To Be A Monster

The cooing of a child echoed through the silk-laden tent. It was the very first of the king of centaurs at that time and yet there was no fanfare. For the child had no hooves but rather human toes. Infidelity was the first rumor to drift from one lip to the other, but the queen knew it not to be true as she begged her husband to trust her.

However, what she got was his iron hooves stomping on her head, all the while her newborn suckled on her breasts. Curling up on the ground, she endured countless lashes and other torments, all so she could protect her first child.

It was human, how could it be? Neither she nor the father was one themselves. Looking for answers the moment she was spared torture, she turned to the wise men of their clans but they refused her any answers, leading only to more and more speculations until the night her blood-soaked husband came onto her one night.