° 𝘉𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘰𝘰𝘳 (𝘏𝘢𝘭𝘧𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘋𝘰𝘯𝘦!) °

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜

The beast sat down- very normally for an animal with those legs, and then the beast... or, whatever it was... started to open his mouth.

The second the beast opened his mouth to speak, Arya looked away and shielded herself with her hands. 

The beast waited until she slowly turned around to see why the beast was not eating her.

The beast... or... the 'thing', opened it's mouth again, but Arya turned around again.

Arya had her head turned around for a while and she waited for the- beast?- to eat her alive...

Nothing happened.

"Oh, just turn your head around, would ya?"

Arya almost screamed when the- the beast... started talking. 

She jumped and her heart started racing at a million miles an hour.

She almost ran into a tree but the beast- or whatever you want to call it for now- grabbed her gently and placed her back where she was before- 

With it's... hooves?

She closed her eyes and crouched, hiding her head in her knees for a while.

She finally stood back up, eyes completely shut, and tried to calm down.

She slowly turned around, taking deep breaths in, and out.

She finally opened her eyes ever so slightly.

 What had just happened.... could the.. 'thing'.... talk?

She thought it was dumb, but she turned around and said to the 'thing'- 

"Can y-.. Can you t-talk?"

The beast smirked, then started laughing and hitting the ground with his hooves. 

"That was so funny! You are his actual daughter? Ahahhahaha, that's the funniest thing I have seen in years!"

Arya had a dumbfounded, shocked look on her face. She looked as if she was going to puke and then blow up.

"Of course I can talk! I'm a centaur! HAHAHHHAHH!"

Arya held herself back from screaming. 

"What just happened, I'm gonna remember this for years to come! HAHAHHHAhHAhaaa!"

Arya's jaw dropped, either in absolute fright or in shock.

She did not even have the time to say anything before the centaur spoke again.

"Why, you act like you didn't know this already? Your father never mentioned anything about centaurs his whole time with you?"

Arya had an extremely confused look on her face. 

"He never talked about his most beloved servant, Colden the Centaur? Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, because I thought you would already recognize me. I am Colden the Centaur, from a long line of great centaurs stretching back to... forever, I guess."

Arya had too many things in her mind to even speak.

"Oh, don't worry, I know all about you, no need to introduce yourself."

Arya literally had her mind blown into a million pieces, and she was going absolutely nuts inside.

Arya could not help it, she just started asking every question on her mind. 

"Wha- What do you mean I don't need to? How do you know me? My father does not have any servants! Centaurs are only from storybooks, how ar-"

The centaur had a smirk on his face but he held back his laughter.

"Come, Arya, Daughter of the Earth, we need to get you filled up and rested, there is a long journey ahead. You can ask questions on our journey, and I will answer you later."

Arya wanted to protest, but the centaur cut her off. 

"But first, we need to go visit my family, they have prepared a great meal for welcoming you." said the Centaur, or, if you prefer saying 'the thing'... then go ahead I guess.

Arya was about to explode. She did not want to go with some strange... centaur.... and she had too many questions to ask that it felt like the world was going to end.

Arya did realize that she was tired, and also hungry. She asked the... centaur, "W- why am I hungry now, when in the other part of the forest I was not?"

The Centaur responded with a small chuckle. "Arya, this forest has many secrets. I will answer only this one question for you. In the forest, you heard my singing, correct?"

Arya responded with a slight nod. She never realized that the Centaur had been singing the whole time.

"My singing has led you to me. When I sang, it put a healing protection over you so that you would reach me. I made sure you went in the right direction, because this forest has no proper sources of food or water for the first few days of walking. Through my singing, I was able to watch you. I could not choose what you do, but I knew you would choose wisely, because your senses of the earth would help you."

Arya realised that she was being watched this whole time- only not how she thought.

"In fact, you got here quicker than expected. I am very happy for that, because if you got here only one day later, my powers would slowly fade until they disappear. Not only would you be in the middle of the forest and my powers would be gone, I would have failed my mission, and I would never see the earth again."

None of these words made too much sense at all to Arya at the time, she was blinded by her longing to eat and drink. They reached the site, and the Centaur explained to her that she would be greeted with much praise, so if she was not one that enjoyed being praised, then he could tell them to not go full-out. 

Arya said it was fine, and as they went inside the tent a loud uproar of cheers came in when Colden the Centaur reached inside, and they stopped immediately at the sight of her.

 They all bowed, and then they all made a huge uproar of cheers, much louder than Colden's, and they all ran and bowed to her and hugged her, and lifted her up and cheered. This was, for sure, going to be a blast!

Finally, after a few minutes, most people calmed down, but people were pushing to sit next to her. Someone got a camera out and took pictures, but Colden understood how Arya must have felt at the time, because Colden stopped them before they used up their whole camera roll on pictures of her.

Arya sat down on a chair, realizing how comfortable they were. 

Then the plates of food started coming in. 

They were all covered, and Arya wondered what could possibly be in them. Berries from the bush, maybe? 

Or was it even human food? 

Even though she was so hungry, she was still worried that the centaur had made up this whole story and it was a trap.

But she wanted to believe it so badly.