It was approaching midday. Christoph perched on a scraggly branch hanging low over a large rock upon which Bill was seated, cross-legged. From his perch, he could peer over Bill's shoulder as he flipped back and forth between two sections of the tome. The few sounds to reach them from the distance were muffled, as though they were sitting in the middle of a dense forest instead of on the side of a fairly empty hill. All was still and, though some of the leaves on the tree and the corners of pages would lift occasionally, there was no wind. Such had been the way of things since they had begun their journey. Christoph was surprised at how Bill took it all in stride.

According to his father, Mortals finding their way into the Kingdom found the atmosphere just outside the Labyrinth disturbing and maddening. His mother had commented on the strangeness of it, though she said it was not maddening, simply strange. Jareth responded that this was because she began with the purpose of getting within the Labyrinth walls. Therefore, there was no need to apply excessive pressure. This particular 'spell' was aimed toward Mortals entering the Kingdom without a reason to journey to the castle, whether coming by accident or design. Such defensive measures would drive them to find a way within the Labyrinth as soon as possible. Once inside, he had continued with a rather disturbing smile, they would find enough to keep them occupied until he would decide to deal with them. Should they attempt to stay outside, they would feel the effect of Fae compulsion grow ever greater. The only prevention would be an encounter with the Goblin King himself during which he could weave the protective counter spell.

Such a spell had not been granted to Bill. Additionally, within the first ten minutes of their journey he had managed to establish that his intention was not to enter the actual Labyrinth at all. Instead, the path Bill seemed to be following would likely circumvent it entirely. He had begun approaching the walls at an angle, but abruptly changed direction to travel relatively parallel to the walls. By all accounts, he should have shown some reaction. Though the magic did not affect Christoph, he could feel it around him. Yet Bill continued without blinking an eye.

"It's strange," Bill commented, breaking the silence. "I know there is something, or perhaps are some things, around here watching us. But apart from you, I haven't seen another living creature." He sighed and looked around. "It's a pity they won't come out, really. I am terribly curious to see some of the inhabitants of this place."

You wouldn't think that if you knew what it was that was watching you, thought Christoph as he shook his head in disbelief. The sound of feathers rustling drew Bill's attention and he looked up.

"I don't mean this as an insult, but I have never met an owl that was as non-communicative as yourself. Surely you must have some opinion?" Bill stared at the blinking owl. "No?"

Blink, blink.

Bill sighed again. "Ok. Maybe you're just the silent type. No pressure." He turned back toward the expanse of walls in the distance and looked around, shutting the tome and slipping it back in his bag. "Right then. Let's get going." Springing off the rock, he started off down the hill.

Christoph watched Bill's slowly retreating figure in disbelief. Non-communicative? He actually expects a response. And why? Because he usually gets one. Thought it before, and I'll think it again: bit odd, this one.

Bill stopped abruptly and called over his shoulder. "Are you coming?" he asked with a wry grin. His grin widened at the owl's reaction. If it had eyebrows, he thought, they would have shot up about a mile. Best case of owl indignation I've ever seen. Almost as though he isn't used to his actions being questioned or something. Chuckling to himself, Bill continued walking.

Am I coming. What does he think I am, some common barn owl kept as a pet or something? Christoph suddenly realised three things. First, even though he firmly believed that Bill's talking to owls trait was abnormal, he was starting to get used to it. Disconcerting, that. Second, he was behaving like the spoiled royal Katrin often teased him of being. And third, his charge was getting away. Damn. Give me a simple task... Vowing not to let anyone know of this minor event, he flew off to his normal following distance.

The early evening sun hung low in the sky, waiting to set. As every other day in the Labyrinth, everything was calm and quiet. There was a scattering of trees and shrubs, as well as a clump of large boulders, squaring off a small grassy area. Strutting about in the middle was a speckled chicken. It had gotten bored of life within the Labyrinth walls and decided to go on an adventure, ending up here. It pecked on the ground, without a care in the world.

Abruptly, it jerked its head up and, with a squawk, fluttered off to the edge of the trees as two figures came careening around the boulders. The human scrambled to the centre of the boulders and pressed himself flat against them, listening intently. The owl somehow managed to wedge itself into a cranny then poked its head out, listening as well.

After a good five minutes of nothing, the sound of something large moving behind the boulders came and went. Another fifteen passed before the human and the owl visibly relaxed, human slumping to the ground, owl exiting the cranny for a more comfortable perch.

"Bloody hell. How many teeth did that... that thing have?" A movement caught his eye, immediately causing him to leap to his feet in a crouch and point his wand at the trees. Suddenly realising what was there, he blinked. "A chicken?" Eyes narrowing suspiciously, he regarded the small bird that was, once again, pecking the ground. He threw a glance at Christoph who, surprisingly, screeched in response. "All right, ye of little words," he commented, relaxing once more. "If you think it's worth the bother of vocalising the lack of danger, I'll agree without argument."

Christoph watched as Bill leaned back and closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths. He thought about what had just happened, and how Bill had reacted to it. The muncher had come out of nowhere. Even he had not seen it coming, which was slightly worrying, truth be told. More so was that it was attempting to attack both of them. Christoph had his wings full trying to prevent being bitten or clawed, torn between getting away to transform and get rid of it and remaining a distraction long enough that Bill could get away.

Suddenly, he heard Bill shout, "Oh for crying out loud, Christoph! Get out of the way!!!" Without thinking about it, he did so, flying up and back. He looked down to see Bill facing the muncher in a fighting position, pointing a stick at it. The creature roared, baring its teeth and drooling horrendously, then advanced slowly. Bill held his ground. Knowing a little stick would do nothing against the creature, Christoph turned to dive in again. Before he could, however, Bill shouted something that sounded like Latin. The creature tried to keep walking, but its legs were suddenly extremely wobbly and it could not move properly.

Not wasting a moment, Bill turned and started to run. "Let's get out of here!" he shouted over his shoulder. In full agreement, Christoph led the way, using his position in the air to search out an appropriate hiding place.

"Well," Bill said, bringing Christoph back to the present, "I guess this is as good a place as any to take a breather and figure out where to go next, eh?" He looked around then sat up abruptly. "Hang on! I think I have an idea of where we are! Come here, look at this." Bill pulled out the tome, searched for a specific page, and then laid it open on the ground in front of him. Christoph hopped down to Bill's shoulder and peered at the page.

Pointing to a bit of text and a diagram, Bill looked at the owl on his shoulder. "See? This bit here is all about the first major point of reference to get to in order to ensure the follower of this map is on the right track. 'Stone times one and leaf times three together become grass squared.' Excessively simplistic as far as clues go, really. I would have expected a better rhyme at least or something. In any case, here we are. This little picture was added by another hand, possibly Quirrell or, through him, You-Know-Who."

I do? thought Christoph. Hm. Who do I know that would give away Labyrinth secrets?

Unaware of Christoph's rambling thoughts, Bill went on. "Though, according to this reckoning, we are severely behind schedule. At this point we should be closer to here." He turned a clump of pages and gestured at the writing and pictures. "Although, considering that I am not attempting to re-enact Quirrell's journey precisely, what with the difficulties of duplicating exact moments in time and the addition of the analytical nature of this quest, when I get to places is not as important as getting to them in the appropriate order. Right?"

Christoph fluttered off Bill's shoulder to get closer to the book. He looked from the page to Bill and back again.

Bill laughed and closed the tome. "Right. Ok, here's the plan. We'll camp here for the night. I'm going to make a fire and cook dinner while there is still enough light to do so without attracting too much unwanted attention from things like our toothy friend from earlier. You can go off and hunt for your own dinner, or go back to whomever and make your nightly report." At Christoph's startled movement, Bill grinned. "What, you think I don't know that part of the reason I get a 'guide' is to keep an eye on me? You're not exactly the best 'guide' I've ever had, not to mention the fact that I haven't been given a guide since my early days in this business. But not to worry, I don't mind. In any case, you can use this time to go off and do whatever you need to do; I promise I won't go anywhere. Though I suppose you could wait until I'm sleeping. In any case, I'll set off again shortly after sunrise so make sure you're back by then."

Christoph watched as Bill muttered more Latin based words and lit a green fire, pulling out a small cooking pot and a stack of paper packets. Mildly disconcerted about discovering he had foolishly underestimated this Wizard, and perhaps the abilities of those in the Magical Realm in general, he wondered what to do next.

"You are, of course," Bill continued, "more than welcome to share my dinner. But I warn you, quest rations are nothing to get excited about."

That decided it for Christoph. Knowing he might never get a second chance to try these 'quest rations', he opted for staying around until Bill was surely asleep. He could weave a mild monitoring spell on the area to make sure he stayed put after, but something told him that this Wizard was to be trusted. At least with keeping his promises and in regards to his job. Christoph still was not quite sure about his sister.

Once Bill had his dinner cooking, he started making camp for the night. He pulled a sleeping mat, thin blanket, and huge pillow out of his bag. Unable to contain his curiosity, Christoph hobbled over and peered inside the bag. He expected it to appear empty, but it was actually partitioned off into various sized sections, each containing an assortment of miniature things that could prove to be useful on any sort of excursion.

"Wizarding travelling spell," Bill mentioned, noting Christoph's perusal. "Some prefer the bottomless bag, but I find that you end up losing items that way. Besides, in my line of work, I usually need equipment in a hurry and cannot waste time half falling in my bag looking for things. So I opt to reduce their size and weight when on a quest for organizational purposes."

They settled into silence as Bill finished making himself comfortable. After a while, dinner was steaming and bubbling and the fire was crackling. Christoph seconded Bill's assertion regarding the lack of excitement within his rations, thinking such a comment was quite the overstatement.

After dinner, Bill pulled out a number of scrolls, a quill, and an inkpot. Opening the tome and flipping through the pages, he began making notes. After watching him for a few minutes, Christoph gave a mental shrug. Oh, what the hell. It isn't as though he'd be difficult to find again. And worse comes to worst, Dad can always do his looking back in time thing. With that, he hopped to the top of a boulder and launched himself into the air, flying swiftly toward the castle.

Bill caught Christoph's actions out of the corner of his eye and refrained from chuckling until he was gone. Staring off into the trees momentarily, he thought about the character of this owl. Seemingly reserved, he appeared to be attempting to behave as close to the Muggle idea of an owl as possible. Blatantly more intelligent and with more personality, he was not doing so great of a job. But there was something different about this owl compared to those he was used to. Definitely more to him than meets the eye, Bill thought. Much like this whole place, I suppose. Knowing dwelling on the issue would get him nowhere, he turned back to his notes.

The chicken, seriously disturbed by all these movements, conversations, and general interruptions of his adventure, decided it was not worth it and ventured off back into the Labyrinth walls.