Juniper lay in the forest sobbing miserably.
I abandoned him. I abandoned my brother. Why'd I have to do that? I'm such an idiot! And now here I am. Not going back for him, oh no, I'm laying here in the middle of the forest. Doing nothing! Nothing! I'm alone with my thoughts, crying, and not saving my brother like a real spirit of Order would have done. Axolotl knows what they're doing to him now.
More sobs. The tears continued until a spider ran over her face and she got up.
She rubbed her eyes and set off into the direction of the Mystery Shack. She was a real Spirit of Order, The real Spirit of Order, and she would fight like one if the need arose.
It took about half an hour for Juniper to get back to the small clearing where the Mystery Shack was located. She had run a long way before collapsing, and was tired after doing so, naturally.
She had to push the magical barrier surrounding the Shack slightly before it broke, recognizing the magical traces of what she had been.
Opening the door and walking inside the part of the Mystery Shack that served as a house brought her with some stairs, two doors, one to her left and one to her right, and a hallway, which appeared to lead straight to where she wanted to go, the living room, the hideous dirty yellow chair and television noises being her indicators.
She walked forward into the room, but found it to be void of people. A basket with some balls of yarn had a half-finished baby blue sweater draped on it, indicating that Mabel did knit sweaters as Bill had described to her recently. Her next stop was attic. She turned around, and started in the direction of the stairs-before running straight into Stanford Pines.
-LINE.
Juniper Cipher had never been so terrified in her life.
"Who are you? Why are you here?" Ford demanded.
Juniper took a deep breath. There were a thousand different people she could tell him she was, a thousand different reasons she could give him for being here-but none of them would have worked out. Never. Not at any point. So she chose the truth.
"I am Juniper Cipher. I am-, "
"You are a Cipher?"
"Yes. Bill is my brother." She said.
Juniper, now locked in a cage under the Mystery Shack, replayed the scenario over and over in her head. She was almost-no, completely certain that could've gone better. She didn't have shoes, and the floor underneath her feet was freezing cold, leaving her to be quite a bit uncomfortable until she remembered her retainence of elemental powers and maaged to summon a fair number of lamb's ears leaves.
Stanford watched her for a long time, taking what Juniper could only assume must have felt like dozens upon dozens of notes.
Then he left, and did not come back. Juniper switched from a standingg position to a sitting one. Her legs had gotten tired over the past- well, day.
Juniper thought a second. If a day had passed, it must be night.
What did humans do at night? For this one, Juniper did not have to take a second. They slept. And they had dreams. Juniper was a Dream Keeper, unlike her brother, who liked giving bad dreams-the humans called them nightmares- and as such, had earned himself the title of Dream Demon.
Juniper, being a Dream Keeper, was familiar with the concept of dreams, but not with actually having them. Or sleep. Going to sleep had never been something Juniper had needed to do before, and, as such, had never done.
So she lay on her back in the dark for a very long time before finally drifting off.
Sorry for chapter shortness, but I have a question to ask. Do you want backstory from Bill or Juniper?