Chapter 1648 Surprise Campsite Find!

--- Kat ---

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It was eventually decided that Kat should carry Church for the rest of the day at least. Give the girl some time to recover. This sadly didn’t allow for the group to move out quickly because there was the question of HOW to carry Church. The standard tactics Kat would go for weren’t necessarily the best for someone who was sick. Princess carry was looking to still be the best until Craunch made a comment, "Why not just wrap her up somehow and carry her on your back?"

Kat agreed with the idea thinking it would work well… only to quickly realise that her wings would make that a pain. It ended up taking around twenty minutes to work out how to securely attach Church to Kat’s back and even that forced Kat to keep her wings slightly extended to allow for a place for Church to be pressed against her back.

They’d ended up using cloth that didn’t let her wings phase through because that was just asking for issues to crop up. What they chose in the end was a large bedsheet Craunch had packed instead. Lily had used her shadow to keep Church in place while Kat tied the cloth around her and Church. A bit of testing later, and a few adjustments to tighten the blanket up a bit and they set out.

The group kept walking for some time, even once the sun had set. Church had fallen asleep at some point, and even though the younger three dragonkin were feeling the effort… nobody felt like stopping on their own. This perseverance was rewarded when they came across a campsite and Kat was quite surprised when she spotted Kamiko and her group instead of one of the other’s they’d already met up with.

"Kamiko!" cheered Kat as she stepped into the campsite.

"Kat it’s so good to see you! I was a little worried before I got that message from you all but… I see you’re alone again?" said Kamiko. "Wait is that Church? What happened is she ok?"

Upon hearing that second question the others who had been finishing off a meal of some kind all got up and looked over at Kat. Corela even jumped to her feet, leaving the mostly eaten plate of food behind and making a beeline for Kat.

Kat’s group, seeing this started to back off and spread out in the camp. Brook started setting up a tent for himself and Church while Sephy moved over to speak with the twins. Pip made her way over to Kamiko, Kat, and Corela, now somewhat concerned with what was going on while Malt started to gather up the food everyone had left behind and start washing up at the makeshift sink Kamiko had filled some time before from the ’infinite’ canteen.

Before Kat could say anything Kamiko was already fretting over Church to the point where Kat was surprised that she hadn’t woken up yet with Kamiko’s light poking and prodding. It seemed Church really did need the rest. "Can I do anything to help? What sort of injuries does she have? Is it safe to carry her like that?"

"Kamiko calm down. Church just has a somewhat basic cold and a helping of exhaustion. I don’t think there’s anything you can do for her," said Kat.

"Why not? Doesn’t Kamiko have those healy bubbles?" asked Pip.

"Um… er… well I could perhaps try?" offered Kamiko.

Only for Kat to lightly bop her friend on the head. "We don’t know if they work on diseases and Kamiko doesn’t have the energy to make one large enough to cover Church’s body even if it would work. She will NOT be pushing her limits and collapsing by attempting something we’re fairly sure won’t work,"

"Can’t she just do it in little bits? Or maybe have Church squish right down?" asked Pip.

Kamiko sighed and answered "I’m afraid not. I did do a bit of testing with that and it seems to heal an injury I need to completely envelope it with a bubble. It’s annoying because it takes a fair bit of energy to make them large enough for anything more than a papercut and the cost scales up exponentially. Even if Church was even more curled up then she is now I still don’t think I could heal her…"

"So does that mean you could heal like a baby? Or maybe like a baby bird? Those are small right?" asked Pip.

Before Kamiko could answer Brook walked back over, having finished setting up a tent. "Before you continue the conversation… can I put Church to bed? I don’t want her to wake up because you were all too loud. She clearly needs the rest,"

"Sorry about that," said Kat as she started to undo the bindings around Church. Lily made sure to spread out her shadow to ensure that Church wouldn’t suddenly drop at any points and slowly guided the girl over to the tent once she was free. Brook held the tent flap open and zipped the sleeping bag up before glancing around. Brook was clearly thinking of just turning in when his stomach started growling.

Blushing just a tad, Brook stood back up and sealed the tent before making his way over to the remains of the spread Kamiko had done up. Seeing that was dealt with Pip turned to Kamiko and repeated the question. "Um… er… I guess so?" offered Kamiko unsure. "I mean… I’m sure that’s something Mum will want to know and can probably help me test once I’m back home but for now I don’t really know. Um… I suppose we could test it if we catch a monster but it’s not exactly practical information right now so… probably not worth looking into,"

Pip nodded with a slight frown as Corela cut in. "As interesting as this is, I think I’ll still examine Church myself," Corela paused and glanced at Brook. "After requesting permission from Brook I suppose,"

"Ah sorry about that. Should’ve waited for you to take a proper look," said Kat.

"No it’s fine. I should’ve said something earlier. I was somewhat lost in thought. Once Kamiko was examining Church I started going over all the potential issues we might have without proper resistances to whatever diseases still exist in this era," said Corela with a shake of her head as she stepped away, Craunch watching her closely but not making a move to join her this time.

Kat sighed "Well I guess that’s dealt with for now. How have you been Kamiko? Did you get through that sandstorm alright?"

"What sandstorm?" asked Kamiko.

Kat paused.

I’m not going crazy right? No random bouts of memory manipulation? We definitely went through a sandstorm where the sand was bright blue and there were those crocodiles right?

[Definitely.]

Kat glanced over at Strek who was near enough to hear what Kamiko just said, and he seemed to be looking at Kamiko and just as confused. "Did… did you not end up in a bubble when we first got separated?"

"Yeah, I did… but I didn’t end up in a sandstorm, I ended up in this underground maze thing with a bunch of puzzles and traps and stuff. Pip and I got through most of it together though I think that was more because the workout crew and Corela wanted to give Pip a chance to shine rather then lack of ability," explained Kamiko.

Kat looked Kamiko over for a few moments as she fought down her confusion. "Right… well… we very much did not do that. We surfed through a sandstorm that was fairly dangerous. Had to carry everyone in sleeping bags… and now I’m wondering about everyone else? I didn’t ask them because we all met up fairly quickly and I just assumed we exited the sandstorm at different places… but now I’m wondering,"

Kamiko shrugged, "I really can’t say. This is the first time I’ve met another group since we got separated,"

"Hmm… did you end up in a jungle and a snowy mountain?" asked Kat.

"Yes on the snow, again, and no on the jungle. We did end up on an island for a bit though, with the exit buried under a big X we had to dig up," answered Kamiko.

"Right…" said Kat slowly.

Honestly that didn’t clear things up as well as I might have liked. The fact Kamiko did end up in the snowy place means multiple people can go through a bubble even if it splits you up… but at the same time? Maybe not. And like what about the water one? Was it just in the way or was it actually the same bubble as the jungle? What about the maze? I was assuming that the maze was under the sand but now I have no idea. Did the others go through it?

[Yeah I’ve got no clue. I wasn’t thinking on it too much before… so I guess we’ve got to ask the others next time we meet up. Should we send off a message that we’ve found Kamiko already?]

*Eh… might as well? I wasn’t going to but that’s because I wasn’t thinking about it. Let’s draft something up with Kamiko…*