The Systems Challenge

Elmo hadn't seen a point in them staying by the bear, just in case it turned its attention on them. Especially since Elmo recalled what had been indicated about the bear's sense of smell with his view stats spell. Including how it would go after anyone who had been around it for at least a few years before it woke up.

Which meant that he had reason to believe that it would go after him if it caught his scent. Although, he couldn't say why it hadn't already. He could only hope that there were circumstances that prevented that, of which he wasn't aware of.

Not that it helped him directly in his current situation. As the bear was already starting to continue on it's path up the mountain, towards Elmo and those with him.

"Any idea where the others went?" Patricia asked, though Elmo couldn't be sure whom she was talking to.

"Not really, Patrick replied. "All I can say is that we should do the same."

While his statement wasn't exactly helpful in and of itself, Elmo couldn't refute the main point in it. That they needed to get out of there so they could avoid getting stepped on by the bear. Especially since they couldn't get away like the others had.

"Where should we go?" Elin asked, sounding rather hesitant.

"Lets just go and we can discuss a destination on the way," Patricia replied, turning to go without allowing any debate or discussion on the matter.

Elmo didn't see any reason in arguing the point, so he merely followed Patricia, with Patrick following a moment later. Elin, however, seemed like she might actually stay where she was as she stared at them in shock. Although, she still started following them a minute after that.

After they reached the top of the rise on the side of the mountain, Patricia slowed down and looked behind her while continuing to walk. "Okay, so, we have a few options," she said. "We can go one of seven directions. The same direction the bear is going, to our left, to our right, and any direction in-between, including in-between the direction of the bear itself."

"Uh, why would we go any direction that the bear is coming from?" Elmo asked, feeling like he was missing something. After all, if they tried going to the side of the bear, why would they think that it was more ignore them just because they went to the side of it?

"Hey, I'm just listing them as options, okay?" came the protest. "If you want to rule them out as possibilities, that's fine, but otherwise we'll have them as options we can consider."

Elmo felt like he'd been slapped with that statement, though he didn't see why Patricia had felt it was necessary. After all, he was only putting out his thoughts on the matter. It wasn't like he was saying that they had to do it one way or another.

"Let's just assume the others didn't go to the side of the bear," Patrick chimed in. "If we look around, we might be able to see where they ended up. If we can locate them, we should be able to find a way to them, so we can then regroup and see what it might have been that we were lacking on our first attack on the bear."

"But didn't we merely annoy it with everything we had?" Elin asked. "Even your ice attacks hardly seemed more than a frost on the bear."

Patricia stopped altogether. Elmo was glad that he hadn't been walking right behind her, as he knew he'd have merely walked right into her. Instead, he stopped after taking a few steps forward past her.

"What're you saying?" Patricia asked, sounding like she might go off on Elin if she didn't like Elin's response.

Elin shrugged. "Just that your attacks really didn't do anything to it. I'm not really sure it really noticed them."

Patricia glared at Elin like she had said something very offensive. Though, Elmo wouldn't be surprised if her statement had in fact been something that Patricia would consider offensive, since he knew that she'd been giving it her all and he had a feeling that she didn't like the thought that all that effort had been a waste. Although, as he thought about it, Elin had a point.

"Let's just put some more distance between us and the bear before we get into this, okay?" Patrick asked. "Otherwise we might get distracted and the bear might get closer to us than we'd really like."

Patricia looked at Patrick and Elmo almost thought that she was going to direct her ire at him, but instead she shook her head. "Fine. Let's just head that way then," she said pointing to the north and west of their location, though Elmo had a suspicion that she was merely pointing in a random direction away from the bear.

"As long as it's away from the bear," Elmo commented.

"What's in that direction?" Elin asked.

"Mountains," Patricia replied. "More mountains."

Elmo saw Elin roll her eyes and he couldn't help but smirk at Elin's reaction. He wasn't really that surprised, but he still found it rather amusing. He just hoped that Patricia wouldn't turn in his direction and see his smirk. He had a feeling that she wouldn't be too happy to see that. Not in her current mood.

Elmo suspected that Patricia was aware how ineffective their spells had been, but it was more having it mentioned in such a casual way that she had a problem with. He wasn't sure if that was accurate, but he had a hunch that was the case.

They continued walking and Elmo could hear the footsteps of the bear behind them, though he didn't stop to take a look. He wasn't sure he wanted to see if the bear had started following them or if it was still moving in the same direction it had been.

"Uh, what's that?" Patrick asked as the sun was starting to move into the afternoon.

"What's what?" Patricia asked, looking around.

"That," Patrick repeated, pointing up to the sky, to their right. Then after a minute of them looking at whatever 'it' was, he added, "I think it's getting bigger."

"Huh?" Elmo and Elin said at the same time, and Elmo felt his face warming up at the coincidence. Under normal circumstances, he might have called out 'jinx' but he had a feeling that Elin would require an explanation of the game, which would merely ruin any enjoyment he'd have gotten from doing so.

"Yeah, it's getting bigger, alright," Patricia remarked. "Though, I can't tell what it is, or where it's heading."

"Maybe it's searching for something to eat?" Elmo suggested. "I mean, I can't tell if it's an eagle or hawk or something, but what else could be…" Elmo trailed off as he suddenly remembered Aquis. Somehow he'd forgotten that there were supposed to be dragon's in these mountains, though he wasn't sure if that was because they'd been scared off by the fire dragon, if the fire dragon had killed most of the dragons, or if there just hadn't been as many dragons as Elmo had thought there would be in the first place in these mountains.

"What?" Patricia snapped, her bad temper clearly focusing on Elmo now.

"Uh, I guess it could be a dragon," Elmo replied quietly, not sure if he really should be vocalizing that point. As if not saying it would keep it from being true.

"Really? We haven't seen any dragons around," Patrick asked. "Uh, well, I mean aside from the fire dragon we killed recently."

"We came to these mountains because Elmo found a book that said there were dragons in these mountains, although I think the other mountains were supposed to have more dragons than these anyway," Elin answered.

"Well, lets just hope that it's not a dragon, okay?" Patricia commented.

"Uh, Not sure that's going to be possible," Elmo said, feeling his heart sinking as he could see the creature in the distance become distinct enough that he could make out the wings and body of a dragon. "It looks like it might be a dragon." Elmo started to look away when he suddenly snapped his head back towards the dragon in the sky. "Uh, I think It's scales are also… pink."

"Really?" Elin asked, sounding rather interested.

"Yeah, I guess," Elmo replied, not sure how else to respond.

"Well, if that's the case, let's hope it's either not hungry or eats other things than people," Patricia remarked, turning to continue walking in the direction they had been originally going before the dragon came into sight.

"Yeah," Patrick said, as if he was a question that Patricia expected an answer to.

Elmo wasn't sure how to respond to her hope, but he knew that it wasn't likely that dragons would go after them. For one thing, as long as this dragon couldn't turn invisible, they should be able to take it down if it came to a fight.

"Let's just not worry about it anyway," Patricia added, though Elmo wasn't sure if that would be possible if the dragon spotted them. Though, he wouldn't be sure how likely it would be in the first place. "We can discuss it later when its time for us to stop for the night."

"Uh, that might be sooner than you think," Elin commented. "I think the dragon's heading our way now."

Elmo glanced and felt his stomach sink to his feet as he saw the dragon quickly descending through the air, heading straight for them, making Elmo doubtful that it'd let them go if it really was hunting for something to eat.