"All that morning they were busy with preparations. Soon after midday they ate with Beorn for the last time, and after the meal they mounted the steed he was lending them, and bidding him many farewells they rode off through his gate at a good pace."
- The Hobbit, chapter VII: Queer Lodgings
Harriet watched the Company leave from a perch on high. Should she continue to follow them? Or should she stay where she was, where she was clearly welcome and would be well fed? Would they lead her to more information? To a path home? Or would they lead her further into the wild as they had done the last time they had left a safe haven?
Simply put, she just didn't know.
At least now that she knew where her host, whose name she had learned was 'Bay-orn', resided, if she left, she knew that she could find it again, just like should could find the 'el-vzz' again if she chose.
But did she want to leave? Did she want to go back, where? – to the aftermath of war, to face the unmitigated loss of friends and family… Here, she had the chance to be just Harriet, to start a new life, fresh.
She changed her form and took to walking Bay-orn's gardens. Towards late afternoon, Bay-orn found her. "You are thinking hard, little birdy. Why do you wish to follow them?"
Harriet was not quick to answer. Eventually, she settle for: "I am lost."
"By following them, you shall find your way? It is not a home that you shall find at the end of their journey, for little birdies are not meant to dwell underground."
Harriet's eyes widened. 'They lived underground? But why?'
"But, the tall one, he looks like me, are there more of them? More of me?"
"Ah, little birdy. They are not like you and me. Men are strange, Wizards are stranger; they do not understand us."
"Us?"
"Us! We are the same you and I! Shifters of skin!" Beorn laughed, then sobered and placed a large hand on Harriet's head. "You are young little birdy, one day you will not be so lost."
Harriet worried her lip. Perhaps this was why she could understand him? He too was an animagus, a shape shifter? Was his language like parseltongue? Is that why she understood? "Perhaps, later, when I learn to understand them, we can find them again? The Men? I… I want to try, to see…"