Iris fidgeted in place on top of Anthurium's head as she stared at the reflective wall of the Heart of Wonders' waiting room. Iris groaned and flopped onto her back before she placed her hands on her belly.

"I'm gonna starve...," Iris whined as she wiggled around like a worm on Anthurium's head. Anthurium glanced her eyes up at Iris before sighing mentally.

"They've only been gone for five minutes, Iris," Anthurium uttered. Iris whined and rolled around until she fell off Anthurium's head. Iris fell through the air and landed face-first on one of Zalina's kitsune tails.

"But I'm hungry...," Iris murmured as she had her face buried in Zalina's tail.

"When aren't you?" Anthurium asked rhetorically, causing Iris to groan and pull her head out from Zalina's tail. Zalina snickered, causing Iris and Anthurium to stare at her.

"I can see why you get along so well with Lola," Zalina remarked playfully, causing Iris to look to the side meekly.

"I'm not that much of a glutton...," Iris uttered before Iris glanced over at Anthurium.

"...right?" Iris said nervously. Anthurium shrugged, with an unamused expression, making Iris sigh with her head held low. Jokel got up from next to the sleeping duo before shuffling over to Zalina and grabbing her hand with both of her little hands.

"Yeah, Jokel?" Zalina asked as she sat up and straightened out her clothes with her kitsune tails to look more presentable. Jokel meekly looked at Zalina's hand and lightly squeezed it with all her might. Jokel remained silent and rubbed her thumbs against Zalina's hand in circular motions.

"There's no need to hold your tongue. I'm not a cat after all," Zalina remarked jokingly. Jokel stared up at Zalina with puppy dog eyes.

"I wanna go back to... the flying metal boat," Jokel pleaded. Zalina smiled with endearment on her face before she called out to Kusana. Kusana floated over while still carrying Snow on her back.

"What does one require from the best friend of Snow?" Kusana asked.

"Could you lead Jokel through the tail pocket dimension until she's out of my section?" Zalina requested. Kusana nodded as Prima raised a hand.

"If you wanna go, just make sure you stay near Kusana.".

"So I don't get lost?" Iris asked.

"So you don't break anything," Kusana stated coldly, causing Prima to chuckle.

Elsewhere in Delver's Springs, Charlotte remained firmly observant on a piece of elevated terrain while the other kunoichis and the children were interacting with the various stalls in the carnival-themed game area. Charlotte tightened her crossed arms and looked into the distance as a loud explosion erupted in the distance.

The top half of a giant mech with car attachments on it flew towards Charlotte. She readied her hand on her sheathed swords but flinched when Luna tapped a finger on Charlotte's shoulder. Charlotte watched the mech torso as it slammed into a magic shield dome around the floating marble island the two groups were on.

"You don't need to be on edge, Charlotte; this is a safe zone after all," Luna stated as she floated beside Charlotte.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Seems so," Charlotte uttered as she slowly loosened her grip until she reluctantly let go of her swords.

"But I must remain vigilant in case one of the other groups needs help," Charlotte stated adamantly. Luna rolled her eyes and rubbed her face.

"Whatevs," Luna muttered before she flew back down to the game area, leaving Charlotte to continue her self-imposed observation duties.

Back with Kusana and co, the group looked around at the terrain of their Zalina-coloured fur surrounds. Kusana gestured her head towards the summit of a silver fur with cyan tips mountain poking over the horizon. Ruby (with Star on her back) loudly exhaled as she slumped her arms.

"That's so far away...," Ruby uttered exhaustedly while Jokel nodded to Ruby's comment as the two held one of Sophia's hands.

"True, but we can use this," Kusana stated as she floated to a water ride-like cart rising out from and floating on top of a stream of liquid green qi(qi has a particle-like appearance). Kusana placed the sleeping Snow into the front cart before she floated to the other side and sat next to Snow.

"It's safe," Kusana stated, causing Sophia to snicker. Prima placed a hand on her hip and yawned.

"I don't think that should be the first thing you say when trying to convince anyone to use something," Prima remarked. Kusana placed a finger on her chin and mulled over Prima's remark.

"It was... made by Granpa of Kusana?". Prima shrugged and shook her head in response.

"It's less ambiguous and nerve-racking compared to saying it's safe," Prima replied. Everyone climbed onto the two-seater carts, and once everyone was seated, the handguards came down before locking in place. The cart train sprung to life, and after a few seconds of drawing in some of the liquid qi; the cart train began to chug its way down the stream in the group's desired direction.

Meanwhile, in the desert, large explosion-esk plumes of sand rocketed from beneath Zalroth's feet as he sprinted across the desert. As he continued to run around the perimeter of the towering crab heathian, Zalroth glanced upward and watched the enormous purple crystal-covered crab claw plummeting towards him.

Zalroth smirked before the claw slammed into the ground and launched sand in every direction. The dust settled before the crab heathian raised its cracked open claw, revealing Zalroth standing on an elevated chunk of sand at the centre of a claw-shaped crater.

"And that's why you don't punch with your hand open, you robo tanuki," Chronia remarked as she watched the robot tanuki on her handheld console screen, looking at its fingerless hand. Zalroth rolled his eyes at Chronia's comment on her game.

"Thought you were talking about the heathian for a second there," Zalroth commented before he bent his knees and he leapt into the air. Zalroth flew after the heathian's claw as it rose its claw before Zalroth went over it and landed on top of it. The heathian twitched its left eye at Zalroth and stared him down.

The two stared each other down, and the heathian's iris lit up. The energy in the eye focused into a single point before exploding into a giant energy beam of light. Zalroth hopped to the side, and the energy beam shot past him a split second later. Zalroth smirked and smacked away another energy beam.

"I wouldn't recommend coming out at the moment," Zalroth remarked as he lowered his arm to reveal the startled Ruby, who blankly stared like a deer in headlights. Iris popped her head out from one of Zalroth's tails while rubbing her nose.

"Why'd you suddenly stop? And, how can your tail be so firm?" Iris muttered before she froze as another one of the heathian energy beams rocketed straight for them. Zalroth raised an arm and constructed a curved cyan magic barrier to split the incoming energy beam.

"I um... We'll let the others know," Ruby blurted out before she grabbed Iris and dived back into Zalroth's tail pocket dimension. Zalroth arched his head to the side and sighed.

"Guess I better quit my lollygagging," Zalroth uttered, causing Chronia to smugly snicker.

"You sure like doing that to me," Chronia whispered cheekily. Zalroth glanced back at Chronia with his kitsune ears raised.

"Huh?" Zalroth uttered perplexedly.

"Nothing," Chronia stated as she positioned her handheld console to block her blushing face from Zalroth. Zalroth itched his ear as he upper-cutted another one of the heathian's energy beams with a lightning phantom mana sword, splitting the beam and making the halves splinter off in different directions.