Centaur Love Ch. 05

Centaur Love

V

Mathew sat on the little bench beside the drying barn. Growing up he always woke to see his father getting up early for deliveries, but he never knew how his father knew when one would be delivered. But now he knew. A soft scratching feeling had woken him up earlier. The soft scratching came through the spell of clairvoyance he had laid on the farm the other day, and his uncle had expanded the range of the spell, but the scratching came from the message book, and that woke him up, an itch he could not scratch. The Magic Emporium store was getting ready to ship their order, so they wrote on the Lindrose page and with their spell of Clairvoyance going, the soft mental scratching came from the magical stone above the book as the store's employee wrote in the book sending the message to theirs.

The stone circle was next to the barn, it was made of fist-size rocks, about fifteen feet in diameter. Mathew laid the Lindrose beacon stone just inside one edge and sat down to wait for the delivery. Dressed only in his pants and boots since he rushed to retrieve the beacon and to activate it inside the delivery circle. The Magic Emporium not only sent the message of the impending delivery but they also included information like the day and week, lunar phases, and the current constellations and planets in the sky for those who did Astro projections and Premonition type of spells. A kind of magical update for those living in the wilds who might not know what day of the week it was.

Licking his finger, Mathew touched the spell Clairvoyance and mentally adding the few Klatha to maintain the spell for another day. Mentally he looked over the farm and orchard. The farm felt fine, but the orchard felt dry, the late spring, early summer rains were late this year, he decided to ride up to the holding pond above the orchard to open the divergence gate and water the orchard.

Felicia woke and looked over at Mathew's bed. He was not there, stepping out into the hallway the kitchen lamp was not on nor were the front rooms lamps lit. The bookcase was open into the hidden magic room, but he was not in there either. Just as she opened the front door, a slight thunderclap came from the barn area. Rushing out to look, she saw Mathew sitting next to the barn. As the thunderclap rolled outward Mathew casually looked up from the stone circle, he was sitting next to.

Inside the stone circle were several dozen sturdy boxes and several enormous leather bags. So this was the source of those random thunderclaps that everyone has heard occasionally at her father's farm. The Lindrose's were getting things delivered! Mathew stood up as Felicia walked up and opened his arms to hug her. He was dressed in pants and boots but with no shirt. Very different from last night's casual wear.

Felicia leaned in and hugged Mathew good morning. Mathew tried to kiss her, but she pulled back, "No Mathew I have morning green Dragons breathe." Mathew laughed as he covered his mouth and coughed, "I might have you beat love, think I could drop a basilisk with mine." Both laughed. "Give me a hand in carrying this stuff inside the barn and we can go get presentable for our morning kiss." Felicia blew him a kiss, then reached in to grab a box of shipping vials.

On his third trip out of the barn, he asked Felicia what she wanted for breakfast. Felicia smiled, "My Stallion I should be asking..." Mathew held up his hands forestalling her comment. "Love the stallion stuff, and it is fine when we are in a Centaur house or community, but here, on 'our' farm, we need to share the chores, and that means both, the cooking and cleaning. And... since! It is a human slash centaur farm. And, since you did the cooking last night, in all fairness, I should cook breakfast!"

Felicia smiled and put her hand on Mathew's cheek, "Ok I will agree to that, but only if you make those pancake things your family is so famous for!"

Mathew laughed, saying, "Deal!"

Two trips later Mathew secured the drying shed's door, dumping two scoops of fresh feed into both horses feeding troughs and a hand full of hay. He then made his way up to the house. His shower only took a few minutes, but washing Felicia took longer and only one or two hand slaps. Over breakfast, he told her of wanting to flood the orchard and asked if she wanted to go with him.

"Will it take long? I sort of wanted to run down and deliver some of those things I got for my family yesterday and let momma and papa know we are all right."

"It should take us only a couple hours to ride, or in your case run-up to the pond and gatehouse. Then it should take me a half of glass to set the gates. After that, we could run over to your parents' place. I still need to retrieve my father's saddle and tack from your father's barn."

"Will you be 'ok' to ride without it? Up to this gatehouse thing?"

"I should be, it is an easy trail."

Once they had the kitchen cleaned up, they gathered up all the presents Felicia bought for her family and headed over to the barn. With not enough saddlebags available, Mathew put the leather panniers on the cart horse, then doubled up the saddle blankets on the new warhorse. They made their way along the path past the larger pond and alongside the bottom of the groves ridge. Felicia took the packhorse leads so Mathew could concentrate on riding without a saddle. When they reached the east side of the Oak Forest, they turned north. It took them almost two hours to reach the stream on the northern side.

A small rock hut stood next to a large pond, the fast-flowing stream fed it through a set of stone gates. After tying the horses, Mathew unlocked the stout door, bending low as he retrieved the wooden gates to close off the pond from the fast-flowing river. With the two large wooden gates, he climbed the bank between the stream and pond.

Felicia watched Mathew take his shirt off and got down to clean the gate slots. With a whistle and catcall, she let Mathew know she liked the show. As he was busy cleaning the gate slots, she looked into the low-roofed hut. Two stone and wooden gates held the pond's water back from a long stone trough. Three large terracotta pipes fed out of the stone trough that lead into the ground. Bright metal screws raised or lowered the two different sized gates. Both had long handles attached to the top. At all the connecting points, the metal was melted into the rock, that and the fact that there was no rust said louder than words this was Dwarven work.

Felicia felt a hand on her rump, turning she saw Mathew lean in and kiss her ass cheek and squeezed in beside her. She reached out, running her hand down his chest, and then with a smile, she leaned over kissing him.

Mathew kissed her back then climbed up to the gate controls. He turned the first handle lowering the very narrow outer gate till it was even with the pond's water level, then with a notched stick me measure from the top of the gate and turned the handle till it was two inches below the waterline. Stepping over it he slowly opened the outer gate allowing the water to flow into the large trough. Watching the three outlet pipes take in the flow, he opened it a little more. Pausing every other turn to make sure, the outlet pipe continued to flow.

After a quarter glass, he dropped the gate the rest of the way. The large tough partially filled but the three pipes were doing their job. "Are we done here?"

"Yes, we should come back tomorrow to check on it, my dad...," Mathew took a deep breath then slowly let it out before continuing, "We used to come out twice a day to make sure things were still flowing right."

Felicia reached over and hugged Mathew, "It will be ok love, whatever you want to do. I love trotting over 'our' place."

Mathew leaned back and snuck a kiss in as she was pulling back, his eyes were on her massive chest. He was about to give them a rub when Felicia grabbed his hands. "First there is no room for that here in this little hut? And, looking around, if you started something, there would be no place for us to clean up. That pond looks too deep for me. And I don't want to go to mother's place smelling of sex!"

"We could stop at our bathing pond?"

"No."

Mathew locked the hut's door, then untied the horses. Felicia reached in, taking the cart pony's leads, "Give me those. Don't need you being pulled off the mare if the pony got spooked."

They trotted south along the same path until Felicia could see the path leading to the lower ridge, Mathew turned east taking that route. It led further east then down a gentle hill that came out in the back of her father's fields. They trotted a ways, down rows of stretcher poles, then picking a row at random he led her down a row of hops plants. The hops towered over them, shading them as they trotted west. As they came out between two fields, Mathew stared up and down the row of stretchers trying to find his bearings.

Felicia pushed past him, turning south, weaving her way between the stretchers, speeding up to a canter. Slowly weaving left, then right, passing the stretchers that held the long ropes that held up stringers that the growing vines climbed up. Mathew could hear Felicia laugh as she danced in and out as she loped along. He was glad she led the pack pony as he was having a rough time controlling the mare bareback.

Felicia turned right at an open cart track and broke out into a gallop, yelling back. "Come on pokie! Hurry up!"

Once Mathew hit the cart path, he kicked the mare into a gallop but kept having to pull her up slightly allowing Felicia to run in front. They passed several crossroads, but Felicia led them straight up the slight rise until she crested the rise, leaping over the rock-lined canal.

Mathew had never jumped a horse without a saddle before. At first he tried to stand in the stirrups, but at the last minute he closed his legs around her chest and only got an inch or two airborne as she jumped. As the mare landed, so did Mathew with a slight groan. Felicia kept galloping down the road as Mathew slowed the mare to a slow walk to give the boys a chance to protest. Mathew looked up as Felicia raced back down the road.

Her face was slightly flushed, and she tried to hide the smile she wore riding up. She took on a look of concern asking him, "Mathew, are you all right? What happened?"

Mathew grinned, "I am ok, almost forgot to clamp my legs around the mare's chest as she jumped. Felicia burst out laughing, "Oh Mathew, are you all right?"

Mathew grimaced. "I guess, but we could walk to father's house." Mathew saw the slight disappointment in her face as he said that.

"Here give me the leads for the pack pony, now you can gallop while I lead the pony there at a slower pace."

"Are you sure?"

Mathew smiled seeing Felicia's face light up, "Yes love, go, I will meet you at your parents' place."

Felicia handed pony's reins to Mathew and trotted off on a side road, it only took her a few heartbeats till she was at a full gallop. Mathew grinned and started straight down the road he was on at a walk.

Cresting the last rise, he crossed the stream and saw the Fellis farmhouse. He thought, I should think of it as the in-laws. Then he thought of what he needed to say to Sir Fellis. Grand Master Dorthan was rather specific that he speak to Sir Fellis and urge him to organize the Centaur and the Elven nation to take care of the goblin army at Freetown.

Mathew wasn't sure he was ready to help lead an army into a war. But his uncle and the Grand Master said that his powers will grow strong enough in the coming months that the Centaur Nation and the Elves will follow an unfretted Grand Master into battle. Combining his power to the Elven nation's wild magic master level mages, they would have more than enough magical means to draw out the goblin army.

Mathew rode up to the main barn where Felicia stood next to her brothers. Several centaurs stood around working on a large wagon used to harvest the hops.

"Here he comes now. Hey Mathew, did you get lost?"

"A six-legged centaur can't even keep up with runt here!"

"Tarn, Rullis, don't be rude to my mate!"

Mathew grinned as he walked up at their teasing that as a human he had to ride a horse to keep up. "I least I need not ask my brother, to scratch my ass when it itches Tarn."

"You never know Mat, you might enjoy having Rullis scratch your ass." Rullis grinned at Mathew scratching the air towards him.

"Mathew! Tarn, Rullis! Really! You three!" Felicia yelled.

"Boy's", Sir Fellis said from the side of the wagon he was trying to fix, "if you two got time to tease come over here and help the 'men' lift this wagon."

Felicia grinned, "Boys."

"Felicia, go help your mother get lunch ready, Mathew, if you wouldn't mind can you get the jack under the axle while we lift it?"

"Thought we were supposed to keep the wagon from sliding sideways..."

Sir Fellis looked to see if Felicia was out of hearing range before he said anything then giving Mathew a wink he said, "With a short human around we 'MEN' can lift it without the need of this lever and he can crawl around on the ground and put the jack under the axle."

Everyone laughed, Mathew included.

With Six centaurs lifting the massive wagon, Mathew could crawl under and place the jack next to the broken wheel high enough to put a new one on.

"Why don't we break for lunch and we can change the wheel after we eat." Everyone agreed and left to have lunch. Mathew dusted himself off and followed Sir Fellis, Tarn, and Rullis to an outside washstand. Most centaur houses do not have a formal dining table, but several chest-high boards strung along the sidewalls where the family could stand and eat from. Mathew stood near one as he ate from a smaller baby bowl and only finished a half a loaf. He still had to reach up slightly for his small cup of water. After eating lunch, Felicia handed out the things she bought for her family. New shirts and gloves for her brothers, several blouses for her mother, and two bolts of cloth to make wraps for the herd, and for her father she bought a new hooked pruning knife on a long handle so he didn't have to kneel to cut the hop vines.

After thanking his daughter- and son-in-law for the gifts, Sir Fellis sent Rullis to the barn for the replacement wheel and a bucket of grease while he had Tarn start on removing the broken wheel. He followed Mathew to the barn to get his father's saddle. "So tell me Mathew how was your trip to the capitol?"

"It went well Sir Fellis, we...,"

"Johnathon, son, you are family now."

"Thank you Sir, Jonathan, as I was saying we took care of our business at the bank, general store, and the magical supply shop, then we retired to my Uncles place where we had lunch, where I had a long talk with Grand Master Dorthan."

Sir Fellis chuckled, "And did he come right out and say what he wanted of you, or what he wanted you to do?"

Mathew smiled, "No Sir, and yes sir..., he did, let me know that he knew that I faked my declining magical abilities, and didn't inform the council of the fact."

Sir Fellis nodded yes, "I was wondering why you weren't wearing your chain-mail, especially hearing that you and my daughter were up at the groves gatehouse. So you are a young mage, I rather suspected that. And what? You are at a journeyman level still?"

"Power-wise yes, but education or knowledge-wise, more like a Master Elite level. I know all most every spell that my Uncle knows and starting to learn a few I suspect he already knows in the Grand Master level."

"Will you be able to throw them?"

"Yes Sir, given a few more months, I should have no problems throwing them, to be truthful Grand Master Dorthan told me just about every mage south of the equator will know that an unfretted Grand Master is somewhere out west. He also assured me as long as I was the owner and farming Dragon Claw Root for the potion trade, that all mages, under the control of the council will not interfere with me or the farm on the pain of death!"

Johnathon laughed, "So apparently your farm is so vital to the potions trade that the stuffed shirts on the mages council won't lift a finger to follow one of its own, doctrines about unfretted mages as long as you continue to produce this root." Johnathon nodded in thought. "So I take it he also suggested that you talk to me..., to..., hmmm. So I would talk to the Midvale council of elders about the goblin problem?"

"Not in so many words Sir, but in a roundabout way."

Johnathon laughed, slapping the railing they were standing next to, "That is exactly a Dorthan move. Did he know that my daughter was your mate?"

"Yes Sir, I believed he knew even though he asked about our relationship and who her father was."

"Your uncle probably told him the day before," Johnathon replied in thought, "I don't like the way Dorthan is manipulating us, Mathew. He knows he has you under control as long as you farm this root, and now he is putting pressure on me to act, knowing my daughter is your mate." Johnathan laughed again, "Dorthan is a devious man Mathew, he knows the council can't act by decree, and will not act even to save the people, so he is applying pressure on those that can."

Shaking his head, he looked at Mathew, "If I go to Midvale having a Grand Master at my side will help me convince those horse heads that the High King is not coming to our aid. And when he gets back he will have to deal with the goblin's on the eastern side of the mountains, before he even thinks about coming over them to deal with ours. That it would be in their best interests to take care of the goblins ourselves."

"Sir I will go, but I suggest we detour first to the elves, with their brand of magic and famed bowmen on our side I am sure we could persuade the Midvale council that joining us would be in their best interest."

"And how do you purpose to convince the elves to act, they could just say you take care of it, and leave us out."

Mathew grinned, "That part is easy Sir, just letting them know that yes we cannot defeat the horde on our own. But we can burn Freetown down and drive them away from Midvale, and that would lead them right back to the Elven forests, making the goblins an elven problem."

Johnathan laughed, "Now my boy, you are sounding like Grand Master Dorthan, and how do you purpose to convince the elves to help us?"

"That is the simple part, Sir; we just promise them a reduced cost of this winter's shipment of Dragon Claw root and a bigger interest in next summer's supply. But I might need to borrow a few hands to help process this winter's crop and next spring's harvest to have enough to pique their interest."

"So we buy the Elven army and leverage the centaur one...," Sir Fellis laughed, "Yes I think it could work, it is simple, yet devious. A mages plan." Johnathan stared at Mathew. "Still a Grand Master at my side will help convince the Midvale council, but I am afraid Mathew you just don't look the part."

Mathew frowned, "Why do you need a Grand Master to convince the council?"

"Since most centaurs have never been near mages and no centaur mages exist, mages and magic has been greatly overblown in stories around the campfires at night. So with a real mage standing next to me trying to convince them to go to war, it would add some authority to our proposal."

Mathew nodded, "Then all I need to do is buy some robes from the elves. It is not as if I need Mage- Council type. I am a known unfretted mage." Mathew lifted the saddle turning towards the door, "Besides I don't have to look like a council approved mage, I just have to call a bit of magic and prove it to them."

Johnathon nodded yes. "So when can you leave?"

"The earliest will be four days from now, we have a new moon in three days, and I have to check the drying roots to see how much enzymes is still active."