"And that's about when you guys showed up," Bart concluded.
Jonas nodded, feeling like this story could easily have been stretched out, but at least appreciated that they'd kept it on the shorter side. As not only had the night completely fallen around them, but he wouldn't be surprised if Kim, Elin, or Elmo had fallen asleep during that. Jonas knew he himself was getting rather tired.
"You know, did the announcer say anything about the defeat of the fire dragon?" Patricia asked suddenly. "I don't think I heard anything said about it during the evening announcement earlier."
Owen shook his head. "I don't remember hearing anything either. We do know that they'll sometimes take their time with announcing that. Just like they did with the troll boss we had to fight to get out of that dungeon we started in."
"I kind of wonder if they wait for the morning to make those announcements for some reason they won't explain," Kim remarked, surprising Jonas that she was still awake. "But, they did mention it. They said that all f you now have five completed Challenges."
"Hard to say," Patrick remarked, sounding like she didn't even hear anything after Kim's first sentence. "Though, any guesses on what the next challenge will be? I'm putting my money on another combat related one. After all, all three so far have been involving combat in some way at least. The first one was completed when we beat that troll. The second one was to keep the king from being assassinated, which meant that we had to fight those who were trying to kill him. This last one was to slay the fire dragon, which we just did. So, I'd say it'd be a safe bet that it would be combat related."
Jonas shrugged, not caring to verify if Patricia had heard all of what Kim said or not. "You may be right, but I think they might be going for a slightly different kind of challenge. I mean, it's not as much of a challenge if you've already mentally prepared for what you'll need to do, right? Besides, a number of the 'side' and 'secret' challenges hadn't been combat related themselves. Some have been just plain different. Like having needed to get past those minotaurs without fighting them."
Patrick nodded. "Maybe, but who knows how they think. I mean, they did pretty much kidnap us when we got put on this competition. So, it's not like they have any sense of morals that I can see."
"Let's just wait until morning before we debate too much about that," Owen suggested. "It's late and all of us are tired. Even Elwin's asleep already and he was the one who finished the story up."
Jonas glanced over at Elwin, not really surprised that he was completely sacked out. Elwin had seemed like the one who was the most tired, aside from Kim, but Kim's case was completely different. As she'd lost pretty much all her stamina because of the pond teleporting them to where they currently were. Where the fire dragon had been slain as it tried to flee again.
"If nothing else, we can see if they'll announce the next challenge in the morning or if they'll put out another delay, like that time," Bart remarked sleepily as he yawned. "Not sure if I'd like a day of rest rather than to know what the next challenge is right away."
"Maybe if we were in a city or something a day to rest would be nice," Patricia commented. "But since we're not, I think it'd be good to just continue on and get a jump on it as soon as we can."
"Why? We're all tired and exhausted from not only fighting today, but from all the attacks that dragon kept making on us," Bart protested.
"Simply because there we can easily get something to eat without a real problem with where it'd come from," Patricia replied dryly. "Around here, you'd have to find it on your own. While you might be able to stumble across something to eat without much trouble, it's not something you can really count on."
Bart merely shook his head, clearly not interested in hearing anything against his opinion on the matter. Jonas didn't see a point in pushing the point either, so he decided to shift the subject to something else.
"So, where'd you get the steak for dinner?" he asked, wondering if there would be a way for his own group to get something decent to eat to supplement the stew they'd continually been eating. Almost since he'd gotten there.
"That? We hunted it. Though, without my bow, I'm not sure how well we'll be able to continue doing that," Owen answered, looking almost nostalgic.
Jonas couldn't help but smirk. "Yeah, I can see that, but why limit yourself to the bow? Why not try something else? Maybe set a snare or something?"
Owen merely sighed. His expression told Jonas what he needed to know. That Owen just didn't have the energy to even think about it. Though, Jonas figured he'd done what he could.
"If not, don't worry about it," Jonas commented, yawning himself. "I'm sure you'll be able to figure out whatever you'll need to, to continue with your hunting."
"Well, I'll see you in the morning then," Owen said, laying on the ground, as he closed his eyes and used his hands as a pillow.
"Who's turn is it to keep watch?" Jonas asked, wondering if he should volunteer if either no one else was going to or the person whose turn it was, was already asleep. Although, it wasn't until that moment that he didn't even notice when others had dropped out of the conversation as they fell asleep.
"I think it might be mine?" Patricia said, her voice communicating her fatigue as her eyes mostly closing on their own. "Can't really remember." Patricia suddenly looked like she was going to fall over unless someone was there to catch her. "Are you volunteering?"
Jonas shrugged. "Might as well. I think I'm the most alert here right now anyway," he said, hoping that the night would be quiet, since he wasn't confident that he'd be able to stay up even an hour, let alone until it was time to wake someone else to take over for him.
As he thought about it, he wondered if it would be useful for all of them to have a day of rest, simply so they could recover from the fatigue he was certain all of them were feeling. Regardless of what might have caused the fatigue. Although, he didn't plan on pushing for that. It wasn't his business to try and get other from the other groups to get some rest, but he couldn't help but wonder what else might be on the horizon for them to deal with.
+++
In the morning of next day, Jonas was surprised that he had fallen asleep when he had been contemplating waking the next person up, which he had figured would be Elmo. Yet, fortunately, nothing had happened, though, no one seemed rather interested in doing much. Especially with how an number of them seemed to be more interested in just going back to sleep after they had a quick breakfast. Even Patricia didn't seem in the mood to do anything but cuddle up next to Patrick and go back to sleep.
The only people who didn't seem interested in going back to sleep were Jonas, Elm, and Elin. Jonas figured Kim was in the same boat because she was still recovering from the sacrifice of her stamina, although he couldn't help but wonder if there might be another factor involved with that as well.
Yet, despite them not going back to sleep, neither Elmo nor Elin seemed to have any energy. Jonas wasn't sure if it was because they weren't used to not having anything to do, as they had been continually moving for the past long while during the day. Not to mention that there wasn't really anything for them to do that they hadn't brought with them. Which was just another inconvenience for those of them who couldn't get back to sleep.
It wasn't until the early afternoon that the others started to wake up, making Jonas wonder if they might have trouble falling asleep that night. He knew he typically did when he slept that much, or even slept until the afternoon before he'd been brought to this world.
Which was in part why he didn't even think about trying to go back to sleep. Not that he felt tired during that time, either. He just figured that he would be better served by making certain his weapons were in optimal condition, or as optimal as he could tell, regardless of if he was able to notice anything about them or not.
Yet, as they each woke up, Jonas started to wonder if they shouldn't t least travel to a place with a little more shade. He wasn't sure if any of the others might get a sunburn from having slept in the sunlight or if they'd already been in the sun long enough to have gotten enough of a tan to avoid that happening.
Though, it wasn't like he cared. He'd already started to wonder how long they'd stay together before breaking off into their own groups again. He didn't know if any of the others had changed their minds about combining their groups or if they still wanted to keep theirs separate.
In the end, Jonas figured he'd just go with which ever. He was pretty sure that nothing would really change at this moment in time, but he couldn't really sure what the others were thinking. Not that he had that skill to begin with.