Ashly leans closer to Lucas's ear and whispers "That man doesn't seem to be the type I'll ever trust." she stares at the man who keeps on smiling at them.
"Ashly come on, be respectful." Lucas says quietly "Don't be rude, he is friendly, they are all friendly, and won't cause any trouble." he says as he looks back at her and then back at Silas smiling.
"Fine, but I won't want to be alone with him or anyone if they act the same. You will have to be with me at all time or something like that." Ashly says as she pokes Lucas's ear.
"Don't worry we will be together, it's not like I'm going to be far away. I'll only leave you be alone enough to see that they aren't bad people. Mr. Brandon trust them and so do I." Lucas puts the wooden carving in his pocket.
"Fine I'll try but I won't promise that anything will happen." she says under her breath, Lucas begins to get close to Silas "I hope Lucas is right about them."
Silas approaches them "What a majestic horse you got there. It's young and full of energy and strength." he reaches for the horse "May I?" He asks and Lucas nods, Silas touches the horse "It's healthy and seems to be friendly. I do love horses and I appreciate people who take care of them." Silas turns to Lucas.
"Yeah I know right, I care for all animals. I took care of some before we came here, it was a stable I worked at for a while." Lucas says as he shakes Silas hand, its soft and firm. Ashly looks at them and feels like she is an outsider to them.
"We had an older horse but don't worry, she is being taken care of in that stable. The man promised she won't face any type of labor and will be happy. She is being taken care of by good people." Lucas says as he approaches Ashly "She is a bit cautious on new people, don't mind her behavior as she doesn't mean to be cold or anything."
Silas points to where he came from "Follow me you two, don't worry I'm not going to trick you." he says as he turns around and enters the forest. He turns back to look at them and waves at them, they both begins to follow Silas "You seem like a great guy Lucas, much better than most people." he looks back at them "I meant we faced some mean people who tried to burn this place."
Lucas and Ashly walk through a bush, it's wet and big. Lucas hits a tree that was on the other side and Ashly chuckles "I'm sorry for not telling you about that tree, usually the people I am around with know about it."
Lucas holds his nose and is grateful that it's not broke "It's alright, I don't blame you. I should of been more careful, I feel stupid." They keep on walking, the grass is wet and it's quite dark for it being day time. "It's darker than I thought I would be, the trees must be really close to each other." He looks up and sees that the sky is being covered by the trees and their leafs. He is fascinated by how it looks like a blanket covering him "Amazing."
"Do you have difficulty seeing in these dark places?" Ashly asked as she walked slowly looking around herself. The trees are indeed closer together than in any other forest she has seen, and they seem wet. "I can't really see well, and I'm curious if you have something that makes it easy for traveling."
"Well it's sort of just being familiar with the forest." Silas turns around and stares at them not looking at where he is walking. "I know this area as I grew up running around." He walks by every tree without hitting them "Besides, it's never this dark anyways only occasionally." He turns around and walks forwards, Ashly isn't to happy by that answer and sees Lucas who is just looking around like an idiot "This forest is very beautiful, I love taking my time and staring at the scenery. I've seen these areas so many times yet I still feel amazed by it. That's what nature shines best, being able to make you appreciate its beauty."
They all keep on walking, Ashly is holding Lucas by his collar. "I hope you both aren't scared by a few insects. They are quite common around here, don't worry as they are scared of us more than we are to them." Ashly spots a big spider eating a fly, she sees another next to her and she flicks it away with her finger.
They can see a dim ray of light in the distance, they approach it and it's a big open area. It's a circle that seems to be spacious compared to where they came from. The grass seems dry and there are two people sitting on top of two boulders. They seem to be surrounding a big bonfire, there are stumps that Ashly presumes are seats. Ashly gets closer and can see clearly that one is an old woman and the other being a girl who seems to be around her age.
The older lady stands up "Oh, we have visitors already? It's quite rare for us to have some visitors." she says, he voice sounds frail and soft "Were are my manners, my name is Agnes and I'm one of the two elder in this forest." Agnes then walks to them slowly.
Lucas approaches Agnes "Nice to meet you Mrs. Agnes, my name is Lucas and my friend over here is Ashly." Agnes grabs his hand and feels how soft and warm it is "I appreciate the welcome you're giving us."
"Young man you seem so kind and handsome." Agnes says, she then looks at Ashly and for a moment "This forest is very special to us and our ancestors. Please, I ask that the two of you respect it while you stay here. It's not to much to ask for coming from an old lady."
"Don't worry ma'am, we are going to be careful." He turns to Ashly "Right Ashly? We aren't going to cause an trouble." Ashly looks away from them and is on the corner from everyone, Silas approaches Agnes and helps her sit back down.
Ashly is a bit annoyed about this whole welcoming. She then notices the girl staring directly at her "What do you want? Are you surprised that there are visitors or what?" The girl doesn't respond for a moment and looks away.
She then looks back at Ashly and with a tone more exiting than expected "It's just that you seem very interesting to me. I don't need anything from you, you're interesting that's all." She keeps on staring at Ashly, "My name is Mindy, it's a pleasure to meet you. Can we be friends?" she says grinning.
"Yeah of course, I like being friends with strangers." Ashly says rolling her eyes, she thinks that she is now going to be stuck with annoying people which she doesn't want. Ashly can see Mindy shaking her hands in excitement, Ashly knows that this is going to be a pain in the ass to handle.
"Oh Ashly was it, Mindy is quite a special person." Agnes says which makes Ashly raise an eyebrow "I mean as in she is great at knowing what a persons personality is by just looking at them. I apologize that I didn't greet you, but there is a reason to why I didn't. It has to do with how she acts around certain people."
Lucas is a bit surprised "So she has some sort of a super natural ability?" he asks.
"Well of course, that is what we believe she has, but what isn't great is her." she points at Ashly "You see, Mindy is only interested in bad people. She likes those who are mean or have less than desirable hearts."
"You're saying that she think she knows I'm a bad person." Ashly says as she laughs a bit "That's idiotic, there's no way you believe in such a thing. I get that you can have a rough guess on someone, but to absolutely guess their intentions, please that's to funny." Ashly looks at Agnes who isn't smiling, but instead begins to frown.
"I don't want to be rude, but never has Mindy acted this way. Her wanting to be friends? She never did that even with those who had ill intentions." Agnes says with a sorrow "I'm sorry, but any person Mindy wants to be friend with, I'm not trusting at all."
Lucas steps in between them "Listen this isn't a problem. Maybe the girl is excited that she is meeting someone of her age." he turns to Mindy who shakes her head "Maybe it could be that she is a woman and is the first to show such behavior. Sure Ashly isn't the nicest person, but she isn't completely mean, she's my friend and I know her."
"It's true that Ashly is the first ever girl to catch Mindy's eyes but that doesn't excuse it. I do hope that is the case but we can't be sure, I'm sorry but this is new." she says as she turns around again, Silas seems to be a bit uncomfortable .
Out of nowhere many more people seem to appear from each corner. It's about 12 and they are all greeting Lucas. Many of them who appeared behind Ashly just give her an awkward nod and move pass her. Lucas turns to look at Ashly "Oh don't worry about me, I'm not really good with a group of people." she says.
"Listen girl, if what he said is true then I would like to apologize. It's just that the last encounter with a person who interested Mindy left us with an awful scar." Agnes says "We are being catious and you don't seem much of a bad person."
"Yeah it's all right with me, I'm also trying to be catious as well." Ashly says looking away from them "Although I'm not being an asshole about it." she says under her breath so no one hears her.
Another elder appears "It's true that we are just tensed." the man is short and seems to be missing his right arm. He also has a nasty scar on his chest that seems to be around 5 millimeters deep "As you can see with my injuries, that was what we are worried about. That man who made Mindy feel happy, he tried to kill me and a few others. We ignored all the signs like before, but they all were just rude people." he approaches the bonfire "Young man, please understand where we come from. My name is Eder and I was the idiot who made us ignore it for the sake of being friendly."
"Oh I'm so sorry to hear that, I can understand your caution." Lucas says as he grabs the man's hand to guide him.
"Thank you young man, you seem so innocent and pure." Eder says "If such a person like you can be around her then it must be nothing. We do ask you that we are going to be cautious around her, but we don't mean anything ill behind it. May I ask why you two are here?"
Ashly is a bit annoyed as it seems Lucas has to repeat their situation almost every time. Lucas tells the man who seems a bit sad from that response. Ashly turns and the girl is already right next to her, "What do you want now? Don't tell me you're messing with me." the girl just smiles at her and pokes Ashly nose.
"Soft, so soft." Mindy says in a soft tone "Tell me, how can someone so beautiful in the outside be so interesting inside. For what your situation seems, you're quite relaxed, not enough tension or attention in your mind." Mindy reaches to touch Ashly's hair.
"Get away from me you creep, don't you dare touch me. How do I know that you don't have an illness or something like that." Ashly backs away a bit into a tree, but Mindy touches her hair. Ashly gets frustrated and punches Mindy in the face. The sound of the punch was quite loud and everyone turns to see Mindy fall onto the ground. She is bleeding from her nose and Ashly looks around and the Quill Makers look disturbed by her action. "What? She was being touchy with me and I warned her. She was being creepy and invading my personal space, this is justifiable."
Agnes and Eder are furious at this "What in the world must have made you believe this was alright?" Eder said but Lucas seems the most disturbed "Don't tell me we have to ask you to leave."
"Listen everyone let's all calm down a bit now. The girl was being a bit off, Ashly isn't really great with communication with strangers. She grew up with violence so she doesn't have the same respect as others do. She just needs to learn that's all, I promised her that I would help her with that." Lucas seems to be sweating a bit as he turns to Ashly with a face that is full of disappointment "Listen I read that you are all great and kind souls. I'm just saying that we can all help her out, change her views. I know who the real Ashly is and we can help her be better."
"Alright, if what you say is true then I guess. We believe that no person is born evil but is molded. Due to this outburst we ask that she is to remain watched by you. Keep her close and under control, and in case she does it again we will force her to leave." Agnes says and Lucas bows his head into the ground thanking them.
Lucas gets up and walks to Ashly "Ashly, what in the world is wrong with you. What is happing with you?" Ashly raises her hand and turns around and begins to leave.
"I'm just going for a quick walk, don't bother with me." Ashly then yells out "I said I'm going out for a walk around here to be alone for a while. I'm just saying in case you are worried that I'm going to do something bad." Ashly leaves the area and enters the woods "Lucas, if you're worried just stay behind me, not too close alright?" Mindy is sitting down touching her nose, it doesn't seem broken. Mindy smiles and looks at where Ashly has disappeared.