Dawnglow shuddered in the cool fast running waters of one of the bathing streams near the centaur camp. The warm mid-day sun shone down through the leaves of the overhanging trees, the copse of bushes offering the bathing mare some degree of privacy. She liked this stream, it was her favourite. That just made it all the worse when she again rammed two fingers down her throat.

“EEeeeuuuuuuuurgh!” she retched, sending a gutful of vomit into the stream, the fast moving water carrying away all evidence of what she had done, leaving the nineteen year old sobbing pitifully as she clutched her belly. She hated this, she was dishonouring the hunters that had supplied the rabbit, the farmers who had supplied the vegetables as well as her father who had prepared the meal she was now wasting. Worst of all, as a hunter herself, she was dishonouring the animal who had died so that she could be fed.

As Dawnglow felt her belly, she pressed her hand into her soft burnt orange coloured skin, the inch or so of fat wobbling slightly. She didn’t see a healthy centaur, she saw a fat overweight blob of a creature, wretched and worthless next to shining examples like Nightingale. All she had to do was think of the slim Air Whisperer and she jammed her whole hand into her mouth.

Coughing and spewing, she sent another gout of vomit into the stream in an attempt to purge her body, to keep her weight down. How else would an unremarkable example like her keep a beauty like Applewood? Her belly at last empty, Dawnglow sunk into the warm clear waters so that she could bathe. Now that her insides had been cleansed, her outside needed attention.

Reaching to the nearby shore, she took up her apple and cinnamon scented soap – a favourite of Applewood’s – and she began to wash herself down, each vigorous swipe of her washcloth cleansing her mind as well as her body. Applewood did like her to be clean and presentable before their sessions together and she hated to disappoint her Mistress.

Dawnglow smiled when she thought of her Mistress, a smile that quickly faded as she worked the soap into her bright yellow mane. She wanted nothing more than to hold her hand and walk through the camp with her, to kiss her like it was nothing, to dance with her at the festivals like the other lovers did. But that would mean admitting she was…that she was…‘like that’. It wasn’t that same sex relationships were forbidden in the camp, not for hundreds of summers, but she still remembered when her old grandmother had branded centaurs ‘like that’ dirty, filthy and unnatural.

‘Nightingale isn’t ‘like that’, is she?’ Dawnglow thought miserably as she cleaned her small breasts in the water, another thing she hated about herself. No, Nightingale always had stallions hanging off her arm, a slim figure and a body that turned every head. ‘Even Applewood’s…’ she thought bitterly, rubbing so hard with the cloth that her orange skin was turning red. She had caught her looking when she thought she hadn’t been paying attention.

Still, she’d rather be out here than at home. She had been in her room in their dwelling tree most of the morning while her father, Equinox had been preparing the letter that he would take personally to the council, about her brother and the human he was meeting with. The very thought of going to the Council of the Elders made her yawn and feel sleepy.

Once she was happy she was clean enough, Dawnglow emerged from the crystal clear bathing stream and she allowed the hot summer sun to dry her off, which, thanks to it being the height of the season, did not take long at all. After brushing her mane, she placed her things back in her shoulder pouch, her smile returning when she saw the note there next to the package.

The summons from her Mistress had been short, to the point, but as usual full of love. She had been ordered to the Summer Glade, no later than noon. She had rewarded her kestrel with a bird treat for bringing the note to her. She made sure, when she secured her pouch to her shoulder, not to touch the wrapped package any more than she already had.

High up in her oak trees, Applewood saw her girlfriend and pet enter the Summer Glade. A broad smile spread over her face, she was a few moments late but, she was so pleased to see her that she was willing to let that slide this time. The twenty two year old Tree Singer watched Dawnglow wander about from tree to tree looking for her, amused at how the younger mare never thought to look up into the branches above her. ‘Silly girl,’ she thought, watching this continue a little while longer. “Say, pretty filly,” she called out eventually, “You want to ride my tree?”

The moment she heard her sweet voice, Dawnglow at last turned around and looked up to the first and biggest oak tree in the glade. Applewood, her beautiful summer green Mistress with her chestnut brown mane, was standing fifty feet above her on a platform she had sung together. ‘She always calls me that…’ she thought with a grin as she trotted to the base of the wide tree. “Good day, Mistress,” she greeted her with a little bow.

“Join me.” It wasn’t a request. It was an order. Applewood pointed to somewhere behind and to the left of the centaur on the ground. “Turn around, move about twenty feet and then turn to you left, you'll see the start of the stairs behind the trees.”

Dawnglow loved that assured, confident tone that her girlfriend used to control and order her around. It made her hot between her hind legs as she followed her brusque instructions, she soon found the stairs, magically created from the tree itself. She had watched Applewood at work before and every time it mystified her how, just by singing in the right way, the Tree Singer could bend the otherwise unyielding wood to her will. ‘Just like she bent me to her will…’ she thought as she nervously, even though she's done this before, ascended the stairway to where her Mistress was waiting.

Applewood bore a smirk on her equine face, the centaur as at home up in the branches as on the ground. “After all our sessions, pet, you're still a little afraid of these heights?”

Dawnglow nodded, holding onto the tree when she stepped onto the wide platform even though it was as solid to her as the rest of the old oak tree. “Hunters like their hooves on the ground, Mistress.”

“I just like your hooves and all that is attached to them.” Applewood closed the small distance between her and her girlfriend, her lips finding hers in a long, hard passionate kiss that she didn’t break until she felt the heat of the younger mare’s blush.

“Th-Thank you, Mistress.” Dawnglow was indeed blushing, so hard in fact that her burnt orange skin was red as an apple on her cheeks. Very slowly, and very carefully, she let go of the tree and moved to stand by her girlfriend’s side. “I missed you,” she said, nuzzling the older mare’s cheek, glossing over the fact it had only been two days. “I came to you as soon as Caleth bought me your note, Mistress. I've bought it, just like you asked.”

Though she well knew what was in the package when she took the plain wrapped rectangular parcel from her, Applewood still couldn’t help the fluttering feeling in her chest when she opened it to reveal the green leather collar, the slim wooden fastenings drawing her attention. She knew once it was on, only she, or another Tree Singer, would be able to remove it without it breaking. “Plylact does good work.”

“He does, Mistress.” Dawnglow still had her blush in place as she bowed her neck and pulls aside her yellow mane. The specially designed collar had cost her the promise of supplying the craftsmith with rabbit and boar for the next few weeks, but it was worth it.

This was what they both wanted. Ever since Appleglow – who had been, and still was, her best friend – had discovered her doing self-bondage several months ago before the Winter Festival and they had become more than just friends, they had wanted this. Reverently, the Tree Singer closed the collar around her pet’s neck and, singing a soft melody, she commanded the wooden clasps to intertwine, holding it firmly in place. “Oh, look what I have here!” she said loudly once that was done, reaching up into a branch and pulling down a couple coils of ropes.

Dawnglow couldn’t help but smile when she saw the ropes in her Mistress’s hand. It was a happy, secure, safe feeling, in spite of the fact she was fifty feet up in the air. “I have something for you too.”

“Other than this lovely collar, you mean?”

“Yes Mistress. May I show you?”

“You may, my pet.”

Permission given, Dawnglow removed her shoulder pouch and, reaching in to it - dropping it on the floor - she produced a very sharp flint arrowhead with pride. “Yesterday, in class, I scored my first kill on a hunt. This is for you.”

Applewood took the arrowhead and, holding it in the palm of her hand, she regarded it as reverently as she had the collar. The significance of the gesture was not lost on the Tree Singer. She was no Hunter, but she knew the arrowhead that had claimed the first kill was a priceless thing. “With this arrowhead?” she asked.

To allay her growing nerves, Dawnglow giggled. “I give myself to you, m-my lo-love.”

Applewood kissed the arrowhead, giving the artefact the respect it was due – after all this very arrowhead had gone on to provide food for the camp - and she placed it carefully in her pouch. “I accept and, I will treasure it for always, pet.” She did however catch the nervousness in her lover’s voice, it upset her a little that she was still hesitant with declaring her love, despite the fact they had known each other for years. “So you know,” she put her thought out of her head, “I'm going to try something a little different today with the ropes.”

“Different, Mistress?”

The dominant centaur smirked a little when she saw her pet paw at the platform with her left forehoof, a classic sign of her nerves. “Your hearing is excellent. First, arms behind your back and touch your elbows.”

“The boar gave its life well, Mistress,” Dawnglow began to babble as she placed her arms behind her back, her left forearm on top of her right, touching her elbows as she had been instructed. This did have the bonus effect of thrusting her meagre chest forwards. “We made sure all of her was used.”

Grinning, Applewood proceeded to tie up her girlfriend. She used the quarter inch thick rope to bind her forearms together behind her back, the summer green centaur moving easily on the platform. She then took hold of the loose ends, bringing them to the front to bind her breasts. Once bound, her small mounds artificially increased like balloons due to the ropes over and under them, she ran her fingers delicately over her stiffening nipples. “Hmm,” she whispered, “So soft to the touch.”

Th-The ah...the meat we fed ourselves...aaaah the ah...” Dawnglow gasped as the pleasurable sensations shot through her body, interrupting her nervous ramble, “The f-fur....fur...ooooh soft…” her breath hitched and she rather lost her train of thought. “Thank you, Mistress.”

Without a word, Applewood turned and bent over, conspicuously lifting up her chestnut brown tail high as she opened a small trap door built into the platform. She knew her pet would talk and talk until she either forbade her or gagged her. She removed a small jar of honey and turned back around quickly to see where her eyes were. She wasn’t disappointed to see Dawnglow’s eyes were firmly zeroed in on where her marehood had been. “F-Fur...aah...h-heart...” the more she got aroused, the more her mouth went dry.

“You have a honeyed tongue, my love.” Applewood snickered, opening up the jar and dipping two fingers in the jar. “Open.” Obediently, Dawnglow opened her mouth just as what she was going to tell her Mistress about being given the honour of eating the boar’s heart, but then she knew that her girlfriend knew that already. The summer green centaur took a moment to trail her honey coated fingers over her pet’s stiff nipples before she placed them in her mouth. “Clean.”

“MmMmmm!” she moaned quietly as she sucked the offered fingers clean straightaway, her tongue licking all over the digits in her mouth. Her tail flagged upwards, her juices now running down the inside of her thighs.

Applewood moved her mouth to clean the sticky nipples in front of her, taking one hard nubbin in her mouth after the other, both receiving the same loving treatment. She swirled her tongue around them before sucking each nipple hard. “You are truly sweet, my sweet.”

“Aaaahn...th-thank you Mistress!” Dawnglow pawed her left hind leg on the platform, getting wetter and more turned on by the second.

Once her pet’s breasts were clean and the honey sucked from her own fingers, Applewood placed the lid back on the jar of honey. “A bit antsy are we?” she giggled, her lover’s arousal clearly evident just from the smell in the air, as she pulled up a length of half inch thick rope and some wooden spreaders. “Widen your stance.”

Dawnglow nodded, too aroused to even blush any more. “It's been a long two days, Mistress,” she commented, the summer green mare widening her legs so that they were just past shoulder width apart. ‘At least when I was thinking of you I wasn't thinking of the boar I dishonoured by throwing up the heart…’ she thought, a little tear running down her cheek at the memory of what she had done.

Oblivious to the tear that ran down the younger mare’s cheek, Applewood proceeded to lash the sturdy two inch thick branch to her hind hooves and another to her forehooves. “Did anyone see you claim your first kill, pet?”

“Y-Yes Mistress. Master Sagittarius was most impressed.” She answered quickly, her head held high when she recalled how proud the Master of the Hunt had been when her arrow had found its mark on the boar. “I am now qualified for supervised hunts, Mistress.”

“Good,” Applewood smiled, laying an affectionate kiss on her bound lover’s cheek. “Then I'll not starve as I can only eat so many berries.”

“It's my honour to feed the camp, Mistress.”

As soon as Applewood finished securing the second spreader around her pet’s forehooves, she moved behind her, out of her field of vision. Dawnglow knew better than to look around over her shoulder. That way lead to a switching. “You feed me well, my love.” She smirked before delivering a long lick under her tail, a lick that cleanly split her folds and allowed her to taste just how aroused she was.

“Yes, you are sweet as honey…” Applewood smiled, appreciating the sight of a heavily flagging tail and hard clitoris winking between the labia that was swollen with need. Walking around her, she picked up some thicker three quarter inch rope. So far, she had done nothing new with the ropes up to that point. Now, she decided to up her game. She crosses the two ropes on the centre of your lower back and moved to do a shell binding with the ropes going between her legs.

Dawnglow smiled as the somewhat safe and familiar ropes got tied around her body, remembering to inhale at the right moment so that the shell binding wasn’t super tight, she was just wondering when the ‘something different’ was going to happen when she glanced down at her hips. What struck her as odd was there was a long loop of rope left at each hip and both sides of her mid shoulders. That was new. “Um, Mistress, what is the excess for?”

Applewood answered her with a hard dominating kiss that succeeded in shutting her up. “Do you trust me?”

“To the end of the hunt, Mistress.”

Sliding underneath her from behind, Applewood lifted her girlfriend up and she moved her very close to the edge of the platform so that she could see the fifty foot drop below her. “Is that so?”

“Gaaaah!” Dawnglow squeaked on reflex, immediately feeling like a foolish foal. She knew enough that her lover wouldn’t put her in real danger. She was after all a very skilled Tree Singer. “Y-Ye-Yes Mistress. I trust you.”

Applewood returned to where she got the honey and she pulled out a large wooden D ring. With that in hand, she used it to fasten the four loops together so that the ring sat on the centre of Dawnglow’s lower back. “Are you willing to show your trust?”

Summoning her nerve and resolve, Dawnglow nodded without hesitation. ‘I trust Applewood,’ she thought, a spread of warmth flooding her chest when she thought of how much she loved her Mistress. ‘I love her so much! She cared for me ever since that time she caught me…’ “Yes Mistress, I am.”

Moving around the platform, Applewood stood in front of her bound lover. She placed her hands either side of her face, effectively holding it in place. She looked her in the eyes as she began to sing. While Dawnglow was no Singer, she could feel the magic in the soft harmonious melody that left the older mare’s lips. As the song progressed, she could feel her forehooves move forward and her hind hooves move back. Each by several inches. Out of the corner of her eye she couldn't help but notice a sizable crack from where the trap door was, the crack running underneath her.

“By the Forest...” Dawnglow muttered and, while she was obviously nervous and scared, she didn't say ‘hazel’, her safe word. She did have to consciously remind herself how much she trusted Applewood. ‘She's a singer. I trust her...’ she repeated to herself almost like a mantra as she looked into her eyes. “I trust you.”

The summer green centaur had a wickedly sly smile on her face though when she moved back to the trapdoor location and she pulled up a rope that was hanging down until she got to her girlfriend. There was a loop at the end of the rope. Wordlessly, she added that to the wooden D ring that was holding all the ropes together. “Question is, do I trust myself?” she giggled, “Ready for what is next?”

“I am with you, Mistress. I am ready.”

‘We shall see,’ Applewood thought solemnly as she straddled the rope so that she was standing to her pet’s side. Truth was she was nervous herself for what she was about to do. She had a song ready to make a safety net from the branches below should it go wrong. “Fly!” She cried, pushing Dawnglow hard off the platform and sure enough the rope attached to the tree went taut before she fell more than twenty feet.

“AAaaAAAH!” Dawnglow screamed in utter terror, in spite of how much she claimed to trust her girlfriend. Although, after a second and then two seconds of non-death she opened her eyes, more than a little pee coming out and spattering on the ground below. “Oh...oh wow...”

The area directly under the platform was clear, so the bound centaur swung back and forth like a pendulum. As she began to slow down, after a couple more very long seconds, Applewood used a hook to pull up the rope just enough to keep her swinging. “This...this is…oh wow...” At the bottom of the swing she was about thirty feet above the forest floor. “I...” she managed a smile as she dared to look down, starting to enjoy it, “I love you!”

“Thank you for watering my flowers,” Applewood laughed, more in relief that everything had gone as planned rather than to be mean, “I was getting worried for the lack of rain.”

Dawnglow blushed horribly when she realised she was still urinating on the flowers and the forest floor below her. “I’m sorry Mistress.”

“It was a pretty little scream too,” she snickered, “also, I love you as well.”

Dawnglow squirms a little in her bindings, very thankful that the Summer Glade was out of the way. Except for the Summer Sun Celebration, nobody used the glade much. That was why the two lovers liked it. It afforded them a degree of privacy. “I um, I couldn't help it.”

Moments later, and Applewood appeared on a branch below her, the centaur not even looking where she was stepping, so sure was she of her immediate surroundings. “I love to swing in the trees, it’s not so scary when you have a rope.”

“I think I can see the appeal, Mistress. It actually feels nice now the shock has worn off.”

When Applewood sang again, the branch that held the rope that was supporting Dawnglow lowered itself all the way down until her four hooves safely touched the ground. “I thought this would be better than cutting the rope.

The instant Dawnglow felt her hooves touch the firm undergrowth that was the forest floor, the young Hunter smiled, “I thank you, Mistress.”

Quietly, though she nodded to show she had heard her, the summer green mare removed the rope from the tree to the wooden D ring. That done, she ran the shoulder loops through the hip loops so they cross over Dawnglow’s back and she pulled the shoulder loops forward to tie to her front. She then untied the two spreader bars keeping her legs wide. “Didn't want you kicking when you went over,” she explained. “Now, let's dance.”

“Yes Mistress!” Relieved to have her legs free from the spreader bars, she gave her hooves an experimental flexing to get the blood flowing again. Now, it was a little known fact, but because the Tree Singers weren't the busiest bunch in the camp, unlike the Hunters or the Air School, they had time to dance.

Applewood took the lead, mostly because her girlfriend was still tied in the shell rope bondage. She sang her magical song as she danced, growing a wide dome of thorny vines around them from the floor upwards until they were obscured from view, not that anyone was around to see.

Unlike her older partner, Dawnglow danced like she has four left hooves but, what she may have lacked in style, skill, grace, poise and balance she nonetheless tried her best, especially as she was being led by her Mistress. “I'm going to teach you to dance,” Applewood whispered in the dome, “and you know why?”

“No Mistress, why?”

“I'm going to dance with you at the Spring Equinox Festival.”

“Y-You are? W-We are?” Dawnglow blushed hard, that wretched unworthy feeling flourishing in her stomach once more, she dreaded every single time her girlfriend brought the subject up. She never said anything, but the Hunter could tell she was getting tired hiding their romance. “I ah...I know you wanted to dance at the Winter Festival, I um, I wasn’t ready. I'm sorry…”

“I will dance at the Winter Solstice to come, but I will dance with you in the Spring.”

Dawnglow gulped nervously. She knew she couldn’t keep putting it off now. “Y-Yes Mistress. Dance. With you.”

“I'll not live a lie forever.”

‘You'll go with Nightingale instead...’ she thought resentfully, her fears coming back to her even though the only thing Applewood had done was to look at the other centaur – but everyone looked at Nightingale – she nodded her head, studying the dome around them and her hooves. “I understand Mistress, I do. I'll dance. I want to, more than anything.”

“Spring is a long ways away,” Applewood kissed her lover’s nose, “so you have plenty of time to learn and to face what it is to be a couple.”

“Don't leave me!” Dawnglow blurted out as she looked up, her lip trembling, “please?”

Applewood narrowed her eyes, wondering where in the world that outburst had come from. “Are you my pet?”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Do you think I'd put my pet away?”

“No, Mistress.”

“Do you think I could love another?”

“You could, but you don't, Mistress,” Dawnglow answered quickly, though that poisonous little thought was still there in her brain. ‘Except when you look at Nightingale…why would you want a fat ugly little breasted mare like me when you can have her?’

Applewood sighed, the Tree Singer dearly wishing she knew what was going on inside Dawnglow’s head. “You are correct that I could, pet.” She kissed her as lovingly as she could, “And that I haven't. Fear will keep you on your hoof tips to serve me, and will reward service. You will dance with me. I assure you, the other option is not as pleasant.”

“I love to serve you, Mistress,” Dawnglow answered her partner, well aware that the smell of her arousal was still hanging in the air, a heady, musky scent that was intensified by the dome that concealed them. She flicked her flagging yellow tail upwards as she flexed her bound arms.

“You want to touch me?” Applewood asked, able to read her pet’s intent.

“Yes Mistress!”

“Beg, pet. Beg to touch me.”

Dawnglow did indeed beg. “Please, Mistress!” she moaned, her voice full of lust as she took a step towards the dominant centaur. “Please Mistress, please allow your pet to touch you, Mistress, please!”

“Now I'm not sure if you really want to.” Applewood smirked, the dominant in her adoring the way her lover begged and pleaded just to touch her. It turned her on, a hell of a lot did it turn her on. Now, her arousal mingled in the air, joining Dawnglow’s. “You may touch me with your lips.”

“Thank you Mistress!” the bound submissive took another step and she made contact, tentatively kissing her Mistress’s lips. Applewood did kiss her back, but she kept her hands to her sides. After her lips, Dawnglow took her time kissing down the summer green mare’s neck all the way to her shoulder, making good use of being able to touch with her lips.

After ten long minutes of teasing her, Applewood finally raised her hands, running them in Dawnglow’s bright yellow mane. “Oooooh…” she purred, the younger mare trembling at the touch she'd longed for, for two days and she kissed down her ample perky chest, her tongue circling her erect green nipples.

Thoroughly enjoying the experience, Applewood didn’t guide or force Dawnglow’s movements. She let loose a pleasured moan, her own chestnut brown tail flagging upwards. Pausing in her ministrations, Dawnglow flicked her eyes up as she had a nipple in her mouth. She saw her lover’s eyes were closed and her breathing was hitched and faltering. ‘I bet she’s thinking about Nightingale…’ that horrible thought came to her again, ‘slim and attractive Nightingale…so much better than you…’

As Dawnglow pleasured her, flicking her nipples with her tongue and sucking long and hard on each one like a foal drawing milk from its mother, Applewood was patent, waiting to see where she would take this when she was put in charge. Dawnglow kissed down to her side and along the older mare’s flank once she was done with her breasts, to pause at your tail. “May I kiss under your tail, Mistress?”

“What were my instructions?”

“That I may touch you with my lips, Mistress.”

“Then I have no further instructions for you.”

Behind her now, Dawnglow got down on her knees and she edged a little closer and, kissing her way slowly up her hind legs, she placed flowery kisses all over her glistening wet folds. She felt no small degree of pride that she had made her Mistress all hot and bothered. She had done that! Happy, Dawnglow continued to kiss and gently nip all over and around her dripping wet labia and her mound.

While she was lost in her little world of pleasuring her Mistress, the submissive centaur unfortunately forgot her orders. It was as she was kissing her hard swollen clitoris that she let her tongue slip out and, nudging her muzzle forwards, she licked straight up her lover’s wet muscular tunnel. “AAaaaAAH!” Applewood let out a surprised moan but, while it was nice, she had to step on this. “Mmmmmm, I didn't realize your lips were so long, Dawnie…”

“Eeek!” Too late, Dawnglow realised her mistake. “Mi-Mistress, I'm sorry!”

“You are bold indeed Dawnie, to do that, yet you are timid after the fact. Recommended course of action for this transgression?”

“Punishment, Mistress.”

Applewood turned and kissed her pet’s trembling lips. “Such a clever girl you are, and your recommendation for that punishment?”

“A spanking, Mistress. You are...gifted, in selecting the switch.”

“Show me how much you want your spanking.” Applewood said as she turned her back on her girlfriend and raised up her chestnut brown tail to expose her marehood. “Make me cum. You may not use your hands. But, be imaginative.”

“Yes Mistress, thank you Mistress!” Dawnglow squeaked eagerly. As she was already in position behind her, she firmed up her tongue and slid it in and out of her dominant partner’s sopping wet snatch, licking all around the muscular walls of her tunnel.

As soon as she felt the wonderful sensations of the delving tongue enter her pulsating depths, Applewood pushed back against her, grinding her crotch onto Dawnglow’s face. Quickly, with practised skill, the burnt orange centaur got a rhythm going, tongue fucking her girlfriend as deeply as she could. After a few deep thrusts, she pulled out and sucked on the puffy labia before licking and sucking her clit.

Applewood sighed, almost neighing with pleasure as her orgasm built up quickly inside her body. It had been a little while for her. She knew, as Dawnglow gently nipped on her clit and swirled her tongue around the nub, sucking on it hard, that she would be easily pushed her over the edge in a matter of minutes.

When Dawnglow had a thought, she went back to tongue fucking her marehood and, using her left forehoof to rub circles on and around her Mistress’s clitoris. After all, she hadn’t been forbidden from using her hooves and she had been told to be creative. She was rewarded moments later by a loud scream when Applewood exploded in an orgasmic climax. “Y-Yo-You have…we-well and tr-truly earned that spanking, pet…” she gasped when she had her breath back.

‘I get attention from my Mistress!’ Dawnglow smiled and performed a very happy four-hooved happy dance in the dome of thorns. “Thank you Mistress!” Applewood waited until her clit had been kissed one last time before she moved and unfastened the bindings on her pet’s little breasts and her arms. Once they had been released, she groped her left breast hard, hard enough to leave finger marks and make her whimper. She then used the breast as a lead and, singing a hole in the dome, she pulled Dawnglow over to a low branch. “Take hold of the branch so you don't run off into the woods.”

“Aaaaaah! Nggggh hmmm!” Dawnglow grimaced as she was so roughly groped after being bound, her released flesh tingling and itchy as the blood flow returned to her extremities. Still, she obediently placed both of her hands on the branch. She had no intentions of running away.

“Such a naughty filly you are, Dawnie. Don't think I haven't noticed how wet you are.” With that, she took hold of a very thin branch and, humming softly, the Tree Singer made it grow longer, but no wider until it was a perfect cane. “This should do nicely.”

“I-I'm a naughty filly, Mistress!” Dawnglow whimpered as she heard her partner snap the branch off. Knowing she had the switch in hand, she gripped the branch tighter. ‘If only you knew how naughty I was,’ she thought sadly, tensing up when memories of all the times she had made herself vomit came to mind.

Quietly, Applewood stood behind her girlfriend, switch in hand. With a thought, she dispelled the dome of thorns back to the forest as she tried to discern just how far she would be willing to go. Something troubled the dominant centaur, and it was how tense she seemed. Dawnglow looked over her shoulder while pawing at the ground nervously with her hind hooves. “Eyes front!”

“Y-Yes Mistress, Sorry Mistress!” Dawnglow immediately turned her head resolutely to the front, biting her lip and raising up her bright yellow tail in preparation.

Applewood didn't say anything, instead she swung the switch, the instrument of her pet’s punishment striking with unerring aim, catching the centaur’s butt cheeks and tail. “One.”

Dawnglow knew what she had to do. She knew what her Mistress expected of her. “Aaaah...o-one, Mistress!” she flicked her tail up higher while tryin to keep her ass still. It wouldn’t do to make Appleglow think she was enjoying her punishment.

Without warning, Appleglow struck her again, but this time she followed up with her muzzle under Dawnglow’s twitching tail to sop up the wetness she found there. “GAAaaAAH...T-Two!” she yelped, this time her flesh was on fire as she hiked her tail up high and stamped her hind hoof.

“Sweet, sweet honey. Nectar of the gods.” Applewood licked her lips and swung the switch a third time before diving back in to lick the fresh welt she had made.

The fire in Dawnglow’s ass turned into an inferno. “Ow! Oooooow!” she took a moment of heavy breathing through the stinging pain before she calls out. “Three! M-May I have another?”

Applewood began fingering her pet as she swung the switch, the cane hitting with a resounding smack on her ass. The inferno became raw lightning. “Fo-Four! Mistress! Th-Thank you!”

Swish!

The lightning struck her to the very core of her being, the cane hitting her on the fleshiest part of her buttocks, leaving a fifth welt in its place. “AAaaaAAH! Oooow! Five!” she squealed, her hind legs parting as she was fingered faster and faster.

Swish!

Her core, already on fire, made her spasm. “SIIIIIIIIIX!” she screamed, not at all caring right then if anyone heard her or not. She deserved this punishment, she needed this punishment, for lying and dishonouring what it meant to be a Hunter.

Swish!

“Seeee – aaaAAAAH! – Seeeeven!” Dawnglow’s spasm became desire. Desire that was more than evident by the way her needy marehood was leaking over her Mistress’s fingers as they plunged in and out of her tunnel. She was getting there, but she knew not to cum without permission.

Swish!

It wasn’t desire anymore. It was a base, animalistic need. “EEEeeeEEEeeEEEEEIGHT! FUUUUCK OOOOW!” she screamed, making Applewood think she had gone too far for a moment. But, she hadn’t uttered her safe word, in spite of how red and full of welts her hindquarters were. Eight thin red lines criss-crossed her thighs and ass.

Applewood was on the verge of stopping herself. She determined that ten would be enough. She quickly withdrew her hand from Dawnglow’s pussy, a hand that was slick and glistening with her juices. A second later and she swung the cane two times in quick succession, not giving her pet time to count them out.

“Ni-Niiiii….AAaaaAAAAAAGH TEEEEEEN!” Dawnglow screeched in absolute pain. The tenth strike did it. Purposefully or no, it hit the line of a previous welt. She couldn’t take anymore, whether she deserved to be punished or not. “Hazel!”

The moment she heard the safe word spoken loudly and clearly, Applewood threw down the switch and lovingly she kissed each and every welt on her pet’s sore behind. “Dawnie,” she said a few minutes later as she reached into her shoulder pouch and retrieved a wrap of healing cream provided by the camp’s apothecaries, “I'd like to try something, and it is far more intense than a toy.” She said gently, carefully smearing the cream over the many angry red welts. “You've...You've been off a bit today…”

Dawnglow froze, and it had nothing to do with the freezing effects of the healing ointment that was, as she stood there, healing her welts, though the sweet pain remained. Very suddenly, she was scared that Applewood might know of her secret, her shame that nobody could know! She would hate her! The Hunters would hate her! “O-Off, Mi-Mistress?” she stuttered.

“Yes,” Applewood replied, completely clueless to her girlfriend’s disorder, her pain and her trauma. “I know you get off on pain, Dawnie, but I'm here looking at you and you're so tense. Like you're in fear. Dawn, I'm not going to abandon you because you want something other than pet play.”

“Fear? I-I'm not afraid, Mistress. I'm with you…” she said softly, but what she thought was, ‘I'm not afraid...I'm terrified! And I can't tell you, any of you why! I just can’t!’

Applewood gently guided her lover down to the forest floor so that they were both laid under the shade of the large oak tree in the Summer Glade. At any other time, the warm sunlight and the chirping birds would’ve made the scene perfect, but she could sense something was wrong. “You are so tense Dawn!” she exclaimed, holding her tight in her arms, “If you're not having fun, then I'm not having fun. And if you lie to me about having fun I'll be very disappointed. You can say no! Your safe word is for the play we have already talked about, but I would like to do something only if you want it too.”

‘Oh I want it! I really do!’ Dawnglow thought to herself, she just didn’t know that she deserved such pleasure. “Oooooh...” that thought though was sent from her troubled mind when Applewood slowly inserted four of her fingers into her wet marehood. She seemed to visibly relax a little, her hind legs spread wide apart on the grass. “I want it, Apples, I so want it!”

Applewood was about to press the issue when she felt her mare relax next to her on her side. “I don't want to use a toy, I want to use me. I want to be deep inside of you, Dawn. Will you let me?”

“By the Forest yes!” Dawnglow moaned, nodding furiously. “Oh yes! I want that, I want you in me Apples!”

Applewood watched her relax and in doing so, she pushed back against her fingers. She carefully used her free hand to turn her lover’s head to face her and she kissed her deeply. “I want to be in you, and more,” she said, kissing her again. “We will dance together in the Spring, and…” she kissed her a third time, “maybe sooner.”

“I want that, all of that, I truly do!” said Dawnglow once the torrent of kisses had come to a halt. “I'm sorry I'm scared, I shouldn't be, I...I'll tell everyone, I swear…” perhaps it was that she had just had the session of a lifetime, or maybe it was the four fingers knuckle-deep in her snatch that made her brave.

The summer green centaur placed her free finger to Dawnglow’s lips. “Don't make promises you can't keep. Yes, you will tell everyone, but in yours and my time. Our time.”

“We'll tell them all together, my love.”

Removing her hand, Applewood shimmied down the back of her girlfriend’s body and, with lip and tongue, she made sure to double check that she was wet enough for what she was about to do. Only when she was satisfied, did she work her fingers and thumb inside of her dripping wet pussy. With a moan, Dawnglow parted and lifted up her quivering hind legs.

Slowly, taking her time so as not to hurt her, Applewood continued to work her way in using her other hand to manipulate her hard exposed clitoris when she heard the slightest grunt of resistance. Every time she brushed her button she was rewarded with a surge of liquid and a mewling whimper of pleasure.

When she was about to slide her palm inside, the Tree Singer added her tongue to the mix, lapping at the stretched labia. Immediately, Dawnglow squeaked loudly and whimpered once her girlfriend’s whole hand was inside her. “Oh Apples that feels so good, I'm so full!”

Smirking to herself, Applewood planned on going all the way to the elbow, as she knew how big a stallion was. “Resist me. Squeeze my hand.”

“I-I'll try…” she concentrated as hard as she could and squeezes her muscular walls around the other mare’s questing hand. It was a tricky thing to do though as she was so turned on and aroused by the extremely lewd thing they were doing. She only had to think of what someone would see if they happened upon them now and she almost came.

Applying just a little more pressure, Applewood slid her arm in further, now entering her girlfriend’s marehood half way up her forearm. She loved the feeling of her muscular passage squeezing and gripping her. “Yeah, that's it! Make me earn it.”

“Aaah...oooooh ngggh wow...” Dawnglow grunted, the younger mare having to really concentrate and force her vaginal walls tighter, she even managed to squeeze her back out a teeny bit.

Applewood was panting the more she plunged inside her, especially as she had been wanting to do this for a long time. “I'm so going to ride you!”

“Do it, if you can, sexy!” Dawnglow struggled to keep herself as tight as she could manage, it was an effort though as she could feel every last inch of her lover’s fingers and her forearm plunging deep inside her sopping wet tunnel. Confidently, Applewood reached in further and further, with her muzzle pressed against her crotch as she sought out her cervix.

Seconds later and Dawnglow let out a low pleasured moan as her Mistress’s fingers finally touched her cervical wall after a few more moments going deeper inside her. It was a spike of pleasure the like of which she had never experienced before, with any of her toys. “Ooooh b-by the Forest! Please, Apples,” she begged, “please ride me!”

Applewood felt her fingertips come into contact with the muscular barrier and, guessing correctly that it was her cervix, said; “You aren't having any more. My very pretty mare, is that good for you?”

“HmmmAAAH!” Dawnglow jolted when she felt Applewood tap her and she quickly fought to regain control of her voice. “That’s good! That’s very good!”

“Alright pet, enjoy the ride.” She pulled her arm back to about halfway out before thrusting it all the way back in, increasing her speed just a fraction.

Lost in a universe of new sensations, Dawnglow had stopped watching. She had her eyes closed and a happy smile plastered on her muzzle as Applewood found a steady sawing rhythm, pistoning her forearm in and out of her moaning girlfriend, each forward thrust slowing to tap her cervix. “MAaaaAAH….AAaaAAH…” each tap to her cervical wall was a jolt of pure pleasure, her mouth now hanging open and moaning, her own hands grasping at her breasts and pulling her nipples.

Applewood then moved her right hand over to rub little circles around Dawnglow’s clit, keeping up the steady pace of her fisting. “Want to go faster, my pretty?”

Beneath her, writhing like a fish on a hook, Dawnglow could only nod. “I-I'm...ready...”

Increasing her pace just a little, Applewood thrust her hand in earnest, going a little faster with each forward thrust. After several taps, the final tap on the cervical wall lifted Dawnglow up as her sweat covered back pressed against the forest floor and the tightness of Applewood’s whole forearm in her lent force to her very, very intense orgasm as she squirted her cum over and around the summer green mare’s arm.

As Dawnglow came, and then subsequently rode out her climax, Applewood giggled, feeling very proud at a job well done, and she very slowly started to withdraw her arm, wiping a bit of the sweet ejaculate from her skin with her other hand and tasting it. “How did you like your first time, babe?”

Dawnglow didn’t answer. Dawnglow couldn’t answer. She was slack jawed and smiling as her heart rate slowly came back down to somewhere resembling normal. After a few moments, Applewood managed to pull her arm out all the way. “Dawnie,” she said gently, “thank you for allowing me to share this with you.” She smiled warmly as she laid next to her young lover and placed her hand to her lips, allowing her to lick her hand clean while she spooned her under the shade of the large oak tree.

~ ~ ~

Moonsilver sighed, the pale grey centaur had many conflicting thoughts running through his head as he picked his way effortlessly through the trees of the Everfree Forest. His hoof-steps made no sound and he didn’t disturb any of the brackens and ferns he passed through thanks to his air stone. All of his people carried them, but hunters especially prized the magical stones. He shifted his longbow and his quiver to get past a narrow gap in the trees that lead to the glade he was heading for.

He paid no heed to the way the late afternoon / early evening sun shone through the leaves of the trees. Usually he would’ve appreciated its beauty, but not today. Usually, when on a hunt, his mind was clear and driven with purpose, but not today. The three brace of conies and pheasant he had already shot bounced on the leather harness he wore on his equine back with every step he took.

Feeding the camp usually filled his soul with a sense of satisfaction and honour, but not today. Today, his mind was wandering. Specifically it was wandering to the meeting of the Council of the Elders. Usually when the council met it was over by the time the first wooden flagon was empty of its ale. Not today. Today the meeting had gone on for almost five hours.

‘Because of her, and because of me,’ Moonsilver thought as he walked up to the glade. He had one more kill to make, then his hunt would be complete, his duty done for the day. Again, he sighed. He well recalled his father’s words to him when he had returned from the meeting.

“My son,” Equinox had said, his hand on Moonsilver’s shoulder, “The council has voted. Twenty five to twenty three they decreed that the human is allowed to enter the camp. But, on the condition that she is under your care while here. She will be watched, Moonsilver, as will you be.” Equinox had sighed then. “Son, should she transgress, you will be held accountable for her actions. Do you understand?”

He had understood, alright. Never before in the camp’s history had the Council of the Elders been split almost down the middle on any subject. Ever. What his father had said next truly worried him though. “I have reported your findings and your thoughts,” Equinox had continued, “That the human apparently has magic to see past our Air Stones. Boreas and Eurus wish you to gain information from the human…by any means necessary. I am sorry, my son.”

That had been too much for Moonsilver to countenance. He had tried to explain that Celestia was willing to answer anything, that there was no need for forceful interrogations, but his father had shook his head. It seemed that the twin Elders had spoken and they carried a lot of stroke with the council. No sooner had he been told that, did Moonsilver take up his longbow and announce it was time for his hunt.

Boreas and Eurus’s words were on his mind the whole time though. Opposites, Boreas had domain over the north wind while Eurus the south. It was rare for them to agree like that even though together they made the Air Stones the centaurs used to conceal themselves. So affected was the Hunter that he had barely been able to shoot the six rabbits and pheasants.

He knew his mind was not on his task.

So much was his mind not on its task that he didn’t notice he was at his destination until he almost walked out into the glade itself. Even with the Air Stone concealing his form from sight, his prey would still smell him. That was why he wore the deer skins now, draped over his strong muscular shoulders. Unshouldering his longbow, crafted from a single piece of yew by the Tree Singers, he reached back and pulled an arrow from its quiver. As he notched the arrow in the hemp bowstring, he recited the Hunter’s Prayer before he drew the arrow back.

“Scorpan, heavenly Father to you I pray
A majestic prey may come my way.
Let my aim be straight and true
This my Lord I pray to you.
A swift clean kill is what I ask
Take his spirit swift and fast.
For his last breath should not be
One of pain and agony.
Let his soul come to thee
To roam your heavens wild and free.”

Moonsilver sighted the group of five deer in the clearing three hundred and sixty yards away from where he was stood between two tall trees. Warm summer sunlight glinted from the sharp tip of the flint arrowhead as the Hunter took aim at one of the three males in the group. There was no breeze, the birds that were chirping in the trees faded away with each deep breath he took.

He drew his arrow back another inch and, with his heartbeat steadied, prepared to let his arrow fly. “Your arm is tense, Moonsilver.” A tall, dark grey centaur with an even darker brown mane stepped forth from the tree beside Moonsilver where he had been watching for a good few minutes, his stealth complete.

At the sound of his best friend’s voice, the pale grey centaur lowered his longbow and sighed. While he valued his counsel, he was in no mood at the moment. “What would you know of my arm, Shadewalker?” he asked, a slight hint of irritation colouring his voice.

“I know it took you twenty shots to kill six long eared rabbits and six pheasant,” Shadewalker replied, unable to keep the smugness from his voice. “Twenty shots for twelve targets? From the great Moonsilver? Surely ‘tis a thing unheard of!” The dark grey Hunter smiled as, ignoring him, Moonsilver took aim at the deer again, this time targeting a female. “Not that one.” He laid a hand on the drawn arrow. “She is pregnant.”

Moonsilver sighed, though his sigh was more of a grunt, wishing that his friend would kindly disappear back to the forest. It didn’t surprise him at all that he had been tracked all afternoon, Shadewalker’s skill at stealth was exceptional, even Master Sagittarius could not rival him in that regard. “What is it you want, Shade?” he asked as he adjusted his aim.

“That one is not old enough to be prey, Moonsilver.” Shadewalker looked to where his best friend was aiming and saw he was targeting one not even old enough to mate, when there was a stag amongst them. The smug tone was gone from his voice as he rested his arm on Moonsilver's bow arm, lowering the bow. To shoot a prohibited target was a grave dishonour. “You are distracted. You know better than this, Silver.”

“It was a long shot anyway,” Moonsilver huffed and placed his arrow back in the quiver from whence it came.

“Not the only long shot you've taken recently, or so I've heard.”

As he sat on the grass between the trees, Moonsilver sighed, for probably the millionth time that day alone. He was tired of sighing but he didn’t know how else to express himself. He was no craftsmith. “Speak clearly, Shadewalker.” He said through the exhalation of breath. “We’ve known each other too long to speak in riddles.”

“You know well of what I speak,” said Shadewalker as he bent his legs and sat down next to his lifelong friend. He had held his tongue these past few days, but he couldn’t remain true to himself if he kept his counsel any longer. “This human female you are meeting with.” He rested his hand on Moonsilver’s shoulder, “She is not good for you. I see your aim affected, I see the others talking behind your back. I see-”

‘Human female?’ Moonsilver fumed internally. He was quite tired of hearing her referred to as ‘human’, or ‘human female’ or simply ‘it’ as though she was no better than the livestock that the Farmers tended in their paddocks. He interrupted his friend with a loud snort of breath through his nose. At least it wasn’t a sigh. “You see much, Shadewalker, son of Eclipse, grandson of Erebus.” There was a cold fire in his eyes. “Her name is Celestia.”

The dark grey Hunter had a stunned look on his face as surely as if he had been struck across his face. Moonsilver had never addressed him officially in all the summers he had known him. He knew he had crossed a line, but there was no going back now. “I come with counsel, Moonsilver,” he forced a calm to his tone that he didn’t feel. “You tread a dangerous path with the human. They are unpredictable, violent, savage creatures!”

Moonsilver chose to ignore the repeated term he hated. His Celestia was no savage beast! “We reached out to them once, Shade-”

“Ah yes, the island around the world.” Now it was Shadewalker’s turn to interrupt. He had been ready for this argument. Thankfully, he had spent the morning reading through the camp’s ancient texts in the Tree of Knowledge. “I remember the tales of the old times. We taught the humans our language, gave them civilisation. The Grecians thanked us by turning on us, they drove us back to the forests of the world.”

“That was a long time ago, Shade. I doubt we were entirely blameless in what happened back then.”

“It matters not the passage of time!” Shadewalker exclaimed, his outburst momentarily disturbing the group of deer, though they quickly went back to eating the grass. He had to make his friend see! “You would bring war and death and ruin upon our kind, Moonsilver. I've seen these humans, in their metal carriages and their great metal birds, destroying forests, killing with their bangsticks and their fireboxes and their demonfire!”

Moonsilver reached into his pouch and pulled his canteen. He took a few moments, while drinking the cool refreshing water, to collect his thoughts before offering it to his friend. “You are determined to see the worst of them. Change is upon us, Shadewalker, whether we desire it or not. You know as well as I that the Air Stones no longer conceal us as they once did. Humans here, not just Celestia, are touched with a magic that sees through the stones. The world is changing, for ill or no.”

“You say I see the worst of them, I say I see the truth of them! Moonsilver...” Shadewalker paused while he drank from his friend’s canteen like he had done countless times before. Although, looking at him now, he hardly recognised the Hunter that only yesterday he was proud to call his kin. “If…If you tread this path, you will walk it without me. I cannot follow, not this time.”

The pale grey Hunter took back his canteen, a look of shock all over his face. “Shade, y-you can't mean...”

“I will be against you in this, Moonsilver.” He stated firmly so that there was no double meaning in what he said or was about to say. I will not watch idle while you bring death amongst us. I would use all the agency at my disposal to see this endeavour fail, for the good of the camp and our kind.”

“I love her, Shadewalker.” Moonsilver didn’t move when his friend stood up from his seated position beside him. “Events are in motion that cannot be undone. I love her. I see myself with Celestia as she sees herself with me.”

Shadewalker unshouldered his own yew longbow, a look of sadness on his face. “I believe you.” He selected an arrow and, notching it in his silk bowstring, drew it back. Casually, without so much as aiming, he let the arrow fly unerringly to its target which was between the stag's eyes. “A parting gift from me to you. Know this. Do as you will. Proceed upon this path as you will, but my doors are ever more closed to you and your kin. Ever after this day, I will not see or hear you, Moonsilver. I will not be alone in this.”

Moonsilver didn’t move. He didn’t make any effort to stop his friend. He just watched as the large dark grey centaur turn and walk away without another word. By the time he had taken no more than a few steps, he had vanished into the forest. Before he could think of the lifelong friend he had just lost, he thought of the parting gift. Of the kill that was not his to claim. He couldn’t believe Shadewalker would dishonour him in this way!

He cast a glance at the clearing. The deer had all scattered, leaving the body of the stag behind. Moonsilver wanted nothing to do with it. The kill was not his. Though he had been dishonoured by one he used to call friend, to abandon the stag would be to dishonour not just the stag but the Fire School and the Hunter Cadre as a whole. That, he just couldn’t do.

“Your life was a blessing,
Your memory a treasure.
You are loved beyond words,
And missed without measure.”

Moonsilver recited the prayer of thanks to the fallen stag as he knelt beside the animal’s body and rested his hand on its head. Prayer done and his honours and respect in place, he removed Shadewalker’s arrow with a sharp tug. As it was so different to his own, he snapped it and threw it far into the undergrowth. Returning his attention to the stag. Reverently, he lifted it up onto his back, resting it atop the leather harness that supported his previous kills. His guilt was assuaged as he thought of the uses to which the animal would be put. Apothecaries would use the bones and some organs, as would craftsmiths use the bones for handles of knives. Cooks would of course use the meat and leather workers use the skins in preparation for winter.

~ ~ ~

Moonsilver’s trip back to the centaur encampment was thankfully void of incident, though by the time he got there, the afternoon sun was quickly becoming the twilight of evening. His first port of call was the cooks. From there, the parts of the animals would be handed to whomever required them. His duty done to his tribe, the pale grey centaur decided to go to the Bee and Barb, the Hunter’s Tavern which was owned by a female in her eighties by the name of Honeyside.

No sooner had Moonsilver taken his usual seating pad in the rustic tavern, which like all centaur buildings was created by the Treesingers, though as it was quite large, four trees had been used, than Honeyside had seen his troubled face. Of course, Honeyside knew what the cause of his long face was. The honey coloured mare tied up her long black mane and carried over two foaming tankards of mead.

She had a wry grin on her face as she set the drinks down on the roughly hewn table. Unlike the exterior, all of the décor was hand carved. Some with greater skill than others. The council might meet in private but their tongues did indeed wag when they’d had drink in her bar. Especially Master Sagittarius. She had also heard what Shadewalker had to say for himself as well, not that she cared about that.

An old friend of Moonsilver’s mother, Solstice, before she had gone on to join the Great Forest, Honeyside had politely, if firmly, told Shadewalker that he had no business telling her who she could and could not serve in her tavern. “Here you go Moony, that cheap hunter, Shady, wouldn't buy your beer.”

“Thank you, miss Honeyside, I think I need this after today.” Moonsilver was back to sighing, which he thought he was done with. He did his best to tune out the several other Hunters that were pointedly staring his way, not even bothering to hide what they were doing.

“He wouldn't buy you a lot more, so you can have all you want.” Honeyside sat down at Moonsilver’s table. The fact that she hadn’t been invited to join the young centaur didn’t seem to bother her in the least. “You are welcome in my bar, as long as you pay.” She said, casually examining her hand.

“I have paid,” Moonsilver assured her. His payment for his mead was the kills he had made, the service to the camp were his dues that entitled him to drink at the Hunter’s Tavern, just as they entitled him to the services of the craftsmiths, apothecaries and the stonecutters, should he have need of them. “I made sure to drop my kills off with the cooks and the craftsmiths.” He looked at his mead and sighed deeply. “So, Shadewalker was in, hmm? Then, going on everyone else's stares, he will have spoken with you, regarding the breaking of our fellowship.”

Honeyside waved the hand that she had been inspecting nonchalantly in the air. Like most females she was bare chested, unlike most however she was particularly endowed in this area and her breasts heaved as she laughed, making sure her voice carried to all in her bar. “Oh, yes he rambled on and on loudly. Told me to not serve you any drinks. I don't think he understands work ethic at all. My job is to serve drinks. Isn't that right Silty?” she glared hard at a grizzled old veteran Hunter named Siltbottom who had been openly staring. Under her fierce glare he turned and looked away. “Some may be listening to him, but all he was to me is a foul breeze.”

“I understand his fears, miss Honeyside, I'm no foal.” No foal he might be, although as he was only in his thirties he was just leaving adolescence behind him, unlike Honeyside who, in her eighties, was middle aged, for a centaur. He took a long slow drink of his mead and licked his lips to savour the taste. While his father made his own, none was as good as the Bee and Barb. “I am aware of the dangers, but...”

“You are not.” Honeyside cut across the younger Hunter’s latest sigh. “You have no idea. The council drinks here too, you know.”

“My father has already informed me of the council's decision regarding Celestia, how close the vote came…” he paused for a moment and reached for his drink, reflecting briefly on what Equinox had said to him, that Boreas and Eurus expected him to interrogate Celestia, find out what she knew of their kind and what magic she possessed, “and what they wish of me.”

Honeyside realized that he wasn't listening to her. "No, you don't!" She repeated herself, louder this time before she took a sip of her mead and coughed pointedly. "You have no idea what they wish!" The barkeeper sighed, "The council drinks here too, you know."

Moonsilver lifted up his tankard to his lips and let the liquid burn his throat on the way down. “I'm aware of that, miss Honeyside. If I have no idea, then please, enlighten me.”

Laughing, Honeyside got them both another mead. For all his skill at the hunt, which was prodigious, the pale grey centaur lacked subtlety. “The best of the worst case is that they just kill you and her.” She ignored the nods and murmurs around her as she sat back down with the refills. “Worst of the worst case is all below, and we pull up. Destroy all the Way Gates to and from this forest.”

Moonsilver looked very grateful for his second drink. He couldn’t help a shudder though at the mention of destroying the Way Gates. Though not unprecedented, such an act had not been carried out in living memory. The last time was almost four hundred summers past, when the humans had destroyed the Wild Wood in what they called Germaney. “Miss Honeyside...I find I am in need of your counsel. I do not wish to destroy our kind nor our way of life, but I love her!” he exclaimed, earning several loud murmurs from the other Hunters that went unacknowledged. “I told my father I was willing to kill her to keep our existence a secret as our laws suggest, but...” he trailed off, unable to finish that sentence.

Sipping her mead, Honeyside could see it was painfully obvious that he was wavering in that regard. “But you'd sooner kill your father than kill her, yes?” she laughed out loud, setting her tankard down. “You're like a young buck in the forest, Moony, focused on some tail.”

“I cannot countenance harming a hair on her head, miss Honeyside,” Moonsilver all but confirmed the older centaur’s suspicion as he took a draught of his mead. “My father has given me his blessing to pursue this, her, the hum...Celestia, but I had not anticipated splitting the camp in twain like this.”

“Celestia?” Honeyside was still laughing, “so the two legger has a name?” she batted her eyelashes playfully, “Is she prettier than me? I think I should meet this…Celestia.”

A look of irritation flashed across Moonsilver’s face before it was gone as fast as it had come. “Yes,” he snorted through his nose, “she has a name. She is no beast or savage, as Shadewalker would have you believe. I would have you meet her, to see for yourself.”

Curiosity got the better of Honeyside. Curiosity and a need to tease the tail off of her old friend’s son. “Is it true the two leggers like wine over beer? I could bring this Celestia some wine.” She snickered, knowing well that she had a store of wine – the Air School only drank so much, after all. “There’s plenty of it and then we can see what she is made of.”

“I confess I am not sure,” Moonsilver downed his second tankard of mead just as two Hunters entered the Tavern. He was about to greet them as kin before they saw Moonsilver and they walked straight back out again without a word spoken between them. Now, he was in need of the matriarch’s wisdom more than ever. “You...You believe I should pursue this, miss Honeyside?”

“This, yes!” she answered him gleefully, the loss of two Hunters of no consequence to her. They had served the camp and that was all that mattered. They would drink here in her bar for Hunter Cadre, or at the Watering Hole, the communal bar where all the Schools mingled. It mattered not, really. “I mean, mead, beer or wine is a very important decision to make! You do need another mead though, as do I to make up for the two that weren't drank...or drunk...drinked?”

Not expecting that, Moonsilver actually burst out laughing, for the first time in two days he laughed good and proper until his sides ached. It felt like a dam bursting, the tension leeching from his body. “Thank you miss Honeyside. Drank I believe is the correct term. I shall have another. The hunt was hard and the day has been harder. In answer to your question, I think Celestia is a wine human.”

“When you take me to meet her, I'll l have a sampler pack ready! I have wine recipes that Hercules preferred.” She said, referring to her old Water School husband who had already gone on to join the Great Forest as she got another mead for the two of them.

“Thank you,” Moonsilver took his tankard and raised it in salute. “To a successful hunt.” He smiled, “Thank you as well, it pleases me to know not everyone is against me in this endeavour.”

Honeyside gave the younger centaur a most severe glare as she sat back down. “Don't mistake my willingness as acceptance. True acceptance is what the two of you do together either for or against our kind. As I know historic recipes, I also know history. More important, I know that it doesn't have to be repeated if we learn from the failures of the past. That is what's wrong with those against you. They will not learn. Others are willing to see if any learning has been done over the time.”

“I understand, miss Honeyside.” Moonsilver replied and solemnly he sipped at his third mead. By now it was starting to get him happily buzzed. He fancied he was almost at his safe limit. Any more would have him drunk. “Ever have you given me wise counsel, as well as delicious mead.” After a few moments, where they just enjoyed each other’s company, Rehanos appeared, the black chested snake eagle flying in through the tavern's open window. Flying straight for his companion, he dropped the vibrator that he had taken from Celestia’s bedroom on the table. He waited for Moonsilver to remove the letter from the tube at his leg and then he perched on the centaur's shoulder, awaiting his treats. “Ah, my companion in life and the hunt returns at last!”

Before she could be stopped, Honeyside snatched up the fuchsia coloured toy with the lighting speed of a Hunter in her prime. “Whatever do we have we here?” she couldn’t hide – nor did she try – the glee in her eyes and voice. It was obvious what the object was as well as it was obvious its intended purpose. “Surely you're larger than this, Moony?” she asked, waving the eight inch vibrator around and sniffing it. ‘If humans are this big, I feel sorry for them,’ she thought. “Doesn't smell like Rehanos or any other bird.” It was also crafted from a material that she was unfamiliar with.

As he watched his family friend brandish the toy like it was a weapon of combat, Moonsilver coloured up in a huge blush at the implication of her words and the sniggering of the other Hunters who found it comedy of the highest order. “I can say with honesty I am bigger than that,” he chuckled, taking up Celestia’s letter from the tube.

“Moonsilver,

I believe I will address you as Master, from here on. Thank you for your note, it was a balm indeed to see your words.

I have found out many things about the thing we discussed in my dream. In two days, Friday, I will collect my new choker. I should like to meet you in the forest, on a trail that I can reach, for you to place it upon my neck.

Yours, Celestia, or Celly, if you'd prefer.

Ps, please can I have the object back that Rehanos took?”

Moonsilver laughed out loud and, for Honeyside’s benefit, he read the letter again, aloud this time. “It seems my friend here is having some mischief with my dear Celly, isn’t that right, Rehanos?” Unashamedly, the snake eagle flared his wings and clacked his beak loudly, almost laughing.

Curiously, Honeyside sniffed and licked the toy. Though she was a stallion girl, she was not opposed to entertaining a mare, should one take her interest. “Hmmm, tastes interesting. Can I keep this?”

Moonsilver re-read the letter for a third time. “Aaah, unfortunately, it seems my Celly needs it returned to her, miss Honeyside.” He smiled at his eagle as he offered him a meat treat on his open hand. “Rehanos, you are a scoundrel indeed!”

“Does she, now?” Giggling like an overgrown filly, Honeyside bent backwards and she hid it below her braided black tail. “Well, maybe if she asks me nicely. It is rather small, though.” She sounded disappointed, wriggling on her seating pad.

The pale grey stallion laughed out loud as Rehanos ate his treats and affectionately nipped his hand. “Miss Honeyside you are a big foal! It says here in two days she wishes to meet. Would you like to accompany me? In my return letter I will suggest the trail leading into the forest proper, just beyond the human's camp to the north of the great lake. There is plentiful cover of trees where we will be unobserved.”

“I can hold on to this for two days, well, not where it is now. It is rather small.” She giggled, trying to feel the toy against her marehood. “As I say they wag their tongues in here, but they also listen to my bartending advice. I’ll get Wheatgrass to cover for me. She owes me. I just hope the meeting goes well, for you and for me.”

Standing up from his seating pad, for the hour was growing late, Moonsilver hugged his friend and nuzzled her cheek. “Tomorrow I'll deliver you a brace for your counsel, miss Honeyside. Come, Rehanos, ‘tis time for the evening meal.” He took a last hug and he left the Bee and Barb with his eagle on his shoulder, home his destination in the dying light. He pointedly ignored those few that were abroad and staring at him, lost in his thoughts.

‘I shall have to write a return letter to my Celly…’ he smiled, very much looking forward to seeing his woman and claiming his pet on Friday.