Ocotillo's New "Friend"

As Ocotillo walked through the forest, she said to herself, "Argh. I just have to get away from them..."

A look of guilt appeared on her face, "Especially Cassie and Qibli... Argh, why am I talking to myself? Great Ocotillo. Plenty of signs that you are crazy. Just like that guy said..."

A yellow bird flew onto a branch and went, "Tweet! Tweet!"

"Nope, not gonna talk to the bird," Ocotillo said.

"Tweety, tweety, twee- SQUAWK!" The bird's tweeting was interrupted by someone killing it.

"What? Who's there?!" Ocotillo pulled out a borrowed pocketknife that Annabeth told her to carry for safety precautions.

"Gotcha birdie!" Someone said.

"Wait... I know this voice..." Ocotillo said as Cobra came into view.

"Oh hello," Cobra said, "Who are you again?"

Ocotillo scowled, "You know me."

"Ohhh Ocotillo," Cobra realized and smiled slightly.

"Yeeeeeeeeaaaaah," Ocotillo said.

"Want this bird? I can always catch another," Cobra offered.

"Nah. I'm going to eat at the cave soon," Ocotillo said.

Cobra raised an eyebrow, "...cave?"

"Where I live with my friends," Ocotillo answered.

"So you just randomly tell people where you live?" Cobra asked.

"No. I never told you which cave. There are lots of them," Ocotillo said.

"But still, be careful. You never know what creep might take advantage of that information," Cobra warned.

Ocotillo rolled her eyes, "I already live with a creep I know how to handle them. But thank you for your concern."

"Good, I'm glad you can handle creeps," Cobra said.

"Which means I can handle you," Ocotillo said.

"Me? I'm not a creep though!" Cobra protested.

"Suuuure, and you just happened to run into me again within a week right?" Ocotillo asked.

"Yeah, because we live on the same freaking mountain!" Cobra said.

"Oh. That is true," Ocotillo said.

"Yeeeeaah," Cobra said, "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going on my merry way home unless you want to come."

"I'm not going into a stranger's shelter thank you very much. You're the one who said to be careful anyway," Ocotillo said.

"That's what I was thinking but you kept on having a conversation with me," Cobra said.

"So?" Ocotillo asked.

Cobra merely shrugged.

"Exactly. Well I must leave too, so bye," Ocotillo said and started to walk off.

"Bye!" Cobra waved and headed his on way.

When Ocotillo got back Hatter went up to her and asked, "Would you like a hat?"

"What type of hat?" Ocotillo asked.

"A top hat. It's black, and it has a green ribbon tied to it," Hatter described.

"Any others?" Ocotillo asked.

"What type of hat would you like?" Hatter asked, "Perhaps you'd like a fedora?"

"I WANT A FEDORA!" Fred said.

"Oh yes! I have one made especially for you," Hatter said, "I call it a 'Fredora.'"

"I'll have one too!" George said.

"Hat's for everyone!" Hatter said and threw hats across the cave.

"Love the name!" Fred caught the Fredora, "If I could enchant this..."

A top hat landed perfectly on Eri's head, "Well that's convenient."

George caught a fedora, "I could enchant this to hide a bunch of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products."

There was one hat where Hatter accidentally forgot to take a needle out of. The small round head of it was sticking out. The needle head hit Rabbit in an eye. "AH MY EYE!" Rabbit screamed.

"YES!" Ocotillo cheered, "HAT: ONE, RABBIT: ZERO!"

"That's actually kinda funny," Newt commented.

"Salamander, would you like a hat?" Hatter asked.

Newt rolled his eyes, "It's Newt. And no thanks."

"I don't have to heal him, right?" Will asked.

"No need to heal him. He never needs it anyway," Cheshire answered.

"Good. Because I don't want to," Will said.

"Like the time Ocotillo burnt his entire face. He always returns back to normal," Cheshire said.

"That's disappointing," Gally commented.

"Darn it. So he'll always heal anyway," Will said.

"Unless you harm him when he's unconscious. Then he can't turn into a healthy animal and turn back to his normal self," Cheshire said, "Hm..."

"Why did we never try that?!" Ocotillo wondered.

"Hm, I wonder what's going on in the cities," Eri said.

"Yeah, they can't be super torn up. It's only been a month or so since this was officially an apocalypse," Lina said.

"Maybe the cities and suburbs are all still there!" Eri said.

"Maybe! Wanna see?" Lina asked.

"But how would we know? After all, we can only teleport to places we've been to or fictional places," Eri said.

"Duh! We've been to our homes!" Lina said, "We can teleport there! Let's have an adventure!"

"Yeah but it could be torn up and have gorillas everywhere," Eri said.

"Come on! Don't you want to see what South Carolina is like now?" Lina asked.

"You do have a point! In that case, we need to the food with us. And don't forget Victorie..." Eri continued to ramble on about important stuff.

"Yay! Adventure!" Cassie said.

"However, the sun is setting. So we should have dinner and get some rest!" Eri said.

"Night is good for cover though..." Lina said.

"Well we need rest!" Eri said then whispered, "Plus, Rabbit stays up all night so he ends up sleeping in late. Which means..."

"Oh, you don't mean?" Lina asked.

Eri grinned, "Which means, we can leave in the morning and ditch him!"

"GOOD IDEA!" Ocotillo exclaimed, unable to contain her excitement at the thought of ditching Rabbit.

"Shhh!" Eri and Lina shushed Ocotillo in case Rabbit heard her.

But Rabbit didn't hear them as he was too busy lecturing Hatter about the needle head.

Eri clapped her hands, "Alright everyone! Let's prepare dinner! Tomorrow will be awesome!"