Kiera

The Fire Lands

The sun rises above the trees, casting shadows throughout the forest. The birds chirp as the rabbits hop around, the landscape continuing to feel like it's spring. The group wakes up, Kiera being the first up, though for once, she seems a bit drowsy, like she didn't have that much trouble sleeping through the night like she normally does.

The others wake up soon after, Bolt and Pipit still staying away from Veo until they know for sure that they can trust him. Kiera, however, stays right by his side, trusting him quite a bit, which is strange with how long it normally takes her to warm up to others. But after talking to him, see feels quite close to him, and knows he needs a friend, just like she needs more friends too.

Kiera takes a moment to wake up, feeling the pain in her ankle as she tries to stand. "Here, let me help you." Veo says with concern, helping her up and supporting her weight once more. Bolt lets out a quiet growl in the background, not very pleased with seeing how close Kiera and him are getting.

Kiera thanks Veo for his help, leaning on him a bit to avoid the pain she's feeling. Kiera takes out an umbrella from her backpack, holding it over Veo's head to ensure he doesn't burn from the sun. They grab their stuff and walk out of the cave, Pipit taking care of Lily and making sure she's fed and changed while Kiera holds Red, not wanting a repeat of last time.

They head out of the cave, quickly continuing their journey. They walk through the dense woods, Bolt and Pipit leading the way while Kiera and Veo follow in the back. Bolt pulls out his map, double checking to make sure they're still heading in the right direction to get to the Fire Lands after what happened yesterday.

After confirming they're still on the right track, Bolt puts his map away and continues to walk, leading the group. He keeps checking behind him, making sure that Veo isn't doing anything sketchy. Veo doesn't do anything wrong, just curious as to what their journey is exactly about. He seems happy to at least have one person that isn't so against him.

Some leaves on the trees fall around them, making their surroundings even more peaceful and beautiful. The sun shines down through little spots in the trees, giving them just enough light to see through the forest.

Kiera leans a bit more on Veo, her ankle causing her quite a bit of pain, though she'll never really show it. She tries not to put too much pressure on her left leg, knowing it'll only make the pain worse. Veo continues to support her weight, not minding helping her out, especially after she helped him talk about things he needed to get off of his chest and offered to be his friend.

Bolt looks back at the two with a bit of jealousy, not liking how close Kiera's getting to Veo. As much as he wants to convince himself that it's not a big deal, he simply can't. Something about it is bothering him, though he's not sure why. Was he afraid that Kiera was going to choose Veo over him? Was he afraid that Kiera would think of him as a better friend? He's not so sure. All he knows is that he doesn't like it one bit.

Veo seems to notice Bolt's jealousy, though he doesn't know what he's jealous about. He chooses to ignore it, not wanting to start a fight when he finally has some friends, even if two of them don't trust him yet. This opportunity is too good for him to loose.

As the time goes by and the sun is soon right above them, the gang figures it's time for lunch, since they're all getting hungry, especially with how little they've all eaten the past few days on their journey.

The group stops as Kiera opens her bag, pulling out a blanket and carefully laying it out on the forest floor for them to sit. She digs around in her backpack for a bit, before pulling out some bagged peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She tosses one to Bolt and keeps one for herself. She digs around in her bag some more and finds some strawberry juice, tossing it to Veo for him to enjoy. He takes it with glee, clearly not having ate in longer than Kiera and Bolt.

While the three do that, Pipit feeds and changes Lily. They all eat and relax for a bit, all tired from walking all morning. They enjoy the feeling of being able to sit there without any problems jumping out at them.

After a bit of resting, they all get up and Kiera packs away the blanket, heading back off on their long and painful journey. Kiera goes back to leaning on Veo for support, earning a quiet growl from Bolt, though she doesn't seem to notice.

As they walk, the trees start to clear up a bit more, the forest not being as dense as it was before."We shouldn't be too far now guys! The Fire Lands are close!" Bolt says with excitement. The environment around them begins to get a bit warmer, showing that Bolt was correct about them getting closer.

As they continue to walk through the forest, the beautiful green grass begins to turn into dead grass. The woods become less dense, the trees loosing their leaves. The grass and the bark on the trees start to go black, as if they've been burnt. Soon, there's no grass left on the ground, and they leave the trees behind.

Little sparks of fire emerge from cracks in the burnt looking ground, black trees scattered randomly across the place with fire on their branches rather than leaves.

"Well, we've reached the Fire Lands. This is where we'll find the orange cat, though it may take a while." Bolt says, looking around at the heated environment. Little fire creatures run around, just like the creatures in the other forest, but they're black with cracks of orange and some small sparks of fire, just like the land all around them.

They all look around in amazement, aside from Red, who looks like he couldn't care less. Kiera finally takes off her trench coat, knowing that if she keeps it on she's not gonna have a good time. She puts it in her backpack as she looks around, along with the others.

Bolt smiles as he begins to walk, pulling out his map again so he can see where they're supposed to go. The others all follow him, determined to find the orange cat before they burn to death here.

As they walk, they see skulls resting by fire, little bunnies made of fire hopping over cracks filled with lava, and little craters that act as tiny volcanoes scattered around the place.

They keep walking, being careful where they step due to the little cracks of fire. The atmosphere starts to feel even hotter than it previously was, which seems impossible. As they look ahead of them, they see a huge crack in the ground, one much bigger than all the others.

The crack is much too big to step across, and it seems to have no end. The deep crack is filled up high with lava, making it quite hard to cross. They all come to a halt, looking at the fiery pit blocking their path...