Kim wasn't sure why she was teasing Elmo, but that's what she found herself doing without thinking about it. Almost like she was warming up to him, even though she was fairly sure it was because she was bored at the moment. Not that there was anything to do about that.
While she knew that there wasn't going to be anything really to do on the road, she couldn't help but wish that something would happen. She didn't like the monotony of basic travel in this world.
The previous times they'd walked from one place to another, it had been when she was still getting used to this world. So, now that she was more accustomed to it, this trip was proving to be really boring. Especially since she had her own 'army' with her and that could very well scare off any danger that would have made this trip more interesting.
"You know, given what they just said in that announcement, I think we need to talk about how to handle your army," Jonas said, interrupting Kim's private grumbling.
"What about them?" Kim asked, partly wanting to just pretend that her 'army' wasn't there at the moment.
"Just that we need to figure out what we should assume the announcer meant by 'helping' when it came to the people from this world assisting us," he merely replied.
"Should we explain it to them?" Elmo asked.
"If we could get them to believe us, it might help, but I think the problem would be getting them to believe us," Jonas told Elmo flatly.
"Whatever we tell them, I don't think they'll really listen anyway," Kim remarked, wishing there was a way she could get them to just leave.
"Well, there is a couple options we have," Jonas said. "One is we find a way to kill them off. Either ourselves, or through continuous battle. Eventually they'll all get wiped out with that last one, but we could also find ourselves in a tight situation."
"Why would we want to kill them ourselves?" Elmo asked looking around, clearly worried one of Kim's 'army' might hear.
"Simple," Jonas replied. "If we eliminate them, then we don't have to worry about them being a complication. However, we'd have to get past the issue of them not being hostile to us. We can't say for sure if they'd take it poorly or not, or if it might create other complications for us down the line, but it's still an option. No matter how poor of one."
Elmo sighed. "Couldn't you have just said that in the first place?" he complained.
"I thought it was pretty self-explanatory to me," Kim remarked, taking a little pleasure in Elmo's annoyance. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out."
"What's a rocket sci- sci- uh, sci-tist," Elin said, sounding a not completely awake as she came over to the fire.
"That's sci-en-tist," Kim said, enunciating clearly for Elin.
"What is that?" she asked, sounding rather confused.
"A scientist is someone who uses science to either research phenomena that can be measured and recreated, or one who will take those principles and speculate what some of those mean. Though, most also work both ends as well," Jonas replied immediately, almost like he was waiting for Elin to ask that question.
Elin stared at Jonas blankly. "What good does that do?" she asked, not sounding like she believed what Jonas said.
Kim wouldn't be surprised if Elin didn't believe Jonas. Especially since it was clear that she hadn't encountered scientists, or even heard of them, in her original world. Although, Kim couldn't be sure if that was a good thing or not.
"Well, one thing that scientists have done is explained some natural phenomena that happens. Such as why things only fall down, rather than sideways or up," Jonas said.
Elin glared at Jonas. "You're making fun of me, aren't you?"
"Actually, he's right," Elmo said, startling Elin. "though, another thing that they've helped us understand is other things, like why you need to heat up the glass jars when you make jelly or jam."
Elin looked at Elmo in confusion. "What does that have to do with what you were just talking about?"
"Just that if you don't heat the jar up, then when you pour the jam into it, the jar can easily crack because of the temperature difference," Elmo answered. "It's things like that, that scientists have helped us understand as well as other things that aren't as involved in most people's lives."
Elin still looked dubious about what she was told, but Kim didn't worry about that. What mattered to her was the act that Elin had stopped pushing a topic that had nothing to do with what they'd been talking about.
"Anyway, let's get back to the main point," Kim said, not wanting to waste any more time on a side topic that wasn't going to do any of them any good. Especially since they had been talking about what to do in regards to her 'army' versus what the announcer had said.
"What is the main point?" Elin asked curiously.
Kim wasn't sure if it was because of Elin's tangent she'd pulled them along, or if it was that she was asking a question she could find the answer out if she'd just waited a minute patiently, but she had a sudden urge to hit Elin. It wasn't a strong urge, but Kim felt it.
Though, she couldn't help but wonder if she might not have gotten as much sleep or rest as she had thought she'd gotten. As this felt like a reaction that she typically felt when she just was either really tired or hadn't gotten enough sleep.
"The main point was what we should assume the announcer meant by ''help from the locals' and how we have an army of locals who want to help us," Jonas said calmly.
"Why can't they help us?" Elin asked, surprising Kim.
"Didn't you hear the announcement?" Kim asked, wondering if maybe Elin either had still been asleep when the announcement had been made or if maybe she hadn't been paying attention to it.
Elin looked at Kim, her eyes making Kim want to forget about the whole thing and take Elin somewhere, where they could have some 'alone' time together.
"I think I heard some of it, but I still didn't understand what they meant about 'locals,'" Elin replied.
Kim nodded. That would explain part of the problem at least. Though, she couldn't help but feel like Elin wasn't being as intelligent as she had before. Which wasn't something she like the implications of. She would have assumed that Elin would have been smarter than that. If nothing else, that Elin would have been able to at least figured out these things on her own.
"Elin, are you feeling alright?" Elmo asked, apparently having also noticed something was off about Elin as well.
"I'm fine," Elin assured them. "Why wouldn't I be fine?"
"Well, you just seem a little different today, is all," Jonas replied, gently.
"Okayyyy," Elin said, sounding like she was starting to get a little uncomfortable.
Which Kim couldn't blame Elin. It wasn't a comfortable topic to begin with really.
"Anyway,' Jonas said, clearly moving back to the main point again, "we can't be sure that the announcement is merely talking about getting direct help from the local population, or if it was solely about any help whatsoever."
"What do you mean?" Elmo asked.
"Just that if we get information from locals about the fire dragon, for example, would that mean they're helping us complete the challenge?" he asked. "Or would they have to actually help us fight the dragon in order for us to defeat it?"
Kim nodded. "That is a good point, but I think right now we should assume that they meant that we can't have locals helping us directly complete the challenge. They can probably help us by helping pave the way for us to complete it, such as by dealing with the things on the side," Kim said. "That's kind of how they helped us with the assassination attempt anyway."
"If we're going to go with that assumption, then we have to decide on something else," Jonas said, looking at each of them in turn. "Do we tell your army about it? Or do we just tell those in charge?"
"Or do we not tell them anything at all?" Elmo chimed in. "I mean, we could just not say anything and figure out a way to keep them from interfering with our challenges."
"If we do that, then how do you propose we go about it?" Kim asked. "I mean, these people aren't stupid. It's not like we're dealing with a bunch of imbeciles."
"I'm actually surprised you said that about them," Jonas remarked, sounding a little surprised.
"Hey, I might not like men, but I will acknowledge that they're not all completely stupid. If they were, then we wouldn't have had people like Einstein exist in the first place," Kim grumbled.
"Why not just tell those in charge of your army for now?" Elin asked, startling Kim. "We can always tell the rest later, but if we don't tell them, won't they eventually start getting suspicious? I think I heard my father say that once to one of his advisors."
Kim shook her head in amusement. Elin's response was so simple and straightforward that she felt like she should have seen it herself.
"That's a good point," Jonas said. "So, is there any objections to doing just that?"