It was with record timing that my excitement turned to disappointment, when I learned that I could only watch.
Turns out that being stuck in the body of a child severely limits your capabilities. In other words, I was too short and too weak to be able to properly and safely handle the tools and ingredients. There were some heavy amounts of pouting after I learned that.
As consolation the centauress would hand me the occasional ingredient to 'look after' for her. She even let me put the Blood Gilly into the mortar for her to grind!
Yeah, it wasn't 'Magic Potions 101' like I had expected but she did her best to keep me involved and feeling like I was useful. She told me the name of every ingredient, how they were prepared, why they were prepared that way and how they best worked together in the particular concoction she was working on at the time. And all in an easy to understand manner that brought my excitement back fairly quickly.
It helped that she was just as, if not even more, excited to be doing the work and teaching me about it all the while. Her enjoyment was infectious. That and the novelty of watching someone make real magic potions hadn't worn off yet. If it ever even would.
I watch as her hands work deftly with her tools. Cutting, grinding, crushing; each one of her movements exact and perfect. She barely even glances at what she is grabbing as she concentrates on what is in front of her; she knew where everything was just from memory.
Occasionally she would leave through the back door and return with parts of some plant or another to use.
The majority of what she makes are medicinal. Healing potions and salves, one potion that she says speeds up blood production and another that does the same for coagulation for wounds. That one came with an explanation on what coagulation was and how it helped the body. I already knew the general gist of it, so I don't learn anything new. It does tell me, though, that they probably have better general care of health than what the technology level would usually allow. No mention of leeches or cutting off limbs as treatment. Gotta love magic.
I also saw another example of a magic item. She had the magical equivalent of a bunsen burner. It was a small circle of metal etched with strange symbols sitting on a larger circle of stone with a red gem inserted into the centre. The centauress' gentle touch set the gem glowing and soon the metal plate began to glow as well. The water and ingredients in the glassware above the burner soon began to boil.
Noticing me staring at it curiously, the centauress began to explain. "Do not touch that, please. You will find it very painful if you do." Yeah, thanks I kind of already knew that. "That is a spirit stone. A weak fire one to be exact. Not very strong, but enough for my uses and fairly cheap. There is also an ice spirit stone in the ice box, but that one was not nearly as cheap."
Well that confirmed what I thought. Cool. And if I remembered correctly, spirit stones were non-sentient spirits contained within stones or gems. Still, I'd like to confirm it if possible, so I call to get her attention and give her my best attempt at a 'what does that mean' face.
"Hmm? You want to know what an ice box is?"
I shake my head.
"What do you wi- Oh, you want to know what a spirit stone is, then?"
I smile and nod. Yes! Glad that worked!
"You are quite the curious one. It is good. Well then, spirit stones are gems or stones that have an unintelligent spirit within them. They hold whatever power the spirit has, such as a fire spirit in afire stone or an ice spirit in an ice stone. There are many different elements and just as many spirits and spirit stones, and they are all mined from the ground where they grow. Do you understand, little one?"
I nod my head, and she smiles and places her hand on it and starts scratching behind my ear- Ooooooh. That felt goooooood. Don't stop, don't ever stop.
She goes to pull her hand away and I grab it, butting my head against it.
She laughs and gently but firmly pulls herself from my grasp. "Let go, Nilas. I do not have time right now. But, if you behave, before we sleep I will groom you. Ok?"
I huff at her, frowning. That was cruel. You can't start scratching someone's head and then stop! I grudgingly agree though, since I don't really have much of a choice.
I set myself back up to watch as she works, once again explaining as she goes.
-
My new body has an amazing amount of flexibility I've found out. Lying here on the floor under a pile of blankets, I was spread out as far as I could go. My legs were spread flat out against the ground behind and in front of me in a way I was certain would hurt a horse, with my human half lying forward between my legs in a way that was a lot more comfortable than it looked.
Some experimenting also revealed that I could lay backwards over my own lower half easily and comfortably and even somehow rotate myself around almost 180 degrees to look behind me. My spine was doing some freaky shit. Even though it didn't hurt at all the sensation of it was surreal.
So here I was completely buried under multiple blankets save for my head; burned out, half-asleep and watching my mum cook dinner. I think I keep fading in and out of awareness, barely keeping awake,
I'm woken by someone gently shaking me, so I do the reasonable thing. I groan, whine and bury my face deeper into the wonderful softness of the blankets. Weird, I hadn't been lying on my side just a second ago.
Ah, I must have fallen asleep.
I hear a someone make a 'tsk' sound above me, so I turn my head and blearily look up at them. My mum stares down at me, her expression somewhere between exasperated, amused and like she was looking at something tooth-achingly adorable.
Wait, did I just call her mum? H-Haha...ha.. whoops. Guess I'm not fully awake yet…
I push my upper body up and rub the sleep from my eyes. Something smelt really good. Yawning and blinking, I look back up at the centauress who is shaking her head lightly at my antics. "Dinner is ready. And I think you have someone to say hello to, now that you are awake."
Huh? What did she mean by that?
I stand up and turn to walk towards the table, and freeze.
Sitting at the table and watching me was a man I had never seen before. More specifically, a fairly large centaur.
When I make eye contact he frowns at me. "Hello. I was beginning to wonder if you were sleeping just to avoid me."
What. I don't like the look this guy is giving me. I'm snapped out of my growing sense of worry by the centauress' scolding voice. "Mikhael. Be nice to your son. He has had a very big day, he deserved some rest."
Mikhael's expression does a complete 180 in an instant as he starts laughing, his face crinkling up with mirth. I hear the centauress walk up behind me and give me a brief hug, her expression playful as she watches the man. "Do not worry, Nilas. Your father is just upset that you were lucky enough to spend the day with your amazing mother while he was stuck swinging an axe at a tree like a brute."
Mikhael just snorts at that, though his expression doesn't change. "It would not matter even if I spent the day at home, with the way you fawn over your garden. You would not even realise I was here."
It was her turn to snort, her nose crinkling in a very adorable way. "Do not speak ill of my garden, dear. Or you will be spending the night with it, I think."
The centaur leans his elbows against the table smirking, though his eyes hold nothing but affection. "Of course, Eris. My beautiful, wonderful wife. As you say. I ask only for your forgiveness."
She walks towards him now, hands on her hips. "Do not think words will win me back over that easy. You will have to make it up to me another way."
Oh hey, I know that tone of voice. Things are getting awkward now.
Mikhael answers with the same tone as he raises himself up slightly to intercept her as she lowers herself towards him. "I will look forward to it, then."
They kiss softly, and yep this has gotten awkward enough for me. Time to break it up in a way only a child can. I let out a harsh whinny and stamp slightly, pointing at the kitchen as they break apart and look at me almost in surprise.
Eris laughs and slaps Mikhael's arm, though her hand lingers for a moment; softly rubbing it. "Your father is very cruel, Nilas. Distracting me like that. Here, come sit with him and I will get the food."
I hesitantly make my way toward the centaur, slightly fearful. While Eris made me feel small, even sitting as he was I could tell Mikhael was even larger than her. I felt absolutely tiny.
Looking him over, I could see now where I got my hair and skin colour from. His skin was a shade darker than my own, and his hair was the same dark-brown as mine, and thick and wavy; almost curly. He looked how you'd expect a stereotypical centaur to look. Big, well muscled with thick stubble and wild looking. That could have just been my own bias and current perspective, though.
His nose was slightly flat and wide, and looked like it might have been broken at one point. As I move around the table, I get a better look at his lower half. The colour is a flat brown, save for two white socks on his forelegs. And it was also huge. He had the lower body of a work horse, all thick heavy muscle and legs that ended in big hooves.
I was pretty intimidated.
When I get close, looking up at him carefully, he reaches and grabs me before I can react; making me yelp. He pulls me into a big hug and rests his head against the top of my own, breathing in.
When he speaks, his tone is full of love and affection. "Hello Nilas. I apologise if I scared you before. We have been waiting for you for a while now. Me and your mother are so happy you are with us. We love you, son."
I'm… speechless. I don't know how to react to all that, and his scent is making me feel weird. Feelings of being protected and safe are welling up in me and a voice in the back of my head is telling me to just relax and stay there were he'll protect me.
It was making me feel very uncomfortable, and I tense and stay that way until he finally lets me go. I move slightly away from him and get comfortable, though I do catch a confused look on his face before I look away.
I sit awkwardly beside him and stare straight ahead, waiting for the food to come.
A thankfully short wait later Eris brings several large bowls of some kind of stew, which lacked any meat sadly, and more bread across to the table and we all sit and eat. I shove the awkward feelings away into the back of my head and watch silently as the two centaurs talk between each other. Eris telling Mikhael about our day and how I was, and Mikhael talking about how the village was and a number of other random topics the two would go between.
Something about one of the other workers telling Mikhael that he and his wife needed more potions and the trader was nearly out; which made Eris snicker for some reason. I had a feeling it was dirty, but no clue what potions they could be talking about. He also mentioned that in two weeks the human workers would be taking logs down-river and he would have some time off working while they were gone.
It turns out that centaur's do eat a big dinner, as we went through a large pot of the stew between all three of us. By the time we were finished, I was feeling fat and lethargic. I stood and stumbled my way over to the blanket pile before collapsing into it and curling up; to the amusement of the centaurs.
I was happily dozing when I felt someone sit down next to me and lift my upper half up. "Come, little one. Sit up. I said if you behaved I would groom you before we slept, and you did as I asked. Or would you rather go without?"
Once she is happy with how I am sitting, she begins brushing what little hair I have on my head with slow smooth strokes. The bristles of the brush massage my scalp and I begin to melt into it, slowly turning into a centaur-shaped beanbag.
Until she stops.
I have enough time to open my mouth to protest, when she begins to brush my lower half and whatever I was going to say was swiftly forgotten. I slump against her and let out noises of contentment as the brush glides over my back and down my rump and back up to start again.
I slip off into sleep before she is even half done.