They started up the stairs, Axel already looking kind of tired by the time they reached the first landing. "I hope that someday I love something as much as Soren seems to love stairs."
Jesse snorted, but her grin faded as she glanced back to see Petra arrive at the landing last, pausing to clutch her head. She waited for her redhead friend to catch up, before the two of them kept going up the stiars.
"Jesse?" Petra asked, after another few flights of stairs, "could you give me a sec?"
Jesse turned to look at her friend whose hands were on her knees. Her entire face was shining with sweat, her eyes were going even duller than before, and her skin was a pale shade of grey, not just her arm, which was now completely gray with the purple mottling it. She coughed into her shoulder.
Jesse stared at her friend, eyes shining with concern. "Petra? Need a hand?"
"No, no, I can manage, thanks," Petra said, straightening up, even though it looked like it took effort.
Jesse sent Petra a deadpan look, before arching her eyebrow.
"Really, I'm fine. I'm good. We can keep moving."
Jesse frowned, reaching out one of the lower arms, but Petra shook her head. Jesse reluctantly, silently, turned back around, showing that Lukas and Reuben had stopped only a few steps away from them, watching the two girls.
Lukas sent Jesse a curious frown.
Jesse shook her head again. "Later," she mouthed.
Lukas pinched his lips together, looking concerned, but finally gave a slow nod and followed them.
They reached the last landing, all of them panting a bit. "So many stairs," moaned Axel.
Jesse frowned at the ladder that was leading up. "Ahh, a ladder..." she mumbled, crossing her arms.
Axel pouted slightly, crossing his arms. "Better not be a long one."
Jesse put her hands on the ladder, all of them grabbing onto the rungs except for two of her middle ones, and in no time at all, she was at the top of the ladder, a double trapdoor at the top, surrounded by what appeared to be... something green. Wool?
Jesse pushed open the trapdoor and climbed out, staring around with wide eyes.
"What do you see?" Lukas called up.
"I think I'm seeing things," Jesse responded, staring around at the trees, the ground, the river, and the sky, which looked strange. And the sun. Can't forget the sun. "It's like... another world up here."
Lukas popped out behind her, crawling out as well. "Woah," and he squinted against the 'sun', "so bright..."
Everyone came up, staring around them as Jesse hopped down the hill, looking around. The ground felt a bit funny beneath her feet, sort of squishy.
Another yell, and Jesse twisted to see Axel trip, fall, and slam into Lukas, knocking them both to the bottom of the hill, Axel landing on top of them.
Jesse cringed.
Lukas just let out a sigh. "That's my body, Axel," he sighed, "my broken, battered body."
"The ground's squishy," Olivia commented, as Jesse walked closer to one of the trees, "almost like carpet."
"Looks funny, too," Axel commented, squinting at the ground.
"This... doesn't look like a normal tree," Jesse said, softly, squinting at the tree carefully.
"Glad to hear it," Lukas mumbled sarcastically, sounding as if someone had just kicked him in the ribs, "now could you please get off of me?"
"Sorry, dude."
Jesse reached out and placed one hand against the tree, eyes widening as she did so. "What in the w- it's made of wool!"
She turned to face the others, running a hand over the floor. "The, the trees, the grass, it's... wool!"
Lukas touched the wool as he got up, his claws snagging and forcing him to tear through the wool a bit, a frown on his face. "Um... so... we've been resting our hopes on this guy, and he's made some sort of... articial Happyland?" he asked, the hope on his face from earlier having died.
Axel broke the silence that met Lukas's sentence. "Well, it's real wool."
Lukas frowned at the ground, not saying anything.
Jesse reached out automatically and pulled the ocelot hybrid into a hug, and after a moment, he returned it. "Well, you know Soren best- wasn't he kind of... um... eccentric?" Yes, that was the word she was looking for.
Lukas snorted slightly and rather huffily at that. "Eccentric is putting it nicely. I don't know, maybe he's gotten kind of whacked since I last saw him," and his voice was pretty bitter as he said that.
Jesse hesitated, before gently pushing her friend away and holding him at arm's length. "Well, you heard what Ellegaard and Magnus said- he's been alone. Maybe he just missed home."
Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. Lukas shoved her hands off, his ears and tail twitching angrily. "If you miss home, you go and visit. You don't build an exact replica. Look around, Jesse!" he snapped, claws extending even more, "if the greatest builder of all time has spent years working on this, what are the chances he'll even have that bomb?!"
And he whipped around, tail almost hitting Jesse, and stormed away. "I've had enough crazy for one day."
Jesse frowned after him, worry in her eyes, turning to Petra as the others spread out, looking for clues to find Soren.
"Petra, on a scale of 'ugh' to 'aggghhh', how bad do you feel?"
Petra looked worried for Lukas, but she snorted at that. "Someplace in between. But, I'm holding on. For now."
"How'd you think Soren got out of here without leaving clues behind?"
Petra looked around the wool world (huh, that was pretty catchy), "He IS the greatest builder of all time. If anyone knows how to put in the secret-est of secret doors, it's him."
"Hmm... I guess I gotta go find a secret mechanism, then," Jesse sighed, raking a hand through her hair, "I'm gonna keep looking around, then."
"Look away," Petra said lightly, giving Jesse a tight smile.
Jesse turned away from her redhead friend, giving her one last concerned look, before turning around.
A/N: Wool World, man. Wool World.
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