The Centaur turned towards me and for a
moment I thought he would atack me too. He looked kind of threatening
with that big claymore of his, still dripping with blood. Then he
extended a hand.
-Hop on lass. The Calormene are coming closer and
they aren't known for taking prisoners.
By lack of any other
options I took the centaur's hand and before I knew I was firmly
seated on his back.
-Hold on!
And hold on I did. The last time
I had ridden anything remotely equine had been six years ago and that
had been a shetlander. The centaur was taller and much faster than
Tutsi and I was mortally afraid to fall off. I had fallen of horses
before of course but never at such high speeds. I didn't seem
to have completely forgotten my riding lessons though and after a
while I found myself actually moving with the centaur instead of
simply bumping along. If my situation hadn't been so strange I would
have whooped. Soon we joined with a group creatures as strange
if not stranger than my centaur. I saw a couple of other centaurs, a
few fauns, three dwarves and a rather threatening creature I could
only call a minotaur. They all were bloodied and battle-wary. And so
were the beasts that accompanied them. I'd never seen such a diverse
assortment of different animals walk so peacefully together. I saw
three cheetahs, four badgers, a couple of deer, a horse, a three mice
and one squirrel. All walked together as if it was perfectly normal
to do so and they weren't prey and predator. I wondered what kept
them here and from each others throats. That is untill one of them,
the horse, spoke up and nearly made me fall of my Centaur's back.
-Oi
Stellos! What in Aslan's name made you run off like that!
-I
had to follow a hunch.
-The Lion's Mane. Centaurs and their
hunches. We don't have time right now for you to follow your
'hunches'! The Calormene are on our heels and I'm pretty sure the
only thing that keeps them from finding us is the mist. We have to
hurry before it dissipates.
' Well what are we waiting for then?'
my centaur, or rather Stellos, replied smartly. The horse snorted
which I supposed was the horse-equivalent of an exasperated sigh.
They set off into a trot. Though it wasn't the neckbreaking speed at
which Stellos had gone before it was still a ground-eating pace and I
could sense the urgency that was hanging over the company.
-Hey
Stellos, who did you bring with you?
I searched for the speaker.
It was one of the mice who was firmly seated on one of the
cheetahs'back. Suddenly I found myself stared at by a few dozen eyes.
They hadn't really paid attention to me untill now but the mouse's
question had drawn all attention to me.
-Yeah tell us!
-It
looks like a human!
-WHAT!
The company fell silent again.
-Why
in Aslan's name did you bring a human along, Stellos?
It was
the horse and he looked postively furious now.
-Hey calm down
Carl. She's not a Calormene. She is too pale for that.
The horse,
or rather Carl, visibly relaxed at that.
-In fact even for a
Telmarine she looks rather pale. You sure she is not ill,
Stellos?
Before I could find the speaker this time I found
myself with a handull of red fur in my lap, and with a little clawed
paw firmly on my forehead.
-Well she doesn't have a fever.
My
eyes finally focused to look straight into the concerned little face
of the squirrel.
-Maybe she is one of those fancy Telmarine ladies
who never go outside ?
The faun who had said that scoffed.
-Hey
guys I can speak for myself you know!
They fell into a
rather embarassed silence when they realised they had been speaking
about me as if I hadn't been there. The squirrel was the first to
speak again.
-Oh excuse us for our behavior Lady. These are rather
stressfull times....
The minotaur snorted at that.
-... and one
does tend to forget his manners, in times like these. Please tell us
who you are.
-Well... uhm
I was a bit flustered at the sudden
expectant silence. I didn't know what I could tell and what not. This
was not my world anymore as much was clear, and I did not know if
these strange creatures where known with cases like me, or I would be
declared as mad. I decided to tell them the bare minimum about
how I got there and speak only in general terms about where I came
from. This world still seemed to be in some sort of Middle-Age so
would I avoid any mention of modern things.
-Well I'm Yannick
Frequin and yes I know it's a boy's name. I'm Dutch... well at
least half since Mom is Belgian, and eeeehm..... I kind of got lost,
so I really don't know how I got here.
Smooth, girl, real
smooth. Got lost heh?
-Dutch... does that mean you are
from... Dutchland? I've never heard of that country.
That was one
of the Badgers.
-Well actually my country is called the
Netherlands but it doesn't really surprise me you don't know it. It
is eeeehm, kind of far away.
It gets better every time doesn't
it?
The badger was about to ask further when he got
interrupted by Stellos.
-Leat it rest, Holdfast. Lady
Yannick clearly is confused and I doubt she will be able to answer
all your questions.
I gave inaudible sigh of relief. I didn't miss
the knowing glance the Stellos shared with the other Centaurs though.
They knew something.
