Andrew woke up in a haze, head bumping onto the wooden floor he seemed to be on. Apparently it was a moving floor, as he saw moving wheels through the small cracks of the wooden floor and through the ripped holes of a canvas, ceiling, covering him from the outside world. He painfully moved his hands to his head, trying to slide away the strains of hair blocking part of his vision. Moving his head a bit more, she looked into a bright light, this being the sky from the outside, the white, cloudy sky. In the middle of what he saw in front of him, was a big silhouette and to moving figures, further into the background. "This vehicle is being pulled by horses." he thought, looking at how the hooves were sometimes visible, if the two horses kicked their hind legs forward.
His eyes still tired from the long sleep he had, weren't excited to suddenly be granted with so much daylight at once, so Andrew pulled away his vision from the bright clouds, and faced inside the, wagon, he apparently was in. The fact that it was pulled forward by two horses, stated that it was a big wagon, and truth be told it was. Where he thought he was taking up all space inside the uncomfortable cart. He was able to lift his head again, unlike right after he woke up, and noticed to his sorrow that his hands were bound together. It was only part of his worries though, in his vision he saw very feminine hands and two big lumps, being held close to his body by a piece of cloth, tied into a knot on his back.
Andrew noticed he was still partially lying sideways, and even though his right elbow supported him for for sitting up right, some nerves in his body wouldn't allow it, thus he was only able to lean above the wooden floor for a little bit. Horrified for a bit, Andrew tensed the muscles in his legs, hoping they would function. At that moment, he saw and felt movement underneath the big blanket, his legs were underneath. It weren't only his legs though...
Andrew expected his legs to be freed in some way as he tensed his muscles, but it appeared they were tied together, just like his arms. Horror showed on his face though, when his legs weren't the only things that moved underneath the blanket. Andrew was looking at his chest, flushing red, was he taken hostage? Did these strange people think he was a woman? It looked like it, but what was underneath the blanket? He shivered uncontrollably, almost hyperventilating, as both his hands, still bound together, moved to the edge of big cotton cloth, the only thing covering his lower body. Pulling it of himself, he brought his hands to his mouth covering it, as he let out a muffled cry in panic, tears appearing in the corners of his eyes. Underneath the blanket was a whole other body, it was covered in brown fur! The tail was the furthest away from him, as his mind processed what he'd become: a centaur.
...
Horses are fascinating creatures. Since a very long time, they'd been a close companion alongside humans, ever since the Indo-Europeans started taming them. They fought wars together with them, innocently sacrificing themselves in them for the sake of the humans who fought the wars for more power. In Greek mythology already it was a common thought humans were able to become one with horses. Never had there been cases though, up until now.
Andrew looked at himself, but thought of it not being him. It wasn't normal, it wasn't ever seen before. He was a freak. He didn't want to look at what was behind him, but even when being upright -Andrew couldn't count it as sitting or standing- what he saw when looking down was long strands of curled black hair, covering a his back and part of two breasts on his tight chest, as the piece of fabric holding the two lumps in place was causing him to feel pain when breathing, not to ignore small hints of pleasure, as the fabric was roughly rubbing against his two new companions. Furthermore, the hair ran down far towards his belly button, also behind him, given the current state he thought part of it were manes running down his spine, but luckily, that wasn't the case.
Looking further down though, all what was left to still be human, was a belly button. That was quite ironic though, as Andrew didn't think a centaur would be birthed with the navel cord attached on their human belly. Yet the centaur part was what he feared. Looking behind his back, he saw what explained his previous feelings. His 'horse' region was lying sideways. Small specks of horse-fur were covering the unnatural region in which a human torso and a horse's body underneath its neck had merged. Right underneath the place where this merge happened was a first set of legs. It was discolored though, and it didn't have toes. Andrew ran his feminine fingers through his hair and started scratching it violently, due to the shock and the adrenaline he couldn't contain his nerves anymore. His muscles were tensed once more, causing one of his new toes to twitch. But it didn't end there. Besides the woman's chest, another one was violently, hyperventilating, rising and sinking very quickly, and going faster every second Andrew looked at it. The hissing sound of a whip ran through the air, and a large piece of dark rope impacted Andrew on the spot he looked at.
A loud sound and a sudden rush of pain left Andrew barely able to breathe. He winced and cried it out in pain, with all air he still had left in him. His legs were untied by a man with an unintelligent glance, as Andrew saw him get up to untie the second set of legs that were bound together. The boy looked down at his hands again, "oh right".
Distraught, he was hit again by the whip, followed by a cry of the man holding it. "Get up!" He exclaimed. Andrew however, wasn't able to, firstly because he could barely breathe, second of all, he'd never walked like this beforehand...
Looking into the eyes of the man, Andrew only saw fear. The unknown person however, was holding a thing that caused Andrew to fear him. "I don't know how..." Andrew whispered with a high tone. Him talking caused the man to take a step away from Andrew, as far as the man could inside the wagon they were both in. "Didn't you hear me?" The man continued, lifting his whip for a third time, "Get up!" As Andrew saw the whip quickly descending towards his horse half again, he tried to answer him louder: "I don't know h-", he cried out, but he yelped again as the whip landed violently on his hips, or at least the hind hips, where his tail started. It left a bloody line on Andrew's fur.
The man was startled by his answer. "What do you mean you don't know?" He asked, not really expecting an answer from a creature not human. The fear was showing all over his trembling body, and he didn't notice how the whip fell to the ground in the process. Meanwhile, the large canvas was pulled away from the wagon, for the first time showing the bars of the tunnel shaped cage Andrew was locked in. Behind Andrew the cage's door was locked and closed, while the man who hit her with a whip three times, ran away in a panicked state. The audience surrounding his cage, but also other ones, were all humans, the ones closest to him were armed, with swords in some cases also metal rods, with a sharp tip to round it off. The other bystanders were all wearing clothing what seemed very expensive compared to those of people walking around, doing all the hard work.
It was then that a man with a loud voice started speaking to the bystanders: "Ladies and gentlemen, the auction for exotic creatures, has been opened!"