A/N: Hello! This is my first ever FanFic and I'm sorry if it doesn't make perfect sense. However, I consider feedback very valuable so if you guys would mind taking just one moment and letting me know what you think I would be grateful. Also, for those of you who are Nyeusigrube and ha'shmla experts feel free to correct me and let me know if you notice anything that doesn't add up as the story progresses. I am also in need of someone who knows the third book FalconDance really well and would be willing to aid me. If you're interested please e-mail me and I will give you more information. I hope you enjoy the story!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Kiesh'ra, it's characters, it's plot or anything else Amelia Atwater-Rhodes has created. Other then most of the plot ( I say most of because eventually some of this might tie in with FalconDance) the only thing I do own are the Centauri race and even that is an idea that has been around for a long time.
Caer yawned, lifting long sun tanned limbs high over her head. She blinked in the bright light that poured into her tent through the many seams and for a moment she almost forgot where she was, but before she could have time to ponder it somebody pawed softly at the ground next to her tent flap.
"Caer, are you awake yet girl?"
Girl…the words stung in her ears, her twenty first birthday had just happened yesterday yet Flynn still referred to her as a girl. In some ways he was entitled to call her that, after all despite his appearance he was ancient, far older then her. As she had celebrated her twenty first had celebrated his two hundredth and fourteenth, as was tradition since each member of the herd all had their birthdays on the same day.
"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" she snapped, annoyed at having the first peaceful moments of day break stolen from her, it was the one moment when things weren't always busy.
Lifting off the blanket that had kept her warm during the night she stood up and tried to stretch the low ceiling of the tent keeping her from rising to her full height. Donning a leather jerkin which had been tanned a deep green, ebony boots which laced up to her knee over tan pants and a leather tie to put her hair back she took in one last moment of quiet before opening up the flap of her tent and emerging into the sunlight.
The camp swarmed like an anthill, everyone getting ready to move out, making sure nothing was left behind to tarnish the land. Even so though she noticed something was different, as if a cloud had come over them though the sky seemed to be clear. Here and their a few of the children, foals they were called among the herd, played, ignoring the calls of their parents and enjoying the chaos. The Centuari were a free people, they easily emanated the beauty and power that was there second form just as she radiated the lazy grace that marked her as one of the Serpiente .But they were also weary of strangers and mistrusted things they did not understand…The wind, the trees, water flowing over rock, their instincts those were things that made sense to them. An the instincts of a horse did not include a friendliness with snakes.
Turing her attention back to Flynn she pinned him with her eyes. He was one of the few that had truly cared for over the years, guarding her and treating her as one of their own. He had in many ways been like a father to her. Father figure or not though that wasn't about to save him from her sharp tongue…
"What in the name of blood is so important that the whole camp is up and about at this hour?" she breathed sullenly. It wasn't really the hour that bothered her; it was the fact that she didn't know what was going on that disturbed her. No matter how hard she tried to prove herself to them it seemed as though she could never quite earn their trust and never quite know all of what was going to happen until the last minute.
"Were moving out. We have to be at the top of the stone circle by night fall." He kept his face carefully controlled, and his voice even. He had always been one of the more serious of the herd but at the same time he usually kept a bit of a carefree aura to him. Now there was nothing in his dark brown eyes but a distance that he hadn't used since Ashwin passed.
Move out? So soon? Why did they have to make such a long distance by nightfall? The Centauri were a nomadic people, of course they always wandered in the same place, their land had borders just as the Mistari, Avians, Serpiente and all the other nearby shifters did but they had barely arrived at the place of their summer camp and to be leaving only a week after arriving for the hill was too soon. Way to soon, that was the place where they usually spent the winter. It was more sheltered and formal with actual buildings, shops and quarters for the higher ranking herd members. There were even a few who livid there year-round keeping the place up and running, making useful things such as the clothes she was wearing now.
"Already? It seems that we have barely arrived."
Flynn frowned at her, his disproval clearly shown on his face. A mask she thought, covering over something else. "You'd think after fourteen years of living with us you would have gotten used to it." Then his voice softened, ever so slightly, he had watched over her ever since Syfka, their ally from the white city, had delivered her to them. He was her guardian, and had been so from day one when she first came to the camp barely old enough to do much besides eat and scream. "Just trust me and pack. It is...very important that we reach our destination by nightfall." Changing his tone abruptly back to the normal indifferent one he used he said; "I'll help you with your tent."
Everyone in the Centauri camp had to pull their own weight, it was a fact she had been raised to understand and except. Flynn had his own things to tend to. They were a small people; there roots having been lost and the legends surrounding them obscure and as fragmented as a broken egg shell. If things really were as serious as he was making them out to be then he needed to be getting his things together. Not helping her. "Don't you have your own things to tend to?"
Shaking his head he motioned toward a bundle not far from where he stood and without another word began helping her. First pulling off the tough canvas and then taking out the polls that had held the tent in place...Last but not least he pulled the stakes up from the ground and threw them toward the center of the camp where a burn pile was being made. Caer gathered up her belongings all the while discreetly watching him as well as the others. Fully capable of taking care of herself it made no sense why he was helping her and why things were in such an uproar. A few moments of careful observation could help her to make sense of the muddle.
Body language was the key to understanding them, the twitch of an ear, and the flick of a tail. Like their allies they preferred to stay in their Demi-forms most of the time. They had been granted the upper body of a man and the body and ears of a horse. It made them superior in many ways for they could move swiftly while still being able to talk the common speech and use their hands. Their hearing was far better then in there humane forms and they could see the basic colors in that form. She merely had to take a moment to watch them and maybe things would make sense.
Searching through the subtle signs of those around her she finally came to her decision. Though it wasn't often someone was coming .Visitors weren't a common occurrence and created a different sort of buzz. Who or why though was still something that was yet to be discovered. Raised among them she wasn't raised as one of them and there were still things she didn't know about her adopted people. She always had the sense that this life wasn't forever…that someday she would go back to wherever it is she was from though she had been told the Serpiente would reject her. The thought was far from a calming one, from all that she knew so far she would never quite fit in anywhere.
When everything was packed and ready, her few belongings tucked into a leather pouch that rested on her hip and her clothes rolled into another pack she made her way into the center of the camp, or well what used to be it anyways. Other then the packs lying on the soft ground and the blackened pit in the center of them all which had served as a fire pit of sorts there was just a green field next to a slow moving river and some trees they hadn't been there long enough to leave a mark. It was a simple dwelling place; the Centauri had never had much more. According to the legends though it wasn't always so.
Once upon a time things had been different and they had been a nation far different then the one that they were now. It was even whispered that they once had powers, magic, wealth and even…an allegiance with the humans of Nyesigrube. Most of it was what she believed to be far fetched nonsense, she had been well educated in her growing up and from what she knew of the humans they were dangerous and did not trust anything that they could not explain. As far as magic's went though… truly the Centauri did possess some rare gifts, but they were rarely ever used. Each herd member in its own way had its own ability, something extra that had been thrown into the mix. Usually the ruler of the herds, the horse lord as he was called was picked on what his powers were. It was done by election and was quite different from the normal customs that the other nations seemed to follow. Of course a leader could always be challenged and dethroned if the herds saw fit but rarely ever had this happened. His son or daughter could also take the throne if the people believed them capable but the throne could never, ever, ever fall to one who was incapable of duty. The herds must never again falter.
Despite all of their 'different' ways the Centauri were a good people, and dedicated to the betterment of their people. She also owed them a great deal. They had taken her in and nurtured her while…Well, there really was no while. Her past was unknown and when ever she had asked the story had always been the same. She could still here the voice of Ashwin, her surrogate mother and Flynn's sister who had passed a few seasons before saying the words that she had so often said regarding her past when she was younger. Syfka brought you to us and asked us to raise you she also asked that you never come in contact with any of the other shifters. Though it seemed a strange request. We did not question her and simply loved you and raised you as one of our own foals.
However, there was of course something lacking. She didn't have a gift and she wasn't trusted as others of the herd were. The power of fire speaking for example belonged to the current lord of the herds. It was even rumored that he also had the gift of twisting at his disposal but it was only a rumor and had never been demonstrated. Thank God for that, the gift of twisting was indeed a most rare gift, and...One of the most hideous. Unlike them though she had no gifts, she was as Flynn had said, different. Everything about her set her apart from them, the way she moved, the color of her eyes, her second form and…her fangs. A few of them joked that that was her power. The gift of grace and poison but she knew they were only saying so to try and help her feel more comfortable among them. There was no such gift and everybody knew it. Lifting her eyes to the sky she wondered for not the first time, who am I really?