(no subject)

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

Evening: two dark figures appear at the edge of the woods, deep in consultation, heads bent close together. As they pass from woods to meadow, their voices carry through the gathering dusk: but what are they saying?

"Are there any more of those left?" Lesgle leans over and plucks the bag from Joly's hands and fumbles about with it a bit. "I think we might have finished them...oh, hullo, look! It's Milliways again! We're home! And...'oh, hullo, look' again, it's Feuilly, out walking his dogs! Harry Percy's dogs? Whose dogs would you say they are, Jolllly my dear? At any rate, a lovely welcoming sight, for two heroes returned to their almost-but-not-really-at-all-native soil! Say! SAY! FEUILLY! GUESS WHERE WE'VE BEEN! --He'll never guess, poor fellow; we'll have to tell him about it. Come, my dear, let's catch up to him. Oh, mind your step in the dark--"

Comments

[tu_vas_triompher]

"Um." Feuilly's laughter finally catches up. Oh, Joly; oh Lesgle. He reaches out and gives each of them a pat on the shoulder. "No, nothing happened. Just the usual, you know. Gods, vampires, that kind of thing. I'm glad you're back, even if I didn't know you were gone! And, um. Congratulations on your, um. Your...ordeal?"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly grins, and toasts that, and then frowns at his flask. "You know, it's very good, but we haven't had anything to eat with it since--oh, since we woke." All those weird pavilions had suddenly stopped appearing! So strange! "That's bad, it's not healthy!--not balanced." Neither is Joly, especially, although he's managing to stay upright between his cane and Legle's shoulder.

[tire_moi_mes_bottes]

"Right! Precisely right! It's not balanced, it's not--ah--you know, Greek philosophers--humors--magnetic fields--"

It occurs to Lesgle, as they amble back to the main building, with Feuilly's dogs bouncing around them in circles, that Feuilly is unobtrusively setting a gentle pace and positioning himself to offer a supporting arm if anyone needs it. "--you know, you should go on a quest some time. Don't you think, Joly? That Feuilly should go on a quest? Everyone should, hey? Quests all around: wonderful fun, don't you think? Wonderful fun!"

[merryeccentricities]

Joly is aware of a thought that, in some way, their quest was perhaps not what it was meant to be; that for Feuilly, or Courfeyrac, or many of their friends, it might have been a very different matter. But that thought promptly goes to nap in the same secret room that's currently holding his sobriety.

And it was fun! And they have parting gifts! Yes!

So Joly nods, and says with a terrible attempt to sound calm and reserved, "Yes, indeed! Quests for all!--Provided they end with everyone home for dinner-time, I'm quite for it."

Well, dinner time is important. Of this Joly's entirely certain, and the cats will vote his opinion. He says something to that effect, as they stroll back home, and a great deal else he won't remember in the morning, occupied now with the epic task of keeping his feet and gesturing illustratively about parts of their trip that totally happened, Feuilly, you should have seen it.