Undaunted

Remembrance

Word of the wise: centaurs are amazing at playing cards. Even if I cheated, I rarely beat Leona in any game. She had wicked fast reflexes, so I couldn't beat her in games that involved moving. I mostly won because of the luck of the cards, but she was a good sport. She was just enjoying something new. I taught her all sorts of games, even a few she could play by herself if she got bored when I wasn't around.

We played into the evening. During a round of Garbage, she asked, "Did you play cards a lot when you were younger?"

I flipped over a card. "Yeah. There weren't many people my age around, so I did a lot of things with my parents. Cards were an easy way to keep my occupied."

Her brown eyes gazed imploringly at me. "Did you do anything else? Or did you just play cards for your entire life?" she added with a smirk.

"My mom also read me a lot of books. I spent hours just reading them and sometimes I'd even act out scenes or make up my own. I'd go out in the fields and pretend I was Achilles or Theseus, slaying monsters left and right."

Her smile shrank a bit. "What types of monsters?" she murmured.

I ran a hand through my short brown hair. "Oh, Leona, I didn't mean it like that. Often times, when I was pretending, centaurs were my allies." She was quieter after that. I silently berated myself for that. After a few more turns, I spoke up. "Why don't we change the subject? We've talked about me for a while, so what about you? What did you do as a kid? Uh, young centaur."

"Well, my friends and I used to go for runs and race each other. We used to challenge each other to see who could jump the farthest or the highest. We used to play with sticks, and some of my friends had challenges of strength. Some of us trained to be fighters and used weapons while others worked as craftsmen. That's pretty much what we did for the most part."

"That actually sounds pretty neat!" I exclaimed.

She shrugged. "Yeah, well, some of the other yearlings were pretty physical, so it was pretty rough, to be honest."

"Being a centaur seems pretty fun."

"It's probably just as fun as being a human. Sometimes I envy your kind," she admitted.

"What could be enviable about us?"

"It's not like you'd know, being a human yourself and all," she reminded.

"I guess that's true." I glanced at the time. "Wow, it's late. Hey, you must be pretty hungry by now, right? What do centaurs even eat, anyway? Grass?"

Leona scowled at me. "Drew, you can't be serious."

I held up my hands. "Sorry! Sorry!"

She sighed. "Yeah, I could do with something right about now."

I got up off the floor of the small cave and pointed at Leona. She went cross-eyed trying to track my finger. "I'll be back shortly. Stay put," I commanded jokingly, my tone falsely serious.

She saluted me. "I'm not going anywhere, you dork," she promised.

***

I put together some sandwiches in the kitchens and grabbed a few bottles of water to bring back. It was a little funny watching Leona stare at the food, completely mystified by the idea. Afterwards, we played a few more rounds of cards before I encouraged her outside. "Come on, I want to show you something."

She stood up wordlessly and followed me. It was amazing to see how far she had come ever since I made an effort to reach out to her. She'd put my sweatshirt back on, which I decided to let her hang onto for now. I could manage without it for now.

I led her through the trees in a new direction, clouds of breath billowing out into the chilly air. Slowly the ground angled upward and the trees began to thin out, bathing the earth in the ghostly lights of the universe. When we reached the crest of the hill, Leona muttered something I couldn't catch and walked past me.

"Oh my gosh," she breathed. The sky looked like someone had splattered paint all over, and there were barely any patches of sky that weren't peppered with light. She held up her hands as if to touch the stars.

"Pretty neat, right?" I stopped next to her and looked up at her. Her eyes were glimmering, a silvery sheen in her eyes. "I thought you might like to see this."

I waited for a reply, but she just stood there gazing at the stars with her mouth slightly open. "Come on, haven't you seen stars before?" I teased.

"Not in a long time. They didn't let me out much unless they absolutely had to. Even then, it was always on their terms. I never got to do anything I wanted."

My heart tightened, like someone was squeezing it. "Oh, sorry." I sound incredibly heartless, I thought disappointedly. "I didn't mean it like that, Leona."

Her eyes flicked towards me. "I know that. I'm just so excited to see them again. I used to go stargazing a long time ago."

"So, this is a good thing?"

"Yes, Drew, this is very good."

I pumped a fist, but awkwardly stopped halfway through because Leona was staring at me funny. I grinned sheepishly and lowered my arm, hoping she'd go back to looking at the stars. She did eventually, but with a little less enthusiasm than before. Idiot.

I practically had to drag her off the hillside when it was drawing close to midnight. "You can see the stars tomorrow if you'd like," I reminded gently. "It's just that I have to leave and I want to make sure you're in a safe place until tomorrow."

She rolled her eyes. "You sound like my mother."

I grinned. "Is that a good thing?"

"Oh jeez, Drew." She shoved me playfully, almost causing me to fall down the hill. We laughed about it on our way back.