Tales of Symphonia 1. Chapter 1

This story is one I have had in the wings for a while now. It's one I've been planning out and worked on frequently. I first started writing it after reading **'Twins and Cosplayers'** by **'Martel Irasia'**. I completely recommend reading it.

I borrowed her main villain and a few of her characters for the end of this chapter, with permission so no complaints.

I wanted a better excuse for being self-inserted and in the state I find myself than 'My game cube did it.' partially because I don't own a game cube, playing Symphonia on my Wii.

* * *

I stood in the middle if the front room, behind me is a huge shape under a white sheet. The dining room table had been pushed to the side to make room. I fiddle with a camera on a tripod for a moment. One I make sure it is set up properly I press the button to start filming.

"Hello, YouTube.

My name is Draceena. I am a twenty one year old woman but I am often mistaken for a fifteen year old boy. I act like one too sometimes. I live here at home with my mum and dad, my brother Xai and my sister Grace. Her account is GraceDoesWierdThings. Look her up, she's funny.

Anyway, I figured this would be a good time to start my own channel. Tomorrow, Xai, Grace and I are going to the London MCM semi-annual Anime and Manga Exhibition. London Expo for short."

I look behind me at the large shape hidden under a huge white sheet before turning back to the camera. "Wanna see my costume?" I reach over and press the stop button. After watching what I just filmed and finding nothing wrong with it I set the camera back up on the stand. I move it closer to the shape and, after making sure everything is in the right place, started filming again. I would have to cut the first part of the video out when I edit it. (Read: when I get Grace to edit it for me.)

I pulled the sheet off the big shape in the middle of the room. "Tada!" I pause for a moment so I can have more space to cut out this section. Before I look back at my cosplay. It is a life-size model of a horse minus the head. I carefully take off the wrap skirt I was wearing and step up onto the chair.

I carefully feel around the neck hole and find the seam. I pull a part of the back off and climb in settling myself inside the animatronic body so that my legs are hidden inside up to my waist and close the back up.

I turn back to the camera. "Tada! I'm a centaur! Cool huh? My cousin is a geek working for that major computer company. Mana-Electro. You know the one. They perfected prosthetic limbs by using a design based on Full Metal Alchemist. They invented lots of other stuff too. This is a proto type design. I will be showing it off at the Expo to try and gain more attention for the company." (An: Mana-Electro is a completely made up company.)

I look down at the body. "I haven't fully strapped myself in yet, that would require Grace to help me and about ten minutes to get everything set up. But I can actually move it like a real horse would so I actually look like a centaur when I'm wearing it."

I look back at the camera and grin. I pause for a moment before carefully extracting myself from my costume and climbing down.

I walk back over to the camera and stop the recording. I went upstairs to find Grace. Once sure she is not naked I stand outside our room and held the camera up, facing me. "Let's go find out what my weird sister is doing." I stop the recording sigh and try again. "Let's go see if Grace has her costume finished yet."

I slowly open the door to mine and my sister's bedroom. "And here we find the Grace, in her natural habitat." I point the camera at my sister, sitting on her bed in front of a canvas. On the canvas was a half finished painting of a tiger.

Grace turned around. "'Sup!"

"So Grace, what are you cosplaying as tomorrow?"

Grace stood up and walked over to a dressmakers dummy in the corner of the room directly opposite the door. "I am cosplaying as Flutterbat! Vampire Fluttershy."

I walk closer to the costume and pause then stop the recording. "Yay, video."

"Emi, you do realise you're half naked right?"

I look down and realise I forgot to put my skirt back on. "DAMNIT! At least I didn't get it in shot. I think. At least I'm wearing underwear." I sigh and hang my head. "I'm stupid."

Grace laughed at me. "Anyway, nudity aside. Are you ready to go tomorrow?"

I smile at her. "Yeah. I'm ready. Everything is packed. Barry will be here at six thirty in the morning with his minibus so I need you to help me get into my costume before then. You all packed?"

Grace nodded and I went back downstairs. "See you in the morning then."

...

Morning arrived and I yawned wide. The alarm on my phone was going off. I reach out towards it and fall off the couch. Oh yeah, I slept downstairs last night. I stand up and blink around the room.

"Emi, turn it off."

I look to my right. Right. Megan stayed here last night. I look around the room and then remember where I put my phone. I walk across into the dining room and pick up my phone off the table so I can turn off the alarm. By then I was wide awake so I went to have a shower.

When I got out of the bathroom Grace was standing outside the door and went in to shower and get ready. I walked downstairs to get into my costume.

Since it was so huge and it had neuro-receptors of some kind that allowed me to move it with my mind that meant it would take at least ten minutes to put it on with help. I strap my legs in properly. On the inside I am sitting down so my waist is at the opening on the neck join. I was sitting on a seat but my legs where in a kneeling position. I had to strap a catheter in since it would take too long to put on and take off every time I needed to pee.

Once I had properly secured my lower half in the costume I pulled out the cords that would be running up my back to attach to the headset thingy I would have on. When I had them free I pressed a switch on the inside to turn it on and put the back of the body in place and used the special seal and costume/stage makeup to fix the join so it looked like my skin just faded into horse hair for the body. Grace came in at that point and grabbed my headset off the table. We carefully positioned all the sticky things in the right places and attached everything together. Grace then put some more stage makeup stuff on my back, like a skin graft. It ended up looking like a horses mane but shorter and it hid the cables.

I then put on a wig to hide the sticky things and headset. Good thing I have such short hair or it would be a bit more complicated. I then pressed a button on the headset to turn it on. I carefully concentrated and moved each of the feet in turn and swished the tail. I took a few shaky steps around the room and grinned.

Grace grinned back and went to get her cosplay on. I picked up the padded bra/crop-top thingy I made that I would be wearing as a shirt.

I picked up my bow and quiver full of arrows and slung them over my back. I then fastened a strap I made to my waist and attached my bag, a coil of rope, my dagger and my sword. My bag was actually made out of a similar material to an old potato sack. It made the costume seem more authentic.

I picked up my camera off the table. I twisted the screen around so I could see what I was filming and pressed record. "Hey, today's the day. Yes my hair is longer. It's wig. I have got my costume on now." I walked over to the tripod by the door to the conservatory and fixed the camera to it and walked into the middle off the room. "What do you think? Pretty cool huh?" I gently stamped one of my hooves on the floor and wished my tail.

When Grace was finished getting ready she filmed me for her video since she was doing one too. Then I filmed her with both of our cameras. Then we both filmed Megan and Ben, when they came downstairs. We had a large breakfast (For us anyway, I only had two slices of toast and half a grapefruit) and went to gather the rest of our stuff. I made sure that I had everything I needed in my bag and that I had the entry tickets secured away. I then got a call from Barry to say he was nearly there and would be about another fifteen minutes. I quickly called the others to get their stuff together.

Barry was one on my Dad's friends. I forget what he does but he earns a lot of money. He owns a minibus especially for disabled people so we are borrowing that to get to expo.

Xai got his team Aqua cosplay on and Megan had her Umbreon onesy.

I double checked my bag. I had a spare change of clothes, my phone, my purse (With my ID, and Debit card), my camera, my first aid kit, my gloves, a forearm bracer for archery (Not that I could hit a target to save my life), some food (For lunch), a large number of bottles of water, lemon ice-tea and fizzy drinks (Drinks at Expo are expensive), some sweats (I like sugar), a few travel packs of tissues, the tickets, a notepad and collection of pens and a book to read.

This was going to be fun.

Expo took place in a building in London called EdExell. It was a building specifically designed for conventions. There were huge warehouse like rooms along both walls labelled N1, N2, N3 and so on along one side and S1, S2, S3 and so on along the other. The N stood for North and the S stood for South. The doors on either end of the building were the East entrance and the West entrance. On one side of the building was a huge car park but on the other was a huge set of stairs with some statues here and there as well as a small grassy courtyard/field that people sat around in. The Expo itself was in one of the warehouse rooms and you had to have a special wrist band to say you have paid to get in. The queue was in another warehouse room.

Between some of the rooms were shops like 'Costa coffee' and 'Upper crust' or 'Subway'. This was places where people attending the conventions could go to eat.

Sometimes there was interesting things in the other rooms like work shops or lectures. There was also an adult section but I had never been in there. Wasn't really interested.

When we got there everyone else left the bus before me since I needed the room to get around the pole that was there. After a while we met up with Megan's friends who where meeting us there and we all went to hand in our tickets. Even buying in advance we were still in the queue for a good fifteen minutes. Much better than the one time we got here and where in queue for about two hours. One time we didn't buy in advance and had to join to other line and were there for four hours.

At that point I split off from the others, I usually went around on my own to buy things before the group met up and we did fun stuff together. I ended up buying a cool blue and black parasol, a real dear-skin canteen, a cool set of blue hairbrushes in a metal case that looked just like what I pictured a wing pack looking like and a dozen boxes of pocky.

When I left to go meet up with the others I filled my new canteen up. It was quite the novelty having a canteen but it fit with my costume.

Eventually I got hungry and decided to find somewhere to eat so I set of down the centre aisle. There was seating in squares all along the isle but most of them where full.

As I was walking past a room I heard some people screaming. It wasn't the usual kind of screaming you hear at expo either. Twice while I was in the queue to get in everyone started cheering for some reason. Most of us didn't know why but we cheered anyway.

Everyone cheered when I walked in. It was awesome!

I poked my head around the door and stood frozen in place. In the middle of the room was a large metal device that looked kind of like a dome or even an igloo. In the centre of it there was a swirling vortex of purple-black energy swirling in the centre. There were four people near the door trying desperately to escape.

Two of them vanished within the first second.

A Martel cosplayer was the next to be dragged in, screaming her head off as she vanished.

There was a man standing off to one side. He had silver hair flowing down his back and a long black coat on. "Good luck, my friends. Especially you my dear Lara. I do hope you don't die before we meet again." He turned around and spotted me just as the girl cosplaying as Lloyd (was her name Lara?) vanished.

This all happened in only a few seconds, I barely had time to register what was happening before it was over.

I stepped into the room and pulled my bow off. "What have you done?" I asked in a low and threatening tone. I had mastered that tone years ago since I work with children. They need to know they are in trouble without being yelled at.

I notched an arrow and aimed it at the strange black crystal embedded in his chest.

He smirked. "A foolish mortal like you has no power here." He pushed a few buttons on the side of the machine and the vortex started swirling again, this time with streaks of red and luminous yellow added in.

Before I could register what was happening I somehow had my bow slung back over my shoulder, my arrow back in my quiver and was somehow just outside the door of the dome. I felt it pulling me backwards and tried to move away. Unfortunately since the legs I was running on weren't my own I tripped and fell, being pulled backwards through the air through the remaining space between me and the dome.

"You won't interfere!"


	2. Chapter 2

I bring you this chapter much earlier than normal because I love all of you so much! You make me feel so loved.

I have put a poll up on my profile as to which of my four current stories I should make my main focus. The others will still have their monthly updates but I would like to have one that is my main focus. Please, let me know what you think.

If any of you have any questions about anything in the story, ask. If you can't understand it, other people might not either. I will answer any questions at the start of each chapter, to help clear up any misunderstandings.

* * *

My return to consciousness was not a pleasant one. When I realised I was conscious it was a gradual thing. The first thing I noticed was that my whole body was cold and numb. Not the good kind of numb, the one that is followed seconds later by pins and needles.

I took a deep breath and braced myself. Sure enough, seconds later, my whole body erupted in pain. My nerves sang out in agony. I let out a sharp sob and whimpered at the pain that shot through my chest.

What the hell had I been doing to make my whole body numb like this?

By the Gods, it hurt.

I say Gods, by the way. It's not that I actually believe in any god in particular, to the contrary, I don't believe in any. It is just that I have been watching the how to train your dragon TV series recently.

I used to use Pern phrases when I read that series of books.

Anyway, sidetracking conversations aside, I was in a lot of pain.

I had no idea how long I lay there for before the pain finally began to fade into a post-pins-and-needles-ache. I hurt in places I didn't even know I had.

I hurt in places I shouldn't have.

I looked down and whined in distress when I saw the horses front legs attached to my waist. Okay, so somehow I had ended up in my cosplay and somehow it had ended up becoming a part of me. Oh, fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I lay still and waited for the ache to disappear before slowly trying to move. I did it in stages, my fingers first, then my hands, my arms my shoulders, head and neck then I pushed myself into a sitting position.

I twisted around slightly before closing my eyes. Yep. I was a centaur.

Okay, not going there for a moment.

I looked down to the bag at my waist. It was a kind of burlap material. I opened it to have a look inside. It was larger on the inside than the outside. Inside it was some kind of parasol, it seemed to be made of horse hair, since it looked remarkably similar to my tail although it was a kind of midnight blue and black. I wonder where it came from. Looking down I realised my shirt was now wool instead of the material it was before.

...

Flat...

Ignoring that for the moment.

There were four deerskin canteens full of water. I sniffed at one and took a drink. Yup. Water. I drained the skin, I was really thirsty.

There was some kind of metal case. It was made of steel. It had all kinds of runes carved into it in an intricate pattern. There was some kind of symbol on the front I couldn't place but had a feeling I should. When I opened the case I found it was also bigger on the inside. It contained a number of different brushes, many of which I remember from my time working in a stables when I was sixteen. I figured that would be helpful since I was half horse now.

I looked at what else was in the bag and found my camera, a purse (which looked like the old bag I kept marbles in when I was younger and was full of some kind of currency I didn't recognise), my phone (which wouldn't turn on), my first aid kit, a rope, my gloves, my forearm bracer and a spare shirt, which was also of the same material as the one I was wearing. My gloves had changed in design slightly. Before, they were riding gloves but now they seemed different.

Strapped on some kind of belt at my waist was my sword and dagger. Pulling at the straps across my chest revealed my bow and quiver.

I frowned. Most of these items I was planning on packing for expo.

I picked up my camera and smiled when it turned on. I watched the latest footage and frowned further when I saw things I didn't remember. There was not much at expo, I didn't film while I was shopping. I must have lost my memory of the last two days, since the last thing I remember was from two days before expo, when I was getting everything ready.

Yes, I got things ready that far in advance.

I shook my head and put the camera and my phone in the metal case with the brushes. After a moment of thought I put the purse in there too. I put the case and the parasol in my bag along with the canteens, the rope and my spare shirt. I put the forearm bracer and gloves on.

Rummaging through my first aid kit was strange. It was now made of the same material as my shirts and was bigger on the inside. Before, it contained normal medical things, now though... it had forty three bandages and all the plasters I had before were gone. I had four stretch bandages instead of two. The skin tape had been replaced by some metal clips. The pain killers, examination gloves and burn cream were gone. There were a few bottles of things that I resolved to leave alone for now. I put my first aid kit in my bag.

I pulled off the bow and quiver and removed my shirt, it was itching my mane (And wasn't that a strange thought?). I stuffed it into my bag with the other one.

I looked over my bow and quiver. The bow was now made of wood instead of the plastic stuff they are normally and the arrowheads were slightly different now. The sword and dagger were made of some kind of steel now, instead of wood.

I sheathed the blades and put the bow and quiver back on before looking around. So, where was I? In a forest. Right. That much is obvious. I didn't recognise the trees though, so I couldn't be in England, or if I was then I was somewhere without oak and sycamore trees. The grass was yellowing in places so it must be hot here. Looking at the plants around, they all seemed kind of dry and dull. Was there some kind of drought? I could hear bird song and there was a hot wind coming from between the trees.

And now I ran out of things to distract myself with.

I took a deep breath and carefully started moving my legs. Since I had done this in my cosplay once before (that I could remember, apparently I have done it twice now) it was easy to move the front legs. The back ones proved harder. I spent a few minutes just moving each bit of leg and tensing and relaxing the muscles.

I then carefully stood up and wobbled a bit before I got my balance. Okay, if a newborn foal can walk in very little time then I could figure it out too. It was instinct right? I took a few shaky steps and nearly stumbled but in a few minutes I was walking slowly around the clearing.

I smiled when I was able to walk around it once without tripping. I froze and turned around when I heard someone clapping.

I fell flat on my face.

Ow.

"Well, that wasn't what you wanted to happen was it?"

I blushed and looked up at the man through my much longer eyelashes. I pushed myself into a sitting position.

The man looked to be in his late teens, early twenties. He had blond hair that reached to the base of his neck all the way around and flicked outwards, his fringe covered his left eye. He was wearing a white chef hat with a red 'W' with three triangles above it on the front and a green and red band along the base. He had on a long-sleeved white shirt with green cuffs with a red stripe around the wrist and a red and green band half way down his forearm.

He had a green sleeveless jacket with six gold buttons, three on either side, and a gold trim. There was a brown belt around his waist, and a red cape draped over his shoulders. His trousers and boots where also green.

I raised one eyebrow at him. Honestly, who wore those outfits in real life? Was he going to a convention?

The man grinned and spread his arms wide. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am the mysterious gourmet, The Wonderchef."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Well met, Wonderchef. My name is Drake." If he wasn't giving a real name, I wasn't either... wow my voice was way lower than normal...

He grinned. "Now, now, Emi. No need to get snarky." I glared at him and he winced. "Okay. I think it is time I explained a few things. You are now a self-inset. You have forgotten everything about this world, I will tell you a few things so you don't look like so much of an outsider. First, you need to know how you got here. While you were at expo, you stumbled across a man doing some nefarious deeds, you got in his way and he sent you here, he had to recalibrate his machine at the last second so as not to let you interfere with his work. With me so far?"

I nodded. "Will I have to stop this guy?" seriously, what was up with my voice.

He shook his head. "No, that is for someone else to do. It will be impossible for you to cross paths with him again. Now, as you have already figured out, you are now a centaur. I will be telling you about them in a minute as well, just want to get most of the explaining done first before going into the details." I nodded and he carried on. "The items you have on you now are what you took with you through the portal but some of it had been modified slightly to better fit this world."

I nodded again. That explained a lot.

The Wonderchef nodded and looked down at the ground for a moment. "Um... let me see... what else... um... ah, I'll let you know when I think of it. Okay, so, you. Let's talk about you."

I smiled. I liked this guy. "And what about me do you wish to speak of?"

He grinned and walked over, "Take my hand."

I did so and raised an eyebrow at how much smaller he was than me. He took his hand back and grinned. "So, since your horse body is so large the rest of you is bigger too. Especially there."

I blinked. He was pointing between my front legs. I bent over to see what he was looking at, seeing nothing I glanced up at him and he urged me to look lower. I ended up with my head between my forelegs and found myself staring at something that I was fairly certain had not been there before.

I stood up straight. "I'm a dude..."

He nodded. "Yup. You know you're trans-gender? I thought I might help you out a bit so I made a few modifications. That's why your chest is flat. You don't mind, do you?"

I smiled and shook my head. "No, this is great. Thank you. I just wish you hadn't turned me into a centaur."

He laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, that was unavoidable. Anyway... you are now almost completely vegetarian now. You will only eat fruit and vegetables and the only meat you could eat is fish and poultry. You can eat some things you wouldn't have been able to before. Like leaves. You can eat leaves now. You will have to eat and drink a lot more now. Especially if you are in the desert. Centaurs by nature are pacifists with aggression issues. Just like you."

I blushed. Yup. That described me. I was strong, stronger than most would think, given my size but whenever it came to causing physical violence I was never able to use my full strength, something held me back, something stopped my from actually causing harm to anyone. I didn't like hurting people.

"You are way stronger than a human though, like, really, really, really strong. In an arm wrestle with an angel you would be close to winning and angels are like, superman!"

I nickered. Oh, wow. Horse noises.

"You can also sense and use mana, I'll explain that in a minute. Um... oh yeah! The metal case in your bag is called a wingpack. It can hold anything up to the size and weight of a large boat, but I modified yours slightly so it can hold more than one item so long as the size and weight limit aren't exceeded and any food you store in it won't go off, so it's... like a fridge! But not cold..."

The Wonderchef sat on the floor in front of me. "So, the new world." He then walked me through the world I now found myself in. It was named Sylvarant, there were five other races alive in the world, Humans, Elves, Half-Elves, Dwarves and Angels. The Dwarves mostly lived underground in a secret city that very few on Sylvarant have even heard of, let alone think exists. The Elves were secretive and elusive, very few choose to live outside of their secret city. The Angels lived exclusively in the heavens and rarely visited the world below.

Wonderchef then explained about the world itself, about mana, monsters, the plants and animals, what was edible and what wasn't. He then talked about things humans had invented and explained what each of the bottles in my first aid kit did. He also told me about Gald, the currency. I had 11050 gald on me since I had £73.50 on me and the exchange rate was £1=150 gald.

He then told me that centaurs don't exist on this world so I could just make stuff up about them and no one would question me.

Once that was over he went into more depth about mana, he showed me what it was, how to sense it, how to use it and how to tell what someone was just by the mana.

Then he grinned. "Now, I need you to meet up with someone, so, I'm gonna have to knock you out now." I started to try and move away from him but he disappeared. He reappeared behind me with a giant fork and bashed me round the head.

I slowly open my eyes. Ow... My head...

There was a voice nearby... Who is it?

My vision finally stops swimming and I see more greenery around me. I tilted my head to the side slightly and saw a teenage boy kneeling on the ground next to me. "Hey." He whispered. "Are you okay?"

He was wearing brown trousers, held up by suspenders, a red jacket that was tucked into his trousers and red gloves covering his hands. He shifted slightly and I saw he was wearing red boots and there was something white behind him, I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. His brown hair was pointing upwards and defying gravity so much I had to wonder if he was using some kind of gel. There was some kind of backpack on the ground next to him.

I slowly shook my head and continued to lie limply on the floor. I took a deep breath and croaked, "W-Where...?"

The boy smiled. "You're in the forest north of Iselia. My name is Lloyd by the way. Lloyd Irving."

I smiled weakly at him and slowly bowed my head as well as I could, sprawled out on the floor.

"Do you remember what happened? How you got here?"

I thought hard for a moment and remembered about the Wonderchef. "No..." I whispered weakly.

Lloyd nodded and looked around. "We can't stay here long. The Desian base is at the top of that cliff... I don't want to leave you here. Especially not like this." He reached behind him and rummaged in his pocket for a moment before pulling out a glass container like one of the ones in my first aid kit. He opened it up and removed something about the size of his palm. He held it out to me. "Here, eat this. It will help."

I nodded slowly and took it off him. It was kind of squishy. I put it in my mouth and smiled when I realised it tasted like apples. I chewed it and swallowed. My eyes widened in surprise as I suddenly felt a lot better. My ears stopped ringing, the fuzzy cloud I hadn't even realised was clouding my vision was gone and my head stopped thumping. All the aches and pains in my body faded and I sighed in relief.

I carefully stood up and winced in pain. I looked at the boy as he stood as well. "Thank you, for your assistance, Lloyd Irving. I do not know how long it would have taken me to recover without your assistance. My name is Drake. If you do not mind my asking, what was that you gave me?" I gave the floor a cursory glance and found nothing there. My bag was at my waist and my sword, dagger, bow and quiver were still strapped in place.

Lloyd smiled. "It's called a gel. That one was an apple gel. It heals physical injuries. Come on, we have to get out of here. I live just north of here. You can stay with me and my dad. He's a dwarf, so you don't have to worry about us judging you or anything."

I inclined my head to him again. "Thank you for your kindness. I appreciate it."

Lloyd grinned goofily at me and turned half way around. "Come on, it's this way." He turned the rest of the way and led us through the forest. It was slow going as I was still suffering the effects of what had brought me here. As I followed him I took stock in our surroundings. The forest was thick but Lloyd clearly knew where he was going. The trees looked kind of different than I was used to. They weren't oak and sycamore, that I was sure of. I picked a fruit off a tree on the way past.

It was strange. I had never seen a fruit like this before. I sniffed it. It smelt sweet so I put it in my bag, I would investigate it later. I had more pressing things to worry about right now. Like being a centaur.

It wasn't actually as fun as you would think it would be. I swished my tail and swatted a fly that was hovering around us.

I took a quiet deep breath and let it out. I needed to focus on what was happening now. I was following an unknown teenager deeper into the woods to meet up with his father who was apparently a dwarf.

I tried to ignore the pain but it was difficult with me tripping up every few feet. Most of the time I was able to stay standing but occasionally I would fall to the ground and have to push myself pack up again. I sighed in relief when I saw a house appear from the trees. Lloyd turned around and grinned. "Here we are." I green blur came running from one side and practically tackled Lloyd to the ground. "Hey, Noishe! Get off!"

I smiled and nickered. I blushed when I realise what noise I had just made. Wow... more horse noises.

Lloyd blushed and managed to get out from under the green thing he called 'Noishe'. He coughed and cleared his throat. "Um... Drake, this is Noishe. He's my dog. Noishe, this is Drake, I met him by the ranch. Be nice."

I looked Noishe over. Standing up, his shoulder came to about level with Lloyd's. His head easily towered over Lloyd. At the moment he was resting his chin on top of the teen's head, causing his hair to cover his left eye. His fur was long and shaggy. Most of it was a pale green but he had large patches of dark green fur around his neck, on top of his head, at the base and tip of his tail and in a band around each leg, near the hip and on the tips of each of his long ears that pointed outwards like sails. His feet where a light purple and his eyes were a piercing light blue.

Noishe looked me over. "Curious..." I raised an eyebrow. He sounded old and world weary, kind of ancient. How old was he? And also... did that dog just talk? Was that normal or was that just a centaur thing. Noishe shook his head and walked over to some king of stable thing to one side of the house.

I looked at Lloyd. "What kind of breed is he? He looks like a Tibetan mastiff cross."

Lloyd tilted his head. "I've never heard of one of those before but I have no idea what Noishe is. I just know he's a dog."

I nodded. "He is most likely a Tibetan mastiff cross. I have never seen any other kind of dog that size before."

Lloyd nodded and grinned. He and I walked to the front door and I spotted a grave off to one side.

Lloyd smiled at the grave. "I'm home, mum."

I looked sadly down at him. So that was his mom's grave. I followed him into the house, having to duck to fit through the doorway, and saw his dad right away. He was standing at a forge, hammering something. Lloyd grinned. "Dad! I'm home!"

The man turned around and smiled at Lloyd, casting a curious glance at me. He did a double take at my appearance but shook himself quickly enough. "Welcome home, son. Who's yer friend?"

Lloyd led me over to the table and I settled down, wincing in pain as I did so. Oh, I hurt all over. Lloyd smiled at me before turning to his dad. "This is Drake, I found him collapsed at the bottom of the cliff near the ranch."

The man frowned. "Ya went to the ranch?"

Lloyd shook his head. "No, no. I promise. I didn't go near it. I walk past the bottom of the cliff on the way to and from the village. I don't go near the ranch itself." Lloyd turned to face me. "Drake, this is my dad, Dirk."

I smiled and inclined my head. "Well met, Mister Dirk. My name is Drake, I am a centaur."

Dirk smiled. "Nice ta meet ya Drake. Just call me Dirk, none o' tha' Mister stuff. Makes me feel old. I'm a dwarf. I never met a centaur before."

I smirked at him. "As I have never met a dwarf."

Dirk laughed and I smiled. It was hard to answer an unasked question without giving away any information. I couldn't give away too much. How would these people react to finding out I was a human but I came from another world?

I took a moment to look Dirk over. He was about four foot but was heavily muscled and had a thick beard. His head was in proportion to his height though, so it was kind of weird. His hands where weirdly large. He was wearing a traditional blacksmith uniform which was obvious considering the forge he had just been working at.

It kind of explained Lloyd's suspenders. They are the kind of thing a blacksmith or lumberjack would wear.

Dirk smiled at me through his beard. "Well, if yer kind are as secretive an' elusive as mine then it's no wonder we've ne'er met."

I smiled sadly. "Indeed." I frowned and looked off to one side.

I frowned deeper as a thought hit me. Dirk had a Scottish accent. Lloyd didn't. In fact... he kind of sounded like Scott Menville. The voice of Robin from Teen Titans. If Dirk raised Lloyd then how come they didn't have the same accent? Never mind. That was not important right now.

Dirk tilted his head to one side. "How many of your kind are there, lad?"

I sighed and looked back up at Dirk, a look of sorrow pasted across my face. "As far as I am aware, I am the only one of my kind left." Oh no, quick say something else. "My herd..." I chocked on my breath and closed my eyes, turning my head to the side again.

"I'm sorry, lad. Ya don't need ta tell us if ya don't want ta."

Lloyd placed a hand on my shoulder, "Dad's right. You don't have to say anything. We understand."

I smiled sadly at him and nodded, discreetly wiping at my eyes. They were dry but the motion helped me compose myself.

Dirk smiled sympathetically up at me through his beard before turning to Lloyd. "So, mind elaborating on why ya dragged the lad here from the ranch, Lloyd?"

Lloyd schooled his face and looked seriously at me. "I found him passed out by the bottom of the cliff. He seemed in a bad way. It took me a few minutes to get him to come to. I thought it would be better if I brought him here to recover."

Dirk smiled gently. "Aye, ya did good, son. Ya can stay as long as ya need to, lad."

I smiled down at him. "I thank you for your generosity and kindness. Not many would go out of their way to help someone they do not know. Let alone someone of a race they have never seen before."

Lloyd and Dirk grinned. "Dwarven vow number two; never abandon someone in need."

I smiled at them. They really were nice people. It was too bad people like them didn't exist on earth. Everyone had some kind of ulterior motive or just didn't give a damn in the first place.

Earth really had gone to shit.

A short while later Dirk had sent Lloyd upstairs to get some blankets and gone into the kitchen to start making dinner. Lloyd came back down with a large pile of blankets and arranged them on the floor, not far from where I was sitting.

While Dirk was in the kitchen cooking Lloyd sat down at the table staring sulkily at the bag he had placed by the door. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Staring at it will not affect whatever it is that is displeasing you. Why do you stare at that bag so?"

Man, I get really posh and well spoken when I'm uncomfortable in a situation. Normally I don't talk like that, honest.

Lloyd sighed heavily. "I have homework to do for school tomorrow."

I nickered and shook my head. "Then you had best get it done, lest you upset the one who set it for you."

Lloyd sighed again. "Yeah... I don't want to make the professor mad... I just... can't understand math..."

I tilted my head to one side. "What is it about mathematics that you find difficult?"

Lloyd glared at me. "I just don't, okay?"

I held up my hands in surrender. "I understand that. You would not have said you have difficulty with it if you did not. I merely wish to know where you are struggling that I might assist you."

Lloyd blushed. "Oh."

I smiled. "It is the least I could do."

Lloyd picked his bag up and I helped him with some of the questions. I got him to get another piece of paper and write out how he was getting has answers then working with him to show him everything he did wrong. He was frustrated at first but after a while he began to understand more and more and by the final question managed to answer without making a mistake. Considering that the first question he answered he was just pulling numbers out of nowhere it was a vast improvement.

I smiled at him. "There. All you needed was someone to help you break your thoughts down and work through to find any mistakes."

Lloyd grinned. "Thanks. I never actually understood maths before."

I nickered. "Mathematics is one of the few areas of academics that I actually understand."

Lloyd and I laughed together for a moment before Dirk came in carrying food. I carefully turned myself around so I was facing the table instead of twisting awkwardly like I was before. I hissed quietly in pain as I knelt next to the table. Ow, I hurt all over.

True to what The Wonderchef said, I only really ate the vegetation. I steered clear of the beef, or... what looked like beef...

This world was confusing.

After dinner Lloyd glared at the bag again before he sighed and pulled out his history homework. He looked at me pleadingly and I sighed. "Lloyd, I know very little of human history. I cannot exactly walk into a town and ask for the latest news. I would be killed on sight. Sometimes having someone to talk to about it can help though. Start from the beginning, what is the first question?"

Lloyd looked at the homework sheet. "Where did Mithos the Hero end the Kharlan war?"

I nodded. "Where do _you_ think he did?"

Lloyd thought for a moment. "Um... something about Kharlan... and angels... or something holy? Um... oh yeah! The Holy Ground of Kharlan."

I nodded. "If you believe that to be the correct answer, then put it down." Lloyd scribbled his answer and then grinned at me before reading out the next question. Occasionally I interrupted his explanations by asking a question and I made him tell me his answer before he wrote it down. Some of his answers were probably wrong though. I didn't know enough about Sylvarant's history to correct him if they were.

When Lloyd had finished his history homework Dirk cuffed him lightly around the head and told him to let me get my rest. I nickered and bid them both good night as they both headed upstairs to bed.

I managed to get onto the blankets and lay down. I was asleep in seconds.


	3. Chapter 3

When I woke in the morning it took me a few moments to remember what happened. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I opened them again but found myself still staring at a room I had only seen for the first time yesterday. I sighed and shook my head. I jumped slightly when a large puff of white smoke erupted in the middle of the room.

"It is I! The mysterious gourmet! The Wonderchef!"

"Hello Steve. Your name is Steve now, by the way." He looked at me like 'seriously?' and I grinned. "So, what brings you here, Steve?"

He sighed. "I forgot to give you these." He pulled a pile of books from nowhere and handed them to me before disappearing in a puff of smoke. I looked down at the books. 'Healing Spells for Beginners', 'Novice Magic', 'Intermediate Spells for the Budding Mage', 'Healing Magic, a Guide to Helping Others' and 'How to Hunt, a Guide to What You Don't Know'. I sighed and put all but the beginners healing spell book into my bag.

I past the next hour or so reading this book. I looked up when Dirk came down the stairs. He smiled at me. "Go'mornin' lad. Sleep well?"

I made a soft wuffing sound that I had no idea I could make. "As well as can be expected, in light of recent events."

Dirk nodded. "Aye, I understand. Ya hungry?"

I nodded shyly. I didn't like food. I didn't like people. I hated it when people offered me food. It made me feel selfish and needy. "If it is not too much trouble... I would hate to be a burden."

Dirk simply laughed. "Not at all lad. I'll fix ya up somethin'." He turned and went into the kitchen. I sighed and put my book away. I had only been awake for an hour but I already felt like going back to sleep. I barely managed to stay awake long enough for Dirk to come back out the kitchen. I ate what I could but I was just too tired to eat much. Dirk insisted I go back to sleep.

I have no idea how I made it back to the blankets. The next thing I was aware of was Lloyd standing not far away from me. "See you after school dad." He whispered.

"See ya Lloyd."

I glanced up at him through my lashes. "Bye bye." I mumbled.

Lloyd smiled down at me. "Bye." He left, shutting the door quietly and I went back to sleep.

I woke up a few hours later and ate some more food. I read for a little while and watched Dirk in the forge for a while before going back to sleep. The next time I woke up I was able to stay awake for a few hours to read before going back to sleep.

I woke again when I heard a door close quietly. I looked up and smiled sleepily at Lloyd as he tried to be quiet. I sat up and stretched. "Welcome back, Lloyd."

Lloyd looked over at me. "Hey, Drake." His face split in a huge grin. "Hey, thanks for your help last night. This is the first time_ ever_ I was able to understand what Professor Raine was talking about. And I actually managed to get a good grade on my homework!"

I smiled. "I am glad. You put a lot of effort into it, I am glad that you got a good grade."

Lloyd smiled. "It's all thanks to you, Drake."

I smiled and inclined my head. "You are the one who was able to find the answers. It is your own effort that got you the grade you desired. I did nothing."

Lloyd just laughed and shook his head. He dropped his bag by the door and took another bag into the kitchen. "Hey dad."

"Hello Lloyd. Welcome back. How was school?"

I smiled as I listened to their conversation through the door. It was nice to see someone with such a good relationship with their parent. My brother, sister and I had a terrible relationship with our dad and we didn't really get on with our mum all that much.

I sighed and shook my head. Thinking about them would only get me depressed.

I stood up slowly and stretched my legs. They were kind of cramped from lying in the same position all day. I huffed and bit back a whimpered at the pins and needles. Oh I hated that feeling. It was worse because it was not only one leg but four. Can you imagine that?

I slowly sank back to the ground and rubbed at my legs, hoping to get some feeling back into them. Lloyd came out of the kitchen just in time to see me land ungracefully onto the blankets. He rushed forwards. "Hey, you okay?"

I whimpered and nodded, still trying to get the feeling back.

Lloyd shook his head. "You don't look fine and you don't sound okay either."

I smiled up at him, blinking the tears off my lashes. "Legs went to sleep."

Lloyd blinked at me for a few seconds before bursting out into laughter. I laughed quietly alongside him and managed to get the feeling back into my legs before Dirk came into the room with what I assume to be our dinner. Once again I didn't really eat the meat. I was physically capable of eating chicken, I just don't like the taste.

Over dinner we had a lovely conversation. It turns out that Lloyd and Dirk don't normally talk at the table so I did most of the talking. They both chipped in too. As it was, by the time we finished eating I was feeling much more at home with these people. I had learned that Dirk was allergic to shellfish, Lloyd was allergic to tomatoes and silver and they both loved to garden and carve wood.

After he carried the dishes to the kitchen and helped his dad wash them up, Lloyd ran upstairs and came back down with some finished carvings and one he was still working on. He showed me how to do it but I declined trying since my hands were much too big.

I watched him for a while before I found myself falling asleep. Lloyd chuckled. "I should leave you to sleep then."

I yawned and shook my head. "I have been asleep all day. Besides, it is still far too early to sleep. If I go to bed now I will wake up at a ridiculous hour of the morning and be unable to get back to sleep. I should stay awake for a few more hours at least."

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah, I get that." he glanced over at his school bag before glancing at me and looking back to his carving.

I sighed quietly. "Do you wish for my help with any more of your schoolwork?"

Lloyd grinned sheepishly. "Was it that obvious?"

I smirked. "Only to someone who knows what it is like to want to say something but not wish to bother others. You wish to ask for my help but do not want to bother me." I stood and stretched my legs, shaking the feeling back into them again. "I would be more than happy to help."

Lloyd smiled gratefully at me and we went over his homework. He had another sheet of maths but it wasn't due for another two days. He had one on language which he was very bad at so we decided to save that one for later and decided on working on his geography homework first.

When he got the homework out he started trying to do it by memory. I sighed. "Lloyd. Get a map." He tilted his head but did it anyway. He then went through his homework and pointed things out to me. Apparently he and his dad went around all the main villages once every three years to sell his wares and get more commissions. I had to admit this was a good idea since it must be hard for a dwarf who lived so secluded from everyone else to make a living.

Once he had a map in front of him he was able to answer all the questions easily. Most of them didn't even need him to look at the map. Like the questions on a calculator paper in maths. They are always the easy ones you usually don't actually need a calculator for while the non-calculator paper was the harder one.

Lloyd was actually surprised that he knew so much about geography from heart just by having the map in front of him. He did the maths one relatively easily and barely needed my help at all now that I had taught him a different way of getting the answer and he stopped pulling random numbers from nowhere.

The language homework was harder. For the questions that asked him to define a word (I had to tell him what define meant) I used the word in a sentence and asked him to say what I meant without using the word. He then was able to figure out what the word meant and wrote out his answers. Some questions asked for the correct spelling of a word (I was no help, I can't spell for toffee), some defined a word and asked what the word was and some were anagrams.

After I told Lloyd what an anagram was he was able to answer those questions easily. He smiled at me and put his homework back in his bag. "Thanks for this. Really."

I smiled and nodded. "It was no problem." I looked out the window and sighed. "Much time has passed from when we started." Translate from my weird speech lately, 'we've been at this for ages!'

Lloyd looked out the window. "Wow. I hadn't even noticed." He stood up and stretched, cracking his fingers above his head. "Are you hungry?"

I felt my stomach gurgle slightly and blushed. "A little bit."

Lloyd nodded. "Anything you want in particular?"

I thought for a moment. "Have you ever had a fruit salad?"

Lloyd tilted his head. "Fruit salad? No. I take it that it has a lot of fruit in it? And leaves?"

I shook my head. "Just fruit. If you bring me some, and a chopping board, a knife and a large bowl, I can make some."

Lloyd nodded and went into the kitchen. He returned later with what I asked for and a bowl of water for me to wash my hands in since I couldn't fit in the kitchen. I quickly prepared the salad and Lloyd got three bowls and spoons out of the kitchen for us. Dirk walked over from where he had been working at the forge and went into the kitchen to wash his own hands.

As it turned out, my salad was quite good. The fruits all seemed to complement each other. When I told them you could put yoghurt or cream on the top Lloyd immediately poured cream over his. His happy face told me it was good but I was quite happy with my salad the way it was.

Lloyd and Dirk both complemented my cooking skills and Dirk quickly wrote down the recipe. I looked through his collection. I barely recognised any of them and I didn't know if this was because he was a dwarf and came from a completely different culture to humans or if it was because I was on Sylvarant.

Since I was not quite tired yet I settled down to read my book while Lloyd finished his wood carving. The book was rather interesting. It told about all different kinds of healing spells and how a healing spell differed from a diagnostic spell and how they were completely different from offensive and defensive spells. There was only a few, novice tier healing spells and a novice tier diagnostic spell.

I finished the chapter I was on and glanced up at Lloyd. Huh... it was a wolf. I shuffled closer to get a better look. "That's really good."

Lloyd looked up at me. "Thanks. I carve things a lot in me spare time."

I nodded. "I can tell. You are very good. You must have had many years of practice."

Lloyd blushed. "Um... well, I started carving about four years ago."

I raised an eyebrow. "All the more skill to you then, to be capable of such skilful crafting in such a short space of time."

Lloyd blushed harder. "Th-thanks..."

I chuckled and tried not to blush when I nickered instead. Ugh. Horse noises.

Lloyd settled his carvings over by the forge with his knife set. "Anyway, I'm gonna head to bed. School tomorrow. G'night dad, Drake."

"G'night son."

I glanced over at Dirk. "Sleep well, Lloyd." I kept forgetting Dirk was in the room. The rhythmic clang from the forge had just become background noise, I had completely forgotten about him.

Dirk stretched and put the fire in the forge out. "I'm gonna head up ta bed too. G'night Drake."

"Good night, Dirk."

I settled back on my blankets and lay down. I was really tired.

I woke the next morning before anyone else. I lay there for a moment before I realised why. I blushed deeply and tried to stand up. I eventually got the feeling back into my legs and slowly made my way outside. Once I finished what I needed to do, I made my way back. I had gotten to a few feet away from the door when I had to lie back down. Noishe came over and settled down opposite me.

He looked me over for a moment before looking me in the eye. "_You are strange_."

I nodded. "I know."

...

...

...

*Seizure*

"I can understand you." I blinked and looked at him. "How can I understand you?"

POOF

"I believe I can explain that!"

I looked up at The Wonder Chef through narrowed eyes. "Hello Barry. Yes, it's Barry now. Why are you popping in this time?"

Noishe growled. "_You know this man? Who is he? He isn't human_."

I nodded at Noishe. "He's a demi-god. He goes by 'The Wonder Chef' but I give him a new name every time I see him."

Chef nodded. "Yes. Now, I forgot to explain it to you before, centaurs are more closely related to monsters than they are humans so this grants you the ability to understand animals, especially creatures like Noishe here." he vanished in another POOF and I glared at the spot he had left.

Noishe tilted his head to one side and looked suspiciously at me.

I sighed and explained to him about what I was and how I got here. Noishe nodded. "_I understand. Don't worry, I can teach you about mana and Sylvarant in general. I can help you to fit in better._"

I nodded and gently stroked between his ears. "Thank you." Noishe closed his eyes and leaned into my hand. I looked over when the door opened and saw Dirk poking his head out. "Good morning Dirk."

He sighed and smiled at me. "There ya are Drake. Good morning. Ah got a mite worried when ah came down an' ya weren't there."

I bowed my head to him. "My apologies, it was not my intention to cause you to worry." I glanced over at the woods and found myself blushing a little.

Dirk smiled. "Ah, I understand. Why don't ya come on back inside an' ah'll make ya somethin ta eat?"

I smiled and shakily pushed myself to my feet. "Thank you." I petted Noishe one last time and slowly went back inside. I settled next to the table and sighed. I was going to have to get used to this new form which meant not sitting around all day.

My breakfast consisted of oatmeal and fruit salad. Not that that was much different than usual.

Lloyd came down after a while and quickly stuffed some food in his mouth, grabbed his lunch and his bag and dashed out the door. I stared at the door for a moment before turning to Dirk. "Does that happen often?"

The man sighed and nodded. "Yes, unfortunately. He can ne'er wake up on time. Yesterday was unusual." He turned back to the forge, "I hope ya don' mind me workin' today? Ah have an order ta fill."

I bowed my head. "Go ahead, far be it from me to stop you from doing your job." Wow. I was still speaking weird. Ugh. Honestly, I don't normally talk like this.

I watched Dirk for a while before I got bored. He was making nails. It was boring. I looked over at my stuff and spotted my bow. I was pretty bad with a bow but I could probably get better with practice, I had only used a bow a handful of times after all. I picked up my bow and quiver and stood up. I stretched and quietly made my way out of the house. I was thankful that although I didn't have shoes on, I didn't need them on this terrain.

Noishe didn't seem to be around so I assumed he had gone with Lloyd to school. I looked around and decided on aiming at the tree near to Noishe's pen. I settled down a decent way away from it and practiced pulling arrows out of my quiver and stringing the bow. This was the hardest part for me.

I got bored of that quickly enough and started practicing shooting the bow. It was harder than you would think. I had to try to _not_ snap the bow in half, it being wood and me being so strong. I also couldn't turn sideways as well as I could as a human since I couldn't turn my whole body, half of it being horse.

By mid day I was getting a lot better. I collected my arrows and huffed at the two I had broken before going back inside. Dirk and I ate lunch in relative silence other than a few questions on how his work was going and what I had been doing all morning.

When we finished and Dirk had cleaned up the dishes he came over to where I was sitting, reading my book. "Ah need ta do the rest of this order outside. He ordered a cart an' ah can hardly put it together in here."

I nodded. "Of course. I shall stay out of your way. Let me know if you need me."

Dirk nodded and headed outside. I read a few more chapters while he was outside, clanging away. It was several hours before he came in asking if I could help him. I held various bits of wood up while he hammered them into place and had just finished by the time Lloyd and Noishe came back from school.

He grinned. "Hey Dad, Drake."

"Good afternoon Lloyd."

"Welcome home son. Did ya have a good day at school?"

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah. Um... Genis and Colette invited me to go to the stream by the village. Is that okay?"

Dirk frowned lightly and glanced at me. I smiled. "I would not wish to take your time away from your friends, Lloyd. I don't mind."

Dirk nodded. "Ay, Dwarven vow number ten; Play hard, play often."

Lloyd grinned. "Thanks." He ran inside.

I looked at Noishe who looked a little worse for wear. I huffed and walked over to his stable and picked up a brush. It didn't take me long to get through his fur and I had to wonder what he had been doing all day to get him into this state. When I asked him he stuttered a bit and evaded the question.

I rolled my eyes and finished cleaning him. I glanced up when Lloyd dashed out the house and ran off down the path, waving behind him and promising to be back before dark. I spent a few hours napping and then helped Dirk make dinner.

When Lloyd came home, soaking wet and over exited, we all sat down to eat (after Lloyd got changed of course). Since his hair was still soaking wet I sat behind him and dried it for him while he went on about he and his friends playing by the river.

After I had dried his hair and he yawned for the third time in a minute I told him to go get some sleep. I stood up and nodded to Dirk as I settled down on my blankets.

My sleep was disturbed by dreams of my family and a herd of centaurs befalling various different tragedies. Most of the centaurs looked just like my family and close friends (not that I had many of those). I woke up several times throughout the night and gave up trying to sleep some time before dawn. I pulled out a hairbrush and started combing my tail (and wasn't that a strange thought?).

I had never seen a horse's tail close up like this before. Usually I was busy doing something else and didn't have time to examine its tail. It was different than I had pictured. Once it was brushed I started brushing my coat. Finishing that I pulled out my dagger and picked my hooves. Being a centaur was going to take some getting used to.

The morning passed in the same way it had yesterday, Dirk and I ate together and he went over to the forge and I read, Lloyd came rushing downstairs, scoffed some food and rushed out the door. I read for a little while and eventually ended up finishing the book (I read quickly). I sighed quietly and looked around for something to do. I couldn't practice archery since the cart was in front of the tree I was using and in order to use a tree on the other side I would have to be standing where the cart is.

Instead I went out for a walk. There was no way I was going to get used to this body if I sat still all day. I didn't go far from the house and I had to stop and lie down frequently. I tested out what the Wonder Chef said about me being able to eat leaves. Most of them were surprisingly palatable, though I suppose that was because I am half-horse now.

I found a lot of interesting flowers and insects. I am sure most people on this world wouldn't look at things like this but since it was all so new to me I was looking at everything for the first time. I watched a bright purple and red butterfly fly across the path in front of me and grinned.

Just then I heard a snap. I looked behind me and saw a wolf, limping.

I nickered and stepped closer. "Are you alright?"

The wolf looked up at me and growled softly. She lifted her forepaw and I crouched down to get a closer look. I gently pushed her onto her side and picked out the bits of forest floor from the wound. I cleaned it with the water from one of my canteens and closed my eyes. Now was as good a time as any to test out those healing artes. I felt the mana respond instinctively and cast a weak _**first aid**_. I cast it a few more times before I was happy with how her paw had healed.

"Please, try not to put too much pressure on it and be careful not to re-open the wound."

The wolf nodded. "_Thank you_." She walked off, stepping lighter on that foot than any of her others.

I shook my head and stood up, carrying on my path through the forest. I pulled my sword out and swung it around for a bit but I quickly realised that in close combat, I was a lot more vulnerable than I would like. I could attack to the front and behind with my legs. I could swing my sword, though it didn't have enough reach if I was being attacked by a wolf.

My biggest weakness was my blind spots.

I couldn't see directly behind me, no human can, but there was so much of me behind me that I needed to be able to see there. It would probably be better if I stuck to range and just use my sword and dagger for self-defence if an enemy get's too close.

I shook my head to clear it and went back to Dirk's house. I paused just in the tree line as I spotted a man I didn't recognise standing outside the house. He was sneering disdainfully down at Dirk. "I didn't know you were a dwarf. I refuse to pay for your inferior craftsmanship!"

Dirk growled. "If ya won't pay, then leave. Ah don' make things fer free."

The man huffed, aimed a kick at Dirk and stalked away. I frowned and stepped out of the tree line. "Are you alright, Dirk?"

He sighed. "Aye, ah'm fine. Ah just wish humans wouldn't be so hateful all the time."

I sighed and nodded. "Yes. Humans hate and destroy that which they don't understand. It is the same, no matter where you go. Some humans, like Lloyd, are good but most... don't want to accept anything different." I shook my head. "They are so destructive."

Dirk nodded. "Aye." He looked the cart over. "And now ah have a cart ah have no use or space for."

We both stood outside for a while before silently agreeing to go back inside. I read my books while Dirk worked at the forge. Lloyd came home later and he and Dirk discussed what had happened. Lloyd was rightfully angry on his father's behalf.

We ate dinner that night with Lloyd scowling at the table and muttering about idiots. I reached over and gently placed my hand on his. "Lloyd. No matter where you go, no matter what species you look at, there will always be those who hate, who destroy, who cause nothing but misery to others. But there are also those like you, who accept those others hate, who create bonds of trust, who love unconditionally, despite race, age, appearance, background, family and status. People like you, who bring light to the darkness of those who have been shunned. The world needs people like you to balance out the bad."

Lloyd blinked at me for a moment before grinning. "Thanks Drake."

I smiled and the rest of dinner passed in comfortable silence.

After dinner Dirk reminded Lloyd that it was Colette's birthday tomorrow and he should get her present ready. Lloyd panicked and started working on it. He asked me what I thought of the design. I huffed quietly in amusement. "Lloyd, what does Colette look like?" after he described her to me I thought for a moment. "Would a silver chain and a pale blue gem work better? I know you are allergic to silver but a metal of a similar colour, perhaps?"

Lloyd thought about it for a while before nodding. "Yeah, actually. It would look better." He put the materials he had out away and got out some different ones. Since he was wearing gloves while he worked with the metal he was fine using silver, he just couldn't wear anything with it on.

He finished some time later and grinned. Examining the finished product. "Perfect. Thanks for your help, Drake."

I nodded to him and he yawned, stretching and heading off to bed, bidding me goodnight. I smiled and settled down on my sheets and drifted off to sleep, much earlier than I would have normally. I was just so tired.

* * *

Well, here you are. Kind of disappointed in this chapter, it seems like a lot of it is just anything to fill a space...

Ugh.

Anyway, if you have a question, leave it in a review.

Please review/favourite/follow or any combination of them.

If you want more frequent updates there is a poll on my profile and I will also be posting updates about my stories on my facebook page, the link is on my profile.

Thank you for reading and _virtual cookies_ for everyone who actually read this A/N.


	4. Chapter 4

I watched Dirk pacing. Lloyd had gone to school this morning as usual. There had been a bright light that Dirk informed me was The Oracle, which was a symbol from the heavens that the chosen one was ready to go on the Journey of Regeneration.

Lloyd hadn't come home yet.

It was already late and he had promised to be home after school.I watched Dirk pace to Dirk he always comes home after school, if only to drop off his school bag and let him know he's okay and what he and his friends are going to do that day. I watched him make several more lengths of the room.

"Dirk, you are going to wear a whole in the floor. I am sure Lloyd is fine."

Dirk shook his head. "Ah know. I just can't help but worry."

I shook my head. "I will go and look for him. I will be able to sense his mana. I will be back soon." I left the house and followed the path down towards the village that Lloyd takes every day. As soon as I was out of sight of the house I broke into a fast gallop. My hooves thundered down the path that only a few days ago had taken so long to travel. I sensed a mana signature ahead of me, it was young.

I burst out of the bushes and brought myself to a stop in front of what I now see is a young half-elf. Looking him over I notice his striking similarity to what Lloyd described Genis Sage to look like.

The boy shrieked when I leapt over the bush and landed near him and fell over backwards. He scrambled backwards for a second, staring up at me in fear. I nickered quietly. "Calm down, little one. I mean you no harm. I do not harm foals." I knelt my front legs down so I was not as tall and looked down at him. "Calm down."

He whimpered and closed his eyes, covering his head with his arms. "Please don't hurt me..."

I gently stroked his hair. "I won't hurt you, little foal. You need not be afraid. What is your name, little one?"

He swallowed hard. "Genis... Genis Sage."

I tilted my head to one side. So he was Lloyd's friend. "You are a friend of Lloyd, are you not?" He nodded. "Do you know where he is? He has not yet returned home and I worry for his safety." Am I talking posh again? I am aren't I? Damn, I just got over that and was talking normally with Lloyd.

Genis swallowed again and looked me over nervously. "Are you- Are you Drake?"

I nodded. "Yes. I take it Lloyd has told you about me?"

Genis nodded. "Um. Yeah. A little. Um. Lloyd is this way. He jumped off the cliff."

I jerked backwards in shock. _What?! _"We must find him then." I scooped Genis up and put him on my back before standing and swiftly making my way down the path towards the bottom of the cliff. I silently cursed the terrain and batted another branch aside and barely avoided tripping on a root.

When we got a good distance from the ranch I slowed down. I looked and listened and eventually heard Lloyd swearing. I went closer and saw him sitting on the floor on the bottom of the cliff clutching his ankle and swearing enough to make a sailor blush.

"Lloyd!" Genis shouted. I lifted him down off my back and he ran up to Lloyd.

I walked over and inspected him. He seemed okay other than his leg, which he was holding and hissing under his breath. I knelt down and carefully undid the buckles on his boots and slowly slid them off.

Lloyd hissed and winced but otherwise didn't complain. Since I had done several first aid courses over my life I knew that it was fractured. It wasn't broken completely but it was fractured. "Fractured. I can use healing artes but I have never attempted a fractured bone before, let alone a humans. I worry that I would heal it wrong, especially with the differences between us. You mustn't put any weight on it or you could risk it breaking. I will carry you home." I turned to Genis. "Where is the nearest doctor?"

Genis looked over at me with teary eyes like he was about to cry. "My sister. I can go and get her."

I nodded. "Please do. I will take Lloyd home. Tell your sister that his right ankle is fractured and there is bruising and some swelling."

Genis nodded and ran off.

I carefully helped Lloyd onto my back and slowly stood up. "Wrap your arms under mine, across my chest." As soon as he was situated comfortably I took off steadily back up the path to his house, taking as much care as I could to not jostle his leg.

Lloyd twisted around behind me so he was lying across my back with his back against mine and his injured leg stretched out. He hissed but seemed to relax slightly so I didn't tell him to move back. As long as he stayed on I didn't care how he sat.

It made it a bit harder to avoid injuring his ankle further. It was particularly difficult going over a fallen tree and crossing over the makeshift bridges over the river. When I came to his house it was with a sigh of relief from both of us.

I opened the door and walked in. Lloyd grinned. "Hey dad."

Dirk was standing in the middle of the room. He must have been pacing the whole time. I settled Lloyd down on a chair at the table and took another look at his ankle. Lloyd looked a bit nervous. "Say, dad, is there any chance you could make me a Key Crest?"

Dirk frowned. "Why do ya need a Key Crest all of a sudden?"

Lloyd looked nervous again. He looked off to the side, not meeting his dad's eyes. "I met someone today who has an Exsphere equipped without a Key Crest. An Exsphere without a Key Crest is bad for you, right? Or, wait, don't tell me it's too late once you've attached an Exsphere without a Key Crest to your body?"

Dirk frowned. "Nah, not at all. But even removing an Exsphere that lacks a Key Crest is dangerous, so, the only thing to do is make an accessory out of inhibitor ore and carve the charm into that, making it the Key Crest instead."

Lloyd hummed and muttered under his breath. "And then it'll be okay, huh?" He looked up at Dirk and spoke louder. "Then could you make me a bracelet as soon as possible?"

"Just a minute. The Exsphere with no Key Crest that you're talking about. Who has it?"

Lloyd looked more nervous than ever. "Huh? Ah, uh, a traveller. A travelling mercenary."

Dirk scowled. "Baloney. Exspheres are basically only used by Desians. If he took one from a Desian it should already have a Key Crest on it."

Lloyd still looked evasive. "Uh well..."

"Dwarven vow number eleven: lying is the first step down the path to thievery. Tell me the truth. Why do you need a Key Crest?"

Lloyd furrowed his eyebrows and genuinely looked bad for having lied. I wish there were more people like that on earth. "I met someone at the ranch today who had an Exsphere equipped without a Key Crest."

Dirk recoiled back. "Ya went ta the ranch?!" He looked both terrified and furious.

Lloyd nodded. "I-I'm sorry. A bunch of stuff happened and..." He sighed and leaned back in the chair. He then explained to us about the oracle arriving and he, Raine and Genis going to the temple to see Colette and the Desians attacking, a man called Kratos turning up, Colette receiving to oracle, going back to the village and being told he couldn't go with Colette, him and Genis heading back here and stopping off at the ranch to see Genis' friend Marble and the incident with the Desians after.

Dirk sighed. "Ya didn't let the Desians see your Exsphere did ya?"

Lloyd stood back up and moved to stand in front of Dirk, who hadn't moved from in front of the porch. "No, don't worry. I made sure. But why is it so important that I hide this thing? The mercenary who came to the village today wore his right out in the open."

Dirk was silent for a few moments. He stared at the floor, as if making a hard decision. He looked up at Lloyd, all traces of anger gone. "You're Exsphere is special."

Lloyd tilted his head. "Special? Is it different from the ones the Desians have equipped?"

Dirk leant forward. "That Exsphere is yer mother's keepsake. The Desians killed your mother in order to take it from her."

Lloyd froze. "They did?" His voice came out smaller than I had heard it in the week since I had been here. He sounded like a frightened child. I stood and left the house. This sounded like a private conversation. I slid into Noishe's stall and started brushing his fur. He didn't question me. I was glad of that. I could faintly hear Lloyd and Dirk talking, occasionally they would both shout. I tried not to listen in but there wasn't much sound out here.

I walked around to Noishe's other side and began to brush this side of him. I looked up when I heard footsteps and voices coming from the forest. That must be Genis and his sister. What did Lloyd say her name was... Professor Raine. Professor Raine Sage. I looked over and saw them coming. They spotted me and Genis was about to say something when I heard a louder shout from inside. "You don't have to hit me!"

Lloyd burst out of the door, using one of his swords as a crutch.

I glared. "Lloyd Irving! You are not supposed to be standing on a fractured ankle!"

They all turned to look at me for a second before Genis' sister pounced on Lloyd and forced him to sit so she could tend to his leg. I opened the door to the pen and Noishe dashed out, tackling the man to the ground. I shook my head and walked over, picking the dog up by the waist and carrying him back to his pen. I came back over and knelt next to the elf, who had stopped what she was doing when Noishe ran passed her. I looked to the man. "My apologies. I did not intend to let him out. Are you alright?" He nodded silently and I turned back to the doctor. "How bad is it?"

She stared at me in shock for a moment before shaking her head. "Not bad, just a simple fracture. I can fix it easily enough." Watched carefully as she healed him and nodded. Right. My healing artes act the same way so I should be able to heal humans with no problem.

Raine, Lloyd and I all stood and I looked the group over. Aside from Genis and his sister, there was a tall man in purple with auburn hair and a young teenaged girl with golden blond hair dressed in white. The girl looked just like how Lloyd had described Colette and I think the man must be the mercenary, Kratos that Lloyd met at the temple.

I turn back to Lloyd and twist his face so I can get a better look at the swelling bruise on his cheek. I snort quietly and cast a quick first aid. "Are you alright?"

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah. It's not the first time he's hit me. I'm okay."

I huffed. "He should not do so at all. Still, your father and I were worried, Lloyd. You should have been home hours ago and I go out to find you sitting at the bottom of a cliff with a fractured ankle because you _jumped_? And then we find out you have face Desians not once, but twice today?" I shook my head. "Your father has a strange way of showing it, but he was really worried about you." I placed my hand on his shoulder. "You are all he has."

Lloyd sighed. "Way to make me feel better Drake..."

I nickered softly. "It is the truth. You cannot put your life in danger without it affecting those around you. Your friends would all miss you, as well as your father. And me, I have not known you for long but I admit I have grown rather fond of you. Besides, I would be a disgrace to my kind if I were to let you die."

Lloyd tilted his head at me. "Huh?"

I nickered. "A life debt, Lloyd. You saved my life so my life is yours until such a time as I have repaid my debt. It is one of the few things my kind takes extremely seriously, along with the proper treatment of foals and caring for the world around us."

Lloyd blinked. "What do you mean your life is mine?"

The mercenary spoke up. "I believe he means to say that he will hang around you until he feels he has re-paid his debt."

I nodded. "Almost, but not quite. I will not merely hang around with him. My life is his to do with as he wishes until I have re-paid my debt." I looked Lloyd straight in the eyes. "Anything you ask of me, I will do. A life debt is difficult to repay, just saving your life is not enough unless I was not involved in the situation that resulted in your life being endangered in the first place."

Lloyd tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

I hummed. "Say you and I were travelling and we were attacked. If I were to save you during that fight, I would not repay my debt since I was fighting for my own life as well."

Lloyd frowned. "Huh... then how do you repay it?"

I shrugged. "I will know when I have. Until then, I am yours." I noticed Genis shudder violently out of the corner of my eye as a cold breeze blew through the clearing. I breathed in deeply through my mouth, tasting the air. "It will rain soon. We should get inside."

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah. It's way too cold to be standing around outside." He cast a sideways glance at me. "Unless you have fur."

I snorted lightly and indicated to my side. "This is not fur, it is hair. Fir is fluffier. Like Noishe."

"I AM NOT FLUFFY!"

I turned around to look at the oversized dog who was now half out of his pen. "Deny it all you want, Noishe. You're fluffy." He growled at me but all I could do was laugh and head inside. I walked up to Dirk, who was working at the forge. "Among my kind," Dirk leapt a foot in the air and spun around. "Harming a foal is a crime punishable by death." Well, it should be, at least.

Dirk took a deep breath and eyed my hand which was resting on the pommel of my sword. I snorted angrily and turned, whipping him with my tail as I did so, "Be glad you are not a centaur." I then moved to settle down on my blankets.

Lloyd and his friends came in and sat around the table. He turned to Genis' sister. "Thanks for healing my ankle Professor Raine."

She nodded to him. "That's quite alright Lloyd." She looked at me. "You used first aid on his face but you wouldn't heal his ankle?"

I nodded and indicated to my lower-half. "My skeletal structure is very different than a human's and I have never healed a bone before, I have only just begun to learn healing spells. I was worried I would heal the bone wrong. I thought it best to let someone more experienced than me do it."

She nodded and stared at me intently for a moment.

Lloyd looked between me and the others before smiling and pointing to each person in turn. "Drake, these are my best friends, Colette Brunel and Genis Sage, Genis' sister, Professor Raine Sage, and hey... where did Kratos go?" He turned back to his friends, "Anyway, guys, this is Drake." He stood up. "I'm gonna go find Kratos." He walked out the house.

I shuffled uncomfortably. "Well met." I bowed slightly for my seated position, slightly easier to do when you half horse. I stared at Raine for a while. "You are curious."

Raine nodded. "What are you?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Is that any way to start a conversation?"

Raine blushed lightly. "Oh. Sorry. I'm Raine Sage." She held out her hand.

I smiled and took it. "I am Drake. To answer your question, I am a centaur." I stared at her hand. "Your hands are tiny."

Raine chuckled and we let go. She tilted her head to one side. "What is a centaur? If you don't mind me asking?"

I chuckled. "My race came to this world with mana, as all other races did, but we tended to keep to ourselves. After a while, humans, elves and dwarves started to spread out, covering more of the world. They pushed all the other races into smaller and smaller land. Their numbers dropped due to smaller hunting and breeding grounds. As far as I am aware, my herd was the last of my kind. Now... It's just me..."

I closed my eyes and looked away for a moment before pulling myself together. "We are a unique species, though many think us a hybrid between humans and horses. That is untrue and insulting." I swished my tail against the floor.

Raine nodded. "I see. And how did you come to be the last of your kind?"

I stiffened and glared at her. "How would anyone come to be the last of their kind? Everyone I know and love is dead. My friends, my family, my entire herd!"

She flushed slightly. "Oh. I'm sorry. That was insensitive of me."

I sighed. "I apologise as well. I should not have snapped at you. It only happened recently so it is still very fresh in my mind." I picked at a bit of dirt in the hair of one of my knees.

Raine nodded. "That is understandable. I shouldn't have asked." There was an awkward silence for a moment. "So, how did you meet Lloyd?"

I smiled slightly. "He found me at the bottom of the cliff near the ranch. I was in a bad way, he offered to allow me to stay here while I recovered."

Raine nodded. "So, how did he save your life?"

I sighed quietly. "I was at the bottom of the cliff by the ranch. If he had not taken me away from there the Desians would have found me, which would have led to a fate worse than death. In addition to that he provided me with means of healing my wounds. I would have died had not found me when he did."

Lloyd grinned. "Dwarven vow number two; never abandon someone in need."

I looked over as Lloyd and Kratos came into the house and sat down at the table.

I nickered and shook my head. This boy. He was already eighteen, close to adulthood but he was so naive and kind. He was genuinely a good person. I have never met anyone quite like him before. "I wish more humans were like you, Lloyd."

Lloyd jerked backwards slightly in shock and I blushed slightly as I realised I had spoken aloud. "What do you mean Drake?"

I sighed. "Humans hate and destroy anything they do not understand. Just look at what they do to half-elves. Not all of them are like that, I'm sure, but most of them are. They hate an entire race without first getting to know a single one and if they meet one, they hate them before knowing anything about them."

Lloyd sighed. "Yeah. I see your point."

Genis looked down at the table and Raine looked off to the side slightly. Genis sighed. "I'm sorry, Lloyd, because of me you got hurt and you got in trouble."

Lloyd shook his head. "It's okay, it's not your fault."

Colette stood up. "Lloyd, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Lloyd nodded. "Sure. Let's go up to the terrace." The two of them left the room and headed upstairs. I looked at Kratos who was staring at me with a storm of different emotions barely hidden in his eyes. I was an empath so reading emotions was easier for me than most people. He was curious but also suspicious and wary. He was tense and ready for combat and seemed worried about something.

Dirk sighed at the awkward silence that descended on the room and stood up. "It's gettin late. Have any of ya eaten yet?" when the other three shook their heads he stood up. "Ah'll get some food ready then." Raine started to protest. "No, I insist. Ah won't have you all traipsing through that there forest this late with an empty stomach." He walked into the kitchen.

I looked over the other three again. Looking at their mana, Genis and Raine are half-elves. Kratos was close to human but there was something strange about it. I shook my head. "So, how did two half-elves come to be not only accepted into a human village but best friends with the chosen?"

Raine and Genis both froze. Genis started shaking. "Wh-What? N-no! Raine and I are elves! Not half-elves!"

I smiled gently. "Little one, I am more closely related to monsters than I am humans. I can sense mana. I know the two of you are half-elves."

Raine sighed and gripped Genis' shoulder. "Genis..." she turned to face me. "We got accepted into the village because when we arrived I told the mayor we were full blooded elves. It was the only way we could get into a village. Please, don't tell anyone. They don't need to know."

I nodded. "Of course. What difference does it make if you are full blooded or half blooded elves? Besides. I am hardly one to judge."I waved a hand over my horse half. "I will not tell anyone." The three of us looked at Kratos.

He sighed exasperatedly. "It is none of my business."

I smiled and turned to Genis. "So, how did you and Lloyd become friends?"

Genis laughed quietly. "Well, it was at school. He was having trouble with something and Raine asked me to help him. I was expecting him to dislike me on principle like everyone else. But he didn't. Actually, after he failed to understand what I was trying to teach him and we all went out for lunch he took me to sit with him under the tree in the school yard. After a few minutes he stood up and said, 'I'll be right back' and walked off. He came back with Colette and the three of us started talking and we just kind of clicked."

I tilted my head. "Were he and Colette already friends then?"

Genis shook his head. "No. He spotted Colette sitting by herself and went to talk to her. He called her by name instead of calling her Chosen and told her he didn't care about that stuff. She had never had a real friend before, most people just hung around wither because she's the chosen."

I nodded. "I see. Lloyd is a strange one, not caring about what anyone thinks about him and others and forming such strong bonds."

There was a quiet moment but it wasn't uncomfortable before Raine spoke up. "So Drake, can you tell me about your kind?"

I nodded. "Of course, what do you wish to know?"

She hummed. "What kind of things do you eat?"

"We primarily eat fruits, vegetables, herb and some plants. We can eat fish and poultry if we really need to, such as in harsh winters. We never eat an animal with hooves though. It would be the same as you heating a human or dwarf. It is simply not done."

She nodded and pulled a notebook out of nowhere. "I see... how long do you live for?"

I tilted my head. I was thankful I was the only centaur in existence so none of this would be questioned. "It depends on our breeding but we tend to live for about a hundred years, circumstances allowing. I am just out of colthood, having seen twenty one summers."

Raine nodded. "So, what terms do you use for ages?"

I hummed and tipped my head to one side. "Well, foals are foals. Then as we get older we become yearlings, then colts and fillies. Then we have a ceremony to celebrate our passing into adulthood and become a mare or stallion. I, myself, am a stallion."

This carried on for a few more minutes, him asking me questions and me answering. What is the gender ration like? – about 50-50. How tall do we get? – it depends on breeding, like with all other races. I was actually one of the shortest of my age group. What kind of colours where there? – again, it depended on breeding. What kind of habitats did we live in? – mostly forests though some herds lived on open planes if there was no risk of being killed outright. How many of my kind were left? – only me. Did we have our own religion? – we acknowledged the existence of a demi-god but didn't worship any god in particular, let alone expect one to solve all our problems. How fast could we run? – it depended on breeding and personal training, much like that of a human, but we could generally run at the same speeds as a horse.

Eventually Lloyd and Colette came back downstairs and Lloyd stopped Raine from asking any more questions. Dirk then came out with food and we all ate before Kratos, Raine, Genis and Colette left, bidding goodbye to the three of us left.

I turned to Lloyd. "Lloyd, there are some things I haven't told you about the life debt. I did not wish to tell you in front of your friends."

Lloyd blinked and sat back at the table. "Okay."

I bit my lip slightly. "Since my life is yours you are able to ask anything of me and I will do it, within reason. If you were to ask me to kill myself I wouldn't. Unless you call upon the life debt. If you call upon the life debt I owe you, you can ask me to do anything and I will. If you ask me to kill myself I would, without hesitation. So long as it would repay the debt. You can't call upon the debt and ask me to do something like fetch you a glass of water or wash your shirt or something. It needs to be big enough to repay the debt in one action."

Lloyd looked wide eyed down at the table. "Oh. So... I ask you to do something and you'll do it if you can and if I call on the debt then you'll do anything? Even kill yourself?"

I nodded. "Yes. That is right. my life is in your hands, to do with as you wish."

Lloyd nodded. And sighed quietly, still trying to take it all in. "How do I call upon the debt?"

I smiled gently. "It is slightly more complicated than just asking me to do something so you won't have to worry about calling on it by accident. You have to say, 'I, Lloyd Irving, hereby call upon the life debt owed to me by Drake.' You would then say something along the lines of 'The payment is-' and say what you want the payment to be."

Lloyd nodded. "Right. Okay... but... how will you know when the debt is repaid?"

I tilted my head and smirked. "I don't know. I will know when it has been, but I am not sure about how I will know. I have never owed a life debt to anyone before." Lloyd nodded and sighed heavily. I sighed as well. "I am sorry, Lloyd. I do not wish to burden you but this is information that you need to know."

Lloyd nodded. "I know. Thank you for telling me." he stood up. "I'm gonna get to bed, I've got a long day tomorrow. I'm going with Colette on the journey of world regeneration. We're leaving at noon. You're coming too right?"

I nodded. "Where you go, I go." Lloyd smiled tiredly at me and headed upstairs.

Dirk turned down the fire in the forge and headed towards the stairs. "Ah'm gonna head up too. See ya in the mornin."

I nodded to him and lay down on my blankets.

So, we were going on a journey tomorrow? To regenerate the world. Sounds exiting. I hope my skills are up to it.


	5. Chapter 5

_I sighed as I ran my hoof through the grass, the soft ground easily giving way underneath me. I bent down and picked up a small pink stone. As I held it up to the light it turned white. I dropped it and it landed in a small pool of water in front of me and turned a deep blue once it hit the ground._

_I bent down to pick it up and caught the reflection of someone behind me._

"_Drake."_

_I turned around. Standing there was a centaur, at least two feet taller than me. His coat was a dark brown that was almost black. Muscles rippled under his skin as he stepped closer. I looked up at his nearly-black-brown eyes and smiled. He pushed a bit of his shoulder length black-brown hair out of his eyes, the muscles in his arm rippling with their power. My eyes dropped to the black and white pebble on a woven string around his neck, it looked like the Yin-Yang symbol._

_I smiled and hugged him. "Xai."_

"_Hey, Drake." _

_I turned and saw a mare walking over. Her coat was a dark shade of brown, a few shades darker than mine but lighter than our brother's. She was taller than me too. Her skin was a light tan, she had always tanned better than me and Xai. Her hair fell down just past her shoulders. She twitched her head to flick the bit of hair that always hung in front of her face away and grinned at me, her golden-brown eyes sparkling with amusement._

_Out of the forest behind her came another stallion. He was as tall as Xai but much thinner, built for speed rather than power. He walked up beside Grace and wrapped an arm around her waist. This was her Mate, Ben._

_I turned when another mare trotted out of the forest behind Xai. Her straw brown hair pulled behind her head and tied with a woven strip of cloth. She was shorter than me. She and her dam were the shortest in the herd. Strangely enough her sire and brother were two of the tallest, just underneath Xai and Ben._

_I smiled at my friends but looked to the side when a deep sound reverberated from the forest._

_Suddenly there were wolves everywhere, Centaurs rushing about, attacking or running. I stood in the centre of the village looking on uselessly as everyone in the herd was taken down. Centaurs were pacifists. We didn't train to fight. A wolf jumped at me and a raised my hands to cover my face._

My eyes snapped open and a sat up quickly. I looked around the room and stood, shaking my legs before quickly leaving the house. The sky was dark but I could tell it was just before dawn. I walked through the trees, letting the quiet sound of nature settle my nerves.

As the first birds started singing in the trees I made my way back to the house. I slipped inside and nodded to Dirk, who was working at the forge. I sat back on my blankets and pulled one of my books out of my bag. 'Healing magic: a guide to helping others'. There were a few more healing spells in there than in the other one and it went into more depth on healing spells in general, how they worked, how to strengthen them, how to regulate the amount of mana you use to avoid spending too much mana for the small injuries. It was very informative.

When Dirk finished at the forge he started rummaging around the room, filling a rucksack and a large duffle bag with things from around the room. In the duffle bag went a leather case with a selection of different knives and a sharpening block, a tin, two full water skins (though I doubted it was water in them), two brushes, a chisel, a small mallet, a hammer (which weighed less than the mallet), a bunch of pots and pans, some cooking utensils and a selection of tools from the forge and the sewing area next to it.

The rucksack was then filled with some food, a map, a compass, a water skin (this time with water), another selection of knives, a bag of money and a couple of books. Dirk took both bags outside and I could hear him pottering about outside.

Lloyd came down a few moments later and smiled hesitantly at me. I could see he was nervous. He quickly made some breakfast for us and Dirk and the two of us ate in silence.

When we finished Lloyd got his carvings out and started whittling. I nickered. "You are nervous."

He looked up. "Yeah, a bit. This is a big journey and I'm not sure if I'm strong enough."

"As long as you do not get overconfident in your abilities you will be fine. Keep improving and growing and you will always be strong enough. Besides, when you have someone to protect, you can pull out strength you didn't know you had, and do things you would not have thought possible."

Lloyd smiled at me. "You always say the coolest things."

I laughed. "I am insightful, but to be honest with you, most of what I say, are things other people have said that apply to the situation."

Lloyd chuckled. "Yeah. The dwarven vows are the same." Lloyd looked around the room for a moment, taking everything in. "Do you know where dad is?"

"He went outside a while ago."

Lloyd nodded and stood up. I hesitated for a moment before following. Dirk and Lloyd were over by Anna's grave. I turned away to give them a moment. I looked around and spotted the cart Dirk had made had a few bags on it as well as some polls and a tarp of some kind. I looked over at the leather straps attached to the handles. It was a harness for something. I looked at Noishe and he shook his head. "Oh, I am not pulling that thing."

I raised an eyebrow. "You, my dear, are a dog. I am not expecting you to pull a cart."

Lloyd came over and smiled up at me. "Dad made the Key Crest."

I smiled and nodded. "He did. He made it this morning."

Dirk came over with the blankets I had been sleeping on in his arms. He looked nervously between me and the cart. "Now, lad, ah know ya might think it's..." he trailed off.

I smiled. "You want me to pull the cart?" Dirk nodded. I sighed. "You use beasts of burden to pull them usually, don't you?" Dirk nodded again. "I looked over everything in the cart and sighed. "It would be best if we bring it and I know Noishe refuses to do so." The dog growled in agreement. I sighed. "I shall pull it." I walked around to the front and Lloyd walked over to put the straps on. Dirk relaxed slightly and placed the blankets on the back with the other bags.

Lloyd looked between me and the straps. "Are you sure, Drake? It seems kind of... umm."

"I believe the word you are looking for is demeaning or belittling. To make someone out as less than they are. Yes, it is demeaning but we will need to carry our belongings as well as Kratos' Raine's and Colette's. It would be easier if we have a cart." I sighed. Lloyd finished tying the straps and I took a few steps forwards. The cart glided easily across the ground.

I turned to look at it before raising an eyebrow at Dirk.

He smiled. "Dwarven enchanting. It'll move much easier than a normal cart does, less likely to get stuck of roots or rocks and it won't sink in sand. It can also go over water a few inches deep, anything deeper and it will fall in."

I nodded. "Thank you. That will make things easier." We all looked up as Genis came running into the clearing. "Genis? Is something wrong, foal?"

Genis looked at Lloyd with a pained expression. "Lloyd. You're still here?"

Lloyd grinned. "Genis! Good timing. I got my dad to make Marble's Key Crest."

"That's great and all but what about seeing Colette off?"

"Oh, yeah. About that. I've decided to join her."

"Are you stupid or something? Colette and the others left a long time ago."

Lloyd's eyes widened. "Wha?"

"I came looking for you because _you _never showed up."

"You've got to be kidding me!" Lloyd looked crushed.

Dirk frowned. "Lloyd. Go to the village, now."

Genis nodded. "Yeah, come on, come on."

I stamped. Hurrying wouldn't make a difference, she'd already left. I could easily catch up and with this cart I could carry them both easily. "Go. I will catch up." I indicated to the cart and Lloyd nodded before rushing off with Genis. I looked down at Dirk, intending to say goodbye but paused at the look on his face. "What troubles you?"

Dirk looked up at me. "What do ya mean lad?"

I nickered softly. "I am an empath, I can read people's emotions far easier than anyone else, especially if have know the person for any length of time."

Dirk sighed. "Ah'm just worried about him is all. He's ma son, but ah'm not his dad dad. Ah adopted him when 'e was a little'n but what if he finds his real dad?"

I snorted. "You are his dad. You raised him, taught him right from wrong. You are his dad. His sire was not there. He would not abandon you for a man he does not know but has a relation to. In my opinion, sire and dad are different terms. Sire is the one who fathered you, the man with whom you share genetics. Your dad is the one who raises you and teaches you all you need in life. Most men are both. You are his dad, even if you are not his sire. He loves you and nothing will change that."

Dirk smiled and relaxed. "Yer right. O'course. Thanks lad. Ah needed ta hear that. anyway, you'd best be goin'. Ya make sure ta bring my son back in one piece ya hear?"

I laughed. "Of course, he shall be returned to you hale and whole. On my word." I gave a mock bow before walking forwards, waving over my shoulder to the dwarf. I usually don't like goodbyes but this seemed different. I silently made my way through the forest but stopped just shy of the ranch. The Desians were pouring out of it and headin down towards the village. I followed behind them at a distance, being sure not to be seen.

As they went into the village I hid the cart in the bushes and unhitched myself before charging in. By nature, I was a pacifist with aggression issues. My bark was far, far worse than my bite. I reared up and slammed my hoof into the helmet of an archer before grabbing his crossbow. It had automatic reload. Yay.

I let loose a volley of arrows (some of them actually hit their target o.o) before throwing the empty crossbow at someone (I had no use for it now) and drawing my sword and charging at the Desians. They were just getting over their shock and confusion by the time I had stomped two more heads in. I was barely able to parry their swords and kick and slash at them. I got a few cuts on my side for my troubles but I was able to break their defence and charge into the village. They didn't chase me thankfully.

I ran down one of the streets and kicked down some Desians attacking a woman. I scooped her up and carried on down the path. I knocked down a few more Desians and collected a few more people before finding what looked like a school. The people I had saved ran inside and I charged down another street.

This carried on for a while, crushing Desians beneath my hooves and escorting people to the school at the back of the village. I eventually found myself back at the village entrance just in time to watch a giant green monster charge at Lloyd and Genis. I ran past the gathered villagers and leapt over Genis, pivoting in the air and slamming both my back feet into the monster's face. I spun back around and slashed at it with my sword, Lloyd backing me up from the side.

I ducked down and Genis launched a barrage of fireballs at it. I stabbed my sword upwards and drew its attention away from Lloyd as he stabbed it in the side faster multiple times almost faster than I could see. Was that an arte?

Within moments the creature was backing up and screeching at us, swinging a clawed hand to the side. Lloyd ducked under it and I raised my blade, meeting the attack head on and holding it there as Lloyd slashed again at the monster.

The monster pulled back and dropped to the ground. Lloyd and I stepped back towards Genis, hardly daring to believe it was over.

A Desian mage stepped backwards and looked towards a tall man with a cannon for an arm. "Lord Forcystus! Just as you thought, that boy has an Exsphere!"

The young man stepped forwards and looked intently at Lloyd. "It must be the one from the Angelus project that we've been searching for! Give it to me!"

I placed a hand on Lloyd's shoulder. "What is the Angelus project?"

The man sneered at me, looking me over curiously. "What are you?"

"You answer my question and I'll answer yours."

Forcystus thought for a moment before looking over at Lloyd. "The Angelus project was one of Kvar's experiments on turning Exspheres into Cruxis crystals. That one you have is the only successful experiment." He turned his attention back to me.

"I am a centaur. A unique race of beings that have been hidden from humans since the arrival of the comet Kharlan."

Forcystus nodded and turned back to Lloyd. "That Exsphere belongs to the Desians. Give it to me."

Lloyd shook his head. "No! This is a memento of my mum's, who you Desians murdered!"

Forcystus walked further forward. "What are you talking about? Your mother was-"

The monster launched itself forwards. It wrapped its arms around Forcystus' neck. I strained, disembodied voice rang out. "R-Run away, Genis, Lloyd."

"Wh-what was that voice? It sounded like... Marble?"

I turned to look at Genis. His eyes were wide and I could see the moment he realised something as his face broke and he shook his head in denial. The pain in his eyes was unmistakable.

Lloyd shook his head and looked down at Genis. "It can't be." I could see the denial in his eyes too.

We all looked to the monster as she grunted with the strain to fighting whatever it was holding her back. That collar most likely had something to do with it. "Get away! Hurry!" i glanced at the Desians as one of them pulled out a device and pushed a button. The monster relaxed. "Genis, you were like a grandson to me. Thank you. Goodbye."

I felt mana well up and collect inside the monster before she exploded outwards. When the flash passed and the light died down I was able to see Forcystus standing in a good sized crater, rather scorched. I glanced down as something dropped to the ground in front of Genis. It was a small red stone.

Genis bent down to pick it up. His sole focus on the tiny red gem.

Forcystus coughed and clutched at his chest, where the burns were the worst. The Desians rushed forwards. "Protect Lord Forcystus!" one of them helped his stand and he lean on him.

Forcystus looked up. "Lloyd. We will always come after you as long as you possess that Exsphere. Always!" the men helped him retreat as they made their unsteady way back to the ranch.

Genis sniffled. "Marble?" his face screwed up as he realised he couldn't deny it any more. "Marble! No!"

I knelt down beside him. "Hush now foal." I gently ran my hand through his hair and he folded in half, crying in earnest.

A plump man walked over. "What have you done?! Look! Look what happened to our village! It's all your fault!"

I stood up. "He is not the only one to blame for this! He is not the one who raised their blade to the villagers. He is not the one who started the fires! Lloyd is not the only one to blame for today's events!"

The man looked at me. "What the hell are you? some kind of monster?!"

I shook my head. "I am a centaur. My kind have been on this world since the arrival of the comet Kharlan, just as the elves and humans were. We have stayed hidden until now."

The man sneered. "Right. And I'm supposed to believe that? What? Are you some kind of failed experiment by the Desians?"

I frowned and shook my head. "I told you the truth. If you do not want to believe me then that is up to you."

Lloyd sighed and looked around at the burning buildings. From here, the damage looked worse than it did from the other end. Near the school, most of the buildings were untouched. "I'm sorry."

The man glared at Lloyd. "You think you can fix this by apologizing?! The Desians marked you as their enemy! As long as you are here the village will never be at peace. Do you understand?"

Lloyd froze and stood straight. His eyes took on a sad look as he nodded.

Genis ran over in front of him. "Wait a minute! You're going to exile him?"

The man nodded. "Yes."

Genis glared. "That's not fair! Lloyd didn't do anything wrong! He just saved Marble!"

The man glared. "Any involvement with the ranch is forbidden. There are no exceptions."

Genis frowned and shook his head. "So it's okay to let people die at the human ranch as long as the village is safe?!"

A woman from the crowd spoke up. "The people at the ranch are just going to rot there anyway."

The pudgy man nodded. "Yes. Had you not done something so stupid, they'd have been the only ones that died."

Genis looked to the ground. "You humans are all the same."

Lloyd put a hand on Genis' shoulder. "That's enough Genis. This was my fault." He walked around Genis and stood in front of the man. "I'll leave."

A young woman looked nervously from the side. "Mayor, surely you don't have to be so strict on a child."

A man beside her looked to her. "What are you saying? Do you realise how many people died here because of him?!"

The woman turned to glare at him. "Like the centaur said, the Desians were the ones that attacked. Besides, the centaur and Lloyd and Genis saved a lot of lives today. More people would have died had they not been here."

Genis walked forwards. "It's not Lloyd's fault! I'm the one that took him to the ranch, so it's my fault!"

The mayor glared at Genis. "But its Lloyd the Desians are after. And besides, Lloyd isn't even from this village to begin with. He's an outsider raised by a dwarf."

Genis glared harder. "Then I'm leaving too. I'm just as guilty as he is!"

Lloyd looked sadly at his friend. "Genis."

The mayor closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Fine then. By the right vested in me as mayor, I hereby announce the banishment of Lloyd and Genis from the village of Iselia."

The villagers began to disband. The woman bit her lip and walked over, pulling a handful of coins out of her pocket and pressing them into Lloyd's hand. "To help you along. I'm sorry it had to be like this." Lloyd nodded and smiled at the woman. A few more people came over, passing small things to Lloyd, mostly small handfuls of coins before leaving. Most of them sneered and left of threw a hateful comment over their shoulder.

Soon all the remained was Lloyd, Genis and I as well as a blond man and an elderly woman in white robes. Lloyd looked at them both. "I'm sorry for causing you trouble."

The lady smiled gently. "If you feel that way, please, catch up to the chosen and protect her. If in doing so the world is saved, surely everyone will change their minds about you."

The man smiled and nodded. "For I'm sure Colette would want that as well."

Lloyd nodded. "Yes. I will atone for what I've done. I swear to protect Colette for the sake of those who have died because of me."

Genis looked up at him. "I'll follow you Lloyd. it's my fault that you were banished so I promise to stick by you, always."

Lloyd smiled at him. "Say Genis, why don't you use that Exsphere? That's Marble's memento."

Genis looked down at the little red gem still in his hand. "Okay."

Lloyd nodded. "I'll explain to you how to use the Key Crest later, after all, it looks like it's going to be a long journey."

Genis looked up sadly. "Yeah."

The old lady smiled gently. "Don't throw your lives away."

The man nodded. "And may the Goddess Martel protect you."

I turned and headed out of the village, Lloyd and Genis following behind. I trotted over to where I had hidden the cart and strapped it on, pulling it up to where the boys were waiting for me. I looked them both over. All of us were covered in soot. Genis had thick lines down his face where his tears had cleaned a path in the soot. They both had a rather broken look on their faces.

I motioned for Lloyd to put Genis on the back of the cart and hop on himself. I dragged them both around the village and to the coast line.

I unclipped the cart and managed to get them both to come into the sea and wash off the soot. Once we were clean I took them back to the cart and rubbed Apple Gel into their wounds, giving them both an Orange Gel to eat. Lloyd came to much faster than Genis did. He pulled out a shirt and changed Genis into it. It slid off his shoulders and hung down to his knees but at least it was something. He changed his own clothes and I took the other ones to the sea and washed them.

When I came back to the cart both boys were leaning against a tree voiding their stomachs. I lay their clothes on the side of the cart and got out two water skins before heading to where they were. I rubbed their backs. Not only did they both inhale a lot of ash but they also took their first life today. Not that I was any different. I had never killed anyone before but today I killed quite a few people. I hadn't really thought about it at the time but those Desians I kicked wouldn't have survived.

I took a shaky breath and thanked the Wonder Chef that centaurs couldn't throw up. It was physically impossible. When both boys stopped praying to the porcelain gods I gave them both the water skins and got them back onto the cart before strapping the cart back on and heading south.

I walk slowly, letting them both think about what had happened and process it all. They had just lost their home, in more ways than one. I nickered and walked along the tree line, keeping my ears trained on each and every sound.

Noishe walked beside me, his head darting about as he listened to sounds beyond my range of hearing. We both stopped as we spotted a pack of wolves ahead. I nickered softly. "_What do we do?_"

Noishe growled. "_I suppose we should either fight or fins away around them._"

The pack turned around. I took a step back and bumped into the cart. "Looks like we don't have a choice." I quickly undid the buckle and charged towards the wolves, drawing my bow. I somehow managed to nail one in the eye (I was aiming for its neck though) but wasn't able to draw another arrow out fast enough. I reared up and stomped on the wolf's head pulling my sword out and slashing low at the third. I spun and kicked at the fourth and punched the fifth with my left hand that was still holding my bow.

Where the HELL was Noishe?

A fireball whizzed past me and nailed one of the wolves as a shockwave slammed into another. Lloyd then appeared next to me and got some of the wolves off me. Between the two of us and Genis' long range support we managed to finish the wolves fairly easily.

I hissed as I noticed some of the wounds I got during that fight. I looked around. "Where's Noishe?"

Lloyd sighed. "He always runs off when there are monsters."

I sighed and looked up at the sky. "It's getting dark. We should find somewhere to camp for the night." We piled the wolves onto the back of the cart and I strapped it back on before we walked a little way down the road. We eventually found a break in the trees that looked like it was used for wagons frequently. We dragged the cart down the path and soon came across a caravan and a woman standing by a fire.

"Who's there?"

I bowed at the waist as I approached. "We mean you no harm." Lloyd hopped down from the cart and helped Genis down. "We are travellers looking for a place to rest."

The woman looked us over, her eyes staying on me in confusion. "I'm the only one here right now. Who are you? Are you on a pilgrimage?"

Lloyd looked at Genis. "Something like that. My name's Lloyd. This is Genis and Drake."

The woman nodded, her eyes still not straying from me as I moved the cart to the side before un-strapping it and walking the few paces to where Lloyd and Genis were standing. "I see. That is quiet something for someone so young. Please, feel free to stay here."

I bowed again. "Thank you for your hospitality."

The woman looked me over. "If you don't mind me asking... what are you exactly?"

I smiled. "I am a centaur. The last of my kind."

The woman gasped and smiled sadly in sympathy. "I see. Desians?"

I shook my head. "Wolves. Centaurs are pacifists by nature. We didn't stand a chance."

The woman nodded. "Wolves are a big problem. The fur is good though."

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah. We killed a few just now. I was gonna skin them tonight."

The woman nodded. "We have some things you can use."

Lloyd smiled. "Thanks, but I've got everything I need. My dad's a blacksmith."

The woman nodded. "Ah I see. Oh how rude of me, my name is Sara."

Genis smiled. "Nice to meet you, Sara."

The four of us settled down and talked for a few hours before the rest of Sara's caravan arrived back. She found some clothes for Genis and insisted we take them. Lloyd then vanished with the wolves insisting on a trade. He came back just before the others and gave Sara two skins in trade for the clothes. I put the meat from the wolves Lloyd had wrapped in one of the pelts into my wingpack. They would hold longer in there. The teeth were put into a bag for Lloyd to craft with at some point.

When Sara's family arrived they all startled at the sight of me. I sighed. Was it always going to be like this? They warmed up to me quickly enough once I had been introduced properly. The rest of the evening was spent chatting about anything and everything. We all laughed at some of the stories Genis had to tell about Lloyd.

Nova turned to me. "What about you, Drake? Any stories to tell?"

I thought for a moment. "Oh, there is one. The first time my Sire took my Brother and I out foraging." By the end of my story everyone was laughing and Lloyd actually fell off his log backwards. Not long after that we were all packing up to go to bed, having eaten while we were telling stories.

As I lay down on my blankets I could help the nagging feeling that something wasn't right... perhaps it was something to do with my story? Did it happen like that? Come to think of it... how did we get to the swamp and what happened after?

But there was something else...

It clicked.

I had an actual memory of being a centaur.

I wasn't a real centaur.

I sat up and stared off into the darkness. What was happening? Why did I have a memory of being a centaur? I shook my head. I would ask the Wonder Chef about it later. It was too late to be worrying about things like that now.

As I settled back down I almost missed the pitying look Noishe sent me.

Almost.

* * *

_I will ride~ I will fly~ chase the wind and tough the sky~ I will fly~ chase the wind and touch the sky~_

*cough* sorry, I wrote this entire chapter listening to Brave OST 'Touch the Sky' on repeat.

Anyway!

Thank you for reading this chapter, the story will be picking up pace now that the beginning is out of the way. If you like this story please favourite/follow this story.

Bye!


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Tales of Symphonia, Adventure