Mibbet was not having fun, she was laughing maniacally her eyes aglow, and making best use of her hopping skills to prevent herself from plunging to her doom.

But that intoxicating adrenaline was not fun at all, nope, nope, nope. Honest guv.

After yet another midair collision Mibbet realised she had a problem, the thing about leaping from enemy to enemy in the air to stay aloft, is what the hell do you do when said enemies break and run. Sure Mibbet could theoretically land the boar she was on, but it could also land itself, very forcibly. Mibbet found she did not like the idea of a sudden and rather close date with the dirt, especially sans hat. (Not that she liked the idea of needing dug up from a head first landing either way, but the kind that required retreival of her squishy bits via a ladle was definitely not on her to do list for today. While she desperately searched round for a solution Hes swooped down alongside.

“Need a lift?” She asked,

“yeah I didn’t fancy walking,” Mibbet replied, giving her piggy steed one swift chop to the neck before leaping clear. Carefully grabbing onto the broom, tactfully ignoring Hestia’s jokes about diets knowing they weren’t serious.

“Thanks for the ride,” Mibbet said as she clambered back onto the broom before they headed earthwards to claim their prize.

************************************************************************

Back on the ground Sir Leeroy watched, as the panic and fear of what was going on up above built up and built up, until it reached a shift in state and transmogrified into a ball of incandescent rage. As soon as The Princess was on the ground, thoughts of execution overtaken by fury he exploded.

“PRINCESS, DON’T YOU EVER EVER EVER DO THAT AGAIN, BY THE GODS I’M AN OLD MAN ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME? YOUR FATHER ENTRUSTED YOU TO MY CARE AND I WILL GET YOU HOME SAFE EVEN IF IT BLOODY KILLS ME. BUT YOUR SAFETY IS IMPORTANT. IF YOU EVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN I’LL KILL YOU MYSELF.”

Mibbet watched on wide eyed, she’d never seen him angry like this before, to be honest it was rather concerning.

Eventually though, mid lecture it started to trickle down in his thoughts that angry or not maybe, just maybe, threatening regicide was not the way to express his concern. As the white hot ball of rage inside melted down, leaving behind a nugget of sheer terror, (and possibly the makings of a peptic ulcer.)

“’Msorry” Rosalind muttered.

It took Sir Leeroy a moment to process what had just happened, this year truly was a time of firsts, he must be hearing things. The Princess had apologised? The Princess NEVER apologised, this moment couldn’t possibly be happening. Maybe the stress of what he had just seen had finally done him in? Or maybe this entire trip had been one long and horrifying nightmare, and he would wake up any moment back at the castle. He blinked, and it was all still happening. Wait, this was real? “Please just take better care of yourself Princess,” he pleaded. “I don’t want to have to be the one to tell your father something horrible happened to you.”

The Princess merely nodded in acknowledgement, as at long last a glimmer of an understanding was reached.

************************************************************************

Hestia kept her head down through the guard performing spontaneous career combustion. Then noted to her surprise that not only did Rosalind acknowledge her mistake, she actually apologised. Proving you can never believe the gossip about somebody.

She left them to it, and pulled out a knife, searching the surroundings for the furrows where the soaring boars had landed, and after hauling them from the furrows they created started the slow and painstaking process of extracting the cores.

Soon enough she was joined by The Princess, who learned the process by watching her do it, and Sir Leeroy. Who seemed to already have a real knack for it. Well he’d had plenty of time to practice, he was what? Fifty? She wisely decided not to ask as the trio worked in the awkward silence that usually follows a shouting match.

Eventually Sir Leeroy headed back to the workshop to retrieve Trundles, there was no way they were leaving this much food lying around the wilderness, and the duo found themselves alone again.

“Thanks,” The Princess said.

“For what?” Hes asked, “you helped us out too, these cores aint easy to get ya know?”

“No, not for that. For treating me like this, a lot of people, they just see the crown, or the Saintess, or just want me to help them fix their problems, it’s good to just hang out sometimes and have fun. Can’t do that at the palace without some politician declaring I’ve gone off my rocker and am unfit for the crown, or comparing me to my dad, you know? I’m not him, and one of these days I’m going to inherit the whole place. Just for once I want to spend a little time being reckless and irresponsible.”

“Hey no prob, far as I’m concerned you’re one of us, and crown or not you’re always welcome to hang out here.”

Rosalind felt a buzz of happiness at that thought. For some reason something about palace life had always repulsed her. The double dealings, the backstabbing, it was a horrible horrible place to be, and every second there made her feel sick to the stomach. Maybe because of that she got a bit unreasonable sometimes back when she was alone, but now between Mibbet, and the friends she made along the way she was finally starting to realise, people were counting on her, and she had a huge mess to fix round here. But for now she was more than happy to just be the reckless Princess for a little while. The burden of the crown was still waiting for her at home , but for her friends, maybe, just maybe, she’d handle it.