The Seeker

Chapter 3- The Hooven Men

"Gabe, Gabe! Are you okay?" Liana was shaking too extreme now, and she could barely stand up, let alone run. Liana went further into the tunnel than she had before, so Gabe clearly went further without her. He wants me to come with him, and he can't even follow one simple instruction that probably would've saved his life.
When Liana reached Gabe, he was on the ground at the opening to the other side of the tunnel, with an arrow in his leg.
He was breathing heavily, and blood was rushing out of his leg.
"Gabe!" Liana screamed. She reached down to him, but when Liana looked up, that answered her question.
Crowded around them were men holding bows and arrows. But where their feet should be, there were hooves. Horse hooves. One of them turned and Liana saw that the men had horse bodies attached to their normal bodies. All the arrows were aimed directly at the hearts of Gabe and Liana. Liana was the frozen one now. She didn't dare move. She didn't know what to say. She couldn't just stand here while her brothers blood was drained out of him.
     "Uh, we're innocent, please. What did you do to my brother!?" Liana was just about in tears. "Wait, uh, who are you guys? You don't look-" She didn't know how she could finish her sentence without it sounding offensive. In any case she didn't really care if she offended them, but they shot her brother, and she didn't want them any more upset.
"We are centaurs. We live in this forest, and we don't except visitors, especially humans." But as soon as the centaur said 'humans', the centaur behind him was looking at Liana and Gabe. Well, specifically Liana. The second centaur galloped up to the centaur that had first spoken, and whispered something to him.
     The first centaur replied, "are you sure? I would think-" but the other centaur cut him off when he saw Liana trying to listen.
     "But yes, I'm sure. How else could they have found the tunnel. But the parchm-" He cut himself off that time, and looked directly at the parchment in Liana's hand. "They found it! It's the sign! The feeling when you step in the tunnel! She's the one!" And now he made eye contact with Liana, and she couldn't look away.
     "Huh?" Liana couldn't have said anything more educated.
     The centaurs exchanged glances. "Where did you find that?" The first centaur pointed to the paper in Liana's hand.
     She almost forgot she had it. "It was attached to a tree on the other side of the tunnel."
     "And how did you know it was there?"
     "I heard a noise coming from it."
     "That's all? What made you know that it was that specific tree?"
     "I just had a lurch in my stomach, it made me go to it."
     That's when the centaurs backed away from Liana.
     "What?" Liana looked at them with wide eyes.
     "You are the one. They must be looking for you. You have to come with us. Oh, and from now on, you can call me Firenze. This is Chiron." He gestured to the centaur that had galloped up next to him.
     "Okaay." And then she remembered. Gabe. Liana just realized she hadn't looked at Gabe since she came out of the tunnel. When she did, she almost had a heart attack. She shrieked.
     "Gabe! Wake up! Wake up!" The arrow in his leg had fallen out, and somehow, the spot that it hit was just a little hole earlier, but now it was the size of a baseball. All around him was a pool of blood. "What happened to him? Why is the hole so big?"