Stampy had fallen asleep at some point, exhausted from the day before and was curled up on the floor, his ears twitching every now and then.

Jason was sitting back at the mouth of the cave, looking out at the world around them. It was times like this when things just felt...normal, peaceful even, just like back home.

Stella had been strangely silent since last night's argument. She still wasn't really sure where she fit into all of this.

After all...

She was just another one of Kala's illusions...

Right?

Stampy stirred awake when a beam shone in the cave and into his face. He groaned and blinked awake. "What time is it??" He asked groggily.

"9 AM." Stella curtly replied.

Jason turned around. "Oh, good morning." He smiled. "Thought I'd let you stay asleep this time." He chuckled.

Stampy smiled. "Thanks... I need it, I guess. With my leg recovering and all... did you sleep at all?"

Jason shrugged. "I'm more of a night owl myself." He stretched and walked over to Stampy. "Sometimes it just seems more peaceful at night, especially here for some reason..."

"Maybe cause there's no monsters? Or at least none we've seen?" Stampy suggested as he moved over to Jason.

Jason nodded. "Yup, they probably don't want us to die from a creeper explosion." He joked.

Stampy gave a small laugh. "Probably."

Jason sighed. "When do you think you'll be ready to head out?"

"I don't know. Hopefully soon but I don't want to go then have to stop if my leg acts up."

"I don't want you to get hurt again, I'm fine with waiting."

Stampy nodded. "Alright. We can always try walking a little ways and see how I do, as well."

"You sure you'll be ok?"

"Yeah. Just need to get use to walking again." Stampy told him.

Jason nodded. "I don't know where we would go though..."

"True..."

"Is there even anywhere to go?" He wondered out loud, scanning the terrain outside. Nothing besides the dense forest could be seen.

And the beam of beacon in the sky.

Stampy sighed. "I don't know..."

Jason noticed the faint beam in the distance. "Is that...?"

"I think that's the beacon Kala mentioned..." Stampy agreed.

"Of course it' super far away..." Jason sighed. "Who knows what we'll run into on the way there..."

Stampy nodded. "A lot if what Kala said is anything to go off of..."

"Yup..." Jason agrees. "You sure that you're ready to go out there?"

Stampy sighed. "Well, we aren't gonna get any closer by waiting here..."

He nodded. "Hey Stella, Any idea of how long it would take to get there?"

"At full speed, a couple of days, maybe a week."

Jason sighed. "Guess we should probably get going then..."

"Do we need to pack anything? maybe get more water to take with us?" Stampy suggested.

Jason nodded. "That'd be good." He walked over and began to place more wood into the shulker box.

Stampy pick up a large branch and gave a small hum. He used his claws to shape it slightly and broke some extra bits off. He smiled and stood up using the stick. "Hopefully this walking stick will help me get a bit further too."

Jason smiled. "Well if you ever need to stop along the way we can." He put the potions into the box.

"Alright." Stampy nodded.

"Ready?" Jason put the shulker away and turned to Stampy, handing him a new set of wooden tools and a stone sword.

He nodded, storing the tools. "Ready."

Taking one last look around the cave, Jason turned and went into the forest.

Stampy trailed after him.

Despite the daylight outside, the forest was quite dark. The trees hid the sun and enveloped the area in darkness. A faint breeze sent a shiver down their spines.

Stampy shuddered at the chill and pulled his hoodie abit closer. "It's so chilly out here..."

"Yeah... it these stupid trees." Jason chuckled, trying to look up at the sun.

"Hopefully they don't go on for too long..."

"Hopefully. Kala can change what this place looks like on a whim."

"True..." Stampy nodded and glanced around.

Jason sighed, and they continued to walk. As if the universe had heard them the trees began to become less and less dense.

"Oh, yay! There's less trees!" Stampy cheered, tail wagging happily and he sped up a little to see what was ahead.

Jason smiled and followed after, taking in the warm sunlight.

Stampy happily sprawled out on the grass in the sunlight with a purr as he laid there. "It's so warm..."

"You really are a cat..." Jason laughed, going to the ground and sitting with him.

Stampy just grinned at him. "I can't help it!" He laughed. "We've been in a dark, damp, cold cave for like three days! I'm excited to get some sun!"

"You got a point there." Jason looked around. They were in a smallish clearing filled with flowers. It was circular, with forest on all sides around it.

Stampy just purred again and rolled onto his stomach. "It's really nice here... Oh! The flowers are beautiful!"

Jason picked up one of the flowers, turning around and placing it onto the top of Stampy's head.

Stampy didn't seem to notice and pawed at a small bug that caught his attention, tail wagging.

Jason chuckled and picked another flower, and then another, placing them all onto his head.

There were about ten before Stampy really noticed and his ears twitched, staring at Jason, eyes wide and confused.

Jason cracked up, falling to the ground and laughing. Tears formed in his eyes as he clutched his stomach.

Stampy was trying to look up at them and ended up falling backwards onto his back, the flowers falling to the ground. He quickly rolled over again, ears flicking and tail waving behind him as he caught sight of a butterfly and pounced at it, missing slightly and proceeded to swat at it.

"Stampy?" Jason sat back up. "You ok dude?"

Stampy didn't acknowledge him and continued to bat at the butterfly then at a leaf that moved out of the corner of his eye, tail swishing behind him.

Jason just stared at Stampy, unsure of what to do. "Um... Stampy?"

Stampy saw his own tail and swung at it trying to catch it, just completely out of it.

Jason sighed and laid back down. "Suit yourself then..."

A minute or two later, Stella spoke up. "Captain, I think something is wrong with Stampy."

"Yeah I can see that... He's gone full cat." He chuckled.

"Exactly Captain. He is not responding to you either. I am concerned by my scans. It appears like he's experiencing some kind of sensory overload or some sort of reaction to something."

"Oh no... Is there anything we can do?"

"Stampy would know but the best thing I can suggest is trying to snap him out of it. Maybe get him out of this area? Sending him into shock with something, like water maybe, could work but is more risky."

Jason took out his shulker and began to rummage through it. He pulled out one of the water bottles and opened it, hesitating for a second before splashing it onto Stampy.

Stampy gasped in shock and collapsed on the ground and after a minute slowly rolled onto his back and stared at Jason, blinking a couple of times. "J-Jason?? Wh-what happened???" He asked, confused and he groaned. "Ugh... My head hurts..."

"You might not believe this but... You kinda just went full cat for second..."

"I-I did?? O-Oh... Great..." He muttered. "S-Something here must've triggered it..."

"There's nothing around us but plants though..."

"Jason... What do you think Catnip does to Cat hybrids?" He asked, tiredly.

"Oh...." Jason fell silent and began to look closer at the ground. Further inspection concluded that there were small amounts of catnip hidden in the grass.

Stampy groaned and resisted rubbing his face. "I need to wash off..."

"Maybe there's a stream nearby." Jason wondered, standing up and brushing the grass off of him.

Stampy just kind of nodded and used his stick to get up and follow Jason.

Jason lead Stampy back into the woods. They eventually stumbled across another clearing with a small river flowing through.

Stampy quickly started to wash off in the river, getting any and all traces of the catnip off.

Jason also rinsed himself off, not wanting any catnip on him either. "Y'know, I think he's just messing with us now..."

Stampy groaned. "Great..."

"At least it wasn't anything dangerous though." He paused. "I have to admit that it was pretty funny though." He joked.

Stampy gave him a tired smile. "At least you were amused by it." He replied.

Jason chuckled. "I get if it was uncomfortable for you though.."

"Y-Yeah. It tends to be. I lose complete control and draw a complete blank when I come to on what happened..." He rubbed the back of his neck before dipping his head under the water then pulling back up, shaking it slightly, spraying water around.

"You doing ok?" Jason held out an arm to protect his face from the water. "I'm sorry that had to happen."

"Y-Yeah. Just a headache. It'll go away in a little bit." He replied.

Jason nodded and paused. He thought to himself for a bit before suddenly pushing his arm in the water and splashing Stampy.

Stampy jerked back in surprise and stared at Jason before grinning and splashing back at him.

"Hey!" Jason yelled before creating and even bigger splash using both of his arms.

Stampy grinned wider and leapt into the water, sending the water towards Jason from the splash.

Startled by the splash, Jason fell over and into the river. "Ow..."

Stampy laughed and came over. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Jason smiled. "Could you help me up?" He reached an arm out.

Stampy offered his hand to help him.

Jason grabbed onto Stampy's hand, giving him a smile before tugging on it and pulling Stampy in to the water.

Stampy gave a cry of surprise and gasped for air as he came back up and grinned at him. He splashed at him again.

Jason laughed and splashed water back. "I can't believe you fell for that!"

"Oh hush!" He laughed.

"You did though!"

"You fell in first!"

"You're the one who made me fall in!"

He grinned and splashed at him again.

Jason guarded his face from the water and nudged Stampy.

Stampy nudged him back.

They ended up spending at least an hour just goofing off in the river.

Jason stepped out of the river, soaking wet. He took off his jacket and set it on a rock to dry.

Stampy stepped out and pulled his hoodie off, setting it aside to dry still grinning before shaking slightly, sending water flying.

"That was a mistake." Jason chuckled as he shook the water out of his hair.

Stampy laughed again, shielding himself. "Well, that was fun."

"But now we have to sit here and dry off.." Jason complained.

"We could just carry our wet clothes and keep going." Stampy replied. "We don't have to wait."

"Yeah, we should try to stay in the sun though, who knows how cold it'll be in the forest."

Stampy nodded. "Yeah. Sun is good." He agreed before tying his hoodie around his shoulders and grinning. "Race ya to that big spruce tree!" and took off

"Not fair!" Jason ran after Stampy, his jacket flowing behind him.

Stampy laughed and kept running until he suddenly stopped, tense and ears straight up.

Jason slowed down until he was beside Stampy. "Hey what's the mat-"

Stampy hushed him, ears twitching slightly. "Listen..." He whispered.

"Come on, if we all found each other than surely he is here too!"

"It's a miracle we all found each other, do you really think we can find him too?"

"We won't know unless we look!"

Voices filtered through the small line of trees blocking them from the next clearing.

"Wait a minute..." Jason began to walk towards the voices.

Stampy stopped him. "What are you doing?!" He hissed.

"I recognize those voices..." Jason pushed Stampy's arm away and continued to walk.

"Jason!" He hissed, hesitating before following after him.

Jason continued following the voices until they ended up in yet another clearing.

"Come on, he needs to be here somewhere."

"Dude I'm tired can we just go home?"

"No Fluffy! We can't just leave him behind if he's actually here!"

The voices grew to a halt as Jason and Stampy grew near.

Stampy stopped a little ways away, trying to stop Jason too but he pulled away again. He frowned but stayed back but close enough to help if needed.

"Guys...?" Jason called, stepping forward, despite Stampy trying to get him to stop.