Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

They Move in a Herd

"Anne, shh!" Fei Fei hissed, but she also looked relieved to see Kipo, and the sediment was shared. Kipo was about to tell her as much, but before she could, Fei Fei was waving her forward, motioning her to follow.

"Over here," she whispered. "We need to get away from that town."

Kipo blinked. "But what about... weren't we going to fight the monsters?"

Fei Fei frowned, glancing behind her at the gaping pit behind her, and Kipo sighed. Alright, fair point.

Fei Fei tilted her head, and then started off through the trees, but to Kipo's surprise, they didn't go far. Only back to the weird horses, which, Kipo was shocked and relieved to learn, were completely fine. However, the relief and shock only lasted so long before a heavy ball of quilt settled in her stomach. She hadn't thought about them once in the... how many days was it? However long she was in there. Kipo winced. She something the type to completely forget about stuff like this...

Suddenly, Kris popped out from behind them, and Kipo jumped. "Huh? Oh, Kris!" she cried, surging forward. "You're alright."

Kris tensed as Kipo hugged them, but to Kipo's surprise, they didn't pull away. But they didn't really seem exactly comfortable, so Kipo made sure to pull away quickly. She smiled at them, and they glared darkly back at her. But that was fine, because they were alright!

"Uh," Anne eventually spoke up, tearing Kipo's attention away from Kris. Anne and Fei Fei were both sharing a sheepish look. "You're probably wondering... what's going on?"

It was phrased as a question, so Kipo nodded.

"Well... basically... er." Anne glanced around, looking from Fei Fei to even Kris for help. Luckily, Fei Fei picked it up.

"When you fell asleep again, I thought of an idea that probably wouldn't use your jaguar," Fei Fei explained. "I thought that if we just used traps, then we wouldn't have to worry you. I... um... I knew that we'd need a lot of traps, probably more than we'd think. But..."

This time, it was Anne who picked it up. "Well, we got off track a lot, and before we knew it, the sun was going down already... but we hadn't really seen it before, because we had been over there, digging that hole..."

Anne trailed off.

"And then the monsters came, right?" Kipo guessed, finishing for her. Anne nodded.

"We didn't make a lot of traps..." Fei Fei told Kipo sheepishly. "But they hadn't stopped any of them. The rope traps didn't work at all, and we only really dug one pit, which..."

Fei Fei cut herself off, suddenly turning to the forest and looking annoyed. Anne huffed.

"Alright, fine," Anne sneered. "I'm 'sorry' I said the rope traps were cooler!"

Fei Fei squinted at her. "Why do I feel like you're not? This entire night failed!"

"Huh?" Kipo looked between the two of them. "The entire night? I don't think so, because now we know what traps work, right? And we can definitely try again tomorrow!"

Anne and Fei Fei exchanged similar looks of knowing.

"...What?" Kipo frowned, tilting her head at them. "We ARE going to try again tomorrow, right?"

"...Not with traps, no," Fei Fei eventually answered, but before Kipo could say anything, she continued. "They are too many of them. We would never be able to make enough traps. That pit took most of our time, anyway."

"But I can help!" Kipo quickly interjected. "We can't just leave the town alone!"

For a second, there was only silence.