Taste of Youth

I couldn’t be sure for how long I was in the Forest crying, what I could be sure of was the massive headache crying had given me and that my body was stiff and very cold. There was a soft huff next to my ear blowing my wild hair about my face. I froze turning slowly to come face to face with the nose of a rather brilliant colt. It was a soft gray nearly white in color and had a single horn perched on its head. It huffed again and nudged at shoulder.

“Hello.”I murmured lifting one hand slowly for the horse to smell at, “Where did you come from?”

A nigh came from a few trees away, a full grown unicorn trotting toward the colt and me. This one was the purest of whites, shimmering in the bits of moonlight that filtered through the leaves above. It stopped to the left of the colt that had taken to chewing on my hair and gave another whinny. I held out my hand to this one as well and let it sniff about my palm. It huffed tossing it’s pale mane and settling down on the forest ground. The colt pranced in front of me tugging at the hair it had clutched in its teeth.

“Ouch, careful now. I need that hair.” I told it gently tugging my hair free.

The mother gave a sudden whinny, leaping up with a bound and ushering the colt to come away. The colt gave me a finally nudge as though to say “Come play with me again” and trotted off with it’d mother back into the depths of the forest. I watched them go listening to their hoof-beats and wiping at my face.

“Children should not be in this dangerous of a place so late at night.” The voice came from my left and I turned to see a handsome-looking centaur gazing at me, “I have never witnessed a unicorn treat a human like a friend before. It is a phenomenon.”

“Then how do wizards get the ingredients for potions?” I asked him still rubbing at my face.

“The steal from them. Pin them down and take what they like.” The centaur came closer the moonlight slanting off of his face making his blue eyes shine.

“That’s terrible. They’re so sweet.” I glanced after where the mother and colt had bounded off, “I wish they would have stayed longer.”

“They do not like many people and avoid most centaurs. I apologize for sending them away.”

“Oh that’s alright. I should be getting back anyway, the Headmaster asked me to meet him a while ago.”

“It is dangerous here at night, especially if you run into my brethren. I will escort you.”

“Uh, okay sure.” I waved a hand, “I have no idea how I got here so you’re going to have to lead the way.”

The centaur nodded and set off, “My name is Gavuk.”

“Nice to meet you, Gavuk. I’m Luciana.”

“Well, Luciana, you should not wander so blatantly in this forest. Dark things are stirring here, I told your brother much the same when he wandered in one night.”

I looked up at the centaur’s face and frowned, “You knew my brother?”

“Yes, he was a brave man. What that girl said was not just and you should not believe any of it.”“Shouldn’t I?” I tilted my head back to stare at the leaves above us as we walked, “I never knew my brother could do magic and I hadn’t seen him for at least two years before he died. I didn’t know Leon Rein, wizard Professor who duels to the death. I knew Leon Rein, my socially awkward activist brother.”

“He is still your brother, Luciana. He was still everything you knew him to be, just stronger.”

“But that’s the problem, Gavuk. He wasn’t just stronger, he wasn’t the person I knew anymore. He was someone else entirely and I never got to meet that Leon. I never got to see what he’d made of himself.”

We were at the edge of the forest now, Hagrid’s lights flickering in the darkness of the night. The castle glowed in the distance, a place full of the unknown. A place full of the uncertain future and past.

“Luciana before you go back I’d like you to listen very carefully to what I am going to tell you.” Gavuk looked at me his blue eyes intense and full of knowledge, “Your brother had a hard time getting along with the other teachers because he was so much younger. He got a hard time from his students at first as well but they came to love him dearly. He was the one who taught me that not all humans are bad creatures. Leon stuttered when he met new people, he didn’t eat until everyone else in the room was eating, and he was always around to help even for those who didn’t know they needed it. He was brave and just and he only had one reason why he tried so hard to learn everything this world had to teach him, one reason to fight for what he believed in. That reason, Luciana, was you.

“Your brother’s courters are still as they were two years ago when he left. Perhaps you could get that headmaster of yours to take you.” Gavuk gave me a nod and pointed toward the castle, “It is time for you to go, people are worried.”

I looked at the centaur in all of his knowing glory and smiled my eyes tearing again, “Thank you.”

Gavuk shook his head and ushered me on. I headed for the lights of the castle, warmth and pride and love in my chest. I missed my brother and I hated that I had never gotten to see what he was capable of but to know what Gavuk just told me was enough. It was enough to know that he had been in that castle, in that forest. That he had struggled for knowledge and with people and that he still had a heart too big to fit in one persons body. It was enough. I was a few paces away from the pumpkin patch when Gavuk called out again and his words had an unsettling tone to them now.