Knight to the Silver Throne

Chapter 6: The Morning Thereafter

Feamir's head hurt and it got only worse when she tried to open her eyes only to get blinded by the sun. So, she just closed them again. The headache was terrible, most likely the strongest hangover she ever had. But she could not remember drinking so much, or got her tolerance worse? However, the more she thought about it the more of it seemed strange.

Her last memory was from dancing with the Duke Tirghernán, after that there were only a few hazy impressions. That could have been a normal mental blank because of the alcohol, but then there were to many strange things happening that night.
Feamir was starting to get suspicious regarding her own behavior as well. At first, she remembered, she was very cautious with everything, but the moment the fæ duke appeared she seemed like she did not care anymore and ignored all of her bad feelings before. Looking back the change in her behavior was really abrupt. Where she first was adamant about not drinking the whine, she later apparently gulped it down... at least if she could believe her hangover.

While still not daring to open her eyes, Feamir instead tried to concentrate on her other senses. Judging from her feeling she was laying on the ground, most likely still on the forest clearing. The sounds of the forest were luckily calm enough to not make her headache worse. However, from further away the girl noticed voices starting to arguing growing in volume.

"Why do we, no: why do I have to babysit now?", Feamir recognized that voice, it was the grumpy centaur from the night before.
"The duke has ordered us to look after her, and you are the most suitable now.", the other person seemed to be Caprinvur. In contrast to the centaur, he was still speaking relatively calm, but from his voice alone he carried strictness like he would not accept the centaur refusing.

"Little Feamir! Are you awake yet?", Caprinvur jelled completely having lost the strictness from before. His voice echoed in her head painfully. An unhappy grunting was the only answer he received from her, because she felt rather uncomfortable now. The peace that she started to feel only laying on the ground with her eyes closed was completely lost now.

Not being able to rest anymore, Feamir begrudgingly opened her eyes, trying to ignore the pain in her head being amplified by the light. She tried to sit up, but strangely stumbling only managed to prop her torso up while turning to the side. Everything seemed turning and she was not able to see clearly in front of her. Suddenly she had to throw up, however only her muscles cramped, and she was violently gaging without anything coming up her throat.

"Careful, careful, little one!", Caprinvur was tapping on her back as if trying to help, but he was not very helpful, "That's probably only the sequelae. Don't try to get up yet, take your time."
Feamir was not able to answer him at all, because she was still more occupied with recovering and her headache. She still noted the strange way of the goat man to say "hangover" though.

After a few moments catching her breath, Feamir finally was able to look at Caprinvur who was now kneeling beside her. He looked a bit helpless while obviously trying to help her somehow. A few meters behind him she saw the centaur standing with his arms crossed looking very displeased.

"I'm fine. I'm fine...", ignoring her head she tried to persuade Caprinvur, not wanting to accept any help of his. He has not really done anything for her to mistrust him as much as she did, but he somehow gave her a bad feeling. After her own strange behavior yesterday, she decided to try to be cautious again.

Feamir tried to stand up, but when trying to use her body suddenly everything felt strange. Not having realized anything wrong before, being too concentrated on everything else, she took the first look down her body. At exactly that moment she wanted to scream.

What she expected were normal legs with normal feet, what she saw was something else, however. Her complete body from her hips downwards had changed. Instead of having two normal humanoid legs, she now looked more like the centaur. But she also had no horse body like him, in her opinion it looked more like that of a deer or something similar. The body was more delicate and thinner compared to the sturdy and powerful one of a horse.

The goat man noticed her rising panic and attempted to calm her down before she could start hyperventilating: "Breath, my dear! In and out. Calm breaths now. I know you have questions, and everything will be answered soon. It is not as bad as you may think it is now." The effect was probably not as calming as he hoped it would be, but it successfully stopped Feamir from getting a panic attack.

"What happened? What is with my body?", Feamir demanded to know, full of questions and fear.
However Caprinvur was not inclined to answer her yet: "It's not time to answer you now, probably. We are just here to take a bit care of you." Seemingly out of thin air, the goat man conjured a slightly greenish glass marble. Also, it could have been actually magic, in Feamir's opinion it was more likely a slight of hand trick even the most magicless human could learn. "Hal here", Caprinvur pointed with his head to the centaur, "collected some of his knowledge about moving a body like yours is now, so you don't have to learn it the hard and long way. Just put the marble on your forehead." And he handed Feamir the marble expectantly.

However, Feamir was not going to trust him on that that easily. Propping herself up with her arms again she questioned him: "Why should I trust you though?"
But it was Hal the centaur who interrupted instead: "Could you even stand up on your own without the help of my knowledge?" He was definitely and obviously looking down on Feamir, his contempt was seeping through his whole attitude. However, fully knowing about his provocation, she accepted his challenge.

Now knowing about the change of her body, she first tried to get a feel for it. Before she thought that everything was normal, so she had not noticed the feeling of her new limbs and her new body. It was strange, different and she was sure that she would need time to completely adapt, if she were to keep that body. However, her muscles were there and working, just working differently.

Angrily crunching her teeth Feamir tried standing up again. This time changing her approach to first get all her limbs under her body. This posture was for deers likely also counting as lying, but for her now it was more like sitting than any posture she could otherwise imagine. Then she stood up with her new front legs. She tried to help with her hands, but that was just too awkward in the end. After that she got to somehow get her hindlegs up as well. Feamir's movements were sluggish, slow, her posture wobbly. But in the end, she stood somehow on all four.

"Good job! You are more adaptable than we thought you would! You should still take the marble though.", Caprinvur was cheering her on. He looked actually surprised by her little achievement. Hal, however, was still looking as displeased as when he first came here. "First training starts tomorrow at dawn. Use it or not. Until then.", he grunted, turned around at left.