The Shady Adventures of Fabian

Chapter 74

They ended up dining on cold troll as Sir Mikael was unable to find a trace of any creature other than a buzzard who was circling around overhead. Once everyone had their fill, other than Princess Wartha who refused to touch the stuff, Sir Mikael said "Well, shall we be on our way?"

""Yeah let's get going," Fabian said. "Hey, Briawny may be gone, but her horse is still here. I was thinking I could claim it for myself and Scrote and the Princess could ride with you, Mikey."

Fabian approached Finnegrine, but the horse snarled at him and attempted to kick him in the head, missing only narrowly.

"I don't think he likes you," Brandon said. "I've ridden on him before behind Briawny. Maybe he'll let me mount him." Finnegrine actually bent down a little bit in order to let Brandon climb on his back.

"I'm riding with you," Princess Wartha said as she mounted the horse and wrapped her arms around Brandon.

"Looks like you're in your normal spot on the back of Rothchild," Sir Mikael said as Fabian reluctantly climbed on the horse. Sir Mikael proceeded to lead them in the complete opposite direction from which Fabian had attempted to take them the previous day.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Fabian asked. "This is pretty tricky terrain even for an expert navigator such as myself. It's easy to get lost."

"Are you jesting again?" Sir Mikael asked. "Everyone knows that's the Ravine of Krell's Sorrow. It's one of the most famous geographical features within hundreds of leagues of here. If you can't orient yourself from that you must be really terrible at directions. Heh heh. I'd pay good money to see the total idiot who got lost when they had that as their starting point."

"Yeah, that would be pretty funny," Fabian said. "Can you imagine? So, uh, I obviously know exactly where we are, but for the benefit of our young friends would you mind telling us how long it's going to take us to get back to Wooglebury?"

"Yeah, are we there yet?" Princess Wartha asked.

"Well, the Ravine of Krell's Sorrow marks the border between the kingdoms of Syrenia and Yangwe as everyone knows. We're on the Syrenian side, which is exactly where we want to be. As soon as we descend from these hills it should be a solid day's ride across the lowlands of Syrenia and as long as we're not delayed I see no reason why we shouldn't be back in Wingwang by nightfall."

"Right, but are we there yet?" Princess Wartha asked.

"Well, as I just mentioned we must descend into the lowlands and then journey for about a day before we reach our destination."

"Yeah, I got that part," Princess Wartha said. "So are we there yet or what?"

"There you have it, Mikey. Your reward for a quest well done. You ready to be married to that for the next fifty years or so?"

"The princess is young and has probably not travelled far from Wooglebury other than when she was kidnapped against her will. There is plenty of time for her to receive a well rounded education."

"Yeah, I'll bet she can't wait to crack the books. She seems like the real studious type, don't you think?"

"Everyone learns at their own pace," Sir Mikael said. "And you would do well to remember the important part of life is the journey and not the destination."

"Yeah, whatever. I'm sick of this journey. Let's get to our destination and get paid."

About an hour later they passed through a familiar looking village full of slack jawed peasants. Fabian was sure they were in awe of him this time since he had just passed through a few days ago and encountering a legend of his caliber was undoubtedly one of the highlights of their pathetic little lives. Unfortunately not a single person seemed to remember him, although they were all very excited to see Rothchild again and asked if they could pet the horsey.