Thalia looked over the manor and sighed. This was her life now. By far, she was much more fortunate than the other children, but it was still nothing like home. She remembered galloping across the plains, wind in her hair as she was with her family, her parents joking about which child was their favorite. Thalia was always her father’s favorite while Cato was a mama’s boy. They’d often joke that despite the fact that Cato would be trained to be a future warrior, Thalia had the heart for it.

Duke Ivan stepped forward, Cato following behind. Thalia sighed and walked alongside her brother. After they walked up the steps and though the double doors, they were greeted by a cavernous hall filled with art, statues, and servants. Columns lined the walls while servants gossiped about the new arrivals. A young woman with green skin and short tusks walked up to Thalia and asked, “Hey little one, what’s your name?”

Thalia looked the woman up and down and replied, “My name is Thalia Redmane. What’s yours?”

The woman smiled. “My name is Rox, but everyone here calls me Roxie. And in case you’re wondering, I’m half-orc. And no, there was no tragic story behind it. My parents just loved each other so I was born.” She placed a surprisingly soft hand on Thalia’s shoulder and added, “I’m going to be your head maidservant. I’m going to help you look cute and fresh every morning and help you have fun here.” Rox twirled her dress and bowed before walking off to attend to other duties.

As they walked further in, a short and stocky woman, between four and five feet tall, walked up to Thalia. She had an intellectual glint to her eyes as she dusted off her robes. She extended a hand to Thalia and said, “Hello Thalia, I’m Hilda Stonefist. I’m going to be your tutor. Despite what you’d probably assume, geology will only make up a small portion of my teaching. I’m mainly going to focus on literacy, arithmetic, history, and writing. I typically wait until adolescence to teach magic. I hope you’re ready to learn.” Hilda bowed then walked off.

The next woman that walked up to Thalia was tall, lean, and had a stern look on her face. She wore a formal gown and had her hair pinned up. She was clearly an elf and if Thalia had to guess, she was a high elf. The elven woman looked down at Thalia and said, “Hello. My name is Sylvara Silverleaf. I hope you are ready to have that back of yours straightened. And can you start by please quieting down that infernal clopping. That is all I can hear when you are walking and it is upsetting, to say the least.”

Thalia frowned and complained, “I’m a centaur! How do you expect my hooves to be quiet!”

Sylvara scowled and poked Thalia’s chest with her finger. “Don’t you talk back to me, young lady! Clearly, we need to get the wild out of you!” Sylvara turned on her heel and walked away.

Thalia shook her head, trying to get herself to stop being upset at her. She turned to look at Cato to see him talking to three men: a human wearing armor, a gnome with silly goggles and a funny hat, and a half-elf with a lyre. Cato seemed to be getting along with them as they all erupted into laughter.

Thalia looked back ahead to see a woman walking out of the grand hall. She was a head shorter than Duke Ivan with black hair tied up in a bun and blue eyes. She was dressed in a fancy green gown as she descended the stairs to the right. Her steps echoed through the manor until she reached the ground level. She turned to face Thalia and Cato and walked up to them, only stopping to let a cook walk by.

The woman reached them and crouched down to their level. “Hello Thalia. Hello Cato. I’m Duchess Svetlana, Ivan’s wife.” She winked at Duke Ivan before looking back at the centaur children. She clasped her hands and said, “You may refer to be as your mother. Now then, can either of you tell me with this is.” She pulled out a scroll of parchment with names on it.

Thalia squinted as she saw the symbols on the parchment, but her mind drew blank. She reached a hand forwards to touch it, but only felt the difference between the smooth dried ink and the rough parchment. She looked up at Svetlana and said, “I don’t know. It’s some kind of rough thing with strange black marks on it.” Cato nodded to what Thalia said.

Svetlana frowned as she put away her parchment and instead asked, “What’s one plus three?”

Thalia quickly answered, “That’s four! If I had one horse and got three more, I’d have four horses.”

Svetlana smiled and then asked, “What about if we had five shipments of three apples each? How many apples would we have?”

Cato scratched his head while Thalia counted on her fingers. She looked up and said, “Fifteen. Three plus three plus three plus three plus three equals fifteen.”

Svetlana patted Thalia’s head and nodded. “You’re a bright little girl. Honestly, you’re already proving people wrong.”

There was a brief pause before Svetlana clapped her hands and asked, “Are you ready to see your bedrooms?”

Thalia and Cato nodded, shifting on their hooves in excitement. Ivan walked up to Svetlana, who hooked her arm in his and they started walking through the halls.

The hoofbeats echoed through the manor as Thalia and Cato looked around, seeing several rooms such as a room dedicated to what they assumed were healers and rooms filled with brooms and mops. Thalia overheard some young female servants gossiping about their crushes while an older male servant chewed out a younger one for improper protocol.

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Thalia and Cato reached the set of stairs to the second floor. Despite what most would assume, centaurs had no problems with stairs since unlike ladders there wasn’t too much of a distance from one step to another. They reached the second floor and saw a hallway from left to right with a grand hall up ahead. Ivan and Svetlana led Thalia and Cato down the hall to the left and walked through a set of double doors.

On the other side of the doors were six chambers. Svetlana walked in front of everyone and explained, “These are six bedrooms for the two of you and any future children we may have or adopt. Let me show you the rooms that we got furniture custom-made for you.” She opened the doors at the end of the hall across from each other.

The rooms were spacious, with a lot of room to walk around. In each room, there was a closet with a wardrobe in it, a desk with a journal and ink pad, along with a large, reinforced bed with the windows positioned so the sunlight hits the bed in the morning.

Svetlana pointed to the room on the right and said, “Thalia, that’s your room.” She pointed to the room on the left. “And Cato, that’s your room. You’ll both find everything you need here, but there’s also more.”

Thalia and Cato followed Ivan and Svetlana back to the intersection and down the hall to the right from facing the grand hall. There were a set of double doors separating the section with the war room, conference room, and other official rooms and the section for children.

The section contained several rooms. There were two classrooms with several desks along with a table for one-on-one interactions with the tutor. There was a sparring room, a room with fancy chairs and teacups, and a room with toys. Svetlana pointed to the classrooms and explained, “These classrooms are where you’ll spend five days out of the week learning from the brightest minds in the land. You’ve already met several of them earlier.”

Svetlana walked down to the sparring room and opened the door. It revealed a large open area with wooden walls and floor along with mats. She walked over to the room in the back, opening it to show padded toy weapons. She picked up the toy bow with an arrow with a clay head and weak draw strength. She explained, “This is where you’ll have your combat training, Cato.” Thalia tapped her hooves and flicked her tail in frustration.

Cato looked over at Thalia and then back at Svetlana. “Why can’t Thalia train here?”

Svetlana smiled as she knelt down to Cato’s level and put a hand on his shoulder. “Cato, noble ladies do not normally fight. It’s the duty of a nobleman to fight on their behalf and to participate in the emperor’s wars.”

Thalia stomped her hooves and demanded, “I want to train too! I don’t want to be useless while others fight for me!” Svetlana gasped and looked at Ivan, who merely shrugged.

Ivan patted Thalia’s shoulder. “Thalia, my girl, you can train if you want to. Just be aware that boys will naturally develop more upper-body strength compared to girls.”

Thalia smirked. “Most boys don’t have the lower body of a horse.” She flicked her tail as she trotted forwards, only to be stopped by Ivan.

Svetlana announced, “There are two more rooms I wish to show you.” She led them out of the sparring room and walked across the hall to a room filled with toys. She opened a toy chest to reveal dolls, blocks, and plush animals. Svetlana pulled out a doll of an elven woman and handed it to Thalia.

Thalia held the doll in her hand and smiled. She laid down on the ground and grabbed some nearby dolls of a male dwarf, and a female human and arranged them in a circle as if to play. Thalia pointed to the elf doll and said, “That’s Lady Pointy Ears,” she then pointed at the dwarf, “that’s Mr. Beard,” and finally pointed at the human, “and that’s Mrs. Miller.”

Svetlana sat across from Thalia and asked, “What do you imagine them doing?”

Thalia smirked and made Mr. Beard punch Lady Pointy Ears and shout in her impression of a male voice, “Take that, elf! My beard is cooler than your ears!” She then resumed her normal voice but made it sound haughtier as she moved Lady Pointy Ears. “Shame on you for punching a lady! I suppose my only choice left is to use my fireball on you!”

Svetlana cleared her throat, interrupting Thalia’s game with the dolls. “Before we play more, perhaps we should check out the last room.” Thalia groaned as she got up and put away the dolls. Cato, meanwhile, put away the blocks he was messing with.

Svetlana led them out of the room and to the last room. She opened the door to reveal a large room with bookshelves on the walls, a large mat in the middle by a rocking chair, several tables with chairs around it, and some couches. Svetlana pulled a book off the shelf and opened it to reveal pictures. “We’re in the children’s library and I’m holding a book about a brave knight who rescued a princess from a dragon.” She put the book up and said, “While you may not be able to read right now, I’m sure you’ll love this room once you do learn. Each shelf is listed with a number indicating the reading level from 1 for beginning readers to 9 for near-adult level reads, minus inappropriate content, of course.”

Thalia looked around amazed at the books everywhere. She trotted over to a couch and plopped down on it, only to get up when she heard it creak. Svetlana sighed and explained, “I’m sorry, but a lot of the furniture isn’t built for a centaur’s heavier frame. I’m looking to fix that, but unfortunately the carpenter is still working on it.”

Ivan walked in and asked, “Is the tour over?”

Svetlana walked up to Ivan and kissed him. “It is, but I’m sure the young ones are still curious.”

Cato shifted on his hooves, his back ones leaning towards each other. He raised his hand and nervously asked, “Where do I go? I need to relieve myself!”

Ivan chuckled and pointed to the end of the hall. “There’s a bathroom over there and near your bedroom. Rest assured, we got some dwarven plumbing set up so there are toilets that will hygienically get rid of waste, and you’ll always have water and soap to wash your hands. There are also bathtubs built for your frames so you can bathe in warm water. Rest assured, we thought ahead of time.”

Cato nodded and trotted off to the bathroom, leaving Thalia with her adoptive parents. She looked around and felt excited at this new, luxurious life, but also felt the call of the plains, as if this was an unnatural place for a centaur to be. She remembered hearing a tale from her childhood about how horses were centaurs who stayed near humans too long and became mere animals. While definitely false, the cultural ideal of centaurs living on the plains and steppes stuck with Thalia.

As she began walking towards her room, she tried to imagine herself in the future. She saw two versions of herself. One was wild and free, galloping across the steppes with a herd. The other was of her wearing a fancy gown and drinking tea with other nobles. She didn’t know which she’d be, but she knew one thing: she would persevere.