The first thing Jonas became aware of was aches that seemed to extend over his entire body. Some of it felt like he'd been smashed by something big and heavy while at the same time like he'd been crushed somehow.
The next was something hard pressing against him. He hadn't a clue as to what it was, just that it was ressing against him. Although it wasn't like it was pressing against him in a painful way.
The last thing he noticed before he opened his eyes was that her could feel a warmth on his front, while to his back, he felt cool air flowing. Which told him there wasn't any sunlight shining. Whatever happened had apparently knocked him out for the rest of the day. He also could tell that he wasn't wearing any clothing, although he wasn't sure why at the moment.
When he opened his eyes, he at first thought that it was complete darkness surrounding him. At first fe thought that maybe he still had his eyes closed, but then he noticed a glowing light that shed a little to his surroundings. It wasn't very bright, but it was like the sun in that situation, given there wasn't any other source of light.
He looked down and saw a mess of hair, still damp from water. At that moment, Jonas suddenly realized he could hear some flowing water moving merrily. Not only that, but there was a roar that he couldn't quite place. Only that it was continuous.
Jonas lifted his arms to see if he could 'see' what the warmth on his front side was about. He felt like it was something alive, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was. Part of his was saying that he should know what it was, but the fog in his brain just didn't let him comprehend what it was if that was the case.
However, as he moved, he felt sudden movement from whatever was creating the warmth in front of him.
"Are you awake?" a voice asked. The voice was familiar, but Jonas just couldn't quite place it for some reason.
"Yeah," Jonas croaked, pretty sure that the question was directed at him. "Not sure how awake though."
Jonas felt arms tighten around him, arms he hadn't been aware of until that moment, before releasing him and the source of warmth moved away from his front, leaving a chill that felt like a layer of the air. In addition to whatever was poking at him that had been hard.
Jonas slowly sat up a moment later. He was feeling more alert, but the fog in his brain still persisted. Like the chill in the air. While he didn't think that there was a connection between the two, he couldn't rule that possibility out. This world felt like there was a lot that didn't work the way that he had been used to in his own world.
"Where are we?" he managed, his voice sounding more like himself.
"Underground," the voice said simply. Jonas felt like he was close to placing the voice, but not quite. "The river brought us here, so I can't say more than that."
Jonas nodded as he sighed. He could piece together a few things. Such as the reason he wasn't wearing anything had to be because he'd ben pulled from the river into this chilly atmosphere. Not only was his clothing needing to dry, but also it likely would have been cooling his body temperature quickly, especially with the temperature in this place, to the point where he could have potentially frozen to death.
"Did you hang our clothing up to dry?" Jonas asked, having trouble seeing much with the level of lighting around him.
"Uh…" the voice hesitated, letting Jonas know that the clothing hadn't been set to dry out. For some reason, he also finally figured out the name to the person he'd been talking to: Elmo.
"Well, if we hang them back up, then we can put them back on and keep from freezing later," Jonas commented. "Though, if we need to go through the river, we can at least know that we were ready in case there had been another way out."
Elmo sighed, sounding more disappointed than upset about what Jonas said. Though, Jonas wasn't sure which part Elmo seemed to have more of an issue with. Like if he merely wanted to remain like they were, or maybe had been, for a while longer. Or maybe it was something else altogether.
"Where should I hang them?" Elmo asked, as if he didn't understand what Jonas was asking.
"Wherever they can hang from," Jonas answered simply as he got to his feet, doing his best to ignore the pain in his joints. What else would they hang the clothing from in order to get it to dry. Otherwise they'd likely end up starting to freeze, even like they had been.
"And that would be?"
Jonas looked around, his eyes starting to make out more shadows in the incredibly dim light and, aside from some smaller rocks around, there didn't seem to be any place to adequately hang their clothing. Even the walls didn't look like they'd be able to hold the clothing up without anything aiding the effort.
"Then we better find a way to get our clothing dry," Jonas answered, accepting that there wasn't any place in their immediate vicinity where they could accomplish that. Which also felt weird to Jonas. When had there ben a cave or anything like that, that didn't have a place where something could be draped on and held up without anything assisting it.
Not that he really knew much about caves in the first place in his own world. At least not that he could remember. It was more that what he had always thought when he saw cave in movies and on TV.
"I haven't had much chance to look around myself," Elmo commented. "I haven't been around, since I wanted to make sure you didn't start suffering from hypothermia."
Jonas nodded absently, not too worried about that. "Well, we should find a way to get our clothing dry," Jonas merely replied. "If we don't, then we'll eventually start getting cold, even if we use that same method you used." Jonas paused for a moment as he suddenly realized he had no idea where they light was coming from. "Did you use your magic to create this light?"
Elmo sighed like Jonas had missed something important. "The moss is the source of light," he said after a minute. "It doesn't illuminate much, but it's what we have."
Jonas nodded, not sure if that mattered or not. "Well, the only thing to do then is to explore while we carry our clothing with us to get it dry," he said, looking for some moss to try and carry with him. "Regardless of if we have to go back in the river to get out of here, we should at least do what we can to find a way out right now."
Elmo sighed as if he had already tried all of that. Which Jonas couldn't help but smirk as he started to walk towards some glowing moss that seemed to be close by. Relatively.
"Doesn't matter," Jonas continued. "The sooner we get started on it, the sooner we'll be done with it."
"I couldn't search earlier," Elmo whined softly.
Jonas couldn't help but feel a little confused about that. He wasn't saying Elmo had failed to do anything or did anything wrong, but it felt like Elmo was taking it to mean that.
"As I said, it doesn't matter," he reiterated, hoping that they could move on from this point. It was starting to feel rather awkward for him. "Let's just get a move on it and we can know what our options are that much faster."
Jonas reached the moss and saw that they were growing on a few loose rocks, though on part of it, the moss was drying out and looked like it was starting to die. With that part not providing any luminescent properties.
Not sure if that was important or not, he picked up all of the rocks and carried them closer to the river, using his ears to know where the sounds to let him know how close he was.
"By the way, what's that roar?" he asked when he reached the river and set all but one of the rocks down.
"Probably the waterfall," Elmo answered absently.
Jonas took a deep breath, trying to keep from giving a retort. While he probably could have figured out that it was a waterfall, he figured he shouldn't take the fact of that out on Elmo. So, he merely picked up the clothing he was pretty sure were his, before he started to walk around to figure out what potential exits this place might have.
Time felt like it had no meaning, as there wasn't anything that were typically used to mark time. No sun, no moon, and no stars. Jonas didn't have any way to even know what time he'd woken up.
So, he had no idea how long he'd been searching, and assumed that Elmo was searching as well, when a loud rumbling sound occurred. Jonas couldn't say what it was about, but couldn't help but feeling rather alarmed.
"What's that?" Elmo asked, letting Jonas know that it would be pointless to ask Elmo. Not that he expected Elmo to know either.
"Our sign that our time is up to find another way out," Jonas merely answered. "I think we should take a look at where the river leads from here."