As mentioned before, I’m not a genius.  Many people will attest to that fact.  But, as far as I knew, I hadn’t taken a whack on the head, and I wasn’t in a coma or anything, although I couldn’t be one hundred percent sure about that.  So, baring being in some kind of dream state, or even dead, I figured out that I was in some kind of other world.  Wasn’t I?  Maybe I was really just dead.

I figured this out because there simply aren’t any centaurs or ogres on Earth.  And I was pretty sure we didn’t have places called The Glowing Grasslands.  But who could say for sure about that? 

I looked around at nothing but the open fields, and with all the running away I had done, I had no idea if I was anywhere close to where the tunnel had dropped me out of. 

The centaurs, finished now with chopping off the heads of the dead ogres, circled up, and one very tall man-horse – the one who’d easily cut the ogre’s hand off with his very huge fucking sword, beckoned to the girl I was riding. 

“Hold on,” she said. 

I didn’t want to be rude and grab her tits with so many others watching, so I just wrapped my hands around her waist. Then, we rode up to the herd, and they opened their circle and allowed us to ride through. 

The big man stood in the middle of the circle, waiting.  When we were in front of him, the girl gently pulled my hands from her waist and tugged on me, indicating I should slide off of her back. 

I wasn’t sure I wanted to do that.  She’d been nice to me and hadn’t tried to kill me, and she smelt like lavender. 

But I slid off.  This might have been her boyfriend, and the guy looked like he could pummel me to death, even without the horse's body.  His six-pack had a six-pack, and I could see every muscle in his upper body bulging from beneath his skin.  He was also holding that huge sword and had a very ornate bow strapped to his back.  He could probably kill me in more ways than I could count, even before he stomped my body into a bloody pulp with those sharp hooves.   

“What is your name, human?” he said in a deep voice. 

Every single one of them was staring at me.  They were all looming over me, their eyes filled with intensity.  They’d just completely murdered three giant ogres.  I had no idea what they were going to do to me.  The girl had said they weren’t going to kill me, but suddenly I wasn’t very confident in that.

“Uh… Jack, sir,” I managed to say.

The centaur looked annoyed, then said.  “Well, uh… Jack, sir, you are most lucky we finally caught up with these monsters.  We’ve been chasing them for three days.  They came down from the mountains to easily catch you humans and fill their bellies.” 

I had picked up on that.  “Yeah, I’m glad you did.” 

I could tell that didn’t seem like a very satisfactory answer to Mr. Bulging Muscles.  His face reddened.  He looked like he was about to take that sword and put it where the ogres were going to put their spit.

“That’s twice you’ve spoken to me commonly, human,” the giant centaur said loudly.  “There will not be a third time.  Address me properly when you speak to your betters, human.”  

I had no idea what the fuck he was talking about, but I thought I had better just keep my mouth shut from this point on. 

The big guy's face turned red when I didn’t answer.  This wasn’t going very well.  I thought he really was going to chop me in half with his sword when the girl who’d picked me up intervened. 

“Zoltares,” she said.  “He hit his head when the ogre dropped him.  He has forgotten himself.  That’s all.  He has lost his memory.” 

The big man, Zoltares, eyed her.  He looked at me skeptically.  Then he looked around at the herd.  Obviously, his herd. 

He sighed in disgust.  “There’s no time for this puny human.  We ride on.” 

The girl shook her head and reached for Zoltares’s arm.  “Let me take him back to his farm.  He’s injured.  He has no memory.  I can catch up later.”

Zoltares shook his head.  “No, Cythyne.  He’s no pet.  He can find his own way home.”   

That was highly unlikely at this point.

I looked at the girl.  Cythyne.  That was her name.  It was beautiful.  Like her.

She stared intently into the big man’s eyes, something unspoken passing between them.

Zoltares had spoken firmly like his word was final.  He held her intense gaze and gave her one back.

But then Cythyne softened her eyes and smiled at him.  “Zoltares.  I can find the herd in the middle of a blizzard.  And aren’t we sworn to protect humans?”  She looked at me like I was a sad little lost puppy, which I basically was.  I wanted to show her I could take care of myself. 

Zoltares looked at her for a second.  Then kissed her on the lips.  “I am too easy on you because of our love.  Go.  But hurry,” he said.  “Two days.  No more.” 

Cythyne smiled and nodded.  And that was that.  The herd rode off, hooves thundering, tails whipping, muscles tensed. 

I stood next to Cythyne and watched them go.  When they were over the hill and out of sight, she turned and smiled at me. 

“I’m Cythyne.  Now come on, Jack.  Let’s get you back to your farm.”  

I stared up at her.  My head level with her very impressive cleavage.  “You don’t think my names ‘uh… jack, sir, like he did?” 

She laughed that beautiful, tinkling bell laugh again.  “No, I do not.  Zoltares is so rigid. So literal.  He’s such an idiot.  He’s never spent more than a few minutes with any human, always expecting them to bow down and be submissive to him, to follow the old ways when humans practically worshiped us.” 

That explained his attitude towards me.  But I was shocked she’d said something like that.  “Isn’t he your boyfriend?” 

She laughed again.  “More like my husband, if we centaurs had things like husbands.  He’s the herd's leader, and yes, I am his.”  She smiled that beautiful smile and showed me perfectly white teeth.  “Or he thinks I am, and that’s all that matters.” 

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I changed the subject.  “So, you know, I don’t really have a farm to go back to, right?” 

She shrugged and reached out her hand to me.  I took it, and she tugged me towards her back.  She bent her front legs, her horse legs, and dropped to her knees.  “Get on.”

I got on her back but felt awkward about it.  She stood up, and since she’d put her sword away earlier, she had both hands free.  She reached behind her upper body, took my hands, and wrapped them around her waist.  Her human waist. I could feel her warm skin under my palms. She squeezed them tightly and left her hands on top of mine. 

“You’ll remember where you live as we get closer, I’m sure of it,” she said, walking in the opposite direction the herd had gone. 

I could feel her human back pressed into my chest and smell her flowery hair. 

“No, I don’t think you understand.  I didn’t hit my head.  You see… I uh…” How did you explain to a half-girl – half-horse that you were pretty sure that you came from another world?  I had no idea.  “I was looking for my brother and his three friends.  I think they came here five years ago.”  That was the first time I’d realized I even thought that. 

I’d had found Lucas’s bag by the stairs.  There was nowhere to go but where the tunnel led.  Surely if they had followed the tunnel, they would have ended up here as well. 

I hadn’t had time to think about it before.  I’d been too busy trying not to get eaten, but what if they were here, too?  Could I find them? 

Obviously, if they were here, they hadn’t found a way home yet. 

Cythyne was looking over her shoulder at me.  “So, you’re not a farmer?”  I shook my head.  “And you are looking for your brother and his friends that journeyed here to The Glowing Grasslands?” 

I thought so, yes.  But what if, like me, they’d had an encounter with a hungry ogre, but no centaurs had been around to save them?  I didn’t want to think about that.

“Yes, but that was five years ago,” I said.  “There’s no telling where they are now.”  I didn’t add the other thing that I was thinking.  If they came here at all.

“Where did you come from?” Cythyne asked.  “How did your brother and his friends end up here?” 

That was a complicated question.  The best option I could come up with was to be honest.  No matter how crazy it sounded.  I mean, I was riding a centaur girl.  How crazy could it really be after that?.  

“I’m pretty sure we came from another planet, and we traveled here through some kind of portal disguised as a staircase.  I’m not even sure if they’re here or if they landed in the same spot I did. 

I assumed that Cythyne was going to buck me off and leave me and tell Zoltares I was crazier than she thought. 

Instead, she nodded thoughtfully, like this wasn’t the craziest thing she’d heard that day, much less in her entire life.  “And you want to find them?”

“Yes.  If they’re here.  But I have no idea how or where to even start.” 

Cythyne said, “In that case, I think I know someone that can help you.”  She pulled my hands up to her breasts and said, “Hold on to these and don’t fall off, Jack.” Then she started to run. 

#

We rode on for the rest of the day, Cythyne keeping up a steady pace.  I offered to walk, but she said she was fine and we needed to hurry.  I could feel the sweat on her back, her human one, soaking through my shirt, but I didn’t mind.  I liked it, actually.  As she sweated, her horse scent started to mix with the flowery scent of her hair, and I don’t know why but I found it very pleasant. 

As the sun got lower, the sky gave way from blue to orange, and we spotted a small copse of trees.  Cythyne headed toward them, and as we got closer, I could see a small, clear pond in-between them. 

“We’ll stop here for the night,” she said when we got to the pond's edge. 

I slipped off of her back, and my knee’s almost buckled from riding all day long.  Cythyne stretched her backs, both of them, and yawned. 

I looked around.  We had nothing.  I’d been in such a hurry to check out the mysterious stairwell for myself that I didn’t bring any kind of supplies, not even some granola bars.  Of course, if I’d known where I was going, I wouldn’t have gone down those stairs, much less packed for camping.  But still, we didn’t have a tent or food or anything. 

Cythyne walked into the pond, letting the water rise up over her horse body to her human waist.  She stood there, cooling off, then scooped water with her hands into her mouth.  She drank more than I thought a woman of her size could, but probably as much as a horse.

Then she smiled at me like she knew what I was thinking. “Wait here, Jack.  And stack up some wood for a fire, will you?” 

She galloped away before I could say anything else, so I gathered up as much loose wood as I could find.   It wasn’t long before Cythyne was back holding two dead rabbits by their ears. 

She skinned them with a knife she had on her belt, then had me place the wood into a pile.  She leaned down and struck her knife onto a stone, and soon there was smoke, then flames, rolling from the wood.  It grew into a nice fire.

Cythyne laid down next to the fire, curling her horse legs under her, and directed me on how to roast the rabbits over a spit made out of small branches from the trees.  I hadn’t eaten all day and hadn’t realized how hungry I was until I smelled the rabbits. 

As they roasted, all I could see was the half-burnt face of the man the ogres had been eating and the spit protruding from his gaping, burnt mouth. 

Cythyne again looked like she knew what I was thinking, and she called me over to sit by her.  She ran her hands through my hair. 

“Is that the first time you’ve seen death?” she asked. 

I’d seen my grandma in her casket, all made up and peaceful looking.  I was pretty sure that didn’t count. 

“Yes,” I said.  I don’t know why but I wasn’t ashamed to answer her honestly.  She seemed like she already knew the answer anyway and didn’t mind that it bothered me. 

“Death comes for us all, Jack.”  She smiled so kindly that it made me want to lay my head on her shoulder and cry. What was I doing here?  How was I going to get home?  I could feel a lump in my throat. 

“I know,” I said.  “It was just so… gruesome.” 

Cythyne stroked my hair.  “The ogres always are.  You’re lucky that was a man.  It could have easily been a woman or a child even.  That’s why we hunt them when they come down from the mountains.  They are always terrorizing the people.”

She pulled my head onto her shoulder.  “Don’t think about it,” she said.  “Don’t think about it anymore.” 

I tried not to.  I looked toward the pond and away from the fire.

Once the rabbits were done, I pulled them off for us, trying hard not to think of anything else.  They smelled good, and I was hungrier than I thought. I scarfed mine down unceremoniously while Cythyne laughed at me and ate hers delicately. 

While we had been eating, the moon had risen – two moons, actually - and they were bright and full and cast silvery light all around that made the pond glow.  The grassland beyond the woods looked like a silver sea waving in the wind. 

This place was clearly not Earth.  Earth didn’t have two moons.  So where was it?  I tried not to worry about it.  It didn’t matter.  What mattered was finding a way home.  That was the only thing that mattered now.  And finding out if Lucas, Michael, Sarah Beth, and Harper were here and alive. 

Then I thought about Charlie.  He was probably freaking out.  And my parents.  They had probably called in the National Guard at this point.  Charlie would have at least told them about the staircase and where to find it. 

That made me even more worried.  They’d tell the cops, then the cops would come down the stairs and stumble into here, wherever here was, with guns drawn.  At least they’d have guns, though.  But then again, they’d have guns.  What if they shot the centaurs?  This was all going to be a big mess. 

#

Read Chapter 4a for NSFW mature/sexual content.

Skip to Chapter 5 for the rest of the story.