Monster Crystal

Part 8 - The Past

We are now many years in the past, we see two young centaurs in a cage. The younger one is wearing a messy button-up shirt, she has shoulder-length ombre blue and brown hair and her fur is a chocolatey colour. The slightly older one is wearing a tattered vest, he has short hair which is also blue and brown ombre and his fur is a nice chestnut colour.

The two seemed to be part of some show. Humans started surrounding their cage yelling at them to do tricks.

"Come on, show us what you can do!" One man yelled.

"C'mon, all of us paid for this show! All the other performers did something!" A second yelled out.

Someone was causing the crowd to split apart, this man came through the crowd holding a whip.

"Now, now, you two, if you don't perform you know what's coming for you." This man seemed to be some sort of ringmaster of this place.

"Brother," The younger one whimpered, "I'm scared... what are they going to do to us?"

"Cys, it'll be fine. We've toughed it out for this long, so I know you can do it." The older one said.

"I'm giving you one last chance to do something." The Ringmaster cracked his whip against the ground.

"NO! I will not do anything under your bidding! We may be circus animals, but we aren't performing for anyone!" The older centaur shouted.

"Okay, I'm coming in." The Ringmaster walked around to the door of their cage.

"Nyvetus, why are you letting the bad man hurt us." The younger one huddled into Nyvetus.

"Cystron, trust me on this one. This may be your one chance to escape." Nyvetus nodded for his sister to go into the corner.

Cystron went into the corner. The Ringmaster came into the cage cracking his whip and went up to Nyvetus and hit him. Nyvetus wailed in agony and fell to the ground. Nyvetus was still refusing to perform.

"What about you?" The Ringmaster went up to Cystron. "Now that you see your brother in pain will you do anything?"

Cystron raised her right hoof in the air shakily. Nyvetus worked through his injury and pulled himself up. Nyvetus charged at the Ringmaster, and he slammed him down with his hooves.

"Cystron! Go!" He called to his sister. "I'll catch up later."

The Ringmaster was now too focused on taming Nyvetus that he didn't have time to catch Cystron as she ran out of the cage.

"Brother, you'll come and find me?" Cystron ran through the crowd. She saw him give a small nod.

All Cystron could hear was the wails of pain and the yelling of the crowd. A few people were chasing after her, but they gave up due to her speed. She didn't know where she was going, but she had to go somewhere very far from here. The Town that surrounded the circus was quite large. The townsfolk all looked at her, most laughed but some looked at her oddly. Cystron ran into a side alley where she was stopped by someone. She fell down after crashing into this new face.

She had pale blue skin, her light orange hair was messily tied up into a bun and she was wearing a hoodie that went down to her knees. She held out a hand for Cystron to hold onto.

"Who are you?" Cystron whimpered and wasn't sure whether or not she should take the stranger's hand.

"I'm fine, I know a place where you'll be safe." She ushered Cystron to follow her. "A place full of people like you."

"What about my brother?" Cytron grabbed the stranger's hand and followed her.

"I'm not sure, do you know where he is?"

"He's with bad people." Cystron took a quick glance back as if her brother was going to be right behind her.

"I don't think we're going to be able to save him..."

Cystron started sniffling which soon turned into crying.

"But I want to be with brother!" She cried wiping tears from her face.

"I'm sorry you can't be with him , oh, and feel free to call me Amii."

Amii realised they were being watched by some townsfolk. She held onto Cystron and both of them disappeared and reappeared in the countryside. There were barns and stables everywhere, all around Cystron could see Centaurs. If was weird seeing so many monsters just like her.

"I'm going to take you to your new home." Amii took Cystron's hand.

Cystron had never seen so many types of centaurs before outside of her own breed of the Quarter Horse. There were Falabellas, Kathiawaris, even a Friesian Appaloosa. They were near a massive plot of land.

It had a humongous barn, and then it had a slightly smaller communal area. As they approached the gates, there was a kindly looking centaur waiting to greet them. She was a Clydesdale with a black and white spotted coat. She wore a pale yellow cardigan and her hair was also white and black, which was in a long plait.

"Hello there!" She greeted them with a warm smile. It was almost as if an aura radiated off her "My name is Sumia, and I run a home for centaurs."

Cystron looked around for Amii, but she had disappeared without leaving a trace. It was as if she had never been there in the first place.

"Are you looking for something?" Sumia asked Cystron.

"Amii." Cystron replied.

"Oh, do you mean the monster who was with you."

"Yes."

"I don't know where she went, but she'll be back." Sumia reckoned this Amii person must be some sort of imaginary friend of this young girl.

On this day I sacrificed my visibility and sight for a little centaur I just met. As if I knew she was made for more than what she gave off. It seemed I was right but also very wrong at the same time. Not even I could predict what was coming.

Oh reader, you wonder who I am, do you? I'm Amii, a dream crawler. You say you've heard of another dream crawler by the name Sali, she sounds cool. I'm sure I'll narrate about her sometime. Well it was nice having this quick chat with you, but I now need to go narrate about the princess. Tee hee! Bye-bye!