The One Winged Crow

"No Audine they're Centaurs"

Alice's POV

I was very scared when we were being dragged off by whatever these creatures are and judging by Audines look of confusion and terror she didn't know what they were either, while Crow seemed somewhat at calm so she may have known what they are.

I could hear whispers from the strange human horse like creatures as they dragged us in the direction that the village we saw from the distance, but I couldn't hear what they were whispering about.

As we entered the village, I could see many others like the creatures dragging us staring at me and the others with wide eyes, some with fear, curiosity but some had looks of anger which confused me.

I noticed that a small amount of these creatures had deer bodies instead of legs like the ones with the horse bodies, the male deer's had antlers while the female ones didn't, the group of these strange creatures (I counted six or seven) had stopped and had begun to guard us they looked like they were waiting for someone which only scared me more.

I could hear the group of creatures around us young, and old was whispering about us, Crow the one being tied up on my right I whispered to her, maybe she knew what these creatures were.

"Psst Crow what ar-."

"The Horse ones are called Centaurs and The deer ones are called Cervitaurs now shut up."

I took Crow's advice and shut my mouth; I looked again at the Centaurs and Cervitaurs whispering, I could even hear what some were whispering about.

"I thought they wouldn't be able to find us."

"How did humans find us?"

"They must be hunters."

"Yes, They have a tamed wolf."

The crowd around us then parted as the largest Centaur of them all began to approach us.

His hair and the lower part of his body was a dark brown, he had many battle scars all over his body, His hair and beard were long, but unlike the others, he had beads in both his hair, beard, and tail, they were strange markings on his upper torso and had a large but thin branch decorated with feathers.

So based on what he looked like and how the other centaurs and Cervitaurs were acting he may be the one in charge, he then stopped in front of us and began to look us over.

I could feel his glare pierce my soul with the fear of not knowing what was going to happen to us, he then gestured for someone to come over, a young Cervitaur came forward with Crows unusually large bag, I turned to Crow and was a little surprised when I saw that Crow had a look of slight panic before her demeanor calmed and looked at the centaur in charge who then spoke to us, his voice was loud and low.

"Human Trespassers, what lead you to our herd?"

I breathed a slight sigh of relief, looks like he's giving us a chance to explain and since they had tied Audines muzzle shut so Crow had told them that we were traveling to Vaizel and that we didn't know that there was a herd here.

The leader then turned to the Cervitaur behind him and nodded to the Cervitaur and took this as a sign and opened Crows large bag.
I saw Crow's eyes go wide with horror; this had heavily confused me, what did she have to hide?

Apparently, she did because as the Cervitaur took out the items one by one most of them being either fabric or small object but the Cervitaur's eyes became wide in horror as he took out a fairy's wing.

The Centaurs and Cervitaurs around gasped in horror, some averting their eyes or the eyes of their curious children that had also gathered away from the sight of the wing. The Leaders calm composure now began to radiate anger and a sense of betrayal.

I felt the same way, how the heck did I not know that I was traveling with a monster?

But I was also confused when I turned my head to yell at Crow did I notice that she seemed to be on the verge of tears as she stared at that wing, did she regret what she did? Or was it something else?

It felt so strange to see Crow like this, to see her so scared and almost at tears.

The Centaurs and Cervitaurs then began to yell and scream at us, most of them yelled about how we deserved death and the leader seemed to agree.

They may give us a quick death and there can't be any way that this can get any worse until someone yells out.

"LET'S BURN THEM ALIVE FOR THEIR CRIME!!"

The Leader nodded.

"Agreed, tomorrow when the sun rises they shall be punished!!"

The crowd then began to cheer, and three centaurs then took a rope each one having been used to tie each of us up separately and dragged us away in separate directions, Crow Eastwards, Audine being dragged North and judging by the directions they were being dragged in I was being dragged west, maybe having us separated will give us a lesser chance of escape.

Remember when I said that things couldn't get any worse?

Scratch that it just got worse.