Princess Jern's Centaur Mentor

II

For many weeks thereafter, Jern lived and breathed for little else other than the spartan tutelage of Chiracles Piladius, intent on proving the centaur incorrect about her limitations. Under the Centurion Stallion's supervision, no two days in a row were ever the same. Aside from the typical callisthenics and weightlifting essential to any regime, on some days Jern would be sent to scramble up, down and along the steep, treacherous slopes that encompassed the Vale without pause, while on a few she was directed to traipse through a specified route within various thickets (tangled enough to make for natural obstacle courses) with the overall aim being to reduce the time she took completing the circuits at each instance, and on others she was instructed to swim several laps along the full length of the nearby lake. Other exercises included clambering trees of a certain height with naught but her bare hands, lifting weights under the lake's surface, or being made to bear crawl for an entire day, all of which and more performed no matter what the weather might have been, whether the sun's bright beams were brutally scorching or if the Vale was inundated with a torrential thunderstorm.

Lessons in weapon handling were a daily constant, with Chiracles educating the princess in the techniques which he had found the most effective within certain situations in his time (dependent on an opponent's weapon against her own, the make-up of the armour they wore, and even down to the advantages some species were provided by their natural biology) across an impress variety of armaments that the Centurion claimed at least a little familiarity with, and knowing the strength each one provided (whether it was the versatility of a sword, the reach of a spear, or the range and precision of a bow and arrow), with these tutorials often punctuated with personal examples throughout his colourful career to better illustrate their utility to the princess (many of which she was not familiar with before hearing them straight from the centaur's mouth in spite of all the avid reading she had ever done on the Caligian commander), steadily increasing the number of techniques and tools she was to continuously practise with every day thereafter.

These would oft be followed by a lecture in battlefield theory, again with Chiracles providing precedents from famous battles he had participated in (with his personal account sometimes sounding very different to what Jern had remembered reading in the official histories), though he would occasionally lose himself in the own intensity in which he presented his reminiscences down to the nitty-grittiest of details. However, Jern - somebody who usually found orations to be dreadfully dull affairs to suffer through - found herself similarly engrossed in the retired soldier's war stories, and was constantly on tenterhooks to know how they would proceed rather than taking in the lesson that was trying to be taught from them, with Chiracles' evocative descriptions and convicted tone making the young woman feel as though she had actually been present at those events right alongside him, allowing her to perfectly picture the flow of how things played out during those engagements in her mind's eye.

The two arranged at least one sparring session per day using dummy weapons Chiracles had held onto as mementos from his days as a drill sergeant, although Jern found duelling the centaur of be akin to combatting somebody on horseback while she was stuck on the ground, with the former not even having the disadvantage of having to dedicate part of his focus to controlling a mount while he fought, with the princess further handicapped by not having a centaur's inherent stamina, which was comparable to the equines they shared characteristics with. When these spars initially commenced, Jern would be oftentimes soundly trounced, for in spite of her teacher getting on in years, he still proved himself to be hardly listless when it came to holding his own (their very first bout concluding when Chiracles remarked his pupil would have died ten times over had they been using real weapons), though steadily did the princess' youth start to catch up with the veteran's maturity, growing accustomed to his fighting style and putting to use the manoeuvres he had passed onto her mixed in with her usual approach to conflict, successfully scoring some taps against the Centurion before long, and even starting to eventually come out of the mock-duels more consistently victorious. It was after these that Jern would occasionally catch Chiracles practising with his weapons in his own time, no doubt trying to shake the rust that had come with retirement off his finesse to avoid his upstart of a pupil surpassing him in that sphere so soon.

On top of all this, Jern also carried out menial tasks on the Chiracle's behalf, as the centaur had no real need for currency in his current way of living as the princess had initially offered, and instead came to an agreement that the payment for tuition, lodging and any food that came from his plot would take the form of her labour, which included assisting him in tending his farm every morning (though anything that required specialised agricultural knowledge was left in the Centurion's hands), fetching water from the lake sometimes several times a day (with Jern only realising just how heavy those two buckets on the yoke could be when filled to their brims during her first round trip) and chopping the firewood (which extended to the occasional felling and transport of timber whenever the fuel reserve ran low). As all this toil required no small amount of physicality to accomplish, Jern merely considered the extra work to be an adjunct to her training, helping her cope coming to terms with her temporary role as a drudge after spending much of her early life in the lap of royal leisure until only the year prior - and as she preferred to be late riser when it could be helped - finding it especially rough being rudely awoken each morning at first light by Chiracles banging on a pot with a ladle outside where she slept (which she suspected he derived a degree of glee from doing), and only receiving her breakfast after the farming had been finished.

Just about the only thing Jern did not have a hand in was the occasional hunt Chiracles partook in every few days, and although Jern was no stranger to bagging animals for their meat when the necessity arose, she did not doubt the centaur would rather leave such a careful profession be left the one with greater expertise. He did, however, enlist the princess' assistance carrying his gained game to a trading outpost situated a solid two or three hour trek away from his cabin (although Chiracles could have completed the trip in a much shorter time himself, he had to slacken his pace for the biped human's sake), over a craggy ridge at the opposite end of the Vale, and leading the redhead to realise that perhaps this stretch of wilderness was not quite so lonely as she had originally assumed, and she just had the poor luck of entering it from its unpopulated end. It was not an especially large settlement in any case, with it accommodating only the barest minimum of amenities, with even fewer buildings that looked to be the homes of the handful of residents who permanently resided there. Here, Chiracles traded his quarry for the few supplies needed for his isolated lifestyle, while Jern used her mercenary wages to procure a little bit of meat for herself to supplement to the otherwise wholly vegetarian diet she was subject to while boarding under a herbivore's roof, as well as take the opportunity to treat herself to a pint or two at the local pub, which were the only occasions during her training in when she could indulge in alcohol, which tasted better than any nectar on her lips after unwillingly abstaining for longer than she would have liked.

About a week into Jern's new routine, just as she was growing accustomed to its strain, Chiracles instructed her to empty her rucksack and replace its contents with a stockpile of stones to its capacity, which she was now to haul about upon her back from here on out in absolutely everything that she did bar sleeping, sparring or swimming, but aside from this one adjustment, the training proceeded more or less the same from its start to its end, and truthfully did meet Jern's expectations of how she would be coached under a former soldier of her mentor's rank: strictly by the book, albeit elevated to a degree far more severe than under any instructor she had prior. Although in spite of the Stallion Centurion's matter-of-fact attitude, there was one peculiarity about him which took Jern a while to figure out.

The peculiarity in question was that on the very first day of Jern's tutelage, Chiracles explained that he would have to periodically remove himself from supervising the princess throughout the time he would be coaching her, giving explicit directive that she was not to ask him any questions as to why he had this requirement, and under no circumstances that she was to follow him where we went during these occasions, being nothing for her to be concerned about. Of course, Jern was left puzzled by this command without its reasons explained, but swore she would honour the retired hero's wishes. Sure enough, later that day, Chiracles departed from the princess' presence seemingly unprompted in the middle of counting her chin-ups on the low-hanging tree branch, the brash centaur turning far more diffident when he stated he had to be excused. At first, Jern assumed the centaur was simply answering nature's call, although he was absent for about an hour at her estimate before he returned; far too long for anybody to take a leak even if they had a horse's bladder.

Afterwards and true to his word, Chiracles would leave Jern's vicinity at least once a day, and occasionally twice, for seemingly no reason in the slightest, and neither did his goings seem consistent: sometimes it would happen just as they were having a meal, other times it would happen in the middle of a sparring match. If they were outside of the cottage, the centaur would go inside, and if they were both inside, he would go out, always taking himself to some secluded spot well out of Jern's view for similar lengths of time as the first, sometimes longer. When an instance of this happened once while they were at the outpost, it made Chiracles visibly distressed, though at least gave Jern the excuse to enjoy herself at the pub a little longer than normal while he did whatever it was he did during these moments. After so many instances of this occurring without clarification, it was only natural that Jern would start to wonder what could possibly be the cause of it all, but out of respect for her teacher's privacy, as well as not wanting to run the risk of being expelled, the redhead suppressed her curiosity on the topic...at least for the time being.

That would change, however, after one day of particularly gruelling exercise and toil which had reduced Jern to an aching heap from her shoulders all the way down to her ankles as she lay wide awake upon her bedroll - paradoxically exhausted and yet too sore to so easily slip off into a slumber even past midnight - in the crawlspace of the cottage's roof that she had been boarding in. Despite its size, living space was scarce in the centaur's cottage, which had not been constructed with accommodating guests in mind, though the loft (being a space that Chiracles had no purpose for himself) honestly was not too bad a spot to sleep in after being swept free of dust and its resident mice were frightened away, not to mention Jern's raucous snoring reverberated little against the thatch, otherwise she may have been made to sleep outdoors in her shelter-half.

The night was quiet, as nights typically tended to be in the Vale, with not even the sound of an owl outdoors to disturb the perfect stillness, which made the sound of a door opening down below come as quite a startle to Jern who was concentrating on trying to gain some rest. The sound seemed to come from the back of the house, towards Chiracles' bedchambers, making the princess roll onto her side and peep through a knothole in the floorboards to see if she could spy what was stirring at this hour. Although the hallway just below the crawlspace was dim, the shadow of a centaur passing underneath was unmistakable, whose hooves made only the most minor of clacks as he moved at whatever the equine equivalent of a tiptoe was. Jern kept quiet, holding her breath even as Chiracles carefully snuck his way to the front door, which he took especial care to unlatch without making a noise before stepping out, gently closing the entrance behind him.

Jern suspected Chiracles was currently being affected by whatever it was which caused him to hide away for prolonged periods at a time, it having already happened once today, and she further conjectured he did not want to leave even the slightest risk of the human entering his chamber for whatever reason at this time while they were both in the building and opted to head out of doors and as far away from her as he deemed necessary. If it was such a precaution that was being taken, Jern's curiosity over this behaviour burned more intensely than it had before, and if her twinges and cramps were not going to keep her up until morning, then endlessly speculating over what was so unutterable for her teacher to depart in the middle of the night was going to do just that. Although she knew she would be going back on her word doing what she was about to do, Jern's concern got the better of her and she decided that if there ever was a time to learn the Centurion's secret, now was it, when there was minimal likelihood of being seen by Chiracles on the flat fields under the blanket of darkness, although she made an internal pledge then and there that no matter what she might witness, she would never reveal it to the world even until her dying day.

Jern crawled from her bed and climbed down the trapdoor to the ground floor, not wanting to lose precious minutes dressing herself or even putting on any footgear, and so slipped out the cottage in nothing except for a vest and a pair of briefs after she had confirmed Chiracles was not anywhere out directly in front from a careful survey through the window. She sidled her way around to the corner of the house, peeking around it with squinting peepers to just barely discern the centaur's form a few metres away in the light of the full moon suspended in the cloudless sky, prompting the princess to give pursuitm though she maintained a distance, keeping low to the ground so that her darkened figure blended in with the gloom of the grass. Chiracles seemed to be slowly heading in the direction of the lake that was their water source and where Jern conducted her swimming exercises, and although he was out of her sight for a few moments at a time from the many turns his route took, the redhead continued on assuming that was his destination, and her hypothesis proved correct upon reaching the clearing which hid that expansive pool. There she saw the centaur's silhouette perfectly outlined in profile afore the lake reflecting the lunar rays upon its still surface like a streak of silver, comparable to a scene straight out of a painting if the princess was so artistically minded.

Seeing how she was not though, Jern instead pondered what on Midgard could have possibly brought the man out here of all places in the dead of night, but there was still quite a span between where he stood and where she skulked, and the princess could not perceive the precise details within the indistinct dimness. As such, she carefully inched her way closer and closer so that she might gain a better gleam of what was going on, increasing the risk of Chiracles detecting her with every centimetre she approached and with every second she spent slinking, and realising this, switched from a crawl into a scramble so that she could dip in and back out as soon as she gained her answer.

In her haste however, Jern failed to consider what else might have been hidden against the dark grass, and all the weight behind a rapid footfall came directly down upon a stray stick that must have broken off a closeby tree and blown by the wind directly within the bearing she had just so happened to take - further evincing her stance that the Norns possessed a twisted sense of humour - and just as it was back in the Chiracles' abode, the snap that came from trodding on that twig might as well have been cannon fire from how appreciable it contradicted the nocturnal quiet. Jern halted and cringed the second the sound reached her ears, though not from that itself, but rather from what she anticipated was to follow, as she had gotten close enough to easily distinguish Chiracles' head turn directly in her direction.

"Wh-who's there?" Chiracles said, apparently unable to visually observe Jern quite yet. There was an unmistakable shakiness in the centaur's voice; the first time Jern had heard her usually poised teacher speak so. What could it be that could bring about such a tremble in his tone upon being caught when he had braved through some of the bloodiest conflicts in living memory? "Another assassin after my head? Leave now! I'm warning you! I'm not afraid to get violent!" He further added when met with no reply in an attempt to intimidate whoever there might have been there to retreat. Jern remained where she was for a few seconds longer, though concluded there was no way she could get out of this now that she had been detected, as the Centurion's keen vision would undoubtedly catch even the slightest of movements in the moonlight and identify it to be her, and already she could see him actively scanning the area while she remained still. With a defeated sigh, Jern slowly stood up straight with both her empty hands raised and splayed to show she was unarmed.

"It's only me...sir." She calmly clarified as she revealed herself.

"Jern?!" Chiracles exclaimed with shock, before then pleading to her with a mixture of alarm and outrage. "L-Leave me! At once! I beg you!" But the plea came too little too late, for Jern had already noticed upon standing up that her teacher currently stood completely clothless, and subsequently saw exactly what it was he had not wanted her to see at any cost: unable to help her eyes being drawn towards an oblong shape which projected from between his hind thighs and spanned along almost the entirety of his underbelly.

"By Tyr..." were the only words Jern was able to express in reaction, though drew a blank in finding anything she could further utter following that oath to her favoured deity which could adequately articulate the awe she felt from seeing a full centaurian erection. Of course, there was nothing that had led her to believe that the male non-human was not endowed thus, though it was a different thing entirely to see such a thing with her own eyes: although it was still in shadow, she could clearly determine the shaft was a length almost half her own height, terminating in a flat tip, and its girth was comparable to that of her own arm. Top those dimensions off with a pair of hefty orbs a little larger than fully ripened oranges dangling at its base, and the nude demibeast had no hope of hiding such a prodigious protuberance when wearing nothing to conceal it.

With his panicked protests being for naught and knowing there was nothing in his power he could do to make the human woman unsee the source of his indignity, Chiracles could only accept the fact of what had happened and was not long in regaining his usual composure, albeit he was no less upset by being caught with his caparison off (which currently hung on the branch of a nearby beech). "Well, I suppose there's no use getting worked up now that the secret's out...and my disappointment in your disobeying my orders after giving your warrior's word is second only to my shame." He added with a biting tone of resentment that had hurt Jern deeper than any injury she had suffered during their spars, making her heart sink into her stomach.