The day was hot and water trickled into the pool softly from a short rock face above, and the pool overflowed out to a small stream. The forest rose up to surround the kind looking pool which had offered a pleasant break from the deep foliage of the surrounding thicket. It was midday when a rustling came from the east and a boy emerged from the thick brush. He looked like he could be anywhere between 12 to 15 at most, he had brown hair that bordered on a deep red in the right light, and he was not so much tall as he was just a bit too skinny for the length of his body. He wore long shorts and a light gray shirt with words printed on it that had been obscured by dirt, and on his feet he wore worn out flip-flops.
He walked with confused steps and had a clouded look on his face. He slipped his worn flip flops off as he approached the pool and sat on a rock, dangling his tired feet into the pool. The water felt good on his feet. He sat there for what seemed like hours just kicking his feet back and forth and wiggling his toes in the cool water. He tried to think, asking himself questions: How did I get here? Where is here? Who am I? And, Why does it make my head hurt when I try to remember? It was hot and he had considered just letting himself slide into the pool to cool off when there was a rustle from the bushes behind him.
The journey had been arduous, and she had decided to replenish her water bladder. Being an imperial messenger had given her special perks like that of seeing parts of the empire that few had access to and having the opportunity to return to her homeland to tell her family and friends about it as well as enjoy drinking water from sacred pools. When she came into the clearing around the sacred pool she was surprised to find it being defiled by a young human's feet. She immediately stopped all four of her legs.
"You HERITIC, how dare you defile this sacred pool of replenishment," she stepped forward drawing a bow from her shoulders and knocking an arrow, "It is a crime punishable by death! What do you have to say for yourself?" in reality, it wasn't, but she wanted to drink water that was not used to soak feet.
The boy looked to see what was coming up behind him, and stared blankly in disbelief as a centaur woman emerged from the bushes, tall and majestic and strong and terrifying. She dwarfed him, but in all her height and size and impossibility she was still beautiful. Long copper colored locks curled down to her elbows, the horse part of her body was covered in white fur where it was exposed, covering that was fine purple clothes that started on the human part of her body and wrapped around her horse part like a wide dress, and at the back was a tale with hair of the same color as the hair on her head.
"So?" she asked drawing the bowstring tight.
It finally registered that he was in danger, "I... I, I," he stammered, "I don't know where I, we, are! I was in the forest and before that," he was suddenly stopped with the most powerful headache he had ever experienced. Doubling over in pain he slid off the rock and into the pool. His mind was bombarded with images of a large group of people, and part of that group was his friends, yes they were his friends. Then yelling, and then he was walking along the undergrowth in the forest.
Something was wrong with the kid; at first she thought he was faking and trying to get away, but it had soon become clear that his uncontrolled thrashing was just that, uncontrolled thrashing. She would not let him die, at least not that way. Drowning is a horrible way to go, she thought as she trotted over and kneeled down to pull him out of the water. She laid him on his back, and his shaking had soon relented.
"Am I dead?" he asked trying to shake off the dizziness and through labored breaths.
"No, you're not dead. What in the name of the Emperor was that about? You shouldn't be out here being as sick as you are!"
For a moment he stared blankly up at her, letting his eyes wonder over her powerful front legs and up to her soft yet stern face. "I already said1 I don't remember how I got here, and I don't know where HERE is." he said with tears welling up in his eyes. "I remember a group of friends and then -something- and then I was walking around out there." he finished, sitting up he wiped his eyes and motioned to the surrounding woods. Something else nagged at him, something important that really meant something. He found it looking back up to her. "You're not supposed to exist," he finished in a hushed voice.
Something clicked and the centaur woman put a hand on her head. To nobody in particular she spoke: "In times of great destruction in other realms when not even the slightest part of a body remains it is possible for a victim to travel across the veil." She looked down at the boy with a half smile and a furrowed brow. "I think you should come with me. Uh... I'll let the sacred pool defilement pass,” she folded her arms.
“Ah,” she started more carefully, “let me properly introduce myself. I'm Romana, what's your name?” There was a pause and the boy put his hand to his head in thought.
“I...” he gulped, “I don't remember...” he trailed off.
“Yeah, that's not surprising.” She looked at the boy and held a hand up to her chin in thought.
“Uh, I don't understand. How...?” he leaned over one of the nearby rocks.
“Kid, you 're not the first person something like this has happened to,” she watched as he began to turn red in the heat, “Come here,” she implored in quiet tones, “I've got some fresh, clean, water,” he eyed her suspiciously, “Look,” she said taking a water bladder from over her shoulder, “it's safe.” she took a sip, and the boy went to drink cautiously.
“What do you mean I'm not the first person this has happened to? What has happened?” the boy looked up at the centaur, Romana.
“Hmm, it's complicated so I'll give you the simplest version I can think of. Whenever there's a great amount of suffering like a massive accident or some form of violence where people's bodies are completely destroyed there's a chance that one or two of those people can survive for a short time by being forced through to another realm..” she paused making sure he would not go into another fit, “And like I said it's only a short time being here or where ever you end up. Something about being forced through to another realm causes the victim's body to slowly shut down. I'm not sure how long you'll last though, this is rare and one of the things I haven't seen before on one of my deliveries or travels.”
“So, that means I've survived something only to die slowly in the place I've escaped to? So, I'm going to die!” he said in a despairing tone and was racked with another fit where he sat.
Long since recovered, the boy walked next to Romana. She was a courier for the empire, she told him, and that had given her the opportunity to learn a lot of things. She told him she knew of something that might save him, and that he was lucky that she had a soft spot for kids because he was so close to one of a few Pools of Life. They could heal almost any wound, and the rest could be healed with a little help to the pool. She hoped that he would only need to bathe in the pool and would not have needed the extra help.
The day, though, was hot and the trail leading up to the Pool was steep and rocky. A weight had built up in the pit of the boy's stomach. He lagged behind Romana a short distance and struggled to keep up. Mostly, they walked in silence, their differences and the boy's condition driving a wedge between them. Though, mostly the boy was still too afraid of her.
After some time watching Romana's equestrian hips sway in rhythm with her clacking hooves he called out to her, “Romana, I can't go on . I need to take a break,” he dabbed at the beads of sweat on his forehead, “I'm not part horse like you.”
Stopping to sit on a nearby log the boy drank from Romana's sizable water bladder. Finishing with a big gulp he looked up at her for a moment.
“Really, why are you helping me? You said you have a soft spot, but you're going way out of your way. Especially since I messed with that pool back there.” he got up and wished he'd wake up already.
She shrugged, “I have a lot of nieces and nephews and I can't let a kid go around dying when I can do something about it. Come on, it's not safe around here. Terrible things lurk this high up.”
They had gone a short distance from where they had rested. A low rumbling rose out of the surrounding forest; it was like an earthquake in the air. A leviathanesque creature emerged from over the treetops. A hundred thousand wings jutted from it's body and beat with no rhythm, thousands of beady little eyes glared down at the duo, it screeched with just as many beaks.
“Kid, run for the treeline.!” Romana screamed in vain, the creature crashed down on the boy, pinning him to the ground for only a moment. It rose up with a monstrous gust with the boy trapped in one of it's larger beaks.
“ROMANA!” he screamed in agony.
She took aim with her bow as the monster moved haphazardly thorough the air. These creatures are ferocious unless you attack with an arrow, and Romana knew this well. The monster readjusted the boy in its beak, crushing his midsection. The arrow caught the beast in one of its many weak spots. Its eyes widened and its many wings ceased beating, its massive bulk crashed to the ground. She rushed to the boy and quickly but carefully pulled him from the beak. He coughed and sputtered spitting up blood as well as bleeding profusely from his gut.
“By the emperor! We're not supposed to do this but...” she leaned over and carefully put him on her back, safely secured she broke into one of the greatest gallops she could ever remember. She could feel him bleeding out on her back, soiling her uniform and several of her courier bags. None of that mattered then, but what mattered was the boy: he was dying.
She tore through the seldom tread trail, and almost lost her footing in the tall grass when it became too overgrown. Each step less and less sure than the last, but then it didn't because she had finally seen the Pool. With renewed footing she made the final stretch. She stopped along side the pool where no plants grew and no insects or fish or frogs or turtles spawned in it. Romana laid down on her side to slide the boy into the pool, but it was no use he had an iron grip on the straps to one of her bags. It amazed her that no matter how hard she tried she could not get him to let go.
Then it came to her, “Listen kid,” she whispered, “We're here, you'll live. Just, let go.”
His grip loosened, and she pulled his cold hand off and slid him into the pool up to his shoulders. She had stood over him then and it occurred to her that this might be a time that the pool would need help. She had heard rumors about a pair of couriers that survived a bandit attack by soaking in a Pool and purely by chance discovering that by dripping the blood of a healthy person into the Pool they healed more quickly. A drawback to this was that the person in the Pool would take on the bleeder's characteristics. Too late to think about that now, she thought as she drew a small knife and slit her palm, letting blood drops drip into the Pool. Unlike with the boy's blood which stayed generally around his wounds Romana's blood turned the whole pool a deep pinkish red. When the last corner had changed color the boy finally lost consciousness.
His shoulders and up were the only things not in the water though they had certainly been dunked at some point. He opened his eyes but his vision was met only with darkness. Panicking at the thought of being blind he clawed at his face, but his hands were held firmly by larger soft hands.
“Kid, relax, it's me, Romana. Don't take off the blindfold,” she paused, “You won't like what you'd see. What ever you do stay in the pool. I think the danger of you suddenly dying has passed, but that mountain terror really hurt you bad.”
He calmed down and laid his head on his forearms, “You're going to be very weak when you're finally healed,” she took a breath, “I'm going to a nearby village to make a delivery and to get some help to carry you back. Whatever you do, don't remove the blindfold and don't get out of the pool.”
Defeated and in dull pain that encompassed his whole body he laid in the pool like she instructed. His mind buzzed with the fresh memories of being chomped on and almost split in half by a hideous flying monster. Everything here was insane, and all of it made him feel just as insane as it all seemed. He sighed and consigned himself to the blackness of the blindfold and slept.
In his dreams he walked among crowds of people like him. Children and adults and teens in shirts with pictures and witty phrases on them. Baggy pants with lots of pockets, women and girls in tight denim pants and revealing shirts. Even girls younger than he dressed that way. Tall buildings made of concrete and steel and glass stretched up into the sky letting only reflections of light reach the street below.
His dreams of the past were interrupted by the burning light of the sun which he felt reddening his arms and burning his shoulders. He awoke to the sting of sunburns and in a panic he tore off the blind fold. Still in numb pain he looked at his arms and rubbed them. He turned to look into the water and realized, to his horror, why Romana hadn't wanted him to remove the blindfold. He was nude now and saw nothing below his waste but a mass of mangled flesh, bone, and muscles. Terrified he jammed the blindfold back over his face with every intention of forgetting what he had just seen.
Time seemed to pass slowly and the boy had soon grown hungry. It occurred to him then how weak struggling to stay alive today (or was it yesterday?) had made him. The fatigue clouded his mind and weighed down his head. What he had seen was terrifying, but at least he was still alive, he thought deliriously, and that's what mattered. He tried with all his might to push the image of his mangled lower half from his mind but the images persisted. Flashes of protruding bones and exposed muscles plagued him to the point of being sick.
The nausea stretched from the pit of his stomach down into the mangled area of his body making the numb pain that much worse. Before he knew it he had passed out from the stress. He dreamed again, this time it was of flying tumors with white bones sticking out of them in all directions. Terrified, he awoke again to the feeling that something was dripping on or licking him. He held his breath and laid there perfectly still for what seemed like an eon. Eventually it went away and he let out a silent sigh.
It must be night out, he thought, then, because he could no longer feel the burning sun beating down on his exposed shoulders and arms. He was now numb below the waste no longer feeling the dull pain that at one time encompassed his whole body. His strength was still waning and each breath was a struggle.
For the rest of what he thought was the night he was in and out of it, and what happened then could have been a dream or as real as things in that crazy place can get. For a moment he thought he saw Romana standing over him in silhouette. She mouthed some words that could have been “did that, only way to save him. Different now, but alive...” It was dim. Like in the morning. He felt like he was floating, but it must have been a dream because he could feel his weight and it didn't match what he felt when he was awake, much too large to be awake.
The boy breathed deep as he awoke face down on a soft downy cot. He almost felt like his lower half were suspended and somehow heaver. He accounted for it as being that his lower half was healing, and lifted his head a little and saw a woman messing with things on a table in the corner of the room. He cleared his throat as a sign to her that he was awake. The woman turned to him.
“Oh, you're awake. I'm your nurse, do you know where you are?” she asked in a kind tone.
“Nurse,” he stated in a groggy voice, “no, where am I? Where's Romana?”
“Romana's here, don't worry. You're in a village hospital. I'll go get Romana and your doctor. Please lay down.” she left room through a door just out of his line of sight.
Finally alone he looked around the room: it was very plain, with dark wood paneling for walls and floors as far as he had seen. A basin took up most of the space on the table in the corner, and strange instruments he had never seen took up the rest. From where he was laying he could see a rail along the wall opposite the door which undoubtedly had other instruments or towels on it. He was on the verge of looking behind himself when a skinny man in a white robe with red borders, thinning hair, and eyebrows that looked penciled on stepped quickly into view. Close behind he heard the clacking of hooves that stopped at the door, Romana stopped just inside and just out of view.
“Your friend Romana really saved your life, albeit at the cost of defiling a Pool of Life for a short time. When you got here you were extremely emaciated, but that would be expect from somebody who went through such an extreme healing process and change.”
The boy thought “change” and “emaciated” were strange words to describe it, being mangled and all. He turned to look over at Romana but his view was obscured by a thick leather strap that was attached to a chain hanging from the ceiling. He held on to it with his hand and propped himself up on it to peek around at her.
“Romana, I remember my name now. It's,” he suddenly realized why there was a leather strap hanging from the ceiling, “what...” he trailed off snapping his head to look back. Straps were supporting a much smaller equine body that his torso disappeared into. He felt his face turn red, his mind went blank with immense confusion. “It's... T... Timothy....” he said slowly finishing his previous thought.
“Tim,” Romana started, “I thought you were too hurt for the Pool to heal you. I had to add some of my own blood to save you.”
He ran his hand across his hips where skin met fur. He could feel his hand running across the spot from both sides.
“I have a sister in another nearby village. I've made arrangements for you to live with her family. You can have a new life now.”
The confusion dissipated as realization washed over him: he was now like Romana, and would truly have as new a life possible without being born again.
