The Centaur

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“Run. Don't look back”. Her father’s voice resonated in her mind. It guided her cautiously, urging her to run faster. She had to get to the temple; the forbidden temple, the same one her father had told her to stay away from. It was strange that he would now send her to the same temple but she knew she had to save her father. So she ran faster.

“Don’t look back,” a voice said. She didn’t want to but she did and she froze. She was chilled to the bones by the sight before her. Her two friends were in the mud, and in about a minute, they disappeared. She had warned them, told them she would make it alone but they had both refused and now her heart sank and her throat clogged. She knew she had to leave but her brain and her body refused to cooperate. Her legs remained rooted to the spot but when it raised its head and fixed its beady red eyes on her. She dashed away with her heart pounding wildly.

She knew it was gaining on her but she didn’t dare look back. She knew what she would find. She made it to the temple and took the secret passageway hoping she would lose it, the crazed Lycan that had been chasing her after it made half of the town disappear.

The next goal was to find the Centaur. Her father had told her different stories about how the Centaur helps bring back lost people. But the one that puzzled her the most was how she was going to talk to him.

She pushed negative thoughts from her mind. She was going to find the Centaur and save her father. If possible, bring back her friends. She was still roaming around the temple, silently chanting under her breath when the floor beneath her began to sink. She tried to jump but she didn’t make it in time and so she fell and screamed.

She fell for what seemed like forever and she landed roughly on the floor, the lamp she had carried went out and everything became deathly still. Then she heard the voice, it sounded just like her father had described; smooth, comforting, and slick as oil, the voice of the Centaur.

“What is it you want, child?” He asked.

“I… I...my father…the Lycan…I-“

She couldn’t find the words to describe the weird being in front of her, it was half man, half horse. She had never seen anything like it

“Lycan, you say?”

She suddenly remembered why she was here.

“Yes, my lord, a huge beast, he trapped my father in a room and made everyone disappear,” she said.

“Hmm,” He breathes and nods with understanding.

“We need your help-“

He cuts her off with a burst of strange laughter and a weird gleam in his eyes.

‘Hand over the pearl.’ He said with a loud tone.

She gasps. How did he know? Her father had warned her never to hand over the ancestral pearl of protection. She didn’t want to hand it over but she released it to save her father.

“Child, I warned you. I was fair”

“‘What do you mean?” she asked innocently.

“I warned you never to give up the pearl!”

The being speaking was no longer the Centaur but her father, she scrambled back in shock.

“I’m not your father, I never was and I never will” He said.

Why was he suddenly acting strange, her father was merely a pyro mage, how come he shapeshifted? Was this The Centaur testing her out?

“Rama, say your last prayers.”

That was the last confirmation she needed, only her father knew and called her the name. Rama.
It wasn’t until the man transformed into the beast that her senses kicked in. She had thought she was safe, she had thought her father was a nice person-

“I made your parents disappear and shapeshifted into your father just to take your pearl today” he said.

That was the last thing she heard before the darkness enveloped her.

The Lycan, her father or rather foster father took her pearl, drained her powers, and left to pillage another town.

He laughed to himself. He had created the myth about the Centaur and brainwashed them for years so he could take the sixth pearl. Now, there was just one more to go and he would be free to roam the underworld.