The Truth Uncovered
“So you’ve told us what you do – you’re a story crafter.” Haji-ki-toya said, relaxing with Angela, who was busy scribbling on the notebook that Dav-ki-bras had brought her from town with the pen that she always carried on her. “But what does your husband do?”
“Why do you assume I’m happily married and want to talk about him?” Angela looked up at the centaur, smiling.
“You’ve mentioned your husband at least several times, and you wear the ring of commitment that you humans require. Plus – we are all very, very naked, and you have not spent more than a few moments staring at any of us, which, by horse or human standards are very well endowed all around. That takes love.” Dav-ki-bras said, grinning down at her as he strutted by to reach the next available tree. The centaurs seemed to enjoy finding sturdy limbs to hang their entire bodies from. Strange, but possible.
“Gee, thanks. Maybe I’m secretly gay.” Angela defended herself, not quite holding back her smiled. They were pretty much completely right.
“Perhaps.” Haji agreed. “But I don’t think so. Let us return to the matter at hand: what does your husband do? What is he like?”
“Why do you want to know again?” Angela asked, smiling up at Haji and changing her position around.
“Maybe we want to take you for ourselves, and make sure that he will be no trouble to us.” Koru-ki-kluio said, laughing in the middle of his statement.
“You know I wouldn’t be up for that. Maybe next life time.” Angela responded. “My husband is actually pretty high up along the Green Tech corporate ladder. He’s the head of the department for Unusual Human Conditions.”
“What’s that mean?” One of the group asked quizzically.
“It means that people with unexplained medical conditions or problems with their beings come to my husband, and he and his team run experiments to try to help that person or group of people improve their lives.”
“So your husband is the one they go to when they can’t accept themselves for who they are?” Haji’s eyes darkened.
“No, it’s not like that.” Angela argued, looking at Haji’s eyes and recognizing something that was going against his base set of morals. “My husband helps people with things they can’t help. For example, he has people in right now who are compulsive nail biters. They chew on their nails to the point where it causes them suffering on a daily basis. His team is trying a mix of meditative techniques and small amounts of anti-anxiety drugs to ease the problem. That way, they can enjoy life more.”
“Forgive us.” Dav-ki-bras intervened before Haji could say anything more. “We are, by nature, warriors, and are expected to ‘suck it up’ in human terms. We are not supposed to complain about anything, and if we have a problem, we fix it. We don’t run to those who offer help.”
“Absolutely. We don’t either – unless we can’t fix it. Those people that do make their way to my husband are those who must swallow their pride in order to do so. Sometimes, it is a greater feat to admit defeat than to fight until the last minute against something that you know you cannot win, correct?”
“It depends.” Dav-ki-bras admitted. “If it is something that we should accept – the death of a loved one – then it is acceptable.”
“So what you define as a community as right and proper to fight for, that is the only thing which you can fight? And you must fight those things? Will you fight death, itself? Or do you submit every morning after you awake from even the small amount of sleep you have, recognizing that on that very day, you may draw your last breath?” Angela asked. Stunned silence followed her argument, and she smiled very innocently towards all of the centaurs. She knew that she had won.
“Forgive us.” Haji-ki-toya said finally. “You will find that we are, as of yet, unused to the rationality and sharpness of a human female tongue. We have not been scolded and told to remember our senses for many years. Tell us more of this man you have devoted your life to.”
“My husband is a wonderful man, as equally courageous as you are, but in different fashions. He will stand up for those he represents – no matter how embarrassing their problems are. There are many times when he must discuss with the families of his patients and act as a buffer and a peace keeper between the two entities. I’m sure you know how it goes.”
“Yes. That is what is happening right now, in your town’s courthouse.”
“What’s going on? I didn’t really catch much of what was happening when your erm, leader, held me upside down in his very large claws. That was really convincing enough for me.” Angela explained.
“Well after they released you to us, they decided to keep that group of people in a kind of mandatory peace negotiation.” Dav-ki-bras supplied to Angela’s waiting ears. “And now they are deciding what will happen to us.”
“Wait. The group in negotiations is the group that was meeting to discuss the fate of Sedona?” Angela asked. She was getting a sinking feeling in her stomach that was taking all of the euphoria of earlier away from her and replacing it with fear and unease. Her husband had been in the group that was in the courthouse discussing what to do with the influx of creatures. She had been so wrapped up in the story of the centaurs and the Grayness and what they had gone through that she had honestly, almost completely forgotten that she was married. Almost.
“Yes. Why?”
“I think my husband is in that group. They’re okay, aren’t they?” Angela was worried – she had not even thought to call her husband from her forestry vacation with the half-men, half-horse hybrids before her.
“Absolutely.” Dav-ki-bras assured her, and she could not help but wonder at the look that passed between him and Haji, but he overrode what were going to be objections from her. “I retrieved the notebook and pen from the courthouse itself. Everything is under control, no one is harmed, and I believe the proceedings are going very, very well, all things considered.”
“Alright.” Angela sighed. “Can I see them, at all?”
“No.” Haji-ki-toya admitted to her, bowing his head in deference. “Jaer-al-loh decreed that the hostages – that group and you – should be held separate from each other at all times.”
“Were they at least allowed to call their families?” Angela asked, her mind easing into problem solving mode.
“I believe so.” Dav-ki-bras admitted, shooting another one of those indecipherable looks at Haji. “But you cannot. You are, in essence, a hostage. We must treat you as such, even though we are obviously not going to kill you.”
“But weren’t you the ones who told me that family comes first, before everything else?”
“Yes.” Haji agreed. “You are correct: family comes first. And if it came down to protecting my family by killing the immediate threat, I would. But I do not endorse symbolic acts of killing.”
“Nor do I.” Dav-ki-bras chorused his agreement. He had found a new friend and he was not about to let her go – not for anything.
“Okay.” Angela said, not very reassured. “Are you sure?”
“I am positive that you cannot speak to your husband, if that’s what you’re referring to. If you’d like, we may relay a message next time we return to check on the outcome of the situation, that you are alright and safe in our hands. Do you think that would function well enough?” Koru-ki-kluio offered. He had been silent throughout.
“I guess.” Angela said, pouting. She may have been older, but she knew the trick: pouting worked on anything with a penis. Anything at all. “Can you at least send my love, as well?”
“I think I can manage that.” Koru-ki-kluio said, bending down to swing her up in the air. “After all, you are a friend to us, and friends are second to family.”
“Friend so soon…” Angela laughed. “I can’t imagine what it must be like to live with you as a single woman.” Koru-ki-kluio set her down.
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