The Systems Challenge

Elmo had a sinking feeling about what the cause of the rumbling would be. It lasted a long while, thought he couldn't be sure exactly how long. Just that he eventually sat down so he wouldn't get tired from trying to maintain his balance.

While he hadn't experienced earthquakes before, he had a feeling that's not what the cause was. For one thing, he was pretty sure earthquakes didn't last this long, while for another, there was something about it that he just couldn't quite place. Something that made him uneasy about what will happen as a result of the rumbling.

When it was over, no one spoke for several minutes. Elmo didn't question it, it just felt right that no one said anything. Though, he felt like he shouldn't move until someone spoke. It wasn't because he felt that something bad would happen if he did, but rather because he couldn't help but worry what the others around him would take any movement at that moment to mean.

"What was that about?" Patricia asked, her voice quieter than usual.

"Maybe a volcano erupted or something?" Owen asked. "Or maybe even something that will be another bonus challenge or something."

"If it is, I'm not sure I want to participate in it," Elin remarked. "Not with how long it shook everything."

"Who knows," Kim remarked. "It might not be something we have an option about."

"Why's that?" Elin asked, sounding rather worried.

"Simply because while we suspect what you saw is the creature we're supposed to capture, that doesn't necessarily mean it is. As far as we know, whatever cause the rumbling here is the creature we're supposed to capture," Kim answered. "Unless they announce that it isn't then-"

Kim stopped talking as the ground started rumbling again. Elmo felt like it shouldn't be an earthquake, but he couldn't say for sure that it wasn't. Especially with how he understood that if it was an earthquake, that this could be an aftershock or something. While the others were talking about a creature causing this, Elmo was hoping that it was something much more natural. Like the volcano that Owen had suggested.

Elmo wasn't sure why he needed it to be caused by something natural, but he wasn't going to argue with it. He just wanted his hopes to be made into truth so he didn't need to continue to worry about it. Even though a part of him was saying to run. Run as fast as he could away from whatever was causing the rumbling.

"Does it help if I say that this rumbling is making me rather uneasy?" Jonas asked.

"Why would it make you uneasy?" Patricia asked, sounding rather annoyed by his question.

Jonas shrugged. "Not sure. Just that I'm getting a bad feeling from it."

"I sometimes get a bad feeling when I eat a bad batch of stew, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna have diarrhea soon after," Elwin stated, eliciting groans from most of the other present.

"Why say it like that?" Patrick complained.

"We don't need that image in our heads," Patricia snapped.

"Way to change the subject," Kim remarked, sounding more sarcastic that Elmo could remember hearing Kim be. "Maybe next time you can say something like that while we're in the middle of eating."

Elwin had a look of injured pride as he listened to the complaints. "My analogy still stands, regardless of what you think of it," he protested, sounding like he didn't feel like backing down from his previous statement.

"It's not that it's a bad analogy," Owen said. "It's more that that's not a pleasant subject to think of, even at the best of times." Owen paused a moment before adding, "Not to mention disgusting."

As the others continued talking, Elmo decided that this was his time to leave the scene. While he wasn't worried that the others would object to him leaving, he did at least not want to have to deal with listening to all the thoughts, theories, and complaints that were likely to come up.

He doubted he'd be able to get away from all of it without leaving the valley, but he figured he could at least get far enough away that he could tune it out rather than having to just listen to it. If nothing else, he figured he could go to sleep and wake up to find that the rumbling was just a dream rather than a reality he was confident he didn't want to face.

However, as he returned to the camp, his stomach made it clear that it was empty and wasn't happy with that fact. Which told Elmo that if he wanted to get to sleep, he was going to need to fix that issue first. Otherwise he wasn't going to be able to get to sleep any time soon.

Fortunately, the wood was already gathered and it didn't take him long to start a fire to get a stew going. He knew it would take longer than he'd like to get it fully cooked, but it wasn't like he could go find a fst food place nearby.

He'd gotten the water boiling and had added the vegetables and some chunks of dried meat to the water and couldn't o anything other than wait when he heard someone approaching from where he'd left the others.

"There you are," Elin said as she approached. "I thought you'd been rather quiet around the others, until I realized you'd left."

Elmo shrugged. He wasn't sure what to say to that. He didn't really feel like talking at the moment anyway, so he wasn't sure if it really mattered.

"Stew again, huh?" Elin said as she sat next to him, the complaint about that fact clear in her tone.

"Yeah," Elmo mumbled before he even realized it.

"Is something wrong?" Elin asked, her words making him flinch for some reason.

While he wanted to stay quiet, since he'd already spoken, he wasn't sure if it mattered at that point. "I don't know," he mumbled his response.

"Well, if there is, then you can always talk about it," Elin said. "Kim said that sometimes it helps talking about something, even if you don't come to a solution or fix for whatever it is."

Elmo merely sighed in response. He really didn't know if there was anything wrong or not. He felt like there was, but it wasn't anything he could point to or even quantify. Just that the feeling was there, even though he didn't know what might be the cause of it.

"If you don't want to talk, that's fine," Elin continued. "I guess you might be worried about what might have made the ground shake like that."

Elmo merely nodded. He didn't feel like talking and now that he was back to where he wasn't speaking again, he wanted to maintain that. Though, he couldn't be sure why exactly.

"I hope it was just a volcano, but I'm sure it wasn't the creature we're supposed to capture," Elin said, apparently wanting to talk herself, though Elmo couldn't say if this was something that she felt she needed to say, if she wanted to just fill the silence, or if it was that there was something she wanted to get our herself. "I mean, the feather's don't feel like they came from anything that would be so angry that it would make the ground shake like that."

Elin's words about something being so 'angry' tickled something in Elmo's memory, but he couldn't be sure what that might be. He was confident that it was important, but part of itw as that just nothing came immediately to mind and he could tell that his mind didn't want to think any further on the subject. Why, he couldn't say. Just that it filled him with a sensation that he'd rather not explore.

Elmo didn't realize when Elin fell into being silent herself. Just that they both sat in front of the cookfire, waiting for the stew to finish. He felt like the silence was comfortable, though his tired eyes weren't willing to go to sleep just yet. Not that his stomach would let that happen, either.

"Uh, I think the stew's done," Elin said, pulling Elmo's attention back to the boiling pot in front of them.

Elmo looked and could see that everything looked like it was thoroughly cooked. Though, the broth was a little thin, but he knew that it would thicken as it cooled. Not that it mattered as he ate it. It was at least something to fill his stomach that was unhappy about still being empty.

Elmo moved the pot off of the fire and set it to the side on some stones that they used to keep the pot from being put directly on the grass of the valley. Elmo certainly didn't want to create a grassfire if they could help it. Especially where they were camping.

As Elmo ladled the stew into a couple bowls, one for Elin and one for himself, he could hear the others starting to make their way towards them. Which meant the peace and quiet was over. Although, for some reason, Elmo didn't feel like it was as much of a loss as he likely would have thought when he first came over here.