Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

The Darkness

"In there?!" Kai shouted, stumbling back as if the hole in the ground had physically attacked him. "Kipo HAS to be kidding! We can't go in there, we'll obviously die!"

"It'll probably be fine!" Mira told him. She seemed used to this; already ready with encouragement to try and get Kai through whatever was going on. She knelt by her friends, with a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Kai, we have to do this."

"ABSOLutely not!" Kai shouted, shaking his head. Mira's face changed, and while she still was nice and happy, there was a bit of annoyance in her face now, as well.

"Kai, we need to do this, to collect the flowers," Mira explained, firmly, and when Kai opened his mouth to protest again, Mira turned to Tulip. "Right, Tulip?"

Tulip frowned, feeling kind of awkward, like she was interrupting something she shouldn't be a part of. Like when someone else's parents were arguing right in front of you, or when your friend was clearly and obviously laying out their bond with their much closer friend right in front of you.

"Um... yeah, we do need to go down there..." Tulip eventually said, and Mira looked triumphant. Tulip only saw it out of the corner of her eye, because she was determinedly keeping her eyes on the hole in ther ground. Despite it being the middle of the day, the hole was shrouded in darkness, and Tulip could only see a glimpse of stairs that led into it. "But we shouldn't head down without some sort of supplies, I think. Like... a light."

Kai breathed a visible sigh of relief, and Mira glared at him.

"You know a flashlight only makes it more horror game-esque, right?" Mira asked him.

"It's... also practical," Tulip pointed out.

"Let's go look for a flashlight," Kai said, sounding relieved, like he had been saved from death somehow.

Mira frowned. "Where would we-?"

"I saw a town on the way in," Tulip told them. "We could probably ask around there."

"A town...?" Mira trialed off, sounding confused. "Where did you... oh, right. You mean the couple of buildings."

"Yeah, let's go, let's go!" Kai cheered, scrambling up from the ground. But he stopped suddenly, looking around. "Where is it again?"

Tulip and Mira exchanged a look.

"It was off in the distance, over there," Mira told him, pointing to the place that was almost too small to see, on the horizon of the desert that surrounded them. Not because it was so far away, but rather because it was so small. Kai had to squint to be able to see it, and Mira laughed.

"You'll see it better when we get up there," she told him, starting back down the road they had just spent so much time walking on to even get here. "Come on!"

Kai followed straight away, but Tulip hesitated for a second, looking back down at the hole. Other that the intense shadow, there was just something... off about it, something rather unsettling that made her stomach curl just looking at it. Even standing near it made Tulip feel that the air around her was off, and that there was something in the space around her, something she couldn't imagine. It was strange. Unnerving. Tulip and Mira had hid it for Kai, but Tulip was certain that neither wanted to take a trip down that hole.

Didn't really matter though. They had to go in there, after all.

Tulip followed Kai and Mira, eager to get away.

To Kai's visible disappointment, their shopping trip was short shopping trip was straightforward and short. They went to the town, and found a shop out of like, five buildings. In the shop though, they couldn't find any flashlights (they weren't really expecting any electricity anyway), but they also couldn't find any lanterns either, or any light sources. So they went to ask the person working the counter, wiping it down with a rag. She hadn't said anything as they came in, and she didn't look up from her desk, but Tulip could feel her eyes on them as they perused. But Tulip only saw her eyes when the three of them approached her. She gazed at them with an unimpressed look as they explained to her what they needed.