath and sigh. This wasn't what he had envisioned when Elwin and Patricia realized who was camping here. Although, he couldn't help but hope that this was all about something else. Something that he'd missed. As that way this wouldn't create more problems to work with later on.

+++

Kim was on her feet almost in an instant. She wasn't sure what was going on, but the sounds of explosions echoing around the mountains were making her worry that something had happened and they'd need all hands on deck to deal with whatever was going on.

"What's happening?" Elin asked rubbing her eyes as she sat up near the fire.

"Not sure," Kim replied, not bothering to look at Elin as she searched for where the explosion had come from.

In the end, she found it up towards where they'd sent Elwin and Patricia as a third explosion could be seen in the distance. Kim couldn't be sure what was causing them, but she could see flames in the distance that disappeared almost as quickly as they appeared.

"I'm going after Patricia," Patrick declared, looking as close to a simp as he possibly could in Kim's opinion.

"If you wait a minute, I'll go with you," Kim said, wanting to see what it was about but not wanting to leave Elin by herself.

"I'm not waiting," Patrick replied and rushed out of the campsite, leaving the rest of them to shaken their heads at his impulsiveness.

She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, but it at least left them to figure out who else would be following after Patrick.

"Uh, If you don't mind, should I stay here?" Heather asked, looking like she was worried that Kim was insist that she go.

"No one has to go if they don't want to," Kim said firmly. "The only time that'd be different is like when Patricia and Elwin were fighting over stupid things while leaving the rets of us to get caught in the crossfire."

"In that case, I should stay too," Sonya offered, pulling Heather in for a side hug. "That way if something happens here, there'll be either a means to fight it or a means to flee it."

"What's 'it?'" Bart asked, looking like he was genuinely confused about the wording.

"Whatever would possibly happen while we're gone," Owen said dryly. "I'd have thought you'd have picked up on that."

Bart shook his head. "Maybe if there was more going on I'd have figured it out, but with so little happening, it's hard to keep track sometimes."

Out of everyone present, Kim had to admit that Bart was the one that she least understood. A few times she thought she'd gotten him down, but then he simply did something that threw off what she had expected of him. While it's not necessarily a bad thing, Kim did like it when people were easy for her to read. It made it easier to deal with them.

Though, while Jonas was a hard to read as well, she was at least able to get a slight read on him where Bart was all over the place in general on what she was able to get from him.

"Fine, it's me, Patrick, and Owen. The rest will wait here for us to return and let you know one way for another," Kim said, ready to leave.

"Hey, I didn't say I wanted to stay!" Bart protested, his ire evident in his voice.

"Well, then you should have spoken up," Kim retorted. "But regardless, we'll take Bart as well. The rest of you can rest here and if anything happens, we're counting on you Sonya to get them out of here safely."

Sonya nodded as they turned to leave the campsite.