"These are GREAT!" Kipo cried, jumping up in excitement and throwing her fist in the air. "Look! We can finally move around out here!"

Wirt blinked, pausing in the doorway. A small, nervous smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "They're pretty good," Wirt looked down at the makeshift gloves that covered his hands. They were more like oven mitts than actually gloves. "But I think the stitching is a little clumsy."

He was right, of course. When the wind blew against her, Kipo cold feel it slipping through the holes in the clothes.

Kipo shrugged. "Yeah, well... We can fix that later."

Wirt titled his head at her. "But we ran out of thread."

"Well, yeah," Kipo admitted. "But we don't ONLY have to use thread."

Wirt blinked. "W-What."

Kipo turned around. "It's okay! We'll figure it out. Now, let's go to the forest!"

Wirt opened his mouth, as if to say something, and then closed it. He stepped out of The House, and followed Kipo out into the plains. However, they only got a couple feet before Kipo suddenly froze. Wirt stopped as well, a little surprised.

"Huh?" Wirt asked. "Uh, Kipo? Is something wrong?"

Kipo turned to him, but she kept her eyes on the ground. She bit her lip. "It might not be out..." she whispered, mostly to herself. Wirt's eyes widened.

"What?!" Wirt asked, loudly, and Kipo shushed him.

"A borrowing tiger," Kipo whisper quickly. "They're like worms but they look kind of like tigers and they burrow beneath the earth. Just look for any movement on the ground, alright?"

"What?"

"I'm sure it's fine," Kipo quickly reassured him. Before Wirt could question this, Kipo started off again. "I mean, the long necks are hibernating, and they probably wouldn't be if the burrowing tigers were still out, right?"

This time, Wirt didn't follow Kipo, even a little bit, and Kipo had to stop. She looked back at him. "Uh... Wirt?"

Wirt blinked, and seemed to snap out of his daze. "Oh, sorry, uh..." Wirt rubbed his arm, looking awkward. "I just have no idea what you're talking about."

"Huh? You don't... oh! You mean you didn't see them?" Kipo raised an eyebrow at Wirt. "I can't believe I didn't show you before, they were right outside the window, I'm surprised you didn't notice..."

Wirt, once again, looked embarrassed. "I, uh, g-guess I missed it," he mumbled. "Again..."

"Seems so," Kipo agreed easily, and she tugged at the hand she had grabbed harder. "We're almost there!"

Together, they rounded the corner, and Kipo threw out her arms, dropping Wirt's hand in the process, and presented the odd group of friends she'd found at the start of her journey.

Wirt's eyes widened as they finally settled onto the odd, reddish mountain of Long Necks. "O-Oh," Wirt peered up at it, hardly able to believe what he was seeing. "I-wow. I can't believe I missed this, either."

Kipo laughed. "I know," she said, smiling. "Now, do you want to know their names?"

Wirt quickly turned to her, somehow even more shocked than before. "They have names?!"

"Well... no," Kipo admitted. "I gave them names. You want to hear them?"

Wirt looked from the pile to Kipo and then back. "I... that'd be great, thanks."

Kipo beamed, and hurried up to the pile, pointing at the one nearest to her. "This one is Velvet, she's pretty lazy, but she's really seems to like me! I like her, too, she likes listening to my music."

Kipo turned to catch Wirt's reaction, and then turned around once she'd gotten a nod from him.

"That's ones Gran," Kipo continued, pointing to one with skin that looked like the red had been washed out. "I think they're old, so I was going to name them grandma, or grandpa, but I don't actually have a clue about what their gender is, or if they even have one, so I just call them Gran. That really small one is a baby, I think, and I named him Chestnut. Isn't that adorable? Chestnut? ...Wirt?"

Kipo turned back around to find Wirt staring at the landscape around them. Kipo frowned. She didn't see what was so interesting about it, except for The House, there was nothing around but grass, and the distant trees of the forest.

"...Wirt?" Kipo tried again, slightly louder. Wirt jumped, his head snapping around to Kipo once again.

"Oh! Uh... sorry," Wirt rubbed his arm sheepishly. "Uh, what was that?"

Kipo scanned around the landscape, ignoring Wirt's question for the moment. "I'll tell you later. What's wrong?"

"Huh?" Wirt asked. He shrugged. "Oh, nothing, I guess. It's just... it's really weird for it to be so cold out, but to have no snow. Like, the dirt it hardened from the cold, but still, if it's this cold, t-then we should expect a little snow, right?"

Kipo's eyes widened, and she looked around as well. Now that he said it...

"Oh," Kipo blinked. "You're right."

Wirt gave her an odd look. "Y-you didn't notice?"

"Nope," Kipo replied. "Um, speaking of cold, I think it's kind of starting to get to me. I think we should get going. Okay?"

"What about the, uh... your friends?" Wirt asked. Kipo looked over to them.

"Oh, it's fine," Kipo said. "We have time! Let's just do what we wanted to do first!"

Wirt took one look back at the Long Necks, and then shrugged. "Uh, alright."

Kipo jumped up, both in excitement and to get her blood circling okay. "Yeah! Let's go!"

Wirt had been right. It WAS odd that there was no snow. It didn't even look that cold out, the sun was shining above the, the grass was thriving and even the distant trees were speckled with green instead of white. The only visual confirmation of the chill was the steam Kipo could make when she breathed out. It looked kind of cool, she noted.

"Um, Kipo?" Wirt spoke up, dragging Kipo from her thoughts. Kipo let out an affirmative hum. "If the plains are in a clearing all around, like you said, then why are we going this way. Not that there's anything wrong with it, just uh... the trees on the other side looked closer."

Kipo hummed. Wirt finally seemed to be able to wrap his head around the fact that they were technically in a clearing. That was good. It looked like he'd been struggling with that ever since they began their walk, which was why Kipo had made sure to stay quiet. Better to let him sort through that, though it'd taken him longer than she expected. What was so hard to believe about a very big clearing in an even bigger forest?

"Kipo?"

"Oh, yeah," Kipo turned so she could look Wirt in the eye. "Well, there's actually a very good reason for that, and it's a surprise."

"A surprise?" Wirt sounded weary. "Oh. A good one, or a bad one?"

"Good, good," Kipo assured him quickly, laughing. Then she paused. "Hold on. Do you have any allergies?"

"Huh?" Wirt asked, and then shook his head. "Uh, no? I-I don't think so, at least."

"Okay, good," Kipo turned around again. The two of them had been walking for a while now, and it finally seemed to be paying off. The trees, which had appeared as tiny dots at The House, now towered above them, bigger than any skyscraper building Kipo had ever seen, upright or otherwise.

Kipo heard Wirt suck in a breath from behind her. "Oh.... Wow."

Kipo grinned to herself. These trees really WERE big. In fact, their trunks were so wide that even if Kipo laid down next to it, it was still almost three times as wide as her.

Kipo stopped. They were at the treeline now, and Kipo held out a hand, effectively stopping Wirt from going any further.

"Careful," Kipo warned him. "Trust me, going any farther than this would be a mistake."

"What?" Wirt asked, loudly. His voice suddenly went high as he got more panicked. "Is it because of The Beast?"

"Well, no, I haven't seen The Beast around here, remember?" Kipo reminded him, her voice at a normal level. Kipo pointed into the forest. "No, it's because of that."

Wirt followed Kipo's finger, and she watched as his eyes widened dramatically. He'd spotted it.

Just a couple meters from behind the treeline was where the mysterious pink mist swirled in between the trees and coating everything. It was bright pink in colour, but despite the friendly colour, it still emanated malice. The bright colour was more of a KEEP OUT, and the sparkles that shone from beneath its veil looked like sinister eyes blinking out at them.

"Wha-What is that?" Wirt exclaimed, backing away from the forest quickly.

"Uh... I'm not actually sure," Kipo admitted, squinting at it. But it seems to be in every single part of the forest. Believe, I've been bored enough to check."

"Is it dangerous?!"

"Hey, I question I know the answer to!" Kipo noted cheerfully. "Yeah, it is. I've only been in it once, when I needed to save Regal. He was in there, by a tree, and I have no clue how he got there, but he was passed out, and when I went to save him, I could only stay in the fog for a couple seconds before I felt like I was passing out. It was strange, because I was holding my breath anyway, but it felt like the fog was actually trying to choke me."

Kipo shuddered at the memory. "I had a weird sensation, like it was forcing itself into my nose. I nearly passed out, but I managed to get Regal and get out of there."

"O-Oh."

Kipo turned back to Wirt, who was now quite a far distance from the treeline. Kipo wondered if he could even hear her.

"It just stays over there, you know!" Kipo called to him. "You can come back! Trust me, it's completely safe!"

Kipo gave him a friendly thumbs up, just for good measure, and Wirt slowly inched his way back.

"R-Right..." Wirt stuttered out. "You're sure it's not going to come after us?"

"One hundred percent!" Kipo assured him, patting him one the back. "So, you see The Beast out there?"

Wirt gave her an odd look. "Um, no... wouldn't you be able to see The Beast, too?"

Kipo shrugged. "I think you'd know that better than I would."

Wirt sighed. "I don't know anything."

Kipo laughed, and, eventually, Wirt did too. "Don't worry, Wirt, I don't know anything either," Kipo told him. She threw her arms open and jumped up. "But that's great, because we're the entrepreneurs of the new world! The adventurers! The explorers!"

"I mean, I guess," Wirt sighed, and his face suddenly turned somber. "If we don't die first."

Kipo blinked, and her arms slowly fell back down to her sides. "I... Well, that's true, but we can't let our fear of the Unknown get in the way for our thirst for KNOWLEDGE."

Wirt frowned. "But... yeah, okay."

Kipo watched as Wirt sat on the ground, staring up at the fog in front of him. There was a new look in his eye, one that made Kipo hesitate.

"Wirt?" Kipo asked, stepping up. "Is something wrong?"

"..." Wirt looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn't. Eventually, Kipo stepped away.

"Uh... you just wait here!" Kipo told him, trying to put as much positivity as she could into her voice. "I'll... get something for us! I'll be right back!"

Wirt didn't answer as Kipo hurried off.

Kipo hadn't been to this edge of the forest in weeks, so the sight was, to say the least, rather odd. Kipo had to stop in her tracks when she saw the familiar groove of trees, dotted with unfamiliar colours.

Kipo stepped up to one of them, a tree far smaller than the ones that covered the sky, only a half a meter taller than Kipo herself. There were six of these trees that weren't covered by fog, and they had the most delicious fruit Kipo had ever tasted ever. They didn't even taste like one kind of fruit, but more of apples mixed with a kind of pear, and maybe apricot as well. Kipo loved them, and she was sure that they would help Wirt out of whatever funk he was in.

Well, if they weren't poisonous now. Kipo doubted they would be, but last time, the fruit was shaped almost like a bottle would be, and they were distinctly green. But now, while their shape was the same, the greens had turned into reds, oranges and yellows. They reminded Kipo of the changing colour of leaves, almost.

Well. They were probably fine. Kipo grabbed a handful, and, nearly overbalancing, and moved to shrug off her backpack. But her backpack wasn't there.

Kipo frowned. "That's odd..." she mumbled. "I must have forgotten it. Oh well." 

Kipo quickly gathered the fruits in her arms, then hurried back to Wirt.

Wirt greeted her wIth a wave as she ran towards him this time, but Kipo would be lying if she said the somber attitude from before had disappeared. Kipo stopped by him, dropping one of the fruits in his lap.

Wirt picked it up, and Kipo laughed as his face turned to one of surprise.

"Don't worry, it's totally edible," Kipo told him. "Even though it feels like ice."

"Uh... okay," Wirt took a tentative bite, and then chewed thoughtfully. Kipo waited eagerly until he swallowed. Wirt blinked at her, confused.

"Well?"

Wirt shrugged. "I-it's alright, I guess?"

Kipo huffed as she sat down, taking a bite out of her own fruit. "I think you mean the best fruits ever."

Wirt shook his head, but Kipo saw the smile tugging at his lips. "Right," he said, then he frowned. "Hey, Kipo, uh... in your story, you said something about a person named.... Reg? Regan? Something... like that..."

"Huh?" Kipo asked, and then her eyes widened. "Oh, Regal!"

"Yeah," Wirt nodded. "Yeah... who's that?"

"He's the surprise!" Kipo told him, enthusiastically. "Well, he was. He lives somewhere around he but he seems to be hibernating, so... oops. But anyway, he is adorable, like a cross between a snake and a dog! And he's very kind, he helps me find more things about this world. I wish you could meet him, Wirt, trust me, he's... Wirt?"

Kipo blinked at Wirt, who'd put down his food and was staring down at it. Kipo couldn't see him expression, but it was clear he wasn't paying attention to her at all.

"Wirt...?"

A sudden sniffle came from Wirt, and Kipo suddenly realized that he was trying to keep himself from crying.

"Wirt-!?"

"Kipo...." Wirt was holding his face in his hands now, and his tears were starting to fall onto the ground. "What am I doing?!"

Kipo blinked. "Wirt-?"

"I'm just sitting here!" Wirt sobbed. "And my brother could be dead!"