Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

Gaggle Of Monkeys :)

Kipo settled against the wall of the cell, completely worn out. All her bones and joints ached, and in the back of her mind (away from all the satisfaction of defeating ANOTHER opponent), she was a little worried. They seemed to be winning these fights by the skin of their teeth, and soon enough, their luck had to run out, right?

Kipo shifted. This concern was starting to settle in the forefront of her mind. "Um... Kris?" Kipo spoke up. "How many more opponents do we have?"

Kris lifted up their hands, preparing to answer, but before they could actually say anything, the guard from outside spoke up.

"You have one more," the guard told them. Kipo blinked.

"...Wait, what?" Anne asked, tilting her head. "That's it."

"I... would have though there were more," Fei Fei frowned, and the guard glared at them.

"Kris had a ninety eight percent rate," the guard grumbled. "So, you didn't have that many left."

For a second, no one spoke, all of them mulling over the new information.

"Wasn't that... different before?" Kipo asked, trying to think back. "What was the number before?"

It wasn't a number that stuck in her head, which was odd, because Kipo was usually good at numbers.

"I remember it being a lot smaller," Fei Fei agreed.

"I think that this is looking a little suspicious," Anne's eyes squinted as she stared at the guard, who rolled her eyes. "Ok, does any one else find it kind of weird that all the guards act literally the same here?!"

Kipo stared over at the guard. While she didn't agree with most of Anne's conspiracies, she, too, was also starting to get a little suspicious.

"Hey, wait, Kipo, weren't you supposed to be the positive one?" Anne suddenly asked. "You look more like the person to say 'I believe in everyone!' than 'this is suspicious'."

"What?" Kipo gave Anne a bewildered look. "That doesn't apply when there are all these red flags, Anne!"

"Alright, alright, I understand." Anne backed away, her hands help up in mock surrender as she shrugged. Kipo turned away, staring back over to the guard. Now that she thought about it, why did they have a guard in the first place? It really did feel like they were prisoners, rather than fighting for some 'honour to fight monsters'.

This just wasn't adding up... Kipo's gaze dropped to the ground in front of her, wondering what to do, when the sand in front of her caught her eyes. Glancing at the guard again, she made sure she was looking away before catching Anne, Fei Fei and Kris' attention. She gestured down to the sand, and then wrote, in big-enough-to-read letters 'We'll have to communicate this way, so we're not overheard'.

Kipo leaned back, and then it only took a couple seconds for Anne to read it, but Fei Fei seemed to be having trouble. Kipo winced, but eventually, Fei Fei seemed to get it, and she nodded. However, Kris didn't move the entire time, even after Kipo waited for them. Eventually, Kipo erased the words, and wrote something else: 'So, we all know this is weird, right?'.

Fei Fei and Anne nodded once again, and this time, it was Anne who erased Kipo's words and wrote something. 'We know, so what are we going to DO about it?'.

Kipo frowned. That was the question, wasn't it?

'I'm worried about this last fight,' she wrote. 'I feel like it came out of nowhere.'

'Yeah, what could they be planning to do?' Anne asked, and Kipo frowned. Another good question.

Eventually, Fei Fei raised her hand, making it hover over the sand, but then she paused, hesitant. She looked like she was struggling, but then she put her hand down, and Kipo and Anne watched as she clumsily wrote the letters.