Chapter 310: An Encounter Before Dawn
Jonas kept an eye out in the dark as the night neared its end. He wasn't sure about any star constellations of this world, but he'd been on watch long enough to start recognizing a few of the star patterns at this time of year on this world to identify when the sun should start coming up. Despite the stars being obscured from the light cast by the stellar bear.
He hadn't gotten the stars' locations and movements down to a science, but he was at least confident it wouldn't be much longer before the sun came up. Although, with light from the bear coming from the southwest of their position, it not only made seeing the stars a bit of a pain, but also made it a little difficult o remember which direction the sun was supposed to be rising in when he started to have a wave of drowsiness come over him.
While it wasn't a bright light, it was bright enough that Jonas felt like he might be in the suburbs of a city, which would naturally affect his ability to see the sky. Only, the light was close enough that looking at it would ruing his night vision and perception of where the stars were.
As such, he did his best to avoid looking in the direction of the bear. If only to make sure that if anything approached their camp, that he'd be able to see it clearly rather than just a blur or general sense of movement.
Not that he expected anything. Even from predatory animals he'd occasionally seen during his watches hadn't seemed like the were that interested in them. Though, he couldn't guarantee that things like that would always turn out that way. Especially since he didn't know what to expect from this world.
In the past he'd occasionally walk around as he tried to keep his legs limber, but with the light from the bear being such a nuisance, he'd stopped doing that. Opting to merely occasionally stretch his legs, even though that quickly stopped having the effect merely walking around the camp had. Which was primarily to get his blood pumping and wake him up.
Which made Jonas even more eager to figure out a way to deal with the stellar bear, if only for that reason alone. He hadn't mentioned it to anyone about the detail that Elmo had learned about the bear seeking out those who were in its lair for the past few years before it woke up to kill or something. Nor did he see the benefit of letting anyone know that.
He doubted anyone would try to sacrifice him and Elmo to the bear, but he wouldn't put it past them to try and use Elmo and Jonas as bait in a trap that probably would end up with him and Elmo getting killed with the bear getting merely annoyed by the attempts against it.
Though, he wished that the 'discussion' the night before had been more productive about coming up with a strategy to attack the bear, but with what little information they had about it, he couldn't say that he was surprised. If anything, he figured it would probably be more surprising if they had come up with anything even remotely akin to a plan.