Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

New Forest, Who's This?

It happened quickly, and everything blended together in a blur. The House, destroyed, the gigantic dragon, fighting to get through the trees, Bipo, Wirt and Kipo running away... but with every step Kipo and Wirt took, more air was forced from their lungs, and more fog pushed into their lungs.

Wirt fell first, falling onto his hands and knees and feeling like he was coughing his guts up. Kipo must have heard it, and paused. And then she fell down.

It wasn't long before they could even stay on their knees anymore, and they fall completely to the ground.

From behind them, they could hear the dragon roaring from behind them, but the sound was fuzzy, like they were hearing with cotton stuffed into their ears. Kipo heard a snap and wondered what it was.

Eventually, both their lines of thought, of terror and confusion, trailed off, and everything went dark.

When Kipo opened her eyes again, she was surprised to find herself in a different place then where she usually woke up. Where'd all these trees come from? Kipo tried to blink away the pink haze in her eyes, and rubbed her face. Something was on there.

Suddenly, Kipo sat up as everything quickly came rushing back. Gasping at air (which she HAD, apparently), Kipo felt at her face. There was something wet and floppy on it, like someone had laid a banana peel on her face. Kipo felt around. Someone had tied it in a knot behind her head. Kipo blinked.

Shakily standing up, Kipo looked around her surroundings, finding Bipo, sleeping peacefully. They didn't seem to have a problem with the lack of air around. The forest they were in was silent, other then far away buzzing and animal calls. The dragon that was chasing them was gone.

Then Kipo found Wirt, who was also asleep, though much less peacefully. His breathing was sporadic, but, at least, he was breathing. There was a dark pink flower with long petals tied around his face, which seemed to be helping him breath. Kipo felt along her face. It must be the same thing.

Kipo knelt down next to Wirt, shaking him.

"Wirt," Kipo hissed. She could talk pretty easily, actually, the flower was big enough to encompass all her lip movements. "Wirt!"

Wirt awoke with a start, looking around wildly before feeling around his face, tugging at the flower.

"Don't, don't!" Kipo warned him quickly. "It's helping you breathe!"

Wirt started at her, and then apparently remembered passing out, because he lowered his hands.

"W-What's going on!?" Wirt asked. "Where's the-?!"

Wirt cut himself off, looking around as if the dragon was just going to pop in at anytime.

"Either it flew away, or we lost it" Kipo explained. She looked around the forest. The trees weren't pressed especially close together, but that dragon was enormous. "I think we're safe here. Can you stand?"

Wirt nodded, and Kipo helped him up. He was also quite shaky at first. Suddenly, Wirt grimaced.

"It's hot," he noted. Kipo started, and then pulled at her collar. She was sweating pretty hard.

"Huh," she said. "You're right. I hadn't noticed."

Kipo and Wirt shrugged off their respective makeshift coats, and Kipo wrinkled her nose at the state of their dress. The hadn't been able to clean up when it was extremely cold, and now, three days later, it was clear that they needed to take a bath or something like that. Kipo made a note of it.

Bipo yawned, and Wirt jumped. "Oh..." he said, disgruntled. "I guess Bipo's still here... I guess."

"Yep!" Kipo answered cheerfully. But soon, her smile shifted into a frown. "I don't think we can go back, Wirt."