Chapter 333: The Next Morning
As Elmo opened his eyes as the sun started shining directly in them through the trees, he groaned. He couldn't understand why his body was aching. It wasn't like he'd actually did anything the day before. Although, he supposed the rash landing might have affected him more than he'd realized. It was at least a possibility.
Elmo looked around and couldn't help but sigh. Sonya's wing was good to use as a shelter, though with everyone under it, there wasn't much room for him to start a fire to warm them up. Especially with the burned sulfur odor from his Brimstone Fire spell. That odor was hard to get rid of, even as they got a good amount of firewood to get the fire going. Which Elmo wondered if maybe in the future he should avoid using that spell to start fires. Even when he'd the only one with spare MP on hand.
Grisha seemed to have been the least concerned about the rain that had been falling. Elmo wasn't sure if it was just that he didn't mind rain or that there was some other reason. All he could say was that there was something about Grisha that he couldn't quite place. That he wasn't quite as he appeared to be.
While he didn't feel it was his business to pry, he still felt like he shouldn't trust him completely. As he couldn't say why he wasn't telling them everything. Or even if that 'something' would prove to be something that would set Grisha as an enemy rather than potential friend.
Though, Elmo still wasn't sure how they'd managed to dodge the subject of the challenge that they'd mentioned around him and he'd inquired about it. Part of him suspected that Grisha really wasn't that interested in it, and was willing to let them have their own secrets, since he had his. Though, Elmo wasn't sure how far he'd be willing to go with that explanation.
Another part also suspected that Grisha didn't really care that much about the subject. Which, if true, meant that they wouldn't need to worry that much about it in the future. So long as they kept him from becoming interested in the subject, which Elmo wasn't sure if they would be able to avoid since he really didn't know what would draw Grisha's interest or not.
"You really have no sense of self-preservation, do you?" Elmo heard a voice ask as he sat up.
Elmo didn't have to look around for long before he found the source of the voice: Grisha. Or at least the person he could only assume was Grisha. As he hadn't really been able to get a good look at his features in the failing light the night before. Grisha had blue eyes that made him think of pure water and hair that made him think of the feathers that the people running the competition he was in had given them as a hint as to what creatures they were supposed to 'capture' to complete the challenge. Grisha also seemed to be about halfway between five feet tall and six feet tall and was wearing a sleeveless shirt made of some undyed material Elmo couldn't identify and a pair of pants of the same fabric.
"What do you mean?" he asked as he yawned.