The Systems Challenge-Chapter 426: Out of Supplies

When a week had fully gone by and they hadn't reached the library, Kim felt rather annoyed. While she hadn't had any reason to believe that they'd have reached it within a week, she couldn't deny the arguments others, like Elin, were making about how they could have gotten taken off course by the bog.

As such, she knew that she needed to waste the locate ability of her sword just to make sure that they hadn't or weren't passing it by just because of that lousy bog that had slowed them down for most of the week, including the fight with the hydra that occurred in it.

The only things that really mattered to her right now was to find the library and find a place, or way, to resupply their food. Which had dwindled to almost nothing. Even by cutting rations they still were almost out. Although she did suspect that some of the others were sneaking some of the food as well. Namely Bart, Elmo, and especially Elwin were her top suspects of that, even though she hadn't caught anyone trying to sneak food.

So, as Kim drew her sword to invoke its locate ability when they had stopped at around noon, when Elin brought up the subject, she sighed.

"You should hold it up over your head this time," Elmo suggested, his eyes almost sparkling with excitement. Though Kim suspected the excitement was more for the pose he was suggesting.

She didn't understand what the point of it would be, but when Elin joined in on urging her to do that, Kim couldn't help but raise the sword above her, with the tip pointed straight upward.

She felt ridiculous, but she couldn't help but like the way that Elin looked when she did that. Even if it wasn't something she planned on doing again. Not with Elwin laughing about it.

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As she activated it's locate ability, she saw in her mind an image of where the library was. The image was gone almost as fast as it had come and she recalled the valley with the five tier waterfall again. Though, this time it felt like she was looking at it at a different angle. Plus, she felt like if they turned to head due north, they should reach it.

Not that distances were conveyed to her. Just rather what it looked like as well as what direction to head in to reach it.

"So, where is it from here?" Jonas asked after a minute, while Kim was still processing all the information she'd gotten.

"North," was all she could think to say as she lowered the sword. She wanted to say more, but the words just wouldn't even come to her mind to even think of saying them.

"Well, should we head that way now or should we do some hunting and maybe foraging?" Elwin asked, sounding bored already.

"Hunting sounds good," Bart said, looking a little excited. "We haven't gotten anything for a while."

"Well, hunting and foraging on a bog aren't really that useful," Jonas said. "I mean, we might get a bird or two, but beyond that I can't think of what would likely be out there that would be good to try and hunt."

"You know, we could have seen if the hydra meat was any good," Heather remarked. "I don't know if it would have been safe to eat, but we could have at least checked."

Kim nodded at that point. After all, it had to have been a means which they could have supplemented their food supply, but maybe it was because she'd been so tired after the fight mentally that she hadn't thought about it herself. Although she wasn't sure if she'd have cared to eat snake meat let alone a hydra's. Largely because the idea just didn't sit well with her stomach in general.

"Well, regardless of any of that, it's too late to check now," Sonya commented. "It's got to have started to decompose and I doubt it'd smell very good. Not to mention all the holes that Elwin poked into it."

"I was making sure it was dead," Elwin protested, sounding rather indignant. "We went over this then."

"I know," Sonya replied cheerfully. "It's just that I'm sure that the holes you poke into it probably would help it with staying fresh all the way through."

"Let's move on," Kim said, starting to get a headache with all that had been said about the hydra. Which brought to her mind the bog and all the annoyances that had come with it. Let's just get a hunting party set up when the rest of us look for a place to make camp and collect firewood."

"Who'll go hunting?" Elwin asked, almost making the question sound like a threat. "I don't want just anyone to join me."

"How about I join you, as well as Bart and Jonas?" Owen asked. "That way, we'll have at least a couple people to help bring back whatever you manage to take down."

"What do you mean, 'manage' to take down?" Elwin snapped, looking like he was starting to lose his temper again.

Kim quickly put it out of her mind. She didn't care about who won that argument or fight, but she was at least wanting to get this taken care of sooner rather than later. If they managed to get anything, then that'd be helpful, if not, then they could see if they could find anything that would be useful as a supplement. Like if they could find some grain growing in the wild.

It wouldn't be as good as grain grown on a farm, but it would at least be better than nothing. Especially considering how little food they actually had right then.

Although, she probably wouldn't say anything if they didn't find that much. As anything they found could only go so far and it wasn't like she expected to find a whole field filled with wild grain or whatever. That would only happen in a fantasy or a poorly written book in Kim's opinion.

"Whatever we find I'm sure you'll bag, so don't worry about how I phrase it," Jonas replied good-naturedly, the conversation breaking through to Kim's awareness despite her best efforts to ignore it entirely. "I'm just not sure if we'll find anything. I mean, I haven't seen any wildlife for a while aside from birds."

"Hey, we're not hunting those small birds," Bart protested, looking like he was afraid that they'd do just that.

"Relax," Elwin said, as if he knew right where to go. "You might have better vision at night, but right now it's just as good as yours or mine, aside from how far you can see. But I remember seeing some deer tracks just after we started out this morning. As long as we don't encounter a bear or something when we get one, we should be fine."

Kim was glad as their voices started to fade into the distance enough so she could put them out of her mind entirely. Not so much that she thought that they'd have success, but more because she didn't care about the finer details about what they decide or how. Or even what they thought their chances of getting something were.

With that out of her hair, she worked with the others to find a good campsite. Which they found near a stream that had clear water that was filtered by some moss growing on rocks in the stream. The stream ran into a river maybe a mile or two away. Which Kim wondered what their chances of catching something if they tried fishing would be. Not that she cared to go to the effort to even make a makeshift fishing rod.

"Elin, why don't you keep an eye on things here while the rest of us gather some firewood?" Heather suggested.

Elin looked uneasily towards Kim, clearly wanting to spend more time with her, but quickly shrugged. "Alright," she said cheerfully. "I'll do it."

Kim walked over to pull Elin into an embrace, mostly to help salve any unsettled emotions she was feeling at that moment. After all, she didn't care to have Elin mope around the camp through the night. Especially with how little time they'd been able to spend with just the two of them lately.

Not that Kim thought that would change in the near future. Even if they reached the library in less than a day from this location, she doubted that she and Elin would be able to have as much 'alone time' together as either of them would really want.

However, Kim could only sigh in resignation as she went to search for firewood as well. Elin looked like she was doing her best to act fine, but Kim could see how unhappy she was through the cracks in the mask she was trying to wear.

Although, it was clear that she was at least happy about the unexpected hug. Which Kim knew she'd made the right move with that.