A Normal Life
If you think riding a human-horse hybrid is the same as riding a regular horse, then you're wrong.
The man jumped over rocks, trampled over tree roots, ran up hills and drifted through corners with such great speed Alex was tempted to believe his hooves didn't hit the ground.
His head spun as all he could see were blur green leaves that were constantly slapping him in the face. He should have fallen if not for Dylan at his back. The guy's got some stamina, really.
Chiron suddenly stopped and the boys flew off his back. Alex crash landed on a bed of flowers…
…Dylan didn't have such luck
He landed face-first in a pile of something that looked like disintegrated monster poop.
"AYE CENTAURS!" Chiron roared, "Back to duty post or I'll whack you straight to your mother's land!"
Alex groaned loudly as he staggered to his feet. It took about five minutes for him to regain balance, while Chiron kept screaming. Dylan stood up, his bones crackling softly as he stood straight.
They examined where they were. The place looked like a nest of…horses, except they all had human upper bodies.
The place was big, very big. About a hundred centaurs could be seen around them.
They were standing on a field paved with hard wet rocks. Little grasses peeped through the holes between the rocks. Alex looked back to see if he could trace where they'd come from but all he saw were tall trees all clustered around each other like a ring. He could see somewhere like a runway, centaurs raced tirelessly. They were all fast but not as fast as Chiron. Chiron also seemed to be the tallest among them all.
Centaurs trained with swords and bows. On another field, some wrestled, funny because they only hopped around trying to punch and stampede each other.
On a clearing, some others loaded a brown box into a black truck. These looked grumpy and had extra large muscles.
In an alley, a centaur flirting with another; The male was big, almost as big as Chiron. He blocked her way and kept brushing her blond hair and patting her cheek softly. He took out colorful roses and offered it to her. The lady centaur hesitated before taking it.
Chiron growled and took out his bow. He notched an arrow and aimed it at the guy. The distance between them was about 40 – 45 meters but Chiron released the shot and it stabbed the guy on the butt.
The centaur yelped and the female centaur ran out before Chiron could aim another arrow.
"Pattio!" Chiron yelled. "How many times must I warn you to stop flirting with my students?"
"Hey!" the butt-stabbed centaur said back. "I was just giving her some archery tips. Why can't you verify before …..uurgh!"
He tried to remove the arrow sticking out of his butt but couldn't. He stumbled over a nursery giving all the flowers there a pre-timely death. He tripped over a rock and began to roll on the floor.
"I hate myself" he cried. "Chiron please tells one of your students to take this thing off my butt. My eyes are shutting, I think I'm about to die"
"Fear not friend. Yeah, it hurts but it wouldn't kill you." Chiron flipped his bow over his shoulder. "It'll only make you sleep a few hours."
"That's cruel." Pattio groaned and in the next second, he was snoring
Chiron didn't waste a second glance at the centaur, only gesturing at the two boys like he meant to say; this is what you get when you disobey my orders.
They passed through a walkway and got into a courtyard surrounded with short houses and stables, some harboring unicorns.
"I thought unicorns don't exist"
"They did" Dylan butted in. "but went on extinction."
"Moron, they are right here –"
The centaur walked them to a huge white house built with white hewn stone blocks. The house was roofed with thick red aluminum roof and was decorated with strings of red and orange fire lamps. Probably to warm up the porch right beside it but it was a little irrelevant. The sun was venting its anger upon earth; another source of heat could only make matters worse.
He walked them into a large room decorated with tide, skin and fur of different wild animals. At the far end of the room stood a hearth. In it, blue flames crackled. Alex's skin began to boil; the temperature in the room was over a fifty degree. He could perceive something burning and was convinced it was his eye brow.
A centaur was seated alone in the paved area. He looked up immediately he saw Chiron.
"Hey kelto" Chiron greeted.
"How was the date?" kelto asked
"Like always" Chiron replied. "I messed up but see –" he pointed to the lip shaped bam on his cheek "she gave me a kiss"
Kelto laughed. "After a dozen decade, you got a kiss and call that progress."
"Yea –" Chiron said "in a century, we should …..Ha-ha, you know"
He said folding one hand and tapping in gently with his other opened palm, in a rhythmic manner.
Kelto stood up straight that his head almost brushed the ceiling above him. His brown beard was mattered and tangled. His eyes were red like he'd skipped sleep for years. He was dresses in a fur winter coat, a pair of mitten on both hands and on his hooves were snickers that you could hardly ever know he had hooves instead of feet.
He looked at the boys them back at Chiron. "Why are they here,"
His tone wasn't hard but Alex could sense hostility hidden there.
"Oh, these .." Chiron smiled, "I saw them in the city, and they had a message for me." His voice suddenly became serious, "Kelto we need to talk."
"The old man said you could take us to a place where our kind dwells; somewhere safe for us. Do you know the place?' Dylan asked in one breath.
"Do not worry, we'll talk about it tomorrow. Kelto?"
It looked like they were about to leave but Dylan shouted.
"We're still here, you know."
Chiron smiled and snapped his fingers. A lady centaur came from inside and bowed slightly at Chiron.
"Kemi here would show you to your rooms. It's late, you are probably exhausted." Chiron said already walking away with centaur Kelto, "We'll talk tomorrow."
Alex and Dylan could do nothing as they watched Chiron and Kelto disappear up the stairs.
But as soon as they were out of sight, Chiron slumped on the wall.
"What Is wrong bro?" Kelto was surprised by Chiron's actions, and voiced his concerns.
"Those kids, "Chiron's voice was muffled, "They believe they can still live a normal life. They aren't aware that since they were born, they were never fated to live a normal life. Even their death would be a very painful one. Only a handful of demigods don't experience that.
Not to talk of now, that 'this' is happening."
Meanwhile the two kids followed Kemi into a room. She offered different rooms to them, but they insisted on staying in a singleroom –for security purpose. In the end, Kemi had to call some other centaurs to move a bed from the other rooms.
The room they were in was nothing much; just like any other bedrooms. The two lied on their bed, not saying anything to each other, not even good night. They off the light.
TO BE CONTINUED ...…