2
Leigh continued to walk around with the little goblin. "So how long has it been since I last saw you Jease?" she asked smiling as the kept walking, "Oh I'd say three years." he said as he hiked along with his staff. "So what have you been up to scaring people again?" she asked looking at him smiling, "O...O'course not! Why would I scare people?" he asked looking at her nervously, "That's how we met remember? First year me and Lucius were here and you scared the crap out of us?" she said smiling down at him. "Yeah I guess your right. Well I want to show you something cool!" he said grabbing my overly large punky pants and dragging me to a little lake in the woods. The water was crystalline and reflected the sunlight in all different colors all around us. We just gaped and sat down.
"Jease did you hear that?" she asked, "Yeah. Someone screamed." he said standing up as we ran toward the noise, "I hope no one met hansel." she said running and found a fainted Amanda.
Back in the place Tigress was at she hunkered down into the assorted grasses and weeds around her. Silently, she belly crawled closer until she could see Amanda. Her eyes opened wide, then she shut them tight, turning her head away. Breathing shakily, but still nearly silent, she forced herself to look back at Amanda.
"A...Amanda? What's wrong? Jease go see please," she said to the goblin as it walked over slowly to her. "She...She's fainted Leigh-Chan." said the goblin as Leigh came closer. "Indeed she has, what shall we do? We're deep in the forest. Should we take her to the hospital wing?" Leigh asked looking at the goblin, "The Lake we found! It has healing waters I'll go get some!" he shouted as he ran back leaving her alone, to see what had made her so shocked to faint.
Tigress' breathing returned too normal as the horrid creature, that was behind Leigh, moved away to be replaced by Leigh and a goblin. She watched them warily, but refused to move until she was certain it was necessary. If possible, she would go exploring some more, but she didn't want to join them then leave suddenly. They might tell her not to.
The goblin came back with the water and handed it to Leigh, Leigh forced her to drink some and levitated her off the ground, "Come on. Let's take her to the hospital wing until she gets better. You can come along just turn invisible so no one can see you. Strictly your not supposed to be in the castle," she said as she started to walk back out of the forest Amanda floating behind her and the goblin beside Leigh. "Oh and Jease, no more scaring people." she said smiling as the goblin frowned but kept walking.
Tigress watched Leigh and the goblin move away, she scowled as she realized that Leigh intended to take the goblin into the castle but knew that when Leigh decided to do something, nothing could persuade her stubborn determination. She slowly stood up, not sure whether to follow Leigh and make sure Amanda would be okay or continue to explore the forest.
Leigh kept walking and they were just a little out of the middle of the forest when she ran into another friend. "Leigh so nice to see your lovely face again!" said the centaur as it rode up and walked beside them. "Nice to see you to again Manten." she said smiling and continued to walk the centaur staring at her. "You have grown more lovely than the last I saw you." he said smiling, "For the last time Manten no I won't go on a date with you." she said smiling at him and kept walking.
Tigress decided to compromise her indecision by following Leigh at a distance so that her presence would not be detected. She was surprised that after a few moments, a large roan centaur joined Leigh. She hesitated for a moment, before continuing to follow Leigh.
"That's what you said before you
left last time too Leigh-Chan." he said still smiling, "Hey Jease
want a ride?" he asked as the goblin smiled and got on, "Always the
nice one weren't you." she said smiling at him, and looking back to make
sure Amanda was ok.
"Well where might you be going on this lovely day in the forest?" he
said still smiling as the goblin jumped up and down excitedly, "I am going
to the castle to take this girl to the hospital wing for treatment." she
said turning back and kept walking, "You can come if you wish though it
will be harder to hide a 500 pound centaur than a 30 pound goblin." she
said smiling, "I resent that! I only way 352 normal centaur weight."
he said sticking his nose in the air and puffing his chest out,
"Something's never change." she said.
Leigh, Jease, and Manten kept walking when they heard the ground rumble and almost fell. "Umm Manten please tell me Hansel didn't see you talking to me you know how he is." she said looking at the centaur with worry as the troll came out and greeted them. "Hehe. Hi Hansel we weren't doing anything honest I was just heading back to the castle with Jease here oh and Manten too." she said from behind the centaur as the troll spoke up, he wasn't very bright to say the least." Manten ok he is no challenge for me I will see you again soon Leigh." he said slowly and stomped off." Whew that was a close one I'm just glad he's stupid," said Manten smiling as we started to walk again.
Tigress stared, surprised, as the centaur obligingly allowed the goblin, who were known for their rudeness and quick tempers, onto it's back. Centaur were normally regal creatures and /never/ allowed other creatures onto their backs, much less a dirty goblin. She stared, trying to make out what they said, finally jumping into a tree and quickly catching up to them, still out of sight. She mislanded once, making the leaves rustle loudly around her, and quickly held her breath and hid behind a thick patch of the large, round leaves.
Manten kept staring at Leigh as if willing her to change her mind about him until she spoke up, "No Manten and quit staring it's not nice." she said smiling at him and he smiled back, "I wasn't staring I was just thinking about how much you have changed, the last I saw you were jumping up and down asking for a pony ride." he said smiling as the goblin snickered. "Jease shut up I fried a goblin last week for laughing, I was only 11 years old Manten, I'm 16 now I don't think I'll be asking for a ride anytime soon." she said smiling as the centaur got and idea, "Jease could you sit on the ground for a moment." he asked smirking evilly, the goblin smiled knowing what he was going to do and hopped off beside Leigh as the centaur grabbed Leigh and sat her on his back, "Manteno you dirty no good man put me down." she said almost laughing, "Nope hold onto Jease for me and don't worry about the girl she's still floating behind us." he said as Jease jumped into Leigh's arms.
Tigress watched surprised, as the centaur lifted Leigh up and set her on his back, she stared, open-mouthed at them until her feet slipped out from under her, crashing though the wall of leaves hiding her, she struggled for a second or two, then pulled her legs back up, hoping they hadn't seen her. She crouched on the limb, hardly breathing
"Thanks for giving me a ride even if it was against my will Manten." she smiled as he turned his head around and smiled too. "Think nothing of it, also you should prepare your long time old friend is coming in 3...2....1..." just then another centaur came riding up to them, it was silver and she had golden hair. "Kyra! How are you I missed you so much!" shouted Leigh as the centaur gave her a hug, "Oh I missed you too Leigh-Chan, I was also kicked from the heard when Manten was they said we betrayed them for talking to you Leigh." she said stepping back and walking next to Manten. "Manten why didn't you tell me you'd be kicked out of your heard for talking to a human?" asked Leigh as she leaned up to see his face. "Because I knew you would have never talked to me if you knew about it and I wanted to talk to you badly so I broke a few rules to do so." he said smiling as Leigh gave him a hug. "That was very nice of you Manten!" "Manten we need to hurry to the hospital wing so we can put Amanda into a bed she's fainted and she might be sick." said Leigh as she broke the hug, "Alright hold on then." he said as he broke off into a gallop and Kyra close next to them with Jease and Leigh hanging on for dear life, Leigh turned to see Amanda floating behind with more speed than before, yeah they would get there in no time.
Tigress leaped easily from her perch, glad they hadn't seen her, she ran on her toes behind them, racing so as not to lose them, She was certain they wouldn't notice her running behind them, they were going too fast to care most likely. "When will it end?!" She gasped, wondering if another centaur would pop out of the brush. She was ready to leap into another tree at a moments notice.