Hello out there! And other pleasantries. Um, right. This idea came to me when I was on the xbox and should have been revising, so I wrote it up when I should have been revising too. It's my first try, so please don't slaughter me?

-eomerking19

The sunlight assaulted her eyes as she left the damp greyness of the cave. Archon was at her heels and still growling, his hackles raised. The volume doubled as his paw sunk into the soft mud. No, her current surroundings weren't much better, she mused as she took stock of them.

They – herself, Walter and her dog - were in the middle of some sort of forest. The ground was marshy and it made a disturbing squelching noise every time she moved her foot. And if she didn't pull it out right, it twisted her ankle – making it throb even more. Something that would thankfully leave soon, thanks to her Hero blood. But apart from her and Walter's squelches and Archon's soft pant-growls she couldn't hear anything. Nothing at all. And that worried her, she'd learnt better than to trust quiet.

Walter, however, didn't seem to mind, and was humming to himself as walked, smiling and throwing his head back to feel the sunshine and generally looking simple.

She snorted in amusement, but then looked more carefully at him, attempting to asses the damage he'd taken during their 'Hobbe-bashing'. Which was what he'd screamed whilst having so much fun!

He had a small cut on his forehead, there were tears littered about his clothes, dried blood on the flapping material, but overall he looked fine and, if she were to believe the stories he had told her throughout her childhood, he'd had a lot worse. Archon was fine too, just a few scratches under his once shiny coat. He yelped as one of his paws yet again got stolen from him by the mud. His hair was almost as disgusting as hers.

Walter turned his head and caught her staring, his eyes twinkling. Seriously, they were twinkling. He grinned as he gestured to their surroundings, taking in great, gulping breaths. She tried not to wrinkle her nose.

"Ah, you can almost smell the sunlight! Isn't it wonderful? The damp, muggy, soggy sunlight." His exuberance faltered for only a second as he took in the faults of the swamp like area they were traversing. In fact, scratch the 'like', this was a swamp, her boots could even tell you.

"It's fine, if you like breathing in… I don't even know. What is this, Walter?"

He laughed at her disgusted face and bumped her shoulder with his own playfully.

"This, Rose, is Mourningwood." He spread his arms, as if to show her what to take in.

"I just hope the people we're looking for are still alive." He said with a smile, not even blinking.

She blanched. And here she was hoping for a nice relaxing time, meeting Walter's friends and trading niceties.

"Still alive?" She replied. "Oh, joy. Let us walk on to another dark and dank place, most likely after walking over certain death, going under certain death and just skipping past – wait for it – certain death! Never mind the caverns and crevices full of hordes of vicious nasties that would like nothing more than to eat us and are waiting for us to come to them. Great. Fabulous. We should have brought some sauce so they could have enjoyed us even more. Salt even, they probably don't get much salt in remote death traps nowadays." She trailed off, muttering angrily to herself as Walter looked on in bemusement.

After a while he chuckled, and bumped into her shoulder again. "It really is scary how much like your father you are. Two of the most sarcastic sods I'll most likely ever meet." She glared down at her feet at that. "There isn't a chance they could've just died of old age, is there Walter? I mean, if they're your friends…" She grinned at him

He snorted, and swung at her, making her duck. "Cheeky bugger."

"For one, I'm not that old. And two, we could fight off anything that ever came our way, Rose. Just look, we made a good team back in that cave, didn't we?" He paused. "It's been a while since I got stuck into a real fight." She grinned happily, basking in his praise, even Archon seemed to cheer up. That dog was almost too human. But Walter was off thinking.

"It was just like fighting by your father's side." He added, "I'd forgotten what it feels like, to fight next to a hero."

She blushed horrifically. She tried to speak, to get the attention away from herself.

"It's not like I was that good at it, though it was fun… It could be classed as stress relief; beating the living daylights out of Hobbes. Just smacking them and watching them fly. Especially the magic ones, those things just need to stop." Her tone grew rather hard as she spoke, and Walter stroked his beard thoughtfully. It had grown a lot longer, she noted, in the months they'd been away from the castle. Her blush lessened as the attention drew from her.

"You almost sound like you hate the creatures." He laughed. "Not that I blame you, of course, but still…" He carried on pondering for a few moments before holding his hand up in realisation.

"…You're just annoyed because you got bitten in that cave. Aren't you?"

She huffed and kicked a rock that stupidly placed itself in her path, wincing at the twinge in her ankle – which just infuriated her further.

"Maybe I am, or it could just be the fact that they are viscous creatures that steal children and lurk in caves we need to pass through."

Walter quirked an eyebrow, clearly disbelieving.

"Fine, so I am, but the bloody thing wouldn't let go! I smacked it 'round the head about twenty times and the little sod still held on! It was worse than bloody Saker! Not even the blunt end of a rifle threw the bugger off, it took it's head being ripped off by Archon!"

She flung her arms up, exasperated, and carried on ranting for a few moments – each sentence more vicious and cuss filled - until she heard a series of odd noises behind her. Rose turned to look at Walter to see him bent double, his body shaking as he didn't even try to stifle his laughter, Archon by his side looking worriedly at him. She crossed her arms and waited for him to finish.

Finally he straightened, took a few deep breaths and then jogged towards her, a grin twitching his lips as she crossed her arms and looked pointedly away.

"I didn't know you knew words like that, Rose. I should be disappointed." Said Walter, not serious at all, "And I should probably find out just who taught you them." He added as an afterthought.

She sniffed and looked away. His roaring laugh filled the air again and she laughed along with him – it was infectious.

After their bout of hysteria they walked in silence for a bit, her trying to absorb as much of their surroundings as she possibly could.

"Who are we looking for, Walter? And why is this place so dangerous? Because it really doesn't look it." She asked after a while, rubbing her collie's ears, pulling a face at the clump of mud that attached itself to her hand.

"Some old friends," He shrugged, "They should be willing to help you, and their aid will be very much welcome."

"Why, are they soldiers?" She raised an eyebrow as he nodded. "I thought soldiers were the enemy at the moment."

"They're loyal to the crown alright, as long as the one sitting in it isn't a complete and utter-" Both of her eyebrows shot up as she heard Walter's choice words for her brother. She feigned shock.

"Walter! To say such things in front of a lady."

The corners of his mouth twitched up as Walter turned to look at her, his face imperceptibly blank, brushing off her last words.

"Shut up, you just proved that you know words far worse." She shrugged. "And to answer your previous question – I don't know about dangerous, but I'm getting a rash. Bloody swamp."

She looked at him as if he'd gone mad as he shoved his hands in his pockets and carried on whistling a jaunty little tune to himself.

"Walter?"

"Yes, Princess?"

"Too much. Just, too much."

He just laughed.