Getting up at dawn and riding for several hours isn’t really that interesting, especially when the ground you’re covering is 99% flat grassland. I’ll skip that, but I will mention that even though he was being carried now, Alf had apparently woken up overnight (yay). Siyon told me that one of the people on watch had seen him looking around briefly, but he still appeared to be mostly out of it, and after a few minutes had swiftly conked out again. A win is a win though.

  After a couple of hours, there began to be a change in the air. The smell of damp earth and dew was gradually being displaced as a breeze coming from in front of us carried the cold, salty air of the sea. This was a surprise to me. We must have travelled all the way across the plains, almost the exact opposite point from where I’d first crossed the river. That was at least a hundred miles, and even though it was only a couple of days ago, it felt like a lifetime. I didn’t even care about how I’d get back. I was on a new path now, and I wanted to see where it led.

  It led to a hill, seemingly. It was the first real landmark I’d seen in this whole area, and immediately the posture of the Centaurs visibly relaxed. Their energy rose, conversation picked up, and it was clear we were approaching their home. Soon after, the expansive sky split at the horizon, the ocean coming into view underneath it, painted in the same deeply uninspiring grey as the clouds above.

  We’d spotted their camp from about an hour away, and more details gradually revealed themselves. Dozens, scores, hundreds of tents scattered at the base of the hill, ranging in size and colour. A low palisade wall, barely a metre or so, ran around the edge, and a few larger stone structures sat atop the hill. Clearly, my own prejudices had infected my expectations about this place. When he’d spoken before, I’d assumed a small, mobile campsite of maybe thirty or forty tents. This was more like a town in scale, and a large town at that. It was quite galling to be this comprehensively wrong, but it was fascinating at the same time.

  Taking my cue from the good mood of the rest of the group, I started badgering Siyon with questions about the camp. Given that I was hanging off his back, my chin practically on his shoulder, he had no ability to ignore me, a fact which I chose to exploit. I was only halfway through asking my fourth question without stopping to wait for an answer when he held up a hand to silence me, sighing heavily.

  “Would you like me to tell you about the Tribe of Dun Fola, by any chance?”

  “Oh would you?” I cheered. “That would be awfully kind of you, Mister Siyon.”

  “Infuriating child,” he grumbled, but I could hear the amusement in his voice. More amusement than I felt anyway, having been hit with the ‘child’ nickname once again. Oh well.

  “The Tribe has been settled here for several centuries,” he began, “as little more than a few families who wanted to live a calmer life. This would be accomplished by breaking with Centaur convention, and founding a Tribe that was fixed, instead of nomadic. They travelled here, to the very edge of the plains, in the shadow of a long-abandoned human settlement, where they felt their existence would be of little concern to anyone else.

  “The founding principles were simply community, peace, and faith, and we strive to keep to these. I do not think you would call our society ‘complicated’. We are fortunate that we are small enough in number to stay fairly united in our outlook, which makes governing easy enough.

  “Perhaps optimistically, or perhaps naively, they assumed that as long as they kept themselves to themselves, in an otherwise-uninhabited corner of this land, that others would have no quarrel with them.

  “For all I know, it could have remained so, but as you can probably tell, we are a few more people now than ‘a few families’. News of the camp and its ethos spread across the plains, and it attracted a large number of those with a like mind. Many came here, swelling the camp, but creating a certain disunity between this Tribe and many others. Their leaders felt we were ‘poaching’ their people, and ‘corrupting the very nature of Centaurhood’ as we did so.” He gave a derisive snort, indicating his thoughts about that.

  “What does that even mean,” he began. I got the impression that he was winding up to deliver his manifesto, or bitch about other people (which is always fun). I could sympathise, but my interest in Centaur sociology was mostly abstract, so I wanted him back on point.

  “Are you at war with the other Centaurs?” I asked point blank, stopping him short.

  “Not at war, no,” he answered, carefully. “But more apart than we are together.”

  It’s exactly this sort of semi-philosophical answers that makes talking to Centaurs such a joy sometimes (this is sarcasm). Trust me, it only gets more philosophical and mystical as you go up their society, as I would soon discover firsthand.

  “Back to the tribe however,” he said, fixing me with a look that suggested he wasn’t too happy I’d stopped him from ranting, “we are now near-enough a thousand in number, of all ages. By our best guess, that rivals the ancient town we are settled below, though it’s obviously hard to say, given how long it’s been abandoned for. Our main occupations-”

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  Siyon kept talking, and I’m sure he was talking about lots of important and interesting things regarding his Tribe, but all of a sudden I was paying no interest at all (rude of me, I know). That little bell that had rung in my head when he first mentioned the name of Dun Fola had jumped straight to a deafening alarm, drowning out everything else, and I finally remembered why.

  Dun Fola was literally where humanity began on Midgard.

  I don’t mean that in the sense that it was the site of the first proto-civilisation, but the much more literal kind of first as in the place where the human race first set foot on this continent. In a way I guess this was a bit like our equivalent of Plymouth Rock? Only without the racist undertones because there were literally zero Humans here until they arrived at Dun Fola, not just people they chose not to consider human. It’s not like we were even the dominant species now, we were just the largest single race. Even that was mostly down to the fact that other races used the phrase “breed like Humans” where we would say “breed like rabbits”. What can I say? Apparently Humans fuck.

  The other weird point is that even though we know that this is where Humans first arrived, we have no idea where they came from. Fully-formed societies just rocked up and plonked themselves down here, but apparently nobody thought it worth mentioning where they came from or why they came here. I suppose they assumed everyone would remember.

  Back to Dun Fola. It might seem wild, given how important this place should be in humanity’s history, but I was possibly the first Human to see this place in years, if not decades. You have to understand that this was an era long before quick, safe travel. Thousands of years of intangible societal forces (and war) had left this place entirely abandoned by Humans, for dozens of miles in any direction. Most people never travelled further than a day from their village all their lives; the idea of trekking into the wilderness just to indulge your curiosity rendered you certifiably insane. And whatever you think that says about me, keep it to yourselves.

  I was nearly vibrating with excitement at the thought that I would get to explore the place, but I swallowed all that for now in favour of trying to listen to Siyon. It might not be polite to make plans to go running off as soon as I could.

  We’d nearly reached the Tribe by this point. The buildings were becoming clearer, small figures were getting bigger, and the mood was changing from ‘nearly there’ to ‘arriving’. Some figures who I assumed were guards cantered out to meet us, and as they got close I saw the puzzled looks on their faces as they took in the very definitely not Centaurs being brought in. One of our own group headed them off, sharing a few words out of earshot, and a round of nods were shared. The guards fell in with the rest of us, and it was clear that even if we were vouched-for, we were being more tolerated than welcomed, at least by the guards.

  We passed through an open section of the low palisade wall, where parts of the ground became trodden down enough to pass for roads and streets, bisecting rows of tents and compounds, fenced-off paddocks and market areas. We attracted a small following of curious faces, drawn first to welcome back this band, and staying for the strange bipeds.

  A couple of minutes later we drew up at a structure that was really blurring the line between permanent building and large gazebo. A central framework of old, weathered wood was covered over with large sheets of dyed and tanned hides, some parts of which showed signs of repeated repair. A terrible question flashed through my mind, looking at the equine bodies around me as I wondered what they used for leather. Luckily I spotted the outline of at least one pigskin before I could spiral too deeply. Off this central, and clearly very old part, a few different sections branched off, showing different shapes and sizes, building outwardly in a charmingly ad hoc sort of way.

  Siyon rolled his shoulders meaningfully; and catching the message I slid off his shoulders onto the ground. Being carried is nice and all, but I was stiff as a board, and my body made its displeasure known as I stretched it back out.

  “Wait here,” Siyon told us, as the other three also hit the ground with varying amounts of grace. Alf was able to stand on his own by now, but little more than that, and still looked woozy. “Tamira and I are going to go and lay the groundwork for you,” he continued. “We’ll be back shortly.” The two of them passed through the wide tent-flaps obscuring the inside, leaving us all surrounded by Centaurs whose faces ranged from naked curiosity to mild hostility. I’m not a social creature at the best of times, and this wasn’t the best of times, so I was feeling doubly uncomfortable. Plus, even the children were noticeably taller than me, which wasn’t a confidence booster.

  We weren’t standing there long before Siyon poked his head back out.

  “You’d better come in,” he said to us, before looking at the gathered crowd. “There’ll be nothing here to interest you,” he called out, “so I suggest you all find somewhere else to be.” It felt more like an honest statement than a threat, and I suppose it was. Either way, there was a sudden increase in conversation as the crowd split up and dissolved, and no prizes for guessing what they were talking about.

  “Come on then,” he repeated. We acquiesced, trooping after him into the darkened interior of the gazebo. The air in here was heavy with the smell of smoke, incense, and horse, mostly deriving from a low fire in the middle of the room. There was barely time for my eyes to adjust to the darkness before another flap at the back was pulled open, spilling light in and revealing some sort of garden on the other side. Stopping only long enough to gesture for us to follow him, Siyon continued outside, as did we.

  The garden we stepped into was a bit like a courtyard, bounded on all sides by the gazebo complex we’d just passed through. It felt like a grove, with stands of trees which were barely taller than the tents, but were old and gnarled, twisting into a dense canopy in some places. The ground had been left alone, still gently uneven, strewn with moss and rocks; with small flowers budding in clusters and even some insects. The air was clear and different, warmer than when we'd been outside, even though we were still exposed to the sky. The space wasn’t large, but the density of the trees at the back meant you couldn’t see the far end, giving the impression that it stretched forever into an ancient forest for you to get lost in.

  Sometimes, I wish it had been, and that I could have taken it up on that offer.

  Thanks as always for reading! C&C or feedback of any kind always welcome, don't be a stranger! :P

  See y'all in the next chapter, release date 'Soon?'

  Sammy xx