Week 9 Story: The Lonely Centaur

Centaur by Marc Camelbeke

There was once a girl who lived in big city full of skyscrapers. Out of all these skyscrapers one was fifty stories taller than any of the others. This one was in the dead in the middle of the city and stood out. One day the girl was out in her backyard messing with her garden when a freak storm swooped in out of nowhere and picked up the girl. Being very scared the girl kept her eyes shut the whole time.

When the storm disappeared, and the girl opened her eyes she found herself at the top of the cities tallest sky scraper. She looked around and saw a man approach her that was also on the roof. He asked her if she would marry him and she said no. The man said that she would be on the roof until she said yes. He gave her some clothes, food, and showed her where there was a garden that she could work in if she felt like it. Then he climbed down a ladder on the side of the building to the story below. He removed the ladder so that the girl would not escape.

For the next few days the man returned by putting the ladder back and brought the girl food. Then he would ask if she had changed her mind and she kept saying no.

One day in hopes that someone would notice her on the roof the girl threw her original clothes over the edge hoping someone notice where it came from. She lucked out for the person who saw her clothes was her brother. Wondering where the clothes came from the brother went home to think that evening.

The next day the man did his normal routine but forgot to take down the ladder. As soon as the girl noticed this she climbed down to a door that was locked. The door had a small window in it though. She looked through it and to her surprise the man was on the other side but changing into something. At the end of the transformation she saw that he was a centaur with wings. She banged on the door to get his attention.

He came over with fear for she had seen what he truly was. He opened the door and told her that she was free. She did not move though. She beckoned the centaur to the roof. When up on the roof they talked.  there she discovered that he was lonely and thought this was the best way to get her to love him. She said what he did was wrong but was willing to start things off with him slowly and didn’t care what he was. She wanted to make things work out for she thought he was a beautiful creature that deserved love.

Right after they finished talking the girls brother showed up on the roof. Seeing the creature his first thought was to kill the creature with the gun he kept on him. Before he could get a shot off the girl jumped in front of the brother and the centaur. She explained that he was a misunderstood creature that made a mistake and had not harmed her. After hearing this the brother put the gun away. He was just happy his sister was safe.

A couple of days after the event the brother and sister invited the centaur to live with them. Since they both knew what he was the centaur was able to take his true form in their home. After many months together, the girl decided to marry the centaur since she had finally had the chance to properly get to know him. Form there they all lived happily ever after.

Authors note: The original story was The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away. In that story a girl was taken to the top of a tall pagoda. She had a man telling her to marry him or be locked up at the top. After a while she threw her clothes off and a passerby took the clothes to her brother because they recognized them as hers. Before her brother arrived to get her the girl figured out the man was an ogre. When the bother came for his sister he threw and ax at the ogre and cut off its arm. Then he saved his sister. My story ended much different and had different creature.

Bibliography: The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens