Outside, all the adults and some of the schoolchildren had gathered around the miraculous plant of strawberries that seemed to be intent on spreading all over this side of the river.
"Should we transplant them? Our crops are better off on the other side of the castle," Pumpkin Patch was saying.
"Maybe we should keep them there, and have crops on this side, too," answered Book Violet.
"I don't think we ought to," Pink Sky protested. "Our crops have always been on the other side, and if the children want to play, they'll risk harming them."
"They could go play on the other side of the castle," Pumpkin Patch tried. "There's forest all around, and watch-towers. They'll be safe."
"It's too sunny," argued Book Violet. "They'll get sunburned. It's colder by the river."
"But the strawberry patch is there," Pumpkin Patch reminded.
"We should move it," Pink Sky agreed.
They turned back to the crops to see that Peebo was sitting directly on it.
"Peebo! Honey!" Book Violet laughed.
Peebo absentmindedly started to chew on one of the leaves. Another leaf swatted her chubby face. Peebo looked at it in confusion.
"Well, if you don't appreciate us," said the bush, who had an old woman's voice. "We'll just take our strawberries elsewhere."
It stood up on a few roots and started to walk away, but Peebo's weight was too much for it. All the other bushes also stood up and tried to push the baby off.
"No, please, don't leave!" Book Violet begged, but she was laughing, and her eyes were gleeful.
She took Peebo away. The strawberry bushes grew googly eyes and blinked at her suspiciously.
"Well, if you're asking so nicely," their leader squinted, then she sank into the earth, and all the other bushes followed her.
"Where are you going?" Pumpkin Patch protested.
"It's cold up here," called the leader from her hole. "Leave us alone, and don't wake us until winter has passed!"
"Wait, let me help you settle down," Kuba chipped in.
She drew little lamps and little beds and the like, and they popped out of the snow. She even gave their leader a tiny cuckoo clock that would ring once the snow was all melted. She dug them nice, deep holes where they would sleep cozily, and placed all the furniture inside.
"There you go! Good night!" she smiled.
"Well! I appreciate that. Good night to you, too!" answered the leader happily, and just like that, all the strawberry bushes disappeared into the snow again.
"We might throw parties every once in a while. If you hear noise and thumping, it's us!" she called out one last time as Kuba waved them off like it was normal.
Everyone stayed there in silence for a second.
"I don't think they like us," Pumpkin Patch commented.
"I thought they would ask us for money in exchange for their fruits," Pink Sky added.
"Be quiet! They still could!" Pumpkin Patch laughed.
"Uh," Peebo added. "Uuuuh. Uh."
She started to cry, because she was scared of the bushes and their googly eyes. It made Kuba feel so sad that she also started to tear up. Book Violet started to kiss Peebo's fat cheeks to make her feel better, and Peebo grabbed her mother's cheek with her little fists. Boolo rushed over and tried to cheer her up by giving her snow, but she crushed it.
"Nooo," Boolo protested.
"It's okay, honey. The bits she crushed are back with the rest of the snow," Book Violet soothed. "They're still magical."
"Why doesn't she eat it?" Boolo complained.
"She is, honey! Look!"
Peebo started to chew on her fingers.
"Amyamyamyamya," she mumbled.
"She says "amyamyamya"! Those are her eating noises," Boolo exclaimed excitedly, and he started to jump around. "Eat itttt!"
He ate her nose. Peebo tried to eat his chin.
"It's an eating battle!" Boolo laughed.
"Now, let's not eat each other," Book Violet soothed, and she gently separated them. "Come on! Good job on making Peebo feel better."
She kissed her son's cheek, then watched him run away.
"Well!" Kuba let out, and she clapped her hands. "What do we do now?"
"Follow Lord Golden Wolf and go yell about it in a pantry?" Pumpkin Patch answered. "I'm sure that's what he's doing, and I can't exactly blame him. I'm also very annoyed."
"No, he's doing something with Sapphire Rod," Pink Sky answered. "Did you know he was back?"
"I love the strawberries!" Boolo yelled from wherever he was.
Kuba decided to leave the adults to their business and go back to crying about how cute the children were in their tiny little marshmallow suits. Their conversation was incredibly dull.
By doing that, she bumped into the Wolf King, who was being thrown snowballs at by Boolo and his friends. He was currently sitting down and shielding his face from all the snowy little mittens trying to reach it. He ended up falling down under the weight of all the toddlers, and seemed happy to be swarmed by living pillows.
"Nooo! Waaah! I'm under attack… I'm dying," he joked.
"If he's dying, then we can do like wolves! And eat him! And say AWOOOOOOO!" Boolo howled.
"You're too hungry for this game," the king laughed. "I think you would eat me for real."
Boolo giggled and started to chew on his arm, which in turn made the king laugh and pat him on the head. Kuba decided to take a seat on a nearby snowball to admire the king, then had to stand back up when she realised that Mille was making a snowman.
"Be careful!" Mille warned. "Not about the snowman, but about River Sand. He likes throwing things, and he doesn't care that you're older than us. He'll throw things at you anyway. Well, mostly snowballs, but yesterday, he threw pudding at me."
Kuba's eyes grew in size.
"Well, not really. I mean, it was a paper cup. And it was funny! I threw him a spoon once," Mille scrambled to justify. "Goodbye now!"
She went back to her snowman-making. Kuba turned back around; the king had picked up Boolo and was carrying him back inside.
"EEEEEEEE!" Boolo yelled. "I'm hungry. But no."
He hid his face in the king.
"It's complicated to be hungry," he explained.
"Let's get you something to eat, then, but only a little something," the king suggested.
"But my stomach hurts," Boolo mumbled.
"I'll come with you, and we'll see what we can do for you," Kuba suggested hopefully.
The king smiled at her and nodded, and she decided that she wasn't flustered about it. It wasn't her fault he had a warm smile that was almost meant specifically to make her insides feel fuzzy and wiggly. The king also had a similar problem when they went back inside, because she removed her coat, and he was transfixed by the sight of her shoulders under the dress she was wearing. Maybe it wasn’t polite to stare, but he was still staring anyway. Before he knew it, he was standing there like a lamppost, and Boolo had noticed, and he was pulling on his sleeve.
“Eeeh!” Boolo started, because all good advice from Boolo started with a noise like that. “Neeeeee. I don’t know what to say. Neeeh. I’m going to write it instead.”
Boolo happily fetched a piece of paper from his pocket and wrote something down in it with his little tongue sticking out. He gave it to the king, and here is what was written: “dkifjhgslidufadurdn “. Boolo couldn’t write. The king repressed his laughter and kelt down until he was at eye level with the child.
“What does it mean?” he whispered.
“It means you should get married. I would like it. Then we would all throw flowers and eat them.”
He looked down at the floor sheepishly.
“Mum says I shouldn’t say things like that, but I don’t know why. I’ll go ask her, but not really. It’s because I want to leave now. But I also want to ask. And play with Peebo, because I love Peebo. She’s outside and I love her very much. She should explode into more Peebos. Like baby Peebos, but small. Like she’s a mother Peebo but she’s small. I’m going to draw it now so I never forget.”
He sat at a table and started to draw Peebo. Kuba decided to pretend that she wasn’t troubled at all. She was, actually -- a lot, even. She even felt like wiping her eyes and running off to her room. She thought about confessing everything to him, but, well, it was too soon. Everything was too soon. She had only been there for a day and a half. But the king was laughing, which was good. It even made her smile when he went to see what Boolo was drawing, but her sadness came back, and so she turned around to blink away her tears before anyone could see them.
“I’m going back to my room now. It’s quite enough excitement for one day. And about your stomach, dear one, I believe it’s all fixed now.”
“Eeh. I forgot about it,” Boolo grinned. “Bye now! Bye noooooow!”
The king made some sort of frustrated horse noise, because he had hoped to talk to her, and she was leaving, and he was annoyed now. She took the time to laugh at the stupid noise he was making, and somehow managed to lose herself to her thoughts again. She really wanted to tell him the truth, but there were two problems that made it impossible: she didn’t know the whole truth, and it was too soon. She even forgot to leave.
“Are you unwell?” the king suddenly worried, and he walked to her side with his hands on her shoulders like he was afraid she was going to faint.
She looked at him, decided not to kiss him, and nodded.
“I’m quite well, but if you’d -- well, my door is always open to people who wish to talk to me. Especially those who take such good care of little Boolo.”
“And for me! I can always say hello! But not too much. But a little hello,” Boolo rectified happily.
Kuba laughed.
“Yes, to you, too.”
She made a stupid face, too, because she was trying not to kiss the king, and it made him laugh, which someone worked.
“Well, I’ll be off now. I’ll be back for the next meal!” she clarified, then she scampered off before any new nonsense could happen.
Everything was always too soon, she wailed internally. Always too soon. She didn’t even know when the next meal was. The last one had been too long ago.
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