ICE WON'T BREAK YOUR FALL, BUT IT WILL BREAK OTHER STUFF.

Mibbet felt her heart sink to her feet as she checked out the listings and saw Harmsworth and Harmsworth was the next match. Maybe if she started running now, she could make it across the border, board a ship, and make good her es..... No, that would never work, not against Gidea; that woman was a force of nature; she would track her down if she hid in the blackest pits of hell.

But there was no way to win here. She mumbled and moaned to herself as she paced restlessly; well, she would have to just take this. and do her best against Gidea. In the meantime, she could take some time to relax herself a little, as matches would resume in the morning. So, for now, she and the others could at least slip out and have fun.

The sudden snowfall had bought her some time at least before what was bound to be the shortest battle in the history of the arena, but it seemed outside the arena, life went on. People were going about their business as if nothing had happened. The streets were lit by lanterns on long strings. Apart from the occasional scream when somebody realised their favourite shortcut was now iced over (it was weird watching people land, the ice cobweb, then the person slip onto their arse before falling into the muddy slush as the ice finally gave.)

Mibbet was feeling like she wanted to drag everybody out shopping rather than think of her impending doom. One does not simply fight Gidea; usually, one goes out to the arena to fight Gidea, then comes back out on a stretcher if the posters were to be believed, and there were many many posters, some decorated with rather detailed images from the match. Usually covered by a foldup of paper so as not to upset the children (who, of course, took turns to lift the flap and gawk at the cool violence beneath.)

Errol was the easiest, as she dragged him out to a weaponsmith and carefully had Donk weighted and bronzed. After all, bones were limited in their use as a club before they gave out and being a royal guard, there was a certain expectation of presentability (which technically Errol did fit, by accident mostly. He was in Royal guard armour, true the armour in question spanned three monarchs and fit like a glove, on a cloven hoof, but technically it still counted. His boots were polished and well maintained, albeit they had clearly been through at least three siblings before him, and when he needed to replace them, would go to a little sister, but they were polished, and his clothes were always clean and well maintained. With Errol’s obsession with knitting, there was no way his clothes would ever fit poorly; if they ever tore, he even colour matched and artificially wore in the patch until it was a perfect match for the original item. Really to everybody's amazement, Errol, despite his unique look, hand me down gear and boots so old they practically walked under their own power was somehow a shining example of the uniform code.)

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Sir Leeroy, on the other hand? Now he presented a challenge. What did you buy for him? He definitely didn’t need armour, the gear he had was practically thicker than a wall, and he liked it that way. When he charged things, he liked them to either get out of the way or get out of the way in pain; as for clothing, well... in the entire history of the castle, legend had it that nobody had ever seen him out of uniform. Hell, some legends even said he didn’t take it off because he was really a living armour; of course, having spent time with him hearing him grumble about his bunions under his breath whenever they sat down somewhat discredited that particular myth. Eventually, they settled on an enchanted footbath; it seemed the most sensible option; of course, nobody would ever see him using it, an unarmoured Sir Leeroy was unseeable, like a camera-shy Higgs bosun, that was a national hide and seeks champion. But they knew somewhere down the line, their gift would be used and appreciated.

Rascal? Now there was a challenge, what do you get the cat who both has everything and thinks they own everything at the same time? It had to be something fireproof but good enough to entertain a creature with the attention span of a chipmunk in a box factory, into which a huge package of tin foil balls had been dropped, alongside a few thousand little bells. Mibbet found after much searching a phoenix feather, an enchanted heatproof rod for fire mages. (Everybody thinks it’s cool when a mage conjures fire, they don’t seem to realise most rods are bits of wood, many a promising mages career literally went up in smoke as their fireball got too close to the rod, and whoomph, which by all accounts is a bad outcome.) And some steel spider thread. They then paid a weaponsmith to put these components together into a cat teaser, that no matter how much it got burned, just returned to normal after ashification.

Alba was, of course, easy peasy; they would be delighted by a deluxe selection of finest cuts of monster meat; albeit slightly disappointed by the lack of giant spider in the pack, they had developed quite a taste for it.

The horses were given a big bag of oats each, dipped in molasses; they ate it with their usual indifference, pondering what the hell was going to happen tomorrow that they got such a luxurious meal today, but for now, at least, they were happy.

Elvira squealed in delight when they were given a pack of Boffo’s finest googly eyes in a huge array of styles. A pair were of course, instantly added to Donk; it had been left out of the club quite long enough. Plus, select statues that had been weird enough staring in the normal way became less judgemental with the addition of googly eyes. This would, of course, not be undone for a very long time; as a kid, the first spell Elvira had learned was a mega stick spell (much to the regret of the rest of the world.) So by now, she had that spell to the point where it would last decades.

Addy had accidentally given a clue during their travels. They had started off as a mining construct, and given their obsession with shiny rocks on their journey that minerals from around the world box set had been a no brainer. At last, after all that shopping, Mibbet was too knackered to think anymore and finally settled down to rest.