Once upon a few moons ago, there lived a small centaur who loved nothing more than to stare longingly at the moon. While the other taurs were asleep, he’d sit up all night, despite his young age, dreaming of meeting the beautiful face he stared at every night. As he grew older his fascination remained constant, his amour the same.
It wasn’t until the night before his wedding that anything changed. He’d stayed nocturnal and devoted to the gorgeous celestial body but his family had schemed as he slept the day away, betraying his love and his livelihood.
His father had known of his nightly obsession but had dismissed it at first, thinking it nothing but a flight of fancy that youth was prone to. But when his son had reached the marriageable age, things changed. And as that day passed and the days that followed turned into a year, the father became annoyed at his son’s lack of interest in the females of his species. Of any species.
Frustrated, the boy’s father struck up a deal with his best friend. The boy would marry the father’s best friend’s oldest and most spinsterific daughter. She was homely and of a disagreeable countenance, friend to none and foe to many. She had bad manners and smelled often of soured milk.
The boy didn’t want to marry the female, but he saw no alternative other than death. And if he died, how would he ever see the moon again. Despairing, the young taur galloped off from the cave his family called home, eyes staring straight up at the lunar being he’d given his heart to those nineteen years of moons ago.
When his four legs couldn’t possibly carry him any further, the boy collapsed to the soft ferns beneath him, exhausted by his escape. As his heavy lids drifted closed and his stiff muscles relaxed the centaur for once went to slumber when the moon was still making its nightly procession across the sky.
When he awoke from his dreams of romance, it was to hear a soft voice whispering his name, “Wake up my dear. Wake up my only darling.”
As his lids gently lifted back from his sleepy eyes, it was utter blackness that greeted him. The only thing that he could later think to compare it to would be the day of darkness that happened only once every many moons. But that wasn’t what the male saw. No, it was something far lovelier and grand.
It was the most beautiful centaur he’d ever seen. Her skin was paler than sweet milk and smelled twice as enticing. Her eyes were a lovely midnight blue and her hair was the darkest shade of ebony, both that which adorned her head and the soft black fur that made up her body. She was clothed in the purest of cream shifts that fluttered down her torso in a flattering way.
“Why do you stare at me so?” Her voice chimed merrily, “Do I have something on my face?”
“No your face is as lovely as I’ve ever seen it.” He said smiling widely, “I’d recognize your face even if I were blind, Madam Moon. I’d know it anywhere as I’ve been staring at you since I was a small thing.”
The moon smiled gently and replied, “And I’ve watched you grow, wanting to fulfill your every unspoken wish just as I’ve wished as hard to come down from the sky and be held in your arms. But has been impossible until tonight when you still hadn’t given up hope, and faced with marrying someone you didn’t love, ran away. This, the eve of your wedding.”
Overcome with emotion, he gathered her into his arms, holding her as tight and hard as possible without hurting the woman who filled his heart. When her lips reached up to his, their fates were sealed and their hearts began to beat to the same tempo.
The two lovers ran away to be married, wanting to spend the remainder of their lives as one. And as they did they bore many children and were filled with a happiness that would last beyond memory. Their love and joy at being with each other was apparent to anyone who saw the looks the two shared that lasted perhaps a minute too long. As their lives passed them by the two centaurs and their children, and eventually their children’s children, lived happily in a glen with nary a soul happier.
When the two elderly taurs eventually reached their deathbeds the two ancients flew up into the sky, the moon returning to the constantly dark night sky she’d abandoned and the boy (now man) to the stars. He formed a constellation that his descendants named after him: Centaurus.
