# XXXI: Habundia Cometh with Tidings of Those Dear Friends explained — The Water of the Wondrous Isles > Chapter companion for The Water of the Wondrous Isles by William Morris. ## What happens Birdalone and Arthur spend joyful days together in the meadows and woods, swimming, fishing, and exploring. Habundia meets them at the Oak of Tryst and reveals that their friends are alive and in Evilshaw, but are being pursued by the Red Company with two traitors among them. She proposes an ambush and asks them to swear an oath to meet her yearly. They agree, and she provides them with enchanted green armor and a horn for aid, then leads them to a hidden dale for their vigil. ## Themes in this chapter ### Nature and the Wild The chapter is steeped in natural settings—meadows, eyots, woods, and a hidden dale—where Birdalone and Arthur find joy and prepare for their quest. ### Journey and Quest The chapter advances the quest to rescue the friends, with Habundia guiding the pair to an ambush point and arming them for the coming conflict. ## Character check-ins ### Birdalone Spends joyful days with Arthur, agrees to Habundia's oath, and prepares for the ambush to rescue her friends. ### Arthur the Black Squire Shares idyllic time with Birdalone, swears the yearly oath to Habundia, and receives green armor for the coming fight. ### Habundia Brings tidings of the friends' peril, extracts an oath of yearly meeting, and provides magical armor and a horn to aid the ambush. ## Key lines > Wore the days thenceforth merrily; and one day it was delight in the wide meads, and another they went a long way west along the waterside, and so into another meadow-plain, smaller than their home-plain, which Birdalone had never erst come into; and three eyots lay off it, green and tree-beset, whereto they swam out together. The days passed happily; they explored new meadows and swam to three wooded islands, enjoying each other's company. _Describes the idyllic time Birdalone and Arthur share before the serious business of the rescue._ > For this have I found out by my messengers and others, that your friends are alive, all of them; and they have thought of you in their inmost hearts, and have long determined that they must needs go seek you if they are to live lives happy and worthy. Habundia reveals that their friends are alive and have been longing to find them, which motivates the rescue plan. _Habundia brings the crucial news that spurs the action of the chapter._ > But I shall see to it that the occasion shall be in time and place where they shall not be unholpen. Habundia promises to arrange the ambush so that Birdalone and Arthur can effectively help their friends. _Shows Habundia's strategic role in ensuring the rescue's success._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_water_of_the_wondrous_isles_se/chapters/xxxi-habundia-cometh-with-tidings-of-those-dear-friends - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_water_of_the_wondrous_isles_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_water_of_the_wondrous_isles_se/chapters