Deep inside ancient ruins, Emek and Tara reached a junction with two routes back to their expedition camp. A trail marker gave an equation for each route's travel time t in hours. For the narrow eastern path, the condition was 3(t + 1) + 2t = 13. Tara simplified it to 5t + 3 = 13 and found t = 2 hours. The western path crossed rougher ground and was modeled by 4(t - 0.5) = 2t + 5. Emek expanded the left side to get 4t - 2 = 2t + 5, leading to t = 3.5 hours. They checked both values in the original equations and confirmed that each made its equation true. Sunset was 3 hours away, so the western route would leave them traveling after dark. Although both equations described possible routes, only the eastern path met their time limit. Emek and Tara chose the 2-hour route and reached camp with an hour of daylight remaining.