Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

...Always Looking

As they walked, Kipo poked her head out a window, taking stock of their surroundings. The mountains and hills rose around them, snow piling up on the highest points. A little bit past them, Kipo could see the sea that Coraline and Luz had explored before. Or, kind of explored. They didn't get too far, but its not like it looked like there was anything there. No islands, and certainly nothing on the horizon. Kipo wondered what other continents would look like in this world. Would it be a strange and mish-mashed as this one?

Well... Kipo didn't want to stay here long enough to find out. Looking away from the horizon, she glanced down, and nearly stumbled from the sudden wave of dizziness. Kipo didn't think she was one who was afraid of heights, but the sudden realization of just far down the ground was from the third floor was a real shock. The river that meant out the other side of the castle was basically just an icy green line in the dirt, and the shrubbery and evergreen trees looked like they could fit in the palm of Kipo's hand.

"Wow..." Kipo breathed. She twisted around, looking up, and found the top of the castle looking much whiter than the rest of it. Like the taller mountains around it, the top of the castle reached the clouds, and had collected snow on it as a result.

It looked so high, but based on what had happened so far, Kipo was going to assume that there were only three or four more floors left.

Kipo hummed. Was this a castle or a tower? She prepared to pull herself back inside, but before she could, something caught her eye. Kipo paused, staring intently up at the top of the castle, but the flurry of movement she had seen at the top of one of its tower was either gone, or it never existed in the first place. Kipo frowned, but she resumed pulling herself back into the castle.

"Well?" Kai asked her when she came back in. He had refused to look out himself, for some reason, and Fei Fei didn't argue when Kipo offered herself, or Kipo had been the only one to look out at the view. "What'd you find?"

Kipo shrugged. "Nothing worth mentioning, I think."

"Nothing?" Kai asked, looking disbelieving.

Kipo shrugged again. "Were you expecting something?"

Kai opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. Kipo suspected the answer to that was a 'yes', but not something he wanted to share.

"Are we continuing the looking?" Fei Fei asked. Kipo nodded. She hadn't been expecting much from the window anyway.

Unfortunately, the actual castle seemed like a dying hope, too. Other than the furniture, there were no person items here, nothing to suggest that someone was living here. It was as empty and soulless as if it was a dollhouse, and Kipo was starting to get desperate. Maybe Arlen was lying, but if there really was nothing here, no danger or answers, it seemed like a weird thing to lie about. Besides, wouldn't those previous kids have left some sign of being here?

The entire emptiness of the castle reminded Kipo of the rest of the world she had found herself in. It was grand and mysterious and cool, but it was soulless, and unlived in. This place looked like it had been set up like a prop, and not an actual place with history and life in it. No people. No history. What kind of world was this?

Kipo looked into a room, a bedroom, and found Kai inside of it. He was doing as they agreed and looking through the room, but he was ringing his hands nervously, and he kept glancing around, as if something was going to jump out from the corners of the room.

Suddenly, it occurred to Kipo what Kai had been nervous about before.

"Oh," she said suddenly, nearly making Kai jump out of his skin. "You're still worried about Hurricane, aren't you?"