CHAPTER 158

When the next group of dancers finished, three more walked into the center of the ring, and Kisa joined them. The centaurs went silent as Kisa appraised them with a raised eyebrow, then stomped her feet along with the beat to let them know she was serious.

"She could get hurt," someone protested from the side.

"You worry about your own damned self," she shouted in the direction of the voice. "I'm here to run with the wind."

Another moment of silence came, but was penetrated by a cheer, and the centaurs all stamped their feet together. The other three spread out, giving Kisa plenty of room, and though she stood nearly six feet shorter than they did, she intended to use the space.

The dance progressed slower than the others, but she didn't care. She let the rhythm claim her, and stuck her arms out like the other dancers, twisting her hips from side to side. She could feel her tail whipping around behind her, and as the dance sped up, she lifted one leg and took an Arabesque stance. Without an extra pair of legs to help, she did her best to maintain the rotation of the dance, tossing in an additional pirouette on occasion and leaping to the side while spinning.

The chants from the crowd were growing louder, and during a particularly tight spin, she saw that one of the other dancers had fallen out of formation. Being smaller than the centaurs, she didn't have to turn nearly as fast, so was good to continue.

Cheers went up from the crowd as another dancer spun until dizzy. The dance paused when the departing dancer nearly face-planted into the center of the circle, and once he was gone, Kisa stood across from a centaur woman with long, braided hair bedazzled with colored beads.

"Think you can keep up?" asked the centaur. Kisa happened to catch the eye of the centaur youth standing on the edge of the crowd.

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Kisa went through the initial twists, pleased at how her dress spun about her body and caught the waning light of day. The smell of smoke filled the air as someone started lighting the bonfire, and the dance continued.

The centaur was now doing a wide spin with her body, then coming to a stop to spin the other way. Kisa matched her move for move but drew in closer. The crowd yelled in excitement, and when the centaur kicked her rear legs out in a particularly tight spin that looked like a bucking bronco, she stepped beneath the legs, her body leaned back.

Gasps of fear and amazement came from the crowd, but Kisa's timing was impeccable. She was now doing her own version of the dance in the orbit of the centaur, her short frame allowing her to occasionally slip beneath the centaur's body and whirl on the other side. She moved back and forth beneath the centaur, throwing her arms wide and looking up into the sky.

The beat of the earth traveled through her feet and into her very core, and her entire body now pulsated along with it. The world was just spinning faces and drum beats, and when she finally stepped into a groove in the earth and lost her balance, a strong hand grabbed her by the wrist and caught her.

"Not bad," said her dance partner, who had also stopped. Everyone was shouting cheers of approval, and Kisa smiled, her breath coming in rapid bursts. "Let's let someone else have a turn, shall we?"

Kisa nodded, and the two of them stepped out of the circle together. When she looked back, she saw that some of the youngsters were now dancing, and smiled when she saw the young man she had been talking to join in.

"You ride the wind very well," her partner told her. "Would you like to see some of our other dances?"

"Yes, please," she said, her heart overflowing with joy as she was led to another dance circle she hadn't seen.

Mike's jaw hung from his face like a broken window shade, and he counted backward to the last time he had been with Zel sexually. Hadn't she said he couldn't knock her up? Fear of parenting aside, how much could he even contribute to a child that could outrace him? His heart was pounding in his ears, and it occurred to him that Zel was still talking, but he hadn't been listening.

"—and he's a very good man, obviously he has a problem similar to my own, but...are you okay?" she asked, concern now written on her features.

"Wait, who's a very good man?"

"You weren't listening, were you? Why would you...oh. Oh!" Her cheeks blossomed, and she let out a hearty laugh. "You thought for a second that it was yours, didn't you?"

He nodded, noticing just now how dry his mouth was.

Zel laughed long and hard, with tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "Humans can't breed with centaurs, silly. You've known this. I am only a few weeks along with foal, centaurs know almost right away."

"But you seemed afraid to tell me," he told her. "Why?"

"Oh, that." She sobered up. "I was afraid you might be upset that I had been seeing someone. It's kind of expected for the chief to start a family, and I met a very fine stallion who was exiled from the tribe for a deformity similar to mine." Zel's original tribe often exiled centaurs who had been born with human traits, and had been unaware that Zel herself had been born with a human vagina.