Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

Reflect

The sun was starting to set again, and it painted her room orange as she watched it through her window. It was beautiful, Kipo thought, but she couldn't appreciate it when her stomach was tied in knots from worry. Adam was still missing, and now the second day with him gone was coming to a close.

Kipo really couldn't believe him. She was angry, confused, worried, and as soon as he got back, he'd have an earful. The two of them had already lost one friend, did they really need to get split up a second time? And without any warning, no less! At the very least he could have told her something...

Why didn't he trust her?

Kipo sighed. There was a book in front of her, one of the ones about the bone dragons that Adam hadn't taken, and she could see why: none of the information was useful, and it didn't have any paragraph breaks. Kipo was going to give up on it eventually, but right now she was still holding out on the hope that there was something. And if she stopped getting distracted by the sun, eventually she'd find it.

Yesterday, when Adam had disappeared, she and Mira, and eventually some of the other kids (there were only kids in this town, Kipo had noticed, and Mira had told her that they had mostly come from different places around. They had been brought to the empty town by a mysterious Anne and Fei Fei, two kids Kipo had yet to meet) had torn through the town, worried that he'd been kidnapped, or worse. The kid with the big head, Dib, had watched them for a while, but when the sun had started to set, he finally told them where Adam had gone off to: back to the forest to collect and try to trade Bipo for Wirt.

After Dib had finally fessed up, the other's talked and agreed that there was probably nothing they could do, and that they'd just have to wait for him. They couldn't exactly go look for him, as Kipo had no clue where the forest was, and that the two maps the town had were missing: one for Anne and Fei Fei and one for Adam.

Kipo had kind of wanted to go out to look for Adam anyway, but Mira managed to talk her down by reminding her that getting lost herself wasn't going to be much help, and that they should probably get some sleep for when Adam came by the next day, safe and sound. They could begin fortifying the town while they waited.

But despite how reassuring Mira tried to be, Kipo could stop the fits of anxiety and concern throughout the night, and the fact that she was in a completely new space after weeks and weeks of living in an empty home and camping on the ground, this soft, comfortable bed didn't help. The house Mira had offered to her was very nice and furnished and Kipo was definitely happy to have a nice house for once, but it couldn't distract her from her concern about both Adam and Wirt.

Kipo barely slept a week that night, and now, after a day of working and waiting for Adam, who didn't show up, she doubted she'd sleep tonight either.

How'd everything go so wrong? Kipo had thought the three of them had trusted each other...

Kipo shook her head, trying to shake off those depressing thoughts. No, it wouldn't be good to continue worrying about the past, she had to think about the future. Clearly, the friendship between the three of them had a lot of problems, and when they were all back together, there would be a lot of work to do to make sure they could actually trust each other. Kipo should be thinking about that instead.

With a sigh, Kipo closed the textbook in front of her. Maybe she'd try again later, or maybe not. For now, she was going for a walk to clear her head, and to ponder her new idea.

Kipo left her room, and hurried down the stairs, trying to make as little noises as possible. These houses were close together, and they had thin walls, and Kipo doubted Kai would like getting woken up to a second night of Kipo's restlessness. He technically hadn't said anything yet, but the bags under his eyes and the snappishness in his voice the next morning told the whole story.