The Island

The goddess laughed outright. "No matter the circumstances, hmm? We'll find out."

She pointed at him, and all of the hairs on the back of Henry's neck stood on end. Electric bolts began to dance on the tips of her fingers.

"Now, boy, choose. Will you abide by my rules and stay? Or will you leave and never return?"

"I love Melissa. I agree to your rules. I want to stay."

She nodded. "Then let us begin."

She took a step closer to him. "Did you know," she said, "that millennia ago, it was I, not Zeus, who created the liminals of the world? The satyrs and fauns, the gorgons and lamia, the sirens and mermaids, the harpies and the centaurs? The other gods said I was mad to create them. Never mind that they were so inspiring that you mortals told story after story about them. And then -- one by one, my beautiful creations were wiped out. Some were killed by you mortals, some by the champions of the gods -- my poor kraken! -- and not a few by the gods themselves. Utter foolishness that they sacrificed all my beautiful things."

Henry stood nervously as the blue lightning on the goddess's hand grew.

"And so this island is a refuge, of my design," she continued, taking another step, "in which this time my creations will be protected. A place for them to grow and thrive. No champions will come here. No men will declare war upon this place. None come here without my permission. And none stay who do not belong."

The growing lightning burst from her hand.

The bolt illuminated the entire temple as it surrounded Henry, now brilliant white and screeching louder than a siren. His entire body felt like it was on fire as he was lifted off the floor. His clothes tore away from his skin, shredded and rent into nothingness. Pain, almost unbearable, whirled in his mind from his feet to his head and back again, and it felt like he was being torn limb from limb. The temple seemed to shrink around him. He tried to gasp, but his lungs would not take in air. He scrambled, struggling, flailing, trying to grasp anything to hold onto, pawing at the air with his -- with his --.

The lightning exploded in a shower of sparks and vanished. Henry slammed into the floor, landing hard on --. He blinked. Something wasn't right. He stood still, breathing hard, trying to fathom what had just happened.

"Arise, my new creation," said Hyla. "You turned out well, if I do say so myself -- you're a fine example of your race."

Henry looked down. His clothes were gone, so there was nothing to hide the truth of whatever she had done to him. A sturdy chest like he'd never had led down to a smooth, chiseled abdomen that blended into -- fur? Beige hooves? Slowly he lifted a hoof, and it responded. He followed the lines of his new form, which trailed out behind him as the body of a strong, dark brown horse, his black tail swishing gently.

"Is -- is that me?" he whispered, his eyes wide.

"It is," said the goddess.

"You turned me -- into a centaur?"

"I did." The goddess grinned, and sat back down on the altar, casually straightening her hair.

He stared down at himself, marveling at the strange body below him, and ran a hand over his new form. "Wh -- what's the --? Why?" He looked back up at the goddess.

She grinned wider. "Why don't you go find out why Melissa would never point her camera downward?"

The centaur blinked. The words slowly sank in.

He opened his mouth as if to speak, but he wasn't sure what to say.

The words sank in the rest of the way, and Henry stumbled his way down to a deep bow. "Goddess, with your leave -- I -- I must go," he stammered. He paused, spying the ring box laying on the ground in front of him, and he quickly snatched it into his hand. Then he stood upright and whirled about, rearing, and burst into a gallop down the hill.

The temple crumbled into dust behind him, and the goddess was gone, leaving only her laughter echoing over the hills behind him.

* * *

Henry raced. As fast as he could run, as fast as his new strong legs would gallop, he raced. Now as he darted into the village, the windows and doors were open, and people milled about. A satyr girl stood behind the fruit stand. A gorgon lazily sat on a bench reading a newspaper through a pair of dark sunglasses, one of her snakes nibbling at the corner of a page. A pair of twin little fauns chased after a ball while their mother yelled, and a harpy stood in the corner of the square preening her feathers. He darted past them all. There was only one person that mattered, and she lived in a little house labeled #12.

He skidded to a halt outside. The shutters were drawn, and there was no sign of life. He banged on the front door. "Melissa!" he cried. He banged again. "Melissa!"

There was no response.

"Ey, love, she's often in the back yard," said a snake woman casually, slithering past with a basket of vegetables. "Why'n't ya check back there?"

Henry nodded, and slipped around the side of the building. She had to be here. And if -- he didn't dare think about ifs. Surely this would be right.

He slowed and stopped. A horse was standing in the garden, with a dark wavy auburn tail and a pretty red-brown coat that glistened in the sunlight. The horse's tail swished back and forth happily. As she heard his hoof-clops, she stood upright at her front end, and there was no doubt that it was Melissa, lovely pretty Melissa, and his heart nearly burst seeing her.

She took a deep breath, and slowly turned to face him, dropping the celery she'd just plucked from the soft earth. "It's you," she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.

Henry stood strong and proud in front of her. "How do I look?" he said.

She stared at him, her eyes slowly inching upwards from his dark hooves over his long, sleek barrel to his sturdy bare chest and chiseled jaw. "Like a dream," she breathed.

"I wish -- you could have told me," he said.

"I wish I could have too," she replied. "But -- you stayed."

"I stayed," he answered, and held out the box.

Gingerly, shaking, she took it from him, and opened it. "It's real," she whispered.

"It's real," he echoed. "And now that it's real -- will you finally marry me?"

She leaped at him, and he stepped back as she landed above him, her forelegs braced around his waist, her arms wrapped around his shoulders, her soft breasts squished against his neck. She leaned down and kissed him. "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes," she said.

He laughed, and kissed her back.

She devoured his kiss, and then pushed his face away. "The ring, the ring, do the ring," she insisted, holding out her hand.

He nodded and took the box from her. She held him tightly with her right arm and forelegs, grinning at him maniacally. He extracted the ring from the box, nearly fumbling it, and then held it up, glistening. She squeaked her approval, holding up her shaky left hand. He took her hand and slipped the ring onto it, and then she held it up, squealing with glee as it shimmered and shone in the sunlight.

"It's real, it's real, it's real, I can't believe it's real!" she cried, then dove at his lips again.

* * *

The grassy hills north of Melissa's house made an excellent place for their real first date. They'd kissed several more times, but now they were just walking side-by-side, talking in the sunshine about all the things that Melissa had never dared say to him.

"I bounced around Europe for a while," she said. "London, Madrid, Paris. I didn't really know where I wanted to be or what I wanted to do, you know? Odd jobs to pay the rent. I told you that part. I just never really fit in anywhere that I went."

Henry nodded as they clopped along through the grass. "So how'd you end up here?"

She shrugged. "I was sitting in a little café in Paris, reading a newspaper, looking for work, and there was a little ad in the back: Come to Greece! Be something new! It struck me, somehow. Hyla made the ad, of course, and got it published to help bring people to her island -- the right people, people like me, people who didn't fit in, people who needed a purpose. It was magic, or something, and you had to be just right to notice it. And -- I loved on the island, at first. This was exactly what I needed. The fresh air, the country living, and I was special, you know? I wasn't just a girl, I was a centaur, a pretty horse, a mythical creature, helping to revive an entire species simply by existing. I spent two years happily living here, but -- "

" -- but?"

"April," she said.

"April? Who's April?"

She shook her head. "The month. It's -- you know, she offered me both mermaid and centaur. She let me choose. I picked centaur because of how much I like fantasy horses -- unicorns, pegasuses, the whole idea of being a centaur sounded wonderful. I just -- didn't know how hard it'd be, though. Eleven months out of the year, it's the fantasy I dreamed it'd be. It's even better now that you're here. But springtime is bad."

"Huh? What's wrong with the spring?"

She winced. "So on the plus side, no more monthly visitor. Five days out of every month, I got a whole lot of my life back that I didn't even know I was missing. You don't know what it's like to be saddled with a period."

"But --?"

"Yeah. The minus side. Horses -- go -- into -- um -- heat in the spring. Estrus. I found out the hard way that we centaurs get it too. Three straight weeks at the start of April. One day you're normal, and the next day you wake up and you're completely insane, can't think about anything except sex for days and days and days. I managed to survive the first year on my own, but after the second time, I got on the floor of her temple and begged Hyla for help. I nearly lost my mind. I couldn't handle it anymore."

"Um." He didn't even know what to say.

"So she gave me an Internet connection."

Henry glanced at her. "Oh -- that's -- when we started talking -- isn't it?"

She nodded.

Henry glanced at her. "It was really that bad?"

"Remember when I went on 'vacation' last April? To a resort with no Internet connection?" she said.

He winced.

"I -- was in my bedroom the whole time, Henry. Banging a rubber horse dildo nailed to the wall, all day every day, a dozen orgasms a day until it was finally over. Three straight weeks of nothing but humping a wall."

He turned bright pink.

"If it makes you feel any better -- I was thinking of you the whole time," she said, shrugging. "Imagining it was you. Fair warning, by the way: You'd better build up your stamina. I've gone through it three times now. I promise I'll try not break you, but now that I have you, I'm going to need you to help me survive it. A lot. Don't schedule anything important this spring."

Henry took a deep breath. "Geez. I, uh -- I don't know if I'm ready to be a -- a father."

She winced, tapping her side. "The Goddess has strict population control on the island. No visitors, no tourists, and no pregnancies without her say-so, and she doesn't give it lightly. And after all that's happened, I doubt she'll ever like me enough to untie my tubes."

"Oh." His face fell a little bit.

She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Don't worry," she said. "I'll do my best to make spring your favorite time of year anyway. For the first time in years, I'm looking forward to it."

* * *

They continued walking side-by-side along the paths through the hills, and Melissa pressed close to him, not daring to let his barrel more than an inch from her side the entire time. They stopped at the top of a high hill, looking out over the sea. For a long while, they were silent, basking in each other's presence, and enjoying the fresh air.

Melissa finally spoke. "Henry?"

"Hmm?"

"I promised you -- that if you stayed, we'd -- have sex," she said. "And -- thing is -- centaurs don't ask. Our people are -- really direct. You don't wait or ask permission. If a guy wants a girl, he just -- goes for her. If she kicks back at him, that means no."

He smiled, and coughed a little. "But I knew you as a human," he said.

"But I wasn't human," she replied. "I haven't been in a long time. You've never known me as anything but the horse."

"Well -- it still doesn't seem right. You're a person, not just a body. You deserve as much respect as any woman."

She grabbed his face, and they stopped walking as she pulled him in for another deep kiss.

She inched her lips loose from him, her eyes shining and wild, and held his shoulders in her hands. "I love that you want to respect me," she said, "and I will absolutely adore you forever for sacrificing the entire outside world to be with me, and for wanting to see me as a person and not just a pretty face."

Her eyes narrowed. "But right now, I'm not just your fiancée, I'm a centaur mare that desperately needs to be mounted by her stallion. I've dreamed about you for months, Henry. I can't hold it in anymore. We're liminals -- half civilized, rational people, and half horny, instinctive animals. My entire back end has been throbbing ever since I saw you with a tail." Her tail swished wildly. "I want to do that lovely romantic evening I had planned, but I'm not waiting that long. Forget dinner, forget sunsets, I need the hot centaur boy who gave up everything to be with me. You earned so much pussy -- please, please take me already."

Henry swallowed hard. "I -- "

"I'm not taking 'no' for an answer," she said. "You came into my fantasy world, and you're my dream come to life. You're the only thing I needed to make this place right." She reached down and took his hand, and placed it on her breast. "We spent a year only able to look at each other. Touch me."

Henry's hearts beat faster. He could feel the warmth of her soft breast under his hand, feel her upper heart beating in her chest. "Wow," he said softly.

"Go on, it's yours," she said, pressing his hand into her chest. "You could have had me without it, but you even put a ring on my finger. You can squeeze my tits any time you want to."

He gave her chest a gentle squeeze, and she smiled.

"You don't know how much I've missed that," she said.

"I take it, uh, you're not a virgin?"

"Oh, hell no," she said. "But after three years of forced celibacy in a brand-new body, I might as well be. You get to be the first and only to deflower my tail."

He coughed. "Ehheh."

She loosed herself from him, pushing his hand down, and then walked up beside him, and swished her tail against his lower chest. She reached back, taking his hand again, and placed it gently on her fuzzy brown rear, just above the dock of her tail. "Touch my tail," she said.

He slowly slid his hand along her warm, soft hindquarters, and over her tail.

She cooed softly. "So good."

Then she lowered her forelegs to the ground, her hindquarters still in the air, leaning forward, her hands braced in the grass.

"Uh, Melissa --?"

Then he realized what she was doing as one of her hands wrapped around his furred sheath and the other began to stroke his shaft. His eyes rolled back in his head at her touch, and he leaned back a little while electricity danced through his mind. He moaned softly.

And then he felt her tongue. And her lips.

She was gently licking his dick.

Henry leaned back more, losing even more of his focus to her ministrations. Her hands were on one end of his shaft, one gently cupping a ball, and her mouth was at the tip, working him, drawing him into her desires, drawing him into her world. Electricity seemed to flow from her lips directly into his brain, and he groaned, bucking against her, which only seemed to make her work at him harder. Whatever she was doing down there, the entire rest of his body seemed to disappear, leaving only a giant equine shaft that was getting harder and harder as she rubbed and licked and suckled at it. Now her lips were wrapped around as much of his flared tip as she could fit, and her hands had moved from his sheath to the length of his shaft. She was stroking him fast as she sucked on him, and he was powerless to resist. He was as hard as a steel beam, and pressure was building -- building --

She could feel it, and she sped up, gripping him tightly, her tail swishing in anticipation.

He came.

"Aaaah!"

He cried out, feeling the dam burst, hot cum blasting out of him into -- he didn't even know where, but it didn't matter, it was out, mercifully out, pouring out of him in volley after volley as his strong hind legs thrust and thrust against her. Her hands worked him hard, over and over again, squeezing his shaft and grinding at it, and somewhere he could distantly feel her lips or face or something on him or near him as he exploded, his hooves shaking in the dirt. He grasped at the air for something to hold onto, but there was nothing, and his body just shook and shook as he released every last bit of an entire year of pent-up desire.

Finally the orgasm slowed, and with a few last thrusts it came to a stop. Her hands loosened around him, and she pulled herself out from underneath him and stood up. His eyes had lost focus as she turned, coming around in front of him.

Melissa had a mischievous smile on her lips. Which were covered in white, sticky goo. As were her face, and hair, and chest.

"Oh, man -- " he said, his body still shaky. He took a deep hard breath, trying to regain his energy.

"You had a lot," she said, grinning, wiping his cum off her face. "I wanted to swallow all of it, but -- there was a bit much."

"S -- sorry -- "

"Don't be sorry," she said. "You taste delicious, and I feel glorious all covered in your jizz. Fuck, that was so hot having you blast all over me. Just so you know, I'm going to make you do that a lot."

He coughed. "Um -- "

Melissa leaned in and gently kissed his cheek. "I was always a little bit kinky, but it's so much more after I got turned into this. I've been dying to have a centaur boy's body to worship, and now that I have it, I'm going to do everything to you my hormone-crazed brain has been coming up with for the last three years." She licked off a little of the spunk on her face. "So much cum," she said sweetly.

She grinned, and stepped back. "I'm going to clean some of you off of some of me. You wait here and get your strength back. And then you'd better be ready for round two, because we're not even close to done yet."

Henry swallowed hard. "I'll -- do my best," he said.

She turned, glancing back at him over her shoulder, and swished her tail, showing off her privates and a wide grin for a moment -- and then quickly trotted down the hill and disappeared around the corner.

* * *

Melissa was gone for nearly an hour. Henry debated following her, but she'd told him to stay, so he lay down in the grass, his entire body warmed by the sun and by the hormones and endorphins rushing through him after his orgasm. She'd done -- he didn't even dare imagine what it must've looked like from her perspective. Even if it was him, she only saw a horse's dick. He didn't even want to think about it, no matter how much she loved it.

It had felt wonderful, though. He'd never had an orgasm quite like it, so raw, so strong -- just pure masculine force, so much more than he'd ever felt. A normal orgasm lasted, what, ten seconds? That one had surely gone for minutes, and when she'd stood up, she had been covered in seemingly gallons of him, all over her upper body like in bad porn drawing. And she still wanted more?

He rested, slowly recovering. His big lower lungs drew breath after breath at first, fast and hard, but as time wore on, they settled down. He felt the strange new sensation of his long, dangly shaft retracting into his sheath: Being a centaur was going to take some getting used to.