The dreaded bell once again rang throughout the servants quarters and once again all of the servants hid. All but one that is, the slowest of the bunch and now most likely the next servant to join the young prince's entourage, may the Evertree cast its shade on the poor critters soul.

Fir for his part was having a fabulous time! Maybe the Everguard wouldn’t be so bad after all, his entourage was already coming along nicely, a bard was playing music in the corner, soothing his ears, while acrobats pleased his eyes. He continued to ring the bell, and servant after servant continued to come, each of them was added to his entourage.

Of course, just as many servants were sent away, after all, if they couldn’t carry at least one trunk of clothing then they didn’t deserve to be part of entourage as prestigious as his own. He was also rating each servant a one through ten based on how they presented themselves to him. Any servant that rated less than a seven was sent away. Each servant left with a sigh of relief, no doubt happy that they would no longer be embarrassing the young princeling.

Trunk after trunk of clothing came, clothes straining against the confines. Fir looked over to his most scholarly critter who was currently doing the math and logistics of it all. “How many trunks do I have?” Fir asked.

The critter looking down exhaustedly at her papers said, “One hundred and three my prince.” Fir shook his head in disappointment, that was much too little! He had at least five hundred trunks of clothing. At first, he was planning on bringing them all but after a little bit of deliberation decided to pack light and only bring three hundred.

The bell rung. The servants hid. The slowest of servants were sent up.

Days passed like this, everything was just a blur of motion, trunks being carried in and out, clothing being folded and servants being dismissed, it was all in a days work. Fir was enjoying every part of it.

On Hoppy’s part, though he was looking at the letter in his hand with much apprehension, the King and the Queen had asked him to deliver it to the Captain of the Everguard who was to use at his discretion the Majesties had said.

Hoppy already new the contents and was doing everything in his power to keep the letter away from the young princeling for should the letter be discovered a tantrum the likes of which had never been seen before would rock the palace at its very foundations.

Happily, Hoppy had so far been able to hide the letter from the princelings eyes. All he could hope was that once the letter had been delivered he would be far, far, away from the prince.

The princeling after a week of “preparation” was now looking at a map and trying to decide the best route for his entourage to take.

The capital was of course in the middle of the Evertree and everything was built around it. He would go on a tour of the capital for a week, stopping by the grand tavern and the theatre. Afterwards…. Fir was unsure.

Lefton was of course out, seeing at it was above the capital and was merely a rural village, he wouldn’t have minded going and visiting the Guinea Pig city that was four hundred metres above that… but, it was not to be for his destination was much further down.

Fir looked hard at the map once more, there were around two cities within a four hundred meter radius of the capital, the Gerbil city and the Hare City, Fir didn’t like either and wouldn’t be visiting them.

Afterwards though…. Around a kilometre straight down you would hit Hamster town, and one hundred meters away from that was Chipmunk city, he would have to stop there he heard that the theatre was absolutely amazing! One of his acquaintances had been there and couldn't quit chattering about it. It made him truly want to stop by. Unfortunately, it was probably not to be.

Fir wondered though why critters often made cities almost exclusively with their own kind, of course, this was rather rare, each critter family had at least one city to their name.

He quickly purged such thoughts, nobles did not think about commoner settlement habits.

Hoppy approached him and asked “Highness, I have a question for you,” he stopped waiting for the prince to wave and let him continue, the wave came and Hoppy went on “my nephew is coming through the capital and I would ask that you give him a spare carriage in which he may ride. He is also going to be going to the Everguard.”

Fir thought about this for a second and was about to reply in the negative when his parent's voices came back to him, and he replied “It would be my pleasure to provide such a service to a critter that has been with my family for such a long time. A pleasure I say!” With that simple sentence, a months-long journey was reduced to just a couple of weeks. For Florence at least. Fir still had things to do.

“Thank you, Majesty.” Hoppy bowed and went away.

The bell rang once more. The servants hid. Fir voiced his request, “I require armour, and weapons. Any Critter that can get what I desire will be promoted! Chop, chop!”

A week later Fir was ready to leave. Two hundred trunks of clothing. A bard, acrobats, a blacksmith, and of course Hoppy was accompanying him. Plus, the three hundred or so servants that were also following him.

He strapped on his sword, an elegant thing, or so he thought. Most of the servants thought that the number of jewels was just obnoxious and that it just looked garish.

His armour looked the same, though that stored in one of the many extra non-clothes trunks.

Prince Fir was ready to leave.