Author's Note

So sorry this is so late. I know I said it would come out at odd times. just this last month was absolutely fucking insane. Won't bother you with the details.
So here we go............

Chapter 7

(5yrs 10 months ago)

Finding out I was lost while terrifying at first slowly became very liberating. I didn’t do an impromptu strip dance perverts. I did how ever get an opportunity to check out life in a port town unimpeded.

Walking around town was amazing seeing all the different species everywhere. I saw bipedal cats, dogs, griffons, ponies, even a couple of dragons. Literally everywhere I looked was something out of myth and legend like I had actually stepped into some fantasy novel.

Being lost in my thoughts is never a good thing. I bump into someone and my only thought is ‘oh boy I’m caught now’

“Oh dear me I’m so sorry I didn’t realize you were there.” A female Centaur quickly apologizes.

Trying to play it off I quickly reply. “Oh don’t worry I wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going and it seems life likes to throw curve balls every time I start to think.” I rub the back of my head a bit perturbed that shit like this keeps happening.

A glance to the ground during the lull in conversation I notice a bag and some vegetables on the ground. “Oh shit, I’m sorry I didn’t even realize I knocked your groceries to the ground.” I pick everything up and hand them back over to her. “Again I am really sorry about that.” A smile spreads across my face not that she could see it with my hood up.

She takes the bag but doesn’t move or say anything for a few moments.

Taking the moment of silence between us I look her over.

Her coat is a dark brown almost near black. Her hair and tail are a dull fuchsia, her hair trails down to the middle of her back, well her upper back. The back of her that is human. You know what fuck you. She stands a bit taller than myself but only by like a couple of inches. Her human half is covered in a forest green sleeveless tunic that seems to be struggling to contain the mountains on her chest.

After a short while the silence begins to become uncomfortable. I start fidgeting and consider just walking away but my feet feel like they are made of lead and have grown roots deep in the ground.

“Are you blind?”

What?

Where the hell did that come from? Am I blind? No of course not, I did manage to pick up each vegetable with ease. “Umm… no I can see just fine. Why?”

“So you can see that I am a centaur right?” She asks seemingly completely confused.

“Uh well yeah. Is there something I’m missing here?” I am so fucking lost.

“Would you like to join me for an early dinner?”

*Is she hitting on me? No that doesn’t make any sense. Maybe she knows I’m a human and is trying to lure me somewhere so the guards can catch me.* A giggle from her catches my attention.

“I promise I just want to cook you a meal as a thank you.” She says with a pleasing smile.

“O-okay.” I stammer out.

She leads me down several main streets through the town and more than a few odd dark alley ways. Leading me to what I assume to be her home but it also seems to double as an apothecary’s shoppe.

Walking in was an assault on my nose. There was incense burning in one corner of the store front and several odd looking plants hanging from the ceiling. “Lovely place you got yourself here.”

Laughing she looks over her shoulder at me. “It’s a hovel, though that does not mean there is a kiln in here. Take a seat and I’ll go get a nice vegetable soup started.” She walks off through a doorway I had completely failed to notice.

Instead of sitting I take a look at some of the various knick-knacks she has scattered around.

One of them seems to be a pretty detailed scale model of a dragon in flight. Another near the window is of what I assume to be a glass version of the world.

Drifting around the store I notice that one corner of the store seems to cause my eyes to slide away every time I try to see what’s there. Deciding to be invasively curious now that there is something weird going on I walk up to the corner and force my gaze into the spot. Slowly a black cloak begins to come into focus.

“WHOA!” I jump back thinking that it is a person at first, only to see that it is just sitting on a stand. “That is so fucking cool. Damn I love magic. Seeing as how I can see it now I doubt it’s an invisibility cloak. I wonder what the enchantment on it is.” I muse to myself.

“It is called ‘wall-flower’. The wearer, while not invisible, does go unnoticed when surrounded.”

The suddenness of the voice startles the hell out of me. I may or may not have jumped out of my skin. Turning around I see ab-so-fucking-lutely no one. “Ookay creepy store just got creepier.”

“Are you suffering because you cannot see who is speaking?” Asks the mysterious voice.

Thinking about that for a second I decide being scared at this point is stupid if they are going to attack they wouldn’t have told me the effect of the cloak. Also something tells me I’m not in any danger. It’s really weird but the more I think about it the more I feel like I should know what’s happening to some degree.

“It would seem my lack of presence has startled you into silence.” Again the voice calls from nowhere but it sounds full of mirth.

“Yeah I’ll admit it was startling at first but now not so much. I mean this world is full of amazing things I have never seen before. So what’s to say there isn’t some sort of being that exists outside the visible spectrum?” I counter with a smirk.

I hear ‘him’ start to chuckle. “You seem to have a very unique perspective. I wonder about this ‘world’ you came from.”

Well shit I didn’t think that comment through. “Just a figure of speech.” I say trying blatantly to cover over my fuck up.

“Worry not none here will turn you in for being ‘different’.” Something about that makes me think ‘he’ knows more about me than I should be comfortable with. “Though I do believe a face to face would do us both some good.”Something lands on top of my head only to disappear a second later. Whatever jumped on my head knocked my hood off revealing my face.

I quickly go to cover my face with my hands only to realize that it would be pointless at this point. “Okay you caught me I’m a human.”

“So that’s why you didn’t insult me earlier.”

Whipping around I see the centaur from earlier walking out into the store again.

“I was wondering why you were being so pleasant and nice; it is quite at odds with how many others treat my kind. Especially after what he did.” Her statement finishing with utter contempt shining through.

Raising an eyebrow “He who?”

She shakes her head “It does not matter ‘he’ is gone and won’t be coming back any time soon, if ever.”

“Okay. So … uh how is the soup doing?” I ask awkwardly trying to change the conversation since it seems like I’m not gonna find out about this ‘guy’.

“It’ll be done in about 20 minutes or so.” She walks over to me and begins to look me up and down, studying me for some reason.

“He found the cloak”

Looking up at me for a second with wide eyes she turns to the counter where an unusually large orange tabby lays idly lies.

“What do you mean he ‘found the cloak’?”She asks raising an eyebrow to the cat.

I begin to wonder if she is crazy but low and behold.

The cat looks over at her. “He wondered the shoppe for a moment and realized that his vision was being tricked and investigated.”

She looks back at me. “Well aren’t you just full of surprises.”

This world is going to drive me insane. “Umm… no I’m not?” I have no clue whats going on anymore.

“Yes you are. You just don’t realize it yet.” She gets right up into my face, staring deep into my eyes. “You have potential but what you do with it is entirely up to you. You will have a choice to make. Change will follow, so will blood. You will become what you choose.” With a smirk she ends with “Beware of the first time you see the Sun it will hurt.”