Chapter 78 - Climb On, But Don't Fall Asleep
"So, how do I go about catching her?" I asked the two Sphinx's, now that we were on better terms.
"You have to be quiet and sneak up on her and then put the blanket over her head," Candice explained, but Veronica shook her head.
"No, that won't work now. You know how Jess gets once she is scared, and there will be no way for us to sneak up on her. Climb onto my back, and then move up, so you are tight to my neck. You will have to put the blanket over your head and then bury yourself in my mane," Veronica explained to me as she lowered herself down to me.
"Are you sure," I asked as I walked up to Veronica, holding the strange patchwork blanket I had been given.
"Yes, she already said she was ready to let you inside of her, so why would she care if you rode on her?" Candice said as she walked by me and then bumped me with her back end into her sister.
Yes, well, that was true, and she was bonded to me, but I still wasn't sure what that meant. I climbed up and then scooched myself forward until I was sitting on Veronica's neck and tight to the back of her head.
I was about to put the blanket over my head, but then Veronica spoke up just before I did.
"Don't fall asleep; the blanket is enchanted to make the person using it feel very relaxed. I also don't want to brag, but I am sure you can tell that my hair is very soft and inviting, or so the Master tells me," Veronica explained, and she was right.
"Okay, I will keep that in mind, but what am I supposed to do? Just wait for you to get close enough to her and then toss the blanket on her?" I asked as I got myself comfortably tucked into Veronica's cloud-soft fur.
"Something like that. You will have to wait for your chance while we try to calm her down. I will use the word trepidation when I think that it will be a good time for you to try. Remember, you will only get one chance at this, and then it will be you chasing her again, and even with your speed, I don't think that you will be able to catch her," Candice said.
I guess that I would just have to trust the two sisters that were just out to make my life hell, and that was all I could do. I didn't have time to keep messing around here; there was still a lot left for me to do today, and now I would have to butter Jilly up some more when I got back.
"Okay, I am relying on you girls for this, and I have faith in both of you. If we get it right the first time, I promise that I will have a treat for you both when I get back from my training. Whatever you girls would like, within reason," I said, and I was sure I heard Veronica let out a small defeated sigh, so I rubbed the side of her neck in consolation. "I will try my best to find you, someone, like I said, but you will have to give me time."
"I know, but do you know that Sphinx's are only female? And other than Tiga's father, the idiot Manticore, there is nothing on this island that would be close to me," Veronica said quietly as we started to move.
"No, I didn't know that, but give me some time to ask some questions to the right people, okay? I will try as hard as I can, but that is the best that I can do," I whispered to Veronica and then pulled the blanket over my head after I felt her nod.
Instantly I felt tired, but not the exhausting kind. It was like I had just laid down on one of the costly beds at the mattress store, and now I didn't want to get up.
Veronica was right, and I had to fight not to let myself slip off for a nap. I concentrated on the girls' different footsteps, but that just made it worse, but then I heard a new voice, and I focused on that.
"Umm, hello? Veronica? Candice? Is that you girls? Or…" The female voice that had to be Jessabell, asked in a very nervous tone.
"It is just us, there was another person, but Candice asked them a question. You know how that goes, and now we are coming to see if you are alright since we had to chase him for a while," Veronica explained.
"Him? There was a man… here? Was he alone? Do others know that he was here? Are they gone to come and infect me with something? or maybe they want to come just to kill me!" Jessabell said, but the girls tried to calm her.
"No, as far as we know, he was alone. When we are done here, we will go back out the front to watch and make sure that no one else comes, okay?" Veronica asked, but that didn't seem to be what she wanted to hear from them.
"No one is watching the door? What if there are monsters or demons already inside?! They could be hiding everywhere! I am going to die, but I don't want to die yet! I haven't even been able to have a baby yet, but now I am going to be killed, skinned, raped, and probably be given a large number of diseases too!" Jessabell cried out, and I could hear the colp of her hooves, meaning that she must be dancing back and forth on them.
The order that she assumed that everything was going to happen made it sound like an excellent way to go if that list of things was going to happen. Still, this was not helping because I could hear the clopping of her Hooves start to move away from my position.
"No, it is fine, and you know that the Master protects you from all evils, and he would never let something bad happen to you, right?" Candice said, and then the clopping stopped for a moment.