"I won’t lie, Mortimer… I don’t like any of the ideas I’ve had so far.
"I could try to distract Reginald while you hunt for the Half-sight ink in his nest; but I doubt I could give you enough time, and I don’t imagine you want an angry owl after you much more than I do. If he doesn’t eat me, I fear I would have to tunnel for days before I’d feel safe!
"We could try to challenge him in a battle of wits, if only we could choose the nature of the challenge. I can do a kind of magic trick which might surprise him. But… well… I think he’s smarter than me.
“Or… those bats were protecting a treasure… if we could somehow convince them to give us something valuable, we might be able to offer Reginald an exchange…?”
Hubert trails off, lost in thought, with an unhappy expression on his face…
You press on through the sycamores, getting closer and closer to the edge of the Greenwall. The way ahead is blocked by a ravine. A felled sycamore creates a land bridge across the ravine, or of course you could fly over. Do you wish to scurry over the branch, take to the air, or something else?