Joseph and Karla awoke in a forest of towering redwoods, oaks and weeping willows. They were human again and dressed. Ripple was no where in sight.They got to their feet, gazing around them. It was impossible to say how long they‘d slept, since the tops of the trees eclipsed all light from above.Suddenly to their right, came the sound of approaching hoofs. Weaving easily between the trees, a creature came bearing down upon them. From the waist up, she was a fetching Bronze woman of twenty or so odd years with sepia skin. Yet her body ended in a burgundy mare’s hindquarters. Reddish brown hair curled about her shoulders and her pert breasts were covered by a silver bustier.The last time they’d seen a creature like this had been during the Time of Legend. Then the female centaur had been a Guardian -- a fierce alley who’d fought beside them. But they sensed that this was no elder. She brought with her an aura of malevolence. Karla drew closer to Joseph.The creature came abreast of them: “Hello!” she said, her lashes fluttering prettily above her green eyes. “I haven’t seen you here before. Are you lost?”Innocence and a lack of feeling -- or more precisely the inability to feel -- emanated from her. A strange recipe indeed, and even more deadly than menace alone.Joseph neatly sidestepped the question: “We uh…we’ve lost our friend.”“Oh?” her voice was light and airy, like an adolescent’s. “What does he look like?”“He’s a man in his seventies, with dark hair -- like mine.”The centaur laughed: a brittle akin to breaking glass. Karla felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.“An old man is this place? That’s funny! No one ages here…! And no one goes home either.”“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Karla blurted.The centaur smiled widely -- a grin that didn’t quite reach her sea green eyes.“I have to go…But I’ll see you later.” She clopped straight ahead into the forest and vanished.Karla held tightly to Joseph staring into the path where the creature had disappeared. “Joseph I’m scared -- really scared! Where are we?”Joseph looked grim. “I don’t know baby, but she scared the shit out of me too.”The dark woman looked up at him. “Do you think Ripple planned this -- to leave us like this?”He shook his head. “No. I think he was taken, and that thing knows where he is.”Copyright Valjeanne Jeffers 2009 all rights reservedI scare myself sometimes. And this passage, for some reason scared the shit out of me -:). But it's one of my favorites -:)
Comments