Young Writers Society

“It’s a nice day, isn’t it, Orelos?” Aidan asked the centaur. He nodded, pawing at the grass with his hoof, tearing a long brown strip of dirt out of the green.

“Yes, it is,” he said. “But why are we talking about the weather? There are other things to talk about.” He walked up to the rock that Aidan was sitting on and put a hand on her foot.

“Oh, like what?” she asked him, cocking her head to one side in query.

“Do you want to go riding?”

Aidan paused. Orelos never offered to let her ride him. She’d never asked; had thought it an impolite thing to request.

“Well, yes, I would like that,” she said. “That is, if it’s all right with you.”

“I offered the chance to you, didn’t I?” Orelos asked. He sidled up beside the rock. Aidan got up and slid onto his back; feeling his great body tense up beneath this unaccustomed weight. There was a strong scent, the pungent musk that every stallion has. Aidan did not mind it; she had smelled it on the horses in the village before. And, besides, it was just one of the things that one dealt with if they had a centaur for a friend. Orelos could not help it, it just was.

They started off, the wide, green hills stretching out to the east, the deep forest of the Nard sprawling out to the west. Green was the predominant color in this part of the world. It tinted everything in all its many hues, from the light green of the grasses, to the deep green of the evergreen trees.

Aidan felt Orelos’s body as he took each step. His muscles flexed and his body swayed from side to side as walked along. The sound that his hooves made when they hit the ground was a dull thud, like large drops of rain on the roof of a house. These were lulling things, things that brought a sense of peace to Aidan. A contented sigh escaped her lips.

“Are you happy?” Orelos asked, turning his head around to look at Aidan.

She nodded. “Very much so.”

“Would you mind if I cantered now?”

Aidan smiled. That was Orelos through and through, never one to piddle around at anything. “No, I don’t mind. Go on.”

The breeze began to whistle past her ears as Orelos quickened his pace. It was a heavy breeze; rain was soon to come. Already the grey clouds of a midday shower gathered above the grassy hills, spread out like a great empyrean tapestry. Orelos’s hooves sounded like tiny thunderclaps as they kicked up the dirt. A rush of feeling came into Aidan and she laughed. If this was not how birds felt when they flew, then it was close enough indeed.

Now Orelos turned towards the west, towards the Nard. Its great redwoods grew higher and higher as the pair drew closer and closer to them, rising up like great living towers above the plains before them. Aidan looked up at their great branches, craning her neck back more and more until, finally, she was looking straight up.

Her gaze fell back down from the heights to the depths. The sun’s rays were rather muted here, filtered by the trees above; lending a dark green cast to everything. The forest floor was covered in a carpet of fallen needles, interspersed with the occasional dead limb. At intervals there would be a tree that had fallen over in some wild storm, a defeated giant. Here the sun would shine through stronger than anywhere else, and there would be a great hole of green and gold light cascading through the branches.

Orelos kept the same pace through the forest. This did not frighten Aidan in the least. Her trust in the centaur was complete, forged in childhood; when they had played together at the edge of her village, before he had been driven from his parents. And even after that she had walked out those long miles from the village to where he had claimed his territory, just so that she could continue to talk to him as she had before. And he? He had seemed to look forward to their times together, with an almost childlike anticipation, at least that was how it appeared to her. They were bosom friends, through and through.

Soon Aidan remembered that time was passing by. She should be home soon. Her mother had only let her come out here on the grounds that she would return and do chores as fast as she could. As far as they had gone, she would already be late getting back as it was.

“Orelos?” she asked. “I need to go back now.”

But Orelos acted as though he had not heard her. He kept on at the same pace, rushing through the primeval forest like a raging wind. Aidan grabbed his shoulder to try to get his attention.

“Orelos, I need to go back,” she said.

The centaur began to slow down, though not by much. Aidan grabbed his shoulder again.

“Orelos, I’m not kidding,” she said. “I have to go back.”

Orelos finally came to a stop. The air around them was still save for his heavy breaths. Aidan made a move as though to get off of him, but he reached back and put a hand on her leg. It was a firm grip and it made her pause.

“What’s wrong?”

Orelos paused a moment to take in one long breath. “You can’t go back.”

Aidan was taken aback by this. “Why not?”

“I won’t let you.”

A little chuckle escaped Aidan. “Orelos, this isn’t the time for jokes.”

“I’m not joking.”

There was silence in the stillness, as Aidan’s mind tried to work over just what Orelos was saying to her. “What are you saying?”

“You’re coming with me,” he replied. His voice spoke as though this had already happened, as though he had gazed into the future and saw that it would all come to pass as he had said. It was a tone that Aidan did not like. She tried again to get off of Orelos. This time he allowed her to get off, but took hold of her shoulders as soon as her feet touched the ground.

“Please Orelos, stop,” Aidan said as she tried to worm away from him. He would not release her, but tightened his grip.

“Aidan, be still.”

“Orelos, quit this!” Aidan was now trying as hard as she could to wrench herself from the centaur’s grip. It did her no good; he simply drew her in closer to him and held her against his body. The pungent smell of stallion was now even more apparent.

“Aidan, listen to me,” Orelos said.

“Let go of me!” Aidan demanded.

“I will if you promise to stay here and listen to me.”

Aidan swallowed and furrowed her eyebrows. “Fine, I’ll listen.”

Orelos released her. Aidan ran away from his grip and stopped. Her shoulders still hurt where he had been rough with her. She rubbed them, glowering at Orelos all the while.

“There’s no need to be like that,” he said.

“You’re threatening to kidnap me!” Aidan said. “And being serious about it! I have every right in the world!”

“Aidan, I want you,” Orelos said.

“What?”

“I look at you, and I see beauty, Aidan. A beauty that I want with me. I cannot help it. Your body, your spirit, they are both beyond compare. Please, come with me. Be with me.”

For a moment, the only sounds to be heard were bird calls and the low breeze that rushes along before a rain. “You…you love me?” Aidan asked at last.