[Ah! I forgot to repost this special extra chapter! What was I thinking?]

-------

Showers of Cows:
Three years after the wedding of Harriet and Leopold

"Garreth, GARRETH! Captain Barbecue!" The telepathic shouts were met by the sound of the clattering of booted feet scrambling along the long third floor hallway of the castle of Marenta.

The door to the dusty library burst open, smacking the massive, jade green dragon just inside of it in the hindquarters.

"Hey! I'm sitting here! No need to hit me!" Xenon cried, causing the frazzled man to grimace and then glare at the dragon.

"Stop shouting in my head!"

"Is that what you say to all of the voices up there?" Xenon quipped and Garreth bristled.

"Shut up!"

"Shh! Any louder and you'll wake the cow!" That caused Garreth to pause. The cow? Garreth peered to the left of the over-sized lizard to see a body and a mass of red curls strewn over one of the wooden tables in the back corner.

"I'm going to tell Harriet you called her a cow." The dragon let out an annoyed huff while Garreth smirked. The lizard was going to be mincemeat. Well, once the, as of late fiery-tempered, queen woke up, anyway.

"I didn't mean Harriet, you idiot! I meant the actual cow!" The dragon seethed, his voice echoing in Garreth's mind. Garreth scrunched his hawkish nose, peering to the right side of Xenon, the sight before him causing him to widen his eyes.

There, sleeping next to librarian's desk, was a cow, complete with fuzzy black spots and a brass bell around its neck.

"Why did you bring a cow in the library? Actually, better yet, how did you get it up the steps?" Xenon just stared at him, luminous eyes wide and pleading, no doubt trying to look innocent. Garreth shook his head. As if that would work. He wasn't stupid.

However, that didn't matter. What mattered was that the queen of Marenta was finally sleeping and a dozing, bell-wearing, cow was putting that sleep at risk.

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that you need to get it out of here before it wakes up!"

"Right, okay. Wait, what? Me? Why do I need to? You're the stupid snake that brought it in here!" Garreth stopped, looking back at the cow and then at Harriet. "Though really, why did you bring it up here?"

"Why do you think?" Xenon glared down at Garreth, his dragon breath washing over him like an unwelcome gust of hot air.

"You were hungry?" Garreth guessed, keeping his voice low so as not to wake the queen or the cow. Xenon scowled, his scales glittering in the sunlight coming from the tall library windows.

"No! It's for Harriet's bath!" Garreth balked, his jaw dropping.

"Her bath! That's disgusting! Why would she want to bathe with a cow?" Garreth whispered, his arms crossed over his chest, his own glaring eyes meeting the daft dragon's.

To his credit, Xenon looked confused, his scaly eyebrows raising and his mouth opening and closing to show off rows of razor sharp teeth. The dragon shook his head, all while Garreth looked on in mild bemusement.

"No, no, not her bath! Her shower!" Garreth stared at Xenon, utterly confused. What the heck was a shower? What did a cow have to do with a shower, whatever that was?

The door of the library creaked open behind Garreth, making him turn to look and let out a sigh of relief. Oh thank goodness. The king was here.

"Leopold, the dragon has finally fried his brain. He wants your wife to take a bath with a cow," Garreth explained to the incredulous King. However, the king's confusion seemed to last for a much shorter amount of time than Garreth's.

"Oh! Yes, I understand completely. But why did you bring it all the way here?" Leopold directed his question to Xenon.The overgrown lizard looked away from them, his large jaw flexing.

"It followed me here. I did leave it in the dining room with Clara, but somehow it wandered away and found me."

"Oh well that's great. A dragon has a cow for a pet. Now will someone please explain to me what a shower is-"

"Shh!" In unison, Leopold and Xenon hushed him. Garreth stopped talking. Was he not supposed to be talking about the shower thing?

"Garreth, Xenon, I need you to get the cow back to the dining room. Leave my wife to me," Leopold commanded, on instinct, Garreth moved to obey, but the sound of Xenon's whining entering his head brought him up short.

"But I wanted to escort her down! I'm her dragon!" Garreth let out a snort, quickly covering it when both king and dragon turned glares his way.

"And I'm her husband. Husband wins over dragon any day," Leopold replied smoothly, not at all daunted by the hard gaze of the dragon in front of him.

"Why don't we wake Harriet up and ask her?" Xenon demanded, but Leopold shook his head, his golden crown reflecting the candlelight from the ancient chandeliers.

"And let her see your pet cow? I think not. Now, go on. We need to get the cow down there before it starts."

Garreth ignored Xenon's grumbling as he moved towards the dozing animal. How does one wake up a cow? Garreth shrugged before nudging it awake, however, a sudden thought came to him.

"Wait, hold on. We're not eating it are we?" He whisper-shouted at Leopold, who shook his head. Garreth raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. They might be his friends but Leopold and Harriet could be pretty weird people.

Garreth grabbed a hold of the rope collar around the cow's neck, putting a hand on the bell so it wouldn't sound so loud if it rang. The cow itself stumbled to its feet, brown eyes blinking sleepily. Peering behind him, Garreth glimpsed Xenon leaving the dragon sized library door that Harriet had insisted on installing the first week she had moved in.

That stupid lizard. He wasn't even helping!

Tugging the cow along behind him, Garreth headed for the library door, leaving Leopold in the empty library with his still sleeping wife.

Getting the cow through the door was more than a little tough, but eventually, they were both through and the animal was loping along slowly beside him. Garreth let out a sigh.

"Join the army, they said. You'll be a captain, they said," he muttered. Captain he may be, but at the moment, he was a captain of a cow.

"Are you talking to yourself again?" Xenon asked, the dragon's voice interrupting Garreth's thoughts.

"No."

"Rightttt." Garreth ignored the dragon, scooting the cow around the corner and towards the dining room hallway where Xenon was standing outside the large double doors.

As soon as the cow saw Xenon further down the hallway, it began to move a little faster, and Garreth let out a quiet sigh of relief. If he had pulled any harder, his hands would've been raw from rope burn.

Once the cow was closer to the door, Garreth shot Xenon a smirk.

"So hey, Xenon?"

"Yes, Captain Barbecue?" The dragon drawled, turning his head to look at Garreth.

"Since when have you been anybody's dragon?" Xenon harrumphed and walked through the dining room doors and into the loud room. Garreth let out a laugh. That dragon didn't know it, but he'd always been Harriet's dragon, whether he liked it or not.

Leading the cow into dining room, Garreth found himself accosted by a burst of noise and activity. Colorful flowers lined the walls, presents sat wrapped on tables, and pastel decorations seemed to be everywhere. Even the plates seemed to match the decor, their white and pink china sitting proudly on the table.

People were everywhere. From the Ecrivenian Royal Family to a host of all of the other friends and family that Harriet and Leopold had amassed, everyone Garreth knew Harriet loved was in the room, each of them wearing cloth party hats.

"Oh there she is!" Queen Clara came up to Garreth, taking the cow's rope from Garreth's slackened hands. "We were worried she'd gotten lost. Isn't that right, Miss Bella?" Here the blonde-haired Queen cooed at the cow, petting it gently with delicate fingers.

"Um, your majesty-"

"Clara, Garreth," Clara chided, giving a fond smile at the cow in front of her.

"Clara, what is all of this?" The Queen of Ecrivenia looked at Garreth incredulously.

"Harriet's baby shower, of course!" She replied before walking away with the cow in tow.

"Ohhh." That made a lot more sense. However, Garreth didn't have time to think too much about it, because the next moment, Harriet came waddling in on Leopold's arm and the surrounding party guests all cheered.

"Surprise!" For a moment, Garreth was deafened, but meeting Harriet's eyes, he knew she was just as shocked as he was. Every person in the room beamed brightly at the Marentan Monarchs, and Leopold pressed a kiss to Harriet's hairline as her grey eyes scanned the gathered crowd.

"Wow! Ah, what is all of this?" Harriet asked once the noise had died down, giving her older sister an awkward hug, her round stomach making it difficult to do much of anything.

"It was Gardenia's idea!" Garreth glanced to the palm-frond wearing fairy godmother, looking back to Harriet when he saw the woman making bright pink bubbles out of thin air. "Apparently, Baby Showers are very popular in the future."

Harriet raised her eyebrows, clearly taking in the somewhat organized chaos of the dining room, however, her gaze landed on something in particular. She squinted at it, then looked back at Clara.

"That's great, Clara. But I do have one question."

"Yes?"

"Why is there a cow in the corner?" Garreth silently thanked whatever deity was watching. Finally. Things would make sense!

"To play put the snail on the cow, of course!" Gardenia interrupted before Clara could answer.

Okay, things still weren't making sense. Garreth and Harriet exchanged confused looks, before glancing at the fairy godmother. A moment later, the woman opened her mouth, a finger flying up into the air. "Wait. No. That's not it. It's actually put the tail on the donkey."

The room was dead silent, if it was any quieter, Garreth would be able to hear the cow in the corner breathing. Gardenia turned her head to the array of living snails in the wooden buckets by the massive white and pink cake and then turned her head to look at the cow, who was now wearing a pink bow.

"Oh, well. I suppose snails and a cow will have to do."

----

Harriet held back a smile, looking at her defeated older sister and the way her shoulders slumped under her blonde locks. Letting a smile show, she linked arms with her sister and rested her other hand over her own pregnant belly. Well, one thing never changed. Nothing ever went according to plan.

"Alright, well, who wants to put a snail on the cow first?"

-----
Wow. I can't even say how much I've missed writing Harriet and the cast of characters from her story. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it and thanks to everyone for giving me a fantastic three years on Wattpad!