Extract from Ben’s diary:
It is the first of Hecatombaeon. The equivalent of mid-July. Two years and three months, to the day, have passed since the first twelve of us were chosen by that magical painting, to be sent through its generated portal to Arcadia Centauri. To become the start of the new centaur race.
Several things have come to pass in the last three years.
Firstly, it didn’t take long, after the arrival of our Afghan guests, for Spirit and Qudsia to mate. They became the third besotted couple in our colony to have both been horse-born. They then took on the roles of wardens and support farmers. As for the third human-born couple amongst us, Zafar and Gulpari gave into their newfound equine instincts by the end of their first week, as predicted. Lucy and I congratulated them when they came to us, holding holds. Although they had cleaned themselves up, the dopy, blissful smiles on their faces when we met them coming out of the showers, one evening, told Lucy and I (and the rest of the herd) enough – even before they spoke.
“Congratulations on fully accepting your new species and embracing your new lives!” Lucy gushed as she hugged Gulpari. “I’m glad you have overcome your fears.”
“Back when I was still a human halfling, I was scared at the thought of us…mating as centaurs, when I was told what would come to be,” Gulpari admitted, her words confirming her mental transformation. “But our coupling was wonderful! I’ve made a true centaur stallion out of my former girlfriend…”
“…and I have made a true centaur mare out of Gulpari. I am completely male, now – as I have wanted to be for years. And I am eager to mate again with my love, before very long!” Zafar added shamelessly, grinning. “Now, when the next halflings arrive at this village, we will be happy to welcome and accommodate our guests – and be there for them when they change into our future herd-brothers and herd-sisters. Like you and May were there for us.”
“Good to hear! What roles and skills has Epona given to you?” I asked them.
“Hunters – which we already have been, on earth. But miners too,” Gulpari answered.
Zafar nodded. “Our goddess wants us to work on an open cast mine that our predecessors worked upon. It’s beyond Hylonome’s Haven – near to the coast. South of here. We will assist Fred and Helios with the metals that we dig out. Our repayment to them, for shooing us both recently!”
***
It took some months – but thankfully, (as our village Wise One) May did indeed help Cassie to get over her kidnap by Rasputin, with May’s use of counselling, sleep aromatherapy, and use of white magic that May was learning from the book left behind by the previous Wise One, Fennell. Poor Cassie had nightmares for a while – but no more, Midnight has told me.
Lucy was kept busy by several of the mares entering estrus – or heat - during that first summer. Along with Steve and myself using what basic medical equipment our predecessors left behind (such as thermometers and stethoscopes), the three of us kept tabs on the pregnant ladies during their terms. It turned out that the females of our species have a gestation period equivalent to horses – once you factor in the longer days and longer months here. So centaurs here are pregnant for around eight and half months on Arcadia Centauri.
The first ones were from the group of mustangs. The Scottish-sounding Hazel, the French-accented Louisiana. And that mustang who tried to flirt with me upon our first meeting, Bonita. I’m glad that she took the hint when I told her I was off-limits. But then other ladies entered estrus too – hounding their stallions repeatedly with hungry kisses and their pheromones until they got the sex that they needed, in order to become pregnant. Leaving Snow, June, Aiko, and Josephine as mothers-to-be, also.
In the next year, all seven of them successfully gave birth, thanks to Lucy’s midwifery – with myself and Steve on standby. Aiko, Hazel, and Louisiana became mothers to healthy colts – whilst Bonita, Josephine, and Snow bore healthy fillies. Josephine told Lucy something about her new daughter being the reincarnation of a woman he and Steve couldn’t save, back on earth…
And Zack surprised his foster parents, when he touched his hand against June’s swollen horse belly during her third trimester – and told her and Marcus that the baby would be a filly.
“She’s the reincarnation of my twin sister, Zabrina - who I lost to leukaemia,” he solemnly told them. “She’ll have a large, benevolent mole on her right shoulder – like I do.”
“How do you know?” Marcus had asked his adopted son.
“Our goddess told me, as I slept last night.” Zack had smiled. “It is her special present to me – reuniting my sister and I again.”
And indeed, their healthy filly was born with the mole that Zack had predicted. Accepting that their new daughter was indeed the reincarnation of Zack’s sister, Marcus and June named her Zabrina. And she and Zack soon became devoted siblings.
The importance of this series of births wasn’t lost on Lucy and myself. We talked about it when we went to bed after the third delivery in that first birthing season. Lucy spoke aloud her thoughts – that we were witnessing the beginning of the first native-born centaurs on our new world since our arrival. These boys and girls would never know what it meant to be human halflings. To be born with human feet and only have two arms and two legs to crawl upon. To have no fur. To have only one heart. Instead, those babies had all seven limbs from the get-go. And they would never witness the pollution, hardship and semi-chaos of life on earth. Only the close, hardworking community of our village, and the greenery and fresh air of this world. But by the time this new generation became adults, hopefully there would then be many large colonies across our world – and some of us would be confident enough to reclaim the towns…
***
Right. Back to what’s been happening with our herd at large…
After all our hard work resulted in a successful harvest during our first year, the days grew shorter, the nights longer, and the average temperatures dropped. Luckily, by then, most of the village buildings that needed repairs had been finished – thanks to our horse-born team of Bolt, Daisy, Pegasus, and Sandy - after our team used what materials and means we could. Some of the younger foals helped by climbing our piles of assembled stones, placed next to the walls, in order to rethatch the roofs.
With our shelters all ready for the approaching winter, the farming focus shifted to our kept livestock (including the chickens Marcus and Midnight had found during a scouting/hunting trip). Thankfully, we didn’t have much snow – and we managed to gather enough firewood to last us through the gloomy, chill days and freezing nights. Our practicing band of musicians helped to entertain us as we sat in the larger barns – with Xing now deciding that he would play music because he wanted to, not because he had to. And he’s become good on the guitar. And, as Sarah had predicted, during that first winter, Wendy and Midnight become the first couple to marry. Which was in the church. A touching hand-bonding ceremony conducted (naturally) by Lightning. Instead of taking on Wendy’s surname, the couple have decided to adopt an early English occupation approach to family names. Henceforth, we now have Wendy and Midnight Hunter in our herd.
And in the following spring, Fred and May had their own, sweet, hand bonding marriage, too. In their case, Fred was happy to take on May’s surname from her previous human life – Cooper.
“Fred, Malcom, and I will be a better Cooper family than my parents were,” was May’s reasoning to us, which she gave with a tight-lipped smirk.
“Amen to that!” Fred heartedly agreed, as we toasted the new couple with our raised glasses of cider and apple cordial.
Also, in the spring, Bolt and Daisy decided to accept human convention and get married in the same way, too. When we toasted the latest happy couple, I snickered at the realisation that my former horse was now the groom.
Likewise, Lucy’s former horse – Lightning – married April, who is now helping Jenny in the laundry. As well as looking after the chickens. As for who married our priest and his mate? Zoey decided to act as deputy vicar for the event.
It wasn’t all happy times, though. The winter snows resulted in our hunting parties having to roam further out, in order to find enough meat for our cooking pots. It also resulted in a pair of bears, also out for food, attacking one of our hunting parties. Despite the fighting prowess of Wendy and Zafar, as they tried to rescue him, the mustang Francisco was fatally clawed by a bear. And during another bear attack – this time upon the sheep who had escaped from their holdings – Bonita was chased out onto a frozen lake by the bear. Only for the ice to crack open underneath them both. Shadowfax (who had killed the bear’s mate in the encounter) told us that Bonita deliberately used herself as bait to lure the she-bear to its likely death. Only for the mustang mare to slip into her icy tomb as well, before Shadowfax could save her.
The loss of two of the herd struck us hard, especially given that the deaths were only a week apart. Francisco’s remains were laid to rest in the new graveyard we set aside for him, close to the plague victims grounds. Whilst we all held a candlelit service for Bonita in the church. Lucy was in tears.
“I didn’t like Bonita after she tried to flirt with you, Ben,” she whispered to me, as I comforted her. “But she sacrificed herself, to protect the rest of us – as well as protecting the sheep. And I admire her bravery and loyalty to the haras. Poor Isla… She has lost her mother… And Shadowfax has lost his mate – just as Fatima did.”
It will come as no surprise that, drawn together by their shared grief, Fatima and Shadowfax comforted each other. During the course of that year, the two horse-borns became loving mates. And the centaur toddler Isla gained a stepmother in Fatima, to the herd’s collective relief.
One thing I should add about those times. In the church, whenever there was a marriage, I noticed that the stained-glass depiction of our goddess had a wider smile than usual. But when we held the services for Francisco and Bonita, I saw that Epona’s image was downcast – with a tear falling from her eye. When I shook my head and looked again, her image was back to her usual enigmatic smile. I thought I was imagining it. But Lucy, upon hearing my observations after the second incident, witnessed the phenomenon for herself.
“Our goddess is speaking her emotions to us, even without words,” she sagely remarked.
Another thing. Although the herd celebrated Christmas in a simple, communal way, rather than having any wrapped presents or indulging on food and drink – Epona gave her own gift to me and Lucy. We had a shared dream on the night before our chosen Christmas day – finding ourselves in a hotel room. To our surprise, we were both human again. And clothed. Only having two legs each as we walked caused us to stumble each into other and flop upon the bed. Then Epona herself appeared to us, in her radiant, silver-furred, copper-spotted, centaur form. We bowed our heads, before looking at her again.
“Dear E-Epona! What’s going on? Why are we hu-human once more…?” Lucy stuttered in her nervousness.
Epona smiled at us. “Relax, my daughter. I understand that Ben was still a virgin when I blessed him with his transformation into a centaur. So, I have decided that since the herd is marking your Christmas now, I will allow the human-born who lost their virginity as centaurs to experience what it is like to mate in their human forms with their chosen ones. Just this once, mind. And when you have done that, you will experience your transformations again – but this time painlessly. This is just in your minds, after all.” She paused. “When you have finished, a door will appear to let you leave and meet the others who had the same situation as Ben. I wish you all a Merry Christmas.” And with her enigmatic smile, plus a wink, our goddess disappeared before our eyes. Like a ghost.
I turned to look at Lucy, still processing the situation as we held each other on the bed. We could see that indeed there was no door to the hotel room. “Well…,” I began. “I guess we should savour the opportunity that we never had, when we were mere humans…”
“…because we were both too shy to do so, back on Earth,” Lucy admitted. Then, grinning, she started to kiss me and unbutton my clothes, even as I unzipped her dress, and brushed her long blonde-brown hair. Before long, we were naked and passionately engaging in all the ways of love that we couldn’t do as centaurs…
And as we lay on the bed, in the afterglow of our wonderful lovemaking, Lucy and I quickly kicked off the bedcovers as we began to feel our dream bodies transforming – our plumed tails already growing into place. Hurrying over to the floor as our trunks suddenly elongated and filled out to equine size, we fell down upon the carpet and held hands as we painlessly changed together and became complete once more, as fully-fledged centaurs. Then, seeing a pair of horse-sized doors appearing in one wall, Lucy and I helped each other up – and we left the room together on our hooves, to see Jenny and Sandy emerging into the hotel corridor at the same time, as centauress and centaur. Then Sarah and Xanadu, also centaurs, exited their room again. We laughed and hugged each other – knowing that Epona had treated me, Jenny, and Sarah (and our partners) with the same gift.
“Well, herd-brother…,” Sandy slapped my shoulder. “…now I know what’s it’s like to make love as a human man. Then he lowered his voice and winked. “But I will still make love again as a centaur stallion to Jenny, this Christmas. When she is ready to have me.”
“Don’t think I can’t hear you with my pointy ears, my stud!” Jenny grinned at him. “But what is this place?”
“It’s the hotel from my earlier dream, again!” Sarah sort of explained to us. “Thank you for your gift, Epona!” she gushed.
And with that, the dream shared by us six ended. It was wonderful – but Lucy and I still prefer our couplings in the centaur fashion…
What else can I mention? Oh yes. In the summer of our second year on our new home world, Amanda and Chris married. Becoming Chris and Amanda Herdman. And once again, at the evening dance as I played drums for the band, the bride threw her bouquet of flowers over her head towards the jostling mares - as per the tradition that us human-born were raised with. I saw Lucy champing at the bit to grab the prize, as she had tried to before (ever since Midnight and Wendy’s marriage), only to lose to previously lose to April, May, and Amanda. But this time, Jessica seized the bouquet, with a triumphant yell.
Lucy huffed, and then turned away, blushing, when she saw me watching her with a raised eyebrow…
More marriages came later that year. Our two dun-colored Nordestinos, Jessica and Sarah underwent hand-binding ceremonies with their respective stallions, Nova and Xanadu. By that stage, Sarah’s stomach was already beginning to bulge, Lucy had noticed. And Starlight too, was pregnant by then.
Now, it is the beginning of another summer. In recent weeks – each time at night - Steve, Lucy and I have collectively helped to oversee the arrival of three more additions to the herd, as Sarah, Starlight – and Amanda too – have given birth to adorable foals, making the faces of their mothers and fathers light up with joy. A colt for Sarah and Xanadu – and fillies for Starlight and Steve, and Amanda and Chris.
Some of us in the herd recently have moved to Hylonome’s Haven, including Cindy, Lucy and I. The reason being that our numbers have increased to make it advisable for the haras to spread its territory to the nearest coastal village to Chiron’s Grove. In recent weeks, one of the magical paintings teleported an Argentinian horse breeding family to us. The four – father, mother, daughter, and the daughter’s fiancé – were facing a financial struggle to carry on. Indeed, the father was considering suicide, he later told me. But the centaur painting that fate had given them instead mesmerised them and four of their horses (like my party and I had been hypnotised) into the portal that led them here. Now all eight of them are proud centaurs, enjoying their new lives. And the parents have been turned a few years younger by Epona, to boot.
So now, roughly a third of our colony now live in Hylonome’s Haven – along with a third of the foals. Cindy still needs to trot to school and back – as do Adam, Tim, Eve, and their foster parents. And we now have a new head stallion and head mare for our second village – though Chris and Amanda are still their seniors.
Our secondary head stallion and head mare? I’m proud that my former horse, Bolt – along with Amanda’s former mare, Daisy – are now effective leaders over our second village. And although Lucy and I still visit Chiron’s Grove, to work – Lucy now runs the mill in Hylonome’s Haven, assisted by some of the newer centaurs. And some of the others now act as fishermen and fisherwomen with their nets, whilst wading into the village stream, having been taught by Zafar and Gulpari – who are also here again. The older foals are acting as apprentices, too – helping in the farming, animal management, laundry, tailoring, scouting, hunting, and so on. The future looks good.
As for more on the foals. Well, Beth and Zack are dating. As are Kyra and Adam. Cindy is still good friends with Tim, as well as with Maggie. But, after an amicable discussion with Cindy, I think Maggie is now turning her eye to Jeremy. Hopefully, it will all work out well for them. And all of our other kids.
So, I end this journal account, by setting the last scene. My family is sitting on the sand bank, looking east, out to sea as the sun begins to touch the western horizon, whilst Jenny, Sandy, and Eve run, whoop, and play their impromptu version of polo around us on this warm weekend summer night. The sea breeze making it perfect. Close by, Adam and his visiting fillyfriend, Kyra, race each other along the beach, keen to push themselves to the max on their hooves. Cinnamon and Magnolia are also present – racing with Spirit, Qudsia, Zafar and Gulpari. They are all smiling and laughing. However, Gulpari can’t match her former steed or the other horse-borns in a sprint. Because her pregnancy is beginning to show. So Zafar trots back to her as she drops out of the race, to hug her and lovingly rub her bulge. They smile and lock lips and arms, smooching for a long, lingering kiss…
As for us, Cindy is resting her head against Lucy’s swollen belly whilst Lucy rests on the ground on her side, with our daughter’s half-pointed ear twitching as she listens to the extra heartbeats via my stethoscope…
That’s right. Lucy is now pregnant herself – after entering heat herself, last summer. At the time, she bombarded me with feverish kisses of fire and her scent, whenever she could - until I gave into my own instincts and mated with her repeatedly over the course of that week, letting my inner animal full rein with my forehooves locked around her sides, until Lucy experienced the first signs that she was with foal. And she bears a wedding ring to match mine – after Fred and Helios made another pair of marriage rings for our own wonderful hand-binding ceremony last year. In keeping with our human-born friends, my wife and I have also taken on an appropriate surname. We are now Ben and Lucy Miller. However, this has led to the British-born Jenny smirking at Cindy, and calling her Windy Miller – instead of Cindy Miller. Confusing our girl. But Lucy and I got the TV reference joke, after Jenny explained it to us.
As for now, Cindy raises her face and beams at me and my gorgeous wife. “I can hear both his hearts! It’ll be a colt. I’m looking forward to being a big sister to a boy!” she gushes.
Lucy smiles back at her. “How can you tell the gender, Cindy?”
Our smart adopted daughter shrugs her shoulders. “I just instinctively know. Just as I know you’ll both be as good to him as loving parents, as you are with me!”
I chuckle and pull Cindy closer to me, before I kiss her forehead. Then I adjust my half-equine body, so that I’m able to exchange a slow, loving kiss with Lucy. Her fingers brush the new white shirt that Nova has created for me, whilst my fingers brush Lucy’s green blouse that our herd tailor also made.
“I’m proud of you, Luce,” I tell her, as our lips part. “I’m sorry that you have to put up with our foal’s kicks.”
She shook her head and smiled. “Don’t worry, Ben! The other mothers had to bear with it – so I will be able to cope, too.” The fingers of one of Lucy’s hands intertwine with mine, whilst her other arm hugs Cindy close. “I look forward to giving birth to our own foal. Our son.” She beams at me. “I love you, Ben. Forever and for always.”
“Arrrhhh!” Cindy coos.
“And I love you, Lucy. Forever and for always,” I pledged in her, in kind. On this, another in a long line of glorious summer nights.
The future of our herd, our haras, our kind, is now secure. Come what may, we centaurs will survive, thrive and continue to grow slowly our numbers. But we will always respect and work with nature – not against it. We will continue to be a good haras, worthy of being the children of our benevolent goddess, Epona. And we will continue to worship her – in thanks for each dawn that we experience as happy centaurs that leads to another day in paradise.