Not long after we started towards whatever the Stable was, Mira started to hum and sing a wordless tune. Sena was right, she does have a really nice voice.
I feel kind of bad for interrupting her. "Hey, Mira? How, uh, old are you?"
She doesn't seem upset, thankfully. "I am two months old."
"And how old are the others?"
She looks over at Matthew for a second, who had calmed down a bit since Mira took his hand. "Matthew is close to a month old. Sena is a little older than him and Aelle is a month and a half."
Huh, I would have pegged Aelle as the oldest due to him being the largest out of all of us. Guess I was right about my aging slowing down since yesterday, as well. They don't like any older than I do.
Then again, I've always been terrible at judging someone's age by their appearance so there could be things I miss. Really made checking people out awkward when you couldn't tell if they're too young or not.
Speaking of, if growth rates are like this, is it going to have that whole 'only a year old but already an adult' thing? Cause that was always kinda weird for me, especially when it came to relationships. I mean, it's probably par-for-the-course for monsters, but there is something kinda unsettling about having a seemingly adult person be not even a year old.
I wonder, do humans and the like just not even find it weird here? Am I the only one that would actually find it weird if a one year old monster was in a relationship with an adult human?
Not exactly questions you can ask in polite company.
I know it's just my bias from my old world, but still.
I'm brought out of my rambling thoughts by the sound of distant yelling. I watch as down the road ahead, Aelle and Sena speed towards us; dodging around people as they went. I'm surprised with how fast they were with getting back here, though Aelle is now readily beating Sena, who is still yelling. Still, considering how much bigger he is she's doing a pretty good job of keeping up with him.
It's still not enough for her to win though, as Aelle catches up with us and does a circle around us while slowing down. Then Sena hits him after barely having slowed down, knocking what little breath they had out of them.
Between heaving breaths, Sena manages to force out some complaints.
"Not...fair...you...didn't...touch...the...wall...pro...perly…I...win."
Mira manages to coerce the two arguing centaurs into continuing moving by distracting Sena. Using me.
So now I have her almost hanging off of me, rambling on about herself, the town and anything and everything she could. I do learn some helpful and interesting stuff, though.
Apparently, on the other side of town there is a building owned and run by the Adventuring Guild, where adventurers passing through stay and can train and pick up jobs to do in the area. Sena explained it as a big board with lots of different things the villagers, or the town itself, can put there that people can do for money. They were quests, really.
I would have to go and check out it out as soon as possible to see If I could find someone to help me with the things I want to do. If not, I'm sure any information I find would be useful. And when it came time, it would give me a good starting point to becoming an adventurer myself.
A few other points of interest were the general store, which was most likely were Eris was at the moment, which wasn't too far from our current position, an inn for travellers and traders who weren't affiliated with the guild, and the buildings we were currently heading towards.
When they came into view, I was surprised. These buildings were massive, at least in relation to the rest of the town's structures. Close to the very centre of the town sat the town's living quarters-cum-barracks and the buildings called the Stable.
The living quarters were a series of large wooden buildings that apparently held the town's workers and any individuals who no longer lived in their family homes and had yet to marry and have a home of their own built. The Stable was, as the name suggested, where a large number of the town's centaurs lived. Not sure how they didn't find the name offensive, but whatever.
From the outside the Stable was several large wooden single-story buildings with large double doors. They look more like a mead halls than a house of any sort. But, I guess it would have to be big to hold multiple centaur families. My house was an example of how big centaur's lived, and that was just for a three person family and it dwarfed most houses I had seen so far. The few larger ones were most likely owned by centaur's who wanted their own home away from the Stables.
A decent number of centaur are moving in and out, or around the building; hanging clothes out, washing out pots and a number of other domestic things. I dunno what, I don't get a good look before Sena drags me bodily past them and into one of the buildings; the others trailing slowly behind.
I have maybe a second or two to stop and take in my surroundings before Sena takes off again, pulling me along.
The inside is set up fairly close to my house, just much larger. Much of the floor is covered in woven mats, except for just inside of the door and a thin strip around the outside perimeter of the room; where a decent number of doors sit spaced out along three walls. Making that many mats must have been time-consuming as fuck. There are a number of low wooden tables scattered around the room. Some of them have centaurs sitting down at them and- wait, are those giant cushions? How come we don't have those at home? That's not fair! They look really comfy!
I'm torn from my internal whining by Sena's howling voice. "Muuuum! Look! I have a new friend and he lives outside of the town!"
Oh god, everyone is turning to look. Please stop looking at me. I stare a hole in the floor in embarrassment.
We come to a stop at one of the tables where three centaur women are seated, chatting and looking to be sewing. One of the women looks over at us and smiles. Considering she looks like a mature Sena, freckles, hair and all, I'm pretty sure this is her mother.
Huh, Eris was right. They do all look like they are taller and just generally bigger than her. You can see the difference between her elfin looks and their more human ones as well. I look kinda elfin myself then. That is pretty damn awesome.
"Mum, mum. This is Nilas. He is a week old and lives outside of the village- wait, where do you live?" The last part of that is directed at me.
All three of the women are looking at me now and I can't meet their eyes for more than a second at a time.
"Uh, in the forest down the road a long way." Aaaand I'm almost whispering. Fuck.
"Yeah, he lives in the forest- the forest?!" Sena is looking at me awestruck, like I suddenly grew wings or something. Wait, that would probably be a thing that could happen here, isn't it. "Is that not dangerous!?"
"Um… not really? I mean, it is not that far in and mum has plants growing around that make predators stay away so..."
Sena's mum takes that as her cue to speak, smiling at me. "You must be Eris' little boy, then. It is nice to meet you, Nilas. I see you met my daughter. She hasn't been too annoying has she?"
"Mum!" Sena has an indignant expression, her arms crossed and pouting. Her mother laughs at her daughter's reaction to her teasing. More of a titter, really. I decide to have a little fun.
"She, um, tackled me with a hug when she first saw me. Then dragged me off before I could say anything."
Her mother is just straight laughing now, and Sena is going a red. "I just- I mean… I had not seen him before and wanted to say hi..."
Sena's mother turns enough to snag Sena and pull her into a hug. "It is ok, Sena. I know what you are like, there is nothing wrong with that. Just please do not break the other children."
Sena buries her face into her mother's neck, obviously embarrassed and I can't help but grin. Her mother looks at me with a playful expression that says 'I know what you were doing' and I freeze, embarrassed myself.
My good mood is dampened slightly when I notice out the corner of my eye that one of the other centauresses is almost glaring at me. The fuck is her problem.
The arrival of Mira and Matthew halts any chance of my irritation and stubbornness growing large enough for me to start glaring back. Wait, where did Aelle go?
Sena's mother let her daughter go. "Hello Mira, Matthew, how have you been today? Is Aelle not with you?"
Mira and Matthew smile at Sena's mum, before Matthew lets go of Mira's hand and makes his way around the table to give the woman who was glaring at me a hug. She returns the hug and kisses him on the head. Well shit. "I have been good today, Mrs Selle. Aelle said he was going to go see his brother."
Mrs Selle sighs. "He never learns does he? I suppose it is just brotherly love. Still, those two seem to get on each others nerves far too well. Hopefully he doesn't distract him too long."
Mira doesn't say anything, though her expression says she agrees. Sena takes the lull in conversation as a chance to butt in. "Mum, can we use the brushes and stuff? I want to groom Nilas."
Whoa, wait. What? You want to what me?
S-should I be calling stranger danger? Was grooming people a centaur thing? My only experience with it is Mikhael and Eris.
"I think you should ask him if he wants to first, Sena. It is rude to make people do things they do not want to, remember."
"Sorry mum..." She turns to look at me, barely restrained excitement flowing through her. "So, do you wanna?"
"Uh..." Did I? I mean, it felt amazing but it still was kinda awkward. Then again, I spent my childhood with nothing but sisters so I had no problems with stuff like this. Eh, why not. "Sure."
Sena leaps at me again, hugging me. "Yay! Do you want to as well, Matthew?"
The boy in question removes his face far enough from his mother's side to look at her and shake his head. The bitch had thankfully chosen to just ignore me completely now. Fine with me.
"Mira?" The blonde girl nodded, looking a little excited herself.
"Come on, come on!" I'm, once again, dragged away by Sena. This time towards one of the numerous doors.
This was going to become a thing, wasn't it?