Streeeeeeeetch!
It would have been a wonderful and dandy afternoon for any feline to just lounge about and to enjoy the sun, but alas knights had no such luxury. No. It was time for the spotty knight to go and start her beautiful quest.
Certainly not one she had a definite ‘goal’ for, but something was bound to happen. It was that fact that put a little bounce in her happy little cheetah-knight step.
Something that was observed by an onlooker.
Ashling, like a good lazy lioness, had found herself a ‘shade tree’ to lounge about in, limbs hanging off of the branch, only pulling her legs up when the curious sight of the prancing cheetah came by.
How rare it seemed to see such happy faces anymore! It was something that earned a very light chuckle from Ashling… though it seemed loud enough to be heard.
As the peppy little cheetah’s ‘happy jaunt’ suddenly came to a halt, suddenly assuming a ‘defensive’ position with her fur and tail puffed up. Really she was too small for that to look anything more than ‘cute’.
“WHO’S THERE?!?”
It was such a powerless demand coming from such a paranoid looking cheetah, but Ashling had almost every incentive to obliged the inquiry, pulling herself up on the branch to her paws before dropping down from the tree.
Her sudden appearance seemed to surprise the little cheetah, who let out a chirpy-hiss of surprise.
“Are you a VILLAIN?”
She made the demand in such a way that Ashling couldn’t help but laugh. How was she to answer such a question? Certainly her ‘battle scars’ made her look a tad the part of a ‘bad guy’, but…
“Only to moths, herd beasts, and in the eyes of my son.” She replied in a lightly amused tone. Certainly she found the little knightly cheetah to be some form of amusing.
“…”
Verdandi slowly relaxed, but still gave the lioness her own ounce of wariness.
“Then why were you hiding?”
Hiding? Why, Ashling hadn’t been hiding!
“You mean my nap up in the tree?”
“Nap!? There’s too much work to be done to be napping!”
It was that statement that caused Ashling to giggle more than she had been previously. Had she seriously meant that?
“Little lady, you’re taking life seriously far too early.” She replied with a slight air of thought. But it seemed the cheetah disagreed, making a chirp of protest.
“I’m a knight, not a lady!”
She punctuated with a slight puffing out of her chest, oh so proud of herself. Truly more adorable than she was probably meaning to be. Ah ha ha.
“Oh, a little knight? Are you off to save the savannah?”
“I certainly am!”
Verdandi practically exploded with pride. Perhaps this lioness would be someone for her to boast her skills to!
“From what?”
“….”
Ashling’s ‘new’ question earned an awkward silence in which Verdandi bit her lower lip. Ummmmmmm.
“From…”
“Evil?”
“YES”
Ashling wanted to laugh once again at how unsure the flustered little cheetah was with her answer.
“So was that what you were going to go off to find?”
Verdandi suddenly lept to her paws. “INDEED!” she announced, her little chest puffing up once again. Following this, however, she stopped in horror.
She’d been distracted from her sacred quest!
BY CONVERSATION
The look of woe on her face was read oh-so-plainly by Ashling who half-waved it off with a paw, oh so amused by it all.
“Well then, I better not keep you from your good deeds, now should I?”
Verdandi stuttered awkwardly.
“No! Uh..I…uhhh…… Yeah. If you hear of the GREAT SPOTTY KNIGHT VERDANDI…. That’s me. Yeah. Umm.. BACK TO SAVINGTHESAVANNAH. IT WASNICETOMEETYOUBYEBYE!!”
While it had been brief and the little Cheetah’s fleeing seemed sudden…..
..
Ashling had rather liked the girl.
