Role

Chapter 6

"In the absence of so many, you are kind of like an emissary of your entire
species.", I was told. If you think about it, that's a mite frightening.
I was often worried about this day that I see Centaurs again, what if I
strayed so much from my kin that there's no more possibility of acceptance?
After all, I didn't grow up with my own, and I met so few of them, and so
much time has passed since their latest resurgence that it feels like it was
another age. (Incidentally, it was.)

But while I've been writing my book about rare species of Thera, I found
a new perspective. I'm not going to look upon this as a challenge or test.
Instead, it is a chance to learn something new.

I've seen enough prejudice and misleading lore about Centaurs. Growing up,
I was taught that my kind is by nature lustful, violent and intractable, and
told to school myself against that kind of impulse. In the end this served
me well, even though I eventually learned that these fears were baseless, as
inclinations of violence and evil among Centaurs have long since been weeded
out by the wars of the past ages.

I look in the mirror and I see a Centaur. If I turned out better than people
thought I would be, then perhaps the other Centaurs will also be better than
what I expected of them.