Elin wasn't sure what to say when the announcement was over for the evening. She'd collected a number of the feathers, mostly because they were so different from what she'd seen before. She couldn't say where they'd come from, but she did recall what looked like something flying that was made out of fire. Although, it certainly wasn't dragon-shaped, so she hadn't paid it much mind.
Originally she'd come over because of the rumble that had resounded throughout the valley that Elin was confident when Kim had created the ice pillar. After all, she knew that hadn't been there before, as well as what Kim's sword was now capable of. The thing she hadn't expected was for the pillar to be so massive. Just looking at it she could tell it was solid ice.
"What's with these feathers?" Patricia asked a minute after the announcement ended. "I mean, I know it's about the next challenge, but why the hell are they glowing?"
"I think it's because the creature it came from also glows," Elin answered.
"How would you know that?" Patricia challenged.
Elin shrugged. "Because I think I saw it once."
"When was this?" Kim asked, sounding rather surprised.
Elin shrugged. "I'm not really sure. Just when we were looking for the fire dragon."
"So, why do you think you saw it?" Elwin asked.
Elin shrugged again. "Because it looked like it was one fire as it flew through the sky."
As more questions kept getting thrown her way, Elin couldn't understand why they didn't accept what she was telling them. Not only were they asking questions that she felt should be pretty obvious, they kept throwing them at her like they wanted her to change her story and say that she hadn't seen it.
She wasn't sure what to do about it, but she felt a little comfort at the fact that they didn't seem like they were trying to trip her up in her words. Rather, they seemed more curious about the single incident, though she couldn't say why that was.
Fortunately, they seemed to eventually come to a lull in the topic and backed off a little. Although, Elin was certain it was because they'd run out of things to ask, that Elin thought were mostly a variation of the same question, just phrased a little differently. Not that her answers changed.
"Well, regardless of the finer details about it," Owen said when everyone had quieted down for a couple minutes. "We need to figure out if we should stick together for this or go our separate ways again. From the sound of it, this might be more difficult than fighting the fire dragon. I mean, who's to say how many of these creatures there are. If we kill any of them, we risk losing this challenge altogether."
"How do you plan on going about that?" Patricia asked dryly.
"If Elin's sighting of that creature that looked like it was made of fire was in fact the creature we're now looking for, then we should at least go back to where she saw it. Most birds have their own territory, so it would make sense for it to have a nest of a kind in that general area," Bart said, drawing everyone's attention to him. "What?"
"How do you know it's a bird?" Patrick asked.
Bart shrugged. "What else has feathers?"
"Whether it's a bird or not, we should at least see if there's any other clues as to where it could be," Jonas said. "I agree that it's likely a bird, but whose to say what's possible in this world and what isn't. There's just been too many weird things going on for me to be confident in any of that right now."
"I agree," Kim said. "Until we can prove Elin's sighting wasn't the creature we're looking for, we should assume it is and treat it accordingly."
"Uh, in that case, how do you propose we try to capture it?" Elwin asked. "It's not like it's just going to let us hold it by it's legs and throw it into a cage."
"That'd be mean!" Elin cried, feeling horrified at the image in her mind of what came to mind from what Elwin described.
Elwin shrugged as if it didn't matter to him. "Just saying. That'd merely be one method in which we could 'capture' it. Though, I seriously doubt that it'd happen that way, since it would require the bird to let us get that close to it."
"Well, if you could figure out a way to befriend it, that would also work," Elmo commented.
"And how do you expect to do that?" Patrick asked. "I'm pretty sure it's going to take a pretty long while to do that and I don't think we're gonna get that much time overall."
"What makes you say that?" Elin asked, feeling like he had something in mind that she wasn't going to like.
Patrick shrugged. "Nothing really. Just the fact that we're not going to be the only ones looking for the creature. If you want to befriend it, then go ahead, but there might be others who would try to just catch the creature while you're waiting for it to essentially come to you."
"Maybe, but who knows if you'd be able to get something from befriending it," Kim remarked. "I mean, I think I remember it in the announcements that someone was able to befriend a Blynx and that they could use its abilities to affect them."
"And what abilities are those?" Patrick challenged. "How do we know it really has special abilities?"
"Because they announced it, I'm sure that means it really does have abilities. They just didn't say what they were, I think," Owen remarked. "Especially since I really don't think they'd bother mentioning it if it wasn't true. While it's hard to say how much of what they say is true, I'm pretty sure that something like that would be something that could get proven wrong. Although, I'm not sure how to go about doing that."
"Which means we're back where we started with the arguments. No way to prove it one way or another," Patrick declared.
"What if we find Stanley?" Jonas suggested. "We could then ask him if tit was true or not. Very simple if we can find him."
"And how would we go about doing that?" Patricia asked, sounding more curious than hostile. Which was a surprising difference between the two as far as Elin was concerned.
"I'm sure we'll be able to come across them sooner or later," Jonas answered. "Especially if, as Patrick suggested, they come across us while we're trying to befriend whatever creature it is that the announcer mentioned and try to capture it. As they are the only other group aiming for challenges right now."
"Unless Heather, Sonya, Murdock, or Tina show up. I'm sure they'd be interested in getting another challenge completed," Patrick replied, making Elin wonder if he was trying to prove something with how aggressive he was being right then.
"Actually, Murdock and Tine have made it clear they're not interested in completing challenges. They'd rather stay on this world and enjoy themselves," Kim said, earning an annoyed scowl from Patrick.
"As far as Heather and Sonya go, I don't think they'd be as underhanded as that," Owen added. "When I last peeked into their minds, they didn't strike me as the kind of people who would try to cut in like that. If anything, they'd probably try to join us in befriending the creature, which I'm sure would earn them the challenge completion regardless. Not to mention how they likely would stick together."
"Besides, how long do you think it'd take them to get here?" Elwin added. "I'm not sure where they stayed, but it's probably not close to where we are."
"This is all well and good, but shouldn't we figure out where to go to find this creature?" Bart said. "I mean, at least start heading to where we're pretty sure it is?"
"What's the hurry?" Patricia asked. "It might be easier to spot at night, but we don't know what kinds of dangers that could hit us in the dark if it comes down to it." She paused for a moment before laughed and added, "And I don't mean any special kinds of dangers that ware unique to this world. Such as a hole for your foot to fit in so you can injure your leg. In the dark, it's much easier to miss something like that. Where if you travel in the day it's easier to see where those really are.'
"Well, if nothing else, sleeping on it would-" Kim started to say but stopped as the ground all around them began to rumble. Everyone was looking around, trying to see what was going on, but there wasn't anything else that drew their attention. Not in a way that led them to attribute the rumbling to it.
Though, the one thing that still drew their interest was the pillar of ice. Elin noticed more than one of the others looking at the pillar of ice as they tried to ascertain what was causing the rumbling. It wasn't a repetitive kind of rumble, such as with heavy footsteps, but rather a constant one.
Elin wasn't sure why, but she was starting to get a bad feeling. She couldn't say why, but she knew that she wasn't going to like what the cause would turn out to be.