Extraordinarily Pleased

It's The Most Wonderful Time

The region they'd crossed paths with the merchant was indeed quite far from anywhere they needed to be. Aside from what little time they spent sleeping, they were on the move.

As single mindedly focused on the road ahead of them as they were, the imp's words still rattled around in their brains. But still... there was the possibility that he hadn't even been talking about their parents, or them. And while that likelihood wasn't especially high given his level of specificity, it was certainly more believable.

Perhaps wild rumors were more common back in those days: sixteen, seventeen years ago, when tour carriages rolled through their front yard, a reality that was hard to imagine. Daily tabloids had to be filled with something, after all. Perhaps what that shopkeep told them was just a long-forgotten byproduct of that era.

The fact the merchant emphasized the contract had "worked, too" was the final nail in the tall tale's coffin. If that ogre's contract had rid him of his family, and the ogre in question was their father, then how were all of them along with their mother still very much present?

It was all so incredibly unbelievable to even think their father would have entertained such a ridiculous bargain. They couldn't think of a single thing enticing enough to have even begun to convince him... because there wasn't anything.

Right?

Right.

As the siblings trudged across the land, Fergus realized the merchant hadn't drawn the map quite as well-scaled as initially thought.

"We should be here," Felicia jabbed impatiently at the parchment.

"But we're actually here," Farkle poked, a good way closer to their starting point. "See, that mountain range is–" He looked up toward the real-life reference point not too far off.

"WHY are we so behind??" Felicia snapped at no one in particular.

"Because I messed up!" Fergus barked back at her. "Okay!?" He snatched the map off the ground where it lay, roughly rolling it up in his clenched fist. "I miscalculated how long getting here would take, from the..." he trailed off as he stomped off toward the mountains Farkle had cited moments before, not waiting for his two travel companions to follow.

As the days wore on, the further behind they realized they'd fallen. On the eve of Christmas Eve, it became clear that if they stopped to sleep for the night, they would arrive home sometime in the middle of the night early Christmas morning, at best. They therefore made the unideal decision to forgo camp, and travel through the night.

"What if we just stopped for like, an hour nap?" Fergus suggested, a subtle desperation in his voice.

"An hour will turn into eight," Felicia replied curtly.

"We'll lose all our momentum," Farkle finished. "We just gotta power through. C'mon." He pat Fergus's shoulder firmly, not exactly happy with the necessary conclusion himself, as he continued forward.

The siblings traveled on in relative silence - chatting would only slow them down, not to mention their bodies and minds were already past exhausted; the last thing they needed was another needless squabble.

Besides, what else was there to discuss? All they knew was what the merchant had told them. What good would mulling over the same bits of information do them except work themselves up? Over potentially nothing?

They'd just privately mull it over in their own heads, instead.

The sun rose behind the Christmas Eve morning clouds, reminding the triplets they'd traveled all throughout the night. They plowed through the vast cornfields outside of Duloc, allowing them a grab-and-go breakfast without breaking their stride.