"Good evening all contestants! We have some exciting events that just barely occurred. First things first. The fire dragon has been slain by Bart McKenzie, Elwin Bell, Patricia McIntyre, Patrick Sullivan, and Owen Andrews. Each of them has now completed 5 challenges. The battle was fierce and was long, but with the sheer persistence of Patricia McIntyre and Patrick Sullivan, the fire dragon was cornered and finally slain.
"In the battle Leon Bell was killed by the fire dragon, so we now had another contestant die, so we hope our audience enjoyed watching that. Although, I'm sure many of you are now wondering what will happen to Elwin Bell, since he can't access his system without in contact with his brother. So, in regards to that, he won't have access to his system, even if he brings part of his brother with him. However, he will still be able to participate as he hasn't died yet. If he'll survive much longer, we'll have to wait and see.
"In other news, we'll be announcing the next set challenge for our contestants tomorrow evening. While it can still be completed now, if any of the contestants are lucky enough to meet the conditions, chances are none of the contestants will even think of what this one is to be.
"In other news, for Heather Goldblum, we'll be making sure you'll be giving birth soon, since many of our viewers are getting tired of you and Sonya playing house for so long. As well as finding a way for you to have your child cared for so you can actually start doing something again. Our committee is getting tired of you not going anywhere.
"Aside from that, we hope that all of the surviving contestants will try their best to stay alive until morning. Just as a reminder, we don't like having to showing your deaths in the highlights of what happened in the night. Our viewers always like watching it directly."
Jonas felt like the announcer had stolen Elwin's chance to tell them what Jonas had already suspected, though the announcer certainly didn't pull any punches with his making a statement that was a little informative, but mostly a waste of their time. Some of it was a pain, but at the same time, he couldn't argue that it at least kept giving him motivation to get through this. If only to get that announcer to shut up altogether.
"Are you okay?" Elin asked, pulling Jonas out of his thoughts.
He couldn't help but feel surprised at Elin trying to offer some comfort towards Elwin when Jonas had a feeling she wasn't versed in even experiencing loss like that. While he didn't doubt that Elin couldn't sympathize with Elwin, he didn't think that she'd be able to react so quickly here.
Elwin nodded, looking like he was lost. Which Jonas felt seemed rather strange, since Elwin had seemed to be so together up to this point. Or at least all the times he'd seen Elwin. While now it was clear he was struggling to keep himself together. Even though he understood the reasons behind it, it still felt strange to him, though he knew he shouldn't say anything about that.
Jonas walked away from Elin and Elwin, not wanting to intrude in whatever they talked about. He had a feeling he probably should give them space. Especially since he couldn't think of anything to add to whatever Elin might say. If anything, he was confident he'd just either ruin things or put his foot in his mouth in the first place.
Elmo and Patricia followed him, and after he'd walked a short distance, he set Kim down on the ground, mostly to give himself a rest from carrying her. While he didn't mind it for the most part, even though he had a feeling she was at least partly awake, otherwise he doubted the announcer would have said anything, he still needed a rest from that every so often. His strength wasn't unlimited.
Especially after having lost some of his stamina from that pool of water he'd stepped into.
"So, where'd you guys come from?" Patricia asked when Jonas stood back up. "I'm pretty sure you guys weren't around here when we were fighting the dragon. Otherwise you'd have shown up to help."
"We found a pond that would take us where we wanted to go," Elmo said, sounding more pleased with that fact than Jonas thought he should. "It required a sacrifice of our MP and stamina, but we were able to make it here easily."
Patricia nodded, looking a little hesitant. Which Jonas didn't blame her for. He was confident that he'd be questioning it as well if he'd heard someone explain it like that.
"Just think of it as a magical artifact we found that we couldn't take with us," Jonas said, hoping that would ease any confusion. "It took us where we wanted to go, though after I mentioned that we shouldn't try to seek our way to our own worlds."
Patricia nodded, looking a little less confused. "Yeah, I can imagine some of the complications that might have on us."
"What they didn't say was how much it would impact me," Kim said quietly, startling Jonas. He didn't see if Elmo and Patricia heard, as his gaze immediately snapped to Kim to see her with her eyes open. She lay on the ground where Jonas had put her, but didn't show any signs of moving.
"Are you okay?" Jonas asked, wondering if she might be pushing herself too much right then.
"Mostly, though I think I'd probably pass out if I tried to do much other than this," Kim answered, her voice thick with fatigue and annoyance. "I think I got the gist of what was announced, so you don't need to explain all that to me." Kim paused for a moment before looking Jonas in the eye. "Remember, the next spot where we find a pond or whatever like that, remind me to drag Elin away from it, even if she has to go kicking and screaming."
Jonas couldn't help but smirk. "No problem. Though, we should probably figure out what we should do next since we missed our chance at helping fight the fire dragon."
"Don't remind me," Kim groaned. "If I remember correctly, we need a total of ten challenges completed in order to win this stupid contest thing, which means if we just complete the last two, then we'll still be short by one."
"Well, I'm sure we'll be able to come up with something," Jonas said, not sure what that might be. Just that there wasn't anything else he could think of right then.
Kim sighed. "Well, would you at least tell us how you fought the dragon?" Kim asked, looking at Patricia. "I'd at least like to now what it was that you were able to do to take it out."
Patricia sighed herself, which made Jonas wonder what that was about. He couldn't think of any reason for her to do that, but it wasn't like he had Owen's ability to read another's thoughts. Though, at that thought, he started looking around, wondering if Owen might still be around.
"I wouldn't mind telling the story," Patricia said after a minute of silence. "But I think we should have the others around as well. Especially Elwin. I'm sure he'd like to honor his brother at least in some way. Maybe her might feel like that would be a possible way to do that."
"It doesn't have to be right now," Kim replied. "I'd just like to hear it at some point."
"We probably should have Elin around when we hear it as well," Elmo remarked making Jonas jump. He'd forgotten Elmo was there. Why that was, he couldn't be sure. Especially since it wasn't like Elmo hadn't been quiet the entire time or staying out of view.
"I'll go see if I can find the others," Patricia said sounding rather sorrowful. "Bart should be fine on his own here, so you can leave him to himself for now. When Leon died, he seemed to take it hard, especially since Elwin isn't handling it very well himself."
"We'll leave him alone unless you approaches us," Jonas assured her.
Patricia looked at Jonas, her eyes assessing something he wasn't sure about. Though, that lasted only a few moments before she nodded. "Alright. I'll see if I can find Owen and Patrick. They went to see if they could find any wood for a fire tonight."
Jonas watched Patricia wander off. He wasn't sure if he should say anything more or not, but nothing came to mind. He looked at Elmo and Kim, feeling like there should be something more, but again, his mind remained blank.
What was it that had him so bothered? Jonas wasn't sure he had the answers to that. He couldn't say what that was about, but he could tell something was there. Like it was just out of his reach, just past what he could even see.
They'd arrived too late to fight the fire dragon, essentially arrived a day late and a dollar short. Where it didn't matter that they showed up, the important time had already passed. That their efforts had been futile to start with when it came to trying to find this fire dragon.
Looking back towards Elwin and Elin, Jonas couldn't help but wonder if this was going to be his new reality.