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Harriet is tapping her foot impatiently. Wilbur said he’d be in this clearing with her by eleven, and it’s currently one in the afternoon.
“How is he three hours late?!” Harriet complains to her attentively listening quail, Mumfrey. Mumfrey replies
“Qwerk”, which is quail for “Maybe he’s at the bank.”.
Harriet gets to work making herself some tea, because she needs to do something or she’ll go crazy from boredom. By the end of the process, Wilbur still has not shown up, but at least Harriet has tea.
Then Wilbur suddenly bursts from the bushes, covered in scratches and breathing like he’s been chased.
“I’m” wheeze “Sorry” wheeze “For” wheeze “Being” wheeze “Late” He pants out.
“You
“You’re forgiven.” Harriet says. “But how did you end up being three hours late?”.
“There was a… complicated situation involving Heady, some traveling salesmen, and quiche.”.
Harriet puts her head in her hands. “You know, I don’t think I wanna know.”.
Hyacinth trots into the clearing. Wilbur gets on her back, and Harriet does the same with Mumfrey. After she polishes off the last of her tea, Harriet and her quail sets off into the woods with Wilbur and his trailing behind her.
“I guess I should focus on the upside.” Harriet grumbles. “I’m officially out of the castle now, and I won’t have to worry about my mom harping on me about ‘etiquette’ and ‘posture’.”.
They pass a large canyon with a river at the bottom.
“You think we should try to go down there?” Wilbur asks.
“Why?” Harriet asks.
“I mean, that river might be cool looking up close.”.
“I guess, but rivers are tricky. They can have squidweights in them.”.
Wilbur sighs. It’s hard being a romantic when your best friend is Harriet.
Eventually, day turns to night, and the two set up camp.
“So? Are we going anywhere specific?” WIlbur asks.
“To be honest, I’m just hoping we can get pointed to an ogrecat or something. I’ve been dying for a good quest lately, but I think the world’s experiencing a shortage.”.
“Who’s we? I’m not fighting an ogrecat, I have, frankly, too much to live for.”.
Harriet ignores Wilbur, and turns back to writing a letter to her parents. What she has done now basically consists of
Dear Mom & Dad
I am about 7/20ths away from the Kingdom of the Voles, and I want you to know that I am not dead. I have plenty of sandwiches, Wilbur is with me, and I’ll be back for the holidays.
She knows that this will probably fail to assure her parents she’s fine, so she’s in the middle of staring at it very hard and hoping she can come up with something that sounds better.
When Mumfrey starts nudging her, Harriet knows it’s time to turn in for the night. She rests her head on him like he’s a pillow, and drifts off.
Harriet is woken up by the sun right in her face. She tucks her face into Mumfrey’s feathers and groans. She allows herself a good few minutes before forcing herself to get up.
Wilbur is rummaging around in the saddlebag for breakfast items, and comes up with some bacon wrapped in butcher’s paper and some bread slices.
Harriet builds a fire, then watches as Wilbur cooks everything. He’s not half-bad for someone who gets fed by a hydra most of the time.
After breakfast is finished, Harriet has finalized his letter, and the fire is properly put out, both of them get into their saddles again.
“You know what? Let’s go to that river.”.
“Really? Aren’t you worried about squidweights?” WIlbur sasses.
“Eh. They’re only, what, as big as a cow? I defeated the last one, we’ll be fine.”.
And the turn to the canyon, the world yawning out before them to be explored.