Once I was sufficiently traumatized- I mean cleaned, we made our way back through the forest to the house; the centauress carrying the fresh water in two large containers strapped to her sides with a convenient saddle-like harness. The walk back was nice, and the view was beautiful. Uh, the forest I mean, uh, not the cent- yeah, fuck you too brain. Cheeky shit. This is why I spent most of the time with my eyes closed.

The forest was a textbook example of the kind of place I greatly enjoyed being in and around, so I was pretty stoked about the fact that I'd be living in it. It was just so peaceful and calming, doubly so now that I could sense so much more of it than I ever could before. At the risk of sounding incredibly stupid and cheesy, it was like a natural orchestra playing around me. Every aspect from the wind to animals and the plants contributing. I really, really loved nature. Probably even more so now, since I was fairly certain I had centaur instincts kicking around in my noggin. Kind of still worried about that, but my brain was still playing the catch-up game with everything that had happened in the past two days- and holy shit, that's right. I'm only two days old.

Of course I don't look anything like a two day old child. No, from the look I took of my reflection in the river I was closer to a two year old. I also look nothing like I used to, which is to be expected but still depressing. I had the puppy fat that all young kids have, of course. But beyond that, I looked quite a bit like the centauress. I had the same wide, green eyes and small upturned nose and a few other smaller features. There were of course other parts of my face that I assume came from my… 'father', but the majority of it definitely was from the centauress. My m-. Yeah, from her.

The two features I know didn't come from her, though, were my hair and skin colour. My hair was a dark brown instead of her lighter golden-brown, and my skin was a shade or two darker than her almost porcelain white. Not sure how she managed that with how often she would be outside, but I hadn't seen any tan marks wh-

...Guess we're playing the awkward memory game today then, huh brain? Wonderful.

The one silver lining in all this is that the… ugh... 'attraction' I feel towards her is all mental. I can look at her and know she is, honestly, amazingly beautiful. But there aren't any… 'reactions' to go along with that knowledge. I had a fairly good idea as of why, and I was hoping beyond hope that I would be past all of this before I reached that point.

I may now be a creature from Greek mythology but I sure as hell wasn't going to go recreating any of the stories any time soon.

Or never really. Never sounded good.

-

Some time into the walk back, the centauress begins to hum softly and for the first time since the river I look over at her curiously. It was a nice, happy sounding tune and I had been missing music in any form so it was a welcome change to the previous silence. She must have noticed me staring at her from the corner of her eye, as she turns to look at me. I freeze as she makes eye contact with me and she gets a playfully vindictive smile. She knew she caught me when I hadn't wanted her to. "You have finally stopped sulking about having to wash now then, my little colt?"

I look away in embarrassment and she giggles. "Did you think I would not notice you purposely ignoring me? You are not as sneaky as you think."

Hahaha, yeah lets go with that reasoning.

Her laughter stops and the next time she speaks her voice is soft and kind. "You are curious about what I was humming, yes?"

I slowly turn to look back at her and nod. She smiles and turns her upper body back forward as she hums a few bars of the song. "It is a sad song. About a cruel young man and a Dryad. The man wishes for the Dryad to be his, though it is impossible for a Dryad may never stray far from the tree of her birth. The man cuts down the tree so she may go with him from the forest, not knowing that without their tree a Dryad cannot live."

A humoured expression appears on her face. "I do not think the one who wrote the song knew much about Dryads either, or they would have known that when the young man approached her tree with an axe he would have never left. Dryads are very, very protective of their heart trees."

She turns to look at me. "If you should ever meet a Dryad, be kind and courteous but do not approach her tree if possible and leave as soon as you are able. Some are perfectly kind and friendly, but some are also not. I shall explain more when you are older, but for now just be careful."

Huh. That was something different to what I had expected. It was only a minor difference though for my theory of where I was, but it wasn't an unwelcome one. There were a few things I hope didn't exist here that were in that story. I suppose I will just have to wait and hope I get an evolution speech soon. Or I could be completely wrong and desperately grasping at straws to try and find some familiarity in a situation that is beyond anything I could have envisioned.

You know what? Who cares. I'm just going to stop worrying for now and listen to the centauress humming instead.

-

Once the water barrel was refilled, we both sat down inside again and had something small to eat. It was just enough to take the edge off my hunger. No meat this time sadly, just more bread and fruit with some fresh water to wash it down. I wonder if these small amounts of food are all centaurs really eat? Horses spend hours doing nothing but grazing to keep themselves fed and we're pretty much horses with extra. Unless the answer is 'magic', the amount of food the centauress and I have eaten doesn't seem sustainable. Maybe they have big dinners? I dunno.

There was a lot of stuff I didn't know. I barely knew anything about my own body or how things work!

...Huh, thinking about it now I practically am a child when it comes to this world. A lot of the things I know and have learned probably aren't even applicable anymore. I've been looking at everything with the view of an adult human from another world or dimension, when I should probably be doing so from the view of a young centaur. Since, you know, I actually was one now.

More existential stuff to think about. Yay.

Food done, I turn to the centauress to show her I've finished.

She stands up and stretches, giving me time to follow her lead. "Nilas, did you enjoy today? Helping me with the garden and learning about all the different plants?"

I thought it over for a minute. I had never really been a physical labour kind of guy back when I still had two legs instead of four, and I'd never tried my hand at proper gardening. I'd mostly stuck to indoors for all my recreation, and only really went out when I wanted to just be out in nature and to get some sun. That said, there was something very satisfying about working outside in the sun and this world's plants weren't just Earth analogues. They were honest-to-god magical fantasy plants.

I also have a feeling that this is something very important to the centauress, and I really don't want to disappoint her if I can help it.

I nod my head and watch a massive grin grow across her face as she almost bounces on the spot. Wow, this meant a lot more to her than I thought. Thank god I said yes.

She pulls me into a tight hug, practically vibrating with excitement. "Yes! I knew you would be just like your mother! My smart, amazing Nilas."

Uh, ok. Not sure what I should be feeling about all this so I'm just going to hug you back.

"Then, now I will show you just what I use those plants for. Come."

She pulls away and takes a hold of my hand, pulling me towards the only door I had not seen her enter yet. Letting go, she steps through ahead of me and I follow in after her.

Oh, wow.

I'm going to go ahead and take a wild, crazy guess and say that this is her apothecary workshop.

My first impression of it is that there is stuff everywhere. Dried plants hanging from the support beams all over the room. Several tall wooden tables covered in all manners of esoteric tools and glassware; some of them even had contents. There was a cupboard with tons of different sized drawers and couple of tall shelves that held glass jars of plants and what looked like parts of animals such as horns and even some kind of organ, and even more books. I think she owned more books than I ever had, and I had lived in modern times with easy mass-production. This was a serious collection. I had been seriously underestimating how important her job was.

The whole place was cluttered, in centaur terms at least. Any average person in here would have had plenty of space to move around. The rest of the house was spotless, but this was like a bomb had went off in it. I could understand, though, being a user of the 'chaotic organisation' method myself. And yes that was a real thing regardless of what others said.

Oh hey, that door must be the one that leads out to the garden. Makes sense to have easy access to and from.

By now, the centauress has set herself up in front of one the tables and was collecting different ingredients together. I walk up next to her, my head barely able to clear the edge of the table.

She clears her throat and looks down at me. "Now, we will start with something simple. A common healing salve, I think."

Holy shit, yes! I was going to learn to make healing items!