|𝓒𝓸𝓶𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓽 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓢𝓽𝓪𝓻𝓼|

Chapter 6 - What next?

[Yippiii :3 sorry this took so long to get out- writers block has had me in a fucking chokehold. Either or, enjoy the chapter!]

[⚠️TW: DESCRIPTIVE INJURY⚠️]

There was a flash as Phoenix and Valerie ended up back in Phoenix's library.

Phoenix took a second, leaning against one of the couch arms. Valerie was waiting a second for the dizziness to wear off, but that's when she realized her hair was messed up. She immediately lifted her hands to fix it.

"ЕБАТЬ. Проклятье!" She cursed.
["FUCK. God damn it!"]

Phoenix looked up, her ear twitching.

"Tы знаешь русский?"
["You know Russian?"]

Valerie halted and looked at her. They kinda just stared at one another.

Valerie's eyes then trailed down to Phoenix's side where there was a large gash. Her eyes widened.

"Woah! Are you..okay?" Valerie hesitantly took a step forward. The gash looked knarly, the skin bordering the gash sizzling as the blood bubbled a bit.

Ouch.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Donix just got a hit on me." Phoenix muttered, going over to her desk which sat by the fireplace as she rummaged through one of the drawers.

"D'ya wanna do one more or go home right now? You still have your own life and universe, after all." Phoenix asked, pulling out bandages and cloth.

Valerie pondered for a bit before deciding.

"One more. I wanna help as much as I can."

Phoenix hummed, holding a cloth against her wound to try and stop the bleeding. She had seated herself on the floor beside her desk.

"Eh, I respect it. We'll head out again when I deal with this." She gestured to her injury.

Valerie kinda just wandered around while Phoenix bandaged her wound and gave it some time to lax.

Valerie kinda got time to think. This entire situation is so..bizzare. She was chilling outside of Anne's house and now she's here?

Damn, that's crazy.

Atleast the Timekeepers are nice. Especially Phoenix. Astresk also seemed sweet.

Valerie wonders what kinda world she must be from to look such a way and end up with prosthetics.

Wait-

The brunette recalled something from when Phoenix first talked to her. She looked over at the wolvine.

Phoenix had mentioned she was a calamity user, too.

'Hey, Gold?'

'Yeah?'

'Aren't calamity users only from variants of Amphibia?'

'Uh-huh.'

Valerie kinda blanked.

Wh-

Anyway, now they're back in Phoenix's mindscape.

Valerie voiced her concerns about Phoenix doing this with such a wound, but Phoenix just said; 'We have too much to do with too little time.'

So, now Valerie was waiting as Phoenix swiped through portals, trying to find the right one.

The brunette eyed the wolvine's side where her dress was ripped, bandages visible. She hadn't even bothered to fix the tear.

Also, how the hell is Phoenix doing all this in a dress? And just- why?

She was ripped out of her thoughts by Phoenix's voice. 

"Found it. C'mon, kid." The duel-haired teen enlarged the portal, gesturing for Valerie to go first. 

The younger nodded, going ahead of Phoenix and slipping through the portal.

Valerie found herself stepping onto grass. She looked up, seeing a huge lake. There were different areas bordering the lake. On the far end was a pine forest, a barn on the right with another more 'typical' forest on the left. To the right of the barn was a murky foresty area with multiple streams, and to the right of the 'typical' forest was a moor. There was a dock by the barn and a broken dock by the moor. Then, near the murky forest, was an island-like area with a fallen tree connecting it to the mainland. 

She turned around, hearing a familiar flash as Phoenix closed the portal. The wolvine looked up at the dark sky. It was nighttime, the full moon shining brightly with clouds seemingly evading the silver sphere. There were so many stars...they were clustered together, like a river.

Valerie followed her gaze, noticing all the stars. "Woah. That's...a lot of stars."

"Silverpelt." Phoenix said, keeping her voice low. Valerie gave her a confused look, but didn't ask. 

"Keep quiet." The wolvine went on. "We don't want to disturb the cats." 

"Cats?" The brunette blinked. "What?"

Valerie looked over, seeing Phoenix tilt her head towards the island. Her eyes widened in surprise.

Cats walked along the edge of the lake, towards the fallen tree. There were two groups of cats clustered by the fallen tree. An orange cat in the front of one of the groups nodded to a gray-blue cat, who dipped their head in return before leaping onto the fallen tree and padding off along it and towards the island, the cats behind quickly trailing after. 

"I just have vague info about this world, but there's Clans n' such of cats. It's their gathering night." Phoenix angled an ear at the stream between the forest and moor. "We need to go that way." 

"...cats?" Valerie blinked at the fluffy critters vanishing among the branches of the fallen tree. "..huh."

The two soon made it to that stream. Phoenix guided Valerie along the edge. The area was peaceful, for now. 

The moon and bright stars provided plenty of light. There was silence other than their footsteps and the soft noise of the stream. 

The terrain began to gradually shift into a rocky area, and the temperature dropped a little.

Valerie looked down, spotting something in the stone. Indents of cat paws. Huh. 

The brunette halted when Phoenix did, the older having her ears pricked and glancing around. They were in a clearing with a rock overhang partially over a pool down a slope. The pool was decently round, and was quite pretty due to the reflection of the stars. 

"It's somewhere around here." Phoenix finally spoke up. "Don't touch the water." She added before walking to the right side of the pool. 

Valerie tipped her head before looking at the other side and heading over.

The area was cold. It almost made her shiver. She peered around different rocks n' such before spotting a weird looking flower growing out of a crevasse. It was black with the same particles from the bolt.

"Uh...Phoenix?" Valerie looked up at the wolvine on the other side of the pool, who's ears pricked at the sound of her name. She lifted her head and tipped it. 

"I think I found it." The brunette explained, gesturing to the crevasse. 

She then jolted as Phoenix vanished in a blur and re-appeared beside her. She can teleport? 

"Yeah, you did." Phoenix reached down, pulling out the flower by the root. She flicked her tail opening a portal. "Good job, kid." She pat the smallers head before pushing her through the portal, then leaping in herself.

_________________________

HHHHH

FINALLY GOT A CHAPTER OUT MY GOD 

Sorry for not updating for so long 😔

This chapter was shit but it works ig. 

BYE-BYE. Stay hydrated and stay safe~

Word count: 1207