Mike tried to formulate a plan the entire way to the dairy farm, a trip that took a little over half the day. The farmer said little or nothing on the trip, even though he must have suspected that the cow he led still could understand him. "You're not the only former hybrid on the farm," he said at one point. "I've got three other cows that were all centaurs, and they seem to like their life. I've got a former sphinx as my barn cat, best mouser I've ever had." Mike waited for him to say more, but nothing else was said.
The farm, when they got to it, was a pleasent enough place. About twenty cows grazed lazily on the pasture surrounded by a low stone wall, a wall too high for an ungainly cow to leap. The small herd showed little interest in the newcomer, which unerved Mike a little. The other three former centaurs, he thought, should at least be curious. Assuming they still could be.
Mike was led through a gate and the rope came off his neck. "Graze and join the herd. You'll be milked twice a day starting tommorow," said the farmer like he was hireing a new employee before he walked off.
Mike didn't think that she'd have to be on the farm long. By now, her freinds had missed their companion and would be looking for him. They wouldn't know that he was now a cow on a farm, but she had every confidence that they'd find her before it was too late to do anything.
Until then, Mike settled into the routine on the farm. He went to every cow that he could find and looked them over, but not one seemed to show signs that they cared she was a former centaur, they only cared aobut their grass and cud. Depressed, Mike grazed until dark and settled down for sleep.
The next day was the start of her new routine, and sure enough she was milked like any other cow. The farmer, who apparently lived alone, milked her and sent her back to the pasture without a word. Dusk came, and she was milked again. Then she slept.
The procedure was repeated the next day. And the next. Each day with no sign that her freinds were ever going to find her.
It was nearly two weeks later when the first break in the routine came, and it wasn't a welcome one. A farmer arrived early one morning with a bull that was turned out to the pasture. Mike watched, horrified, as the bull mounted one cow after another, sometimes several times. When the farmer found a cow that was resisting the advances, she was led into a small paddock for holding, something that happened to Mike when the farmer realized that she'd managed to stay away from the bull.
The paddock eventaully held five resisting cows, and Mike was hopeful that the three centaurs were amoung them, but still they did nothing to betray their intelligence. The bull was led into the paddock after a while, and it took a beeline for Mike.
Close to the bull, his scent filling her nostrils, Mike couldn't resist and she let him mount her. Even after the deed was done, the bull came back to her several times through the night, filling her each time. By the time the morning came, she was exahusted. The bull was led away later that day after a few more trysts in the pasture, and the routine returned.
After two more months of waiting, Mike began to give up on his freinds. They either had written him off as dead, captured, or changed. He didn't know why Ty hadn't ended the game for him at this point. This wasn't what he wanted!
mike lost track of time as her belly swelled. The hormones that raced through her brain seemed to cause his mind to dull all that much faster. Eventually, as Mike was grazing in the fields, she felt a push from inside, and it was followed quickly by a calf falling to the ground.
As the new cow took her first drink from her mothers teats, the last of the concern left Mikes mind. She didn't forget who she once was, but she no longer cared all that much.