Jessica's ears twitched. Her golden eyes widened. She heard a growling noise not far away. Sniffing the air, there was the faint scent of something truly foul. Whatever it was, it smelled like a smoldering batch of rotten eggs, making her wince. It was vile.

"You all good?" Kashi asked.

"I think I hear something." Jessica answered.

"Like what?" Kashi said.

Jessica paused in confusion. How could he not hear that? He might not have ears, but he can hear me fine, so - oh. I see.

She reminded herself that realized Kashi was probably closer to a human than she was. For a moment she felt a brief sense of embarrassment but it passed over her quickly.

"Do you know if there's anything that makes this noise?" Jessica asked.

She spaced her legs apart as if she was about to pounce. Then she started growling. "Grrrrr... Vroom, vroom, vroooooom!!!"

Kashi smiled weakly as he brushed aside a tree branch. Jessica walked past him and stepped out of the soft white snow. Her ears perked up as her paw touched a rough, hard surface. It wasn't rock. It was black and sticky and smelled funny. Like solidified pitch. It was smeared in the kind of snow that'd been stepped on a hundred times. But there weren't any footprints in it. It had long, patterned imprints curving down the length of the road.

She kicked some of the snow aside, revealing a dotted yellow line.

"Would you look at that." Kashi said.

Jessica gasped with happiness. "We're at the road!"

"What road?"

"The road!" Jessica exclaimed. "The road where we'll find the Holy Tree."

Kashi gave her a puzzled expression. Crossing his arms, he asked, "How do you know it's there?"

"My sister saw it a while back." Jessica explained. "So it's here."

"But we don't know which one this is."

"How do you know?"

"I should be asking you that. Do you know which state highway this is supposed to be?"

"It's got a yellow line in it-"

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Just like every other road in the world."

"Then how do you know this isn't the right one?"

Kashi paused to think. Her logic was infallible. So he gave up and decided he'd just come up with an easy retort. "Well, how do you know this is the one?"

They went in circles for a while. Jessica had spent the last few hours been enlightened on the wonders of the modern world. She started to ask herself how someone who knew so much could know so little about their situation at hand.

Snowpelt and Hawktooth grew bored at their squabbling until Kashi decided to explain the concept of road signs to them. The stick figure crouched down and began to draw lines in the snow with the fingerless, perfectly round stump that was his "hand". Jessica was so entranced by his explanation she didn't notice the distant growling she'd noticed earlier was growing louder. And louder. And louder.

A flash of light. The roar of engines. A blaring honk. The squeal of wheels coming to a halt. Kashi recognized it as a truck, but Jessica had no idea what she was looking at. It was a giant's wagon with a massive, grotesque bovine face made of iron. It had two pairs of glowing eyes piercing through the misty air: one red and one white. Jessica could feel its foul, rotten breath, the heat of its raging fires.

Someone inside was yelling. "Dammit!"

The windscreen lowered. "Any of you talk?"

Jessica opened her mouth, but the truck driver cut her off, probably because he couldn't hear her.

"I don't care." he said. "Move aside or I'll turn you into roadkill. Move! Move! Move!" he yelled as he honked again, and again, and again.

Kashi and the three wolves scattered, and the truck roared past them. He hung his head in annoyance. They kept walking as Kashi explained the concept of cars and trucks. Eventually they found another vehicle parked by the side of the road. It was way smaller than the last one and looked less intimidating, although that could have been because they knew what it was. It was electric blue and had three people inside it.

"They look harmless." said Hawktooth.

"Trust me. You never know." warned Kashi. "Stay back here."

Kashi sauntered up to the car. He waved at its passengers. The car's doors opened with a hissing noise Jessica had never associated with doors. Out stepped two people: a blonde girl in a blue jacket and a boy with black hair with a bright green fringe styled in a way that almost covered his right eye. Who in the right mind would have their hair done like that? She noticed he also had cat ears sticking out the top of his head for some reason.

After them slithered out a third passenger. It was what appeared to be a serpent monster with a humanoid arms and torso. He waved back at Kashi and slithered up to him.

"Hey! I saw you on TV!" the snake monster said. Its voice was far too warm and friendly than it had any right to be.

Kashi shook his head. "Yeah, that wasn't me..."

"Nah, that was you! You're Kashi Terpiskore!"

"Fine, you got me." Kashi glanced away, slightly embarrassed. "You know, I'd rather not talk about it."

"Ah, sure," it said. "I won't mention it again."

The snake thing pointed at Jessica. "Hey, are those-"

"Just local wildlife." Kashi said casually. "Don't worry."

Jessica saw two more passengers. A stickman and a human. The stickman looked a lot like Kashi. In fact as far as Jessica was concerned, that other stickman was a Kashi. Only he was red, didn't wear a headband, and had these curving horns jutting out of his head.

But as soon as Jessica caught a glimpse of the other passenger, she couldn't believe her eyes. She froze in place. Was it really her? Her pupils shrank into pinpricks as she tried to process what she saw in front of her. No, no, no. It couldn't be - thought Jessica. Tears of joy pressed up against the back of her eyes.

"Carter!"