Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

Wish We Could Ask For Directions...

"We've passed that rock six times by now."

"Yeah, weird."

"...I think we're going in circles."

Anne groaned, then slid off her mount. The horse thing neighed as her feet hit the ground, and Kipo watched in rapt fascination. She never seen anything like it before: a long, skinny, silver horse shaped creature with the main body, limbs and neck where about the same thickness as her wrist. The widest part of the creatures where the middle of their backs, which widened out into something that almost resembled a 'seat'. When they ran, they're skinny legs went so fast that they almost looked like a solid circle, and once Anne had mentioned that they looked like 'sonic the hedgehog' running. Kipo was going to have to take her word for it.

A ruffle of paper caught Kipo's attention, and when she turned her head, she saw Anne had once again taken out the map, holding it wide open. This was pretty usual, and Kipo still hadn't figured out if the map itself was not up to par or the people holding the map.

Anne seemed to squint at it. "I don't know... it looks like we're going in the right direction?"

Fei Fei slid off her skinny horse as well, and her armour clanked as she moved. "It just looks like it?"

Anne huffed. "Well, it be a little easier if every single one of these trees didn't look exactly the same."

Fei Fei glanced at her. "...But that's just how maps work."

"I know that's how maps work, and it sucks!" Anne looked like she wanted to throw the map. "Man, I'd kill for a gps right about now."

This, Fei Fei seemed to agree with, while Kipo tuned the both of them out. They had these talks every once in a while, but in this new forest (one that was NOT filled with pink fog like the first one) it seemed to happen more frequently. Anne and Fei Fei were looking at the map, they talked about it for a minute, and then they were back on the road.

Kipo fixed her attention on the strange creature in front of her instead, holding out her hand. To her delight, the creature lowered its black head and nuzzled it muzzle into Kipo's open palm. She beamed. It WAS cute, in a strange sort of way.

The head of the creature was black, unlike the rest of it, and it had big black eyes that reflected the sunlight. The shape of its head was like the nozzle of a hose, Kipo noticed, amused.

Suddenly, she was brought out of her thoughts as Anne and Fei Fei came back, with Anne stuffing the paper back into her bag. She was getting frustrated, Kipo noticed.

"It would be nice if we had some sort of landmark or something," Anne grumbled.

"A compass would be nice, too," Fei Fei sighed. That was true, Kipo knew. Why didn't they have a compass?

"Yeah, that too," Anne agreed. She glared at their surroundings. "Would be great if there weren't so many TREES AND STUFF AROUND!"

Suddenly, Kipo straightened up. Anne had just given her an idea.

"Hold on," Kipo said, hopping off her horse as Fei Fei and Anne struggled to climb back on theirs. They looked over to her, surprised, and perhaps even more so when Kipo started climbing up one of the trees. The trees here were a lot smaller than the ones in the other forest. "I'll be right back..."

Fei Fei caught on before Anne did. "Oh! You're going to try and scout from the treetops?"

"Huh? Oh!" Anne face palmed, shaking her head. "Duh! That makes sense! Surprised we didn't think about it before..."

Kipo shrugged, also wondering that, but before she climb up farther, Anne slid off her horse and ran over to the base of Kipo's tree, pulling her map back out. "Wait, Kipo!" Pausing at the base of the tree, Anne held open the map. "Look for one of these landmarks, okay? So, we know where we are!"