Centaurian

The human who arranges for the horses when they are needed has arrived before the sun today and by the time I saw it's light peek through the entry, he had watered and harnessed a stallion in the way that humans do when they ride.
The one who cleans the stalls has also been busy and seems rather intense on his chores today and keeps looking as if someone is to come.

The horses in the stable hear someone approaching long before me. I envy my friends keen hearing and sense of smell for mine are no better than that of a man.

As I watch the entry the small female from the day past enters the stables, and looks around. Her clothes hide little of her size and I am surprised at how much smaller she appears to be.

She is shod in leather boots that reach her knees, shiny and in a way mesmerizing on her tiny feet and legs. Fixed to her heels are a pair of the goads humans call spurs, and she carries a small riding whip, which she seems to tap often against the side of her leg. A small dog, mostly white and tan follows at her heels. They seem easy in each others company and I am reassured by her obvious care for this small animal.

I watch her look around and barely acknowledge the presence of the two men, who in their most servile manner make a strange effort to be lower than she. Her gaze gives the stables little inspection before she looks straight at me and makes her way to the stall. I cannot help but move to the front of stall and place my hands on its rough timbers as I stare down at her. Today she is more beautiful than I remember of yesterday and she looks at me with little fear.

“Fetch an apple” she demands of the groom without looking at him, I am barely aware of the scamper to comply as I look her full in the face and admire it openly. It is a friendly face on a delicate Lady, her hair cut short and is of the darkest black, her eyes are filled with deeper understanding and intelligence.

He hands her the apple and she offers it me with her tiny hand barely able to encompass it. I smile before reaching for it to reassure her and then, take it from her, yet as I bite into it and taste its sweetness my eyes stay locked with hers.

“How long since this creature was let out of this stall”

“Ah, that's not possible?” the groom says, looking at the cleaner for reassurance and getting none.
“The beast is dangerous your highness”

“Poppycock! Has anyone tried kindness perhaps just once”

“Umm, 'e lets me clean 'is stall each mornin, ma'am?”

It still strikes me funny how humans can turn a fact into a question, as if to say without saying, is this all right? But not as funny as the way he talks and I cannot help but smile.

“Well my friend” she smiled at the cleaner “What is your name?”

“Timothy? My Lady?” he answered and for the first time I heard his name spoken aloud “mos people call me Tim?”

“Well then, Timothy it is, I think you'll find I'm not most people” and she nodded as he smiled at her. Here too I decided he would be Timothy to me always, out of respect to him and to the fact I was definitely not most people either.

“Then lets you introduce me to your new friend, fetch your brush and combs, more apples too”

He moved to obey, and the groom just stood there not knowing what to do

“Has any horse ever cleared the fence in the exercise yard?” she demanded of him.

“No My Lady! It is also the breaking yard and we can't ever offer them any chance of escape, its there to break em”

“Good then open his stall and step away” she said as Timothy returned with his gear and a huge basket of the apples, obviously taking no chances to misunderstand her orders.

“Ah, Umm, that's a real bad idea I think? Should we have more men here for this” the groom stammered I couldn't help but smile again.

Unwisely, I realised instantly, for I saw her alert eyes squint as if looking at me in a new way

“Do as I say boy” her manner to the groom far harsher than she had been to Timothy.

“yesm” he mumbled before fumbling the latch with shaking hands and then almost falling backwards in his efforts to put her between me and him.

I saw no fear in her eyes as she looked up at me and offering another apple from the basket, she stepped back to draw me from the stall. I waited a bit before gingerly stepping forward to take the offered fruit and then stopped to quickly eat it. I would play this game for as many apples as I could get, they were the best thing I had had to eat for many days.

“You like these, don't you boy” she said offering another, yet drawing beyond reach as she stepped backwards to the entry and out into the sun. The brightness hurt my eyes and brought tears and pain and I wondered how long it had been since I walked under its warmth. We are creatures of nature and though we build shelters for protection at night, they are rarely used for anything other.

I managed two more apples before she handed the basket to Tim and returned inside. I was watching him and the basket of apples closely when I realised I was unnerving the small man by my size so I took a few steps back and held out my hand,. Here I took my biggest gamble so far for he had to trust my intent as friendly so I winked at him then smiled.

He smiled back a little nervously and fumbled for an apple, his eyes never leaving my face as he held it out to me and then stepped forward to place it in my hand. I took it from him and cradled it in both hands holding it before me and smiling then bringing it to my chest, placed close to the heart as a thank you for the gift, it is the way of my people since time past. He smiled and winked back and here I knew I had made a friend. Today was indeed a good day.

The Lady returned and I realised that Timothy betrayed nothing about what had passed but I noticed her looking at him a little strange, and I could feel his newfound ease around me.

She put down the wooden tray containing a variety of combs and brushes and called him to her, speaking softly in his ear and then bent to choose a stiff bristle brush. She placed her hand through the leather strap behind it and cradled it in her palm before presenting it to me.

I think she expected me to smell it in the way of a horse, getting him familiar with what's going on but I knew only too well it represented what I had only hoped for. I reached out slowly and run my fingers through the course bristles and smiled with as much warmth and hope as I could muster.

Taking this as obvious assent, she began to drag it in long strokes, a little soft at first but harder as she realised it wasn't hurting my thicker skin. I was in ecstasy from the first stroke, the bristles scratched and itched at the same time, my skin flickering where it touched and moved. Her first strokes came high across my withers and down the side of my ribs, and I closed my eyes, no longer caring about hiding my responses as I felt the all over scratching to places where my hands cannot reach.

I heard and smelt Tim move to the other side and soon I was being brushed from two sides at once and conscious of little else as their practiced hands covered every part of my lower body. Tim used the opportunity to lean his shoulder into mine and force me to shift my weight, lifting each foreleg as he checked the hoof for any sign of splitting or problems, then moving to the back legs while the Lady kept my mind busy with her ministrations. He seemed concerned with “scraping the frog” in one of my hooves but when I looked hard after they had left later that night, I could find no frog I had squashed, either in my hoof or on the floor and this puzzled me somewhat.

I heard her call for the groom and not long after he appeared leading the stallion I had seen tethered inside.

She moved to the horse's side and Tim was there without pause to lift her leg to help her gain its back, He held the stirrup steady while she placed her small booted foot into it.

She looked so tiny upon his broad back but as she jabbed her spurs into his flanks and heeled him towards me, I saw her tight grip on the reins and sure seat. She then drew aside me and pulled her steed to a halt, holding her spurs to his flanks to hold him steady.

She gestured for another apple from Tim, who had regained his basket and taking it, handed it to me. Even from this elevated position, her head barely came to my shoulders and I reached down for the apple, yet before I could take it she spurred her horse and wheeled away from me, spinning him on his own length and then heeling him towards the door of the stables. She let him have his head, holding the apple out to entice me.

Her intent was to make me chase her, I remembered her concerns earlier about my having been kept in the stall and lacking exercise. I broke into a trot, feeling muscles recently unused complain for the first time in a long time so I let myself fall into familiar rhythms that occur naturally to the beast in me.

It took little time build up speed and as I felt lungs and legs stretch to the run and I soon gained on them and drew to where I was abreast of her on her steed. She handed me the apple with a sure hand even at this speed and I leant to the spirit of the game.

My bodyweight is greater than that of any normal horse and human rider together yet I easily hammered past them both with little effort and kept gaining a lead till she reined her horse to a slower pace and rode to where Tim was standing. They watched as I, reluctant to give up the sheer joy of exercise in the sun continued to circle, varying my gaits and then slowing to a trot to eat the apple I held before I became too short of breath. I felt alive from the effort.

The afternoon passed without an instant of it noticed in passing and far to soon, the waning sun caught her attention and she and Timothy returned me to my stall. I entered without pause and turned to look at them before pulling the gate shut between us, stepping back into the stall and locking it before them.

When most I feared I had revealed too much this day and my life may soon be forfeit, she looked at me, winked and smiled and laughed gently at the look of surprise on my face. I little realised she had watched Tim and I from the barn without my knowing, yet it assured me once she had turned and left, pausing to give Tim some gently spoken instructions.

Tim bowed low before her as she took her leave and I watched him bring the basket of apples to my stall and hand it to me.

“Her Ladyship says for you to elp yourself “

He looked at me as if deciding something difficult, perhaps the words themselves or perhaps having to say them to me, I know not.

“ I sure ope you understand what I gotta say, though I dunno if you can talk even. So ere goes anyway, er usband has ordered for you to be kilt by the doctors and cut up for exsamination. Milady thinks that she can convince him to spare your life, somehow but I don't know what she has in mind”

He looked at me for any sign of recognition and I hid in my feigned interest in the apples, so he soon lost interest and moved away to finish his daily chores and then leave for the night. For the first time I felt alone here amongst the horses, they could not offer the delight of conversation or the simple touch of a human hand. I longed for her presence returned and I dropped the basket on the floor untouched as I closed my eyes to open my ears, listening to the day end as the light faded in the stable door.