I just looked at him and said "I never asked you to come with me. You can go whenever you want to." He stomped his right foreleg. "You think I don't know that! I wanted to make sure you got where you were going safely. There is safety in numbers. Don't you know that!?" he said. It was a bit too forceful for me to not pick up on it. "Alright then. Why do you need to be safe in numbers? Don't you have friends somewhere?" I asked him. His eyes went wide. "I don't have a tribe. I have a short tail, don't I!?" he said as if it was obvious. I just shrugged and said "Alright. Just tell me about it. I don't know much about centaur culture." He blinked and looked around. "Fine." he said with a stomp of his left foreleg. Apparently, the standard tribe was a dominant female and several males in a harem. When something did not make sense, I stopped him. He looked annoyed. "What!?" he demanded. I just gave him a look of confusion and said "Can you repeat that? I don't think I heard you." I said. He just rolled his eyes. "Pay attention. I said the males bear children when they go into heat." he said.
Doing something to confirm my suspicions was pretty easy. Looking at him, a crouch let me see under his body. There was no sheathe or balls that one would expect to see on a male horse. "What are you doing!? You better be paying attention because I'm not repeating myself anymore." I got up and just raised my arms apologetically. I was a bit crass for doing that so openly. He crossed his arms. "Usually, females leave the herd when they get old enough to form harems of their own. Males usually stay a bit longer. However, they just exiled me early because I did not support my eldest sister as the leader when our mother died in a battle." he continued. That seemed common in these types of things. "The exiled centaurs get their tails cut to show that they are not to be trusted. It's very unlikely that I'll find a mate that was not exiled as well." he finished. Nodding to show my understanding, I said "That sounds rough. How long have you been by yourself? It takes guts to be independent." His broad chest puffed up upon hearing that. "Well, it's had to have been a couple dozen moons by now."
Even being considered the fairer sex among centaurs, males were still pretty strong. They could take care of themselves. It also helped that they were largely vegetarian by culture. It was possible for them to eat meat, but they did not with the fertile land of the plains. There were places for farming when they settled in an area for long enough. In fact, well maintained farms were the main reason for turn wars among the various tribes. I would not know much about that. This centaur did have a bow and quiver resting on his backs. He probably had to hunt for meat to stay fed and healthy this long. I realized that I did not know his name. He did not ask for mine either. I guessed that it was simply like that. I continued walking and he followed me. It was a while before I was starting to get tired again. More than that, my stomach was rumbling out of hunger. "Are you hungry?" he asked. I just ignored him and continued walking. "You don't have to worry, 2-legs. Your stomach is way smaller than mine. I even have 2. I could go hunt if you want. You just have to let me see what's in the bag."
Finally, his intentions were made clear. He wanted to take the loot for himself. I was going to keep this on me for however long it took for me to get to the next town. I just looked at him. "I ate before you got here. I'm fine." I lied to his face and continued walking until he stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. "You know I can sense when you lie to me, right? It's alright to be honest. You 2-legs are not made to be a sturdy as us. You only need to let me see what's in the bag. I can that tell it's something real good." he said. I just stood there and stared at him. "Listen up. I don't care about that. This is mine. You can hunt if you want. You can leave if you want. I am not going to go along with whatever you have planned. I just want to get to the next town." He smirked and said "Uh-huh. You keep thinking that. I can wait." I could see that the sun was getting ready to set. That was not good for me. There was no giant boulder to take cover under out here. That was actually a big problem. I would be in big trouble if someone snuck up on me. I needed him to watch my back. That was a bitter pill to swallow.
