Jessico landed on his feet, as always. Following a quick scratch behind the ear - oh, that felt good - he sauntered towards the prince and his bird.
"I wouldn't worry about it, to be honest." Cats can't really shrug, but Jessico seemed to here. "I get the feeling something better will come along, given a littl time."
Kwee is flying in agitated circles some distance above Booker's head.
"It's a cat. A cat! A cat might want to eat me! Don't eat me, cat!"
"move quick, move quick" Thought Gnarl to himself. He was a simple and small lizard but he could stay on task, and he had to get back. The stone in his mouth tasted pretty. A little bit warm too. Gnarl liked these stones, they felt nice to carry. The one from the dragon cave had been nice, but this one was nice too.
"move quick, move quick" he continued. Color man would be happy, let him sleep on nice rocks maybe. Gnarl like that. Gnarl wanted to sleep, but wanted make color man happy more. Color man make the bad things itch. Dog itch, the tall things with too many feet itch, the human that catch Gnarl too. Even Dragon itch. They all itch and Gnarl safe. Gnarl like safe. Gnarl not dinner. Dinner make Gnarl sad. Nice Rocks and Color man make Gnarl happy.
[Cough cough, been a while since we've been doing this, no?]
Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.
"Settle down, Kwee. I won't let this beast get near you. You hear that, feline? Stay away from this bird. You've already caused enough trouble. Making me lose Malcolm. I suppose I have to walk, now? A prince does not walk. He rides."
Scratch. Scratch. Scra--Ouch.
Pulling his hand away from just to the side of his right eye, Booker felt moisture on his fingertips. Sweat? No. His own blood. Pondering for half a moment, his eyes fell passed his fingers, to the soldier on the ground.
Oh. Well it seems I've got a bit of a problem.
"Kwee, we need to move. Now. Cat, you... do as you please. Do not get your hair on my clothes."
Picking up his stride down the road, a panic inside the prince began to grow. Taking the road meant a very long walk to the village. There had to be a shorter way.
There was.
Cutting diagonally through the Ronway forest. At night. With monsters on the prowl.
Fearing the strange scratching madness creeping in the back of his mind, he knew he had no choice.
"Care for a... stroll through the woods, Kwee?"
The Great West Woods had several names, The Deep Dark Woods, The Forest of Night, one group of Faries insisted its name was Sven. But one thing everyone agreed upon, you did not go in the woods at night.
I mean, just listen to the noises, growls and bubbling and gurgling and screeching. It was obvious horrible things were eating each other in there.
And besides, no one went in the forest at night. (Except for Ralph the Butcher, he had a fight with the wife and went into the woods, never to be seen again)
I mean no one saw him go into the woods, but no one saw him do anything else either, so it is pretty obvious what happened.
You'd have to be pretty stupid, or maybe really really itchy before you would risk the woods.
That didn't mean Gnarl was afraid, he'd gone through the woods a lot, he liked them; they were dark and spooky and he was low and hard to see. He didn't even smell tasty. He knew what to avoid too, like the Faries playing transmorph tag, and the Fashion Witches, if they caught you you'd be trying on dresses all night. The Troll cooks were the worst, making you to taste their fried carrion and Toad snot stew, and asking if it needed more salt or snot or maybe some more muck.
He was extra happy today though, he scurrid right through the Troll Kitchen and laughed when they started itching.
Jessico snorted. "You are kidding, aren't you, human?" He gave the spot behind his ear a quick scratch before remembering that he was in the middle of talking to someone. "Err, excuse me. Anyway, you know as well as I that walking through the Ronway forest - at night no less - is essentially suicide. You're not going to tell me you've never heard of the hoolichees, are you? Or the gribblesmark, or the red sailors, or the Tree Kraken that feasts on dim-witted birds?" Jessico winked at Kwee, smiling savagely. "These are not fictions, human, they're things waiting to eat you, to tear you limb from limb. So the best thing for you to do is to wait here. Something will be along very, very shortly."
Still nervous, Kwee alights in a nearby tree and starts hopping anxiously from foot to foot.
"I like forests," she says, "but not that forest. There are…things there. Things that might want to eat me! And…lots of weird things. And…and…"
Kwee looks down at the cat, wondering about his statement that "something will be along very, very shortly", and takes off again, flitting high into the air and getting a good look at the surrounding area to see whether or not the cat is joking about something being on its way.
Gnarl stopped, gently put down the stone and tasted the air again.
"Fur and pounce, sharp teeth. Gnarl no like that."
Gnarl looked up, you never knew where that furry pouncy thing might be. He didn't see Jessico though, he did see a flash of color go up into a tree, right by where he wanted to leave the woods.
"Tweet Tweet no find me, Gnarl clever and hard to see."
Even a creature with incredibly good eyesight wouldn't be able to find that lizard in this woods in the middle of the night.
"Tricky Gnarl go other way silly feathers."
Gnarl picked up the stone, and the moon shone off it for a brief second, shining a multitude of shades of yellows, oranges and pink, like a tiny sunrise in the forest night. Gnarl didn't noice, he was busy heading back into the woods chuckling to himself.
Kwee notices something colourful shine for a brief moment.
"Ooh, what's that?" she asks, momentarily forgetting her nervousness. "Colours! Pretty colours!"
She flits a bit closer to it but hover where she is and looks back to see if Booker is going to follow.
"Kwee, stop it! Now is not the time to be chasing after shiny things! Not into the forest!"
Brandishing his sword, Booker dashed into the woods after Kwee. Passing through the threshold of trees into the forest, something unnerved the prince. The whole air of the forest was dense. He could literally feel the danger. But being a prince meant he was brave. So on he went, into the forest.
"Seriously, Kwee, what are you doing? Slow down!"
OOC - Kwee didn't fly off alone - she stopped to wait for you!