The vast swamp gave Pearl some time to think to herself.  The dream she had back at the desert castle was strange, but it couldn't have just been a coincidence.  Maybe Jellie had some significance, because it was the only real memory she kept from that dream, though at the same time, how significant could a small cat be? And what about the man in the other boat singing with her? He felt like a very close friend, but Pearl had no idea what he looked like, and was just barely able to remember his voice. How was she supposed to find him with nothing other than that?

Tilly sniffed at the water as they rowed past, a lily pad occasionally booping her on the nose.  But as they got deeper in, there was suddenly a chunk of something soft and white that gave her a tap on her snout.  She yapped, making Pearl stop for a moment to pick it up out of the water and examine it. She squeezed as much liquid as she could out of it to see it dry, or rather as dry as it could get at the moment

"Wool... huh," she concluded. Its edges were seared, like a flame had touched it just enough to char it, but not quite enough to burn it. That was an odd thing to see on a flammable material, especially when that material was wool, something a fire would've been able to easily engulf in a matter of seconds. But the question of why it was burnt and not evaporated wasn't the important thing. The more concerning part came from Pearl wondering why the charred wool was even floating in the middle of the swamp to begin with.

The answer to the source came in a matter of paddles, when the boat had gotten deep enough in the swamp for Pearl to make out some kind of structure in the distance.  More and more chunks of wool began to flow around the boat, each looking similarly charred to the piece she picked up earlier. Tilly seemed to notice the structure on the horizon too, as she started wagging her tail and hopping towards the front of the boat to get a better look, shoving herself right under Pearl's arm to do so.  Pearl gave her companion a pat on the head as they got closer to the remains of the fort.

It looked to be a castle made entirely out of wool, any extra components sinking into the murky swamp water. There looked to be a bridge leading back to the forest outside of the swamp, but that bridge stood as well as the rest of the castle, that being not at all. There were stone triangles all around the three sides of the castle occupied by water, which speaking of the basic liquid, was pouring down on the stone like an unnatural waterfall. The only reason the one on the west side of it didn't block Pearl and Tilly's view was because that one was more beaten down and broken than its brethren, leaving a very large space to view the castle from. It also allowed them to sail through perfectly well, with plenty of space to enter the bounds of the destroyed territory.

The wolf looked over at an iron mine cart just barely keeping out of the water by a very large chunk of wool underneath it keeping it afloat. She put her paws on the front of the boat and wagged her tail, forcing Pearl to scoot to the side as to for one, see, and two, to not get hit in the face by the happy dog movements.

"Do you know this place Tilly?" asked Pearl, now knowing Tilly wouldn't leave her questions in vain so long as it didn't take words to answer them. "Was this a home of yours?"

Tilly took no time at all to jump out of the boat and re-douse her fur in water again, just to swim over to the woolen island with the mine cart. Pearl paddled after her, not able to keep up much, but definitely still following Tilly to wherever she was going.

"What's in it?" Pearl asked curiously, too lazy to step out of her boat at the moment despite parking it directly against the wool. Tilly stuck her snout inside, but seemed to come to a quick realization of disgust and turned away. Before Pearl could ask what was wrong, a sudden thunderbolt crackled through the air, causing all pairs of ears to be held by their respective consciousnesses. This was a bit tougher for Pearl, with her having both human and wolf ears in two separate places on her head (and also considering Tilly only had one ear to cover), but the effect was there nonetheless.

However, as Pearl uncovered her ears, Tilly did no such thing. She stayed where she was, huddled up in her own paws as if she were hiding from something with the "if I can't see it, it can't see me" mindset. Pearl finally stepped out of the boat, not even needing to take a step closer to see what was going on.

There laid another silver wolf, with a lime green collar to match the streak in its head fur and half of its body burnt to a crisp. It was very clearly dead for a while, as indicated by the flies piled on top of it like it was a free buffet for anything that ate corpses, which in all technicality, it was. Pearl would've teared up if she'd ever seen this wolf before, but a wolf is a wolf, especially a wolf Tilly once knew, and so her heart went out to it anyway. The silver charm on the collar caught the sunlight for a moment, letting Pearl read the name engraved on it: Geraldine.  She looked away and kneeled next to her companion, giving her a pat on the head before picking her up and placing her back in the boat.

"C'mon, let 'em rest Till," Pearl said solemnly.  The more she thought about it, the more she regretted taking Tilly away so soon, especially when her companion didn't stop mourning for a while afterwards, but she pushed the thought out of her mind, figuring it was better to get away from the depressing sight as soon as possible. That was how she tended to cope at least.

She was about to push the boat away when she saw another item floating in the water.  It was a navy blue headband with a steel plate in the front of it, the letters "ES" crudely carved into said plate like someone carving their initials into a random tree at a park.  Pearl picked it up and shook it as dry as it could get, almost handing it to Tilly for her to smell but, seeing the wolf was still in a very depressed mood, deciding against it.  Instead, thinking that this item may also belong to someone, she tied it around her neck like a bandana to dry and would later put it in her bag when it was no longer wet.  After all, she still had valuable paper in there.

She paddled back to the shore where the forest started, no longer interested in what the swamp had to offer after the egregious sight.  The boat quickly docked on the coast of the burned landscape, Pearl carrying Tilly along with her on the land. When she got up the hill, she noticed a whole fenced-in area filled to the brim with fluffy white sheep. The cloud-like farm animals had bits of black stuck in their wool, presumably from the ashes of the dead forest next to them. A small chest along with a crafting table was sat next to the farm, Pearl instantly going to open the chest. That action that was swiftly and abruptly stopped by Tilly jumping and grabbing her arm with her teeth, that is to say biting her, but not actually harming her in the slightest.

"Ah! Tilly!" yelped Pearl, caught off guard by the wolf's sudden attention. Tilly let go of her arm, stamping her front paws in front of the chest and into the dirt below. Pearl knew she was trying to signify something, but she couldn't pick apart what Tilly was trying to tell her until she started to dig up the ground.

A few moments of flying dirt later, the underneath of the chest was revealed, only being more dirt. Tilly stepped out of the hole she created, pouncing on the chest as if to say it could be opened now. 

"Are chests usually... trapped here?"  Pearl asked, suddenly cautious about whatever her next move may be.  She vaguely remembered trapped chests being a thing in her past, but she didn't expect them to be a danger here as well, especially when she didn't know whether she would die forever or respawn if they just so happened to be her detriment.  Tilly yapped in approval.

Pearl looked around before opening the compartment to find loads upon loads of white wool. This wool, unlike the wool on the backs of the herded sheep, went untouched by the charcoal that flew through the air and was still pure white. She grabbed 3 pieces of it, going over to the crafting table on the side and using some of the wood planks she took from the desert castle earlier to make a nice, white bed.  It shrunk down in size to fit in her bag, but she was fully intent on using it later, especially when sleeping on the sandstone last night was starting to annoy her with how much it pained her back.

Pearl looked down at Tilly for a moment before patting her on the head, thanking her for making her aware of the dangers even a box could present here. Though Tilly still kept her head down for the most part, she continued to follow Pearl into the forest ahead.

"Hello?"  Pearl called out as she walked through, the shortened blades of grass that remained from the ashes poking into her coarse paw pads.  It was a good thing the soles of her feet were just as tough, if not tougher, than the soles of any shoe by now.  "Anybody?  Especially any fella named Scott?  I have something that belongs to you!"

A few seconds of silence passed, and all Pearl heard was the whistling of the wind.  She turned to Tilly and asked her a question that she really should've asked a long time ago.  Like right at the beginning kind of long time ago.

"Tilly, are the people here dangerous?" asked Pearl, her wolf ears falling to the sides of her head as a sort of nervousness kicked in.  Tilly made a light grumbling noise, kind of like an "I dunno" if that were possible for an animal to communicate. 

"Ok... good talk..." she spoke more under her breath than anything.  As the duo continued to travel southward deeper into the forest, some of the greenery began to come back.  There were still some fallen and burnt trees and wildlife, but there started to be a influx of plant life, starting with a few flowers and patches of mostly untouched grass, to finally looking more like a forest that had only been seen by people once, maybe twice.  Finally, after so long of walking, Pearl spotted the tip of something in the distance.  As they got closer, she realized what it was.  A mountain.  A mountain with a flat top and a house constructed at that top of it.

"Look Till!  There might be people in there!"  Pearl cheered, beginning to dash towards the steep landmark.  She didn't look at the ground beneath her feet, but lucky for her, there was already a warning sign going down the side of the mountain.

A bright red streak.  Pearl stopped in her tracks to let her eyes follow it.

It was a bright red streak of blood, and someone's dead body was at the bottom end of it.