Part X -- Chang Centaur
Vader, Luke, Metria, and Jenny sat as close to the fire as they dared, steam rising from their clothes as they dried off from their ordeal. Night had fallen rapidly, and it was getting uncomfortably cold. The centaurs didn't seem to mind, but the Players and Companions had spent half the day in a rainstorm and a flash flood and were soaked clear through.
Vader masterfully suppressed a shiver as he edged closer to the flames. His temperature control systems were working at maximum capacity to raise his body temperature, but it took time for them to kick in fully. He would have to be careful -- if he caught a chest cold from this latest challenge, it could very well overwhelm his already weak respiratory system.
His lungs were not his only weak point, though. Back at the river, he had experienced a moment of vulnerability, one that could prove very dangerous down the road. He had allowed himself to feel compassion toward his son. His heart had separated into two factions since then -- part told him to steel himself against another incident, another part pleaded with him to reconsider his intentions to convert Luke.
He felt a slight weight settle over his shoulders. Jenny had walked over and placed a thick blanket around him. He looked over at her, and she smiled gently in return before picking up her cat. She was his Companion, bound by the game to help him, but she still treated him far more kindly than the game required. Kindness was something no one had offered him in many years.
I have to get out of Xanth, and fast, he thought. Ever since coming to this strange land, he'd been slowly but surely allowing Jenny and Luke to bring down his defenses. If he stayed here much longer, they might very well resurrect Anakin Skywalker, and that could prove to be his undoing.
"We were looking for you, Chem," he heard Luke continue, "but we had no idea you were searching for us."
"Why did you seek me?" asked Chem.
"We're laking for Look Eerie," Metria replied.
"Looking for Lake Eerie?" Chem corrected. "That's a long way."
"You know where it is?" asked Jenny.
"Yes," she replied. "I've made it my personal duty to map out as much of Xanth as possible. Lake Eerie is newly discovered territory."
"And why were you searching for us?" asked Vader.
"For my purposes," Chang replied. "You see, a week or so ago, I asked the Good Magician a question, and for my year of service I was assigned to find the Mundane Players and aid them in their quest." He frowned in disappointment. "But I fear the answer wasn't worth the service."
"You too, eh?" Metria noted.
"Don't worry," Jenny told him. "His answers are usually worthwhile in the end."
"What was your question?" asked Luke.
"It's a long story," Chang replied dismissively.
"Go on and tell them," Chem encouraged. To the others she said "Chang is my sire's brother. I have been helping him on his quest."
"Though why is beyond me," Chang added with a sad smile. "I helped cast your father out of Centaur Isle, you know."
"That was years ago," Chem replied. "And besides, our family lives a happy life now."
"Good. Would that mine would be half as happy."
"Tell them, Uncle."
"Very well." He took a deep breath. "At the beginning of Xanth's history, humans came to Xanth from Mundania. They settled the land, and the human children born in Xanth developed magic talents that enabled them to co-exist with this land. But they were rather careless in their ways, and soon some ran afoul of the love springs.
"The concept of a love spring may sound romantic to most Mundanes, but it has led to tragedy as well as comedy and romance. For once you drink from a love spring, you fall instantly and irrevocably in love with the first creature of the opposite sex you see. This meddling with the springs led to the many crossbreeds we see in Xanth -- nagas, merfolk, harpies, werewolves, fauns, cowboys, and centaurs, of course. The first humans were so foolishly free in their breeding that they soon bred themselves out of existence.
"New humans soon arrived from Mundania, and they were more careful. Most humans here are fairly lenient in romantic relations and approve of interspecies marriages. But centaurs have no alternate land brimming with their kind to replenish their numbers like humans do, so our kind forbade crossbreedings altogether. Of course, my niece and other centaurs have flouted tradition and taken on non-centaur lovers, but these are exceptions rather than the rule. Soon this prejudice against crossbreeding spread to magic as well. Beings with talents were considered somehow tainted."
"Luke, wake up!" snapped Metria.
"Huh?" Luke grunted. "I wasn't asleep."
"Maybe if I use my talent, it would make Chang's explanation less dry," Jenny suggested.
"What talent is that?" asked Vader.
"I can draw others into my daydreams by humming," she said. "So as I imagine Chang's story, we'll all see it firsthand."
Vader nodded. Not a major talent by any means, but a useful one. "Go on then."
She began humming a soft tune. The firelight and forest vanished, replaced by an island in the sea at Xanth's southernmost tip. It was here that the bulk of Xanth's centaur population lived, going about their business. They lived fairly peacefully, but though they used Xanth's magic artifacts daily, they had no talents among them. Indeed, those few unlucky enough to be born with a talent were exiled from Centaur Isle, and any attempting to return were killed.
Chang was a much-respected leader in the centaur community, with a fine mate and two colts. As an elder it was his duty to settle quarrels and inspect foals for magic. His sons, thankfully, had no magic. But his brother, Chester, wasn't so lucky. In his adulthood, it was discovered that he possessed a talent, and he and his mate, Cherie, were banished from the island. They would eventually find employ at the house of government in Xanth, Castle Roogna. But that was another story.
Unbeknownst to anyone, even himself, Chang had a talent. It was a subtle one, one so unnoticeable no one could recognize it. It was the talent of honesty -- when invoked, no one could lie to him. He'd used it for years without any knowledge of it, becoming a great leader through its use.
He might have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for Evil Magician Darius.
Few magicians are truly evil, but Darius seemed to fit the part. He came through the main centaur village, wielding a magic sword, calling out for recruits to his cause -- whatever it was, for he wouldn't name it aloud.
But none would approach him for two reasons. One, he was a crossbreed. From the withers up he was a normal centaur, but where equine parts should have been, there was a glistening green-gold dragon body, complete with webbed wings. And two, he possessed the title of Magician.
Chang himself led a squadron of centaur archers that would drive Darius out of Centaur Isle. He ordered Darius to leave or suffer the consequences, for their people would have nothing to do with crossbreeds or magic-wielders.
"Really?" Darius replied, giving Chang an unsettling look. "Interesting. I'll remember that in the future. But for now, let's see you live by your own rules."
And Darius sprang into the air and flew away, but not before Chang suffered a dizzy spell. He wondered who had cast it on him. Was it something relating to Darius' talent?
From that day on, his life came rapidly apart. He discovered that he was no longer able to prevent people from lying to him. This affected his ability to lead the people well, and some began calling for his retirement, claiming his memory was going. And worse, day mares began popping in on him at the most inopportune times.
At last the other elders confronted him, demanding an explanation. Chang underwent a series of tests to determine whether he indeed had a talent -- and failed.
Darius had struck viciously. His talent was altering other people's talents. He had no control over what exactly he would change the talent into, but he could control whether a minor talent became a major talent, a major talent became a minor talent, or any talent became another talent of similar strength. And as an act of vengeance against Chang for being run out of Centaur Isle, Darius had transformed his almost-Magician class talent of honesty to the relatively minor but far more obvious talent of summoning day mares.
Chang's life as he knew it was over. On the spot he was stripped of his elder status, and he was given a supply pack and sent by boat to mainland Xanth as soon as possible. His mate and colts would have nothing more to do with him -- in their minds, he was dead. Worse than dead -- a freak.
Despondent, he tracked down Chester and Cherie and told them what had happened, begging forgiveness for his lack of mercy regarding them. They had every right to hate him, but instead they accepted his apology and suggested he see the Good Magician. Chem accompanied him to the castle, and when he'd received his answer she agreed to help him find the Mundane Players.
"My question was not carefully worded, which may have contributed to my unsatisfactory answer," Chang went on, pausing to take a bite out of an apple. "I asked him how I could accomplish my heart's desire. I knew what that was, of course -- to destroy my talent, return to Centaur Isle, and be reunited with my family. But his answer was vague at best."
"What was your answer?" asked Jenny.
Chang snorted. "He told me I must seek the Chosen One."
Vader nearly choked on the breadfruit he'd been chewing. Surely the Good Magician couldn't mean him! But of course not. He wasn't the Chosen One. Anakin Skywalker was. And he was long dead, or at least buried deep. No, the Magician had to be referring to someone else.
"Who's the Chosen One?" asked Luke.
"He wouldn't say. I'll have to complete this service for him and pass the challenges again to ask another question. But at this rate, I suppose it's my only choice."
"Where is Lake Eerie?" Vader inquired, ending that line of conversation.
Chem glanced to the side, and a map appeared in the air like a hologram. Xanth, it turned out, was a peninsula, tongue-shaped and with the Gap Chasm splitting it into two roughly equal halves. Villages, lakes, mountains, rivers, and various points of interest were also indicated.
"This is where we are," Chem explained, and a star appeared on the map just north of the Gap. "Lake Eerie is in the northeast, above the Ogre-fen Ogre-fen." Said lake was highlighted in blue light in the extreme upper-left-hand corner of Xanth. "If you'd like, I can point out a likely route for you."
"This is a game," Jenny explained. "I don't think we're allowed to have too much help from people not in the game."
Luke had plucked a leaf from a nearby papyrus plant and was copying Chem's map. "We can plot out our own course. Thank you so much, Chem. Your help and your uncle's service will be greatly appreciated."
"You're most welcome," she replied, and she rose and galloped off.
***
"So it's past the Elements again," Vader noted, glancing over the map once a likely route had been decided. "Along the river..."
"With-A-Cookie River," Jenny filled in.
"Then through the Ogre-fen Ogre-fen, and across the Sane Jaunts River. A long journey."
"It's our only choice," Chang remarked.
Luke folded the map and tucked it into Jenny's pack. At last they had some idea as to what they were doing. And they'd acquired Chang Centaur into their party, a being with a logical mind and a talent that... well, he wasn't exactly sure how summoning day mares could benefit their journey, but maybe it could in a way he hadn't considered.
"Chang," he asked, "why doesn't your niece wear a shirt?"
Chang gave him a quizzical look. "Why should she? She is a centaur."
"Isn't it inappropriate for a woman to expose her... attributes?"
"Of course not!" Jenny exclaimed. "As long as she isn't wearing a brassiere, it's fine."
"Um... a brassiere?"
"Yes," Chang replied. "Undergarments are extremely objectionable here."
"Not where I come from," Luke replied. "It's not exactly appropriate to see someone in their underwear, but being nude in public is much worse."
"Mundania is a strange place," Jenny said with a shrug.
Mundania strange? It was all relative, Luke decided. "Well, where I come from, we don't have centaurs. And most women won't throw themselves naked at a man they thought attractive."
"And what's wrong with that?" demanded Metria.
"Just take it from me," Jenny told him. "Nudity isn't a big deal, but keep your undergarments out of sight, or you'll violate the Adult Conspiracy... uh, Lord Vader, are you okay?" she called out.
For an exasperated Vader had gone to the edge of camp and was steadily whacking his head against the trunk of an insani-tree.
Vader, Luke, Metria, and Jenny sat as close to the fire as they dared, steam rising from their clothes as they dried off from their ordeal. Night had fallen rapidly, and it was getting uncomfortably cold. The centaurs didn't seem to mind, but the Players and Companions had spent half the day in a rainstorm and a flash flood and were soaked clear through.
Vader masterfully suppressed a shiver as he edged closer to the flames. His temperature control systems were working at maximum capacity to raise his body temperature, but it took time for them to kick in fully. He would have to be careful -- if he caught a chest cold from this latest challenge, it could very well overwhelm his already weak respiratory system.
His lungs were not his only weak point, though. Back at the river, he had experienced a moment of vulnerability, one that could prove very dangerous down the road. He had allowed himself to feel compassion toward his son. His heart had separated into two factions since then -- part told him to steel himself against another incident, another part pleaded with him to reconsider his intentions to convert Luke.
He felt a slight weight settle over his shoulders. Jenny had walked over and placed a thick blanket around him. He looked over at her, and she smiled gently in return before picking up her cat. She was his Companion, bound by the game to help him, but she still treated him far more kindly than the game required. Kindness was something no one had offered him in many years.
I have to get out of Xanth, and fast, he thought. Ever since coming to this strange land, he'd been slowly but surely allowing Jenny and Luke to bring down his defenses. If he stayed here much longer, they might very well resurrect Anakin Skywalker, and that could prove to be his undoing.
"We were looking for you, Chem," he heard Luke continue, "but we had no idea you were searching for us."
"Why did you seek me?" asked Chem.
"We're laking for Look Eerie," Metria replied.
"Looking for Lake Eerie?" Chem corrected. "That's a long way."
"You know where it is?" asked Jenny.
"Yes," she replied. "I've made it my personal duty to map out as much of Xanth as possible. Lake Eerie is newly discovered territory."
"And why were you searching for us?" asked Vader.
"For my purposes," Chang replied. "You see, a week or so ago, I asked the Good Magician a question, and for my year of service I was assigned to find the Mundane Players and aid them in their quest." He frowned in disappointment. "But I fear the answer wasn't worth the service."
"You too, eh?" Metria noted.
"Don't worry," Jenny told him. "His answers are usually worthwhile in the end."
"What was your question?" asked Luke.
"It's a long story," Chang replied dismissively.
"Go on and tell them," Chem encouraged. To the others she said "Chang is my sire's brother. I have been helping him on his quest."
"Though why is beyond me," Chang added with a sad smile. "I helped cast your father out of Centaur Isle, you know."
"That was years ago," Chem replied. "And besides, our family lives a happy life now."
"Good. Would that mine would be half as happy."
"Tell them, Uncle."
"Very well." He took a deep breath. "At the beginning of Xanth's history, humans came to Xanth from Mundania. They settled the land, and the human children born in Xanth developed magic talents that enabled them to co-exist with this land. But they were rather careless in their ways, and soon some ran afoul of the love springs.
"The concept of a love spring may sound romantic to most Mundanes, but it has led to tragedy as well as comedy and romance. For once you drink from a love spring, you fall instantly and irrevocably in love with the first creature of the opposite sex you see. This meddling with the springs led to the many crossbreeds we see in Xanth -- nagas, merfolk, harpies, werewolves, fauns, cowboys, and centaurs, of course. The first humans were so foolishly free in their breeding that they soon bred themselves out of existence.
"New humans soon arrived from Mundania, and they were more careful. Most humans here are fairly lenient in romantic relations and approve of interspecies marriages. But centaurs have no alternate land brimming with their kind to replenish their numbers like humans do, so our kind forbade crossbreedings altogether. Of course, my niece and other centaurs have flouted tradition and taken on non-centaur lovers, but these are exceptions rather than the rule. Soon this prejudice against crossbreeding spread to magic as well. Beings with talents were considered somehow tainted."
"Luke, wake up!" snapped Metria.
"Huh?" Luke grunted. "I wasn't asleep."
"Maybe if I use my talent, it would make Chang's explanation less dry," Jenny suggested.
"What talent is that?" asked Vader.
"I can draw others into my daydreams by humming," she said. "So as I imagine Chang's story, we'll all see it firsthand."
Vader nodded. Not a major talent by any means, but a useful one. "Go on then."
She began humming a soft tune. The firelight and forest vanished, replaced by an island in the sea at Xanth's southernmost tip. It was here that the bulk of Xanth's centaur population lived, going about their business. They lived fairly peacefully, but though they used Xanth's magic artifacts daily, they had no talents among them. Indeed, those few unlucky enough to be born with a talent were exiled from Centaur Isle, and any attempting to return were killed.
Chang was a much-respected leader in the centaur community, with a fine mate and two colts. As an elder it was his duty to settle quarrels and inspect foals for magic. His sons, thankfully, had no magic. But his brother, Chester, wasn't so lucky. In his adulthood, it was discovered that he possessed a talent, and he and his mate, Cherie, were banished from the island. They would eventually find employ at the house of government in Xanth, Castle Roogna. But that was another story.
Unbeknownst to anyone, even himself, Chang had a talent. It was a subtle one, one so unnoticeable no one could recognize it. It was the talent of honesty -- when invoked, no one could lie to him. He'd used it for years without any knowledge of it, becoming a great leader through its use.
He might have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for Evil Magician Darius.
Few magicians are truly evil, but Darius seemed to fit the part. He came through the main centaur village, wielding a magic sword, calling out for recruits to his cause -- whatever it was, for he wouldn't name it aloud.
But none would approach him for two reasons. One, he was a crossbreed. From the withers up he was a normal centaur, but where equine parts should have been, there was a glistening green-gold dragon body, complete with webbed wings. And two, he possessed the title of Magician.
Chang himself led a squadron of centaur archers that would drive Darius out of Centaur Isle. He ordered Darius to leave or suffer the consequences, for their people would have nothing to do with crossbreeds or magic-wielders.
"Really?" Darius replied, giving Chang an unsettling look. "Interesting. I'll remember that in the future. But for now, let's see you live by your own rules."
And Darius sprang into the air and flew away, but not before Chang suffered a dizzy spell. He wondered who had cast it on him. Was it something relating to Darius' talent?
From that day on, his life came rapidly apart. He discovered that he was no longer able to prevent people from lying to him. This affected his ability to lead the people well, and some began calling for his retirement, claiming his memory was going. And worse, day mares began popping in on him at the most inopportune times.
At last the other elders confronted him, demanding an explanation. Chang underwent a series of tests to determine whether he indeed had a talent -- and failed.
Darius had struck viciously. His talent was altering other people's talents. He had no control over what exactly he would change the talent into, but he could control whether a minor talent became a major talent, a major talent became a minor talent, or any talent became another talent of similar strength. And as an act of vengeance against Chang for being run out of Centaur Isle, Darius had transformed his almost-Magician class talent of honesty to the relatively minor but far more obvious talent of summoning day mares.
Chang's life as he knew it was over. On the spot he was stripped of his elder status, and he was given a supply pack and sent by boat to mainland Xanth as soon as possible. His mate and colts would have nothing more to do with him -- in their minds, he was dead. Worse than dead -- a freak.
Despondent, he tracked down Chester and Cherie and told them what had happened, begging forgiveness for his lack of mercy regarding them. They had every right to hate him, but instead they accepted his apology and suggested he see the Good Magician. Chem accompanied him to the castle, and when he'd received his answer she agreed to help him find the Mundane Players.
"My question was not carefully worded, which may have contributed to my unsatisfactory answer," Chang went on, pausing to take a bite out of an apple. "I asked him how I could accomplish my heart's desire. I knew what that was, of course -- to destroy my talent, return to Centaur Isle, and be reunited with my family. But his answer was vague at best."
"What was your answer?" asked Jenny.
Chang snorted. "He told me I must seek the Chosen One."
Vader nearly choked on the breadfruit he'd been chewing. Surely the Good Magician couldn't mean him! But of course not. He wasn't the Chosen One. Anakin Skywalker was. And he was long dead, or at least buried deep. No, the Magician had to be referring to someone else.
"Who's the Chosen One?" asked Luke.
"He wouldn't say. I'll have to complete this service for him and pass the challenges again to ask another question. But at this rate, I suppose it's my only choice."
"Where is Lake Eerie?" Vader inquired, ending that line of conversation.
Chem glanced to the side, and a map appeared in the air like a hologram. Xanth, it turned out, was a peninsula, tongue-shaped and with the Gap Chasm splitting it into two roughly equal halves. Villages, lakes, mountains, rivers, and various points of interest were also indicated.
"This is where we are," Chem explained, and a star appeared on the map just north of the Gap. "Lake Eerie is in the northeast, above the Ogre-fen Ogre-fen." Said lake was highlighted in blue light in the extreme upper-left-hand corner of Xanth. "If you'd like, I can point out a likely route for you."
"This is a game," Jenny explained. "I don't think we're allowed to have too much help from people not in the game."
Luke had plucked a leaf from a nearby papyrus plant and was copying Chem's map. "We can plot out our own course. Thank you so much, Chem. Your help and your uncle's service will be greatly appreciated."
"You're most welcome," she replied, and she rose and galloped off.
***
"So it's past the Elements again," Vader noted, glancing over the map once a likely route had been decided. "Along the river..."
"With-A-Cookie River," Jenny filled in.
"Then through the Ogre-fen Ogre-fen, and across the Sane Jaunts River. A long journey."
"It's our only choice," Chang remarked.
Luke folded the map and tucked it into Jenny's pack. At last they had some idea as to what they were doing. And they'd acquired Chang Centaur into their party, a being with a logical mind and a talent that... well, he wasn't exactly sure how summoning day mares could benefit their journey, but maybe it could in a way he hadn't considered.
"Chang," he asked, "why doesn't your niece wear a shirt?"
Chang gave him a quizzical look. "Why should she? She is a centaur."
"Isn't it inappropriate for a woman to expose her... attributes?"
"Of course not!" Jenny exclaimed. "As long as she isn't wearing a brassiere, it's fine."
"Um... a brassiere?"
"Yes," Chang replied. "Undergarments are extremely objectionable here."
"Not where I come from," Luke replied. "It's not exactly appropriate to see someone in their underwear, but being nude in public is much worse."
"Mundania is a strange place," Jenny said with a shrug.
Mundania strange? It was all relative, Luke decided. "Well, where I come from, we don't have centaurs. And most women won't throw themselves naked at a man they thought attractive."
"And what's wrong with that?" demanded Metria.
"Just take it from me," Jenny told him. "Nudity isn't a big deal, but keep your undergarments out of sight, or you'll violate the Adult Conspiracy... uh, Lord Vader, are you okay?" she called out.
For an exasperated Vader had gone to the edge of camp and was steadily whacking his head against the trunk of an insani-tree.