When Elmo woke up, he felt like his body was getting ready to fall apart. It ached all over, even though he knew he hadn't engaged in anything remotely extraneous. All he could think of was that dealing with the massive earthquake had taken more out of him than he had expected.
As he looked around, he could see Patrick finishing his watch, the embers of the fire from the night before smoking, letting Elmo know that it hadn't quite died out, though he wasn't sure if anyone had added any wood onto it through the night for any of the watches.
Which he knew Elwin would complain about if someone had. Something about ruining their night vision or something. He didn't really care to learn as much about this sort of thing as Elwin seemed to know. Primarily because he really didn't care to deal with this more than he had to, since he really didn't expect to once this whole competition was over. Regardless of whether or not he was able to return to his own world.
Getting up, Elmo looked around for a stream. Mostly so he could rinse off the dirt he could feel on his hands and face. While he'd like a bath, he doubted he'd be able to get a hot one out here. Not to mention the lack pf privacy these mountains gave. While he wouldn't mind Jonas seeing him bathe, he couldn't say the same for anyone else present.
Although, thinking about Jonas merely made Elmo's heart ache. He felt like Jonas should be more willing to at least give him a chance, but it felt like Jonas had merely let him have that one night and wasn't actually letting him into his heart. Even though Elmo appreciated the consideration of that one night, he wasn't interested in a one night stand. He would rather have a real relationship rather than… whatever that was supposed to be.
He couldn't be sure if it was a pity lay or what, but it didn't help him sort out what his feelings were over the matter. He also couldn't be sure if he should really give up on Jonas or not. He felt like he should, but at the same time, he couldn't stop that night from popping in his mind whenever he thought about doing just that.
Naturally, before he was able to really come up with anything on the matter, others started to wake up. Which meant he needed to stop thinking about it, since he really didn't want others to know about his troubles on the subject. If nothing else, he really didn't want it to become a matter just like Kim and Elin dealt with in regards to their fight.
"So, steak again fro breakfast?" Bart asked, sounding more resigned than eager.
"We could make a stew with it, instead," Kim replied.
Elmo didn't hear what Bart replied to that with, but couldn't help but reject the idea in his own mind. He really didn't care for either. He didn't know what else there was, but he would at least like a little variety in what was prepared. Even though stew and steak were rather simple to make, he would like something else. Almost anything else.
Yet, he doubted it would change anything if he say something about it. At least other than potentially getting on the bad side of everyone present. Or at least everyone present who really liked one of the dishes or the other.
Rather than saying anything, or even listening to what was said, he instead stood up and decided to try and see if he could find so much as a stream nearby. He didn't see any in the immediate vicinity and he knew they hadn't really looked for a place to camp for the night that would have what they needed. Largely because they couldn't be sure another quake wouldn't be heading their way.
As such, he couldn't be sure if there was any kind of fresh water nearby. Although, at the same time, she didn't know that there wasn't any nearby either. Which merely meant that he needed to at least take a look, if nothing else.
"Where're you going?" Kim asked as Elmo started to walk towards the edge of the camp while she was pulling ingredients out to make a breakfast stew.
"Just seeing if I can find a stream nearby or something," Elmo replied, not bothering to look at her as he spoke.
"I'll come with you," Elin said, jumping up.
Elmo wasn't sure if she was doing that to keep him company, to avoid having to be around Kim, or because she wanted to find some water too, but he didn't care enough to say anything. He was merely happy to have some company in the first place.
"Mind if I join?" Owen asked as they started to leave the camp.
Elmo glanced at Elin for a moment before shrugging. "I don't mind."
Elin didn't say anything, but Elmo also had the sense that she didn't care either, but he didn't plan on speaking for her. Even if they were at odds with each other, Elmo was confident that Kim would come down on him fast and heavily if he even tried to speak for Elin.
"Sounds good," Owen said, jumping up and walking towards them.
Elmo didn't respond. He merely wanted to just move on. He hoped that the aches in his body would disappear soon enough, but he wouldn't be surprised about if they didn't. If nothing else, he was confident that it was going to be a problem for him for a while at least.
While Elmo hadn't thought much of Owen asking to join, he wasn't sure just how happy he was when Owen started talking to them as soon as they were out of sight of the camp.
"Any guesses on where to find some water?" Owen said cheerfully.
Elmo didn't reply, mostly because Owen's cheerfulness was making him rather annoyed for some reason. Instead, Elin answered.
"No clue, but I'm sure we can at least see what might be nearby," Elin said. "I didn't hear anything during the night, but maybe I wasn't listening because of the quakes."
Elmo could understand not being able to hear a stream simply because of something like that. Although, he couldn't say that it really meant anything. All it meant was that there wasn't a steam if there wasn't any noise.
"What if there's a pond?" Elmo asked, not sure if he should have kept quiet.
"Then we'll see if it's good to drink or not," Owen replied. "Though moving water would be better. Otherwise who knows what might be growing in it?"
Elmo couldn't refute that. Water that was still standing still could be growing all kinds of microorganisms. Especially if some animal died in the water. Not that Elmo would care to even try to boil any water from a pond that had something like that.
"How far should we go out for water?" Elin asked.
"Not far," Owen replied. "We at least have some in our water skins, so we can at least last a little bit without replenishing. Especially since we'll probably find some as we travel through the day."
"I just want to rinse the dirt off my hands and face," Elmo said, though with the image of polluted pond water in his mind, he doubted that he'd be up to do that with that kind of water either.
For a few minutes after that, they merely walked in silence. Elmo felt it was rather comfortable, especially with the ambient noises that normally had come from these mountains.
Yet, what Owen said next completely caught Elmo off guard, even though he realized that he should have known this was going to come up. As he knew himself that he should have realized Owen would have picked up his thoughts about when he and Jonas had first encountered the stellar bear.
"So what can you tell me about the stellar bear, Elmo," Owen asked, seemingly out of the blue.
"What?" Elin asked, sounding more surprised than Elmo felt himself. "You've seen it!?"
"Uh…" Elmo couldn't say he had anything come to mind of how to respond to that, but he had a feeling he wasn't going to be allowed to get out of this situation without at least saying something about the bear.
After trying to think for a minute, Elmo felt like if he didn't say anything, he wasn't likely to get anything out. So, he took a deep breath before trying again.
"The thing is, it's supposed to be not much different from a regular bear. While it's enormous, it didn't seem like it have any special abilities that would help it in a fight."
"So, it's just like an oversized bear?" Owen asked, sounding rather surprised. "The say it was mentioned, sounded like it was going to be harder than that."
Elmo shrugged. "Maybe it will be."
"I thought you said it wouldn't be much different from a regular bear?" Elin asked. "You're making it sound like it is different."
Elmo sighed. He really didn't care to deal with this. Which was one reason he didn't care to have mentioned it before. "I'm meaning that its size might be more of a problem than anything else," Elmo blurted, not sure if what he was saying was really true or not. However, as he spoke, a memory came to mind that helped him keep going on that thought.
"It's like an anime I saw called 'Sword Art Online: Alicization' where there was a tree called a gigan pine, I think, and when the people in a nearby village were working on cutting it down, each strike they made wouldn't always reduce the tree's HP. Instead, the HP would go down a point after several strikes. I can't be sure, but with how large the bear was, it might be like that."
"Wait, how big are we talking?" Owen asked. "Like maybe two times the size of the dragon we faced?"
Elmo shrugged. "I can't say anything about that, since I didn't see the dragon, but I'm sure you saw the dragon we encountered in my memories, so if you use that for reference, I'd estimate that the head of the bear was maybe a little bigger than that dragon."
"Uh, I saw a brief flash of that dragon, but if the bear's head is as big as the dragon's, then I don't see why it would be-"
"No," Elmo interrupted, feeling like if he didn't stop Owen, that a misunderstanding would be inevitable. "I mean the bear's head was as big as the whole dragon. Not just the dragon's head."
Elmo wasn't sure if he needed to spell it out to that extent, but he could see that it at least was having the effect he'd intended. Owen was clearly getting the picture.