Chapter 153 - Firenze (1/2)
It is a most difficult ordeal to run through a forest under the moonlight. There are roots, random holes, thorny weeds, trailing branches, poison ivy, and prickly, sticky bushes galore to scratch and trip one plenty of times. Still, Rowan kept running despite the scratches and bruises from painfully sprawling onto the forest floor from evil tree roots. Rather bruised and exhausted at this point, she just kept jogging forward trying to make it back to Hogwarts before dawn.
Holding her now bruised waist, Rowan winced as she steps into a clearing. To her surprise, she freezes at the edge at seeing the man-horse, or better yet, a centaur. To the waist, a young man, with red hair and beard, but below that was a horse's gleaming chestnut body with a long, reddish tail. Quickly stepping back behind the tree trunk, she finds herself desperately hoping that they didn't have the senses of an actual horse.
”Ronan?” A more masculine voice called out.
”Mars is bright tonight,” Ronan dreamily said. ”Unusually bright, Bane.”
Peeking just around the tree trunk, Rowan sees the second centaur. Black-haired, muscled, and wilder-looking than Ronan. Nodding in approval of the well-toned young body, she pulls back to listen.
Glancing up at the stars, Bane says, ”Yes, Mars is rather bright tonight.” The two of them stare in silence up at the night sky for some time, before trotting back from whence they came.
Rowan waited for what seemed ages before peeking back around the tree trunk with a soft sigh. Emerging cautiously out into the clearing, she glances around before pausing to look up at the night sky. ”Huh, they're right,” Rowan mused out loud. ”Mars is really bright tonight.”
Shaking her head ruefully, Rowan hurries forward to almost crash into a teenage boy-, rather a teenage centaur. Jumping back the youthful centaur with white-blond hair and a palomino body stares in utter surprise right back at her. The centaur youth had astonishingly blue eyes like pale sapphires.
”You should not be out here,” the young centaur observed.
”No, but yet here I am,” Rowan drily replied.
The centaur youth took a step forward as Rowan took one back. Glancing up at the stars, the youth eyes them very carefully. ”Yes, the flow of the stars has changed again,” the centaur mused. ”An unseen force has forced the rivers of the heavens to diverge.”
The centaur youth is silent, before seemingly making up his mind. ”Come, I shall return you back to Hogwarts,” the centaur youth said as he lowered himself on to his front legs so that Rowan could clamber onto his back. ”My name is Firenze.”
”Thank you,” Rowan said. ”But I do believe it would be considered rather rude to ride you.”
”I am offering,” the pale centaur said with no trace of anger.
”Thank you, then,” Rowan said as she climbed onto the back of Firenze.
”Your welcome,” Firenze said as he surged forward.
The two are quiet until Rowan asks, ”I have always wondered, but what is it like to live in a centaur colony? I'd hate to make the stereotypical comparison, but is it a bit like a horse herd?”
”It is not rude at all to ask,” Firenze answered as he carefully stepped around a random hole on the forest ground. ”I suppose in a way it is and it is not. We are closer to druids in that we live and die in nature.”
”I see,” Rowan muttered as they fell into another lapse of silent, before Rowan said, ”And will you not get into trouble for this? I do believe most centaurs believe it is shame with very good reason to carry a human or in my case a witch on your back?”
”If only I'm seen,” Firenze wisely said with a bit of mirth in his voice.
”You'd done well in Slytherin,” Rowan privately thought to herself. But then again, maybe in Gryffindor too. After all, he once did go against everything centaurs believed in to defend a certain scarred boy. And eventually was even welcomed back with pride back into the centaur fold.
They must have been quite deep in the forest for it was dawn when Firenze stopped at the edge of a path. ”Follow the path out, it'll lead you straight to Hagrid,” Firenze said as Rowan slid off is back.
”Thank you,” Rowan sincerely said as she studied the young Firenze before her.
Firenze nodded at her and turned to leave when Rowan said, ”Firenze, it is not a crime nor is it shameful to help another, whether centaur, magical creature or human alike. In time, I believe that those beliefs will be proven right.” Firenze lips twitch into a shy smile as his horsetail flickers with delight, before galloping back into the forest.
Turning back onto the path, Rowan hurries as dawn fades and the sun begins to steadily rise. Some half hour later, she burst out behind Hagrid's hut with a tired sigh. ”I'd never thought Hagrid's hut would look so beautiful,” Rowan muttered to herself as she staggered over to knock at the front door, but not before casting a cleaning spell onto herself. It wouldn't remove the sticks and leaves out of her hair and clothing. But at least it would get rid of the mud and grime.
Knocking one, the door only once there was quickly heard footsteps as the door was pulled open. ”Good morning, Hagrid, I've come for a bit of tea,” Rowan said as she didn't wait to be invited in and stepped right in.
”Er, alright,” Hagrid said with a bit of surprise. ”Jus' 'ave a seat, I was making a bit of egg's with some kippers.”
”That sounds just lovely, Hagrid,” Rowan honestly said as she found that she was absolutely starving.