Centaur Love

<I> First off I want to say thank you to taco1085 for editing my garbage. Please everyone give him a thumbs up for taking on this task. Second, I want to thank you the readers for following my story, without you Mathew and Felicia's story would never come to light. As in all previous stories, all the errors are mine. All characters are over the age of eighteen. I am going with a centaur's age like humans. </I>

Mathew teleported his group to the front of the Fellis barn. Once again, the look of awe and wonder filled Herd Master Anderson and Master Peterson's face as they were suddenly back in Midvale. After checking everyone to make sure everyone had his or her possessions and body parts. He touched his inner well with a new spell he had been crafting.

The spell was a changed eastern analysis magic variant. Mathew reasoned if you can't measure your own klatha by pulling some from within yourself to power the spell, what if you pulled the klatha from a ley line, thus it wasn't part of your own well or reserved klatha. By drawing the power for the spell outside of him, he could use it to power the analyze spell of his personal well. The klatha, or mana used should not see itself as a part of his personal well, thus giving him a true reading.

It did! A little over half empty. He frowned, a morning spent testing colts, and several transmorphtation spells, then regrowing six of the picnic tables. Two major teleports, with thirteen-man size objects and a couple blip self-spells thrown in for fun. He should be near the bottom of his reserves.

Yet he was only about half empty on klatha. Almost every Grand Master would be near their reserves by now. The prospect of only being half drained frightened him. But he had been always told a mage, could not measure his own klatha level too, and they were right, but no one ever said you could not measure your well with a spell powered outside of your klatha pool. There was so much, the 'western' magic that could augment 'eastern' type of magic that even quarter klatha re-gener's could operate at a Magnus elite level, hell even at a Grand Master level.

He did not understand why those early mages rejected 'western' magic and its advantages. The old argument just didn't hold water. Different time, different reasoning's, he guessed. He noticed he was only pulling power from his inner well about a quarter of the time now that he threw magic. It was just becoming easier to pull from the ley lines, even if he still had to mentally search one out.

Still, with the klatha he used today, he should have been near his reserves. That meant one thing..., The thought that he might really be a Grand Magnus frightened him. One of those rare mages that had near unlimited power reserves. Mathew shuddered with that thought.

Several centaurs were looking over at them from the patio and a few peeked out of the barn as Mathew broke the circle and walked up to Herd Master Barret and Master Builder Mark Peterson. Master Builder Peterson had the biggest smile on his face and reached down to shake Mathew's hand.

"Thank you, Herd Master Mage Lindrose, for taking me to your farm. I have always dreamed of magically being teleported to a faraway land. I never thought it would happen. You made this stallion's dream come true."

Mathew laughed, "You're welcome Master Builder...,"

"Just Mark please, I don't like hearing that fancy title all the time, Herd Master Mage Lindrose."

"Then just Mathew as well. I am just a simple farmer."

Both Barret and Mark laughed. "You are more than a simple farmer, Herd Master Mage Lindrose," Herd Master Anderson said.

Herd Master Anderson cleared his throat. "You might have the smallest herd right now, Herd Master mage Lindrose, but someday you are going to have the most influential and most coveted herd to be in." He reached down to shake Mathew's hand. "I am especially proud of your speech at the meet. Your declaration of never taking the Clan Master position turned a lot of Herd Masters in your favor and helped with your Herd's formation."

Then he looked at Mark. "Rough estimate, Mark?"

Mark took out his notebook and started going over the figures. Felicia touched Mathew's arm, saying, "Becca and I are going to the bunkhouse and make us a late lunch. Would you like something?"

"Yes please, those teleports and this morning's tests drained me. I am starving."

Felicia curtsied to Herd Master Anderson and Master Peterson. Becca did the same, but addressed them as cousin and uncle before she left.

Both nodded in return as his mates each brushed his arm before leaving. What the Herd Master and Master Builder did not know that they have been talking over the farm's heritage ever since Felicia had connected Becca to it.

&lt; Just a gentle reminder that they, we, were, are family. &gt;

&lt; How much is the family discount worth? &gt;

&lt; Anything under twelve hundred gold, my love. &gt;

&lt; Twelve? Daddy paid twelve for the twelve stall in Oak Valley. &gt;

&lt; Everything has to be dismantled here and transported to Oak Valley, my sister. A new one this size, will be closer to forty-two to forty-four hundred gold. &gt;

Mathew closed down his link when Mark said, "Rough figures, nine hundred to a thousand gold."

Barret looked over at Mark, surprised. "It's a rough figure, Barret. I am estimating high on transport costs, since there is several tons of stone to transport. In addition, we still have to house and feed the work crews on site. Plus, there is some new construction, this wall separating the stalls and these human style bedrooms is easy, both are non-load-bearing walls, but this bathroom one will be, well, tricky."

"How so Mark?"

"We will need to support this cistern thing, Barrett. I don't know how much weight as of yet, but I guess that is going to take some eight by eights with massive headers, then we will have to change the roof line."

"Fair enough Mark, you know what you're doing, so how long until you have drawings for Herd Master Mage Lindrose here and the crews?"

"A couple of days Barret, with this Hobgoblin problem going on, we have three crews sitting idle. And that means I have several draft stallions with idle charcoal sticks. I could have all three here on-site tomorrow morning making preliminary drawings."

"Fair enough. We could also have those idle work crews start gathering the scaffolding and get it ready..."

"We could have all three work on the demo as well...," Mark said.

Barret nodded yes. "Idle hands need work. What about those in the apprentice program as well? This long house would be a great teaching tool."

"True...,"

Mathew turned as Clan Master Anderson and Master Builder Peterson talked shop. Johnathon was walking up with a long wooden tube in his hands. "Herd Master Mage Lindrose, Herd Master Anderson, and Master Builder. I heard your thunderclap announcing your arrival," he said with a slight chuckle.

"We just got back, Sir," Mathew replied. "Kind of going over the rough details and cost, Sir."

"Exultant Mathew. Barret, your thoughts?"

"Everything looks good John, Mark here needs to finish the figures and get a couple of drafts-stallions over to make drawings of the longhouse and then add in the changes necessary for...,"

Sir Fellis held out the tube he was holding. "Here are the original drawings for Kaylin's long house. Duncan was a notorious pack rat and held onto everything. This should make your job a little easier."

Mark took the offered drawings and slid them out to look them over. "Oh yes! These are perfect. Whoever made these even noted construction changes during the construction phase. We should be able to start deconstruction in a few days, and then all we will have to do is wait until the Oak Valley is safe enough to start reconstruction."

Johnathon nodded yes, "Well I started the main Centaur army moving south yesterday, it should reach west fork bridge in four to five days, then two more before crossing the Catamount river ford. Once the army passes that, Oak Valley will be secure enough that I am having some of my herd return to keep the farms running, they should be safe enough for your work crews to reassemble Herd Lindrose's new longhouse."

Mathew and Barret looked at Johnathon in disbelief. Barret asked, "Can the reserves defend all three passes, John?"

"Only one needs defending now," he said. "I approved of several mages from the elven mage society to block+.,              Q the east and western pass yesterday evening. They are impassable right now. What I am told, for an army, that is. I was told that within a week or two, both passes will have a large lake guarding them."

Barret nodded yes. "How did they accomplish that?"

"They used something, called earth elementals, to bring down some of the mountainsides and blocked them," Sir Fellis said. "They assured me it should only take a week or two to clear them after this minor war, so I agreed to it. Now the reserves can concentrate on defending Midfork River pass only, thus relieving the army free to attack the hobgoblin army."

Mathew looked at Sir Fellis. The mage council had forbidden the summoning of prime elementals from the elemental plane in Eastern magic for their sheer power and unpredictability for the last two thousand years. If elven or Western magic still practiced elemental magic, he wondered what else they had up their sleeve.

"Mathew, you know what these earth elementals are?"

Mathew nodded yes. "An elemental is a creature from one of the neighboring planes of existence from ours. Something akin to the demon plane, as I understand it. As student mages, we didn't get a lot of information on the forbidden magic's, but, I, we learned is, they normally cannot reach our plane without magical aid from this side. They themselves are nothing like us, they are made of, or exist on, pure magic. Once brought over, they are extremely powerful creatures on this plane of existence. Yet they are dying as soon as they step onto our plane."

All three centaurs looked at him.

"Our plane, or world, doesn't have the free mana floating around that these creatures need to live on like their world. So they never developed a way to pull it, like mages do here. We pretty much know most of the elementals, those that are called from that plane, they are akin to the prime elements we have here, that being, earth, water, air, fire, and ice. These beings sort of bond with the prime elements of nature thus giving the mage something of substance to target their summoning spell on. They are highly intelligent and highly magic resistant as well, except for their opposite affinity."

"Just how powerful are they?"

"It varies sir, it solely depends on the strength of the elemental..., you call. As you just learned, some of the major power elementals could bring down whole mountain sides with ease."

Johnathan nodded yes. "Why haven't I heard of them before?"

"The calling of minor to major elementals has been forbidden in Eastern magic ever since the formation of the College of magic. A long time ago there was a class of mages called elemental-ists who specialized in calling them to our plane. To being able to call a creature that could take down a castle in a single afternoon or a fire elemental that could burn an entire city down frightened many people and the mage college set out to remove the knowledge of how to summon them. Apparently, they forgot about the elven mages."

"Is there a danger in calling them?"

"Not so much if you know your limits. I have read that they themselves resist being pulled onto this plane. As long as the mage has the power and the will, they can be forced. The problem arises is when the mage doesn't have the power to send it home or feed the elemental for its service.

"You feed this creature?" Herd Master Anderson asked."

"Yes, Klatha, lots of it. When you summon one, you sort of make a deal with it, for its services. I guess elven or western class magic is better for summoning them, since you can channel mana directly from you, from a ley line, to it. It lives off mana, or what Eastern magic calls klatha. This is why, a mage can only summon one at a time, he, or she has to maintain magical contact with the creature and feed it a constant stream of klatha while it is here."

"Eastern mages store klatha within them, and would feed the creature from theIr well, per say. But most have a limited supply of klatha within their well or reserves. And if you run out, you sort of break the bargain you made with the elemental you just summoned. And without food, they get a little cranky."

Johnathon and Barret gave a little nervous laugh, then Johnathon asked, "Can they be killed?"

"Yes, even non-magical people can kill them, just like any creature. You hit with a sword they bleed, but in this case, loose chunks or parts of themselves. Just like any intelligent creature, they know they are being hurt and will respond in kind."

"Do hobgoblins know how to summon these creatures?"

"No sir, Hobgoblins and their close relatives Goblins, are not known magic users. That doesn't mean there aren't any. It is just we have never met one and lived to tell the tale, or, in truth, there aren't any."

Mathew got another nervous chuckle from Johnathon and Barret. Mathew looked over at Master Builder Peterson. He had a nervous smile as well, Mathew grinned at him, "So with these drawings how long until you have a set of finished drawings, which I can get to an elven pipe makers to run the pipes to and from my new home?"

Master Builder Peterson cleared his throat. "Ahumm, well, I would say give us three days, not knowing if these drawingS are current. We should have several copies by then."

"Can I ask that you deliver a set to Ambassador Goldenroot? He will send them to the elven pipe makers who will take care of the water lines for me, and the cistern, the septic tank, and eventually building out and tiling this bathroom too."

"That I can do, Herd Master Mage Lindrose."

Mathew nodded yes, then asked, "What sort of deposit do you stallions wish?"

Mark looked at Barret, "Well Herd Master, we haven't even worked up a final price."

"I understand that," Mathew said, pointing at the drawing in his hands. "There is no doubt here, that you will going to do the work. From your rough estimate, and I understand it is a rough estimate. But I need you to start as soon as you finish those drawings. With this minor war, I will be out of touch, but if you have questions, you can send them through the Ambassador or Clan Master Benton's aid."

"Then I would say Herd Master, if we go with the high end at a thousand gold, half now and if it is less, a smaller second payment on completion?"

Mathew looked at all three, who were nodding yes. "Perfect," Mathew said. "I will leave the deposit with my Master Cooper Mica and have him start by removing the cabinets and stalls in the morning if that is ok with you stallions?"

Mark nodded yes. "The more he can do will reduce the finish costs."

"And please, I must stress this again, the importance that none of your work crews attempt to visit the Oak Grove. Even for a quick look! With just a quick look, they can disrupt hundreds of years of work. It would take several days of hard magical work to fix just that, after they disturb the ley lines. And remind them Dragon Claw is so poisonous that a single drop of its sap will kill a full-grown Centaur in the matter of minutes without immediate magical intervention."

Barret shook his head, and then asked, "And you plan to have my niece work this grove?"

"Yes, Felicia and I have already explained the dangers of working in the grove. And in the pitfalls of learning magic. She has already been up on the grove and seen the Dragon claw vines. It is kind of a prerequisite before she accepted my offer to join me as a mate."

Herd Master Anderson grinned, "And here I had visions of you just learning a spell from a book," He held up his hands saying, "and poof! You're a mage."

Mathew laughed, "Reading the spell is the simple part Herd Master. Understanding the complex language and what you are attempting to make the klatha do is the hard part. One false step here could spell disaster for the mage or those around him or her."

Mathew smiled at them, "The mage school doesn't like to advertise it, but every year one or two students die from a 'bad' spell, or attempting one they shouldn't have tried in the first place. My father always said it was easier to do a chore by hand than to do it with magic."

"I'm learning that Master Mage, well I and Master Builder Peterson here will take our leave. If either of us have questions Herd Master Mage Lindrose, we will channel them through Ambassador Goldenroot."

Mathew nodded yes, then looked up at John, who shook his head no. They both watched the two centaurs trot off. Centaurs on the whole didn't shake hands as a formal greeting, nor agreeing to something. It was the nature of having four legs and how they needed to side step aside, with just their front legs to turn around, thus dragging their rear legs putting un-natural stress on them.

John nodded towards the street, and Mathew followed him.

Johnathon cleared his throat as they walked that way. "I have just under five thousand centaurs on the march towards West Fork Bridge. I plan on crossing the ford and pass just west of your grove. After that, we will have to make our own road northward. I am worried that the heavy wagons will get bogged down at some point."

"I wouldn't worry sir, it has been a dry summer so far, and I know of a path that my father and Mother took when we actually rode to Woodshome instead of teleporting. I suggest you come to Oak Valley, instead of bypassing the farms to the west."

"Oh?"

"Two reasons, Sir. One, the path starts just north of the valley's irrigation gatehouse."

John nodded yes, "I didn't know that, but yes, the stream's banks right there are fortified enough for a wagon to cross."

"Yes sir, you might have to by-pass a few places along this path. That isn't wide enough for one of your wider heavy wagons, we had only taken the small two wheel cart on this journey before. But with four thousand path finders, I am sure you can find a way."

John nodded yes, looking skyward, trying to think of problems, shaking his head, then looked at Mathew. "And the second reason?"

"We can load all the healing potions in the wagons when you get there. Saving me the extra klatha teleporting them."

John nodded yes. "I want to move the army north as quickly as possible, to take out the segment that holds the pass down to the lower plains before any reinforcements could arrive. I would like to take on smaller parts of this army and overwhelm each segment, piecemeal wise."

Mathew nodded in thought. It was sound advice and tactics. "Good tactics Sir. Do you think you can get both armies organized and in place before the main hoard on the lower plains gets back up the pass to reinforce them?"

"I hope so, Mathew. I have instructed the reserves to make a quick raid and destroy the one bridge over the Center Fork River. That should delay the main horde some. They will have to travel several hundred miles north to the fords near the delta to cross back over, giving us a two-week window to recapture the pass."

"Are we sure they are unguarded?"

"They are guarded, son. But by a tiny force, nothing that Captain Longstrider assures me they can't overcome."

"Wouldn't a mage detail work better, Sir?"

"It would be faster, but I am hoping to have them disassemble the bridge, not burn or destroy it." John grinned down at Mathew. "I have seen some of your fellow mages try to use tools, and most mages just break things when they take it apart."