A/n: Okay, so I had to do the research for an 8 page paper this weekend, so obviously I didn't have time to write a real update. So, instead, I proofed one of my sweetheart's week fics for you guys!
This is a dramatically extended version of "Alone in the Woods," A very short fic I wrote a few weeks ago because this AU has been stuck in my head. I did change a few things, though. Arthur is now a mare (so it's gender bend among other things), the title is (obviously) changed and there's something resembling a plot. I also apologize for any lapses in terms (I've never worked too closely with horses).
Anyway, the boys are idiots. Even if they're female. Or half-horse.
Alice was sure that she was going to die. She couldn't believe it. Running away from her tribe, and the first thing she did was trip and injure her leg. It was probably broken. In the village, they'd help a poor mare back to her home and protect her so she could heal. Out here…
It was getting late, and she knew that the wolves would be coming soon. She couldn't help it, she started crying. She didn't want to die, especially not like this: alone and torn to pieces for some stupid carnivore. Then she heard voices.
"Hey, do you hear something?"
Great, that was even worse. So now she'd be taken into some filthy human city and put on display like some sort of freak. She began crying harder.
"Yeah. Sounds like someone's hurt. Let's go."
Alice was sobbing too loudly to notice that there were hoof beats instead of footsteps.
"You think maybe she's sick, Al? I've never seen a centaur with spots before."
"She's probably just a different breed. She's little too, but she doesn't look like a filly. Hey, splotchy, are you okay?"
Alice looked up to see two centaurs towering over her, and they were quite literally towering. Their backs had to be nearly eighteen hands high and their torsos were another two feet or so above that. They both had pale yellowish fur that turned white and grew longer on the lower part of their legs. But in spite of, or maybe because of, their otherness they were the most beautiful creatures Alice had ever seen.
"Hey, can you hear me?" the one with shorter hair on his head asked. "Do you even speak English?"
Alice nodded, his brain beginning to process that maybe he wasn't dead after all. "M-my leg," She said. "I fell and hurt it."
"Ouch, that sucks balls. Let us take you to our village. We can get you fixed up and then take you back to your tribe once your leg heals."
"Alright." Alice said, not bothering to explain that she didn't want to go back.
The other two centaurs positioned themselves on either side of him and knelt. She threw her arms across their broad shoulders and they helped her stand.
"I'm Alfred." The one with shorter hair said, "This is Matt."
"Alice."
Alfred grinned at her and began to speak rapidly, rambling on and on about his own home, occasionally interspersing his speech with the occasional question directed at her. She was tired and wanted quiet, but at the same time Alfred's speech was somewhat endearing. But maybe she was just distracted. After all, he was strikingly beautiful, even if he was massive. Of course, she couldn't show it. She tried to keep up her façade of indifference, but that occasionally snapped and she'd show too much and then she would have to shout at him. Luckily he would always bounce back, more excitable than ever. And, oh, if that didn't make her want him all the more.
Maybe she'd found her new home after all.
They walked Alice to their chief's tent and tapped their hooves in front of the door to get his attention.
"Boys?" He asked, coming to the door, "What are you doing? It's the middle of the night!" He was an older stallion, hair beginning to gray and face lined, but he still looked formidable.
It was then that he caught sight of Alice. His eyes grew wide.
"She's hurt." Alfred said, "We want Amanda to take a look at her."
The chief just nodded and went back into the tent.
"Who's Amanda?" Alice asked.
"Well, that depends." Matt replied, "She's our chief's wife and a very accomplished healer who won't curse us for getting her up at this hour."
Then Amanda appeared. She was as tall and fair as the rest of them, with a flower in her short hair. Alice felt like a mule standing next to her. She huffed, "Really? You can never drop by just to say hello can you? One of these days I'll tell mom."
"She's also our sister." Alfred whispered.
"Alright, let's get the filly to the stable. I'll take a look at her leg there. We've got some nice piles of straw you can lay in."
As they walked Alice looked around. The village seemed the same as their own, mostly made of square-ish tents with a few old wooden buildings. There was a large platform in the center that would serve as a stage for their gatherings, and the stables she was being taken to. She wondered where they wintered, if they had a cave they'd used for generations, like her tribe, or if these horses were big enough that they were aright just with their tents in the freezing cold. They got her there safe and sound. Amanda winced as she got down on her knees.
"Wait a second," Alfred said, staring at his sister. "Are you pregnant again?"
She stuck out her tongue and grinned.
"My god, you must foal more often than every mare in this village put together."
"You should keep a closer count on your nieces and nephews."
"That's easy for you to say. You don't get sent out into the woods all the time!"
"Oh, go back home!" Amanda said, shooing him away. "I need to treat her!"
Alfred snorted but trotted away, bringing Matthew with him.
She waved them off and began examining Alice's leg.
"How many do you have?" Alice finally asked.
"If all goes well, five."
"That's not too many," Alice replied.
"It's more that we've been married for four years. Nothing scandalous, I had twins two summers ago."
"No breaks? God, I thought you looked young."
She shrugged. "That's the life of a mare in this village. There was a fire some time ago. It killed off a lot of us. But now those that are left have plenty of room and more than enough food, so there's no reason not to. Of course, Randolph wants to try to convince us to breed to increase our numbers so if something like that happens again we won't die out for good."
"Randolph?"
"My husband. I'm helping him lead by example."
"But isn't there more to life than that?"
She paused for a moment to lock eyes with Alice. Then she said, "What? Of course there is. I advise the tribe on spiritual matters, I follow the orders of my chief, and if you haven't noticed I heal as often as the old mares in the widow's tent."
"But what about caring for your foals?"
She just laughed, "There are more than enough of us around. Once they're weaned it doesn't matter who keeps an eye on them."
"That must be nice." Alice said, looking away.
She felt the other mare's sharp blue eyes staring into her, as though the side of her head would explain everything about her tribe. She felt much less at ease than she had with the mare's brothers. Whether Amanda learned what she wanted to or not she spoke a few minutes later.
"It's not broken, thankfully. I think it's a sprain. Still, you won't be walking for a while." She slowly got to her hooves, "Don't worry, until then no one's going to tell your fiancé where you are. And then you can make up your own mind."
Alice flailed, "How did you know about-"
"Just don't mention anything about weddings or foaling to any of the mares. They'll see right through it. You're just lucky my brother's skull is about two inches thick."
Alice smiled and after exchanging goodnights, Amanda left. Alice tried to settle in the most comfortable position she could. After all, from the sound of things she was going to be staying for quite a while
-0-0-0-
Alice was a very quick healer, and Alfred was happy for it. It wasn't long until she was hobbling around with only one centaur for support. She'd moved in with Alfred and Matthew, and as they were apparently the only ones with space in their tent and they were sent off on hunting trips fairly often so she had an entire tent to herself, which had to be nice for her. After all, growing up with Amanda had just been one long reminder that mares didn't like stallions sticking their noses in their business.
Of course, that didn't change that Alfred wanted to get involved with her business. If it wasn't for the fact that he was sure she didn't like him he would have proposed by now. But he held out hope that maybe, just maybe one day he could convince her that he was worth something. After all, she hadn't been snuggling up to anyone else since she'd come and had shown no intention on leaving. He knew he had to win her over before that changed, so he made sure that he never came back empty handed when he went out. He refused to return to the village without enough meat to last for days on his back and flowers or baubles for Alice's hair or tail in his satchel. Sometimes he thought she was maybe, just maybe coming around. When she thought he wasn't looking sometimes her eyes would soften or she'd giggle at something he said or did and then have to scramble to regain her composure.
It was working. He just needed a little more. Always just a little more.
Then one day when he and Matthew were out they ran into another hunting party: one that was short and had black splotches on their lower halves too. They were delighted to see Alfred and Matthew and brought them back to their village. Matt seemed to be enjoying it, but Alfred was worried. Even after Alice was completely healed she showed no inclination to return. There had to be a reason for that.
As it turned out, even though Alfred assumed it was the furthest thing from Matthew's mind, he figured it out first.
"Where are your mares?" He asked once they'd been in the village for a while without seeing so much as a filly.
Their guide, a young stallion sighed, "We don't have many. I say we're cursed, but we rarely get fillies. When we do, well, a lot of time they get married off the second they go into season. Spend their entire lives trying to come up with one female to replace them."
Alfred swallowed, "Right away right away?"
The stallion shook his head. "Well, the mare used to be able to put it off if she wanted. It was just rare that she wanted to work instead of being treated like a queen. Just got banned, though, a few weeks back. The chief's daughter got some ideas in her head of not wanting to live like that and abandoned us. We're not sure what happened, but we're pretty sure she's dead. Shame too, that warrior really fancied her. And she was strong, would've made for some good stock."
Alfred couldn't help it. He hated hearing Alice, beautiful, smart, strong, wonderful Alice talked about like an animal to be bred. So he reared up and kicked him in the chest.
"Hey!" The stallion shouted, clutching his chest in disbelief, "What gives?"
"Maybe you're cursed because you treat your mares like crap!"
"What?!"
"They don't deserve to be tied down like that. No one does!"
"Are you mad? We worship the ground our mares walk on. We keep them warm, well-fed, and make sure they never have to work a day in their lives other than to care for their youngest foals. I bet you make yours work!"
"Um, guys…" Matt said.
"We at least give them the choice to do that!" Alfred snarled.
"Work is miserable. Our mares get all the food and sex they could ever want."
"Yeah, because that's gotta be better than actually doing something fulfilling."
"Al, I mean it, you should probably just…"
"Remember where you are, outsider. You may be big, but there's a lot of us and we're used to fighting."
"Bring it on. Maybe then if I win you'll see that-"
"Alfred, shut up!"
Both of them jumped at Matthew's sudden outburst. Matthew grabbed Alfred by the arm and dragged him to the side.
"You listen to me, There are bigger things here than you getting defensive of your girlfriend. I don't know if you haven't noticed, but we've had to leave for longer and longer times. Winter's coming soon and we just barely have as much as last year with ten new mouths to feed. If we work with these people we might be able to get ahead instead of killing each other or waiting for nature to do it for us."
Alfred looked back and forth between the two of them, carefully considering his options. He took another step towards the stallion.
"Let's say she came back, that girl who ran away, if she'd somehow survived, what would you do?"
He laughed, "Are you kidding? We'd have her marry the warrior I mentioned. Whoever she marries will become chief. That's too important to disregard over some moodiness on her part."
"But if- if she had gotten married?"
The stallion narrowed his eyes. "She's still alive, isn't she? You know where she is."
"N-no! Of course not! I'm just talking hypothetical. I mean, I'm trying to judge if you guys deserve our help!"
After a moment he sighed, "According to our laws there's nothing that can be done."
Alfred nodded and turned away.
"My chief is my brother in law. I'll talk to him about starting an alliance with you. Maybe some mixed marriages will end this curse of yours."
"Thank you."
Alfred walked away without looking back. Once he was sure he was out of sight of the village, he broke into a gallop. Even though he was going at top speed, he took a complex route back in case he'd been followed. When he finally made it back, he was sweaty and exhausted.
Alice, who had been helping tend their little garden, quickly moved over to him.
"What happened?"
"I met your tribe."
"What?" He could sense the fear rolling off of her in waves.
"We bumped into one of their hunting parties. And they might have figured out that you're still alive."
"No. I can't go back, Alfred, I won't!"
"That's okay, I won't let you!"
"Dammit, what do we do?"
"We'll run away. We can start our own tribe!"
She leveled a flat look at him. "That is beyond the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
"Have you got anything better?"
She opened her mouth and then closed it again. Finally she sighed. "I'll pack my things."
It was then that Matthew showed up with one centaur on each side. Alfred stood defensively in front of Alice and tightly held his spear. Matthew rolled his eyes.
"Chill out, I made them promise not to take her back if I showed them where the village was so that we could work on an alliance. Seriously, Al, you're so dramatic."
One of the stallions that had come with Matthew, one nearly as tall as he was, trotted up towards Alice.
"So you really are alive."
"I am." She replied, sticking her chin out defiantly.
He shook his head and smiled, "That is enough for me." He put a hand on Alfred's shoulder, "Take care of her, will you? The current chief has decided that even if she marries you I will inherit his title, so you'll have the chance to do that yourself."
"We're not a couple!" Alfred and Alice said at the same time.
Everyone in the area either gave them a disbelieving look or laughed. Well, if it was enough to keep her around. And by the way she was blushing…
Matthew led the two stallions to their chief's tent and everyone else got back to work.
"Right," Alfred said, "Well, you know, before all this, I was going to ask you, do you want to go for a walk? I know a place near here that's really pretty at twilight."
Alice blushed, "W-well, I don't know. I mean, there's berries that have to be prepared and I was going to help Jennifer with dinner tonight-"
"No one wants that anyway," Amanda said as she walked by and shoved Alfred's head forward so that their lips touched.
Alice started kissing back and that was all he needed. They wrapped their arms around each other and stayed pressed together for some time.
"Fuck courtship," Alice said, "I'm living in your tent. Marry me, you oaf."
"I'm in."
They kissed again.
"My god, you two are going to breed." Amanda said. "Do we really need to fold more crazy into the gene pool? No, stick to your guns, Alice."
"Because you're the fucking paradigm of abstinence." Alfred sneered.
My husband didn't go from running away with me, to denying we were a couple, to asking for my hand in two minutes."
Alfred just looked at Alice. She just shrugged and kissed him again.
Two months later, Alfred actually proposed to her when they were alone.
If their first foal was born closer to nine months from that day than their wedding, no one chose to comment.
-0-0-0-
Alice and her kin are British Spotted Ponies, and Alfred and Matthew's are Draft Horses.