As Kipo came back into consciousness, she yawned. Shifting around, she dimly noticed there was something different about this morning, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Plus, there was sunlight streaming down in her face felt so relaxing, so she didn't really care anyway.

"She... is pink."

"I'd thought they were kidding!... Do you think she's a fairy or something?"

Kipo frowned. These voices were new, so could they be...?

"A... 'fairy'?"

"Oh, yeah, it's like this tiny person with wings."

"...Um..."

"... Oh. Yeah, actually, fair point."

At this point in the conversation, Kipo finally shook herself awake, cracking open her eyes and immediately finding two sets of deep brown ones staring back down at her. The four eyes seemed to widen in amazement.

"Oooh. Her eyes are pink, too," said one, the girl who seemed to have a bit of an accent. She had a wild kind of haircut, and Kipo thought it looked cool. She also seemed to be wearing some sort of armour.

The other girl squinted at her. "Huh. Yeah. Cool. Didn't they say see was half-cat, or something like that?" The girl had deep brown skin and messy hair. This time when she spoke, she directly addressed Kipo. "Are you a catgirl, or something? I've only ever seen one in anime, so I don't know if I'm being rude right now."

"They didn't exactly say 'cat'," the other one spoke up. "They said something like... something like..."

The girl suddenly seemed to struggle, so Kipo helpfully spoke up.

"Half mute," she told them. "Er... like a mutant. Specifically, a mega jaguar."

The one with the messy hair suddenly brightened. "Okay, I have no clue what half of those words you just said are, but if you're 'half mega jaguar', do you have special powers?"

Kipo sat up as her visitors moved back, and she raised her arm, turning it into her mega jaguar palm. She'd been working hard at it, and could now do it without having to use the mantra. "I mean, I can do this, and turn into a mega jaguar, if that's what you mean."

"That is SO cool," the girl huffed, and Kipo grinned, at least until she turned to the other girl. "She really IS an anime character."

Kipo's grin melted into a frown with knit eye brows. "An anime character?" she repeated, tilting her head. "What's that?"

The two girls turned to her, one looking confused, and the other looking sympathetic.

"It's a type of cartoon from Japan," the confused one, the one with the black hair told her.

"Oh," Kipo said. And then: "And... what's Japan?"

Now they just both looked confused, and Kipo smiled sheepishly.

"It's... a country?" the one with the messy hair told her, but it was more of a question than a statement. "Uh, actually, that's probably not important right now. Anyway, you're Kipo, right?"

Kipo nodded, and the girl beamed. "Nice! I'm Anne."

Anne turned to the black haired one, and she stepped forward. "I'm Fei Fei. I can't speak English that well, so please be patient."

Kipo blinked. "You can't?" she asked. "I didn't notice. You're doing great?"

Fei Fei smiled at her, and Anne stepped forward again. "Alright! Now that introductions are done, you said you had somewhere to go, right Kipo?"

Kipo nodded, standing up from her bed. "Yeah... when I was in the cave a few weeks ago, I saw someone in there, and they dropped this."

Kipo started forward, and picked up the blue crystal from her desk. She made sure to only touch it with the cloth wrapped around it. She'd accidently touched it with her skin a few times, and while the images gave her more information each time, seeming to show her where the people were in real time (and for some reason not showing Wirt anymore), she also couldn't let go, so she was stuck waiting for the crystal to show her everyone before she was able to let it go.

She held it up, letting Anne and Fei Fei get a good look at it.

"When I first picked it up, it gave me..." Kipo thought for a minute, trying to come up with the right term. "Visions? Flashes? I don't really know, but a saw five people, people I think are stuck in this world like we are. And I know they're real, because one person it showed me was a person I knew was missing: my friend Wirt."

Kipo then lowered the cloth, gazing at the crystal in the middle of it. "I'm not really sure where these people are, though," she admitted. "I mean, I have some guesses, but I don't have any accurate locations, and the library didn't have any maps."

Kipo paused, looking up at them expectantly. Luckily, Anne got the message.

"So that's where we come in," she finished, sounding more serious than usual. She nodded to herself. "I see, I see. Yes, the two travellers embark on a noble quest to find and gather more unfortunate souls like themselves... We could be in a comic book!"

Fei Fei looked thoughtful, but probably not for what Anne was thinking. "It's not different to what we usually do," she noted. "We just have more directions this time."

"Yeah, a lead!" Anne cheered, seemingly forgetting what she was saying before. "Finally. This world was way, way too big not to have one."

Kipo smiled as she watched the two of them talk, and the butterflies that had grown in the last couple of days seemed to finally shrink. She could already tell this was a fun duo, and they already seemed willing to help her! And it's not like Kipo had any real doubts, after all, no one in town seemed to bad mouth them, but still, Kipo had been just a little nervous. When embarking on a quest to save four people, it was important to get along with your teammates, right? And if any of them had been like Dib...?

Kipo shook those thoughts away. Hadn't she already noticed? She had nothing to worry about in that regard.

"So, tell us about those clues you have!" Anne said, bring Kipo back to the present. Kipo nodded at her, and quickly picked something else off the table. She unfolded the sheet of paper, showing it to Anne and Fei Fei.

"This is the information I jotted down when I saw the visions," Kipo told them. She pointed to different notes on the paper as she spoke. "First, there's a blue haired girl, who always seems like she's in some kind of castle of some sort. Though, whenever I see her, it's a different part of the castle, so it's either a really big castle, or some kind of labyrinth. She always looks lost.

"Then there's a blonde-haired girl, and she's always the oddest. It always looks like she's around some sort of machinery, but it's all old and rusted. I can't really identify what's in the background, so I have no clue where she is.

"There's also a brown-haired girl, too, one who always seems to be on the move. First, I saw her in a tower, then in a marsh, then someplace really snowy, and so on and so on. She seems to go all over the place, and she always has this strange little creature with her, something between a fox and a cat.

"And last but not least: there's a short brown-haired teen, and I don't know what gender they are, so I just use they/them. The best I can say is that they're in a town, but one more sandy than this one, and the town really seems to love swords"

Finally, Kipo glanced up, looking at Anne and Fei Fei. "Any of them ring any bells?"

Anne hummed. "Most of them, no, but..." She tapped on Kipo's notes for the brown-haired teen. "I wouldn't say it's a town, more of a village, maybe? They love their swords, and have competitions practically every day."

Anne paused, grinning at Kipo. "Bet I could win."

"But you don't know who your opponents are." Fei Fei pointed out, frowning.

"Doesn't matter. I bet you one chaching I can win."

"You don't have one, I keep track of the money."

Kipo grinned at both of them. "So, we'll go?!"

Anne grinned back. "Obviously! I have a chaching to win!"

Fei Fei crossed her arms, her thick eyebrows narrowing. "I want to see the competition first."

Now Anne was frowning, too. "No fair. I bet without looking at the competition."

"Maybe you shouldn't have done that."

Once again, Kipo cut in. "Okay! That's great, but... we're not leaving yet, right? I still want to say goodbye to everyone..."

Anne gave her another smile, a gentler one this time. "Take all the time you need. We need to restock anyway."

Beside her, Fei Fei gave Kipo a nod, and Kipo smiled back at them. "Thank you."

"A tree branch, lost at sea," Wirt mumbled, scribbling the words down as he said them. "Batted around by waves and wind, leaves that were three become two, lost to this new, stormy blue world... Is this to on the nose?"

Wirt frowned at the words in front of him. The paper had been erased so many times that now it looked grey, and Wirt's words weren't showing up like they had been when he started.

Suddenly, the door to the library bust open, spilling light over Wirt's table. Oh. The candle had gone out. He hadn't realized.

"Hey, Wirt!" Kipo called out cheerfully. She sat down across from him, and Wirt frantically started erasing his words. Kipo glanced down at it, but she didn't say anything. "So... what are you doing?"

"Nothing," Wirt said quickly, maybe too quickly. He sighed. "Just writing... some poetry. Uh..."

Wirt hoped Kipo didn't notice the complete lack of poetry he had, but he also didn't really know how she could miss it.

"That's cool," Kipo told him. She didn't sound judgemental at all. "What kind?"

That was a good question. "Just... poetry," he said, trying to sound nonchalant and not just completely lost. Kipo nodded, like he had actually said something that made sense.

"That's nice," she said, and Wirt nodded, thinking that was the end of the questions. But then... "By the way, Anne and Fei Fei are here."

Wirt blinked, surprised. Usually, Kipo just came by to hang out, and to look at the books. The fact that this visit had a very different reason was not something he had considered, even though he knew those two travelers would come eventually.

"They are?"

Kipo nodded. "Yeah. We'll probably be going soon."

"You will!?" Wirt didn't like the rush of anxiety that bubbled up in his stomach. "Er, how long will you be gone?"

"Um... not sure?" Kipo hummed, thinking. "Hopefully not long. Are you still sure you don't want to come with us? Anne and Fei Fei are really nice!"

Wirt paused, and then shook his head. "I mean-I'm not sure-I... I don't think I'd be useful at all, though."

"You don't have to worry about that!" Kipo laughed, as if the mere notion that Wirt could be useless was funny. "You can do your poetry, too, when we're out on the road."

"I don't know..." Wirt glanced back down at his papers, scattered around him. It was wasn't like he was doing poetry here either. "I don't think... I don't know."

Kipo seemed to hesitate, pondering her next words carefully. "...You know... just because I didn't see your brother, doesn't mean he's not here."

Wirt's eyes widened, a little surprised by the sudden change in tone. "What? Oh, uh, yeah, I know that..." Wirt suddenly looked away from his friend, hoping she didn't see his guilty expression. "I know... and I'm kind of relived, too. If you didn't see him, then that mean's he's probably not here, right?"

Wirt paused, and when he risked a glance at Kipo, he was surprised to see her considering what he said.

"Oh, yeah," she realized. "That's true!"

Wirt winced. Was it true, or did he just not wan to consider the possibility that maybe his brother WAS here, especially after what happened to Adam? After all that happened in the Unknown, was he still just as bad a brother as before?

Suddenly, Wirt felt a warm hand on his back, and he looked up to see Kipo looking at him sympathetically. His eyes widened. She hadn't guessed what he was thinking... had she?

"I can keep an eye out for him, if that's what you're worried about," Kipo reassured him, and Wirt felt himself smile, just a little bit.

"Oh. Thanks."

"Also!" Kipo carried on, just as cheerfully. "You can hang out with Norman, too!"

Wirt's smile fell. "... Norman?"

"The guy who seems to know a lot about Adam."

Well, Wirt knew THAT, but...

"You want me to hang out with him?" Wirt frowned. Kipo was really, really nice to everyone, but Wirt tended to stick to himself, and from what he's seen of Norman, he did, too.

Kipo shrugged. "He seems a little lonely," she explained. "So, if you're a little lonely, then you can both hang out together!"

Wirt could just picture all the awkwardness that could bring, especially if Norman was as weird as he looked. Talking as if having one side of a conversation with no one, ignoring everyone around him, always looking tired even when he was sleeping, hanging out knew Adam's gravestone all the time... did he think he was friends with ghosts or something?

Yeah. Wirt didn't really think he's ever be so desperate (or ever muster up the courage) to talk to Norman, but he made sure not to show it on his face. Instead, he mustered up a bit of a (probably awkward) grin, and said: "Yeah, I definitely will."

Luckily, Kipo was satisfied, and she nodded. "Cool!"

She suddenly stood up again, looking to the door of the library. "Anyway, maybe I should get going now, to meet up with Anne and Fei Fei. See you later, Wirt! Good luck on your poems."

Wirt nodded, mumbling a small "bye" as Kipo hurried out of the library. He watched her go, until the double doors slowly closed back shut and his sight of her was cut off.

Then he sighed.

Oh great. He was already starting to feel lonely without her.