To say that Mibbet had a hard time sleeping that night would be the understatement of the millennium,. Eventually she curled up in a ball in the corner with Puppy in one hand (once they had made a few laps around the place avoiding persistently predatory potted plants she was more than happy to settle down beside her creator, and was quite enjoying all the attention honestly.) Also Choppy in the other, like somehow an axe would protect her if the labyrinth she was sat in suddenly decided to go all out against her. Still the comforting presence of both fight and flight options was altogether reassuring. Even if it was bloody useless.

In the end she tried engaging in conversation with Enola since she couldn’t sleep anyway, finally giving it up when she realised they were deliberately talking in their most calming voice in the hopes she would nod off.

Funnily enough Mibbet managed to not doze during that night. Something about not wishing to be dissected tended to do that. But she did find if you could get past the whole wanting to turn you into a lab rat thing, (I will admit that is a pretty big if,) then she was actually decidedly pleasant company.

To Mibbet though company or not Morning could absolutely not come soon enough, as she felt like after the freedom of the open road, and her recent flight she was practically climbing the walls in here. Still she did her best to be as polite as possible (do not offend the person in charge of the sentient labyrinth is usually fairly solid advice. If you ever find yourself in such a situation I do advise you to take it. The alternatives could involve horrifying outcomes involving goblin kings, or grouchy minotaurs, and neither option bears thinking about really, OK maybe some thought, but trust me you don’t want that.)

Every once in a while Enola would pop in to offer a cuppa, and Mibbet would politely decline. Until at long last the break of dawn gave her a break.

“OK Princess, your little friends are here” Enola said in a chipper voice (apparently sentient minds dwelling in sentient mazes don’t really need to nap, so they can easily wait out their prey.) “I’ll just let them through shall I? Labby dear, let them in please. It’s such a pity you can’t stay longer, but there’s a limit to my social skills, and poor Labby did inherit much of my temper bless her.”

In the absence of any other options for how to tackle this situation Mibbet and Rosalind fell back on the royal courtesy training, (which let’s be honest is all about being polite to people who given the choice would very much rather see you in pieces, but know that doing so openly would end poorly for them. There’s a way of doing things, and that is pretty much what assassins are for.)

“Thank you again for your gracious hospitality, I apologise if my unfortunate means of arrival caused you any inconvenience, and for my inability to accept refreshments. Unfortunately as a Princess I have to meet very specific criteria where food is concerned, and in the absence of supervision that was not possible. If I am ever in the area again I will bear your hospitality in mind and thank you in a more proper manner, for now though I am afraid there are a few things that leave me rather pressed for time so I must rejoin my entourage.” (For those unable to speak poshese, and diplomatic doublespeak I will now provide a translation. “Well thank the gods this kidnapping is at an end, I don’t need you blaming me for the crash you caused me to have so I’ll pretend to apologise for it. I’m not really sorry at all that I couldn’t eat or drink here. Poison is kinda not good for my health, and knockout drops followed by dissection aint either. Just because you got me alone doesn’t mean that changed, keep in mind how hard my friends can hit, and there are a hell of a lot of those in the kingdom. I’ll be sure to avoid this place in future, and if you pull this crap again I have the money, and power to hire a demolition crew, oh and the potential charge of high treason in case I need a reason. So don’t even think about it, my buddies will be here soon and then I’m getting the hell outta here, byyyeeeeee.” As you may have noticed there may be a slight difference there.)

Sure enough a few moments later the wall opened up and Mibbet was pounced by pretty much everybody. (Except Rascal who was already with her, and for multiple reasons the least of which was them being a cat, and the other being the whole fire thing, was not much of a hugger. Even if they did manage to hold back their flames long enough for the occasional scritch.) Even Sir Leeroy was in on it, which was kind of weird for Mibbet, like being hugged by that one uncle who only ever greets you with a handshake. But she was relieved enough to be heading back out of here that she opted to overlook it, not like it did any harm after all.

************************************************************************

Labby watched the reunion with bemusement, they never really got the whole thing with humans demanding physical contact. Every time they’d tried to replicate it to understand it there’d been a whole mess of screaming, so after the first few decades they’d given up on it a bit. Of course that didn’t stop them messing with the humans. Call it payback if they will. Labby found pranks to be quite fun, even if they did sometimes take a prank a little bit too far. Well it was the humans loss, and Labby was quite happy with the limited company they did have, Enola was more than enough.