Angela’s Joy Ride

Angela Johnson had never ridden a horse more than four or five times in her entire life. Yet, finding herself yet again upon the back of Dav-ki-bras, she was finally beginning to enjoy it. With the wind in her hair as he galloped with her through an empty field, she could definitely see the perks in having such a relationship with another creature of the earth. She felt free, and alive, and happy.

She knew she was a captive, but she didn’t feel like it. She had almost forgotten about her husband. As she did not know that he, himself, was being held captive in much drabber conditions than she. All she knew was that she was surrounded by some of the most enjoyable company she had ever known, and she was loving every minute of it. So much, in fact, that she couldn’t wait to ride out with the entire group. Dav-ki-bras was her first, but she was sure that more would follow.

But what she loved most of all was the stories that she had heard. She had not slept much, but she was quickly becoming an expert on centaur lore. She was also quickly turning her sympathies towards them, and not against the war that they were threatening to wage against the veil of secrecy. What they knew simply as the ‘gray’ or the ‘grayness’ or the ‘veil’ stung her heart, deeply. It sounded as if they were caught in some form of limbo, not quite in physical form, but not released into spiritual form. It was almost as if they were trapped in their own, much smaller collective reality.

They were all able to converse with each other, they were still in a physical sense, of sorts, but their world there was…gray. The closest translation she could get from them, was if they had all put gray tinted glasses, muffled their ears, and generally reduced the sensations of life. The centaurs were all taking turns exploring while the others kept watch over their temporary camp – they loved being alive, on the earth, so much, that Angela could not imagine what it must have been like, trapped for thousands of years, made to live for generations without the knowledge of the real world and its sensations. What could you really tell your future generations?

The centaurs had even admitted to some tear shedding when they realized they were released. Earth was like the Christian version of heaven, to them, and they would die if they had to in order to preserve it. They would rather – each and every one of them – die than return to that ugly realm in which they dwelled.

They had also spent a fair amount of time warning Angela about the other creatures – the creatures of the night that had inhabited the Grayness. “Bad dreams” and “bad karma” they had called them, and it had taken a while for Angela to realize that they weren’t referring to concepts, but actual entities. Apparently, the bad dreams that she had experienced in her past were nothing compared to these entities. The night terrors that some felt, the centaurs explained, were the occasional escaping bad dream. The random accidents that were so gruesome, beyond imagination – those were, more often than not, the escaped ‘bad karma’ entities of the Grayness.

This of course, led to questions about their relationships with the entities. Their response had struck a chord inside the mind of Angela:

“There are some, like us, who have minds and consciences and souls. And, there are some, both good and bad, which simply are. They do not have intentions, and they do not have personalities. They are simply catalysts for change – in any direction – that ensure that change will occur. If this comes about by means that one can understand, then it will still come about. To an entity born into the Grayness, it may be a brief moment of color discovered in the collective memory, followed by a lifetime of complete and total blindness. To one such as yourself, it may be writer’s block, or an epic similar to that of Job: if a bad karma energy attaches onto you, you may get sick, you family might die, your lifelong ambitions may crumble to dust.”

“Why?” Angela had asked, thoroughly confused by what the centaur had said.

“These things are necessary for the balance of the world. We were surprised it took so long for Newton to establish the law of Karma in scientific terms.” Haji had admitted to her.

“You followed Earth? How?” Angela was even more confused by this. They had hinted before…

“Imagine being able to see and hear and smell the most wonderful things in the entire world, and never being able to control them, or communicate with them, or respond to what they were doing in the world.”

“That sucks.” Angela responded after a long moment, unsure of what else to say.

“Yes.” Haji agreed. “But we are free, now. And we will not return.” Haji looked at her solemnly.

And that was the truth. Angela could see it as such. The centaurs and the rest of the creatures now inhabiting the world – they would not return willingly to their captivity. Nor should anyone force them – as the centaurs said: their forces and energies were necessary to the balance of the world. Without them, anyone could see: the world was crumbling as the entire human race trod on all senses of decency, kindness, and giving back to Mother Earth. Even the children of the world were finding a new sense of cruelty and overall passion and delight towards murder, rape, and everything in between.

Gas prices: shooting up. There were wars breaking out across the world. Intense conflicts happening all across the home front in the United States and beyond - horrendous crimes being committed in everyone’s back yard, despite the laws becoming increasingly strict against such things. It was almost ironic that Sedona, of all places, was the place where the new trouble was beginning. Sedona had always been a place of freedom of values and ideas: the place where the smart people could go. Yet, even that was being taken away, and Angela could see it already stemming from this upset in the Sedona people’s schedules. Threatened with the unknown, they were converting back to their tribal ways: us against them.

Angela turned her mind from the events and state of the nation, and instead turned to happier thoughts: the wind in her hair, and how amazed Charlie would be when he heard of her experiences with the centaurs. She had not meant to end up in the grocery store, but she was glad now that she had been. Hell, she was even kind of glad that she had been held upside down by that dragon for so long. It was such a rush.

“I can’t believe it feels this good to be alive!” Angela shouted as Dav-ki-bras galloped towards the end of the field.

“Me either!” He yelled back seconds before coming to a slow, easy stop. “But I’m glad it is that way. I think the gods would be happy for us,”

“You think?” Angela asked, more intrigued by his use of the word ‘gods’ than anything else. She briefly wondered if the use of the term was from faith, or from actual experience.

“Yes. I already said that.” Dav-ki-bras looked back at her, confused, then lent a hand so that she could get off of his back. “Hermes especially. He always said that riding on a centaur’s back was like flying through the air.”

Well, that answered Angela’s question. Nipped it in the bud, actually. She had begun to wonder about religious affiliations of each of the creatures released – but it seemed she would no longer have to. “You’ve met Hermes?”

“Before the veil – it was a long, long time ago.” Dav-ki-bras admitted. “The veil seemed to cut us off from direct contact with the gods, and now that we’re out, we’re waiting for the first communication.”

“Kind of like a long last parent?”

“Kind of like truly going home for the first times in our lives, after a long respite from all that was gods-given and right in the world.”

“Did I already apologize for the actions of the humans that put you away into that hell hole?” Angela asked, becoming sad once more. She did not want her new friend to have had to have gone through that. She didn’t want any person or creature to go through that.

“Yes. And I thank you for that one small favor.” Dav-ki-bras said cheerfully as he led the way into the forest’s chittering depths.

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