Paradise Lost

It was with a heavy heart that Angela leapt atop Dav-ki-bras. It seemed that she was completely free to leave after all, because of some different hostage situation that neither she nor the centaurs could completely understand. Koru-ki-kluio had tried to explain it, but he himself had not really understood what the gnome had tried to tell him before rushing off in the general direction of the other side of town, mumbling something about a police station and a fairy with a gun.

Dav-ki-bras walked at a slow pace, and they were silent as they strode through the field that would lead them to the main road just outside of town. If there was one thing that Angela was looking forward to, it was a shower: she had not done so in at least forty eight hours, and she smelled like forest. Not a bad smell, but not one that she cared to wear the rest of her life.

It was here that they had paused to look back, and caught organized movement out of the edge of their collective field of vision. Both began sentences, paused awkwardly, and tried to let the other continue. Angela eventually made the first move:

“That isn’t a human army.”

“That’s not any creature on the council.” Dav-ki-bras responded, his voice a low and quiet rumble in the day. “I am not a very quiet or inconspicuous creature.” Dav-ki-bras mentioned to her as he bent his front legs as much as he could. “Can you make it out?”

“It looks like a horde of wolves. God, there must be hundreds of them. I’ve never seen wolves in Sedona, much less big black ones.”

“Are you sure? They are all black?” Dav-ki-bras asked worriedly. Angela got closer to his ear, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Yes, I’m pretty sure. I can see pretty well for my age. Why would there be wolves in our forest? Charlie didn’t mention any wolf experiments, and something would have gone out to the town after the monkey incident.”

“They must have come from our realm. But, like I said: they’re not on the council. The only thing I can think of…” Dav-ki-bras trailed off, then held tightly onto Angela’s arms as he spun, and without another word, galloped back towards where they had come from.

“Figure it out?” Angela yelled as she held on for dear life.

“Werewolves. Remember that Koru-ki-kluio mentioned vampires? Werewolves are naturally attracted to vampire flesh. And human flesh. And horse flesh.”

“Wow, if you were a vampire, you’d be triply fucked.” Angela said, hugging Dav-ki-bras tighter as they reached the forest. “What are we going to do?”

“We are going to get our butts back to camp, warn the others, and then get you somewhere safer than the middle of the forest. This is our territory – not yours.”

“Are you saying I belong in a kitchen, making my husband food and cleaning all day?” Angela asked, trying to lighten the mood. The pop culture reference was, for once, completely lost on the centaur.

“Well, you can be in other parts of the house.” The centaur offered up as he galloped. He was not even breathing hard. He slowed as they neared the entrance to the makeshift centaur camp.

“I love spending time with you.” Angela admitted, shaking her head. There were times that the centaurs, despite their obvious physical characteristics, blended well within the human culture. There were other times, like this, that they, very obviously, did not.

“I am glad.” Dav-ki-bras said, still preoccupied. The camp was unusually silent – the centaurs could not be heard laughing or joking amongst themselves like usual.

“Get off.” Dav-ki-bras ordered as he set her down. Scanning the forest line with a frightful calm, Dav-ki-bras removed one of two knives from the belt that hung around his human torso.

“You are going to climb that tree. There.” Dav-ki-bras nodded at the nearest tree. “You may get on my back to get up there. Then, you will take this. And you will stay there until one of us comes and gets you.”

“Dave?” Angela asked, referring to a derivative of the centaur’s name for the first time. The centaur looked at her, eyes devoid of anything but those emotions of courage and steady ambition and drive to find out what was wrong, and if necessary, correct it with all that he had. That emotion scared Angela, especially when it came from such a noble creature. She swallowed her fear and held her eyes steady. “Be careful. There’s probably nothing wrong.”

“I know. But, better safe than sorry, in your own words at least. Alright, up you go. I’m sure your husband would kill me if I got you into some kind of trouble I couldn’t get you out of. Good. Now, here.” The centaur said as she finished scrambling up the tree and reorienting herself to her surroundings. It had been a few years, to say the least, since she had last found herself in a tree. He handed her his wickedly curved blade and she accepted it gratefully.

“It is silver, and it will seriously wound any werewolf that comes to you. Most will not even think to look in the trees, but instead just think that you got on or off of my back at this point and rode off to somewhere else.” Dav-ki-bras said. “I will be fine, and be back in a minute or two. Be quiet and keep watch. Take care.”

“You too.” Angela said as the centaur crept off into the brush ahead. An unnatural silence filled the forest – not a single bird chirped. But, off in the distance, if she strained, she could hear some squirrels in the distance.

She was a writer – she tended by nature to exaggerate. It was a sunny day, and even if that black mass had been a bunch of werewolves, she had nothing to worry about. Charlie was safe as a hostage, in the town hall – last she heard. There was no way in hell there could have been any of the scenes she was imagining could actually come true: they had seen all of the wolves heading towards town. Not that that was good – but wolves couldn’t open locked doors, right?

Sure enough, a few tense minutes later, Dav-ki-bras returned to the tree unharmed, though worried. Angela looked down at the centaur, swinging her legs in a relatively carefree manner.

“Everything alright?”

“Yes, they are all alive.” Dav-ki-bras said, offering a hand up to her to first take his dagger back, and then take her hand, helping her back down onto his back and onto her feet.

“Unharmed?”

“Relatively so.” Dav-ki-bras said. “There was a few that tried to attack, but they held them off nicely. There are but a few flesh wounds, which should heal within days, if not hours.”

“You guys have accelerated healing times?” Angela asked as she strode next to him towards the camp. “That’s so cool.”

“It’s necessary when you’re close to immortal. Imortals tend to get mean when angered.”

“So you guys are hard to kill because you try to kill each other so often?”

“That’s the general theory, yes.” Dav-ki-bras admitted.

“Fun stuff.” Angela said, allowing Dav-ki-bras to lead the way through the final brush into the camp.

The stench of freshly killed wolf hit her nostrils immediately. Well, freshly dead animal – blood, really. But she knew it was wolf because the carcasses were piled neatly on the opposite edge of the camp.

“Wow.” She said, really at a loss for words. The camp was otherwise untouched, except for little blood spatters dotting the patted down dirt of the camp’s half circle formation. “You guys really take care of business, don’t you.”

“Self defense, love.” Haji-ki-toya responded to her concerns. He sounded tired, and Angela looked up to realize that his entire human upper half was covered in small scratched, claw marks – and his left haunch had a dried and slightly healed wound scarring its otherwise tender flesh.

“How did it happen?” Angela asked, immediately striding over to the centaur, leaning casually on one of the camp’s tree’s edging the surroundings.

“They surrounded us.” Koru-ki-kluio announced from across the circle. “I didn’t even have my knives on, because I had just cleansed myself in the stream. Haji threw me his.”

“The threat was over within seconds. I think they were expecting only one or two of us – not the entire gang.” Koru-ki-kluio said proudly. “It takes about five wolves to even seriously harm one of us.”

“Really?” Angela asked. “Because I don’t have medical training, but I’m pretty sure that the wound, right there, on your human shoulder, cut very close to an artery.”

“I knew where he was.” Koru-ki-kluio said, cringing as Angela reached out to touch it.

“I’m sure you did.” She said, mock scoldingly. She turned to the rest of the centaurs. “Are you all okay like Dav-ki-bras said? We need to get back into town, I think, and warn the others.”

“Can you not hear the battle cries?” Dav-ki-bras asked her, concerned. “We can. It must be a species thing. They already know.”

“We were going to take off right as Dav-ki-bras made his way back.” Haji-ki-toya added to Angela’s question. “He said to wait for you, because we needed to bring you to safety, first.”

“I don’t need to be safe.” Angela said. At least two of the creatures burst out laughing at her. She shook her head, glancing at the carcasses littering the edge of the camp. “Fine, it wouldn’t hurt.” She amended her statement. Dav-ki-bras nodded at her.

“Come on, little girl. Hop on, and we’ll go for the ride of your life. I believe the fighting has quieted down some in the town. Maybe you can reunite with your husband.”

“That would be nice.” Angela admitted to the centaur as she stepped on his hand and climbed easily onto his back once more. “But when this is all over, if you’re still around, I’d love to use you as my form of personal transportation. No offense, of course, but I have barely walked in my time here. And you are so comfortable to ride.” Angela colored as she realized what the last portion of her statement had meant to the centaur. She had forgotten that the majority of the centaurs’ brains were devoted to that area of interspecies contact and pleasure.

“Hold on tight, we’re going as fast as we can. We don’t know what the deal is with these pests of the flesh, but we don’t want to get caught unprepared. You know?”

“Abso-fuck!” Angela complained as Dav-ki-bras caught a burst of speed in Haji’s draft and took off steadily. Angela, at least, didn’t have to work too hard to stay on Dav-ki-bras or to avoid tree branches: he always managed to push them out of the way for her.

“I warned you!” Dav-ki-bras laughed at her as he wove his way through the trees like water through stones in a stream.

“Yes, yes you did.” Angela said, mostly to herself. They were already nearing the edge of the forest, and she was actually looking forward to seeing her husband again.

“You going to miss us?” Haji-ki-toya called back to Angela as they slowed to a walk at the edge of the woods.

“Absolutely.” Angela said. “But you have to drop me off somewhere civilized before you go and join the fight.”

“So…” Dav-ki-bras said by way of making conversation. “If the wolves are attacking both sides, as they seem to be…where do your people and my people stand?”

“You know, I’m not really sure.” Angela admitted. “I’m assuming we stand together if the threat is a large one. Is it?”

“Many creatures of the veil died in the rebellion of the werewolves several hundred years ago. Thankfully, no centaurs were lost – but all species were angry. And all creatures, together, took away their freedom.”

“So, it’s a pretty big threat.” Angela concluded and Dav-ki-bras nodded. “I’m getting down.” She mentioned to Dav-ki-bras as she slid off of his back.

“Yes. But as long as we do not let our structural differences,” Dav-ki-bras nodded at Angela, recognizing their differences, “Get in the way of fighting off the common evil, it will pass smoothly. Do not worry too much.”

“I’m made to worry.” Angela said, striding with the centaurs forming a half circle around her. She almost felt like nature girl, captivator and tamer of wild beasts. Well, nature woman.

“I know. All creatures are. But fear not – have some faith in your race. If not your race, at least have faith in ours.” Dav-ki-bras offered a hand over the ditch between the grass and the side of the road. He had leapt over it too easily, and she had even felt a stab of jealousy at the grace involved in the maneuver.

“I’ll try.” She repeated her sentiment in a different manner. “Thanks.” She added, using his hand as leverage for making her way across the ditch.

“No problem.” Haji and the others maintained their half circle formation around the woman, and she realized in a sense that she was being guarded by these wonderful creatures. They were drawing closer to the town now, and Angela could actually hear roars of the dragon a mile or two away.

“Where are they?” She wondered aloud. “They can’t be in the main town square – it sounds too far away. Or maybe that dragon isn’t as loud as I remember him a few days ago. Speaking of that, I have a bone to pick with him.” She sighed.

“Don’t treat Jaer-al-loh too harshly.” Haji-ki-toya offered by way of trying to help. “He is a dragon, and spends much of his time in the clouds, away from all other creature contact. He is wise, but can often come off as harsh, unforgiving, or just plain cruel.”

“Dumb, in some cases. Remember when he set the forest on fire?” One of the older centaurs of the group offered by way of comic relief. Haji-ki-toya smiled at the memory.

“A good story, but for another time.” Haji responded. “Jaer-al-loh is trying to do what he knows best: establish control in a situation where there was none to begin with.”

“He should not be in control here, on earth. He is one dragon, and we are one small town. But we believe in democracy.”

“So do we. But would your species have respected the creatures if we had not made an example?”

“Did it have to be out of me?” Angela whined, and Haji shrugged.

“You were there, he was there. It seemed appropriate at the time. That is my guess, at least.”

As they made their way up the paved road, Angela realized just how ridiculous the story of her life was getting. She could not imagine what some of the other town residents’ life stories were looking like at this point. A field day for a budding or an established author, to say the least.

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