Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

Fe Fi Fo Fum

The next day, when Fei Fei and Anne 'awoke', they didn't say anything about the night before. It was like it hadn't even happened at all; they might as well had been talking about the weather. Realistically, they both knew that wasn't good, or heathy, after all, they hadn't gone through their respective coming of age journeys for nothing, after all. But every time one of them opened their mouth to say something, nothing came out. Everything they had to say was said yesterday. Whether or not their loved ones were here had nothing to do with this mission, and all Fei Fei and Anne could do was move forward.

Still, they'd be lying if they felt alone, or burdened. Despite not a word being exchanged between them, Fei Fei and Anne had been through enough that they were well aware that they could count on each other, lean on each other, no matter what. They felt better together than apart.

Fei Fei and Anne ate the rest of the fruit for breakfast, and then put out the barely-there fire. Not really worth starting a forest fire, no matter how little the chances of that there was. After all that was done, Fei Fei turned to Anne.

"You had a plan, did you?" she asked. "Of where to get the flowers."

"Oh, yeah!" Anne remembered. She led Fei Fei to the edge of the cave and the two poked their head out. Anne pointed out the door, now in plain sight in the bright daylight.

Fei Fei gulped. "That... That was there the whole time?!" she cried.

"Whatever's in there has to be huge..." Anne mused. She gave Fei Fei sly look. "Like a man-eating giant, maybe?"

"A what?" Fei Fei gave Anne an odd look, and Anne gave her one right back, before realization sunk in.

"Oh... uh, guess we were raised with different kinds of giants," Anne said, shrugging. Fei Fei blinked, before shaking her head.

"Right... So you think the flowers could be in there?" Fei Fei asked.

"Well, yeah, they show up when you're dead, giants eat people... well some of them, anyway," Anne explained. "The dots connect!"

"If you... say so," Fei Fei said uncertainly. She turned back towards the door. "How should we get in? We can't move that door."

"Weeeell," Anne said. "I COULD explain an overly complicated plan that is relayed over a montage of us acting out said plan, and then also have the plan fail in the end anyway, or we can just go through this tunnel."

Surprised, Fei Fei looked up at Anne, who was pointing backwards, and then down the tunnel. She wasn't worried about it last night, considering they were staying pretty close to the entrance, but now... well, it certainly looked dark and ominous, like a monster was waiting down in the darkness.

"I worried about that, too," Anne told Fei Fei before she could voice her doubts. "But think about it! If the doors that big, then the house is gonna be huge! Spanning all the way over here where THIS tunnel goes into it! This tunnel MUST go into it!"

"...Must?" Fei Fei asked, titling her head. "Why would someone have a tunnel they couldn't fit in lead to their house?"

"Uhhhh...." Anne had to think about that for a second. "...Ventilation?"

"...I don't know what that word means," Fei Fei admitted.

"It's used a lot in movies," Anne explained, which was the worst explanation for anything Fei Fei's heard from her yet.

She couldn't even reply to that. She didn't really get the chance to, anyway, because the next couple seconds was filled with a loud creeeeaaaak, that made Anne and Fei Fei flinch.

"What the-?" Anne cried as both she and Anne poked their heads out of the cave entrance, the first thing they saw was that the door was opened, and the next was the giant praying mantis that towered over them, and almost definitely came from the giant door.