Prin's POV
"You'd think he'd make it easier for us," I complained as I stood in waist-high grass. I supposed that there was some kind of magic on the place, so the cows and other animals had an infinite amount of food, but it was really beginning to irritate my legs. "What are we going to do about the game?" We'd begun to refer to the cake as the game, whispering to Ka that we didn't want anyone to know about the cake since it would expose us.

"We can continue the game once we find Onyx," Ka said knowingly. "Onyx might've found the cake too, and eaten it, then we need to talk to old Vic." I assumed that she was talking about Victor, who appeared to have some sort of interest in animals. I had the strange realisation that he was probably the one to provide the farmer's wife with all the strange animals she had inside. I decided not to tell Ka that.

"He won't eat the cake," Sarphi said for about the tenth time in the past ten minutes. "If he's smart enough to hide from us, he's smart enough not to eat the cake."

Ka made a noise of understanding before she turned around and walked back to me. "Can we go please?" she asked with a little hopeful whine, taking my hand in both of hers. "I wanna go and find the game."

"Me too," Sarphi agreed, quickly moving through the tall grass. "Really, e too, please can we go?" She was acting more childish than Ka was. It was somewhat endearing, but I felt like I was the one in charge, which I certainly hated.

"Okay, fine, we can go back to the house and make sure that Onyx still moves." I let out a small sigh once more, knowing that my word choices would make Ka move quickly.

Ka squeaked and then began to run towards the house, moving quickly through the high grass. In hindsight it was a bad idea, given the fact that it was so high she could easily injure herself. I didn't realise the issue until she had stumbled and got her dress muddy.

"We'll have to sort that out," Sarphi muttered as the two of us rushed after her, dusting her dress off with nervous expressions. "Let's be a bit more careful, yeah? I don't think that dirt tastes nice on cake."

"It doesn't taste bad," Ka commented casually, as though it was a simple difference in opinions. "You just have to make sure the soil doesn't have anything icky in it."

I nodded slowly. "Right." I cleared my throat. "Well, I personally don't like the taste of dirt. And if you're dirty when you blow out your candles then everyone will be eating dirt."

By now, we had made it back to the house, and I tried to keep my voice down so that we didn't alert the farmer's wife. I wasn't sure if she was still with the chickens, wondering what we were doing there, or going back to tell Queenie where we were, so I wasn't going to take any chances.

We rounded the corner of the house, and I stopped in my tracks, quickly backing away and making the others walk back with me. "Your father's here," I told Ka quietly, knowing that Sarphi would be able to hear and understand.

"He is?" Both of them asked in unison. I didn't know who seemed sadder, which was a little concerning.

Then a loud bark reached our ears, causing me to relax. "Onyx!" I called. I knew that this was part of the plan, but we hadn't really talked about specifics. We were just making all this up as we went along and hoped that it worked. I don't even know if this would be considered a plan, it was quite the opposite of a plan.

I shook my head trying to get rid of my jumbled thoughts as I ran in the direction of the bark, kneeling down in front of him. I didn't care much for the state of my own dress, given it could easily be washed. I hugged his neck and gave a happy laugh, looking up at Sarphi and mentally hoping she'd join in to make it believable.

"I'm so glad we found you," Sarphi said lovingly as she patted his head. Ka looked very confused for a few moments before joining in my hug.

"Yeah, we're glad that you're not still and are able to move," Ka added.

By now, we'd made enough noise to alert the others, who approached slowly. It felt like each step was another breath being taken from me as I pretended not to notice them.

"There you are," the farmer said with a sigh as he looked down at Ka. "I told you not to run off this year." His words filled me with some kind of reassurance, we probably wouldn't get the whole of his anger. I didn't know that this was a common thing for Ka to do.

Ka pouted. "But it's my birthday," she argued. "We were playing and looking for Onyx." I was so grateful that she didn't say what we were playing. "Besides, I don't like what's in the hall, it's boring."

The gardener bit his cheek and bent down. "It's not boring sweetheart, everyone's there for you."

I glanced over at Sarphi, wondering if I should speak my mind. I figured it wouldn't be the best thing to do at the moment. I thought that it was rather strange to celebrate someone's birthday in a way they didn't want, but I wanted to stay on the gardener's good side.

"It was just a bit of fun," Sarphi said lightly. "We had to look for Onyx, so we decided to go on an adventure to find him. We thought it would be a small change for her." She gave a sweet smile.

"I suppose." The gardener looked down at Ka and clicked his tongue. "But you've gotten all dirty, I'm sure that the hall wouldn't appreciate you going in there with your muddy footprints."

"I'm sure the hall wouldn't mind," Ka replied. "I've never heard a building complain before."

Sarphi had to rest her head on my shoulder to muffle her laugh.

"I don't mind dirt," the farmer's wife said with a bright smile. "Actually, you'll see that quite often here."

Her voice reminded me of what was actually going on. I had almost forgotten about the cake, being too wrapped up in trying to make sure we didn't get into trouble with the gardener because of his daughter and finding Onyx. I'd forgotten about the fact our cake was missing whilst the cake at the hall was probably completely inedible. I glanced around the crowd, looking for Queenie, but I couldn't see her. That was suspicious, since I assumed she was the kind to watch her plans fall into action.

"That's fine, thank you." I noted how the gardener was far too quick to answer. Maybe he also had some kind of issue with her interior design skills. "I've never heard the hall complain before."

Ka laughed and hugged her father's leg, appearing very happy that her father had copied her words. "We'd need to see a doctor if you had. I was worried for a moment."

I couldn't help but laugh at that one. "We could help clean her up, if you'd like?" I offered politely with a smile. "We live pretty close to the hall after all." That was obvious. "And we don't mind doing some cleaning."

"Prin doesn't mind doing some cleaning," Sarphi retorted, causing more laughs.

I shrugged and nodded, gesturing towards her.

The gardener looked hesitant. "But we are on a tight schedule." He seemed to ponder as he looked down at Ka, examining her body from the knees down. "But we can't have her going and blowing out her candles like this, it's bad luck."

I didn't quite know where he got that from, but I stepped forward and put a hand on Ka's shoulder. "We'll be as quick as we possibly can," I continued to try and persuade. "It's the least we could do for her getting muddy whilst we played."

The gardener was clearly convinced now. "Very well," he said before pointing a finger at Ka. "You best behave and get cleaned up well. We do not want a repeat of previous birthday celebrations."

"Yes father," Ka said with a nod, grabbing my hand and beginning to drag me away. "Come on Sarphi and Onyx!" She called behind her.

"Children," I muttered to myself, causing the gardener to laugh as I followed them.

I caught the faint sound of the farmer's wife talking to the gardener, but I was too far away to hear the words which were being spoken. I looked behind me to see that Sarphi had begun to follow, but she looked back at the farmer's wife and the gardener as well. When she turned back around, her expression caused me to relax, since she looked somewhat happy.

"What is it?" I asked quietly once she and Onyx caught up to Ka and I. Ka was immediately distracted by Onyx, so she let go of my hand.

Sarphi just shook her head, small smile playing on her lips. "I don't think we have much more to worry about."