Percival was floored by the size of the zeppelin, hell he had been floored by the size of the G.O.A.T. He had seen them, a scant few, but always up in the air, never so close up. He felt a bit awed. Particularly since there were so many shiny things.
He joined the platform with the others, curiosity driving him though there was a fear in his gut too. After all this was completely new and while one goat might be interesting a whole army of goats was a bit more terrifying. Thus he once again was searching for a place to hide.
A passing rubbish bin looked promising. It was passing him…mounted on strange little legs that were kept in motion by a bunch of gears. Percival was just about to leap in when a rare thing happened. He thought ahead. It was such an unusual occurrence for the goblin that it was nearly as frightening as being on a giant goat filled police zeppelin.
In fact it was the nervousness that Percival felt that made him do the unthinkable, and actually think. So startled was he by this nearly unheard of action on his part that he stopped dead in his tracks for nearly 5 minutes, long enough to go unnoticed as everyone else tramped by him leaving him alone staring at nothing.
When he came out of his startled zombie state he looked around and realized it was empty here. That was nearly as nerve wracking as being marched ominously along down a corridor. Everyone knew if you were marched with guards down a corridor your end was right around the next bend. He never realized standing alone in such a corridor was just as bad.
“Wait for me” he yelled at the top of his rather raspy goblin voice and he began to run flat out. He didn’t know where he was running only that he was looking for others. Dashing like a mad thing around a bend he didn’t see another robotic rubbish bend working its way down a perpendicular corridor. Rubbish bin and Percival collided with a tremendous crash that sent Percival toppling end over end. He barely had time to tuck himself into a ball like a
pill bug and roll down the corridor, protecting himself from most of the bruising he would have otherwise received.
He rolled, and rolled, and rolled. He was surprisingly aerodynamic as he rolled along and friction didn’t get much of a chance to slow him. He could have unrolled his body and would have come to a stop easily, but the jostling shook the few wits he had gathered to the four winds and he was completely bamboozled. He rolled to a stop thunking neatly, and somewhat harshly, into a pair of non-moving feet. Percival looked up blearily unable to focus on who or what he had run into.
“Urrrmmm, uh, sorry” he mumbled trying to gather enough of his scattered wits to remember the few polite manners he had picked up in his rambling travels.