The Centaur Welcome

“You know…I do enjoy all of your company, but I have to admit: I miss my husband. Is there any way you could convince Jaer-al-loh to let me be with him, or in the very least, him with us?”

“I doubt it. We chose him because he is extremely stubborn.” Koru-ki-Kluio said to her, swinging his arm around Angela. For the past few hours, she had been hugged, kissed, and tossed between centaurs, all while she was screaming in protest. Good fun, of course – for some reason, it was as if she was like a child around them. She didn’t even care that her entire race might be facing destruction.

“We – us – tend to get out of line, if you know what I mean.” Her first friend, Dav-ki-bras, explained to her. “I am among the more calm, but Koru-ki-kluio here, he’s not exactly angelic.”

“I know. My body is going to be feeling this abuse for days.” Angela laughed as she was tossed up in the air by Koru yet again. “Is this where the rape myths come from? You just play football with the human women?”

“No.” Koru-ki-kluio caught her gracefully. “That was actually sex. But it was never rape.”

“Well, forgive me for blatantly staring, but considering the phrase, ‘hung like a horse’, I can’t imagine how it wouldn’t be rape.”

“Well, perhaps I would be privileged enough to show you.” Koru-ki-kluio grinned, placing Angela relatively gently down on the ground, allowing her to keep her balance.

“I’m married, remember? But I know a few people who might be interested, if you catch my drift.” Angela laughed and turned to face the other centaurs. “So are you all this friendly? Is this all of you?”

“This is just a small group of us.” Dav-ki-bras admitted to her. “The others from that veil’s opening are in our other location. The problem is, most of us prefer the woods, so Jaer-al-loh only chose the best – those who volunteered – to take captives.”

“There will be more?” Angela frowned.

“Not with us.” Dav-ki-bras assured her. “Jaer-al-loh expects ten centaurs to a human to make sure that none of us spend too much time, or any time alone, with the hostage.”

“I see. So he understands your sex drives?”

“It’s not our sex drives he has to worry about.” Koru-ki-kluio bragged. “We can mostly get anything we want, whenever we want, from the faeries. Some of them are as sex driven as us.”

“So, who, then?”

“I believe you’re the one who mentioned the phrase, ‘hung like a horse’. You’re not blind – we are all more or less hanging out there. What human female wouldn’t want that inside of them?” Koru-ki-kluio asked, bursting into laughter.

“Size isn’t everything!” Angela said, laughing. “Sometimes it takes skill.”

“I’m sure it does.” Koru-ki-kluio said mockingly, almost reassuring, but clearly displaying himself proudly. It was obvious to Angela that the centaurs knew what they were doing – they didn’t have anything else to do in that grey realm of nothingness they had spent the last thousand years or so inside – she couldn’t imagine, but she was beginning to get a grasp of how horrible it had been.

“So why do you automatically assume that Jaer-al-loh will send females to other groups of hostage taking centaurs?”

“Because human males don’t like us. They get some masculine issues arising when we speak of the women we’ve slept with – they assume it was by force, or that they’re better than we are, and then it becomes a pissing contest.”

“Which I’m assuming you always win?”

“Yeah.” Dav-ki-bras piped in on the conversation between Koru-ki-kluio and Angela. “Then they finally get away and they come back with groups of men shouting, ‘Monster! Monster!’ That we have to kill. And we don’t like to kill.”

“Why do you have – did you have – to kill them?” Angela corrected herself. It had been years since they had killed a human, she was assuming.

“Because if we didn’t, they’d come back. And in the end, they are not part of our family. And family is held above even life.”

“That doesn’t sound exceptionally less bull headed than the entire male human race.” Angela offered, met with stony silence. Men – didn’t matter the species, it seemed – could never handle the truth.

“You’re right.” Dav-ki-bras said. “But the concept of honor – it came from us. We practice how we practice because without it, we would not have survived as long as we have.”

“I guess. I don’t mean to challenge your beliefs or way of life. I’m just trying to make you understand – humans just got lucky. We aren’t exceptionally smart.”

“We know. You’re just cruel.”

“Am I cruel?” Angela protested, and then yelped as Koru-ki-kluio flung her into the air again.

“You will not let us have our ways with you. Of course you are cruel.”

“Come now, I am part of my husband’s family. You do not steal already married women – I know the myths. You only steal virgins.”

“Yes…” Koru-ki-kluio trailed off, then put Angela down from where he had caught her seconds before. “But trust me. To us, you are a virgin.”

“Funny.” Angela said, dusting herself off and ducking out of the immediate grasp of Koru-ki-kluio’s large hands. “But it’s like, two o’clock in the morning. If you’re not going to let me see my husband, at least can I sleep?”

“Absolutely.” Dav-ki-bras said to her apologetically. “We – our race – doesn’t really sleep.”

“I get it. You’re like the human men. All about food and fucking.”

“Sort of, yes.” One of the quieter, older centaurs, Haji-ki-toya spoke up. “But I will keep them quiet while you rest.” Haji-ki-toya offered to her. He was the one who probably should have been in charge, but instead, it was Dav-ki-bras who had brought her to them, and so he was in charge of this particular group.

“Would anyone like to tell me a bed time story? I’m usually the one who does it at my house, but since you are all new to me, I suppose I wouldn’t mind hearing a fun story.” Angela offered. She could fall asleep to almost anything – just not being tossed up in the air repeatedly by a half horse, half very well built man – and a story sounded like a good idea.

Haji drew closer to her, his beautiful black horse body so dark against his pale white skin and graying hair. “I will. I will tell you of my wife from long ago.”

“The veil?”

“No. Human cruelty.” Haji’s eyes shaded over at his memory, but he inhaled and went down onto his knobby horse knees to accommodate Angela’s now seated posture. One of the centaurs had even thought to fetch a pillow and a blanket for her, and so she did have a place and a means to sleep.

“I was young back then, as Koru-ki-kluio is now. It was long before the veil had even been thought into existence, and we were living peacefully, just outside of Athens, dwelling in the forest, in relative peace with the humans. One day, a woman stumbled into me, lost and faint from not eating. We had not seen her before, but she had been wandering aimlessly through deep forest for hours by then, and she was thirsty, and hungry, and exhausted. I let her ride me to our camp, where I laid her down on a bed of pine needles and bid her rest while I got her something to eat and drink.”

“And then my father, Icas-ki-kluio, saw her from a distance – for we all lived in different camps then, and he thought, ‘that woman is new’ and ‘she must not be taken, yet’ and ‘here is my chance’.” Koru-ki-kluio supplied the silence. Haji nodded, then continued with his portion of the story.

“Yes. And just as he was about to take my sleeping beauty away, I arrived and there was a brief skirmish. Because Icas-ki-kluio was in the wrong – in another family’s camp – he acquiesced and backed away. I, of course, was constantly thinking of sex, but my clan teaches never to make the first move – unlike some.” Haji’s eyes narrowed in friendly competition towards the younger Koru-ki-kluio. “Nevertheless, as promised, I fed and watered her, and let her sleep off whatever sickness was ailing her. I stood guard over her, despite my family’s insistences that she was safe within our den. And when she woke, I allowed her to leave if she desired – but she didn’t. She wanted to stay with us – at least for a few hours, when she woke. Explore what life as a centaur was like. She rode on my back again – as if it was a completely natural thing to do, and she laughed in my ear as we hunted, and cried when I took down a deer to bring back for dinner, and the few days that we spent together were amazing.”

“And at the end of the third day, just as was required of all centaurs in our clan, I had to break the news to her.” Haji sighed. “I had to tell her the truth: if she stayed another day, it was consent to take my name, abandon her family, and live her life out as a centaur-wife. But if she wished to leave, I would take her to the forest’s border. And she would most likely never find me again.”

“Why could you not travel to Athens with her? Meet her parents?” Angela asked, feeling her heart break. She knew how it had ended already – because the centaur’s wife was not standing next to him as he told the story.

“Because, as friendly as we may be to humans in the woods, it was by our permission that they were allowed to hunt. And it was by their permission that we were allowed in the towns. The problem arose when we realized that about half of all centaurs that went into the towns never came back, and it wasn’t because they loved it there. More often than not, the villagers or city people or anyone in between would get scared and kill the lone centaur. It would take the entire village, but it could be done. And so, it was decreed that we would not step foot into the towns.”

“That sucks.”

“Yes, it does. Adrasteia – that was her name – broke down once more in tears, and it broke my human heart to see her cry like that.”

“Your human heart?”

“We have a horse heart, too.” Dav-ki-bras winked at her, and Angela rolled her eyes, snuggling deeper into her blanket.

“Adrasteia didn’t know what to do, and finally asked if she could stay with me – but leave a message at the edge of the woods, or with the first hunter we found – that she was alright.”

“That was something completely unheard of, in any family or clan of centaurs.” Koru-ki-kluio joined in. “It was like you guys and the lightbulb.”

“Imagine that.” Angela laughed, letting Haji continue with his story. The other seven or so centaurs had gathers around, also listening.

“After a brief council, we decided that the compromise was alright – but they had to come with us. And so, Adrasteia became Adrasteia Toya.”

“Not Adrasteia-ki-toya?”

“No.” Dav-ki-bras explained. “The middle name refers to species. And that naming system had not come into place yet. We simply had a two name system – we knew what everyone was. We refer historically to people – like Koru-ki-kluio’s father – in the three name sense by means of convention, and because he took that name when the humans began assigning it. Adrastreia was not present at that time.”

“I see.” Angela agreed. “So Adrasteia Toya lived with the Toya family.”

“And it was a beautiful summer.” Haji acknowledged to Angela’s unanswered question. “Every day, she would ride with me out to hunt, and when we got back, we would clean and cook the meat together. Yet, in the fall, a hunter stumbled upon us, and we led him from the woods with instructions to give Adrasteia’s old family the message that she was indeed, alright.”

“The hunter was a sly man, and knew that he could stir trouble and perhaps, get himself richer in the process. For Adrasteia’s family had issued a request for Adrasteia to return, and in fact, a reward for her safe return, or at least, discovery. The hunter had made notes as he exited the woods with the centaurs leading, and he had worked out a way to get back to them. With that trail in mind, the man set off to become a millionaire.” Gron-ki-toya supplied in Haji’’s troubled silence.

“Yes. We should have known. Alas, my love blinded me, and I allowed the man to leave unhurt. Four days later, an entire party of hunters descended upon our camp, and a battle ensued.” Haji paused again, seemingly lost in the fire and flash of his memory. Just as Gron-ki-toya made to enter back into the conversation to finish what Haji-ki-toya could not, he continued.

“The hunter who had taken her message – the original hunter – is the one who killed her while we were fighting the others. We had falsely assumed that she was safe, because it was her own species fighting against us, thinking that they were safe. The hunter had big dreams, it seemed.”

“He was going to kill Adrasteia and bring her body back to her father, and lead the war against the centaurs. He felt she was under a spell, or not in her right mind, or downright even evil for marrying a half-man, half-beast.” Gron-ki-toya said angrily. “I did not have a wife then, but I lost mine in a similar fashion. Almost none of us actually lost our wives to old age.”

“Did you kill the hunter?” Angela asked, breath bated. This was the stuff of novels, and she was hearing it, first hand. Maybe she would have a genre-change to her fictional works by the time this was all over.

“Yes.” Haji said, his voice devoid of all emotion. “We hung his head on a pole outside the forest as a warning to all. There was no more trouble for years.”

“What did you do to the rest of him?” Angela had to ask, or it would bug her.

“We used the rest of his body a restroom facility. The others, those who had died honorably, albeit under false pretenses, we ate. And Adrasteia, we buried her under our Great Oak tree.”

“Why not send her body back to the family that was searching for her?” Angela asked, too quickly to realize what she was asking.

“They would have seen it as provoking them, and it would have caused more trouble for us. Instead, she was buried just as honorably as the men were burned and eaten.”

“Being eaten is an honorable body disposal method?” Angela asked them, and they nodded.

“We are not human. It is not cannibalistic for us.”

“No, I understand. Do you eat each other when you fight?”

“We do not normally fight to the death. And yes, we will eat each other when we die. It is better than letting the meat go to waste. We require a large amount of nutrition to be able to sustain our health.”

“No, I understand.” Angela acknowledged, flipping over on her ground bed to get more comfortable. “Well, it’s been an interesting day. And I hope – I really do – that this all works out to the benefit of everyone involved. But, I need to sleep.”

“Sleep well, Angela.” Dav-ki-bras smiled as she closed her eyes and the centaurs moved an appropriate distance away for her to sleep. The otherwise dark night had quieted in the past hour, and Angela knew that the little sleep she would get, now, may be some of the best sleep she would ever get.

“I hope we don’t have to kill her.” Dav-ki-bras said quietly as they moved away from her. “I know we’ve been taught to hate, or at least, fear the humans of this world, but she seems to be an exception to the rule.”

“I also feel that way.’ Haji-ki-toya admitted. “I loved telling her virgin ears my story.”

“It is nice to have someone listen to what they do not know. It is hard for us – we have been cooped up for so long, sharing the same stories over and over again. Imagine what it would be like to actually live here, once again on earth?” Koru-ki-kluio asked them in wonder.

“Well, there are only three ways this can turn out.” Dav-ki-bras offered to the silence. “Either we fight, and win….we fight, and we lose, or the best possible: we do not fight, and everyone wins. “

The other centaurs nodded in agreement. There was a moment of contemplative silence as each and every member of the centaur group realized that here, underneath the new moon with the wind, whispering through the trees and the cool breeze ruffling their hair, they would stay forever. Dead, or alive – not a single one of them would return to that veil again. The gray nothing with its dull trees and no need for time or food or sex or family life – they would never go back. It had been like a hell that not even the humans could fathom.

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