Chapter 4 - The Centaurs

Jonus lay in a cold sweat. The dream had come again, just as frightening as the night before, but just as unclear. She still didn't know who the dark figure was.

She rolled onto her side and could see Joxer's form in the moonlight. His back was upturned and she could have sworn she saw his arms glowing they were so pale. She smiled lightly, then reddened at remembering her swimming adventure that morning. Joxer had not yet realised her intrusion and that suited Jonus fine. But she was curious, about many things of this man. He never spoke about himself or what he did. Jonus had tried countless times to get him to open up, but he always averted her probes. If or when he was ready to tell her anything, he would.

Jonus sighed again and shifted onto her back again. She could feel that this was going to be another long night.

The sun had not risen when Jonus awoke from a light sleep. She searched around her to find out where the noise had come from when she realised that it was Joxer. He seemed to be crying out someone's name, but she could hardly hear it. She did, however, hear his sobs and saw the tears roll down his cheeks.

"G...Ga...Ga..." he repeated over and over. "Why?...Love..."

Jonus was confused. Who was he talking about? She sat up on her elbows and watched him toss as he tried to say a name. The tears came harder now. Jonus sat up fully and reached her hand out to try to calm him down so that he could sleep again. As soon as she touched...

"Gabrielle!" Joxer's eyes were wide as he woke, his breathing heavy. He stared into nothing for a moment then looked right at Jonus who was now at his side. The brown eyes widened even further. "Gabrielle?" He grabbed Jonus's shoulders and drew her close.

Jonus had no idea what to do, so she let him hold her. She could feel his breathing slow and his whole body relax.

"Oh, Gabrielle. I knew you cared...I knew..." He fell back onto his sleeping fur, still holding Jonus. "I love you..." he said softly before sleeping again.

Jonus still didn't know what had just happened, but she couldn't easily get out of his grip. So there she remained the rest of the night, her head and shoulders resting on Joxer's body, listening and feeling his heartbeat and breathing.

When the sun finally broke through the trees, Joxer held Jonus in a tight embrace underneath a fur. A bird chirped stirring Joxer and eventually waking him. He smiled as he saw the golden hair lying next to him and snuggled in closer. It was then that he noticed something different. Her hair smelled...different, more like a soft musk than lilac. He furrowed his brow and stared at the form next to him. It only took a moment for him to realise who was next to him and what had happened that night. He quickly looked down at his own form and breathed a sigh of relief that he was still clothed. That must have been a dream.

Joxer leaned back a little and arched his eyebrows. Great! Just great. How am I going to get out of this one? Come on, Jox, think here. You were cold in the night? No. She was cold last night? No. One of the gods did this? Uh-huh. He paused. Artemis! By the gods, what would this look like? He frantically gazed the sky around him, wishing beyond hope that Artemis could hear his thoughts. Nothing happened! I, just, uh...Nothing happened! His mind was racing when he felt a slight movement next to him. Not thinking, Joxer immediately closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.

Jonus groggily opened her eyes. They immediately snapped awake when she felt Joxer holding her. Zeus! He was going to be embarrassed over this! Okay, think, Jon, how are you going to explain this? Let's see...Uh, Joxer, you know, it was, uh, pretty cold last night and I, uh, well... Stupid! Joxer, who's Gabrielle? Definitely not. You know, a funny thing about gods...Uh-huh. Gods, what am I going to say?

Jonus continued to mull over her situation when she noticed that Joxer wasn't holding her very tightly anymore. Maybe, if I can just adjust... and shift...then do...there! I'm out! She rolled carefully away and sat back, looking intently at Joxer. Her body shivered from the cold, but she didn't feel it. All she could think of was how good it felt to be near him. To have his arms around her and to feel his heart next to her. For a century, she had slept alone, never feeling the warmth of anyone. Never feeling another person shift to get closer to her. Never feeling the breathe of anyone on her neck and laughing at how it tickled. She suddenly felt very alone. She quickly rose and hurried off into the woods to the creek they passed the night before.

She knelt down and splashed water on her face, but it couldn't stop the tears from sliding down. She wiped the water away, but was still sad. All that time she spent alone and she never realised what she had missed. And now she did and she hated it. She wanted to curse Zeus for having done this to her and to Artemis for never allowing her company.

"Why?" she whispered. "Why did you let this happen to me?"

Joxer found Jonus by the creek about an hour later. He was hesitant, fearing Jonus would ridicule him for behaving like a baby last night, but he had to find her so they could continue on. He cleared his throat.

Jonus knew he was there before he made a sound. She didn't want to look at him because she would see all the things she missed out on for the last hundred years. And that was just too painful to deal with. So she rose and walked past Joxer without saying a word. He stood there, his mouth open, dumbfounded. After a minute, he followed her back to the camp and in complete silence, they packed and began their day's journey.

Now it was Joxer's turn to try to make conversation, but every attempt was met with silence. When the zenith of the sun came and Joxer's stomach rumbled, he forced Jonus to stop her march.

"Look, I'm about starved. I need something to eat and we're gonna stop so I can." He didn't like sounding so forceful, but it seemed the only way for Jonus to pay attention to him.

With obvious effort, Jonus sat down, but refused to eat anything offered to her.

Joxer bit his lip. There must be something I can do, he thought. Wait! I know. He snapped his fingers. His facial expression changed to one of someone who knows some big secret and is waiting for the other to beg him to tell the secret. "We're uh, pretty close to the Centaur village, you know." He cast a side glance at Jonus, but she remained impassive. "Yeah, they're quite something, those Centaurs." He looked down at the cold rabbit meat and played with it a bit while he spoke. "I hear that they are expert marksmen. Could hit the second hole in Pan's pipes if they wanted." He again glanced at Jonus, then turned away in frustration. Nothing was working with this girl.

With a suddenness he wasn't expecting, Jonus stood and looked directly at Joxer, her face full of anger. "Tell me how to get to the Amazons from here." Her request sounded more like an order.

Joxer was taken aback. "But I thought Artemis wanted me to..."

"Forget Artemis," Jonus lashed out, swiping her hand in front of him. "Just tell me."

Joxer squinted his eyes and his eyebrows arched down. "Look, going against the goddess of the hunt may be alright with you," he stood up, "but it's not with me. I don't want to be on the receiving end of her wrath." His face softened a little. "Why don't you just tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help." He placed his hands on his hips, shifted his stance and waited. And waited. And waited.

With a blur of motion, Jonus reached out, grabbed something from Joxer and ran. Joxer was stunned and confused at what just happened, giving Jonus a considerable head start. Realisation set in and he looked down at his belt. Gone! The compass was gone! He looked back up at the quickly disappearing form and yelled. "Jonus, wait!" He took off after her.

Jonus ran down the hill and full face into a Centaur guard. He reared up on his hind legs and pulled his crossbow out at her. His eyes narrowed. "Where are you going in such a hurry, little girl?"

Jonus fell back onto her bottom from the force of running into the giant creature before her. She slowly looked at the Centaur taking in every detail of him, his chestnut brown horse legs, with one white sock, the lean horse body who's muscle rippled under the fine hair, the cut of the leather across his chest that further accentuated toned muscle, to the handsome face crowned in even darker hair. She gasped, but when he called her "little girl", she lost her temper.

"I am not a child! I was born before your mother even thought of rolling in the hay with your father. Now get outa my way." She attempted to push her way past the horseman, but was easily stopped.

"Hold on now." His arm brought her to him. "I can forgive you running into me like that, but nobody, nobody, talks about my family that way." He reached into the leather armour around his chest and pulled out a small, but sharp, knife.

"No, wait!" Joxer called out, clearly out of breathe. He screeched to a halt in front of the two. "She's...with me," he puffed.

"Well, goody for you." The guard returned his attention to the woman before him, who was now calm and resigned. He brought the dagger to her temple.

"I won't let you..." Joxer stepped between them, but received a forceful blow to his chest by the Centaur's front hoof. The Centuar slowly looked back up at the woman and he smiled maliciously. "I think you need to be taught a lesson about manners." The blade cut her skin and Jonus winced, but didn't say a word. She could feel the blood slowly trickle down. He pulled the knife further down to her ear when another voice shouted.

"Breon! What's going on here?"

Another Centaur rode up and saw Joxer lying unconcious on the ground, Jonus still held tight by Breon.

"Keep out of this, Lwellen. This is between me and her."

"Oh come on, Breon. This helpless girl has been causing you trouble? I hardly think that's possible. Let her go before we get all the two-legged's even more angry with us than they already are."

With one last sneer, Breon let Jonus go, but she didn't move away. She merely sighed, looked down at Joxer and at last, knelt down to him. She could see the hoove print in his front armour plate. She didn't think it was capable of protecting him at all, but Joxer was still breathing. A drop of blood fell onto the armour and she gingerly touched her cheek. She pulled her finger away and stared a long time at the blood on it.

"Miss?" Lwellen called. "Miss, are you alright?" He trotted over to her. "Come. We better get you looked at. That cut may need stitches."

"Ohhh, my head." Joxer moaned. He attempted to sit up, but found his chest hurt too much.

"You too, my friend." He bent down and heaved Joxer onto his back. Jonus followed Lwellen and Joxer into the Centaur village, still quiet and still staring at her bloody fingers.

"That's a nasty cut," the Centaur healer said. He reached behind Jonus and grabbed a needle and thread. "Looks like you'll be getting some stitches." He smiled to try to lighten the situation, but Jonus sat with a blank expression. "This is likely going to hurt. Do you want anything to help you with it?"

Jonus was still.

The healer shrugged. "Your choice." He held her head in one hand, his fingers pulling the broken skin together and with his other inserted the needle. Jonus felt the pain and moved slightly from it, but didn't make a sound.

Twenty minutes and eight stitches later, Jonus was leaving the healer's hut when he called out to her. "Wait just a minute there, miss." She stood half in the doorway. "Come in here." Something about his voice compelled Jonus to do so. It seemed familiar in a strange way. He pointed to the bedding of hay. "Sit. We need to talk."

Jonus sighed. All she wanted to do was get away and find these Amazons. For some unknown reason, she believed they could help her. Help her understand why Artemis would allow her to be alone all those years. Help her understand the anger she felt...and the loneliness.

"Now," the healer began, "I don't know exactly what your problem is, but I have an idea. You're obviously angry about something. But I suspect that you're feeling something else, too. Lonely, perhaps?"

Jonus looked up at Cirinus.

"Well, some recognition of my existence." Cirinus half bowed. "I'm honoured." He smiled. "All right then, you want to tell me about it?"

She looked into the deep set eyes of the older Centaur and found a comfort in them. They told her to trust him, that he would not judge, and only wanted to help. A long moment passed before Jonus spoke.

"I..." She shook her head. "You're not going to believe me." She lowered her head. He knelt down and cupped his hand in her chin.

"You might be surprised at what I'll believe." His smile was warm. Jonus tried to return the smile, but began to cry instead. Cirinus lay next to her, holding her to his chest and trying to comfort her as her feelings rushed out.

"Easy there, son," a firm voice said, his arm pushing Joxer back onto the soft hay. "Breon gave you quite a kick. Just relax a while."

"Where's Jonus?"

"She's with Cirinus. He's the best healer in the village. Well, the only one actually. He said you'll be fine if you lie down a while." He held out his hand. "Name's Lwellen."

Joxer clasped the Centaur's outstretched hand. "Joxer." His chest still felt tight and his head hurt from when it hit the ground. "Oohh." He gingerly touched the back of his head.

Lwellen laughed. "Breon's a bit of a wild one. Has a chip on his shoulder." He looked out the window. "Needs to control that temper or we're all gonna get into trouble." He gazed back down at Joxer. "Rest a little longer, then you can see your friend." He trotted out of the hut.

Yeah, if she even wants to be my friend, Joxer thought. He sighed deeply and wondered what in Olympus would make her act that way. She didn't even try to fight back against Breon. He didn't think she was a quitter like that. Maybe she was embarrassed about this morning. Yeah, that's gotta be it. The only good news was that Artemis hadn't struck him down with one of her arrows. He laced his hands over his chestplate and felt the dent in it. He looked down and his eyes widened. That was some kick he took! His head plopped back against the hay and he winced.

"You know," Jonus said between sniffs, "you're not as ugly as Aph...people have said." She quickly recovered her potential error. No point in having the love goddess upset with her, too. She tried to smile.

"Well, thank you, I think." Cirinus laughed. "Are you feeling better?"

She nodded. "Yeah. But I think I'm still angry about it." She sat back from the healer.

"Being angry isn't bad, but you have to learn how to deal with it. You're not in the forest anymore. There are others to consider."

"Yeah," she sighed. "He's probably not even going to want to talk to me." She looked up at Cirinus. "And I don't blame him. I treated him badly."

Cirinus stood on all fours and pulled Jonus up. "All you can do is ask him to accept your apology. He may understand better if you explained it to him."

Jonus again nodded her head. "Where is he?"

"He should be resting next door, to the left." He pointed the way. His face told Jonus what she had to do. She let out a short sigh and headed for the door, Cirinus following. She stopped before opening it. "How bad do I look?"

"Not too bad." He pushed a strand of hair from her stitches. Her eyes were still puffy and her cheek was becoming blue and purple from the stitches, but the anger was gone from her eyes. She looked human again. "Go on." He half pushed her out the door and watched as she cautiously made her way to Joxer's hut. She stopped before the door, raised her hand to knock and looked over at Cirinus. He waved his hand at her to keep going. Three quick taps on the door, silence, then the opening as she peered inside. Cirinus closed his own door and was grateful he didn't have half the problems that that girl did. Now, where did he put that fresh carrot?

The soft knock on the door aroused Joxer from his light sleep. He attempted to get up to answer it, but found the person already coming in.

"Joxer?" the voice sounded quietly. "Can I come in?"

"Jonus?"

"Yeah, it's me." She stood just inside the doorway, looking uncomfortable, but resolute.

"Uh, yeah. Come in." He rose and still felt a tightness in his chest. He stood in front of Jonus, unsure what to say or do. "Um, did you want to sit or something." He looked nervously around.

"No." She looked up at him. "Look, Joxer, I just wanted to, ah..." She gulped. "Say I was sorry for how I treated you. And putting you in danger." She looked at his chestplate. "Can you accept my apology?"

Joxer saw that her eyes were red and the side of her cheek was bruising up. He wanted to make them disappear...Wait! Stop it! You're not going through that again, ever! He straightened. "Of course I can, but could you just tell me what happened?" He was a little afraid of the answer she would give.

Jonus stared at the ground and shuffled her feet. She didn't want to have to go through it all again, but if Joxer was to trust her, she had to.

She breathed in and began. "I just got very angry. At Artemis... at Zeus for denying me so many things." She walked into the hut more. "All those years of being by myself, having no one to..." She stopped. Could she tell Joxer what she really thought? "Having no one to share things with. Don't get me wrong, Artemis was very good to me. Better than could be imagined. But it just wasn't the same as having a flesh and blood person, you know?"

She waited, then continued.

"Last night...this morning, well..." Tell him! a part of her brain screamed. Tell him and you'll regret it, another part said. You've got at least one more day's travel with him. Don't make it any worse. She took a deep breathe. "Well, it just all hit me. All the stuff that I never experienced before. Stuff I was denied living in the sacred forest." She waited.

Joxer's lip curled up on his left side. He wanted to say that he understood it all, but he didn't. He got the part about wanting to have a real person with him; gods knew he understood that! But why everything came out this morning was still a mystery to him. He saw her waiting for him to respond.

"I, uh, don't really know what to say, but I do forgive you." He saw her expression relax. "And, hey, look, everyone has their off days. So why don't we just forget about it, okay?"

She stared at the funny-armoured man before her, his eyebrows lost under the shaggy hair falling over his forehead and the sort of goofy grin on his face. "Okay." She reached her hand out and he clasped it. Gods, how she wanted to be close to him again, to feel his warmth and hear his heart beating. It would be so easy to step in closer, pull him towards you and just feel him. No! Forget that. You don't want to upset yourself again.

She let go of his arm. "So, uh, how's your chest?" She stepped back a little.

"Oh, it's still a bit sore. It's just my head that hurts. Who knew the ground would be so hard?"

Jonus snickered, then realised that Joxer wasn't joking. "Ahem, well, I guess it would be around here, with all those hooves and things." She glanced around nervously. "Uh, do you think we should set out again?"

Joxer shook his head. "Nah. It's too late in the day. I'm sure the Centaurs would be willing to give us a bed for the night." After a moment he stopped. "Uh, what I mean is..."

Jonus grinned. "I know." She walked out the door. Joxer sighed with obvious relief, rolling his eyes, then following Jonus out the door.

Onto Chapter five

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