The Healer Pt. 03

When she catches Quell's disapproving face, he wipes it clean and offers a quaint smile instead, being too far away from her to have a private conversation. As a goblet is filled for her, she makes polite conversation with Wistan, delicately filling her plate.

"How is your leg, young Prince?"

"It is fine, Lady Coral. After I bathed, I took the powder down to Doctor Pelium to have him assist me with reapplying it. He was most intrigued."

"Yes, I had the pleasure of meeting him not too long ago; he queried me on the herb as it was one not known to him."

Nibbling on her bread she manages to catch several eyes staring at her from out in the crowd. She does her best to ignore them, her attention caught by Vadim. He asks her a great many questions about life outside of centaur land, making it obvious that he has not travelled beyond the borders before. She obliges him with the answers she knows, her tongue loosened by the hearty wine that keeps appearing in her glass.

By the time she has had her fill of food she discovers she has also had her fill of wine as well. The prying eyes about the room are starting to eat away at her nerves and though she is thankful for the pleasantries of Vadim's questions, she grows weary of talking. Smiling, she manages to slide out of her chair gracefully, "I find that I am more tired from the day's travel than I expected; I think I will retire for the night," a gentle nod towards the younger prince, "Good night, Prince Wistan."

"And to you too, my lady," he says kindly with a smile.

As she turns to Vadim, she discovers that he has stood from his chair as well, "Good night, Prince Vadim."

"Please, allow me to walk you back to your room," he says, motioning his hand before him to usher her out.

Reluctantly, she concedes, "Thank you, sir."

When they exit the large hall the noise cuts down to a distant murmur, the lack of it almost echoes in Coral's ears. She can feel Vadim staring at her as they turn towards the ramp. If she were not already flush from the wine, she would have turned red.

The sound of soft hooves on the carpet creeps up on them, "Good evening, brother. Lady Coral."

Coral turns to see Quell; Vadim smiles, "Hello, brother. I was escorting Lady Coral back to her quarters," he offers as a casual excuse.

Quell rests a hand on his shoulder, "Please, allow me. I am going to turn in for the night regardless; why don't you return to the feast? Wistan has undoubtedly a few tall tales to tell you." He smiles quaintly, stepping between them, as if making his request final.

"Oh, well...as you wish, brother," Vadim walks to Coral, extending his hand; when she places hers in it, he brings it up to his lips, "I bid you a good night, my lady; I hope you have a pleasant slumber." His eyes linger on hers, the touch lasting longer than it should have. Remembering that Quell is there, he releases Coral and nods to his brother, "and to you too, Quell."

Quell nods, watching him leave; he looks uneasy. He offers his arm to Coral, "Shall we?"

Gladly, she takes it, feeling the warmth radiate through his shirt and jacket. He makes his steps small as he did the night they met, taking his time to enjoy their walk together, "Did you have a good meeting with the Doctor?"

"Aye, I did. He is most agreeable. It appears we have a full day planned out tomorrow." They walk up the ramp in silence, turning down the corridor towards Coral's room. "It seems you have found a friend in my brother," Quell says softly. Something in his voice makes it almost sound like an accusation.

"Yes," she says, glancing sideways at him, "he has been most kind to me."

"It occurs to me now that perhaps I should have mentioned he was human," they stop at her door, Quell's brows furrowed.

"It seems like something that would have been worth mentioning, yes," she opens her door, stepping inside. Holding it open for him, she continues, "Would you care to come in for a while?"

"I shouldn't. It isn't proper," he adds as an after beat.

Coral can feel her face sag with disappointment, "I see. So, we are only doing things properly now? What does that mean about...last night? Am I to forget that it happened?"

Quell glances around before hastily stepping in and shutting the door behind him. He reaches for her, taking up her hands in his, "That isn't what I meant, Coral. I stepped out of line last night. I just want to court you properly; I do not want you to think that you don't deserve to be treated with respect. All I wish is to be close to you but I don't want you to think that the only value you have to me is a physical one."

She lowers her head, slightly ashamed at her harshness towards him, "I understand and appreciate your desire to treat me properly, Quell. But if you truly respect me," she raises her chin so that she can look him in the eye, "then you will also trust that I can make my own sound decisions and do not need you as a moral compass."

A smile grows on his face, "As you wish, Coral."

Coral leads him towards the mound of pillows, "Perhaps we could just...talk? Get to know each other?"

He nods, removing his jacket to drape it over the back of a chair before he eases himself down; propped up on his side with his hand supporting his head, he pats the soft fabric next to him. With a smile she lies down next to him, allowing his hand to intertwine with her fingers.

"How do you like my home?" He asks.

"It will take some getting used to," she admits honestly.

"You think there are too many centaurs," he states, a slight frown growing.

"I think there are too many people too," she squeezes his hand, "I have only left my home a dozen times before with Piers and only to neighboring towns the same size. It isn't so much that they are centaurs, it is the look they give me."

"What look is that?" he asks, his eyes studying her face.

"Curiosity, confusion, perhaps a little bit of disdain?" She thinks on it, "I am sure it is the look you get when you visit the human towns for the Atonement."

"Ah," he nods, "I understand. It makes you feel completely out of place, like you don't belong there."

"Yes," she says, "but I also get the same look from the humans too."

He tips towards her, placing a soft kiss on her lips, "That is because you are one of a kind." She smirks at him, getting lost in his eyes. Only when he yawns and stretches do they break their gaze. "I should probably return to my own room," he reminds her.

"And if I said I wanted you to stay?" she cautiously asks.

He runs his hand down her cheek, "Then I would stay, but only so I could hold you in my arms as you sleep."

She nods, smiling, "Then it is settled. You will stay and we will sleep."

Coral rises to her feet, unlacing the back of her dress so she can comfortably sleep in her shift. She walks to the wardrobe, carefully freeing herself from the fabric and makes sure to hang it neatly. As she walks back to him, she passes by the odd looking piece of furniture that she didn't recognize before. Running her hand over the slick leather top, she sees that it is far more complicated than she had originally suspected.

"Quell," she calls over to him, "what is this for?"

He rises to his feet, walking around the opposite side of the bed so that he can see what she is talking about. He gets a surprised look on his face, "Oh," he says rather embarrassingly, "that is a mounting stand."

Looking at it, still confused, "That doesn't answer my question at all."

He shrugs sheepishly, "It is to...help a woman and a centaur mate."

"Oh," she says, drawing her hand back in surprise. Her body saturated with the wine from supper, the question pops out of her mouth before she can stop it, "how does it work?"

"Are you sure you want to know?"

As her body starts to tingle, she can feel her skin heat up, "Yes. I mean, it seems like I should know how this works in case...for when I'm ready..." she flushes.

Quell walks behind her, resting his hands on her hips. He guides her forward until the end of the padded surface touches her belly, then he slowly pushes her down onto it. Gently, he guides her head forward; there is a break in the bench that allows her breasts to hang freely down, the padding curving up to rest against her sternum, allowing her head to drop down freely. Reaching down, he runs his hands along hers, reaching forward down the length of the bench to the end, where there is a notch that provides a good hand hold. Though she cannot see him, she hears him kneel down behind her. His warm, large hands grasp the backs of her thighs through her shift, pushing them forward; she feels her knees hit a padded curve in the back legs of the mounting stand. Slowly, Quell pushes her shift up her calves and over her knees so that he can reach towards the stand; he grasps a hold of a padded bar, pulling it out and rotating it. The bar rubs against the back of Coral's thighs, just above her knee. Once it clicks into a locked position, she discovers her legs are immobilized, spread wide open; if she were naked, her cunt would be fully visible.

Quell slowly rises and walks forward, his furry legs straddling the mounting stand. She can feel the warmth of his belly as it scrapes up her back until her head hits him just between his front legs. On top of her ass, through her shift, she can feel his cock growing larger, slowly creeping up her spine.

"Obviously, you would be naked," he says in a quiet, husky voice, his torso bending over her, his hands stretching downward to cover the top of hers. She is just able to tilt her head up enough to see his bright blue eyes piercing into hers, he looking at her upside down. Teasingly he shifts his body forward, stroking his cock against her back, "the stand provides a decent amount of access, too," he adds, one hand letting go of hers. He drags his finger tips down her arm, tucking it between his leg and her body to gently graze her breast through the shift.

She closes her eyes, body shivering at the warmth of his touch. She lets the stand go, pulling her arms back to her body and sliding them between herself and the centaur's legs so that she can reach down to her waist. Coral gathers her shift in her fists, slowly pulling it up wards to expose her bare ass and majority of her back, letting the bulk of the fabric bunch at her rib cage. She can feel his cock twitch against her back, the velvety fur of his belly rubbing her skin when he breathes in and out. Coral can't help her desire for him. She arches her back, pressing her ass into the base of his cock.

Quell's eyes drift close; he rocks his hips, rubbing the length of his cock against her smooth back. He holds a breast in each hand, squeezing and kneading them as he strokes against her. Coral closes her eyes, focusing on the erotic feeling of fur on her skin. She brings her arms forward so that she can grasp a muscled front leg in each hand; she moves her fingers up and down the length of the short fur. It doesn't take long before Quell takes a step backwards; she can feel his whole body tense. He rests his hands on the front of the mounting stand, bracing himself. Coral looks up, catching his gaze as his mouth drops open and a groan escapes as sheer ecstasy crosses his face. She feels his warm seed spurt over her back and ass, his matted fur trembling against her skin. His eyes close while he takes a moment to breathe; then, he backs his way off of her before releasing her from the stand.

She slowly draws her body up, letting the shift fall down over her naked body; her back is smeared with his offering but most of it was rubbed off by his belly. Coral realizes how much she enjoys seeing the half asleep, sated smile on his face; before he can reciprocate, she takes his hand and leads him back to the mound of pillows, simply wanting to be near him.

Coral nuzzles up to Quell and feels him drift off to sleep. Though she feels tired, her own mind is too loud when she closes her eyes, so she continues reading through the book the Doctor gave her. Nervous that Quell will wake up and see the graphic sketches, she keeps glancing at him, but he slumbers on.

The book answers her questions more thoroughly than she could have ever hoped glean from another person. Not only does she discover the intricacies of sexual relation between two humans—which though rather straight forward, the author made mention of several different positions and several different ways of pleasure that made her blush—she also read through the relations between a male centaur and a female woman. She discovers that Gladys was correct—a lady's womanhood can stretch to accommodate the girth of a centaur, though not the entire length; depending on the stallion, it ranges from half to a third of his cock.

The sketches of the mounting stand show that it has changed drastically since the book was written. In the book, the stand functions as a way to prevent the woman from running off—she is to be buckled down and restrained for mating. It seems that at the time, though a woman might fall in love with a male centaur, there was nothing enjoyable about having sex with one. The author, out of empathy for the women or fear for the centaur race—it is unclear—documents his attempts at teaching the male centaurs how to pleasure a woman. He explains that if a woman is fully aroused at the time of mating, it will make it substantially less painful for her, which in turn benefits the stallion because she would be more willing in the future to accommodate him.

Towards the end of the section, he writes of a miraculous discovery that he made—a tonic that, when applied directly to a woman's womanhood, would prepare it to accept a centaur. Coral understands from his notes on the subject, that it arouses her so deeply that she yearns for a centaur's attention and is fully satisfied by their encounter. Intrigued, she reads through his recipe; though she understands the directions on how to brew the decoction, she doesn't recognize any of the plant names, suspecting they are in another language. Her curiosity peaked, she shuts the book and lies back against Quell, wondering if, perhaps, there is a way that she could enjoy mating with him as much as she enjoys their half-sex.

...

Coral doesn't hear Gladys enter the chamber in the morning. When the older woman throws open the curtains to let in the bright sunlight, she cheerfully says, "Good morning, my lady, it is time to begin the day."

She rubs her eyes, Quell's arms still wrapped around her. He is slow to stir as well, stretching when he finally does. As Gladys turns around from the window and her eyes fall on Quell, she gives a frightful shout, "Oh, good heavens! I...I apologize, sir, I did not...see you...there...excuse me," she adds before scurrying back out the door to wait in the hallway.

Quell has a big grin on his face, finding the embarrassed look on Coral's amusing, "I imagine this will be the gossip of the castle now." He places a gentle kiss on her forehead before rising to his legs, stretching slowly.

Coral stands as well, wrapping a blanket around her, following him as he grabs his jacket and heads for the door. When Coral sees a centaur posted across from it, she looks at Quell, questioningly.

Reaching out, he softly touches his cheek, "I forgot to mention last night, that my father has decided that you need an escort, at all times."

She drops her gaze, "Because he does not trust me."

Unable to deny her statement, he adds, "I will ask that if I am with you, I will be escort enough."

Nodding, she watches him leave.

Gladys slips back through the door, shutting it behind her. She busies herself with selecting a dress, "Please, my lady, accept my apology—if I had known—"

Coral cuts her off, "It is all right, Gladys. Quell and I are...getting to know one another." She says it sheepishly, unable to wipe a smile off of her face.

"Oh, my lady, that is wonderful to hear," she holds out the purple one, but when Coral shakes her head, she offers the green instead, "he is such a handsome stallion and so kind too. It just broke my heart when his mate passed—I never thought he would take another but you make him a great match, my lady."

Surprised she stammers out, "His...mate? He...had one?"

The color drains from the servant's face, "Heavens, I thought you knew...I really should learn to bite my tongue."

Shaking her head, she strips off her shift, pulling on a fresh one, "Yes, it is something you think he'd have mentioned." Her voice is soft, slightly bitter. As the servant helps her with the dress, she continues, "Can you tell me about it, Gladys? I'm not quite sure whom else I would even ask without them thinking I was prying or had some ulterior movie. I feel like they don't fully trust me..." she frowns, at least thankful the dress is more modest and plain than the one she wore yesterday.

Gladys tilts Coral's chin up, offering a soft smile, "Of course, my lady. That is what a handmaid is for, after all. Her name was Searra. They grew up together from foals and were thick as thieves when they were younger, so it seemed only right that they end up as mates. She got pregnant and when it was time to birth the foal, there was a complication; she was in labor way too long and the foal died. It must have nicked something on the way out because there was so much blood—Searra was gone not long after. It has been almost three years now—the King tried to match him with another centaur but Quell would have nothing of it. It has caused some unrest in the town; our law states that only a centaur can hold the throne—as Prince Vadim is not one, he will never be able to be King. If he can produce a male centaur heir, then his son would but none believe that will happen so when the time comes it will be Quell who ascends the throne. If he does not have an heir, that only leaves Wistan and the offspring he would make. None of us dare think of what would happen if he didn't have any young."

Coral lets the information sink in; to think that Quell lost his mate and his child in the same day makes her heart ache—no wonder he never told her, "Searra was a female centaur?"

"Aye, lass. They are far and few in between—perhaps only fifty in our town at the moment but the entire royal family are to take a centaur mate. It is rumored that Vadim is promised to a young mare and when she becomes of age soon they will mate, but none are really sure about the inter-workings of a man and a female centaur; it just doesn't seem like the pieces will fit right together, if you know what I mean. Queen Kiera is the daughter of a King who rules on the eastern half of the centuar kingdom, as there were no local maiden centaurs when King Rainer came of age."

She is surprised to hear that Vadim is engaged to be mated; he seemed so interested in her—Coral wonders if she has mistaken his intentions and he merely means to be friends. Trying to process all of the new information, Gladys takes her silence as a meaning that she has heard more than she wanted to, "I apologize, my lady, I seemed to have let myself ramble into politics. If you are ready, I can show you where the family takes its breakfast."

Coral nods, allowing the old woman to tighten her dress and work on her hair; the fiery curls are wild after a night of sleep so Gladys compromises with them and pulls half of the mass back, pinning them into place. Looking at herself in the mirror, she is surprised to see how regal it makes her look, having never bothered much with her hair before.

The breakfast room is small in comparison to the great hall from the night before. The large, tall table is mounded with just as much food, though the seating arrangement varies. Rainer and Kiera sit at opposite ends, Quell and Vadim on one side, Wistan and an empty chair for her next to Rainer on the other. After climbing up into the seat, a servant rushes over to fill her glass with some juice. She glances up to see Vadim staring at her from across the table while she sips the liquid.