"What do you mean with the priestess wants to see them?" Leroy didn't understand what Chiron was talking about. "How the priestess knows about this?"
The priestess had not been out of her room since a year ago and only a little girl who served her that was allowed to come and met her.
"The stars that told me," Chiron raised his head to the gloomy sky, which there was not even a single star that could be seen.
There was moment when Leroy thought that he completely clueless about the way centaurs were talking and this was that moment.
Though they had been living alongside each other for years now, but it didn't make them, human, got the idea of the stars that the centaurs often talking.
"The stars told you and you told the priestess?" Leroy shook his head incredulously, he didn't have time to listen to his story about the stars. "You are right." He nodded. "I can't kill her, because she is human, then I will kill the beast, because this despicable creature that had killed our people!"
"No!" Hope sprung on her feet to stop him, but it was not necessary when the other centaurs had done it for her.
"The priestess wants the beast alive," Chiron spoke as he gestured toward the other centaurs to go to Kace's beast.
"What are you going to do to him?!" Hope was about to follow the centaur, who approached Kace when her shoulder was grabbed by Chiron and prevented her from moving.
"Relax," he said in his shooting tone again. "He will check on your mate."
Hope was slightly taken aback when she heard Chiron addressed Kace as her mate. Did he know? Or, he just mentioned Kace was her mate as 'mate' for a fellow friend?
Hope was puzzled.
Now, the other centaurs, except Chiron and one, who has very tanned skin, with bow and arrow on his back, stayed with Hope and the incessant Leroy.
"YOU WANT TO SAY THAT WE WILL LET THAT VILE BEAST LIVE?" Leroy's chest rose and fell when he couldn't hold back his anger.
"That was what the priestess wants." Chiron nodded solemnly.
Hope was getting lost further. She didn't understand how these two creatures with different personalities could be in the same community. She could feel there was zero understanding between them and this was not their first time to have their argumentation clashed.
"I don't believe this!" Leroy threw his hands exasperatedly as he glowered at Hope, who was standing behind Chiron's horse body.
"I will have my people to bring back your men to the village." Chiron's voice didn't falter even a bit under Leroy's menacing glare. "I think their families want to bury their body."
Hope could hear how Leroy gnashed his teeth when he heard that. "What the priestess want with them?!"
"I don't know," Chiron answered truthfully as he tilted his head toward his fellow centaur, who checked on Kace's beast. "How is him?"
"I need him to return to his human form, chief." the other centaur replied to his chief.
Chiron lowered his head to look at Hope. "Girl, do you think you can ask him to shift back?"
"I don't think so," Hope glanced at Kace. "He is unconscious. I can't talk to him."
Chiron nodded in understanding. "Why don't you go back? The centaurs will accompany you until the gate," he talked to Leroy.
"I don't need you to tell me what I have to do!" Leroy turned on his heels, still fuming. "I will ask the priestess what she will do with those vile beasts! You better be there when we burry these people!"
"I will be there for the funeral," Chiron still answered him politely, despite Leroy's attitude.
Hope became more and more confused with the situation that she faced now. There were so many thing that happened within a day, she was overwhelmed.
"Can I go to him?" Chiron had proved that he meant no harm toward her and Kace, thus, Hope could relax a bit, though she wouldn���t put her guard down. She had not fully trusted these centaurs yet.
"Of course," Chiron nodded solemnly, "Your mate needs you."
There, he talked about 'mate' again. However, Hope didn't want to have another questioning session when her body and mind was too tired to think about another mystery.
Limply, Hope trudged toward, where the beast was still lying down, its fur had turned into dark red with no sign he would wake up soon.
Chiron followed behind her closely. The sound of his hooves against the muddy ground, somehow, relaxing.
Hope crouched down beside the beast's body. "Is he alright?" she ran her fingers on its sticky fur.
"He will be fine," Chiron said in deep voice.
After a few minutes, Hope whipped her head toward the cage while saying. "My friends!" she totally forgot about Ethan and Ian.
However, when Hope saw the cage, there had been three centaurs, who were trying to open the padlocks.
Only then, Hope sighed in relief and shifted her focus at the chief centaur. "Why did you help me?"
The centaur just gave her a warm smile and looked up the sky. "It's been written on the stars."
The corner of Hope's lips twitched, at this moment, she agreed that the centaur had a different way to communicate with each other.
"You are here now, that's what important." Chiron lowered his head again and looked at Hope tenderly, as if she was his muse or something.
"Do you know that I will be here?" Hope frowned, she knew about the myth that centaur was reading the stars and constellation or whatever that was, since Hope didn't pay much attention to it.
But, to know that the chief of the centaur had known beforehand that she would come to this place… what he was? A clairvoyant?
Yet, the answer of Chiron was beyond Hope's best guess. "I know that you will be resurrected."