Stupid kicked a rock as she wandered down the street. It clambered away, briefly lighting each rune-glass cobblestone it skipped across.

  She giggled happily, then remembered she was supposed to be sad. She missed Beeg. She thought they were becoming friends — she had even given him two whole potatoes for friend fries.

  But she hadn’t seen him much lately. Sure she saw him a lot, he worked with her all the time. But it wasn’t like when they went on her first delivery together and got to talk and run and have fun!

  Instead, it was like his mind wasn’t there. At first Stupid thought something had happened to him, like what had happened to her mind — which made it hard to think and hard to remember. But when she asked It, he explained he just had a lot on his mind and was thinking.

  Which sounded really cool! But she also kind of wished he would talk to her about it. Maybe she could help? She was his friend after all.

  Either way, he was still super nice to her. He would pat her on the head, and never ignored her when he saw her. And if she asked him a question, he would always answer. It just felt like something was different, and she couldn’t figure out what. If he was sad, she wanted to help.

  The next thing that hurt her head was her day off. She had a tough time remembering things, but she was pretty sure she had never been given a day off before. Which was why she was so confused when Boss sent Ugly — who looked even messier than usual — to tell her she had today off.

  “Like, FIRED?!” She had screeched at him. It was the second scariest moment of her life. Right after the night with all the teeth and fire.

  But Ugly had promised her she wasn’t in trouble. That she just needed to take the day off. That Boss had thought she was doing a good job and deserved a break.

  Which didn’t make any sense. If she was doing a good job, shouldn’t she work harder?

  “Lemons,” she said to herself. That would help. If she needed a serious thinking face, lemons were always the answer. But she needed to get one, because she had given her last one to Beeg!

  She looked up, intent on finding a store that sold Lemons, and froze.

  “Beeg?” She whispered. She would know him anywhere — even after his haircut that took away all the hair she loved so much. And he was walking down the street in front of her! She couldn’t see his face, but from the way he was walking she could tell he was thinking about things again.

  She happily followed him. Today just got so much better! Also, she wouldn’t tell aaaanyone, but she thought the new clothes Boss had gotten him made him look really, really nice. The loose white shirt, black pants and deep brown boots looked so sharp!

  She looked down at her own dress — burlap Boss had called it when he gave it to her. She loved it, but maybe she could look like Beeg, too? The idea made her giggle. She hadn’t paid taxes yet, so she had extra money to spend! Maybe she could ask It for help? He always had sharp looking clothes on, too.

  Beeg stopped and got some food, so Stupid stopped and watched. She remembered her — Beeg had gotten her a treat from her too! It was absolutely horrible, but she liked it because Beeg had gotten it for her.

  She watched as Beeg paid the granny baker and took a bite out of his meat pie. He looked so happy, which made her think maybe she had remembered wrong? She snuck up to the stall after Beeg had left.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “Hi!” She chirped, “Can I please has one?” She asked, standing on her tiptoes and pointing to a meat pie.

  “This one?” The granny asked, pointing to the same pie.

  “Yeth!” Stupid nodded, pulling out her coin bag. The granny wrapped up the pie, looking up at where Beeg was leaving and then back down at Stupid.

  “You can have it for free this time,” she said with a smile, handing the pie to Stupid.

  Stupid gasped. She was so surprised — most people were not very nice to her. But this granny was!

  Now it all made sense! Beeg was nice, so he would only like nice people. That must be why Beeg liked the granny’s horrible pies! Stupid skipped away and then sprinted back, slipping a whole gold coin under the counter when the granny wasn’t looking. If she was going to give it back in taxes, maybe she could give it to her instead?

  “Fank you!” She shouted, skipping away after Beeg. The granny laughed and waved after her, just like she did to Beeg, which made Stupid even happier!

  When she caught up to where she could follow Beeg without losing him, she unwrapped her pie and took a bite.

  It was awful! Why would anyone like this! But, when she thought of how nice the granny was, it made it taste a little better? So Stupid ate the whole pie, crying the whole time.

  When she finished, she threw the wrapping away and held her tummy sadly. It hurt really badly now. “At least I am just like Beeg!” She consoled herself.

  When she looked up, she noticed they were in the Stables. She had never been here before, and the centaurs were absolutely giant. Like, 5 or 6 Stupid’s tall! But the place was super pretty, and she could see lots of green grass — which made her catch her breath.

  She couldn’t remember ever seeing green grass before, but it felt like something in her mind did, and was trying to tell her about it. But it just couldn’t get it out. So Stupid shrugged and found a barrel to sit on while she watched Beeg.

  He was talking to an old centaur who was even bigger than the other ones. Which was crazy. She wondered if he would be able to carry Stupid and Beeg on his back at the same time? That would be really cool! They could run over the green fields together! She bet the wind would feel really good on her ears!

  Stupid giggled at the thought. Then giggled again when the old centaur whacked Beeg on the head with a wooden sword. Then it happened again. And again.

  Stupid laughed so much that afternoon her whole body hurt! She had never laughed that much! And Beeg looked so upset, but also so serious! Stupid thought his serious face was really handsome, too. Like the painting of the knights that hung in nice houses!

  When the sun started to go down enough that the sky got darker too, Stupid saw Beeg hand his sword back to the centaur. The centaur handed Beeg his shirt back and the two shook hands.

  Even after all the whacking, Beeg still smiled when he shook the old centaur’s hand. Stupid decided she needed to meet the old centaur one day too — because he was probably a good person, just like granny!

  Then Beeg turned to leave and looked right at her. Stupid was so intent on watching, she forgot to hide! Oh no! What if Beeg was mad!

  Instead, Beeg’s eyes lit up and he ran over to her.

  “Stupid, do you have a portal to Uptown?” He asked

  “Yeth!” She chirped. She had a super awesome portal! It was one of her biggest sneezes yet!

  “Where does it lead?” He asked, his voice shaking a little. She could tell this was super important to him because his voice never shook!

  “To the Library! To the forbidden Mageek section!” she giggled proudly. “Stupid wanted to learn all about Beeg’s cleaning Mageek! It is so powerful, it haz to be forbidden!”

  Beeg blinked. It made Stupid giggle, because he hadn’t done that in a while. Sure he blinked all the time, but it was different when he would just stare at her and blink slowly!

  Stupid stared right back. She was so happy Beeg wasn’t mad at her. It almost felt like she was going to cry, but in a good way. And her heart felt light for the first time since they had done their delivery together!

  “Hey, Stupid?” Beeg whispered.

  “Yeth?” She whispered back, looking up at him.

  “Wanna go to the Library together some time?”

  “Oh Beeg! Yeth!” She cried. This was the first and best day off ever!