Bridie and her friends were having a heated discussion but before it could descend into a full-blown debate their conversation was interrupted by a scuttling noise in the trees alongside the pathway. With a quick glance at Liffey, Bridie bounded off into the woods, her friends close on her tail. As their eyes adjusted to the shadows they saw a grey figure leaping away in front of them. They picked up their pace and separated to surround the interloper. As they all slid to a halt the intruder lowered her head and looked furtively from side to side at them, muttering under her breath.
“Goat lovers.” She spat. “Protectors of those cloven hoofed devils.”
“It is just Mad Maisey Mayhem,” Sapphire scoffed.
“What are you doing here Maisey?” Liffey asked, poking at her “Are you playing mole for the knights? Well?”
“I am just hunting for food,” Maisey whined as her eye twitched. “You cannot stop me from living here you know. I can live wherever I like. And I like to live far away from those stinking goat friends of yours. Dirty, smelly, nasty creatures.”
Bridie looked sadly upon the poor wretched hound, her kind heart taking pity on Maisey, she called to her friends to come away.
“Leave her be. She’s quite mad. What trouble can she cause?”
Mad Maisey Mayhem had long lived deep in the woods, as far away from the goats as she could get without leaving the protection of Arohanui. As a youngster her parents had fallen upon hard times and had lived for a while under a bridge. Poor Maisey had been driven eye-twitchingly insane by the constant tapping of goat hooves on the bridge above her, as they frolicked and played.
As she grew and she bore witness to the charmed life of the goats, she had compared it to her own life of hardship and her bitterness towards the goats had grown, as had her insanity. The ladies stepped aside and Mad Maisey darted away, zigging and zagging deep into the woods at an alarming pace.
“If she is not careful she will run into one of those trees,” observed Verity in her musical voice.
“Might knock some sense into her,” Liffey said matter-of-factly.
“Or it might just get her other eye to twitching,” Sapphire snorted.
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