Wonderer's Wish World: An Empty Land

Out of the Mirrors, Into the Fire

Kipo stared at the door beneath her hands, holding her breath. It was wooden and felt sturdy, but so did the concrete wall ceiling above them before... so Kipo wasn't taking any chances.

But, despite all evidence to the contrary, the door remained shut, and Kipo couldn't hear the wire person anymore. She couldn't tell if that was good, or bad.

Still, Kipo couldn't help but feel relieved. Finally, they had escaped the wire person, the thing that had been following them for so long... and they had made it to the castle. This felt like a celebration, even though Kipo was certain that danger still was thick around them; even though they'd lost Alice to get here; even though they deeper into this place than ever before.

Kipo turned away from the door.

It seemed Kris had sensed the danger as well, and was pulling their sword out at the ready, prepared to fight. And Luz... Kipo turned away from Luz, too. She and Kris were prepared to fight should they so need it.

"Come on," Kipo told them. "We need to keep moving, to find the blue-haired girl."

If she was still alright. Kipo hadn't checked in a while, but since she had seemed to survive in this place for so long, anyway, Kipo wasn't too worried. Technically, she was more worried for her little group.

As Luz moved to pick herself up from the floor and her own despair, Kipo turned her gaze to their surroundings. It had a stark difference from the rest of the world that they had came from, where the rest of this land was broken down and in decay, this place was clearly cared for and taken care of. It was huge, with a ceiling high above them and a room that stretched far in front of them, to two staircases leading up to a long hallway with too many rooms to count, and with doors that all look similar to each other. Kipo's brow furrowed as she looked through them. It seemed this place was going to be harder to navigate than she thought...

Suddenly, one of the doors flew open, and all attention was called to a figure that stared down at them from the banister. For now, she was cloaked in black darkness, but Kipo thought she saw a light shine from where the figure's eyes would be. It stared down at them impassively.

"More of them, hmm?" the figure said, staring down at them. "More troublemakers and hooligans and rouges, come to disturb the peace. It seems we can't get rid of them. These lucky insects find their way into our castle and think themselves great. Well, no matter. No longer will I revel in the interests of insects; when a pest finds itself in our path, we will simply burn it. Do you agree?"

The three couldn't find the words to speak. Kris had been picturing an pretty and elegant person, kind of like their mother, Luz had been picturing the kind of witch like she would find in the Boiling Isle (but she'd been hoping for a princess like in a storybook), and Kipo had been thinking of a terrifying person, like a nightmare. They couldn't help but feel disappointed.

Thankfully, the princess didn't seem to be looking for an answer. They looked down at the trio with an air of disgust, and then raised a hand, flicking it at them. At first, nothing happened, and everything seemed to pause long enough for Kipo's brain to catch up to her, and for her to wonder what was going on.

Then the floor disappeared from underneath them. It happened so suddenly that it seemed to last forever while Kipo stared dumbly under them, before gravity caught up and the three of them fell through.

"Wh-Hey!" Kipo cried, reaching a hand out to the figure, but they disappeared when the floor swung back, closing them off from any light.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before they fell landed somewhere hard with a loud thump and varying cries of pain.