Reed had been nothing more than a good friend, a fun-loving coworker with his own life to live, with an acute interest in Ben’s aspirations. Now? He was on his horse-back, riding him - riding him - and apparently just life as usual.
Things felt completely out of his control. What a predicament, what a load of - he just couldn’t resist, could he? Testing out the Chronivac by doing something so otherworldly, so … so… dreamy...
Ben’s impatient mind drifted to thoughts of indulgence. Romping through long grasses sounded good right about now. Being well-groomed, and … loved? Was it odd that he enjoyed the attention? His mind kept drifting back to it. There was something very rudimentary but complex about his relationship with Reed...
He shook it off. He shouldn’t begin to grasp at what. “Go with the flow.” Let’s not affect this sub-reality unless it gets in the way. He seemed to recall something about this in a training video. Whatever extremes that led to, he’d have to put up with it.
As long as he got what he needed - a meeting in Cityville with TransDem - he would be fine. He had to keep telling himself that to keep his mind at rest. The people at TransDem have the answers. It would be one hell of a story to tell.
The Chronivac software and emitter were in a knapsack with Reed’s belongings and tools. Ben began with a slow trot down the road to get his bearings. He felt the methods, the rhythm inside, the left hooves and right hooves pushing his body forward. Even with the odd sense of weight beneath his equine shoulders, it was… okay. Still, he hadn’t done much walking, let alone running, in his new form. Because of it, he began to hyper-focus on what his hooves were doing, and then he caught himself a couple times tipping his human body forward too much.
A few blocks down the road, Reed wrapped his hands around Ben’s human waist. He was going to say something about it, but shook his head and kept trotting forward.
Plus, it was a bit comforting...
Reed spoke over the hoof clomps. “Ben… I have to know. What’s so important in Cityville that it couldn’t wait? I won’t get back home till, like, 10.”
“...I have an appointment with someone!”
“But you didn’t tell me about it?” Reed asked, astounded.
“Uh…” Ben hummed and hawed. “It was a last-minute thing.”
Reed shook his head. “This better be important…”
The homes along the road dispersed. Minutes later, Ben’s mind entered a point of semi-consciousness. It was like driving a car down a highway in Nebraska: you lose full attention to your surroundings, because everything’s so similar and second-nature. Then, other things begin to occupy your mind. For Ben, those other things were his immediate future. God damn it… he wasn’t supposed to think about it. The sooner he got to Cityville, the sooner this could be over.
But then this experience would be over, too… that was obviously what he needed to do… let’s be real, he’s got someone riding on his freakin’ back like an animal… everything feels so natural and yet so weird… what was he supposed to do if they couldn’t fix him… running for too long is a bit exhausting…
“Dude, you’re getting unsteady with the pace…”
With his mind racing between different topics, he was speeding up and slowing down. Another side effect of driving on ‘pilot mode’, apparently.
“Sorry, I gotta... I’ll just walk for a couple minutes.”
“Suit yourself. I’m putting on my headphones…”
---
It had been about ten, maybe eleven miles. The city lights behind them were disappearing under the horizon, but Cityville remained another 15 miles away. Ben was starting to feel self-pressured to hurry it up, but everything was so otherworldly that he wasn’t sure whether it was exhaustion or a second wind propelling him along, and testing the waters could be bad. Yeah, he was somehow tapping into a familiarity with what he was doing, but then he'd wake up and decompress his mind into remembering this wasn't supposed to be real…
A couple cars had passed by. Ben’s consciousness began to panic that he would get hit from behind - yes, even now, there was less worry about being seen as a centaur than there was trying to end this chaos.
“You haven’t run this far for a while, have you?” asked Reed.
“N-no…”
He harrumphed sarcastically. “I can tell.”
“How would you know that about… a…”
“You’re making me uncomfortable, that's how!”
The small highway had a few on-ramps and off-ramps to other county roads. Ben was jaunting down one of them when he saw in the distance a man standing at the intersection corner with a big, black bag. As they got closer, he put his thumb out.
A hitchhiker.
“Ben… Hey, Ben, slow down…
“What for?”
“The hitchhiker guy. Maybe he-”
“NO way.” Ben cut him off. This could be bad news…
“Come on, Ben. He needs help.”
“I’m not gonna--”
Reed gave his horse-hide a swift kick. Instinctively (and reluctantly) Ben slowed down his run, and the man looked up with mild bemusement.
“I’ll do the talking, then.” Reed called down to him as they approached. The man, a bit scruffy-looking but otherwise well-kept and dressed modestly, put his arm down and backed a couple steps away from Ben’s enormous body.
“Can we help you, sir?”
The hitchhiker gave Ben a rather prominent stare, eyeing his body up and down like a model.
“Goddamn. ‘Ya don’t see *that* every day… must be city boys. Do either of ya have a phone?”
Reed turned and looked into Ben’s bag, then back at the man. “Yes but... we don’t get any signal out here. Do you need a ride?”
“REED!!” Ben scuffed. This was exactly what he had feared: meddling with things that--
“Haha, well… yeah. But what are you offering, a piggyback ride?”
Ben was a bit peeved at the direct jab.
“Reed…”
“Better than the alternative, yes? Sitting here past sundown and hoping someone turns off the road?”
“...”
“Anyway, we’re headed to Cityville.”
The hitchhiker smiled. “That’s where I was going, actually. Need to buy a new battery for the truck. But it gave out before I could even get close… th’ thing’s usually good. Don’t have Triple-A, either. Too far away from home to push it back… all I need is a phone so my wife can drive out and get it towed to the auto place.”
Ben awkwardly cut him off. “Unfortunately we’re running late to an appointment, so --”
Reed budged in with another kick to his side. “Soooooooo all we can offer you is a ride to Cityville, and surely we’ll get a phone signal there.”
“You boys goin’ all the way there on foot like that?”
“Of course.”
“Well…” The hitchhiker nervously looked around, back and forth, up and down the road. “Does your friend, uh… does he mind?”
“Naw… right, Ben?”
Ben was ready to deny everything and run away.
“Well, if ya get me there, my wife Diana can drive you boys back home. Plenty of hatch space for your friend to sit back and relax in the SUV. Or the truck, if we get it powered back up.”
Ben’s ears perked up. A car ride? Damn. The sound of a ride sounded great - that's all he wanted in the first place. And… well, he reminded himself to not disturb what fate created. Not to mention, they’d need that car ride back from Cityville after all of this was fixed.
Quid pro quo.
Reed nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
“...”
“...Ben?”
“Y-yeah. Sure. If I get a ride back.”
“Yes, no problem. Thank you so much, boys! Ah, what a relief...”
In less than a second, the strange man strapped his bag onto his back, then swiftly hopped on Ben’s. He stumbled a few steps until he rediscovered his balance. Thank the heavens this dude was a somewhat small man, or he’d be surely crumbling to his, uh, knees.
“I’m Reed, and this is Ben.”
The man shook Reed’s hand. “Ett.”
“...Brett?”
“Heck no! Ett. E-T-T. ‘Ts an Old-fashioned name.”
“Ah, I see.”
A few strides later, and the three men were back on the side of the road, a slower pace but still a solid 10 kilometers per hour.
“Ya know, I’ve ridden plenty of horses before...”
“Well, I’m not a horse.” Ben felt compelled to say.
“‘Course not.” He turned to Reed. “You his guardian or something?”
“Yes sir, we've been working together for six years now.”
Six years? That's how long ago it was when Reed started working at Ben's office. And-- w-wait a second, did he say ‘guardian’?
“Anyway, like I've been saying, I've ridden horses before but the ride is never so smooth. Must be great. More reliable than a truck, that's fer sure.”
Ben sighed and kept on going. With the Chronivac in tow, he was determined to get what he needed done and - perhaps - start looking for a less risky career path. You know, one that didn't involve temporarily offsetting space-time continuums.