Maybe if she makes the right kind of friend

After another week of centaurs and centauresses you've managed to work through most of the injured horses. Which is really good, since it took a lot of your time to ensure their bodies, kept in a coma-like state of preservation, didn't ****. It became more difficult with each day, but now that the majority have been remade into centaurs you have time to think and time to work on other projects. It's nice just to take a break from the constant centaur making.

Doe has become less vicious at mealtimes. She doesn't actually trust you yet, but she at believes, at least to some degree, that you aren't actively trying to make her life or the lives of her former subordinates hell. Meanwhile you've only become more interested in her. Maybe it's because meals were one of the only times of day when you weren't busy manipulating human and horse flesh. You've come to appreciate little things about her, like the way she straightens her shoulders when put off by something.

You know the dangers, but even so you can tell you're starting to fall for her. Which makes it all the more important that she also falls for you. After transforming the third centaur of the day, a man named Caervan, you let out a long sigh. He looks back at you, terrified. "No, no," you quickly tell him. "You're fine. I was thinking about all the other work I have to do."

"Wow, you gave me a heart attack!" he says. Then he starts laughing. And then he laughs so hard he almost falls over. "Uh, thanks, I guess," he finally manages after regaining control, "I though that would hurt a lot. I thought my whole body would feel wrong."

"Ever since I transformed Navir I've been getting better at this," you say. It's true too, the last several centaurs have had less trouble getting used to their new legs and hooves. You've become an expert in a rather unusual field of magic. "I'm glad to hear you think so too."

"Well... none of us know what to expect. We see the others, sometimes, but they're mostly spending time with their new riders. But hey, it beats getting killed for something someone else did." He takes a moment after saying that, looking back over his new body and really taking it in. He can feel it, but now he's looking over himself. He flicks his tail, stomps one of his back feet and can't help but grin.

"Yes, you're quite something," you say, giving him a solid pat on his flank. You know that there's one part of his anatomy that he's probably quite interested in checking out, but he's not quite as bold as Navir was, so he'll have to wait until he's alone to crane his neck and body and examine the new package. Almost exactly a foot long in his case, and girthy. Small for a centaur, but you know he won't complain. "Your new rider should be by in a few minutes. She's not late, I just finished up a little early."

"She?" he says to himself. Then he suddenly asks, "Oh, err, would you mind telling me what's up with the captain? Captain Doe? A little birdie said you might know."

"She's fine," you tell him. "The king and others are still discussing what to do with her, but right now she's at my tower and in good health." In truth no one really cares what you do with her, they've got so much going on that the fate of one captive you claimed over a week ago doesn't even register.

"Ah, that's good, that's good," he says. "A lot of the lads were wondering about her." He's nervous and full of energy. He keeps looking toward the door every time there's a noise from outside. Definitely interested in his new rider. He hasn't even questioned the fact that he'll have a rider - in fact almost none of the centaurs have.

"Well she's still angry about how things have gone," you tell him.

"Yeah, Doe can keep angry for a long while," he laughs.

"You know, you're taking this pretty well. I don't mean just you personally, but a lot of the new centaurs and centauresses are, well, more accepting of the transformations than I expected. I was doing everything possible to make it painless, but even so it's surprising. It has to be disconcerting at the least."

"Well, like I said before, they did tell us how it was this or the axe," he says. "And before that we was gonna be slaves anyway. So you know, spend the rest of my life working some farmer's field or such - not too much fun. Maybe I'm still a **** this way, but I'll get to travel the country and from the sound of it I might have a pretty lady with me all the time. If I have to pick between those three I know which way I want to go. And some people take real good care of their horses, so if they got a centaur..."

Hmmm, he's got a point. You just didn't expect so many of them to be so reasonable about it. Maybe Doe would start to feel differently about things if she got a chance to talk with someone like Caervan. But not a man. No, you should see about creating a friend for her. Not all the captives were soldiers, perhaps a girl from among the castle staff? She'd need to be different somehow too, so that she wouldn't be joining the cavalry....