66 The Spy-der (2/2)
The ended up floating in between two layers of branches, looking out into the valley.
”I wonder if I could become, like, a Pegasus.That would be cool.” Jen twisted to look at Nelda.”Got any more ideas?”
”If you were riding a horse, how would you tell it to go down a hill?”
”I would just sort of…”
Nelda shrieked as Jen jumped out of the tree.But then they did start to drift gradually downwards in a graceful arc.
[Wow.She is so much better at this than I was.]
Jen swerved confidently towards Asbolus's walled garden, barely cleared the fence, and landed rather hard.Her knees buckled and Nelda few over her shoulder and tumbled across the ground before faceplanting between some prickly vines.Her upset head exploded in protest as being pickled, dehydrated, and then tumbled.
Nelda lay in the garden for a while.In her view law a number of vegetables that looked like small yellow-and-orange mottled pumpkins.
[Ugh. Much as I would like to give up the prophecy-princess life and reinvent myself as a peaceful root vegetable, I have a team to look after.]
Nelda sat up.”You okay, Jen?”
Jen was upright, at least.But twisting around to look at one of her rear hooves which was raised daintily off the ground. ”I forgot that I have a lot more body weight forward of the whither than a horse,” she said.”I think I've bruised my fetlock and pulled out quite a few tail hairs.”
”That was a close one,” Nelda said. ”It's just as well you're not a stallion because you wouldn't be one any more.But hey, you're standing on the ground!Way to go with the mastering flying in about five minutes!”
[I'm a little bit embarrassed-slash-jealous.]
Jen bounced a few times, experimentally.”Still a bit of a walking-on-the-moon effect going on,” she said. ”But I think I have it under control!”
”Okay, now you're just showing off.”
”I'm going to look for Asbolus,” Jen said and cantered away.
”Watch out for…”
She was already gone.
”…Manticores.”
Nelda sat in the vegetable garden for a while.It was looking a bit trampled, here and there.
Phyllis ambled over to join her after a while.”You could be helping SmithGuild now,” she commented mildly.
This was true, of course.But getting a centaur out of a tree and teaching her how to fly is already quite a lot to achieve before breakfast.And it had sounded like SmithGuild had the satyr situation more-or-less under control.
”Well, he assigned the tasks,” Nelda replied.
Looking up to the stone mountainside, she searched for the spot that now had one less tree on it.It was marked by a torn opened reddish stretch of clay.And right in the middle of it stood the sandy-colored Manticore.Looking right back at her.