Kipo and Wirt waited, but, once again, nothing happened. Kipo (who was almost disappointed at this point), started to move her backpack down, but Wirt stopped her with a quick look, shaking his head. Kipo froze, and then she heard it.

Rattle.... Rattle, rattle, rattle.

Kipo and Wirt gave each other an alarmed look, which quickly turned into one of panic as the rattling got louder.

Suddenly, something poked out of the door and Wirt and Kipo jumped out of the way in sheer terror. But the thing that gave them a dull once over was not a terrifying beast or a hurrying creature, it was... a skull?

Kipo blinked. The eyeless holes stared back. The skull was not one of a human, but rather one like a cat or a dog. It was at knee level, and it stared up at both Kipo and Wirt.

Apparently growing bored with Kipo and Wirt, the creature started out of the room, and Kipo's eyes widened.

"A dragon?" Kipo and Wirt cried at the same time. The dragon didn't even seem to notice.

"A dragon skeleton." Wirt shook his head, his eyes trained on the creature. "What in the... how is it seeing? How is it breathing? How is it doing anything?"

"This is so cool!" Kipo knelt down to the dragon, reaching for it.

"Kipo!" Wirt cried. "Careful! It might be dangerous!"

Kipo thought about that for a minute, but before she could pull away, the dragon leaned it's head out, resting it on Kipo's palm. Kipo sucked in a deep breath.

"I love them," she said, loudly. Wirt winced at how high her voice went. "Wirt, look at them! Aren't they cute?"

Wirt was eyeing the dragon dubiously. "Sure.... Kipo how do we know it won't attack us?"

"They haven't yet," Kipo pointed out.

"Well, yeah, but..." Wirt bit his lip, peering down at the creature. "Look at those teeth. That doesn't look like a peaceful animal. Thing."

"Regal is also a carnivore," Kipo told him, and Regal barked at the sound of his name. He'd left a while ago, leaving to the bedroom to do who-knows-what. Kipo wondered if she should go check on him, briefly, before remembering that there was no thread left for him to eat. "Besides, the Burrowing Tiger's teeth are worse."

Wirt's eyes widened. "O-Oh."

"Hm... I guess these teeth can do some damage, though," Kipo hummed thoughtfully, lifting the dragon's jaw to check out the teeth sticking out. Suddenly, Kipo nodded to herself, standing up. "I'll be right back. Wait here, Wirt."

"With this?!"

Kipo stood up, staring down at the dragon. It had started laying down, lazily looking up at Kipo.

"No, you're right," Kipo said. Wirt breathed a sigh of relief. "They do need a name. And a gender."

"Wha-?"

"Alright," Kipo clapped her hands. "Wirt, as you are the guest, you can name them. What do you suggest?"

"Uh..." Wirt gave Kipo a confused look. "I don't know..."

"You can name them anything!"

Wirt frowned. "Yeah, but I don't know what-."

"Anything in the world!"

"But-!"

"Nothing is off the table!"

Wirt was starting to look irritated. "Nothing?" he repeated. Kipo nodded.

"Fine then," Wirt huffed. "Let's name it Kipo."

Kipo blinked. "Kipo?"

"Uh..." Wirt suddenly seemed to regret what he said. "I-It was just a joke, I didn't mean it, uh-."

"Kipo, huh?" Kipo pounded to herself. "That sounds a little confusing. Let's call them Kipo the Bone Dragon, then."

"I was joking," Wirt sighed, exasperated. "But, uh... let's call them... Bipo?"

"Bipo?" Kipo repeated, confused.

"Well, you know," Wirt shrugged. "Like Kipo... and bone dragon, mixed together."

Kipo shrugged. "Ok." She knelt down to Bipo. "Hello, Bipo."

Bipo yawned, and Kipo giggled. "Aw, you're so cute. Now, to pick a gender."

Kipo pulled a dice out of her pocket, and Wirt frowned at it.

"Is, uh, that how you picked the gender for... everyone here?" he asked tentatively.

"Pretty much!" Kipo told him. "I'm more of an astrology nerd then a biology nerd."

"Uh, ok," Wirt said. "So, evens are one thing, odds are another?"

"Kind of," Kipo said. "It's more like, one and four is for girl, two and five are for boy, and three and six are for neither."

"Huh," Wirt said. "Okay."

Kipo held up the die, and rolled it. Wirt and Kipo watched as it rolled to a three.

"Well, they, them it is then," Kipo said. "Wait here, I'll get them something to eat."

Wirt's eyes widened, and he backed away from Bipo in a hurry.

"I-I-I'll watch it," he promised quickly.

"Them," Kipo reminded him. "I'll be right back!"

Kipo hurried down the hallway, right into the living room that Wirt had been searching. She quickly gathered up the cans of food, giving a nod to Regal, who was chewing on the loose sofa covering. Regal yipped excitedly at her, and Kipo grinned before hurrying out if the room and back down the hallway, back to where Wirt and Bipo were waiting for her. Neither of them had moved an inch, with Wirt still fearfully standing against the wall and Bipo lying lazily on the floor.

"I'm back!" Kipo called cheerfully, setting the cans by Bipo and kneeling down. She picked one up, peering at it thoughtfully. Wirt studied it from over her shoulder, frowning.

"B-Beans?" he asked, specifically.

Kipo looked over to him, and then back to Bipo, and then shrugged. "Yeah, you're right. "She picked up another can. "Cornered beef? That's a meat, right?"

Wirt blinked. "Um... yes?"

"Great!" Kipo stared at the canned food. "I forgot the can opener."

Wirt sighed, turning around. "I'll get it."

Kipo leaned forward and patted Bipo on the head. Bipo leaned into it, and Kipo almost imagined that they were smiling, even though technically the skull mouth was made so it looked like Bipo was always smiling.

Kipo liked to image they were.

"Hey, uh, Kipo?"

Kipo looked up. "Wirt! Did you get the can opener?"

"Oh! Er," Wirt held it up, quickly passing it to Kipo. "Uh, here. Also, is, uh, Regal... supposed to be eating the couch?"

"Well, I don't think we're going to be using that much more," Kipo pointed out. "Also, I think we're wearing most of it anyway."

Wirt looked down at their ugly, matching 'coats'. "Oh. Y-Yeah, good point."

Kipo nodded, that settled it, and then turned her attention to the can opener. It was on it's last leg, apparently, and only seemed to have a couple of turns left. Nevertheless, it held while Kipo finished opening the can. She set the can opener aside, and then held out the can to Bipo.

Bipo stretched their neck out, sniffing the can curiously. And then, to both Kipo and Wirt's surprise, they opened their mouth and a black tongue rolled out, lapping up the contents of the can. Kipo flinched, and Bipo gave an unpleased huff.

"Uh, s-sorry, Bipo," Kipo said, now keeping still. She chuckled nervously. "You just surprised me a little bit."

Bipo gave another huff, and Kipo chuckled, her fear ebbing away.

"Was-Was that there before?" Wirt asked frantically. Kipo looked over her shoulder to find him much further away then before. "Where'd it come from?!"

Kipo turned back to Bipo. "I'm not sure..." Kipo lowered herself, trying to look into Bipo's mouth. Bipo seemed to notice, and they closed their mouth. Kipo couldn't really tell, but she thought Bipo looked confused.

"Huh?" Kipo asked, surprised. "Oh, sorry. I guess that was a little rude."

Bipo stared at her for a second, and then finished eating the cornered beef, licking their lips. Kipo looked into the can, finding it licked clean.

"Good job, Bipo."

Bipo yawned, and now the tongue had disappeared.

"Are we not going to be concerned about that at all?" Wirt hissed to Kipo.

Kipo looked over to Bipo. "I think it's very interesting," she said. "I don't think you have anything to be afraid of anything, Wirt."

"Really?" Wirt asked. Kipo shrugged.

"I mean, be cautious, of course," Kipo told him. "But I think Bipo's safe."

"What?" Wirt asked. "You don't seem to be cautious about anything."

Again, Kipo shrugged, and Wirt sighed, and then he caught sight of the open door. "Hey... Kipo, um, why is there.... A corpse here?"

Kipo paused. Right. She'd forgotten about that.

"I found it when I got here," Kipo explained. "I don't know who that person was, or how they died. Finding them like that was quite a shock, actually..."

Wirt didn't laugh, and Kipo's joke trailed off.

"Um... Wirt?" Kipo asked.

"Huh? Oh! No, I believe you, I promise!" Wirt looked wary. "I just... what could have happened to them? It looks like they just sat there and then died or... something like that? Was it old age? A heart attack?"

"I don't know," Kipo got up, closing the door. "Actually, I don't think we'll ever-."

"Hey, wait!" Before the door could fully close, Wirt reached his hand out, stopping it. Kipo stared. So did Wirt. He looked just as surprised as she did.

"Wirt?" Kipo asked.

"I, uh...," Wirt dropped the door, finally letting it close. "It's nothing, I'm sure you've checked it already-."

"The room?" Kipo asked. She shrugged sheepishly. "No, I haven't. I, uh, really didn't want to check out a room with a dead person in it, it seemed a little disrespectful. Not to mention I was a little freaked out."

Wirt blinked. "Oh... do you think there's anything in there? Like what happened to this guy... or maybe were my brother is... That's stupid, I'm sorry, I really shouldn't have said-."

Kipo laughed. "Don't worry about it," she told him. "Besides, you might be right! Only one way to check, right?"

Wirt looked at her strangely. "But I thought you said you didn't want to go in there?"

"That was when I first got here, in This House," Kipo explained. She smiled at him. "Besides, I have someone watching my back now."

Wirt smiled back, and Kipo turned to Bipo.

"Thank you, Bipo," she said, and Wirt's smile fell. Kipo laughed Bipo watched them.

"I'm joking, I'm joking," she giggled. "I meant you, Wirt. And Bipo, too, I guess."

Wirt frowned, and then gave her an awkward smile back. "Oh, well... that's good."

"I'm glad you think so," Kipo told him, reaching for the doorknob. "And I told you I was going to help you find your brother no matter what."

Wirt blinked, and Kipo pushed open the door. It swung open, once again revealing the room Kipo had made sure to close off most of her time here. Kipo winced. The smell usually hit first, and it hit hard. It was worse than the kitchen, in some way.

To make sure Wirt wouldn't have to do it, Kipo forced a stop forward. Then another. The corpse was turned towards the door, and its empty eyes watched every cautious step Kipo took. Her first few weeks in The House had been plagued with nightmares of that thing getting up and walking around. In some of them, it came for her, and in other's, it stood around and watched her. Neither dream was pleasant.

Kipo shook those thoughts away, moving aside so Wirt could find his way in. Her eyes drifted along the walls, a window at the back casting what almost seemed like a glow from behind the corpse, and the big calendar set up on the left side. Kipo squinted; the calendar read 'Júní, 2006'. She blinked at it. That was a long time ago. On the other side of the room, there were papers all scattered around. Kipo saw lines of text, and graphs all scattered around. Kipo couldn't read any of them from the door, but she doubted she would be able to up close either. If the calendar was anything to go by, this guy didn't speak English.

"It's so creepy," Wirt mumbled, almost making Kipo jump. She turned to him. "I don't know how you managed to stay in this house so long."

Kipo found her eyes meeting the ones of the corpse again. She shuddered, humming in agreement.

For a minute, neither of them moved. It was almost as if the corpse had rendered the both of them completely useless, before Kipo coughed, hurrying over to the right wall.

"There's, uh... a lot of paper," Kipo pointed out. "Come on, let's look through it."

Wirt gave a wordless nod, his thought too dry to say anything, and hurried over to Kipo's side. She was already scanning through some of the text.

Wirt grabbed on as well, one that looked like a letter of some sort, and his eyes widened.

"You can read this?" he asked Kipo, surprised.

"Huh?" Kipo asked, glancing over to him. "No. Can you?"

Wirt shook his head. "I don't even know what it is."

"Me neither," Kipo sighed. She looked down at Wirt's paper. "Hey, look at that."

Wirt looked down at his paper. He blinked at it. "What?"

Kipo pointed to the top, at the words 'Kæra, Gunnar Albtersson'. Wirt's eyes widened.

"A name," he said surprised. "Is it that person's- wait, there's one at the bottom, too."

Kipo peered at the words at the bottom of the page. 'Innilega, Tómas'. Kipo watched as Wirt frowned. "That's two names," he said. "Which one could it be?"

Kipo grabbed another piece of paper, one that also looked like a letter. Her eyes scanned the page, and her face fell into discouragement. "This one uses completely different names. Apparently, neither of those could be their name."

Wirt looked disappointed, but he shrugged. "Whatever," he mumbled. "It's not like it'll help us find my brother anyway."

"Don't give up yet!" Kipo told him, making sure her voice was as upbeat as possible. "Come on, let's keep-."

Kipo was cut off when something cold and wet hit her shoulder. She paused in surprise for a second, and then looked up. The ceiling was dripping.

Apparently Wirt noticed too. "It's raining," he said. "Does it rain often here?"

"Not often," Kipo told him. "But it does happen once in a while."

Her eyes shifted to the window, and she hummed in surprise. The sun was gone, it had disappeared behind layers and layers of dark clouds that definitely hadn't been there before.

"It's coming quickly," Kipo noted. "We should probably-Oh!"

Kipo paused as Bipo suddenly marched into the room, barely giving either she of Wirt a glance. Kipo blinked at them. They were heading straight for the corpse.

"Uh, Bipo?" Kipo called. "You might want to stay away-Bipo?!"

Bipo's coal black tongue made another appearance, and they leaned forward to lick the corpse.

Then, to Kipo and Wirt's growing horror, the corpse completely disappeared.