The Systems Challenge-Chapter 406: Where to go Next

Elmo wasn't too surprised to hear the question brought up at breakfast, though he did wish that he didn't actually have to voice his vote on the matter. Just rather let the majority rule work. That way he wouldn't have to do anything. Yet, he had a suspicion that if even one of those in their combined group objected to telling the firebirds about the competition that it'd be decided they couldn't tell them anything.

Not that anyone objected. Even Sonya supported it and she'd barely had any contact with the firebirds, since they were especially nervous around a dragon, injured or not. Not that Elmo would have been any different if he didn't know much about Sonya. Such as how she wasn't prone to outbursts of violence or anger, like Elysia and her family seemed to think that dragons in general were.

After the situation had been explained, the firebirds decided to stay with them until Sonya was able to be healed. Which Elmo estimated to be a little over a week from that time. Though, even though there wasn't much to do during those days, aside from hunting, they seemed to go by rather quickly.

Elmo suspected that a large part of it was because they didn't have the challenge of capturing the firebirds on their mind, or the stellar bear, though Elmo doubted if that if they hadn't gotten lucky and had them stay with them for a night that they'd have even been able to figure out what it was they were supposed to catch. As Elmo had even completely forgotten about the hint that they'd been given at the start of the fourth set challenge.

On the day that Sonya was finally lifted from the curse that kept her from being healed, Heather and Elin began to go to work on her, Heather focusing on her foot while Elin focused on her smaller injuries, such as with her wing.

Elin managed to finish in almost no time at all, but Heather wore herself out on the foot, leaving it still too painful for Sonya to turn back into her human form, but it was healed enough that she could move her foot, as long as she didn't do much with it or put any weight on it.

After Heather was able to rest, she was able to completely heal her foot and Sonya was at last able to return to her original shape, which surprised the firebirds, even though they had been told what to expect.

Elmo guessed that sometimes seeing something happen is different from merely hearing about it. Especially since they were all used to seeing Sonya as a dragon and had even only seen her as a dragon up to this point.

However, the morning after Sonya was back in her human form, the firebirds left. They were heading east to try and locate Grisha there. Elysia was confident that when Grisha say that they were all together, that he'd be willing to come out of wherever he'd hidden himself.

Elin seemed the one who was the most impacted by their departure, but whatever problems she'd had with Kim had been resolved, so Kim was able to help keep her from making a fool of herself. Jonas kept a bit of distance between Elmo and him, mostly because Elmo could tell that Jonas wasn't sure how to really be in a relationship.

At times Elmo felt like his relationship with Jonas was sometimes like a fleeting dream, where he couldn't be sure if it really had happened. While at other times, he worried that Jonas would become someone other than who he'd become accustomed to him being.

He wasn't sure if he really wanted to see Jonas change, even if it meant that they'd break up. Yet, other times he wasn't sure if it really mattered if Jonas changed. All it came down to was the fact that Jonas had essentially opened himself up to Elmo, if only a small amount.

Elmo hoped that he'd be able to figure things out quickly as he feared that if things did fall apart, it'd be because f something he did or didn't do. It wasn't a fear he was used to having, so he wasn't really sure what to do with it or even if he should react to it in the first place.

Still, he was at least confident that he could live with whatever happened from here. At least as long as he knew Jonas was willing to be with him in a relationship.

+++

"So, now that I can move around again, where're we going this time?" Sonya asked, as she stretched her muscles for the umpteenth time since she'd been able to shift her shape back to being human again.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure Owen's not going to be much help with figuring out where the book is, since he can't read in a mind what's not there," Elwin commented.

"I might not be able to do that, but I can at least reveal your most embarrassing secret," he informed Elwin cheerfully.

"And that's why we need another method," Elwin said, making Elmo wonder if he'd heard Owen's threat or if that was his way of reacting to it.

"I should be able to use my sword to see if I can find a place where it's likely to be," Kim suggested.

"What location would that be?" Patrick blurted. "You haven't been exploring without us again, have you?"

"Oh yeah!" Elin cheered. "That library your army mentioned."

"Enough with Kim's army already," Bart complained. "We've heard enough about it from you already."

"Don't worry about that," Kim said, her tone rather diplomatic. "They're merely where we heard about this place from." Kim paused to take a breath as she looked around at everyone. "If I remember correctly, it's supposed to have every book in the world, so if we go there, there's a good chance we'll find the book for the challenge."

"And how will we find it?" Jonas asked. "While we speak the language here, I've seen some of the writing the people in this world do, and I wasn't able to understand it. So, how would we know whether or not we find the... book of... whatever."

Elmo couldn't help but smirk as Jonas had clearly a difficult time remembering what the title of the book was. Though, he also suspected that he was saying that more because he wanted to get more details out in the open rather than because he was trying to actively get them to stop searching for the library.

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"If the book is there, then I'm sure there'll be some means that those running the competition will have for us to locate it," Kim explained. "As I'm sure they're well aware we don't read the local language. Though, I cant help but wonder if we'll be needing to return the book to the dungeon we started in, in general or if we'll need to take it to a specific room there. The announcer really didn't specify on that point."

"Well, let's just assume it'll be to the dungeon in general until we find out differently," Bart suggested. "If it's a specific room, we'd need to show up there anyway."

"What if it's not in the library?" Patricia asked. "While what you say is true and likely, we can't be sure that that's where it's going to be."

"Well, once we rule out the library, we can try other options," Kim answered, sounding a little bored.

"If it's not in the library, where would you suggest it'd be?" Elmo asked. "If it turns out the library isn't real, then where would it have gotten placed?"

"What do you mean 'if the library isn't real?'" Patricia asked, sounding like she suspected they might have been trying to dupe her.

"He said that because those we heard about it indicated it was a legend of theirs, so they hadn't actually seen it. However, if it isn't real, then Kim won't be able to find it with her sword's ability and we won't be any worse off than we were before," Jonas said, making Elmo feel relieved at the save from his slip up.

Though, he made it a point not to look at Jonas right then. He didn't want anyone to suspect that Jonas saved him because of their relationship, even though it was possible that he saved Elmo despite their relationship.

"So, how about this, if Kim's sword finds the library, we'll travel in that direction, if not, then we'll figure out where else to try, but Kim won't get a vote for where to go, okay?" Patricia offered.

"Deal," Kim said without missing a beat, the challenge in her eyes clear, which matched the look of challenge in Patricia's eyes that appeared a moment later.

After that there was a general murmur of assent as Kim drew her sword. Elmo kept quiet because he didn't want to draw more attention to himself. He was pretty sure that it wouldn't go well for him if he did. Especially since he couldn't expect Jonas to save him every time he screwed up.

Kim's sword glowed blue as she invoked it's ability for a minute before it went out. Kim then sighed, the sound of which sounded to Elmo like it was part relief and part annoyance.