Chapter Text
Thomas slowed to a stop on his way back to the car, his eyes once again glued to the centaur rescue billboard. They had been asking for a home for four rescues that had all come from the same stable, which had come into their shelter just over a week ago. He didn’t know why this ad caught his eye every time he went into town, but he couldn’t shake how bad he felt for them. The shelter was the same one his best friend Joan worked at, so he knew they were trustworthy, but aside from that, he couldn’t think of any reason why he’d feel so sympathetic towards these rescues… He shook himself from his thoughts and continued to his car, tossing the groceries into the back seat before hopping in and pulling out.
He lived on an old farm about fifteen minutes out of town. He’d lived there four years now.
When he got back home, he brought his groceries inside and started to put them away silently. He didn’t know why those new rescues had been sticking with him so strongly, but he couldn’t shake it. It had been a week and no one wanted to take them in. They needed someone to care for them. To actually love them, not just fulfill their physical needs. They needed someone who wanted to spend time, a lot of time, to make sure they felt valued and loved. They needed somewhere to call home. He stared at his fridge, where he’d pinned a note with the rescue’s phone number, heart aching. There was a reason no one had wanted them. They were going to be more than difficult to take care of. There was something people were hearing about them when they called the shelter that they desperately didn’t like. Thomas took a deep breath and pulled out his phone. He didn’t care.
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The next morning, Thomas sat in his living room, waiting for the phone to pick up on the other end, one leg bouncing as he struggled to think right. Finally, a voice answered. “Hey, Thomas. What’s up?”
“Joan, you gotta help me! I have no idea what I’m doing, this was so stupid! I’m gonna mess everything up!”
“Whoa, whoa, dude, what’s going on?”
“You weren’t working last night?”
“No? Why? What happened?”
“Oh, man. I’m taking the new rescues. I called last night.”
“What?! You’re kidding, that’s awesome!”
“No! No it’s not! I have no idea what to do with them!”
“I know you’ve got plenty of space.”
“No, no, not with that! Joan, I have never even gone close to a centaur! Once in my life! I’ve dealt with horses before, but never centaurs!”
“Dude, I know. But like I’ve said, the experience isn’t that important with centaurs, as long as you treat ‘em right.”
“But I don’t know how! I don’t know how to treat them! I know how to treat horses! But I don’t know the first thing about centaurs!”
“Okay, okay, breathe. You’ll do fine, alright? When are they rehoming?”
“They said to expect them like an hour from now?!”
“Whoa. Not much time left… Alright, just hold tight, okay? I’ll be over in a minute.”
“Thanks a billion, Joan. You’re a life-saver.”
“Yeah, sure thing. See you in a bit.”
Joan hung up and Thomas slowly set his phone down, shaking. His heart was racing. He was not prepared for this. This is the worst thing he’s ever done on impulse. He was gonna ruin these centaur’s lives! He took a deep breath and pulled himself to his feet, going out onto the front porch to wait for Joan.
About twenty-five minutes later, Joan’s car pulled up and Thomas jumped to his feet to meet them halfway in a quick hug. “Thanks again for coming. I have no idea what’s wrong with me...”
Joan just shook their head. “Dude, you’re lucky I have the day off. But listen, you’re way too worked up about this! Centaurs are easy.”
“But… but these guys…”
Joan nodded solemnly. “Yeah, they’re… a really bad case. When the cops got to ‘em they’d almost died they were so dehydrated…”
Thomas nodded stiffly. “Yeah, they… they told me everything on the phone… about their… abusive owners and….”
Joan shook their head again, letting a smile play back onto their lips. “Listen, Thomas, don’t worry so much. They’re in really bad shape, yeah, so they’re gonna be a lot harder work, but c’mon. I know you can handle it. They’ll love you once they realize you’re not dangerous, I’m sure.”
Thomas sighed. “For their sakes, I really hope you’re right…”
“Now, your biggest hurdle is gonna be trust, alright? So let’s go see what you’ve done with the barn.” Thomas nodded.
Thomas had re-cleaned all of the biggest stalls the night before, as well as put up a few decorations, opened the stall’s doors, and laid multiple blankets over the open doors, and cleared off a large shelf built into the wall in the center hallway standing six feet off the ground. “I figure it could be like a makeshift table for now?”
Joan nodded slowly. “This is all pretty good for last-minute. As soon as you can, I would maybe install some hooks to go in the stalls for the blankets and get rid of the doors entirely. And it might be a good idea to keep the door to the tack room closed since we don’t know exactly what was used against them. I know you’ve never messed with the stuff in there much, being that it came with the place and all, but they don’t know that and we don’t know if that’d scare ‘em.” Thomas nodded and rushed over to pull the door closed, and Joan smiled as he got back. “Aside from that, and getting some wall-beds, I would just make changes for them all personally once you learn a bit more about them. ”
Thomas nodded, letting himself smile. “Okay. You think they’ll be okay with it?”
“Don’t stress it, I’m sure they’ll like it fine. Oh, but it looks like you can ask them yourself.” Joan pointed, and Thomas looked up to see two large centaur trailers slowly back up near the barn.
“Oh, no, they’re here already.”
“Whoa, okay, so what? Come on, you wanted this.”
Thomas took a deep breath and nodded, following Joan up to meet the two people getting out of the trucks. One of them was a dark-skinned man with a huge smile on his face and the other was a person with bright blue hair. They both ran up to Joan immediately.”Joan! What are you doing here?”
“Hey, guys! I’m here helping my man, Thomas.”
“Oh my gosh, this is your Thomas?!”
“Yep. In the flesh.”
“Well hey! Glad to meet you! I’m Talyn, and this is Terence. We’ve heard quite a lot about you. I didn’t know you wanted centaurs.”
“I didn’t either… I’ve been thinking about it since you guys put up the billboard about these four. They kinda just… stuck with me, you know?”
“Aw, that’s precious! Okay, then, you ready to meet ‘em?”
Terence cleared his throat pointedly. “Assuming you got briefed about them when you called?”
Thomas nodded nervously. “I did.”
Terence nodded to Talyn and they unlocked the first trailer, slowly swinging the doors open. The first thing Thomas noticed about the two centaurs inside was that they were expressionless, perfectly still except for a barely-noticeable glance towards Thomas. The next thing he noticed was how nauseatingly thin they both were. Every one of their bones was visible. Lastly, he noticed that their wrists were tied together, and the ends of the ropes they were bound with were tied to the inside of the trailer. Thomas stared at the ropes in horror as Terence and Talyn untied them from the wall and led them out of the trailer. “Lead the way.”
Thomas stuttered. “What are the ropes for? Why are they tied up?”
Talyn sighed. “We don’t like it any more than you do. But it’s just for safety. These guys have been through a lot of nasty stuff because of humans, so we didn’t want them to think they were in danger and run. Not that we don’t want them on their own, we just… don’t know if they could survive on their own right now. They’re all pretty young still, and they’ve never been by themselves by the sound of it. We just don’t want anything else to happen to them.”
Thomas nodded and stepped back, gesturing vaguely to the open stalls. Once they were both in, and he’d told Talyn and Terence to leave the stall doors open, he stepped into the first stall and looked up at the centaur’s face. “Sorry about this rope. Can I untie it for you?” The centaur nodded slowly and so he carefully untied the rope and tossed it out of the stall. He smiled gently, then moved on to the second centaur, where he did the same thing, got the same small nod, and tossed the rope out. Finally, he stepped out and went up to greet the other two. Now he was nervous. One of these centaurs he was about to meet, whichever one was mostly black, was going to be a lot harder to work with than the others. He may never trust human men again. He had been very unprofessionally gelded by his previous, abusive, owner… with a kitchen knife. He almost hadn’t survived, but nonetheless, he was forced to continue working the very next day, despite the raw, bleeding wounds and excruciating pain. Thomas watched as the doors were opened and the two centaurs were led out. Immediately he felt a momentary panic, and a split-second instinct to run. The centaur who had black fur was a Shire. He hadn’t asked what breed and race they were on the phone. He hadn’t cared. But now his heart race faster as he watched the ginormous creature stop suddenly, tugging gently against the ropes around his wrists. Talyn, who was leading the shorter of the two, told Terence to wait where he was and they would both coax the Shire to come once the first centaur was inside. Terence agreed and so Thomas followed centaur number three into a stall and gently asked permission before removing his ropes as well. Finally, it was time to coax the last centaur inside and let him see his new home. Thomas stepped back and watched. Terence loosened his grip on the ropes and they both spoke soft assurances of safety until finally, very slowly, the centaur let them lead him inside. Thomas slowly stepped into the stall with the Shire, vaguely noticing Joan step over to send the two others off. “Hey.” He smiled as kindly as he could and looked up to see the Shire shaking slightly, face firmly held unmoving in an obvious effort to keep his eyes from getting misty. “Are you alright?” No answer. “Okay… Is it okay if I take that rope off?” After a very long, silent minute, the centaur finally held his hands forwards. Thomas smiled up at him and very gently untied the rope, setting it down this time instead of tossing it. “There you go.” Awkwardly, he stepped out and gestured for Joan to follow him to the side.
“See? You’re doing great so far! They seem really calm.”
Thomas looked back to see them all standing stone-stiff, barely allowing themselves to blink. “That’s calm?!”
“Oh, yeah. For these four? That’s calm.”
Thomas nodded slowly. “So, how do I go about grooming?”
“With centaurs, the upper half you can just hand ‘em a hose and they do it themselves, but with the lower half, they can’t reach everywhere so you just handle that part like you would a horse. I know you know how to groom a horse.”
“Okay, so about the lower half then… how do I talk to them?”
“What do you mean? Just say whatever you’d say to a normal person.”
“Well, I don’t know what I’d say to a normal person! Alright, time to brush your ass now, stay still! I mean, come on! You gotta help me...”
Joan burst out laughing. “Oh, man, Thomas! You’re making this a lot more complicated than it is. Okay, okay, listen, these guys are like teenagers mentally, so you might offend them no matter what you do, but most centaurs don’t care. They’re not self-conscious about that kinda stuff. Only one I’d suggest being extra careful with is the Shire. So just make sure you watch for uncomfortable body language and you should be fine. I’ll help you introduce yourself and work on the first kid, alright?”
Thomas nodded. “Thanks, again.”
“Sure thing. I mean, this is what I do. On purpose.” They both laughed and stepped back towards the stalls. They silently agreed on a stall and stepped into the furthest on the right, and finally, Thomas let himself examine what he looked like aside from sickly thin and apathetic. He had slick white fur. Or, what he assumed would be slick if it wasn’t caked with filth. He also had a long, matted, white tail. His upper half was just as filthy, and his long brown hair was matted and oily. Now that Thomas could examine his face, he realized that he was clearly of Latino origin. Joan cleared their throat quietly and spoke to him in a low voice. “Hey there. Do you remember me? I tried to talk to you a few times. My name is Joan.” The centaur glanced at him momentarily. “And this is Thomas. He’s gonna be taking care of you from now on.”
“Hi. It’s nice to meet you.” Thomas held out a hand, and then a lot happened at once.
There was a loud sound, something hitting roughly against the wall, and a voice screamed furiously. “Don’t touch him!”
Joan and Thomas both flinched and slowly stepped back, hands raised. Thomas sighed shakily. “We won’t. We won’t. I’m sorry.”
Joan whispered to him. “He’s the one that kept us from grooming any of them.”
Thomas nodded and then slowly stepped forwards, towards the one that had screamed. “M-My name is Thomas. I don’t want anyone to get upset, so can I ask if it’s okay with you if I touch the others?” The centaur shook his head violently. “Okay. I won’t, then. I won’t touch them. I-Is it okay if I just talk to them?” After a long moment, he nodded hesitantly. “Alright. Then I’ll just talk, okay?” The centaur nodded. He was filthy just like the first, just like he assumed all of them were. His fur was a chestnut brown, and his tail looked the same color, if not darker. It was hard to tell what color anything was through the mud and caked-on dirt. He had long, matted, bright red, curly hair and green eyes, and he had tanned skin with freckles covering every inch of his upper half. He didn’t have an accent, seeing as he was probably raised among humans in the area, but given his facial structure, and the freckles and bright red hair, he was most likely Irish. Thomas hoped they would let him clean them off sometime soon. They moved on to the third centaur next. “Hi. I’m not sure if you heard a minute ago, but my name is Thomas. And, um…”
Joan spoke up. “He’s gonna be taking care of you guys now.” The centaur’s head lifted and he looked at Joan silently. His face remained emotionless, but he had definitely reacted to Joan’s voice. “Hi! You remember me?” The centaur nodded. “Awesome! I might be coming over sometimes to check up on you guys. Is that alright?” No response. Joan nodded silently. This centaur had dark brown fur and a tail equally as matted as the others’. His upper half was pale, with long, black, matted hair. His eyes were closed firmly. Joan gestured towards the last stall and Thomas nodded.
They both went over into the last stall and Thomas stepped up nervously. Now that he had a chance to look at him, the Shire boy’s face gave off that he had a very asian appearance, most likely Japanese. “Hey. Um, I’m sure you heard, but, um… I’m Thomas, and….” His voice trailed off and him and Joan both froze, feeling a harsh glare boring into their sides. They looked over and saw the Irish centaur glaring at them so hard that his top lip was pulling up and they could see him breathing heavily. Immediately they both backed up, hands up. “We’re not touching him.”
“Don’t care.” His voice was little more than a guttural snap.
“Okay, okay. Can…” They both stepped back a few more steps. “Can I talk to him from here? I’ll be quiet…” He hesitated, then nodded once, firmly. “Can Joan talk to him too? Or just one of us?” The centaur shook his head and shakily pointed one finger at Thomas. “Just me?” He nodded. “Okay. I’ll talk to him, just me. I won’t move.” He nodded, so Thomas glanced at Joan and then looked back at the Shire centaur before them, making sure to keep his voice almost in a whisper as he spoke to him. “Um… My name is Thomas, and… I’m gonna be… well, you’re gonna be staying here… if that’s okay. I’m gonna take care of you guys from here on out…” He then stepped sideways a bit until he was in front of all four stalls and raised his voice a bit. “So if any of you needs anything, please tell me.” He nodded awkwardly and then turned to Joan, who had followed him. “Um, should I make something for them for breakfast first? Or I guess it’s lunchtime now.”
Joan shrugged. “If they’ll take it. They didn’t want any of the stuff we gave them.”
Thomas nodded slowly, thought for a moment, then held up a finger triumphantly and dragged Joan to the house right beside the stables. He stopped in the kitchen. “I just got an idea. So if their previous owner treated them like he did, don’t you think he probably fed them.. basically garbage?”
“That’s what we thought too, but they wouldn’t take anything we gave them, no matter how cheap-y it tasted or how soggy or uncooked it was.”
“No, I’m thinking further than that. I don’t mean just bad quality food, I mean what if they actually were fed stuff we would throw away? Stuff that isn’t even food anymore?”
“No… I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised at all, given the state we got them in, but… to think that someone would feed living, thinking people actual garbage… like literally trash…”
Thomas nodded solemnly. “But that would explain why they wouldn’t eat, though… If they’ve never eaten real food before… maybe they don’t even know the stuff you guys were trying to feed them… was food…”
Joan shook his head, disgusted. “So what do we do?”
Thomas sighed. “I really hate to say this, but… if we want them to learn what real food is, I think… we’re gonna have to start with what they’re used to…”
Joan groaned. “I hoped you wouldn’t say that… but I think you’re right. So, what do you have?”
“Um… What kinda stuff do you think they would take?”
“Well, if what you’re saying is true, then… I could guess they would have been fed… table scraps maybe? Pet food? Live pests? Like insects or rodents? By the sounds of the guy they were taken from, anything cheap or free.”
“Alright… I wonder if they would take like vegetable leaves. Or the stems or something.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea!”
Thomas nodded and began unloading the fresh vegetables from the fridge onto the counter. “Uh, what else…?”
“Well… I hate to be the one to think of this… but do you have any chicken bones you’ve thrown out?”
“Oh, no. I mean, yes, I do, it’s in a separate bag and everything, but… Do I have to give them that?”
Joan shrugged. “It might be the only way they’ll eat anything…”
Thomas groaned, took a deep breath, and stepped over and pulled the bag out of the trash can. “Ugh, okay, what else?”
“Onion peels you think?”
Thomas nodded and pulled out a few onions from a hanging basket. “Okay…” Joan nodded, then spotted something and stepped over. They looked down at it, then looked up at Thomas. “No. No, I am not giving them that. I’m not gonna feed them anything rotten, I was supposed to throw those away!”
“I know, Thomas, but they’d probably eat it…”
Thomas sighed angrily. “Fine. Fine, okay.”
“Okay. I think this’ll be enough for the first time.”
“What?! No! There’s not near enough there for three, let alone, four people!”
“Thomas…”