As they entered the forest everything got a lot darker, the clouds and leaves above blocking a lot of the sunlight. All that could be heard was the patter of the rain, the rumbling of thunder, and the footsteps of everywhere present as they silently walked through the forest, looking for any sign of their missing friend.
"Oh, where is she..." Anais worried out loud.
The longer they walked around the forest the more she wished Gumball were here with them. Not only would he be able to lighten the mood and bring her some much-needed comfort, but he was a cat, so he would be able to see much clearer than they could, and would easily be able to guide them around.
They walked in random directions, unsure where to go, hoping, praying that they'd find some sign of Jamie.
Penny and Carrie remained close to her the whole time, never letting her stray too far ahead, for fear that she too could get lost or hurt. There was no way they were gonna let that happen.
"Jamie? Jamie!?" Anais called out for her, hoping they make get some response back. Unfortunately, no such response came.
"It's okay, we'll find her. We just have to keep looking." Carrie assured her.
She nodded back, and as they continued walking, Anais found herself holding onto Carrie's hand and squeezing it tightly.
She was a little worried as she saw that Carrie had noticed, thinking that she might be annoyed or uncomfortable by it.
She had nothing to worry about however as she saw Carrie look down at her with a reassuring smile, letting her know that it was ok.
Anais smiled back, beginning to feel more confident as they proceeded ever deeper into the forest.
Eventually, after what seemed like forever they came to a splitting pathway, with no way to tell where either led.
"What do we do now?" Teri asked.
"We could pick one at random?" Molly suggested.
"What? No, that's a terrible idea. We'd be blindly walking ahead into who knows what." Penny rejected the idea.
"We could split up into two groups and take one path each?" Carmen suggested.
"No, Anais said no splitting up. We don't want more of us getting lost." Carrie responded.
"Okay then, let's ask our oh-so-intelligent leader what we should do?"
They turned to Anais and awaited her response.
"Uhh, w-well, uh..."
She became flustered as she was suddenly put on the spot.
"Well? Come on, you're meant to be the smart one! Give us something!" Masami rushed her.
"Give her a chance to think!" Molly argued.
As Masami interrupted her, her thoughts began to lean toward her, and suddenly she had an idea.
"Oh, I know! Masami, you can fly above and scout ahead, and guide us through!" She suggested excitedly.
"What? In this rain? My hair will be soaked!"
"What? You...don't...have hair..." Carrie responded confused.
"Oh, I do, it's just the same color as I am so you can't see it."
Anais growled annoyed. "This is no time to worry about your hair! Our friend is in danger!"
"Your friend is in danger. She's no friend of mine." Masami corrected her.
Anais sighed. "Look, I know you don't like her, or me, and I don't really like you either, but please, just for a few hours, put that behind you. Work with us to find her and get us out of here, that's all I'm asking. Then you can hate us again all you want."
Masami considered what she had said, looking as she held her paw out. "So, what do you say? Truce?"
She sighed and took Anais' paw, shaking it. "Truce."
Anais smiled. "Thank you."
Masami nodded, flew up above the trees, and began to call out directions, guiding them through the forest using the best route she could find.
As they walked Penny walked up to her smiling. "Wow Anais, that was great!"
She blushed slightly. "Nah, it was nothing..."
"You came up with that on the spot and convinced Masami to stop being a jerk! That's impressive in my books!"
"Well err...t-thank you!" She let out a small giggle.
"No problem. Now let's keep going. The sooner we find Jamie and get out of here, the better!"
She nodded and they continued to walk, catching up to the others.
After another long while of walking, they came across their next obstacle. A fallen tree blocking the way forward.
"Great, now what!?" Carmen called annoyed.
"I mean, I can just teleport past it but that won't help you lot."
"Doesn't look like there's any way around it either.."
As they continued to suggest ideas, the suggestions slowly turned into shouting and arguing.
Anais tried to tune this out and thought about the problem, looking around and considering if any of them had any skills that could help them pass.
Eventually, she landed on Penny, and an idea formed. It was one she really didn't like, but an idea nevertheless.
She tried to come up with any other idea, anything that would save her from having to go ahead with the idea she already ahead, but unfortunately she was left with no other options.
She sighed and turned to Penny. Please forgive me...
"So, uh, Penny... i-i-if we don't make it out of this...I just want you to know...that I've never liked you! I-I-In fact, I-I hate you!" She rushed out the rest of the sentence before she could change her mind.
Everyone else gasped as Penny froze, looking genuinely hurt. "W-What...?" She asked quietly.
"You're...y-you're a terrible girlfriend to Gumball! You're not...you're not good enough for him! He could do so much b-better than you! You don't... you don't deserve him!"
"Excuse me?!" She looked at Anais offended
"Anais...what are you doing?" Molly whispered as she began to move back.
"Trust me!" She whispered back, beginning to shake.
"I've n-never meant anything nice I've said to you! I was only being nice because of your...because of your over-sensitive, fragile feelings!" She teared up slightly, but Penny didn't notice as she looked at Anais enraged.
She turned red and clenched her fist as she looked at her furiously. "MY WHAT!?"
"Anais...stop...she's gonna go ballistic!" Carmen whispered as she began to panic.
"That's what I'm counting on..."
"a-a-and I...and I wish you'd break up with Gumball and go and hide in your shell again, like...l-l-like the shallow, uninteresting, monstrous freak you are!" She braced herself.
Penny exploded and turned into her dragon form, unleashing a blaze of fire at her. She jumped out of the way and the fire hit the tree, lighting it on fire and burning it away.
Penny breathed heavily as she saw the tree burn away, then looked down and saw Anais shaking and in tears and calmed down, returning to normal, as she realized what she had been doing.
She rolled her eyes before smiling weakly and crouching down, placing her hand on Anais' shoulder.
"Aww, you just said all of that so I would get angry, didn't you...?"
She nodded as tears streamed down her face. "Y-Yeah, I-I just needed you to be a-angry! O-o-of course I didn't mean it! I -I-I didn't mean any of it, not a word, I s-swear! You're a g-great girlfriend to Gumball and he's so, so lucky to have you, a-a-nd I'm lucky to have you as a friend! P-Please you...you have to forgive me!" She gave Penny a pleading look, with her large wet eyes as she continued to shake.
Penny smiled and hugged her. "Aww, Anais, of course I forgive you!"
She smiled weakly and hugged Penny back.
The others all let out an 'Aww' before another lightning strike hit nearby, snapping them out of it.
"Okay, no time for hugs, we need to keep going!" Anais said, to which Penny nodded.
They continued on, the storm growing even worse, the wind picking up and blowing the rain into their faces and making it a little difficult to walk forward. Masami struggled to see through the rain but continued to guide them as best as she could.
Eventually, they stumbled upon some white fabric stuck on a sharp branch that was sticking out of a bush.
Anais gasped as she recognized it "This from Jamie's shirt!
Carmen noticed something on the ground and gasped horrified, covering her mouth with her hands as her eyes widened.
"Carmen? What's wrong?" Teri asked noticing Carmen had begun to shake slightly.
She shakily raised her arm and pointed to the ground. "L-L-Look"
Everyone looked at where she was pointing and gasped.
"Oh my god...is that...?" Molly exclaimed.
Anais stepped forward and crouched down to get a closer look. She turned back and gulped, quietly nodding. It was exactly what they thought it was...
...Blood.