Wirt and Beatrice followed Endicott down the unharmed hallways of Margueritte's side of the mansion to a room where she and Fred were having a tea party. Margueritte sitting properly in her seat and Fred sitting on his bottom, awkwardly looking down at his failed attempt at human mannerisms. It was clear that this side of the manner was unaffected by the attack from the other mansion.
"Oh it's quite alright, Fred. Not many horses can master table manners." She said, sipping from her dainty cup.
"I wish I had fingers." He said, his droned accent failing to pronounce his r's.
"Oh sweet-heart! My nephew has come to visit!" Quincy said in excitement.
"Oh! How nice of him! The cute or tall one?" She asked, turning around to face them. "I don't seem to remember that one." She covered her mouth in surprise.
"Nonsense, my dear! He is the tall one of course. Can't you recognize him and his pointy gnome hat." He said defending Wirt.
"But..." She stood up. "This one has horns and is...well...dark." She said suspiciously, as she examined Wirt.
"I-" Wirt began only to be cut off by Beatrice.
"He *ahem* actually has uh...taken up a job as a lumberjack in my...town." Beatrice chuckled nervously.
"Is that so?" Quincy frowned back at them. Beatrice elbowed Wirt to continue their charade.
"Y-yes and I-I-I...am like this because...well I work with burning the wood too and soot gets on me like...tea in a cup?" He said shrugged nervously, Beatrice groaning noticeably. Quincy and Margueritte looked at each other before smiling at them both.
"My boy! I am so glad that you chose to follow the path of more humble beginnings!" Quincy said in excitement. "And you miss, you must be?" He held his hand out to Beatrice.
"I'm...um..." She coughed to clear her throat. "We are betrothed!" She exclaimed. "Yeah! He woo'ed me..." She said non-convincingly.
"I did?" Wirt asked, receiving another elbow to his gut. "I did!" He said quickly. "Yes...I had my eyes on her for a while...and um well...we're together!" He said, instinctively taking her hand in his and squeezing, she did the same in return. Both of them had their eyes wide open expectantly waiting to be rejected from their mansions.
"Well congratulations the both of you!" Margueritte said ecstatically, clasping her hands together. "You two must have traveled so far to tell us this good news!" She said happily.
"If there is anyway we can help I'll be more than happy to help" Quincy said as he shook both their hands in excitement.
"Congratulations you two, I'll pull your carriage for the honeymoon." Fred said, getting their attention with looks of judgement for his seemingly perverted comment. "What?" He asked innocently.
"Actually, we need to talk to you real quick." Beatrice said, pulling the horse and Wirt out of the room. "Thank you both so much, I just need to discuss a few things with them for a moment." She said, closing the door behind her.
"You seem surprisingly alright for meeting a talking horse." Fred pointed out.
"I already know you, dummy! It's me! The bluebird!" She said.
"What?!" He said in surprise.
"Fred look, we don't have time to explain everything, but basically, the Beast released a bunch of walking corpses into the Unknown and is the reason why I'm like this." Wirt explained.
"Oh my clop..." Fred clutched his cheeks with his hooves.
"And right now! Those things are on Endicott's side of the manner! So you need to help us in coming up with a reason why they shouldn't go in there!" Wirt continued.
"This is too scary! I'm just an honest horse! I can't lie to them!" Fred ducked in fear.
"Fred! You wouldn't be lying to them, you'd be protecting them!" Beatrice encouraged. "Look, we'll deal with the things outside and inside the manner and you'll tell them it was ruined from infestation." She planned.
"What?!" Wirt looked at her like she was crazy.
"Deal! I'll go distract those two while you two do that." Fred stood up.
"Wait a minute...I don't agree with this plan!" Wirt exclaimed as the other two opened the doors back to Margueritte's room.
"Well, it has been a long day for me and your nephew...and we require resting for a bit. If you'll excuse us, we'll find a room to spend the night if that is alright with you." Beatrice said before Wirt could say anything else.
"Oh but of course, make yourselves at home, this place is as much yours now as it is ours." Quincy smiled.
"Spend the night well, you two." Margueritte said pleasantly.
"You too." Beatrice replied as she shoved Wirt out the door.
"A bit pushy that one." Margueritte said, quickly losing her smile and finding Beatrice unfit for Wirt.
"Yes, right, his tastes never were his strong suit. That's why his brother is the one that will inherit the estate." He said and began to laugh along with his wife.
Wirt and Beatrice began to run through the long and maze-like hallways of the mansions.
"So the plan is to kill the dead?!" Wirt said as he ran.
"That's the short of it." Beatrice pulled out the Tome of the Unknown and looked through the pages, looking for a certain spell.
"Is there a spell in there that'll help us?" Wirt asked.
"Plenty." She said as she spelled out an incantation, suddenly her pupils glowing a blue flame.
"Whoa..." Wirt stopped, amazed at what she did. "What did you do?" He asked, as she then closed her eyes and focused on something, when suddenly Wirt felt something enter his mind and he could see red outlines in the distance of the manners. "What's happening?" He asked.
"The spell I cast was one that allowed me to see the undead through walls. Because the two of us are now connected, the spells benefit you too. Now none of them can sneak up on us." Beatrice explained.
"Well..." Wirt gulped. "Thats a lot of undead...I count..." He looked around him to see how many there were. "fifteen...oh geez." He clutched his axe in fear.
"Hey, Wirt." Beatrice caught his attention, she placed her hand on his shoulder. "Don't mess up." She dead-panned.
"Gee...thanks." He said as they began to navigate the hallways once more and took the ghouls from behind to get rid of them. Wirt hacked, chopped, and struck them down, each strike with all his strength. On some of them it was enough to kill them. When they got to the last ones, he was too weak to fully strike, and they in turn the struck back. He tried to escape, but only stumbled and ended up getting more hits than were necessary to kill him. Beatrice stepped in to pull him back to his aid.
"Wirt! Get up!" She yelled. "Come on!" She dragged him back, as the undead gathered over them both and raised their farming tools over him.
"Ugh..." Wirt struggled to open his eyes, but as he glimpsed at Beatrice's cowering face as the monsters towered over them both ready to strike, Wirt reacted quickly and instinctively by raising his hand in defense. And almost like a secondary function in his body, the oil that spilled out from his wounds rose solidified and morphed into spikes sticking out of every surface that impaled the corpses above him. Beatrice looked up at the sight. "Raaagh!" He yelled out in shock and just as he did, the oil liquefied once more and fell to the floor and the cadavers hit the floor.
"What the hell was that?!" Beatrice panicked.
"I don't know! I just flinched and that happened!" He yelled back.
"Calm down!" She shouted.
"You calm down!" He returned.
After a moment of recollecting themselves, she examined the oil.
"You think the Beast can do that too?" He asked.
"Nothing in the Tome says it can. Nothing about it saying it can't either." She answered. "Think you can do it again?" She asked. Wirt looked at the oil and raised his hand with force in the air. Nothing happened. He shook his head. "Figures." She sighed.
"Well, it was the last of them anyway, so we don't have to try anything else." He said, going over to pick out the axe from where he last embedded it. "I think I'm getting the hang of this though." He took a few test swings with it.
"I hope, because I literally can't afford you dying anymore than you already did now." She pointed to one wing where it appeared incomplete with missing feathers where the tip should be.
"Whoa! No way I received that many fatal hit just now." He complained, refusing to believe it. Beatrice walked up to him and opened the front of his cloak to reveal the slow healing gashes, cuts, and stabs.
"Is that so?" She sighed in frustration.
"Ok...I'm sorry, I'll try harder next time." He said defensively.
"You better." She smacked his forehead. "I don't like seeing you get killed over and over like that." She looked at his chest and he in turn at her head. She gently closed his cloak up again. Catching herself, she blushed and turned away. "Um...we should probably find a room to clean up and sleep for the night." She began to walk away.
"Wait...don't we need to get rid of the...bodies?" He asked.
"No, they'll turn to dust by morning and their souls return to where they came from...or worse, to the Beast." He nodded and went after her.
Both of them spent the night in the same room with separate beds. Cleaning their wounds before washing and drying their clothes and falling asleep, and come morning were ready to leave. All they needed to do was say goodbye to Endicott's and Fred.
"It is sad that you have to leave nephew, we were hoping to spend more time with you." Quincy sighed.
"I'm sorry, it's just...well, we still got a couple of people to tell about us." Wirt said, pointing to Beatrice.
"Yes, we have many to inform." Beatrice said cordially.
"Will you inform us when the wedding will be held and where" Margueritte asked.
"Um..." Beatrice gulped.
"Actually uncle, I was kinda hoping we could hold it here. In yours and aunt Margueritte's mansions." Wirt looked up for permission, surprising Beatrice, since she wasn't aware of this part of their charade.
"Here?" Endicott asked.
"Yeah. I don't think there's any better place in the entire Unknown for where we can get married. Plus" He paused to gesture to the tea brand logo. "You can make advertise both your tea brands for better business." Wirt said, much to all their amazement. "You know, word of mouth and all." He smiled. Quincy smiled down at him.
"Well, my boy. I pegged you all wrong for the insecure, boring one." Quincy smiled.
"Thank yo-Wait, what?" Wirt raised his eyebrow and half frowned. Quincy ignored this and pulled him closer.
"Of course we'll hold the wedding here! Just keep us informed of the guests and date and details." Quincy said jovially.
"If it's alright with you, it doesn't matter how it looks or what we eat." Wirt said. "So long as its about us." He looked a blushing Beatrice. "Also, we want to do it as soon as possible and were wondering if you could host the guests in your mansion until the date?" He asked.
"Host the guests? Well, I guess we are rich enough to keep any invited guests until the wedding. Yes! The more the merrier!" Endicott said, shaking Wirt's hand. "Just a question, how will we know you sent them?"
"The password will be." Wirt cleared his throat. "The Pilgrim's Tea." He smiled.
"We love it!" Margueritte announced.
After all was said and done, each group bidding a farewell until the next time, Wirt and Beatrice walked out through the main gate.
"Oh, wait." Beatrice said, as she looked through the Tome and cast a spell over the perimeter of the mansions.
"What was that?" Wirt asked, Beatrice putting the book away.
"That was to ward off any possessed undead from here on out, so that way we know this place is safe from them." Wirt nodded his head in understanding and acknowledging the convenience of the spell. "That was a pretty sweet lie you made up back there about inviting everyone we came across." She elbowed him.
"Oof-" He flinched. "Thanks..? I thought it was the least I could do for anyone we came across in the Unknown." He said.
"Well, I'm glad to see you're growing up Wirt." She smiled at him as they continued to walk away from the safe haven they created for those he wronged in the Unknown.