The Systems Challenge

"Well, now that we have that out of the way, we should figure out what to do next," Jonas said, hoping this issue would get dealt with without any other issues coming up.

"What do you mean?" Bart asked, sounding more surprised than Jonas thought he should.

"Well, Harold was aware that we’d left the village and was heading towards the dungeon. So, I’d say it’d be safe to assume that Stanley has the same knowledge. Even if we can’t explain how he’d be able to know that," Jonas replied calmly, even though he’d really prefer to get moving on to the points that he had in his mind to get to. Despite the fact that he could see he was going to have to slow-walk this to keep some of the others from getting lost.

"Why would Stanley know we’re heading to the dungeon?" Elin asked, one person Jonas felt he should have known wouldn’t have realized this on their own.

"Because Harold knew," Kim replied before Jonas could. "The fact that we left at night to avoid whoever they had spying on us in that village must not have been lost on them. Possibly even someone working at the inn, so the fact that we didn’t even leave our rooms for meals would have been something they’d been instructed to report. Which in turn left them to assume we’d already left and Harold rushed ahead to meet up with us. So, like I said a minute ago, since we don’t know that Stanley hadn’t planned on collecting Harold later on, we’ll have to assume that he’ll be aware of Harold’s death and know to expect us either on the way to the dungeon, or even at the dungeon itself, or inside it."

"That’s all well and good, but why should we need to be worried?" Patricia asked dryly. "If we’re aware that he’s aware of us, then couldn’t we be on the lookout for traps or ambushes?"

"Yes, we can, but that doesn’t help us if we don’t see them," Jonas replied. "I can only see so much and even I have limits, even if I’m not really aware of what those limits are just yet. Besides, if its an ambush, it won’t help if they see us first. I might be able to see in the dark as if its day, but if we have something giving off light, they’ll be able to see us much more easily in this forest than I would. As light in darkness attracts attention."

"You’re making my head hurt," Patrick complained. "Let’s just move on from this and figure things out as we go along. We’ve done well enough so far doing just that, so I don’t see why we can’t do that again."

"Well because if we want to survive to see the last challenge completed, and since we’re trying to complete the last challenge ourselves, we’re likely going to end up in conflict with Stanley and his group at some point. Even if we end up at the finish line before we encounter them," Jonas answered, feeling like this probably was going to take longer than he’d like, regardless of what he’d hoped for at the start of this topic.

"So, why not send someone ahead to scout for us?" Elwin asked, looking at Sonya. "If I recall correctly, many of your shapes are rather small and not suited for combat, right?"

Sonya glared at Elwin. "I’m not leaving Heather like this," she stated flatly, as if she was being pressured to break up with Heather. "You can find someone else to do that if you really want to." Sonya paused for a moment, possibly to let her words sink in, though Jonas suspected that it was entirely unnecessary. "Unless she waked up and tells me she’s alright, I’m sticking with her and I’ll need to be in a form large enough to carry her."

Elwin sighed in exasperation. Though, Jonas wasn’t sure why he should have thought that would turn out any other way than it did. After all, it wasn’t like they had anything else that they could use to carry Heather, even if Sonya was willing to do that for them. Although, as he thought that, he suddenly had an idea. One that might help them out, both with keeping Elwin pacified and Sonya from worrying about leaving Heather.