"Find anything?" Tulip asked them when they first came back, Kipo bounding through the trees in her mega jaguar form, Coraline riding on her back and hanging onto dear life. They had thought that their friends would have gotten further along the path, so when they found the five of them only two miles off from the town, Kipo almost overshot them, having to dig her paws into the ground to stop.

"We, uh... we saw Hurricane," Coraline called out in answer, sliding off of Kipo's back. Kipo listened to them as she curled around herself, surveying her mega jaguar form. She hadn't gotten a chance to look since her fight in the area when she had gotten heavily injured.

It seemed her jaguar form was healed. Or it got reset every time she used it. Kipo had no idea, and, for a second, she wanted to ask her parents before she realized she had no way to do that, and they also probably wouldn't know either.

Kipo shifted back to her normal form, satisfied. No matter how it worked... it was fine now, right?

The others were still in conversation when Kipo approached them.

"He's... dead?" Tulip asked, looking stunned. "And Hurricane killed him?"

Kai glanced at the sky apprehensively while Kipo shook her head.

"It wasn't as direct as that," Kipo told them. "It's more like... Hurricane coerced him into killing himself."

"Which isn't all that different." Coraline insisted. Kipo shrugged.

"That's true, I guess..." she hummed, thinking. "Hurricane seems pretty good at manipulation and getting people to do what he wants."

"And what does he want?" Mabel wondered, frustrated. "What's so important that he's going around and killing people for it?"

'Wasn't it obvious?' Kipo wondered. Outside, she said: "He's looking for the wish flowers. I don't know what he wants to do with them yet, but he's looking for powerful ones. He said the one he took from Arlen wasn't powerful enough."

"He specifically wanted Norman's and another kid's flower," Coraline told them. "A kid from another world like us, probably."

Tulip frowned. "Hey, if they're trying to kill us all off so badly, and they're looking for powerful flowers, does that mean our flowers are more powerful than most peoples?"

"...That's a good question," Kipo said thoughtfully. The who, where, and how were still up in the air, but at least they were finally figuring stuff about those flowers. But still, they needed to know more, they obviously did not have enough. "We can talk about it later. That reminds me actually... we did you all stop here?"

Luz perked up. "We found a boat! One that can take us all the way to the castle so we don't have to walk there!"

Kipo blinked. "Is it that far away? How do you know that, anyway?"

"We found a map, too," Kai explained. "Next to the boat on a sign. It says where all the waterways go, and marks the castle."

"So it is real?" Coraline asked, sounding surprised.

"That's what the map says," Tulip replied. "And... well, not like I was really expecting it, but there was nothing on the map about a way out of this world."

Fei Fei gave her a strange look. "You thought you would find one?"

Tulip flushed. "I just said I didn't!"

Luz looked impatient. "We're going to the castle now, right?"

Kipo smiled despite herself. "I suppose we can talk on the way. I kind of want to see this map, too."

"Well, we're planning to take it with us," Tulip told her. So you'll get plenty of chances to look."

The boat wasn't very big, in fact, it was hardly half a size bigger than the rowboat Coraline and Luz had used before. But though it'd be cramped, it'd work, and, studying the map, Kipo saw that it wouldn't be too long of a trip anyway. The map promised fifteen minutes, at most.

Kipo frowned at the map when she first saw it. It looked very... small. Kipo could see the places she had traveled before: the big mountain next to their town, the smaller mountains with the town they just left, the large forest, the big rock that led to the amusement park... even their empty town in the middle of it. It had some places that the others had visited as well: the Death Tasting Desert and the sea... but other than the castle, that was it. There was nothing else on the map.

"Huh," Kipo noted. "Small map."

Tulip, who was studying the map with her, gave her an odd look at her tone. "Is that... weird somehow?"

"I guess not," Kipo admitted. She ran a hand over the thick, aging paper. "I guess it's just weird, seeing everywhere I've been too laid out like this."

Tulip relaxed, looking over the map as well. "Yes, everything's much more connected and closer than it looks, right?"

Kipo nodded in agreement.

"Are you two dorks done yet?!" Mabel called out to them. "We already got the boat done up already!"

Kipo laughed, rolling her eyes. "We're coming, we're coming!" she called back. Technically, they were done looking at the map anyway, so Kipo gripped the sides of it and pulled it up from the ground where it was buried in the hard dirt somewhere way, way beneath the snow.

Tulip raised an eyebrow at that but didn't comment on it. "We probably don't need the whole thing. Just the paper."

"I don't want to rip it," Kipo told her and prepared to rip the bottom part of the sign from the top.

"You have claws," Tulip reminded her patiently, which probably said something about both her AND Kipo. Tulip pointed down to the top corner of the sign. "There are nails here, see? Just either cut it below the nails or take the nails off with your claws."

"...Oh," Kipo realized, and, feeling stupid, she changed one of her forearms to the claws, and carefully sliced away the part where the nails dug into the paper to carefully pull it free. "Uh... here."

Kipo handed the map off to Tulip, who carefully rolled it up. Kipo stared at the broken sign in front of her, wondering what to do with it now. Tulip gave her a pitying glance.

"Well, it's all destroyed now," Tulip pointed out. "No need to worry about it. Besides, it would have just been an empty sign anyway, so it doesn't matter that it's like thi-."

"Firewood," Kipo said. Tulip leaned forward, frowning.

"I'm sorry?"

"We can use it as FIREWOOD!" Kipo decided, gathering it up. "Then it won't go to waste!"

"We're going on a wooden boat!" Tulip argued, horrified.

"No, I mean when we get there," Kipo told her, standing up, the two pieces of the sign in her arms. "It's really cold out here."

Tulip opened her mouth, but in the end, decided not to argue. "If you say so. We should probably get down there; they're probably getting impatient."

-

Kipo didn't know when it was decided, but Fei Fei was driving the boat. Or leading it, basically. The strong current carried the boat easily enough on its own, so all Fei Fei had to do was point it down the right path. Tulip was right beside her, helping navigate.

As Kipo had guessed, it was very cramped in the boat, especially with the wood. She winced whenever Coraline, sitting right beside her, had to shift around because of the wood poking into her back. Kipo tried to hold her wood as close as possible, but there was only so much she could do, especially with her own back pressed as close to the stern of the boat as she could make it.

Kipo glanced at Kai on her other side and found him studying the sky with a nervous expression.

"Is something wrong?" Kipo asked him, and he jumped.

"N-No, nothing." Kai chuckled nervously, but Kipo could see him hugging himself tightly. "Uh... only... you don't think... Hurricane's going to find us out here?"

Kipo hadn't really considered that. She, too, looked up to the sky with a newfound nervousness. And, unfortunately, she wasn't reassured by the lack of birds in the cold sky. It only served to make her more worried. Where was Hurricane?

"...I don't think he's looking for us," Kipo finally said, if only to reassure Kai, because she certainly didn't believe it. Kai frowned at her.

"You don't sound very sure about that..." he accused slowly. Kipo blinked, not knowing what 'more sure' would look like.

"He seemed to be looking for other people, not us," Kipo said again. She gave him a wry smile. "We did teach him a pretty good lesson last I saw him. Maybe he's afraid of us."

Kai raised an eyebrow, not looking for a second as he believed her. But he wasn't looking like he was on the verge of a panic attack anymore, so Kipo would count that as a win. "Yeah... from your description it should be the other way around."

Kipo laughed, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly as Kai turned around, and down into the icy water. "Ha ha... yeah, probably."

"Maybe that is something we should worry about," Coraline pointed out. "Would we be able to defend ourselves if he shows up? We don't have any cover..."

"We'll be fine," Kipo told her. Probably. "He could be anywhere in the world right now, but if he does show up, we'll deal with him then."

"No use worrying over unseen milk!" Mabel called back. Coraline scrunched up her nose in disgust, and Kipo couldn't stop herself from gagging.

"Mabel..." Tulip groaned. "What?"

Mabel shrugged. "It's an expression."

"I... don't think it is," Luz pointed out.

"That's disgusting," Coraline spat, sticking out her tongue.

"It's something my grunkle Stan used to say when he swept spilled milk under the fridge," Mabel explained, electing a groan from everyone else.

"You-You can stop, Mabel," Tulip said, looking a little green. Mabel smiled brightly, the only one not affected by what she said.

"Hey...!" Kai suddenly calmed out. When Kipo turned to him, she found him leaning over the side of the boat almost precariously, peering over into the water. "Guys...?"

Coraline glanced over, frowning, and reaching over to take his vest so he didn't accidentally tip himself over.

"What?" she asked him. "What is it?"

Luz turned around, looking down into the water as well, and before Kai could say anything, she suddenly gasped.

"Oh!" she cried out. "There's a person down there!"

Tulip's head whipped around from where she was giving Fei Fei instructions. "There's a what where? Fei Fei, stop!"

Fei Fei fumbled with her oar as she rushed to do as Tulip asked. She dug the end of the paddle into the dirt on the bank, trying to stop the boat. She mostly succeeded, but the water pushing on the boat, making it rock dangerously, showed that it would not hold for long.

Coraline stood up as much as she could, looking over Luz and Kai's heads. She frowned, her eyes searching.

"I don't...," Coraline started, but suddenly her eyes widened. "Oh. Oh... that doesn't... that person looks dead, guys."

Luz's face had gone pale. "Should we... should we help them?"

Tulip quickly shook her head. "They're clearly already dead. What would we do?"

"A-Are we s-sure it's dead?" Kai stuttered out.

"Their head is clearly separated from their body," Tulip snapped, steadily getting greener. "Fei Fei, we should keep going."

"Maybe we should bury them," Luz suggested quietly. Coraline shook her head.

"No... first we'd have to get them out," she pointed out. "And then find a place to put them. They're already have covered in rocks, so they'll be buried soon anyway."

"I..." Luz started again, but she cut herself off, looking miserable. Mabel wasn't saying anything either, and when Kipo glanced at her, she saw her friend hugging her knees tightly.

Tulip gave Fei Fei a look, and Fei Fei hurriedly tore her eyes from the sight, taking her paddle out of the dirt on the bank, righting the boat so they were traveling forward again.

Perhaps it was morbid, but Kipo couldn't help but peer out of the side of the boat, looking down into the river to find whatever sight had horrified everyone else.

Kipo flinched as she found it. Two dead eyes stared out at her from the bottom of the river, set in a head that Kipo could only barely make out. She could see teeth in the head, too, and stringy hair that waved in the current, but nothing else. It looked eery, like a ghost. A little bit away, Kipo could see a distinct hand, and then, following it, she could just barely see a body, completely detached from the head, exactly as Tulip had said.

It was morbid and creepy, Kipo turned away, feeling horrible. Just where had that body come from... and who was it before?

The rest of the trip was in silence, the mood effectively ruined by the discovery of the body. The silence was only broken by Tulip's quiet instructions to Fei Fei, and the movement of the oar in the water as Fei Fei guided them.

"How long now?" Kipo suddenly spoke up, trying to sound friendly, but it just sounded weird and unwelcome in the solemn space.

Tulip glanced at Kipo, then at the map. "We should see it after this next turn."

Mabel looked up from where she had been staring at the floor. "Hey, I can see it."

She pointed, and Tulip, looking surprised, followed her gaze up to the sky, then to a spot just over a mountain just beside them. Just as Mabel said, there was just the tip of a rooftop over the edge of the mountain.

The boat stared at it in awe. Finally, Tulip blinked back her amazement.

"It's... bigger than I thought," she eventually said, sounding nervous. She checked the map again. "It looked so small on the map."

"It might just be on a mountain," Kipo pointed out. "Not as tall as a mountain."

"Oh, great," Kai groaned. "Is it just me, or does that look like an evil castle?"

"Most castles look evil," Luz explained like she was an expert on the subject. "I wonder if there are vampires!"

She sounded strangely excited about the prospect.

"We're so dead," Kai sighed. "I should probably tell you all that I saw THREE new bodies on the way here!"

"You did?!" Tulip cried. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Kai blinked. "I didn't think anyone would want to know...? Also, after the second one, I was just starting to accept them."

"The dead bodies?" Tulip asked, deadpan. Kai winced.

"The current is going the wrong way, so they're probably not from the castle," Coraline pointed out. "We should be careful, but we'll probably be fine."

Kai whimpered. "Yeah. The key word is 'probably'."