User:Posti/Lost in Translation
From Shifti
Lost in Translation
The car sputtered once as it crested the hill and immediately began to slow. Pushing in the clutch, Zack scanned the gauges and frowned. Turning the key did nothing. Everything was dead. He coasted off to the side of the road, starting to regret his choice of shortcuts. This road wasn’t used much, and almost never patrolled. Great for having fun with his car, but not so great for getting help.
Sighing, he pulled the hood release and got out to check. All of the cables were tight and clean, and there was no obvious problem with the wiring. He tried the starter again, and then flicked on the lights. Nothing. The battery was either completely dead, or had shorted out. He hoped it was just dead. A short could have also fried the alternator, or damaged the car’s very expensive computer ‘brain.’
It was starting to get dark, more from threatening clouds than lateness of the hour. Perfect. His rain gear and umbrella were in the house. Zack shut the hood and locked the doors. Naturally, he’d broken down almost exactly between towns. Roughly four miles to walk. Sighing, he started back the way he’d come. Maybe he could find a house or store before the rain started.
He made it about a hundred yards before the skies opened up. Far enough that he’d be soaked to the skin before he could get back in the car. Snorting in disgust, he slogged on through the torrential rain. The further he got, the worse the weather became. It was like trying to walk through a waterfall. He jumped at a sudden flash and crack of thunder. Cripes! He got the message! Turning, he began to run back to the car.
Another bolt of lightning hit close enough to leave an odor of ozone in the air. Zack was really scared now. He couldn’t see ten feet. If anyone were driving on the road, they’d hit him before they realized he was there. Not that he’d be much safer in the woods with the electrical storm going on.
Blocking the rain from his eyes with one hand, he squinted through the wall of water. A rough dirt driveway led off to the right. Overgrown and narrow, it didn’t offer much promise of shelter. At this point, even the faintest chance was worth investigating. He ran down the center, trying to stay as far from the trees as possible.
Stumbling on the slick, uneven surface, Zack fell face-first into thick mud. He screamed in frustration as he rolled over onto his back. Then he shook his head and started to chuckle incredulously. If it wasn’t for the electrical storm, this might be funny. Another close flash and crack punctuated the lack of humor.
Scrambling up, Zack wiped the muck from his face and looked around in desperation. Over there - a shape too square to be natural. He fought his way through the quagmire, feet sinking to his ankles. It was a barn or big storage building. The double doors were shut, but not locked. He yanked open the heavy metal latch and slipped inside, managing to pull the door shut before he collapsed in exhaustion.
Panting, he took a moment to catch his breath before sitting up. It was very dark inside. The scents around him were familiar. Straw and old leather. The dusty smell of oats mixed with a faint, acrid odor of manure and urine. A stable.
When his eyes adjusted, he saw one shaggy head regarding him curiously over a stall door. Either the stable’s other occupants weren’t interested in intruders, or he was alone with a donkey. Regardless of the answer, it meant that somebody owned this place. He hoped that whoever it was would ask questions first and shoot later.
Blowing through his lips, he stood slowly and approached the animal with one hand outstretched. Its ears flicked forward a bit, and black nostrils flared open as it drew in his scent. Encouraged, Zack moved all the way to the stall gate and let the donkey snuffle his dripping shirt. It seemed to be in good health, and well groomed. The beast nudged his chest, and gave a startlingly loud bray. Then it dropped its head and started to lip at straw on the floor, curiosity apparently satisfied.
A quick examination proved the other nine stalls to be empty. It was hard to tell if they had just been cleaned, or were unoccupied. The one to the right of the donkey had no gate, so it was safe to assume that it wasn’t in use. He pulled off his hat and shirt, wringing water out of both before hanging them on a hook. Then he pulled off his shoes and dumped the water out of them. It was tempting to strip off his soaked pants as well, but he didn’t need to risk being arrested for trespassing AND indecent exposure.
He plopped down in the corner and carefully leaned back against the coarse planks of the wall. The storm outside showed no sign of stopping any time soon, and he was exhausted. He worried about the car a bit, hoping that it was far enough off the road to be safe. Then fatigue hit hard, and he drifted off into dreamless sleep.
A wheezing bray startled Zack awake. It took a moment to remember where he was. He’d changed position sometime during his nap, and was now sprawled facedown on the floor. Stiff and sore, he sat up and spat a strand of straw from his mouth. At least the rain had stopped. He ran his fingers through his hair to dislodge clumps of drying mud, wincing as muscles protested the sod mattress. God, he must look like something out of a B horror movie.
There was a bucket he hadn’t noticed before, hanging from the back wall. It had been recently filled, if not cleaned, and he rinsed his face off. The cool water helped wake him up, and he stretched as he looked out through the cracks of a shuttered stall window. It must be late evening, at least. How long had been sleeping? Yawning, he rubbed his eyes and turned to see if his shirt and shoes were dry.
They were missing. He blinked, and looked around the floor. Nothing there. Then he realized something else was wrong. He was surrounded by four walls, not three. The stall now had a gate. Frowning, he tried to get his bearings. Had he somehow moved to a different stall? No, the donkey was still on his left. And the rest of the stable looked the same. He sighed and shook his head. The door must have been there all along, he’d just missed it somehow.
He could hear the donkey eating. Hadn’t its grain bin been empty before? Spinning, he looked at the container in his own stall and saw that it also held a full ration of feed. Someone must have come in. They’d have to have seen him lying there. He patted his pockets suddenly, and was relieved to feel his wallet and keys. Why take his other clothing?
Well, it was a safe bet somebody knew he was here. Even if they’d called the police, Zack wasn’t too worried. He’d try to find the owners and explain what happened. Maybe they’d even call a tow truck for him. He pushed on the gate. It was latched. Annoyed, he tried to reach over to unlock it, only to have his hand stop at the inner edge of the doorway.
Blinking, he stared at the empty air above the gate and tried again. There was no sensation of hitting anything, no contact with a wall or other obstruction. His hand simply stopped moving. Zack backed away from the invisible barrier, flexing his fingers. Even if there were a sheet of glass or plastic there, he should feel something.
He picked up a piece of straw and tried to see where the strand started to bend. It passed over the gate without any problem until his fingers reached the gate. Then his hand stuck again. A handful of grain flew over the gate without even slowing. Whatever was blocking the opening was selective.
And that, of course, was impossible. Zack looked around the stall, more than a little bewildered. He couldn’t remember ever dreaming in such detail. It was more than scents and sounds. His skin itched from contact with the fodder, the pull of mud in his hair was uncomfortable, and his pants and socks still felt damp. A quick pinch hurt. Well, dream or not, he wanted to get out of here.
A similar force field prevented him from opening the shutters of the outside window. Frustrated, he pounded on the gate with his fist. “Hey! Is anybody there? Let me out of here, please!” The noise attracted the attention of his neighbor, who brayed noisily and pressed its muzzle against the open slats that separated the stalls above the wall. Zack let the animal snuffle his fingers, and then slipped a hand through to rub its chin. “Sorry for the disturbance. I don’t suppose you have the number for room service?” The animal replied with a snort.
Wait a minute. His hand was over in the next stall. Pressing harder, he was able to slip more of his arm through the slats. The force field didn’t seem to be working here. He looked up and saw that the slats didn’t go all the way to the ceiling. He could just squeeze through and climb down into the donkey’s stall. The animal had looked out over its gate when he first came in, so maybe the barrier wasn’t set up there.
Climbing up the slats was harder than he expected. Either he was in worse physical shape than he’d thought, or he was paying the price for napping on the dirt floor. Muscles ached, and his joints were stiff. Still, he managed to work himself over the top and ease cautiously down into the donkey’s stall.
Even in the dim light, he could see it was a jenny. She snuffled him curiously and lipped at his pants. Probably looking for a treat. “Sorry girl. Don’t have anything for you.” He stepped around her to reach the gate, only to be blocked as she shifted position. Teeth clamped on the edge of one pocket, and he stumbled as she yanked hard.
“I don’t have anything!” He was reluctant to slap or push the animal, but she kept tugging at his clothing. When she dropped her head to snap as his socks, he pushed as hard as he could. “No!” That startled the beast long enough for him to slip over to the gate. He reached over for the latch, and encountered another barrier.
“Dammit!” How had the jenny gotten her head over the door? He moved to the window, having to sidestep as the donkey snorted and shifted to block him. “Quit it!” He pushed her muzzle away as she tried to grab his pants again. What was it about his clothing? “Ouch! Stop it!” She made a quick grab that pinched flesh on his thigh, and he jumped back. “Stupid donkey! Quit.”
Zack quickly discovered that her window had the same force field in place. And that donkeys could bite just as hard as his own horse. “Ouch!” He spun, rubbing the bruised flesh of his right buttocks. Only to feel his fingers sliding through coarse fur. Twisting around suddenly, he stared at his sore rump.
A large patch of his pants had turned into dense hair. There was more on his thigh, where she’d nipped him the first time. She took advantage of his distraction to clamp down on the back of his left foot, letting go when he yelled. There was a dull throbbing under the pain, and he saw the sock and lower pants leg merge and darken into coarse hide that immediately sprouted more fur.
His clothes! No longer concerned about modesty, Zack fumbled with his belt. The metal buckle fell apart as he tugged at it. Frantic, he tried to yank the pants off, but his fingers could find no opening between flesh and fabric. “No!” He yanked his other leg away from the donkey as teeth closed on it, watching in morbid fascination as cloth changed into a shaggy inkblot that spread in all directions.
He had to get out of here! Fear gave him the strength to push the jenny away, and he threw himself against the gate. It rattled, but didn’t give an inch. The only way out was up. Jumping up on the wall, he pulled himself up awkwardly. His legs weren’t cooperating, and the jenny caught an ankle in her teeth as he climbed. Ignoring the pain, Zack kicked at her and managed to catch the top of the solid wall with his other foot. The extra leverage allowed him to reach the opening, and he managed to pull himself back over into the first stall. At least, half of himself.
See-sawing painfully on his belly, Zack found that he could not get all the way through. The gap was getting tighter by the minute, and an important part of his anatomy was caught on the other side. A glance back revealed the reason – beyond his waist, his body was no longer human. And it was still changing, thighs flattening and getting deeper. And heavier.
The top slat started to crack under his growing weight. Although he was terrified by what was happening, Zack realized that he had to drop back into the jenny’s stall. He had to struggle against the added weight to keep from falling, unable to coordinate his legs. Even so, he landed on his back with enough force to knock the breath from his lungs. Gasping, he batted feebly at the jenny, trying to keep questing lips away from his face and arms.
She snorted and rubbed her snout down his side. His chest visibly expanded, distracting him from the struggle to breathe. Then his eyes widened as her nostrils brushed across what could no longer be called his manhood. No wonder he hadn’t been able to get over the wall. He was literally hung like a horse. Or a jackass.
The black sheath looked perfectly normal between shaggy hind legs that stretched up on either side. As he watched, the last traces of toes were swallowed by dark lumps that rapidly filled out and hardened into proper hooves. And a twitch of unfamiliar muscles in his butt had to be the movement of a tail.
Stunned, Zack didn’t even try to shoo the jenny away as she began to move back towards his face. Her lips pulled at his belly, causing a mild spasm of internal organs. What was the point in resisting? He couldn’t do anything like this. His body was a mismatched horror, animal parts oversized and set up for walking on four legs instead of two. Bad enough to be a freak, he was also crippled.
The jenny lipped at his left arm, sending a throbbing ache up into his shoulder. He could feel himself gaining mass, and see a subtle reshaping of muscles under the skin. Teeth dragged gently across his exposed throat, and then the donkey’s snout filled his vision as she brushed his face.
He closed his eyes, waiting for the end. Would this incredible transformation affect thoughts as well as body? His jaw pulled, teeth throbbing as his face began to swell. The thought of losing himself was terrifying. What was the difference between death and forgetting everything that made him who he was? In minutes, perhaps seconds, he would be an animal.
The ground shifted underneath him, and warm yellow light began to filter through his eyelids. He was torn between curiosity and fear of seeing the last traces of humanity fade. It wasn’t until he realized that the sensations of change had ended that he opened his eyes.
A cloudless blue sky had replaced the dark, rough timbers of the stable ceiling. He blinked and rubbed his eyes. And then stared in amazed relief at the hand in front of his face. Human arms, human hands. He wasn’t even inside! It must have been some sort of stupid nightmare. Relief flooded him, and he laughed out loud - only to fall silent at the coarse braying sound emerging from his lips.
Sitting up was difficult, for his arms and legs didn’t work properly. It was obvious that the transformation had been no illusion. He was still a jackass from the waist down. However, the animal parts were proportional now, human torso and donkey hindquarters matched in size, if not appearance. The shape of his upper body did look a little different, his chest more barreled out, and skin a bit darker and rougher.
Trying to feel his face required an odd rotation of his arm, and he saw that his shoulders had dropped down and forward. The hand itself was thicker and heavier, with shorter fingers and hard pads on the palms. Human enough to use normally, but probably clumsy with small items or delicate work. He didn’t have much of a sense of touch, either. His face seemed mostly normal, though it was impossible to tell without a mirror.
Sitting was getting increasingly uncomfortable, and Zack found himself dropping forward. Stretching out his arms, he felt the odd rotation of shoulder again. His arms were longer in proportion to his body, and rounder. Extended like this, they almost looked like donkey forelegs. He stood up with his hind legs, and found that being on all fours felt, well, normal.
A cautious step turned into two, then a dozen. Movement was fluid and easy, and he found himself galloping across the field. The sensation of speed was exhilarating, and he actually forgot about being a freak. At least until he burst through a small stand of trees and nearly bowled over a group of kids who took one look at him and started screaming.
Startled, he stumbled and went sprawling on the ground. The easy familiarity of his new body had vanished, and it took him a moment to coordinate enough to get up. Most of the kids were running away, but a few of the boys were staring at him from a safe distance. They all had yellow and red-striped long-sleeve shirts, floppy hats, and some sort of odd, wooly pants. The vanishing girls wore full-length dresses that matched the boys' shirts. And long green hair.
He blinked, looking at the closest boy. His floppy hat had holes cut out in the front of the brim for two horns that curved out from his forehead. And those wooly pants weren't pants at all. Below the waist, the kid was a kid. As in young male goat. A satyr. Which probably made the girls all nymphs.
A thundering bellow shook the air, and he saw one of the girls returning with a huge, two-legged bull and what looked like a stereotypical old school librarian on horseback. Bewildered, Zack tried to scramble back from the minotaur as it stomped over and glared down at him. The 'librarian' joined her bovine companion with a look on her wrinkled face that was somehow even scarier. Naturally, she wasn't on a horse at all. Below her proper gray suit jacket and frilly blouse, she –was- the horse. That is to say, a centaur. A very angry centaur.
"How DARE you? Even one of YOUR kind should know better than to parade around like that in front of children?" She leaned down and hissed through clenched teeth. "Well, young man, you'll be sorry you ever disgraced MY school grounds!"
"I'm sorry!" Zack cringed under the verbal assault. "What did I do? I was just running!"
"You were running stark naked through a school yard!" She yanked off her jacket and threw it at him. "Cover yourself!"
Zack grabbed the garment awkwardly and tried to drape it over his exposed nether regions. Still, given the complete and rather spectacular nakedness of the minotaur and the bottomless satyrs, he was more than a little bewildered by her outrage. Which only seemed to increase as he complied with her orders.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”
The minotaur backed away nervously, leaving Zack to cringe alone on the ground. He frantically repositioned the jacket, trying to cover both his crotch and rump. Was there something about male equine anatomy that they found disgusting? From his vantage point, it was obvious that the otherwise prim-looking school teacher had no concerns about exposing her own rump.
One of the boys apparently thought Zack’s predicament was funny, but his giggle abruptly turned into a bleat when he suddenly fell to all fours as a normal goat. The other children scattered, except for a green-skinned girl who knelt by the newly-formed billy. Even the minotaur took off at a run.
Zack’s bladder chose that moment to release, soaking the gray tweed jacket. He paled and tried to sink into the ground. “I’m sorry! I couldn’t stop myself.” The centauress’s eyes actually glowed red, and the air around her began to crackle. “Please, I don’t even know where I am, or what changed me!”
“Dama!” The one remaining child stood and planted her hands on her hips. When the schoolteacher didn’t respond, she frowned and yelled. “DAMA WHISP!”
Still enraged, the centauress spun her head around and shot lightning bolts from her eyes. Both struck the girl, who ignored them as she started to walk closer. “Get control of yourself, Dama! Transforming one of the students like that. The spell will take weeks to wear off, and he’ll never be normal again. What are we supposed to tell his herd?”
“But this.. this..” The schoolteacher sputtered in rage, but the glow was gone from her eyes.
“This is obviously a Translation.” The nymph clucked her tongue. “Honestly, Dama. Have you forgotten everything I taught you? Look at him! Use your Sight, not your anger.”
Zack winced as Dama frowned and looked down at him again. However, this time her expression softened, and then changed to obvious surprise. “Oh my!”
“See? He doesn’t know any better.” The nymph stood next to her and then squatted down with a smile. “ I apologize for my subordinate’s actions. It’s been at least a century since the last Translation, at least around here.” She held out a slender, pale green hand. “Let me have the jacket.”
Still shaking from the schoolteacher’s wrath, Zack reluctantly gave the soaked garment to the nymph. She snorted and shook her head. “As if this would fit him anyway. What were you thinking, Dama?” The tweed jacket glowed in her hand, drying instantly and growing in size. “Now, I hope you know how to wear this?” The garment she handed back was a smartly-cut man’s sports coat.
Nodding wordlessly, Zack pulled the jacket on. It was a perfect fit, but the fabric itched against his skin. Realization dawned as he saw the centauress nod in approval. These people regarded human skin to be obscene!
“Much better.” The nymph smiled. “My name is Silvermaple. I am the headmistress for this school. You’ve already met Dama Whisp.” The centauress flushed slightly as she nodded her head in greeting.
No longer feeling threatened, but completely bewildered by events, Zack had trouble finding his voice. “I’m Zack.” He had to swallow a couple of times before realizing that a wheeze in his voice was apparently normal. “Zack Schneider.”
Silvermaple raised her eyebrows. “A sphinx with only two names? That makes you a Translation for sure.”
“Sphinx?” Zack frowned in puzzlement as he looked down at himself. Half jackass, half human. Weren’t sphinx’s part lion? “But, I look like a donkey. I thought I was turning into an animal.”
“What were you before?” Dama seemed to have forgotten her anger, and now looked at him with open curiosity. Her eyes widened suddenly. “A human! You were a human, weren’t you!”
He nodded. “I got caught in a storm, and ran into an old barn. There was this jenny there, and she started pulling at my clothes. All I had on was pants and socks, and they turned into donkey skin. Then I woke up in a field.” He pointed towards the woods. “Over on the other side of those trees.”
“A phooka. Or maybe a faerie playing around.” Silvermaple shook her head. “Sloppy work, really. You should have turned into a normal jackass. The spell is still active, just stuck in a loop.”
Zack looked up in alarm. “You mean I’m going to keep changing?”
“Perhaps. Your condition is very unstable.” The nymph seemed very matter-of-fact about his plight. “However, you got stuck partway through the transformation, and ended up here.”
“I don’t understand. Why did I get changed, and why did I end up here? Wherever –here- is.”
Silvermaple shrugged. “All of your world’s theriomorphs end up here. Some sort of ancient, universal transport spell that only works on human/animal hybrids. I don’t know why you were transformed. Probably just because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Turning humans into animals or plants is a form of entertainment. Whatever creature worked on you was obviously untrained, probably very young.”
He thought about that for a moment. “The jenny. She was alone in the stable. There should have been other animals.”
“Starting with you.” The old centauress nodded her head. “Now I understand. A human wouldn’t have any concept of decency.”
Zack stood up, indignant. “What do you mean? I’m the only male around here who even tried to cover up. All the rest are hanging in the breeze!”
Both females burst out laughing. Silvermaple recovered first, wiping tears from her eyes. “You think sexual organs are supposed to be covered? Oh, I had forgotten about humans!” Her eyes widened and she started laughing again. “Dama! Can you imagine what would have happened if he’d shown up in the middle of recess instead of at the start? Surrounded by satyrs and nymphs…” She held her stomach, doubled over in mirth. “Oh, please. I can’t even think about it.”
It took a moment for him to realize what she was referring to. “But they’re just children!” His face flushed, and he tried to squelch the image of that popped into his head. Then he realized that Silvermaple didn’t look any older than the nymphs who had run off. “I mean, they –look- like children.”
The centauress snorted. “Of course they are!” Then she grinned. “Silver, let me do an Equivalency on him. I’ve never had the chance before.”
“OK. But be careful.” Silvermaple seemed to study Zack for a moment. “You may break the loop.”
Zack backed away nervously. “What’s she going to do? And what happens if she breaks the loop?” Dama was already mumbling.
The nymph smiled. “It’s called an Equivalency. Time and aging work differently here than they do on your world. I dare say that every one of our students is a good bit older than you are. In effect, she is resetting your body’s clock to local time.” She stepped back as the centauress began to wave her hands. “Don’t worry. If she breaks the loop, the transformation spell will complete and you’ll be returned to your own world. As the donkey you should have become.”
“Wait a minute!” He felt a surge of panic. “I don’t want…” A flash of light blinded him and his body seemed to heat up tremendously. When vision cleared, both of the females looked larger, and the tweed jacket hung loosely on his chest and arms. It was a relief to see that he still had a human chest and arms. Even if they were now thinner and smoother.
Twisting around, he saw that his donkey hindparts had also gotten smaller and spindlier. Colt instead of jackass. Younger. Zack felt a little lightheaded. The centauress had turned him into a child!
Silvermaple nodded in approval. “Excellent work, Dama. The original spell is intact, as well as the transport links. Which means that if and when the loop breaks, somebody back on his world will end up with a very long-lived donkey.”
An old fashioned bell rang in the distance. The centauress twisted around to look towards the sound. “Gracious! Recess is over already! What do we do with him?”
“Enroll him as a student, I suppose.” Silvermaple sighed. “We might as well try educating him, just in case he ends up staying a sphinx. It might be interesting to have one of his kind around. They usually don’t socialize with other races.”
Zack resented being talked about as if he were a stray dog. Still, he was in no position to argue. “There are others like me?”
“Of course.” Dama wrinkled her nose. “Although even they are usually more civilized. Sphinxes are solitary creatures. They usually think they know everything. Especially the feline variety.” She shuddered. “The last one I ran into had such stupid riddles.”
“One quick adjustment.” The nymph reached for him. After the other ‘adjustments’ he’d been through, Zack tried to twist away, but she was able to grab the jacket sleeve. “Oh, calm down! I’m just going to fix your clothing!” The jacket closed in around him, smoothing out to become a bright blue and green striped pullover shirt.
The schoolteacher frowned. “Blue and Green? Don’t you think that’s a bit optimistic? I’d start him out in the nursery Purple.”
“He’ll fit in better age-wise with the Second Level. We can always drop him down to the nursery if he can’t handle the class work.” Silvermaple sighed. “Of course, that will mean working up a special infancy spell. I suppose we should have gone ahead and regressed him when you did the Equivalency.” Then she brightened. “Think of the stories he can tell us! We’d have lost all that. Besides, I really don’t want to deal with a baby sphinx.”
Zack shivered. These creatures were talking about turning him into an infant! If the colt’s body was any indication, he couldn’t be more than seven or eight. Which meant he might be the equivalent of a child for decades. Maybe centuries. Assuming that the spell didn’t complete and return him home as a jackass.
“Come on then, Eh-rik Schn-eye-der.” Dama snapped her fingers. “I’ll put you in with the equine class. You’re physically similar to the Sileni twins. And their kind is almost as uncouth by nature. Maybe their herd will adopt you.”
He held back a moment, afraid to speak. It was hard to get a grasp of everything that had happened in the past few hours. Still, he wasn’t sure he wanted to trust in these teachers. At best, they seemed to regard him as a marginally sentient creature to be tolerated as long as he wasn’t an inconvenience. Otherwise, they would make him an infant without a second thought. Finally, he swallowed and looked up at them. “Umm, maybe I should try to find some other sphinxes?”
They looked amused by his question. That was better than angry. Silvermaple squatted down and patted his head in a condescending manner. "Spinxes can’t be found unless they –want- to be found. Besides, you aren’t really a sphinx, at least as long as the spell remains active. A real sphinx would consider you an imposter, and probably eat you.”
“Can you cancel the spell?”
Dama chuckled. “Are you sure you don’t want to put him in the nursery? Such infantile questions!”
The nymph smiled and tousled his hair. “Such a funny little fellow. I suppose you don’t know anything, do you? No, I can’t just cancel the spell. If you work real hard, you’ll learn how things work in our world. The other children will help you. And if you can’t keep up, well, there’s always the nursery.”
Zack shivered. “I’ll work hard. Really.”
“Good.” Silvermaple stood and headed for the unseen school. “Come along then. Time to join your class.” Her tone indicated that she wanted no further questions.
He followed nervously, noting that the two females were already discussing some other school business. Perhaps they were treating him as they did all of their young. The transformed satyr had been left to graze, apparently a goat in all respects. What was that Silvermaple had said? He’d never be normal again. Yet their only worry had been what to tell the boy’s herd. No matter that the child might spend the rest of his life with hooves instead of hands, or caught halfway between satyr and goat.
Zack didn’t have much choice for now. He needed to find out what other dangers lurked in this world, and hopefully, where he might find help. There was a magical time bomb ticking away inside him, one that would strip everything that was left of him if it went off.
He did have one idea. The other sphinxes. Despite the nymph’s warnings, he suspected they might be his only hope. In ancient legends, the mythical creatures knew the answers to any question. Maybe they could tell him how to cancel the spell.
They came up over a rise, and he saw dozens of different creatures gathering in a wide green pasture. The bright clothing was obviously some sort of uniform, and he spotted a group wearing blue and green stripes.
He fought back an urge to sprint ahead, realizing that his sudden eagerness was evidence of changes still going on inside his head. Zack the man was slowly giving way to Zack the child, even if that child was half donkey. Which meant he had to find his answers quickly. Time was running out, and he’d already lost too much in Translation.
The pasture turned out to be the school. There was a mad scramble of creatures as the three of them approached, each ‘class’ easily identified by the matching clothing. Zack was amazed at the variety of monsters from his own world’s mythology. It wasn’t just limited to the Greek and Roman types, either.
Several students had animal heads on otherwise human bodies, looking like juvenile versions of Egyptian gods. In contrast, he saw a foal and a lion cub with human faces as their only non-bestial features. The centaurs, satyrs, and nymphs seemed to be most numerous, with at least two or three each of the other species. There were about fifty students total, most of who were staring at him.
“Resume your classes.” Dama clapped her hands once, and the groups formed circles in the grass and sat. Something about the action made Zack think of a trained animal act, and he shivered slightly. The two adults walked around the edge of the pasture with Zack in tow. The centauress slowed as they passed a large, enclosed section. All of the creatures inside were very young, some obviously near-infants, and those that were dressed at all wore purple. The Nursery.
Zack stopped to look. This was where the centauress thought he belonged. A couple of tiny satyrs and a baby minotaur were playing in a shallow mud puddle, with a mix of bizarre toddlers scattered around playing with crude toys. The children were dirty and unsupervised. It looked more like a petting zoo than any kind of class.
“Formal instruction starts at First Level.” Silvermaple squatted down next to him. “The Nursery is a place for all the different species to get used to each other, and learn basic interaction skills. There are no pressures, no homework. It would be much easier for you here.”
It wouldn’t be much of a change, Zack realized. Some of the Nursery kids were just a few years younger than he now was. He was lost on a different world where magic worked and your shape and age could be changed as easily as a shirt. Did it really matter if he was eight years old or four? Zack stared as a werewolf cub used the bathroom like a dog, not even stopping as it toddled across the grass. “I think I’d have a little trouble fitting in. Even if you made me younger, mud pies and sucking my thumb don’t exactly appeal to me any more.”
The nymph chuckled. “Is that what you are worried about?” She pointed at the muddy minotaur calf. “That one almost completed Final Training two sessions ago, but he picked a fight with a centaur classmate and then lied about it. As if anyone would believe a minotaur brute over the Class Leader and a Chosen herd stallion.” She shook her head. “Anyway, he is perfectly happy here now. All of his lies and bad feelings are forgotten, for he is truly the infant he appears to be. We would do the same thing for you.”
Zack paled and jerked back from the enclosure. “You’d take away all my memories? I might as well be dead!”
Dama snorted. “All you will lose is the pain of separation from friends and family you will never see again, and the confusion of skills and knowledge that do not apply to this world. A fresh start with the open, curious mind of a child. And if your donkey transformation finishes up, you will be spared the fear of losing your sentience.” She moved behind him and glanced at Silvermaple. “We’re here, and it is obvious that he won’t fit in with the others. I’ve worked out the infancy spell.”
The nymph pursed her lips, actually considering the forced regression. Zack looked desperately around, trying to think of a way to escape. Even if he could get away from them with this strange body, he had no idea where to go or what to do. Fortunately, Silvermaple shook her head. “No, I think we’ll give him a chance in Second. It will be a learning experience for the other students. Besides, once he finds out what a handicap he has here, he may ask for Infancy himself.”
“Very well.” The centauress gestured towards the Blue and Green group he’d spotted earlier. “Join the class there. For now.” She looked down at him and shook her head, muttering, “A waste of time.”
Zack bolted for the Second Level students, anxious to get away from the spell-happy centaur. Why was she so eager to turn him into an infant? He drew some satisfaction knowing that she’d have to eat her words. Even if his computer background had no value here, Zack was a college graduate and well read on a number of subjects. Plus he had an adult’s life experience to draw from. It shouldn’t take much effort to graduate from this one-field schoolhouse.
The circle of creatures opened up as he approached. There were a few whispers, but most watched in wide-eyed silence. A centaur filly, a human-faced colt, and two identical horse-satyrs – obviously the sileni twins - sat on one side. The rest of the class was made up of a minotaur calf, two nymphs, a satyr, and a little girl with a cat’s head.
These were his classmates. It was actually easier to accept the minotaur and feline-headed girl because they didn’t have kid’s faces. Those with human faces appeared to be about eight years old. He couldn’t quite accept the idea that he was now their age, even though his voice and visible human body parts were those of a boy.
No one spoke, and he suddenly felt very shy. If what Dama had said was true, these kids had never seen a sphinx before. As strange as they looked to him, he might be a freak to their eyes. Well, not in appearance. The twin sileni were very similar to him, with horse parts instead of donkey. However, their lower backs were structured to allow sitting upright and walking on two legs. They also seemed to have normal shoulders and arms. Both boys were pretty homely, with protruding faces and tangled, dark brown hair that had the texture of a horse’s mane. Although their shirts were clean, they had a general aura of scruffiness.
In contrast, the young centauress was like a child model on four legs. Her long blonde hair framed the face of an angel, all bright blue eyes and rosy cheeks. Even her clothing was fancier, with ruffles and lace in matching colors. The human-faced black colt seemed more like an animal wearing a Halloween mask, staring at him curiously with large, equine eyes.
The nymphs were different shades of green, but otherwise looked like younger versions of Silvermaple. He had noticed that the satyr was darker than the others, but it still surprised him to see Asian features on a creature from European myth. Something about the cat-girl’s expression made him feel like a bird being sized up for dinner, and he shifted his gaze to the minotaur. It was easy to see how this squat, ugly creature could grow up into the monster he’d encountered earlier. Zack hoped that the smaller version was friendlier.
One of the sileni suddenly grinned and moved aside to make space between him and his brother. Grateful for the invitation, Zack took the offered seat and plopped down awkwardly. It took a few tries before he realized he could not sit up like the other students. The most comfortable position turned out to be lying on his belly with arms outstretched – just like the Egyptian Sphinx.
As he was trying to get settled, Silvermaple stepped into the center of the circle, followed by what looked like an overweight vulture with the head of a sharp-featured, middle-aged woman. The nymph glanced at Zack. “We have a new student joining your group today. He is a Translation, just arrived. Who can tell me what a Translation is?”
The centaur girl raised her hand. “I know, I know!”
“Showoff centaurs.” The sileni boy on Zack’s right muttered softly. “Bet she quotes the scroll.”
Silvermaple raised an eyebrow and looked at him. “What’s that, Jhared? Do you have a comment you want to share with the rest of us?”
His eyes widened and then dropped to focus on the ground. “Uh, no, mistress. I was just, uh, saying hello to the new student.”
“Really?” The nymph’s tone was chilly.
Even though it was obvious she had heard the sileni’s comment, Zack found himself coming to the boy’s defense. “Yes, m’am. He was just introducing himself.” Thinking fast, he turned to the boy and held out one hand. “Nice to meet you, Jahred. I’m Zack.”
The sileni looked puzzled, but raised his hand to match the position of Zack’s. Shaking hands was obviously not a standard greeting here. However, there was no mistaking the gratitude on Jahred’s rather homely face.
“It appears that you will fit in with the sileni even better than I thought.” Silvermaple smiled, but her expression was not pleasant. “A liar and conspirator to boot. Since you get along so well, I’ll keep the three of you together. Even if our new student has to go to the nursery.”
There were a few gasps from other students, and both sileni looked as if they had been struck. “That’s not fair!” Jahred’s brother jumped up and moved away from Zack as he spoke. “I didn’t do anything! It was Jahred!”
“Not fair, Whik?” The nymph took a step towards them, her eyes narrowed. “You wish to be different from Jahred? Maybe you’d like to be like Darby?” She indicated the human-faced colt. “Or perhaps be completely an animal?"
The outspoken sileni paled and dropped his eyes to the ground. "No, Mistress! Please, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything." Tears ran down his face and he trembled violently.
"Sit down then, and quit disrupting the class." Silvermaple sighed and shook her head. “Sometimes I wonder why we bother.” Then she turned back to the young centaur, looking pleasant again. “I think you had your hand up, Daedra?”
Zack only half-listened as the prissy filly more or less repeated what he'd been told earlier. Whik immediately plopped down next to him, huddled with arms around his furry colt's legs. Still shivering, eyes fixed on the ground, the sileni was obviously terrified.
Although he was physically a child, Zack couldn't help a grown-up's impulse to comfort the boy. He reached out and touched the sileni's shoulder gently, smiling when the tear-streaked face turned towards his. Only to snatch his hand back when he saw cold hatred in the twin's eyes.
So much for making friends. Zack crossed his arms and focused on the rest of the class. One of the nymphs giggled and looked at him as she raised her hand. “Does that mean he isn’t really a sphinx?”
“That’s correct, Willowbranch. He just happens to look like a sphinx for now.” Silvermaple smiled. “Which means that he doesn’t know everything. In fact, he probably doesn’t know much at all, so I am counting on the rest of you to help him out. Our new friend is here on probation. If he can’t keep up, we’ll send him back to the Nursery.”
Zack flushed in embarrassment, even though none of the other students laughed or made fun of him. Considering what he’d seen so far, it might be normal for a bad student to get regressed. You could flunk fifty times and never be older than the rest of your class. Still, he was determined to prove his critics wrong.
The nymph gestured to the Harpy next to her. “Happily, we can start with some basics today. Glhajixsu is here to review your Elemental Rules lessons.” The harpie’s name sounded like Silvermaple was clearing a really nasty wad of mucus from her throat.
From the relieved reactions of his classmates, Zack could tell that this must be pretty simple material. Whatever Elemental Rules were, he hoped he could figure them out quickly.
“All right.” The harpy’s voice was as harsh and ugly as her wrinkled, pointy face. “Who can tell me which Elemental Rule keeps us all from floating off into the sky?”
All of the hands shot up, including Zack’s. Everyone else looked surprised to see him volunteering, and he couldn’t help feeling a bit smug as the Harpy nodded in his direction. “Our new student. Air-wick?”
“It’ Zack.” He pushed himself up and tried to work out an answer that elementary students could understand. “Gravity. It’s field of physical attraction generated by the mass of the Earth or other large planetary bodies that draws all objects on or near them towards their centers.” His confidence faded when he saw the puzzled looks surrounding him. “Um, the greater mass that something has, the heavier it is because the attraction is greater.” A couple of students smirked and shook their heads, and both of the adults were frowning. “I mean, that’s how it works where I come from.”
“How convenient.” Glhajixsu sneered at him. “I suppose you can come up with any wild story and claim ‘that’s how things work where you come from.’”
“Now, now.” Silvermaple shook her head. “He may not be making that up. We don’t know that much about his place of origin.” She turned towards him and smiled condescendingly. “Perhaps you should just listen to the others for a while, dear. Give yourself a chance to learn. Especially now that Jahred and Whik will be joining you.”
Zack’s stomach knotted. Nodding wordlessly, he hunkered down between the two sileni. Daedra raised her hand and beamed when the harpie nodded to her. “Negative buoyancy. Everything is charged with negative buoyancy. We can change buoyancy with magic spells, and some creatures can do it naturally. That’s how the Pegasus can fly.”
“Excellent.” The harpy smiled. “It’s nice to see that –some- students remember their lessons.”
The filly actually primped before she sat down. Zack was starting to understand Jahred’s attitude towards her. Daedra brought a whole new meaning to the term ‘Teacher’s Pet.’ Maybe it was a centaur thing – that air of superiority that Daedra seemed to share with Dama. Except that sphinxes were supposed to be the ones with all the answers. He was detecting a pattern in the social structure. Centaurs and nymphs were on top, at least here. Was that only because sphinxes lived away from other creatures? Maybe Dama was jealous of his being a sphinx. Or almost a sphinx.
Zack sighed and focused his attention on the harpie. If he couldn’t even count on gravity being constant, most of his knowledge might be useless. Which meant he needed to learn things as quickly as possible. This temporary placement could end any time, and he would do everything possible to prevent Dama from sending three new toddlers to the Nursery.
“Come on!” Whik trotted ahead impatiently, his hooves streaked with yellow pollen from trampled flowers. “Can’t you move any faster than that?”
Jahred snorted. “Why? If you’re that anxious to get kicked, I’ll give you one right now.”
“Kicked?” Zack padded cautiously through the meadow, having already sprawled face-first into the grass when a hand dropped into a sink hole. “Who’s going to kick him?”
“Nheyro, the Herd Stallion. Shlera, our dam.” Jahred sighed. “And probably half of our herdmates. We’re gonna have bruises for weeks.”
His twin spun around suddenly and glared down at Zack. “And it’s all your fault! We was doing good in the class, and then a freak like you comes along and ruins it for us!”
“He’s not a freak!” Jahred stepped protectively in front of Zack. “And he was saving my butt. If he hadn’t said something, I’d have probably been sent back right then for lying. You know Glhajixsu’s been looking for an excuse to get us ever since we salted her tail.”
“Maybe you’re gonna end up back at Schlera’s teats, but not me.” Whik scowled at his brother. “When Nheyro finds out you’re the one who got us linked up with this half-ass, he’ll have Dama clear me. Then you and your new buddy can make mud pies in the Nursery while I grow up to be Herd Stallion.”
Jahred looked like he’d been slapped in the face. “Then we wouldn’t be twins anymore!”
His brother sneered. “That’s right. No more sharing everything, no more having to watch you get all the grooming and nibbles because you suck up to all the others. A proper Herd Stallion rules with his hooves, not by being buddies with everyone.”
Zack flushed. What had seemed like normal sibling rivalry was turning really ugly. “I’ll talk to your Herd Stallion.” The two sileni both stared at him, dumbfounded. “Maybe he can get both of you off the hook. Or I can just quit the school now.”
“You really don’t know anything, do you?” Jahred looked at him in amazement. “An outsider talking to the Herd Stallion? Your world must be a really weird place. And you can’t just quit school. Do you think we’d be wasting our time with all that history and science junk if we didn’t have to go?”
“I can run away. Even if they caught me, I’d just end up in the Nursery.” Zack tried to shrug, but found that his shoulders didn’t work that way when he was on all fours. “The way things went in class, I’m surprised Dama didn’t send me there today.”
Whik opened his mouth to speak and then stomped off, leaving imprints in the soft ground. His twin looked frightened. “You can’t quit! Even the Nursery is better than…” His voice trailed off, and he started scuffing through the field after Whik.
“Wait a minute!” Zack trotted after him. “What could be worse than the Nursery? It’s not like they kill you for quitting school.” The sileni stopped suddenly, and Zack felt a shiver. “No! They do?”
Jahred stared at the ground. “Maybe not true dead. But at least you can come back after the Nursery. Make new friends, learn stuff all over. If you stay away from school too long, you get Purified. And then you don’t ever come back. Not even the Herd Stallion can stop that.”
“What’s being Purified? And why does anyone have to go to school if they don’t want to?”
“A lot of the races don’t want to get civilized, at least, not the way the centaurs and nymphs set things up.” The sileni plucked at the sleeve of his shirt. “They want us to wear these stupid colored bags when we are away from our herd, and learn all about history and stuff.” He snorted in disgust. “Centaur history. Nymph’s ways. They don’t bother teaching us anything about sileni, minotaurs, or any of the other races. We’re ‘inferior.’”
“Why? Because they are more human than you?” Zack was baffled. “That’s crazy! I mean, your face is sorta horsey, but you can’t look that much different from a centaur boy from the waist up.”
“Human?” Now Jahred looked baffled. “What has looks got to do with anything? Centaurs and nymphs control the magic. The rest of us are inferior because we can’t do spells.”
“None of you?” Zack started to understand. “How come just those two races can work magic?”
The sileni kicked idly at a pebble. “Nobody knows. Maybe because they’ve been studying it forever. Silvermaple is at least a thousand seasons old, and Dama is more than four hundred. Most of us other races don’t live that long. Satyrs are old when they are ten or twelve. I got maybe twenty-five seasons left. And I don’t want to spend six of them stuck in school.”
Zack stared at the boy. Equine features, equine aging? That would explain the much shorter life span of the goat-like satyrs. It also gave him a different perspective on his own regression. Being part donkey, he probably had the same amount of time left as Jahred. “If none of you want to go, why not just stay away?”
“A lot of the races did. At first.” Jahred slumped. “So the centaurs tried forcing the races to send all their kids. There was a big fight with the minotaurs, and some centaurs got killed. That’s when the magic users all got together and cast the Geas.”
“Geas? Is that a spell that makes you want to go to school?”
“In a way. The Geas affects every sentient creature under the age of maturity.” Jahred stared at his hands. “It’s always there, trying to Purify you. If you go to school every day, nothing happens. But if you stay away, even for one day, you start to Purify.”
Zack frowned. That must be why Dama was so anxious to make him a child. It put him under the Geas. “What happens? What does the Purify spell do?”
Jahred pulled off his shirt and threw it on the ground. His chest was slightly barreled out, and the horsehide of his lower body swept up above his belly before it thinned into tanned skin. “Whik and I used to be more like the satyrs, hairless down to the waist. And our faces were smoother, too. We were suspended a week for playing a joke on a nymph last season. Nheyro convinced Dama to let us back after five days so it wouldn’t mess up the herd bloodline too much.”
“If you don’t go to school, you turn into horses?” Zack’s jaw dropped.
The sileni picked up his shirt. “Is that what you call them? Like Darby, but with long, furred faces?”
Nodding, Zack followed as the sileni started to walk again. “They are animals on my world. But I haven’t seen any here.”
“That’s because they go away. I guess it’s like the opposite of the Translation Spell that brought you here. When a person is Purified all the way, they get sent to some place where they fit in.”
Silvermaple had told Zack he’d go back to his own world if the donkey transformation completed. Of course, she’d also told him that the Equivalency Spell adjusted his age to match this world’s time frame. An obvious lie, considering that the sileni were probably just a few years old.
They continued in silence for a while, following Whik’s tracks through the field. Zack felt helpless. Dama and Silvermaple seemed to have conspired against him, trapping him on all sides. If he didn’t give spend the next six seasons getting crammed with centaur and nymph propaganda, he would either have to start over as an infant on this world, or as a jackass on his.
There had to be a reason for this absolute, ruthless control. A child’s joke had resulted in permanent transformations that would make future sileni more bestial. What was so important that the magic users would damage the other species to get their way? Zack was determined to find the answer. Which meant that he had to find a way to escape.
Zack started to pay more attention to the land around them. The pristine meadowlands of the school quickly gave way to coarser fields and dense forest. He spotted movement every now and then, but never actually saw any other creatures.
Whik had run ahead, leaving Jahred to lead the way home. The boy looked depressed, probably convinced that he would be back in the Nursery soon. Unable to offer any argument against that fear, Zack remained silent. Still, he was determined not to make Jahred suffer for trying to be friendly.
After maybe an hour, they reached a copse of trees and stopped. Jahred pulled off his shirt and folded it carefully before hiding it behind a rock. “Better take yours off, too. Nheyro hates anything that reminds him of the school.”
Considering the trouble he’d already caused, Zack didn’t argue. Besides, any concerns about modesty were for his lower half. Sitting up was awkward, but he managed to get his garment off and folded. The sileni placed it on the ground next to his.
Jahred sighed. “Whik will be telling Nheyru his version of what happened. He’s always been frustrated about having to share the Herd Stallion position with me. I guess this gives him a perfect chance to fix that. If I get sent back to the Nursery and he doesn’t, then he gets to rule the herd alone.”
“You can tell Nheyru it was my fault.”
“No.” The sileni shook his head. “I knew better than to make fun of a centaur. And I chose to go along when you covered for me. Whatever happens, I gallop my own path.”
“But you’d never be in this position if you hadn’t tried to be nice to me.” Zack pursed his lips and sighed. “What happens if I run away? I mean, I know I’d probably turn the rest of the way into a donkey. But what about you and Whik? If I’m not in school any more, would Silvermaple release you?”
“No way. At least, not both of us. It would be like her saying she was wrong.” Jahred looked at the ground. “The only way she’ll release Whik is if Nheyru agrees to double punishment for me. Which means I’ll probably end up in the Nursery or Purified in front of class tomorrow.”
No wonder the boy looked depressed. “Neyhru wouldn’t agree, then.” When there was no reply, Zack frowned. “Would he? After all, you are his child!”
“Just what can he do against a magic user?” The sileni shrugged. “Anyway, there’s no reason for him to care. I’m just one of two heirs. It will make things easier if Whick doesn’t have a twin.”
“Easier?” Zack was confused, and more than a little surprised
Jahred turned suddenly and headed for the trees. “Come on. We might as well get this over with.” The conversation had been terminated.
After a moment, Zack followed. He hoped that the boy’s fears were unjustified. It seemed impossible that any parent could stand by while a child was essentially killed. However, memory of the callous treatment he’d received thus far caused cold dread to form in the pit of his stomach.
The trees were so close together that Zack barely had room to pass between them. With vast areas of open land around, he was surprised that the sileni would choose such an isolated spot. He was about to ask Jahred about it when they broke through the other side.
Tall weeds and wild flowers blocked his view, and he had to sit up to get a look at his new home. A wildly overgrown pasture stretched out maybe a half-mile, bordered by dense forest on three sides, and sweeping up a craggy mountain on the fourth. Jahred was heading for a break in the foliage, leaving a trail of trampled grass for him to follow.
Forced to push through on all fours, Zack was dismayed to find the odor of the greenery offensive. He hadn’t really thought much about eating, assuming that grass and clover would be his normal foodstuffs. Pausing to pull up a clump of coarse weeds, he forced himself to chew it as he followed the sileni blindly. It had a sour, bitter taste, and took real effort to swallow. Instead of satisfying growing pangs of hunger, he ended up feeling slightly nauseous.
The dense growth thinned out into rough pasture, and the break turned out to be a pond or small lake. Sileni were scattered in small groups around the water, picking at each other in some form of mutual grooming, or just lying in the sun. The herd was smaller than he expected, with maybe two dozen adults and a handful of offspring. Two foals were wrestling nearby, only to stop suddenly and run for an adult when they saw Zack.
Life here was quite different from the relatively formal school. Most obviously, none of the sileni wore clothing or jewelry of any kind. Yet nudity was only part of the difference. They showed no signs of civilization at all. No tools, no buildings, no organized cultivation. The overall image was a photo out of National Geographic depicting some primitive, lost tribe. Or more accurately, he realized, a herd of wild ponies.
He quickly attracted a curious crowd. The twin’s ‘purification’ was more obvious in direct comparison. Their herd-mates looked fully human from the waist up, more like oversized satyrs. Well, almost fully human. It took a moment to pinpoint what was wrong. The females were completely flat-chested, with mare’s teats nested between their legs. Likewise, the males lacked any signs of nipples.
There were a few variations. One mature male had the full head of a horse, and a number of the sileni had equine ears poking up through their universally wild and tangled hair. Zack wondered if the differences were genetic traits, or the result of magical punishments.
Up close, it was also obvious that cleanliness was not a normal sileni trait. Jahred and Whik, who had both looked scruffy and unwashed, were immaculately groomed by comparison. Dirt, grass, and even old manure stains were apparent on all of the creatures, and the collective odor of his audience was powerful, though entirely unpleasant.
Whik was on the far side of the pasture, talking to a large, heavy, dark-skinned male who had to be Nheyro. With his lower half obscured by tall grass, the herd stallion looked like a sterotypical plumber at a nudist colony. The boy was waving his arms in dramatic punctuation to whatever he was saying. Given Whik’s attitude towards his brother, it was likely that Jahred was getting all the blame for recent events.
Nheyro snorted and began trotting towards them while Whik was still in mid-tirade. Despite the fairly obvious belly, he was very solid. Maybe a construction worker instead of a plumber. However, as soon as he saw the stallion’s eyes, Zack knew he was in the presence of a leader.
The stallion bristled as he approached, glaring directly at the newcomer. Zack dropped his eyes to the ground, suddenly remembering the equine nature of this society. Best to show proper submission, at least until he knew what was going on here. Especially when he realized just how huge this sileni was.
“This is my new friend, Eh-rik! Silvermaple said – “ Jahred’s excited introduction was cut short back a viscous backhand from his father that sent him flying backwards.
“I know who this is.” Nheyro’s voice rumbled up from some place deep inside, like James Earl Jones in a barrel. “This is the freak who has put my herd’s future in danger. I hope that you and he are good friends, Jahred, for the two of you are going to be sent to the Nursery together tomorrow.”
Zack’s mouth fell open in shock. Apprehension and fear combined with the sour grass, and any plans to provide a brilliant defense for the boy ended as he vomited directly onto the herd stallion’s hooves.
There was a collective intake of breath from the herd, followed by absolute silence. Zack stared at the partially digested grass as it oozed down Nheyro’s hooves. No. He hadn’t just puked on someone critical to his future. Afraid to look up, he braced himself for a violent kick or blow like the one that had sent Jahred reeling.
Someone chuckled. Zack blinked and looked up hopefully, but the stallion was still glaring down at him. Then another sileni laughed. Nheyru’s face twitched, and the hard stare wavered.
“Jahred.” The stallion’s voice was tight and he spoke through clenched teeth. “Take your friend to the pond so he can wash his mouth out. And see if you can teach him not to eat swiffle grass.”
Zack felt a tug on his arm, and followed the lead blindly. As he slunk away, the rest of the sileni exploded into laughter. What else could go wrong? He shut his eyes and tried not to think about the answer to that.
“Here.” Jahred sat down at the edge of the water. “Wash out as much as you can. Swiffle grass is really nasty stuff. Didn’t it taste bad to you?”
Flushing slightly, Zack tried to cup some water in his hands without overbalancing. “It tasted awful. But I thought it was just because I wasn’t used to grazing.” After several failures, he gave up and stuck his face in the pond. The water was cool, and he started to feel better immediately.
As he pushed himself up, he suddenly caught sight of his reflection and froze. He waited for the water to grow still, staring at an image that was both familiar and strange. His face was recognizable, if only from old pictures of his childhood. There were some slight differences. His teeth looked a bit oversized, and his ears seemed larger and slightly pointed at the top. Still, he looked like the results of some bad photo manipulation, with a human head pasted onto a mostly animal body.
God, that was him! Events had been so fast and frantic since he woke up here that he hadn’t really had time to think. Now the truth hit him harder than any kick Nheyro could manage. Magic had done this to him. Real magic, the kind that he’d thought was the stuff of fantasy and imagination. Or madness. There was a possibility that he was actually locked away in a loony bin somewhere, having really detailed hallucinations. Everything seemed real enough, so in the end, it didn’t matter.
He was a bit surprised that he wasn’t upset or terrified. The prospect of being regressed to an infant was frightening, of course, and he didn’t care for the possibility of becoming a true animal. As for being transformed into this strange hybrid creature, and made a child again – it was fascinating. He grinned suddenly, thinking of Mr. Spock. The Star Trek television character would make a perfect sphinx. But would Zack? Assuming he actually did become one of the mysterious creatures, instead of remaining some half-donkey creature. A freak even on a world of freaks.
“You primp more than a nymph!” Jahred looked amused. “If I was that ugly, I’d try NOT to see myself.” The comment stung slightly, even though he knew the sileni meant it as a joke.
“I hadn’t seen myself before. At least, not like this.”
“Really? Oh, that’s right!” The boy flopped back in the grass and looked at him curiously. “What’s it like to be human?”
The question took Zack by surprise, and he wasn’t sure how to answer. “A lot different than this. I mean, not just what I looked like. We don’t have magic, or centaurs, or nymphs in my world.” He stopped, remembering his own transformation. “At least, not out in the open, like here.”
“No centaurs forcing you into school? No busybody nymphs trying to run your life?” Jahred sighed. “I wish I could go there. Without magic, they can’t make you do anything you don’t want to! Bet all you do is have fun!”
Zack had to laugh. “Not hardly. We have to work so we can pay for houses and food. And there are laws and customs we can’t break.”
“You have to pay to graze?” The sileni looked shocked. “Not even the centaurs would try to do that!” His nose wrinkled. “And what is a ‘how-se?’
“House. It’s a building we live in.” A blank look. Zack tried to explain. “A structure? A cave made from wood and other things?”
“Why? Are humans cave creatures? Like minotaurs? And what do you eat, if you don’t graze?”
This wasn’t going well. “No, not like minotaurs. We eat vegetables and fruit, meat, fish. All sorts of things. But most of us don’t spend our time growing food. We do more important things, and get paid money that we give to other people who raise food.”
Jahred looked even more confused. “What’s more important than food? And why can’t you just eat what’s available? Why do you pay people for special food?”
“There isn’t anything available for free. We have buildings everywhere, and we have to have places to work, and build things.” Zack stopped. There was no way he could explain human society to this child. And the more he thought about it, the harder it was to understand himself. Just what was so important about rewriting code for obscure computer programs? For that matter, what did most of human endeavors accomplish, in the grand scheme of things? Pollution, noise, garbage. Of course, there was also art and music. He wondered if the sileni had music.
“I guess my world is controlled a lot more than this one.” Zack sighed. “It’s just that we make all the rules up ourselves and allow other people to make us live by them. You have to follow the rules, or you can’t have a job. And if you break the laws, you can get locked up. Made to live in a really small cave, with no place to run.”
“That’s horrible!” Jahred shook his head. “I guess I don’t want to go there. It sounds like a bad place.”
Zack was troubled to realize that he agreed with the sileni’s assessment. Especially since he might return there on four hooves instead of two. Depending on where he appeared, an unclaimed jackass might be an abused beast of burden, or even meat for some third-world table. Unless his longevity was discovered, and he became an object for scientific study or medical research.
He pushed the thought from his mind and tried to change the subject. “Are you OK? Looked like Nheyro hit you pretty hard.”
The boy shrugged. “That? No big deal. He left a bruise, but it will go away. I shouldn’t have blurted out like that. It was my fault.”
“I thought he would hit me, especially when I threw up on him.”
“Nah. We get manure and stuff on us all the time.” Jahred chuckled. “That was pretty funny, though. I don’t think anyone has ever introduced himself that way before. Anyway, he was probably afraid that he’d hurt you.”
Zack tried not to let his embarrassment show. “It looked like he was starting to laugh. Do you think he is in a better mood now? Maybe he’s not so angry with you.”
“Nheyro wasn’t mad at me, exactly. Or you, either.” The sileni looked sad. “He’s the Herd Stallion. And we have put the herd in danger.”
“Danger? How?”
“The centaurs and nymphs will be watching us. Which means they will be watching the herd.”
Puzzled, Zack looked back at the other sileni. “What difference does that make? The Geas takes care of making the children follow their rules.””
“They want more than that.” Jahred picked at a clump of grass. “Most of the other creatures wear clothes now, and follow rules like they were in school. Centaur’s rules. They are afraid to fight.”
“The centaurs are trying to control the adults, too?”
The sileni nodded. “They want to ‘civilize’ all the races. And the only way you can be civilized is if you obey the centaurs. Nheyro is trying to keep our race free. That’s why we live so far from the main valley. It’s too hard for centaurs to get through the trees. As long as we aren’t too obvious, they leave us alone. The grazing here isn’t as good, but most of the herd can run free and live as they want.”
A rush of indignation faded as Zack thought about the situation. It was a lot like his own world’s treatment of primitive people. How many unique cultures had been lost to progress? Whole tribes uprooted from ancestral homes to make room for ‘civilization.’ Trees leveled and replaced with artificial caves. The young ‘educated’ in the ways of the most powerful.
Jahred sat up and looked towards the scattering herd. “I guess we’ll be adopted out tomorrow. Schlera hasn’t foaled in two years, so one of the younger mares will have to take us.”
“Take us?” Zack frowned. “Why?”
“The Nursery, remember?” The boy stared at a tiny foal nursing from its mother. “We’re gonna be little kids.”
“Not right away!” Zack looked at the sileni in alarm. “Silvermaple said I had time to learn! There’s still a chance I can catch up to the class.”
Jahred rose to his hooves. “You heard Nheyro. He’s going to trade you and me for Whik’s immunity. And the herd’s safety. When you’re a baby, they will have complete control over you. You’ll grow up thinking what they want you to think. And they won’t have a reason to watch the herd.”
“Why is Whik so important? Why would Nheyro sacrifice you over him?”
“Because we’re the only males of his lineage suitable for Herd Stallion.” The boy brushed his hairy chest absently. “It was bad enough when we both got Purified. Now I can’t be a Herd Stallion even when I grow up again because I’ll be influenced by the centaurs. I won’t put the herd first. Whik can stay independent, and think for himself.”
Erik felt helpless anger boiling up inside him. It was wrong, unfair! At the same time, he could understand Nheyro’s reasoning. Even if he thought it was barbaric.
“I’m gonna stay with Schlera tonight. She won’t be my dam afterwards.” Jahred’s eyes were suddenly tired and old. Tomorrow, they would be bright, happy, and empty. “If you get lonely, you can join us. But I’d like a little time by myself, OK?”
Nodding wordlessly, Zack watched as the sileni trotted back towards the herd. One of the flat-chested females, a roan with streaks of gray in her hair, met him halfway and nuzzled his head. The two wandered away from the others, probably saying their good-byes. Something Zack had not been given the chance to do.
He thought about his family and friends back on his own world. What would they think? At best, any search would turn up his car and some scraps of clothing. People disappeared every day. Maybe not in rural Massachusetts, but with no body and no clues, the police would simply file his name under Missing Persons. It was almost funny to think that his new face would be right at home on a milk carton. Not that anyone would connect this child’s visage with a missing adult. And tomorrow, that picture would be of a toddler.
No. Zack felt a slight chill of apprehension, even though his decision was made. There would be no Nursery for him. Better to end up back in his world on four hooves. That way there was at least a small chance that Jahred would be spared. If their fates had been linked, then Silvermaple and Dama would have to punish them together, or not at all. At least, that was one way to look at it.
He looked at the low, craggy mountains that rose up on the far side of the pond. Perhaps he’d had some good luck after all. He would have never found his way this far on his own. The sileni lived on the outermost fringe of the flatlands, already beyond the prying eyes of the centaurs. Any future he had was hidden somewhere beyond the hills.
It was strange thinking about the future. Zack was barely able to accept recent events as anything more than wild hallucination. The physical changes and strange environment had been overpowering enough without considering what was going on inside his head. Not that he thought that his mind had changed in any fundamental way. At least, not yet.
His relatively calm acceptance of being transformed into a half-donkey freak and regression to childhood wasn’t all that surprising. He’d thought about such things for years, if only as unobtainable fantasies. And in truth, he felt perfectly comfortable in this strange new body. Using his hands was awkward at best, and grazing like an animal still felt a little silly. At least Jahred had shown him the ‘eating’ grasses, which smelled and tasted pretty good. His mouth and nose seemed to know what was safe.
Even the strange surroundings were fascinating and beautiful. He was reminded of some of the best parts of Ireland, with brilliant green foliage and crystal blue skies. True, none of the trees actually matched up to anything he’d seen before and there were flowers far more exotic than anything Earth could offer. It was still familiar enough that he could imagine himself on vacation somewhere on the Emerald Isle instead of marooned in some alternate world of magic.
However, as he watched the dark, foreboding hills back-lit by a gold and purple sunset, he was overwhelmed by loneliness. The magics that had transformed and transported him had also stripped away friends, family, and everything else familiar. There was nothing to grasp for stability, no anchor to keep him from being swept away in the stormy seas of change.
And then he was thrown a life preserver. Schlera and Jahred came looking for him as the sun dropped behind the hills. The twin’s dam was a bit heavy and somewhat weathered looking, but radiated genuine warmth that made her appealing. It was obvious which parent Jahred took after.
The mare fussed over him like a new baby, a somewhat unpleasant reminder of what was supposed to happen tomorrow. However, he found that her presence was oddly comforting. At first he was afraid that some mare-foal dependency was already developing. Then he realized that Schlera was the only person other than Jahred who showed any real concern for him.
Her attention was a little surprising, considering that he was indirectly responsible for Jahred’s troubles. Yet she accepted him without question or reservations, pulling him close against her. Pressed against her coarse, dirty hide, Zack’s fears and frustrations finally burst free in the form of tears. The sileni mare stroked his head gently as he sobbed unashamed. Even Jahred stayed away, allowing Zack some private time to be comforted. He was still huddled against Schlera when exhaustion finally won out, and he drifted off to sleep.
Zack woke in the darkness, partially sandwiched between the two sileni. Jahred had one arm draped protectively over his shoulder, and Schlera was curled around both of them. It took tremendous willpower to leave the warm huddle. Moving very cautiously, he slipped out from under the boy's embrace and managed to work clear without waking either.
He felt greatly refreshed in both body and spirit. What sleep had done physically, the sileni mare had done spiritually. Interestingly enough, he found himself filled with an even greater resolve to survive and succeed. It was obvious that Jahred was important to the old mare, and he would do anything he could to keep them from grief. Yet he also felt less apprehensive about failure. The idea of starting life over here wasn’t so terrifying now that he’d met Schlera.
They hadn’t moved from the edge of the pasture where Zack had watched the sun go down. He stared at the rough, craggy hillside. What lay on the other side? Witches? Ghouls? Some form of monster he’d never imagined? It didn’t matter. He started picking his way over the rocky ground. His hooves slipped a couple of times, sending down a faint clatter of dirt and pebbles. None of the sileni seemed to hear him, and he made it to the top just as the sun started to peek over the horizon.
Looking back over the sleeping herd, he was startled to see a lone figure observing his progress. Nheyro, the ever-watchful herd leader. The stallion nodded once in acknowledgement or approval, and then deliberately turned his back.
Zack took a deep breath and started down the far side. There was no telling what hid in the dark forest below. He could only hope that somewhere among the strange creatures and unknown dangers might lurk one or two answers.
After hours of pushing through dense underbrush, Zack was getting unnerved by things he wasn’t sure were really there. A flicker of movement in the corner of one eye, or a shadow that seemed to follow him only when he wasn’t looking directly at it. Leaves rustled and branches popped, stirred by the slight breeze or something else?
It could almost be written off to paranoia. Almost. The stench of a half-eaten corpse he’d almost fallen over still lingered in his nostrils. He’d taken little comfort in the fact that what remained seemed to be some sort of large deer. Given the same sort of predator, his own remains would be hard to distinguish from a normal donkey’s.
He was also tiring fast. Dama had regressed him to a point where energy came in spurts better suited for games than cross-country travel. On the flip side, his smaller size and donkey’s hide made travel through the heavy foliage easier. Between thorns and briars and the close quarters, his adult human self would have been reduced to hamburger miles ago.
At least, he hoped his travel could be measured in miles. With no landmarks and no map, he could only head away from the sun. However, as midday approached, even that guide lost effectiveness. He decided to rest somewhere, and resume his journey when he could follow the afternoon sun.
His nose led him to a small pond of clear, cool water, and careful experimentation determined that several of the flowering plants around it were good eating. With hunger and thirst satisfied, he plopped down next to the pond and stared at his reflection.
Did the boy staring back at him have a slightly broader forehead? Zack tried to remember details from yesterday. Had his ears been that furry on the tips? He wondered if Purification would start after only a half-day. It beat the certain ‘death’ of being sent to the Nursery. Hopefully, Jahred would be spared both once Silvermaple found out Zack had run away.
Pushing thoughts of the Centaur School from his mind, Zack concentrated on more immediate problems. Like what the Hell he was doing in the middle of a weird, dangerous forest. Just what did he expect to find out here? Some of the real sphinxes that supposedly lived on this world? Or maybe a giant Customer Service Desk that could direct him to the exit back to Earth.
He snorted and shook his head. If Dama could be believed, his magical ‘brothers’ on this world were more likely to eat him than help. The most encouraging aspect of that was his growing belief that the psychotic school teacher –wasn’t- trustworthy. And any creatures that managed to make the self-righteous centaurs and nymphs feel inferior were OK in his book.
How did you go about finding a sphinx? According to legends, they were usually guarding temples and roads. So far, he hadn’t seen a grass hut on this world, much less a temple. And roads were equally scarce. At this point, just finding a faint path in this wilderness would be a major breakthrough.
Whatever he did, he needed to do it quickly. The sileni twins had changed noticeably in just a few days of exile. Zack had far less human percentage to lose. And once he lost his hands or the ability to speak, it would be better to let the process finish up and return him home.
His ears twitched suddenly, and a prickly sensation ran down his back. Danger. The feeling popped into his mind like a red light flicking on, and he had to fight an urge to bolt. Without knowing what the danger was, he might run straight into it. Scanning the brush, he strained to listen for any unusual sounds.
There! Some movement off to his right. Easing up to all fours, Zack searched for a large rock or stick he could use as a weapon. God, he felt so helpless! Memory of the shredded carcass returned in grisly detail, and it wasn’t hard to imagine the chewed legs ending in equine hooves instead of cloven ones. The danger sense was screaming now, and he began to get a vague impression of something moving on two legs. Stalking him. Remembering his experience with grazing, he realized he should have trusted the instincts that seemed to come with this new body. Then it was too late, for a shape burst from the brush and tackled him from behind.
He screamed as he was knocked to the ground, flailing his arms and legs in a desperate attempt to ward off cruel fangs and claws. The attacker stayed on his back, and managed to pin Zack to the ground by grabbing his arms and pulling them roughly to his sides. Certain he was about to die, Zack braced himself for the final attack. And heard laughter.
“It’s me, Eh-rik! Jahred!” The weight on his back vanished, and he rolled over to see the sileni boy grinning down at him.
Zack’s flare of anger over being frightened so badly was quickly replaced by relief and confusion. “What are you doing here? If you don’t get back to school, you’ll start Purifying!”
“Better than getting stuck in the Nursery.” The sileni sighed and plopped down on the ground. “Isn’t that why you ran away? I thought we were supposed to be friends – grow up together again.”
Flushing slightly, Zack felt a touch of guilt. “I was hoping that they’d leave you alone if I wasn’t there.”
“Not Silvermaple. They have to maintain discipline at the school, and that means they can’t back down. If they don’t punish us, the rest of the students will start thinking they could get away with stuff, too.”
“I guess.” Zack frowned. “Why did you follow me? And how did you find me? I had a big head start, and I just stopped to rest a little while ago.”
The sileni grinned. “You leave a trail a blind mare could follow. And you can’t move as fast as I can. I knew you’d need help.”
“I’m doing OK, really.” Dropping his eyes to the ground, Zack scratched absently in the dirt with one hand. Jahred deserved the truth “Look, I don’t know where I am going, or what I can do. But I’m sure that if I go back to the school, you and I are both gonna end up as babies. It’s not so awful for me, but I hate to see that creep brother of yours becoming the Herd Stallion.”
The boy blinked, and then nodded slowly. “Nheyro isn’t too happy about it, either. That’s why he sent me after you.”
Zack looked up in surprise. “Nheyro? But he saw… I mean, I thought he knew I was leaving. Why didn’t he stop me then?”
“That was before Schlera woke up. You don’t know what that old mare can be like when she gets angry. She could topple a minotaur bull if it got in her way.”
It was hard to reconcile the fierce image with her gentle compassion of last night. But then, she would probably fight to the death to protect her offspring. Perhaps she now included Erik in her concept of family. That was a pleasant thought, however impractical or dangerous for the sileni dam. “What good will it do for me to come back if they are going to put you back in the Nursery anyway? At least there’s a chance my memories won’t go away when I get Purified.”
“That’s why I came after you!” The sileni crouched down and stared into Zack’s eyes. “There may be a way out for all of us! Nheyro has a plan that would get you and me off the hook, or at least fix it so we don’t get put in the Nursery. Maybe we’d get sent back one year, but that’s not so bad. Lots of the students have that happen, and they don’t lose anything except a little school stuff.”
“But Jahred, what about becoming Herd Stallion? If you lose a year, that makes Whik older instead of a twin. Wouldn’t you lose the chance to lead the sileni?”
“Not if he gets sent back with us.” The boy’s eyes darkened. “Nheyro was going to make a deal to save just him, but Schelra changed that this morning. So we’ll still be twins. Maybe triplets!”
Zack blinked. “Triplets?”
“Sure! That’s part of the idea. You get changed into a sileni like us, and then Schera is your dam, too. We’d all be identical, except that you couldn’t be Herd Stallion because you aren’t a born heir.”
“I didn’t think they could do that!” Zack shook his head. As if he had any idea what the limits of this world were. Thinking about the arrangement, he could come up with some benefits for Dama and Silvermaple. It would dramatically shorten his expected life span, and eliminate the slight possibility of him becoming a true sphinx. He would be truly bound to the herd, and prevented from assuming a leadership role.
Although it would mean giving up any hopes of returning to his own world, the plan would at least salvage the memories that made him who he was. And he’d rather spend a quarter-century as a sileni with his own mind than two hundred years as a jackass with no concept of self. Besides, the danger sense that Jahred had initiated wouldn’t turn off now. It had been foolish to think he could survive out here on his own. The decision was easy. “OK. Let’s go back. As long as there’s a chance for us I can’t wait to see Whik’s face when he finds out I’m going to be his brother.”
The decision might have been easy, but the trip back was not. As they plodded through the brush, Zack realized he had gotten completely turned around. If anything, the going was harder. The sileni’s arms were bloody with deep scratches, and even Zack’s thick hide didn’t protect him completely from painful scrapes. After a while, he began to fear that they were lost, and his guide was too stubborn to admit it. At least until he caught the boy sneaking a peak at small stone in his right hand.
“What is that, Jahred?”
The sileni started, and then grinned sheepishly. “A Direction Stone. It’s leading us back to the herd.” He held it out for Zack to inspect. Contrary to the flashy jewels and glowing energies of myth, this magic item appeared to be an ordinary brown rock. “See the little chip on the edge there?” He pointed to a natural-looking blemish on the side pointing away from Zack, and then turned the rock around with his other hand. The chip continued to point in the same direction. “All we have to do is go the direction it tells us.”
Useful magic! Despite the obvious benefit, Zack was surprised. “I didn’t think the sileni used magic.”
Shrugging, the boy turned and started walking as he answered. “Not like the nymphs and centaurs. And some of us don’t even like to trust them for healing magic. Nheyro almost lost a finger last year because he refused to let the nymphs use a spell to cure an infection.”
“Where did you get that?”
“Even Nheyro uses magic when he has to. Besides, this is hardly magic at all. All it does is point to a matching stone back in the pasture.”
Not all that different from a magnetic compass. Zack shook his head as they fought viscous vegetation. Nheyro was a puzzle of conflicting impressions. Sentencing the two of them to infancy and then letting him run away, only to send one of his own sons after him later. And using magic to do it, a force that he hated enough to risk losing body parts. Maybe the sileni leader wasn’t all that hard to understand after all. He was simply acting in the best interest of his herd.
“Hurry up!” His guide looked back impatiently, and then plunged ahead.
Zack wondered if Jahred was feeling the same danger that still plagued him. It was almost as if someone was screaming a warning directly into his brain. He had hoped that it would fade as they got closer to the hills, but when they finally broke out of the brush at the base of the mountains, it was still in full force. Despite exhaustion, Zack picked up his pace. After the harrowing journey and constant sense of threat, he could use a little time with Schlera.
Jahred must have brought him back a different way, for the top of this hill was covered in thick forest, not open pasture. Zack looked around, trying to get his bearings. Nothing looked familiar. He called up to the sileni, who was already halfway up the slope. “Where’s the field?” The boy didn’t seem to hear him.
“Eh-rik!”
A familiar-sounding shout came from his left, and he saw his guide’s twin galloping towards him along the edge of the trees. What was Whik up to? The boy looked panicked, and as he got closer, Zack could see cuts and welts all over his body. Whik must have tracked them through the forest.
“No!” The sileni above him screamed and started back down the hill. “You can’t stop me! It’s too late!”
Zack stared at the two sileni in confusion. The danger sense was still present, but it was radiating from the top of the hill, not the forest. A figure broke through the trees above and looked down at him. Not sileni. A centaur. Dama.
The boy above gave a shout of triumph when he saw her, and Zack realized with sick certainty that he had been following Whik. The school teacher was already waving her arms, and he found he couldn’t move. Oh, God. They’d tricked him. The little bastard must have worked some sort of deal with her.
Dama’s frantic movement and screamed chants climaxed, and a crackle of energy seared the air just as Jahred hit him in a flying tackle that sent them both sprawling backwards into the brush.
Zack hit the ground hard and flailed arms and legs wildly as he tried to get out from under the sileni. He heard Dama scream, though he couldn’t tell if it was in rage or triumph.
“What did she do?” Jahred rolled off him and scrambled up, looking at himself in obvious fear. “Am I changing?” The boy felt his face, eyes wide and starting to tear up. “What did she do to us?” His voice cracked, and Zack was suddenly reminded that this brave, selfless rescuer was just a child.
What had Dama done to them? Something drastic, to be sure, considering the tremendous display of power. Zack gave the sileni a quick look. “You don’t look any different.” Other than a slight tingling, he couldn’t detect any changes to himself, either. “Maybe she missed.”
Jahred shook his head. “Magic doesn’t work like that. Once a spell is cast, it always hits.” He looked back up through the brush. “I never saw that kind of magic before. She must have done something awful. A curse, maybe. Something to make us sicken and die.”
Now that Zack thought about it, something did feel different. The Danger Sense was gone. He felt no threat from the woods or the mountain. Could the huge crackle of power been used simply to strip him of instincts? A few cautious steps proved he was as comfortable in this form as ever. Considering the instant results of the centaur’s initial regression spell, they should be showing some signs of transformation by now.
“We have to get out of here!” Jahred peered up through the brush. I can’t see her or Whik. They may have gone to get Silvermaple.”
Zack looked at the forest he’d just left. “I don’t know where to go. Even the forest isn’t safe. Whik tracked me once. He can find the two of us even easier.”
“He won’t come alone, not with me to fight. Dama is too big and old to make it through the forest. Which means Silvermaple will come with him.” The boy’s eyes darkened. “Whik betrayed herdmates to a centaur. If Nheyro finds out, he’ll cave in his skull.” Jahred spoke with such conviction that Zack had no doubt that the statement was true.
“With Whik to track us, can we get away from them?” Zack looked back at the forest. “I can’t sense danger like I did before. And I still don’t have any idea where to go.”
Jahred shut his eyes for a moment in concentration. “Those who seek questions must follow the sun, where life’s source is hardened the journey is done. Winter meets summer, there is but one try. Great rewards for the answer, in failure you die.”
“What’s that?”
“Schlera made me memorize it this morning.” The boy sighed. “It’s supposed to be a way to find the sphinxes.”
Question seekers who answer or die. That would be the two of them. “Even if we could find a sphinx, I don’t have any answers. It’s too dangerous. Maybe we should go back to the herd and let Nheyro know what is going on.”
Jahred shook his head. “That would put him between us and the school. We’ve been threatened directly. He’ll fight to the death to protect us.”
“But he was going to let us both be turned into babies!” Zack frowned. “Why would he fight now?”
“Because they broke the rules. Even if they are rules that the centaurs and nymphs forced on us, he agreed to follow them for the good of the herd. But Dama attacked us outside the school, and used Whik against his own kind.” Jahred’s voice was bitter. “If there is a fight, they’ll use magic against him. They have to cover everything up so that the other races don’t find out. Maybe even Purify the whole herd. And they’ll find some way to justify everything.”
Zack couldn’t help shudder. Schlera, Nheyro, and all the other sileni transformed into common animals. Would the centaurs be so callous as to wipe out a whole herd of innocents rather than admit one of their own was wrong? He was sure Dama would do it without a moment’s hesitation. Was the rest of her race that cruel?
Things were snowballing out of control. It seemed that the only way to prevent this disaster was finding the elusive sphinxes. If Silvermaple and Whik didn’t find them first. “I have to try, then. My people have legends about the sphinxes. I even remember a few of the riddles from them.” Zack was pretty sure that the creatures would have come up with new material in two thousand years, but Jahred looked a little reassured.
“Come on!” The sileni started moving into the woods. “We still have all afternoon to travel. And there’s no telling how long we have before Whik comes after us again.”
Zack followed, doing his best to ruffle the old leaves and ground cover behind him. Jahred stopped to watch him, puzzled. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to make it harder to track us.”
The boy snorted. “He doesn’t look at the ground. We track herdmates by scent. That’s why Dama had to use him to find you. To anyone but a herdmate, you’d be impossible to track through here. There are too many stronger smells.”
“But I’ve only been with the herd one day!”
Shrugging, Jahred turned and continued through the brush. “Doesn’t matter. Once you were adopted by the herd, you became a sileni. Any of us could find you with our eyes closed. But no sileni would ever betray a herdmate.” It was obvious from the boy’s tone that he no longer considered his twin to be a sileni.
As they trudged on, Zack realized that he could actually ‘see’ Jahred with his nose. Scents had been stronger ever since he had arrived in this world, but he hadn’t really given the increased ability much thought. There was a mix of odors all around, some faint and some sharp. His own smell was quite different from the sileni’s, and he could detect a trace scent that he ‘knew’ belonged to Whik. Left from their earlier passage, not fresh.
The loss of his Danger sense made Zack even more nervous than when it was screaming all the time. He could still pick up movement all around them, and different scents drifted in the wind. Most were unidentifiable. He took guilty comfort in seeing that Jahred was just as nervous as he was. Although Zack was physically smaller and maybe even younger, it grated on his adult mind to have a child continually assuming the leadership role. Of course, he’d been bound to the herd, and Jahred was in line to be the Herd Stallion. Maybe it was just instincts.
After a while, even the trace scents of his earlier passage vanished. They were exploring new ground now, still following the sun as it began to sink into the treetops ahead of them. The brush thinned finally, allowing easier travel, and there was no immediate sign of pursuit.
Zack was running on empty, forcing himself to follow the seemingly tireless sileni by sheer force of will. He started to fall behind, stumbling slower through the dead leaves and twisted roots of the forest floor. Even so, they pushed on until their compass was nothing more than a dull red-orange glow on the horizon.
Either luck or natural instincts guided Jahred to a small clearing that contained a clear, fresh pond. There was also a large purple vine with leaves and berries that smelled and tasted safe, if bland. After drinking their fill, they moved as far from the water as possible. Other creatures that used this pond might view trespassers as a threat. Or a meal.
Plopping down under a huge tree that looked like an oak with hot pink flowers, Zack looked up through the branches and stared at the night sky. There was no moon visible. Did this world even have a moon? None of the star clusters looked familiar, but then, he was no astronomer.
Jahred stretched out on the ground next to him. Fatigue had limited conversation to grunts and nods during the long hike, and there wasn’t much to say, anyway. However, food and drink revived the sileni enough to give in to curiosity. He dropped his chin onto his folded arms. “Tell me more about your world, Eh-rik. Tell me about your herd.”
“My herd? Oh, I guess that would be my family.”
“A family is the same as a herd?”
Zack shrugged. “Sort of. A lot smaller, though. With humans, a family is made up of a mother and father and their children. The mother is the children’s dam, and the father is the sire. The stallion. And the children are the offspring of that sire and dam.”
“What about the stallion’s other foals?” Jahred frowned. ‘I mean, he doesn’t just mate with the one mare, does he?”
“He’s supposed to stay with the one mare. We call it marriage. When a man and woman promise to love each other the rest of their lives.” Sighing, Zack shook his head. “It doesn’t always work that way, though. A lot of marriages end in divorce.”
“What’s divorce?”
This was getting a bit awkward to explain, but Zack plunged on. “That’s when the two people decide they don’t want to live together any more. They cancel the marriage.”
The sileni looked shocked. “They break up the herd? What about the foals? Who defends the grazing lands?”
“We don’t graze, remember? And the foals, er, children, go with one of the parents. Usually the mother. Sometimes the parents share custody, and the kids get moved back and forth.”
“Sounds really confusing. Who is in charge when they live with the dam? If the colts are too small, or maybe they don’t have colts at all?”
“Humans don’t always assign leadership to males. Females can be leaders, too. Especially in the herd. They run businesses, lead Governments. Some people think women make better leaders than men.”
Jahred snorted. The sileni were definitely not ready for Women’s Lib. “All those rules, and females trying to be stallions. Hew-mans sounds more like two-legged centaurs.” He blinked and then flushed. “Oh, I’m sorry!” He obviously felt he had just said something very insulting.
“That’s OK.” Zack managed a sad smile. “In a lot ways, I guess we are.”
“But you aren’t! You’re like us! Schlera said you had a sileni soul. That you belonged with us!”
“That’s probably the nicest thing anyone has every said about me.” Shifting a little, Zack looked at one of his thick, dark hands. “I’ve always loved horses and donkeys. Maybe that’s part of the reason this happened to me.”
“Tell me about horses.” Jahred looked down at the ground. “That’s what we become when we are purified, right? Like Darby, but with long hairy faces like a minotaur.”
“I guess.” It was a little disturbing to think that some of his equine acquaintances might have once been sileni or centaurs. Though he wouldn’t mind seeing Dama turned into a mare. “Most of our horses are born animals, though.”
“How do you know?”
That brought Zack up short. “Well, we keep records. And we control the breeding most of the time, so we know which stallion sired each foal.”
Jahred stared. “Hew-mans decide when a stallion and mare can mate? How do they know when the time is right? And what keeps the inferior stallions from mounting the mares?”
“Um, we keep the stallions and mares apart. In buildings. The artificial caves I told you about. They are called stables.” Zack decided not to mention gelding.
“Why do horses need stay-bells?” The sileni wrinkled his nose. “Living in a cave? It sounds awful! Why not just stay in the pasture?”
“They have to keep some of the horses apart so they won’t fight each other. So we share the pasture. Everyone takes turns. The horses stay in the stables most of the time, but they get let out to run every day. At least, most of them.”
“They get locked in a cave with no place to run?” Jahred paled. “Isn’t that what you do to hew-mans who break the laws? What laws do the horses break?”
“No, that’s different!” He struggled to come up with an answer that would satisfy the boy. And himself. “They are animals! See, it’s punishment for humans, because they know they are in jail. But a horse, well…”
“Horses don’t know the difference between being outside where they can run and being inside where they can’t?”
Zack chewed his lower lip, thinking about the horses he dealt with. Their eagerness to get to the turnout. “I guess they do. It’s just that there isn’t enough room for them to be out all the time.”
The sileni frowned. “Do all horses have to live in these stay-bells? There aren’t any living free?”
“Some. There are wild herds. But most of them are in places where it is hard to live. The places that humans don’t want. A lot of them go hungry, or get sick and die because there isn’t any medicine.”
“The humans take all the good grazing land? Why? If they don’t graze, why do they make the horses live in bad places?”
“We use the land for other things.” Zack looked away, feeling a sudden shame. “Shopping malls, and gas stations, and convenience stores. It’s not fair, Jahred. I know that. It’s just the way things are.”
There was a long, awkward silence. After a few minutes, the boy rose and placed a hand on Zack’s shoulder. “You’re not a human, Eh-Rik. Shlera was right. You belong here with us.”
Zack’s eye’s stung, and he nodded wordlessly. The sileni lay down with one flank pressed against him. The contact was reassuring, providing a sensation of protection and belonging. But as he drifted off to sleep, Zack also realized that those sensations were signs he was slipping deeper into the equine mentality.
He woke at first light, and immediately realized that Jahred was gone. He scrambled up and looked around in alarm. The sileni was by the pool. Relieved, he took a moment to check himself. He flexed his hands, and felt his face. There were no obvious signs of change, even after a day.
Encouraged, he trotted over to his friend. “Jahred! Nothing happened! Dama must have messed up her spell!”
The sileni didn’t respond, and Zack felt growing apprehension. Even in the dim light, he seemed a bit larger and darker than he had last night. Jahred turned as he approached, revealing a tear-streaked and fully furred face. The golden-brown hide of his equine lower half had swept up to replace all of his human skin.
Regardless of the centaur’s failure, they had not escaped Purification.
The overall effect was startling, but the sileni’s actual transformation was relatively minor. Jahred’s face and upper torso looked unchanged under the new skin. His additional size came from longer, thicker legs. Although they did not interfere with his walking, some slight rearrangement of his spine forced him to hunch over slightly.
Now that Zack knew the curse was in full effect, he checked himself again as morning light increased. It was hard to spot differences after just one day in this body, but his arms did look a little hairier. The pool’s reflection revealed ears that might be a little larger and more pointed, and his face seemed to be slightly pushed out.
He sighed. Apparently the first stages didn’t show much. Between the earlier punishment and yesterday’s missed school, Jahred had been subjected to almost a week of Purification. If the curse continued at this rate, the boy would be more deformed colt than sileni in a matter of days. Zack probably didn’t have much longer, given his higher starting animal percentage.
That created a deadline of sorts. They had to find the sphinxes while one of them could still speak to answer any riddle. Assuming they were given a chance to talk before the creatures ate them. He was not encouraged by the fact that most sphinxes of legend were part lion.
Zack took the lead this time, keeping the sun at his back as he trotted ahead. The sileni followed, but the spark was gone from his eyes. Attempts to start a conversation were ignored until Zack finally stopped and confronted his friend. “It’s not over for us, Jahred! The sphinxes might have a way to stop the Purification. Maybe even reverse it.”
Shaking his head, the boy plucked at the thick hide covering one arm. “Like this? Even if we found them right now and got the Purification stopped, I could never be Herd Stallion. I am too polluted. I’ll be kept from breeding for the good of the herd. Useless. And if I go all the way, I’ll probably end up in one of those artificial caves in your world. I’d rather die than spend my life locked up.”
“Sphinxes are supposed to have great power.” Zack forced himself to be cheerful. “I bet they can change us both back, even take away the Purification you had before.”
Jahred’s eyes looked very tired, and very old. “Schlera told me that it would take three days just to get through these woods. And nobody knows how far away the sphinxes live.” He sighed. “I won’t even be able to talk when we find them. If we find them.”
Three days! Zack paled in spite of himself, unable to keep up the happy facade. “Are you sure? How does she know?”
“One of her foal-mates was a stallion who lost a challenge to Nheyro. He went off to find new grazing lands where he could start his own herd. Two seasons later, he came back and asked her to come with him. He told her about some of his travels, and other pastures he’d found. And he claimed that he had met sphinxes. When she told him she was already bound to Nheyro, he left for good.”
“If you knew all that, why did you come?”
“You needed someone to help you. And I don’t want to go to the Nursury. I was hoping Purification might not work if I got far enough away.” Jahred managed a sad smile. “Guess the centaurs did a pretty good job after all.”
They had only been able to travel for a half-day yesterday. Which left more than two days hiking to get out of the forest. Zack tried not to give in to despair, but it seemed that this whole world was working against him. Against them.
He looked at the faithful sileni. Jahred had more backbone and maturity than most adults he knew. Including himself. Ever since Dama had regressed him, Zack had let himself be treated like a child, submitting to whatever authority claimed control. Maybe some of his mindset had come with this new body, but he wasn’t helping matters by giving in so easily.
Dammit, if this world wanted a fight, he’d give it one! “Come on. We’re gonna find the sphinxes.” Zack spun and started trotting at a brisk pace.
Jahred scrambled to catch up and then fell in behind him. “What happens if we can’t talk? What happens if they decide to eat us?”
“I’ll draw in the dirt with my hooves, or bray morse code. And if they eat me, I’ll give them indigestion.”
The sileni snorted, but offered no more arguments.
By mid-day, Zack was ready to collapse again. Muscles screamed in protest at every step, and he was starting to stumble on the uneven ground. Though time was short, he was more than ready for the long break forced by having their compass directly overhead. This time, he was able to find a wonderful rest area himself. His nose picked up the crisp scent of water, like the smell of rain on a Spring day. The source was a winding creek with good grazing on both banks.
They plopped down with mutual sighs of relief, stretching out aching limbs. Jahred lay on his back and squirmed in the thick grass. It was the sileni version of equine rolling. Curious, Zack tried the exercise and discovered that it was extremely pleasant – a combination of muscle massage and a good back scratch. No wonder it was so hard to keep his horse clean!
Although the site was perfect for their needs, Zack was a bit troubled by his success. He’d known this spot would be here. Instincts were obviously getting stronger, assembling information from enhanced senses in ways his human mind could not. Evidence that his mind wasn’t fully human any more. Was Purification working on him all the time?
Jahred’s changes had seemingly occurred overnight. However, that impression might be a trick of yesterday’s excitement and the long night. He looked over at the boy. At first he couldn’t pick out any differences. Then he realized that the thin hair on the sides of his head had been replaced completely by golden horsehide. The remains of Jahred’s unruly brown mop had turned coarse and darker, spreading down the back of his neck in an obvious mane.
Was the sileni aware of the changes? Purification was an insidious process, eating away at your body painlessly. If you were travelling alone, and didn’t look at your reflection when you drank, it might be possible to ease from therimorph to animal without even realizing the transformation was occurring.
And what about any creatures living beyond the forests? It was obvious that the centaur’s curse extended far beyond their domain. Schlera’s friend had talked of other pastures. If he had established a herd of his own there, any foals of ‘school’ age would transform and vanish for no apparent reason. Zack wondered if the centaurs who cast the spell had thought about such complications. Or if they really cared.
They rested for several hours, dozing off for short periods. When the sun dropped enough to follow, they roused up with groans and started off again. As before, there was little conversation beyond grunts and nods. His muscles were still sore, and Jahred was only a bit more developed physically. The only way to keep going was to focus on the next step, ignoring aches and pains.
The air was getting a little cooler now, and Zack couldn’t help envying the sileni’s coat of dense fur. Of course, he’d have one of his own very soon. An uneasy feeling flickered across his mind. Not danger, exactly. Worry. Something important he was missing. About the one following him. Jahred?
He looked back without stopping. The sileni was trudging a few yards behind him, looking about the same as he had when they stopped. “Are you OK?” Jahred blinked and snorted, too tired to speak. Sighing, Zack continued on a bit. He felt the same way. So why did that uneasy feeling keep nagging at him? It was like an idiot light glaring at him from the dashboard of his car when nothing seemed to be wrong.
“Jahred? Are you sure you are OK?” Another grunt. Zack began to feel a cold prickling on the back of his neck. Stopping suddenly, he turned and looked directly at the boy. Jahred looked momentarily confused, and then stood there calmly. “I have this weird feeling that something is wrong. Can you sense anything?”
The sileni frowned for a moment, and then shook his head.
“What? You don’t sense anything?” The prickling was getting worse. “You don’t believe me? Say something!”
Jahred opened his mouth to speak. A gutteral whicker emerged. His eyes widened, and he shook his head. Another attempt produced something like a colt’s whinny. It sounded more like a child imitating a horse than an actual animal, and for a moment Zack thought the boy might be playing around. However, Jahred’s panicked expression made it obvious this was no joke.
“Concentrate!” Zack grabbed the boy’s shoulders, only to get knocked back suddenly and pinned to the ground. The sileni’s eyes were filled with rage, and teeth snapped in front of Zack’s face. Then the anger faded, and Jahred scrambled back looking confused and scared.
Shaken but uninjured, Zack got up slowly. The sileni was reacting like a frightened stallion. He cursed himself mentally for not picking up on the danger before now. All these hours of plodding along, focusing on nothing past the next step. The way a horse would think. He’d put the dulling of his mind off to fatigue, not realizing that Purification must be at work. Why was it working so fast now? Maybe because they weren’t providing any resistance.
Making sure that he presented no threat, Zack backed away a few steps and then sat facing the boy. “It’s the Purification. Can you understand me? Just nod your head.” To his tremendous relief, Jahred immediately indicated ‘yes.’
“OK. I think we’re making the change go faster by not talking. You know what I am saying, so you haven’t lost words. You just can’t remember how to make the sounds.” Zack chewed his bottom lip. “Maybe stuff in your head is getting rearranged. Try to say something. Just one word. Say your name.”
The sileni’s mouth worked in an exaggerated fashion. “Rhuhuh.” Clenching his eyes shut in fierce concentration, he tried again. “Ehruhd.”
“That’s it!” Zack forced himself to remain still so he wouldn’t trigger the fight response again. “You’re getting there. Take a deep breath and try to relax little.”
“Dya-rhad.” The boy’s black nostrils flared, and he seemed to think for a moment. “Jah-red. Jahred.” He blinked, and then grinned. “Muh-eye nah-muh esss Jahred. My name is Jahred.” Speech was still a little slurred, but understandable.
“We need to keep talking. About anything.” Zack started to get up, only to freeze as Jahred’s faced darkened in warning. The expression vanished immediately, and he walked past as if nothing had happened. Zack scrambled up and followed. “Wait up!” It was obvious that the boy had just assumed lead stallion position, and Zack had to struggle with mild resentment. They had enough problems without getting caught up in domination battles.
“Tell me about the sileni. Are there any stories about your race? How you came to be here?”
“That’s history.” Jahred snorted. “The centaurs and nymphs are big on that.” He sounded more like the disgruntled school boy now. “We don’t waste our time with what went on before.”
Zack tried to come up with something else. He had to keep the boy’s mind working. “What about sphinxes? Are there any legends, any stories about them?”
“Some. Hardly anyone has every seen one. Why don’t you tell me more about your world?” Jahred sighed. “We’ll probably end up there, anyway.”
“We can take turns. I’ve told you a lot about my world already.”
After a moment, the boy shrugged. “OK. Schlera used to tell me and Whik stories before we went to sleep. I don’t know if they were true or not.”
“That’s OK. I used to think centaurs and sileni were fictional creatures.”
“Fick-shun-all?”
Zack had to grin. “Fake. Not real. Stories that weren’t true.”
That satisfied the boy, and he began a rambling narration. It was obvious that Jahred hadn’t been paying a lot of attention to his dam when she read, but Zack picked out some useful details. The story was about a stallion that traveled far from his herd in search of better grazing. He wandered for days, discovering many strange things. Rocks that sang, water that stripped away seasons of growth, and carnivorous trees that snagged victims in spiked vines and devoured them. And most importantly, this adventuring sileni found a sphinx.
In the story, the sphinx had golden fur and soft hooves that could slash and cut. Its mane framed the face instead of running down its neck, and it had huge, white wings like a Pegasus. The creature sounded like one of the more familiar lion-based sphinxes from Greek mythology. However, this sphinx was in trouble. It had been caught by one of the meat-eating trees, and was being dragged towards the jagged teeth in the plant’s trunk.
The sileni managed to free the sphinx, but ended up trapped by the tree himself. In gratitude, the sphinx turned the stallion into stone so he wouldn’t suffer a painful death, and kept the statue in a place of honor forever afterwards.
Not exactly a happy ending. Zack wondered if the stallion of the story was Shlera’s old herd-mate. He also hoped that the sphinx’s reward’ wasn’t typical.
The afternoon passed quickly as they exchanged tales. Zack would try to explain why humans used artificial legs called automobiles, and Jahred would talk about his first days at the Centaur school. A long story about computers was followed by a detailed and sometimes embarrassing report on the twin’s exploits with nymphs and other creatures.
Dusk was falling when Zack first noticed a bright flash in the distance. White clouds hung close to the ground, looking almost solid. An occasional flicker danced across the top of the mist, giving the appearance of a sharp edge. The electrical display had a slight reddish glow, as if it trying to compliment the setting sun.
He started watching the storm, worried that it might be approaching them. It didn’t seem to be moving. At all. Puzzled, he looked harder, and realized that the clouds were locked in place. It took a slight shiver to remind him of the colder air, and then realization came instantly. That wasn’t a storm. It was a glacier!
A mountain of ice. Zack had never seen one for real. The glaciers on his world were supposed to be millions of years old. He wondered what kind of fossils might be buried within its frozen depths. A wooly minotaur? Saber-tooth centaur? Billions of gallons of water in solid form.
Solid form. He whispered to himself. “Where life’s source is hardened.”
“What did you say?” Jahred turned to look at him.”
Pointing at the glacier, Zack grinned. “Water is the source of life. And ice is water in a hard state. That’s where the sphinxes are!”
Jahred peered over the forest, frowning. “I don’t see anything but the tops of trees. What are you looking at?”
“That big white mountain! I thought it was a storm at first. It looks sorta like a thick cloud, but it isn’t moving.”
“All I see is plain sky. Maybe a little red glow.” The sileni seemed uncertain, and then dropped his head. “I can’t see that far, Eh-rik.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I think I’m going blind. Even you look a little blurry now.”
Zack sighed. “Let me look at your eyes.” He had been watching for further transformation in the boy all afternoon, noting a gradual lengthening of mane and tail. Jahred had been leading, however, so he hadn’t been able to see the sileni’s face.
As he suspected, Jahred’s eyes were larger, with enormous horizontal irises. They had also migrated further apart, crowding the outer edges of the boy’s skull. The bridge of his nose had widened to fill the gap, though the lower part of his face was still human in shape.
“You aren’t going blind. It’s just that horses see differently