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Kipo stretched her jaguar arms out in front of her, looking at them with a frown. Scarlemagne's coronation was happening in a week, and she was no close to finding her anchor than when she started searching.
She was running out of time, and everyone was counting on her. The pressure was unreal, and she didn't know if she was ready.
When her dad told her about her abilities, she had been excited. Like, who wouldn't be excited to find out that they were made from an experiment!? How cool!
Now, though, the weight of the situation was kicking in, and Kipo couldn't let herself joke around about it anymore. She'd been made to be a bridge between species. To bring them together and create peace in Las Vistas.
It was a huge burden for a thirteen year old, one that she had never expected to carry. It was too late to back down. Everything was falling apart and the only one that was able to stop it was her.
It didn't help that her abilities were scaring her. She had to be careful while opening cans of food, or she would accidentally activate her jaguar strength and make a big mess.
Kipo thought back to when she lived in her burrow. Back when she was naive and innocent. She remembered what all the adults said about mutants. About how they were dangerous. Freaks.
Kipo wondered what they would say when they found out about her. She knew that Lio had kept her abilities secret, or they wouldn't have been allowed into the burrow.
She hoped that her people would find a way to accept her. To not look at her any different than before. But deep inside, she knew that that would never happen.
They hated mutes. They were afraid of them. And after being captured by them, they only had more reason to be. Kipo didn't want them to be afraid of her. To think of her as a freak. But the truth was staring her back in her magenta jaguar eyes.
Nothing would ever go back to the way it was before.
Her friends would leave her behind, kick her out on the streets to fend for herself. Even Wolf had ran away when she found out. She came back eventually, but it scared Kipo nonetheless to know that people would turn her back on her as soon as they found out that she was different.
All her life she had been different. She'd been the star student of her class. She was used to being different. Recently, she'd started to wish that she was anything but.
Kipo stood up. She needed a distraction to take her away from her spiralling mind. She found Wolf guarding their temporary hideout, Stalky clenched tightly in her arms as her eyes wandered over the endless green landscape.
"Hey," she greeted before Kipo had the chance to make herself known.
"Hi," She replied, taking a spot next to Wolf to lean against the wall.
"What's wrong?" Wolf asked, voice filled with worry.
Kipo didn't know how Wolf was able to figure out that she was upset that fast, but she decided to tell her the truth, hoping that Wolf could bring her some peace. "Do you think I'm a freak?"
Wolf turned her attention away from their surroundings to look at Kipo with a concerned frown. "No. Why would you ask that?"
Kipo looked down at her paws that had yet to disappear. "Humans don't like mutes. You said so yourself."
Wolf frowned harder. "Yeah, but that was before. You've proven that not all mutes are bad. It's all just a big misunderstanding."
"My people won't believe us."
Wolf jumped down from the rock she wa sitting on, looking up at Kipo before placing a hand on her shoulder. "Are you worried that they won't let you come back?"
"I know they won't," Kipo sighed, "and that scares me."
"We'll show them. Just because you're part mute, it doesn't make you a bad person. If your people are half as good as you think they are, they should realize that."
Kipo didn't reply for a while, so Wolf took it as a chance to continue.
"If they can't accept you for who you have become, they don't deserve you. You don't have to go back to them just because they used to be your home."
"But I want to go back! I want to see my friends again, to go to school and for everyone to be friends again! But they never will because I'm a freak!"
"You're not a freak," Wolf said immediately. "Don't call yourself that."
"But it's true! I'm a freak and everyone I have ever loved will leave me and I can't do anything about it!" Kipo cured into a ball on the ground to bury her face in her knees, angrily wiping away the tears that grew in her eyes.
She expected Wolf to get mad for getting yelled at and leave to let her work out her emotions on her own, but instead, she sat down beside her before wrapping her arms around her, at least as far as they would go.
"You're not a freak, Kipo. I promise, you're not. You never were and you never will be. They're just getting to your head. As soon as we save them, they'll let you come back and everything will be alright," Wolf reassured.
Kipo looked up from her knees, sniffling. "You think so?"
"I know so," Wolf promised. "Right now, we should focus on finding your anchor and stopping Scarlemagne. We can worry about everything else later."
Kipo's lips turned upwards in a smile as she hugged Wolf tightly. "I really needed that, Wolf. Thank you."
Wolf smiled back. "No problem. If you need to talk, I'm here for you. We all are. We're in this together, remember?"
Kipo's smile grew as she nodded. Wolf didn't know it, but her words meant more to her than she would ever know.