Hara and the Witch

Chapter 15: Everyone is Very Soggy and it Shows

As the wind whistled ominously the three hobbled around the field, mud dripping down their faces, blood on their legs, haphazardly trying to retrieve all their wayward possessions from where they had been flung. Plim, still crying, trotted along, landing in each and every puddle as she tried to fly and was left resolutely grounded.

The storm, an unfeeling brute, refused to let up even when the last jar of honey was found, Hara's sword sheathed and Plim's tiny breastplate discovered hiding atop a hillock; indeed, it continued even as the three trod on, their clothes growing heavier with each step, the sky growing darker and thunder rumbling in the distance.

'Well...' Hara mused, sliding her little boots off and hoping the rain would wash a little of the mud clean. 'This is lovely.' She looked up at the waterlogged sky and her face broke into a smile, rain splashing on her forehead relentlessly; catching sight of Plim and Marigold, who both looked incredibly grim, she started laughing. 'It could be worse!' she trilled, breathing in the electric air and feeling the grass, mud and rocks beneath her feet. 'There could be leeches!' She looked down at her feet and noticed a leech clinging to her toe; surreptitiously she wiped it off. 'Or... we could be about to be attacked by a-'

'Maybe don't,' Marigold broke in, wincing as thunder rumbled. She had seen the leech.

Plim quietly wept.

'Plimmy, it's ok,' Hara said, bending down to look at the sniffling bird. 'You don't need to feel sad.'

'But it's my fault,' Plim whispered, tears and rain cascading down her delicate face, her blue eyes sparkling. 'I wasn't enough.'

'You have always been enough.' She scooped up the bird in her muddy hands, giving her a kiss on the head. 'Whats wrong?'

'If I had been better at questing-' she stifled a sob '-you wouldn't be going home,' she wailed. 'If I was strong enough to stop Trif then-' she burst into fresh tears and there was a plonk as Marigold toppled into a rather large puddle. Reluctantly she let Hara help her up, but with her torn skirt, soggy and lopsided hat and otherwise damp countenance, she was practically unrecognisable. A large tear trickled down her face and she sniffed.

'Oh, don't you cry, too!' Hara begged, the sky filling with sudden flickering as lightning speared across it, crackling and majestic.

'My feet,' Marigold whispered, voice trembling, 'are so sore.' Her mouth wobbled and with a final tremulous sob from Plim she broke down entirely and Hara, horrified, gazed at her companions in complete mystification. It's not that she was heartless, for a lot of the time she was really very sweet, but this was a lot. The whole day had been a lot and for a moment she considered joining her friends in their tears... but she was too tired, too confused, and the rain wasn't letting up. So, without a word, she tucked Plim into her pocket and hoisted Marigold onto her back and began to trudge along, completely unaware of what direction they should be going and doing the only she could think of: singing.

'There is something in this wood, I think it's after us! Is it a troll or an ogre or a pixie or a blunderbuss,' she trilled, voice growing louder (or more petulant) as the thunder attempted to drown it out. 'Who even knows? Not you or me or us! Don't be a twit, don't second guess, run and keep your distanceeeeeee!'

'Hara!' Plim wailed. 'No!'

'I said "I think it'll be ok,"' she sang, nodding her head this way and that as she got more into it. 'It really wasn't ok! Who'd have guessed?! Not-' she tilted back her head and screamed '-YOU OR ME OR USSSS!'

'Stop! That's not how it goes!' Plim said, struggling to get out of Hara's wet pocket.

'Can't we just be miserable?' Marigold asked, frowning, but Hara ignored them both.