The Systems Challenge

When Elwin finally declared the hydra was dead, Elin had already started making her way back to the small island. She was confident that once they were able to rest, then they'd be able to get moving.

However, as the others made their way to the island, Elwin mentioned something that Elin hadn't thought of, nor was she happy about the idea.

"We should look for the hydra's lair," Elwin remarked as he waded towards the island. "We can't say who else the hydra attacked, so there should be a good amount of treasure."

"There could be," Sonya allowed, "but at the same time, all we might find are bones, if we actually find it."

"How long would you want to spend looking for it?" Patricia asked, sounding like she might fall asleep before Elwin even answers her question.

"Look, all I know is that hydra had to have been alive for a good long while and I'm pretty sure that it would encounter people every so often as it is. Otherwise it likely wouldn't know about attacking the cauterized parts of its neck to get its heads to regrow," Elin said, sounding a little defensive in Elin's opinion.

"Well, I'd like to leave this bog as quickly as possible," Sonya said. "I'd rather not try to deal too much in searches that could take us twice as long to find as it'd take for us to get out of here."

"We could start the search while Patricia rests," Kim commented, sounding like she was rather interested in what Elwin was talking about. "If we find anything useful, we can either take a look ourselves or remember where we saw that and get Patricia to take us there later."

What if it wasn't the only hydra in the bog?" Bart asked. "If we separate, then you might not have enough people to defeat another hydra. Especially if it knows to tear at the cauterized stubs to get its heads to regrow."