"GREG!"

Kipo quickly got to her feet, reaching out to Wirt. He jumped when he felt her touch on her shoulder. He was panicking, Kipo realized.

"Wirt," Kipo said quickly, trying to keep her voice gentle. "Wirt, it's alright, you-."

"It's not alright!" Wirt cried. "I can't leave Greg alone, he's just a little kid! We need to-I need to-!"

Wirt was choking over his words now, pacing around the room now with his shadow dancing on the wall from the light of the fire. Kipo watched him carefully.

"I-I was already a horrible brother to Greg once, I can't leave him alone again! Greg is a good kid, but he's too trusting, too irresponsible... he won't survive out here, especially with this cold..." Wirt finally paused, burying his face in his hands. "I don't-What do I-?"

Kipo finally stepped forward, putting her hand on Wirt's shoulder again. This time, he seemed to relax, just a little bit. "Wirt..." Kipo wasn't quite sure what to say. She tried again. "Wirt, you need to calm down. I know you're worried, but there's no way you can do anything like this."

"H-Huh?" Wirt asked, looking over to Kipo.

"Take a deep breath, Wirt," Kipo ordered him. "You can't start panicking, alright? When you start panicking, that's when everything goes wrong."

That's the first thing Kipo learned from Wolf: when something goes wrong when you're camping, you don't panic, because then everything else goes wrong. While they weren't camping, exactly, Kipo assumed that the advice worked here, too.

For a second, Wit didn't do anything. Kipo frowned at him.

"Wirt?"

Kipo watched as Wirt froze for a second, and then he took a deep breath and shook out his head. "Y-Yeah, you're right," Wirt rubbed at his eyes. "I can't panic. I just-I can't believe I'm back here. I thought I'd escaped..."

Kipo gently took Wirt's arm, and led him back to the fire. They had been cold while Wirt had been panicking, but now they were suddenly bathed in warmth.

"Escaped..." Kipo repeated thoughtfully. "If you escaped once, can't you just escape again?"

Wirt frowned. "I don't know-I don't think so. I can't remember how I escaped before."

Kipo's eyes widened. "You can't?"

Wirt shook his head sitting down. "All I remember is when I defeated The Beast, I woke up in a pond, or something, in our world. Then I passed out. Then, once again, I was in this world again."

Kipo thought about that carefully, sitting opposite of Wirt. "Right," she hummed. "Tell me about The Beast. How'd you defeat it?"

"W-Well, The Beast was this thing that took children's souls when they sunk into despair, or when they got too depressed, I think," Wirt explained. "I defeated him by blowing out his l-lantern. Uh, the lantern was this thing where-."

"Uh, Wirt?" Kipo sheepishly raised a hand. "Why don't you start at the beginning?"

Wirt blinked. "Oh... right."

Wirt thought back, and started describing his previous adventures into The Unknown. Kipo's eyes widened as he described his brother, Greg, their encounters with The Woodsman, their friend Beatrice... and The Beast. When he was done, Kipo sat back, thinking to herself.

"I've never seen anyone like that around," Kipo thought out loud. "I feel like I would have."

Wirt frowned. "Well, he was kind of hiding... But he did sign some weird song..."

Kipo nodded. "I guess he could be hiding in the forest. I haven't gone in there yet."

"That would make sense," Wirt agreed, and then: "Wait, the what?"

Kipo gave him a strange look. "The... forest?" she answered, confused. "Around the plains? The one with the mysterious pink fog?"

"I...." Wirt shook his head. "I... guess I missed it."

"Strange," Kipo said. "I can show you it. We can look for The Beast!"

Wirt frowned. "D-Defeating The Beast will work for a second time? Are you sure?"

"Well, no," Kipo admitted. "But we're not sure it won't work."

"But I already b-blew out his lantern," Wirt pointed out.

"Yeah, well, lanterns can be relit," Kipo told him. Wit's eyes widened in alarm, and Kipo hurried to continue. "We should check out the forest anyway. I haven't gone in yet, because of the fog, but I think we should just try and see what we can find."

"Okay," Wirt agreed, and then jumped as Kipo stood up. "Wait, but what about the cold?!"

"Huh?" Kipo asked, and then frowned, her hands moving up to rub at her arms. "Oh, that's right."

Kipo sat down again, embarrassed. "Well... maybe we should sleep a little bit, first."

Wirt stared at her, and then, to Kipo's surprise, he started giggling. Then he started chuckling. And then it wasn't long before he was full blown laughing, and Kipo joining him, and together they were laughing until they were crying. They couldn't stop, whenever one of them were done, they only had to take a little look at the other before they were right back where they started.

This continued long, long into the night, until neither Kipo or Wirt could laugh anymore, or keep their eyes open. They both slumped over, and quickly succumbed to sleep, too tired to do anything else.

Kipo groaned. Her stomach hurt. She hadn't eaten anything at all yesterday, too worried about staying warm. And speaking up warmth...

Kipo cracked an eye open, and watched the fire burn through the gathered grass. Halfway through the night, the fire had burned out, and Kipo had needed to get more. She'd given Wirt  blankets as well, but it wasn't much of one. The blankets didn't help much, really, the only thing keeping them warm was the fire.

That didn't bode well, especially since the fire was out.

Kipo yawned, sitting up and stretching. Her body hurt from sleeping on the floor all night, but it wasn't that bad, Kipo knew. She, after all, had been camping for a while before she found a bed in The House. Kipo couldn't imagine how Wirt must be feeling. Or would be feeling, when he woke up. So far, he was still sound asleep, and, by the looks of it, would be a while.

Kipo left him to sleep. She was feeling unusually sluggish this morning, probably because of the cold. Sighing, Kipo turned back to the fire, letting the warmth wash over her like a nice, warm wave. It was so peaceful here...

Kipo's stomach let out a growl, reminding her of her hunger. Right. She might need to get something to eat. Now.

Ignoring the protests of her aching body, Kipo pushed herself up to her feet, and towards the couch, where her stash of canned food was waiting. It tasted alright, Kipo supposed, nothing gourmet. When Kipo had first found The House, she had been eating nothing but nuts and berries for a while, and because of that, she'd managed to herself that this cheap food was delicious, and she'd scarfed it down. By the fifth can, however, Kipo had finally managed to figure out that it wasn't that good. Still, it was a small taste of home, and Kipo was going to make it last.

Well, that was the plan at least. With Wirt around, they might go through it much faster than expected.

Kipo turned around, sitting back onto the couch and starting to shift through the cans. Beans, corn, peas, meat... soup!

Kipo had a lot of soup left, mostly because she'd always intended to make a fire for it but never managed to get around to it. But now, with the fire they had, it'd probably be the best time to bring it out.

Kipo stood up, taking a look out the window. Depending on how long this cold lasted, they might get a lot of chances to eat the soup.

Kipo grabbed the can opener (like she had said, she HATED going into the kitchen), also on the couch, and hurried back to the fire. The cold... it really was relentless.

Kipo sat down once again, using the can opener to work open the soup. She did it carefully, so that she didn't spill it, and when she looked up again, she found Wirt yawning.

Kipo watched as his eyes opened, and as he blinked in confusion at the cracked ceiling.

"I-what?" Wirt said to himself, quietly. "Why... oh."

Kipo giggled, and Wirt jumped. "Sorry," Kipo quickly told him. "Just... don't worry. You'll get used to it."

"I don't really... want to," Wirt replied slowly. He looked up at the ceiling, sighing. Suddenly, his frown deepened. "'Get used to it'.... H-how long have you been here, Kipo?"

Kipo looked to the wall, where there were a lot of tally marks and scratches carved into it. "Hm... just over four months. Four months and a week. Actually, speaking of which..."

Wirt watched as Kipo shakily got to her feet, and marched over to the wall. Kipo grabbed a piece of rubble on the floor, and made two quick scratches on it, to go along with her other ones.

"Four months," Kipo announced. "And nine days."

For a minute, Wirt didn't say anything. And then Kipo heard him audibly gulp. "That's... That's a lot..."

Kipo played with the rock in her hands, and nodded.

"I..." Wirt seemed to struggle with words for a minute. "I... I'm sorry, I-."

Kipo turned back to him, shrugging. "Don't worry about it. I'll get out soon, I'm sure. Especially since you're here now!"

Kipo crossed back to the fire, and sat down. She didn't say anything. Neither did Wirt. For a minute, neither of them did anything except stare into it's flickering depths.

Suddenly, Wirt cleared his throat, and Kipo looked up, expectantly. "Yes?"

"Uh... When I first got out of The Unknown, it looked like no time had passed at all," Wirt told her, looking nervous. "I'm not sure, actually, I-uh- passed out. But it looked like no time had passed."

Kipo stared at Wirt. It took a couple seconds, but then Kipo jumped up, smiling widely for what felt like the first time in ages. It even hurt, a little bit. But right now, Kipo didn't even notice.

"Really?!" Kipo cried. "Wirt, that's... That's GREAT! That means that no one will have worried about me! Yes!"

By now, Kipo was jumping around the fire, with Wirt just barely getting out of the way in time. Kipo carefully avoided him, and then continued jumping around in excitement, shouting joyfully.

"We don't have to worry as much anymore, Wirt, we can take as long as we want!" Kipo cried, jumping onto the couch. Wirt winced as her pile of cans tumbled to the floor.

"I don't know about that," Wirt told her, carefully reaching to the cans. "I-I mean... we can still die here, right?"

"We won't die, Wirt," Kipo laughed. "We'll be fine."

Wirt sighed. "Right."

Kipo gave one last 'WHOO!', and then paused, thinking carefully. "I mean, I guess we should still focus on trying to get out, though," Kipo mused to herself. Wirt nodded. "But to do that, we'll need to leave The House."

Wirt gave her a strange look at the pronunciation of 'The House', but he didn't say anything. "Last night, none of us were able to leave for more than a couple minutes," he noted. "How are we supposed to go all the way to the forest?"

"That's a good question," Kipo nodded to herself, ignoring the small defeated tone in Wirt's voice. "We'll need better covering...."

As if on cue, a slight breeze blew through the house, and Kipo quickly sat back at the fire. She grabbed her blanket, tugging it around her shoulders. The fire was getting smaller.

"I'm going to get more grass," Kipo decided, standing up. Wirt followed her with his eyes. "I'll be right back. Keep thinking up ideas, Wirt! I'll think, too."

"Huh?" Wirt asked. "Oh. Yeah, sure."

Kipo nodded to him, and hurried out.

The door slammed shut behind her as Kipo stepped into The House. As it turned out, it was quite as cold as it was yesterday, meaning that Kipo didn't immediately feel like she was going to die when she stepped out.

Of course, that didn't mean it was warm, and Kipo only lasted slightly longer before she was force to get inside again.

Nevertheless, it upped Kipo's spirits, just a little bit.

"Wirt!" Kipo cried, immediately regretting it. Whenever she went into the cold, she quickly found herself getting a headache. It only lasted a couple seconds, and Wirt said that he'd felt it as well. Kipo wished they could find hats. "Hey, Wirt! It's less cold today!"

Wirt's head snapped up. "It is?"

"Well, kind of," Kipo shrugged. She placed some of the grass on the fire, and watched as it burned brighter. "Not really, though."

"Oh," Wirt looked back down at the couch cushion on his lap. Kipo tilted her head at him.

"What's that?" Kipo asked, sitting down across the fire. Wirt looked over to her.

"Uh, well," Wirt suddenly frowned, looking down again. "It's a little stupid, but, uh... I was thinking that we could use the couch cushions... I mean, like take them apart, and make them into coats or something... we could use them with the sheets and stuff, I thought..."

"Hey, that's a great idea!" Kipo cheered. "And-hold on a second."

Wirt watched as Kipo stood up and rushed down the small hallway. As Kipo hurried to open the door to the bedroom, she thought back to Wirt expression. He had looked surprised when Kipo said his cushion idea had been a good one. Why was that?

Kipo shook her questions away as she stepped into the room. It was decently sized, but held practically nothing in it. Whoever had been in here before was a minimalist for sure. All they had was their bed, a couple of spare sheets, a side table, and YES! Kipo snatched up the spool of black thread and the needle, and rushed back, sitting back down in front of Wirt, his cushion, and the fire.

Wirt blinked as Kipo held up her newly acquired items. She grinned. "Alright," she said. "How good are you at sewing? I'm alright, I think."

For some reason, Wirt looked embarrassed. "Uh...I-I think I know how to do it."

"That's good," Kipo reached to the side, grabbing a sheet. They had five sheets. Considering they wanted to sleep at least somewhat comfortable, they should probably only use three sheets. They also had their blanket, and the one cushion in Wirt's hand. Kipo surveyed their materials.

"Okay," she said, looking around. "Uh... How do we do this?"

Wirt looked around as well. "We'll need s-scissors, probably."

"Oh."