They fell upon us in our sleep.They fell upon us in our sleep. Crossbows aimed with silent accuracy fell our menfolk before they could even shout a word. It was the most silent brigandry I had ever heard of. More than half our men were dead before and alarm was raised. My mother fought them off, seizing father's sword and slashing at them. It was to no avail; there were too many of them, too many warriors, and as she hacked at two who leapt and taunted her, one stepped up behind her and ran her through with his pike. I shall never forget the look on her face as she died, her ribs pushed out by the spike erupting from her chest. She was sad, sad for me. She wanted to see me, twisted on the spike horribly to look at me, as she fell. When her body slumped to the ground the one who had killed her pulled the pike free, then turned and gave me a smile. I hated him and his evil grin, I wanted to wipe it off his face and make him pay for my mother's death and I would wallow in his pain when I did. "Take her!" he shouted, pointing at me. "Alive!" They did that. Although I fought them, there was really no point to struggling with two male centaurs. "Find a bench in one of these wagons. I'm going to have me some fun." I begged and pleaded. Not that it did me much good. When they found out I was a virgin, there was a roar of approval, as if it was all one big joke. Two found a wooden bench, torn from the seat of one of the wagons, and laid my mother's bedding over it. It took four Centaurs to hold me, one for each arm and each leg, as they tore my clothes from me and laid me down on their platform. Gespil Centaurs are not much larger than humans, Aimee'; they are usually a little under six feet tall, made more of ponies than full-size horses. |