Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

Boney Bites

Kipo blinked. "Where'd it go?!"

"It's alive!" Wirt cried. "Bipo brought it to life?!"

"It's not," Kipo told him, but she poked her head over the table to check. What used to be a rotting corpse was now dust on the floor. Bipo was lapping it up, and Kipo winced.

"Bipo, stop," she tried to say, but Bipo took no notice of her. Wirt took a look over her shoulder.

"W-What are they even doing?!" Wirt asked. "Are they eating it?"

Kipo shook her head. "I don't know..." she said. "But, better the corpse than us, right?"

That didn't calm either of them at all.

Kipo stepped away from the gruesome sight, and looked out into the window. Rain was falling, thumping lightly against the window. Despite not raining much, it was still a lot for such a short amount of time, barely even a couple minutes.

"Come on, Wirt," Kipo said. "Let's get ready for the storm and leave Bipo to their... meal."

Wirt looked at her incredulously. "We're not going to worry about this at all?"

Kipo gave one last glance to Bipo. "Um... I mean, I doubt their going to eat us."

"Huh?" Wirt asked. "How do you know?"

"Well, there's a very big difference between the person that was eaten and the two of us," Kipo pointed out.

"There is?!" Wirt cried, looking from Bipo to Kipo and then back. Kipo blinked, and then shook her head.

"Come on, Wirt, let's go," Kipo called back to him. "We're going to make a pillow fort!"

Wirt frowned, and he didn't immediately follow her, instead studying the pile of ash that Bipo was enthusiastically licking up. A difference, a difference... what did she mean by that?

Oh. She meant the fact they were both alive and that the corpse was dead.

Wirt sighed at his stupidity, and then hurried out of the room to follow Kipo.

After a couple minutes, it was clear that their blanket fort was a bust. Unfortunately, that did not come into light until Kipo and Wirt were sitting in their fort (that Kipo, admittedly, built the most of) and water was soaking into their shoes. Wirt and Kipo exchanged a glance.

"This... uh," Wirt looked around. Their fire they built would probably be extinguished soon. "Hm."

Kipo sighed. "Aw. And for your first blanket fort, too."

Wirt winced. "I-it's not that big of a deal," he tried to say, but his voice was too low for Kipo to hear.

"I promise that your next pillow fort will best the best thing you've ever experienced!" Kipo promised somberly. Wirt shrugged. The fort was actually pretty good, so maybe he should be excited.

"Okay." Suddenly, Wirt shuddered. The water that he was practically bathing in was freezing cold, and the fire wasn't even helping anymore. His jacket wasn't helping at all, in fact, it was making it worse. But taking it off would be worse than leaving it on.

Even the animals, which had stuffed their way in there, were looking like they were starting to regret it. Regal had draped himself over Wirt's shoulders (Wirt had not taken kindly to that at first), and Bipo was lying on the ground, looking miserable. Kipo surveyed all of them, frowning.

"We should probably start looking for a better place to stay, right?" Kipo asked. The water was rising quickly, it wouldn't be long before the entire fort was full of water.