The spotlight shone on Kipo as she jumped, striking her guitar to the tune flowing through her. She wasn't even completely aware of what her body was doing right now, just that it was moving along to the flurry of musical notes in a series of jumps, spins and slides. The words just flowed from her mouth, with the song energetic enough that it didn't really matter what she sung, she just needed to be singing. Her guitar was heavy in her hands, but it was a good kind of weight, the kind of weight that told Kipo she was hitting every note right.

Kipo leapt over her backpack gracefully, stopping just before she hit her audience, jumping back just in time and not missing a beat. She could feel her audience attention on her, on her crazy movements, her odd tune, and her strange words. Kipo beamed, and she slid her fingers over the strings, finishing of the notes strong so they hung in the air long after she finished playing, a reverberance in the air that struck the audience (and Kipo), just right.

And then: silence.

Kipo stood still for a second, just so that she could finish it off just right, and then raised her eyes to meet with the dull, disinterested ones of her audience member.

The Long Neck blinked, and continued chewing it's food, unaffected.

"So, that was, uh..." Kipo thought back to the words she had been shouting earlier. "Oh! That was 'Spring Boom', by me, obviously, and my next song with be... Well, we'll decide that when we get there, actually."

Kipo stared up at the long neck, who towered a good three meters above Kipo, even when she was sitting. She had a long neck with four eyes, and two mouths, one on the head that sat atop the neck, and another at the bottom of the neck, right where it separated into body. The long neck's skin was red, and completely hairless except for the neck and around the hooves.

This particular long neck, dubbed 'Velvet', by Kipo, was rather small, though, at least compared to the rest of the herd. Kipo figured she was a child. She was rather lazy, but seemed just as intent to study Kipo as Kipo was to study her.

Not that Kipo knew if any of that was true, after all, most of those assumptions were just that: assumptions. It's not like Velvet had told Kipo any of that herself, and Kipo had just had to make guess based on what she had seen of the rest of the long necks: eight of them in total.

Velvet, at the moment, was being her particular old self and watching Kipo with a rather disinterested expression. Kipo let out a nervous breath.

"Well, I guess you're right," Kipo agreed. "I should probably start collecting samples again. Like I said I would."

With a sigh, Kipo raised her guitar (no more than a rather long branch Kipo had found) over her head, the strap (a piece of cloth torn from Kipo's old shirt) getting caught on Kipo's shoulders. After a couple of slight maneuvers, Kipo managed to get it off, and she set it down beside her. The strings (some elastic Kipo had found), twanged pitifully. In their admittedly short life, they had never played an in-tune note.

Stepping away from her guitar (it didn't even look like a guitar at this point, but Kipo loved it anyway), Kipo turned around, kneeling down to pick up her bag. Despite the backpack being half full of rocks, plants and other stuff like that, Kipo managed to shrug it on reasonably easily. She turned back to Velvet.

"Well, I'll be going now," Kipo told her. "Um... see you later, Velvet."

Velvet didn't move, just continued chewing and watching Kipo with indifferent eyes. Kipo took as that a goodbye.

With a final nod, Kipo stepped away from Velvet, walking past her and further into the rest of the herd. She wasn't worried about her guitar getting crushed or broken; she knew Velvet wasn't going to move from that spot. And as long as Velvet didn't move, Kipo's treasured instrument was safe. Kipo was free to explore without worry.

The world was suddenly turned on it side as something fast and energetic bowled Kipo over backwards. Kipo's backpack went falling and she let out a yell, landing so hard against the firm ground that she was winded for a couple seconds. But she was given no chance to recover as something heavy landed on her stomach and almost desperately started licking her face.

Kipo laughed, understanding finally catching up to her. She hugged the small the animal to her chest as it barked excitedly. "Regal, please! Regal!"

Raising her hand, Kipo gently pet the eager Snake-Dog on the head. Regal was a creature that almost looked like a dog, but his body was far longer than any dog Kipo had ever seen, and his little legs were so tiny that they were practically useless. He moved around like a snake, by slithering, but he was still surprisingly fast and agile. In fact, when Regal wanted to get somewhere quickly, Kipo couldn't keep up with him.

His face was like the face of a dog, but with snake eyes and longer teeth than usually appeared in dog's mouths. They were harmless, though, as Kipo had found out when he bit into her ankle playfully and Kipo was worried for twenty four hours that she was going to die.

"Is there somewhere you want to go, Regal?" Kipo asked cheerfully, her voice going noticeably higher as she talked with him. It was inevitable. "Do you have something you want to show me?!"

Apparently, he did, because as soon as he got off her, Regal was immediately shooting off to somewhere else, shooting back to her, then shooting back to the thing, and continued that routine while Kipo watched. Kipo was a little surprised, she hadn't expected Regal to actually want to show her something, or to understand her. He was smarter than Kipo first gave him credit for; how'd he even know Kipo was looking for something in the first place?

Kipo shook herself out of her thoughts, beaming excitedly at Regal. "Well, this is interesting," she grinned. "Let's go, Regal!"

Kipo stepped forward, and Regal paused to let out a celebratory twirl before continuing his back-and-forth routine. Kipo laughed, and quickly picked up her pace.

Kipo and Regal hurried through the plains, avoiding the tree trunk legs of the long necks and jumping over holes left be the Borrowing Lions. The long, stiff grass scratching Kipo's pants and sleeves, so despite the searing heat, Kipo refused to take them off, no matter how much she sweated.

Though, Kipo HAD been noticing that the heat has been lessening up lately... she must have arrived at the beginning of summer, and this was changing into fall. Briefly, Kipo wondered if it would snow.

But then Kipo realized where she was and she froze. Regal did, too, and they looked at each other.

"Regal..." Kipo said carefully, speaking as softly as she could. "Regal, we're too far away from the herd."

Regal did a little twirl, and then raised his head, titling it at her curiously. Hesitantly, Kipo stepped forward.

"Regal, I can't be out here," Kipo whisper frantically. She didn't know why she was telling him this, it was clear he didn't have a clue about what she was saying. Nevertheless, Kipo continued. "You're too small for them to register, but I'm not. Regal, I have to go back to the long necks."

Kipo took a step back, while Regal slithered a little bit forward. They stared at each other.

"Regal..." Kipo started again hesitantly, but before she could go on another rant, Regal slithered away in the blink of an eye. Kipo stopped herself before she could yell out to him. He was safe either way, but she wouldn't be if she did anything like that.

Kipo waited (she wasn't sure why, after all, it could just be that Regal got bored with her and wouldn't come back), and soon enough, Regal was back, and moving rather odd. Kipo's eyes widened, and for a minute, she was certain he was hurt. But as he came closer, she relaxed. He was only carrying something in his mouth, or trying to, at least. Kipo stared at him as he slithered through the long grass, trying to figure out what it was.

Regal stopped at her feet, and proudly deposited the object in front of her. Kipo blinked and knelt down, reaching for the object.

"An egg?" she asked, but then shook her head as her fingers closed around it. It was about three times the size of Kipo's fist. "No... this is just a rock."

Kipo titled her head as she studied the rock, and then looked up. "Regal, why would you want to show me this?"

Regal gave her no answer as he zipped around her feet, and Kipo shook her head, raising the rock up to her eyes once again. If she was going to get answers, she was going to get it from the rock, apparently.

Kipo held it up to her face again, and this time, she was able to make out intricate grooves drawn in the rock, ones too precise to be made by erosion. Kipo's mouth opened in a gasp.

"Fossils?" she asked. "That's pretty cool!"

Kipo lowered the rock, and grinned down at Regal. "Thanks, Regal!"

Regal did another twirl, this one far more enthusiastic than the others, and Kipo felt her smile grow wider. She shrugged off her backpack to put the rock in for future study, and then took a step forward, to give Regal a nice pat on the head for his efforts.

And that was her mistake.

Kipo's stomach immediately twisted into pure regret as her foot came down, but before she could do much else, the ground shook with a insistent force that Kipo fell to her knees, grabbing at the grass around her for balance. She needed to move, she needed to move right now.

Kipo's foot finally found proper leverage, and she pushed herself forward just in time to avoid the large, gaping mouth that shot through the earth behind her. Kipo looked back, just as it descend back into the earth, it's paws disappearing first, then it's black, orange and white skin, and finally the tightly shut eyes, and the maw of a mouth that held rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth.

The burrowing tiger disappeared, but the earth was still rumbling and shaking so much that Kipo knew that it wouldn't be gone long.

Scooping up the backpack that had been dislodged when Kipo jumped, Kipo stood up, running along the bouncing earth towards the long necks in the far, far distance. Why on earth had she gone so far?!

The ground bounced and shook under Kipo's feet, and she had to put all of her focus into staying upright, while also running in a pattern the burrowing tiger wouldn't be able to predict. Kipo leapt over holes and other small creatures hidden under the grass, Regal by her side, always managing to keep pace despite the earthquake underneath them. Because of the size and shape of his body, the borrowing tiger couldn't detect him. Kipo wished she could say the same for herself.

The ground underneath Kipo's feet suddenly started vibrating much fast than previously, and Kipo dived to the side, just barely avoiding the tiger's second attack.

The tiger started disappearing again, but Kipo barely spared it a glance as she rushed to wide the dirt out of her eyes, quickly getting to her face as she started running forward again. Kipo was fast, and she was almost there.

The Long Necks turned their heads to stare as Kipo approached quickly, her breathing labored and sweat pouring from her face. The ground over there wasn't shaking; they didn't know what was chasing her yet.

The ground shook once again, signaling yet another attack from the burrowing tiger, and Kipo jumped forward, right into the herd of Long Necks. She felt the tiger's mouth scrape right behind her shoe, but it was quickly forgotten as she felt the ground rush up to meet her face. Kipo landed painfully and awkwardly, rolling to a stop a long ways away from where she fell.

Kipo's tumble could only have taken a couple seconds, but at that point, the long necks were on the burrowing tiger. Raising their two front hooves high, they brought them down with great roars that made Kipo wince, and they pounded the ground until they made bigger earthquakes than the burrowing tiger had.

Kipo tried to watch, fascinated by the display, but she was soon pulled out of her musings when she felt a wet tongue desperately licking her face. Kipo laughed, and raised her hand to pet Regal.

"Well, that was an... interesting adventure, wasn't it, Regal?" Kipo asked, giggling. Sighing, she turned to the sunrise. "A good way to spend an evening, I guess."

Kipo turned back to Regal, her grin stretching to new heights as the long necks finally ceased their efforts. The burrowing tiger must have left. "...A good way to spend an evening..."

Kipo yawned, falling even deeper against Velvet's side as she looked up into the starry sky. It was so pretty at night, Kipo almost couldn't bare to tear her eyes away. Almost.

Kipo shivered. The jacket she had was starting to become insignificant in the nights cold air. She'd have to leave soon. Well, she'd have to leave now, actually.

Looking to the side, Kipo found that Velvet was already asleep, her head resting peacefully on the ground. Watching Velvet sleep brought a yawn to Kipo, and, with a sigh, she stood up.

It was time to go back to The House.

Kipo had arrived in this strange world four months ago, by her count. But she wasn't sure, there had been a suspiciously long time when she was too afraid to count.

This... WAS earth, Kipo was at least sure of that... but it also wasn't. Kipo had woken up here with no explanation, and since then, she found strange creatures, strange plants, and The House, a reasonable sized thing that sat in the middle of the clearing Kipo had been stuck in. It was the most normal thing Kipo had seen so far with these alien-like creatures.

The House was well stocked with non perishables and furniture, but it was devoid of people. Well, living people, that was. There was a corpse in a room Kipo couldn't bring herself to enter.

That corpse was the only thing Kipo had seen of another human being in months. Kipo could barely even transform into her mega mute anymore, and she sometimes felt like she was going insa-

Kipo quickly shook out her head. These were probably not the kinds of thoughts she should have before trying to sleep. Taking out her new find of the day, Kipo opened the door and stepped inside.