A warm breeze was blowing invitingly through the manes of the young centaur. Meldan was in the company of his herd of centaurs and their livestock. The smell of the burnt out campfire they made last night still hung in the air. They didn't have much out here, but they had their freedom and their families. He looked as the cows and goats were grazing the dry grass and bushes that were surrounding them. He smiled. It was the simple life, a peaceful and slow life, being one with nature. He had heard stories from other herds, some that were closer to human civilisation. Their lives were much more hectic and stressful. At best the humans would underappreciate your labour, but still respect you. At worst... they would strip you from any respect and ability to choose. He was glad he didn't have to worry about that. They were safe, far from the humans and their hasty lifestyle...

Meldan's herd had just finished their afternoon meal of fruits and cactus juice, when another centaur came running towards them. He looked exhausted, sweat all over his body, and a face that had seen great horror.
"THEY'RE COMING!" the stranger shouted. "RUN! RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN!"
"WHO?!" Meldan shouted back.
"THE HUNTERS!"
His herd didn't hesitate a moment, and galloped away as fast as they could in a panicked stampede. Meldan looked over his shoulder, and saw a dust cloud behind him, and at the bottom of the dust cloud... humans! Humans on horseback! They were closer than he thought. They had to run, they couldn't let themselves get caught! It was a matter who got tired first: they, or the hunter's horses. Stopping was no option. They had to keep on running. They -
BONK!
In his panic, Meldan failed to see a rock that was on his path, and walked straight into it. The young centaur tripped, and with a chaotic tumble he rolled over the ground, sliding a few times the length of his body before coming to a standstill, laying on his side. His head was spinning. He was barely able to move with any coordination, and lost his train of thought about what had just happened. He looked ahead of him. His herd had already left him far behind, they couldn't stop. But if his herd was already this far, then -
A lasso grabbed him tight. The hunters had caught up with him, but he was still too dizzy from his fall to resist. The hunters were shouting something to each other in a foreign language he couldn't understand. The men were dressed up in leather jackets and trousers, and were all wearing leather hats. One of the hunters dismounted his horse, and pressed his upper body to the ground, while another tied his hands and his hind legs. Another rope was tied around his neck. All the while, he was helpless. He felt a jolt around his neck, forcing him to look up. He saw the leader of the hunter group, in a black attire that fit the black horse he was riding. He grinned maliciously, and seemed to be glowing in pride. He told his fellow hunters something that made them laugh. Meldan couldn't understand what they were saying. The hunter that tied him mounted his Appaloosa horse and pulled him on his neck rope again, forcing him to stand up. He finally came to grips what was happening to him: he had become their contraband, their property.
YCH commission for MandelSoft
"LET ME GO!" he shouted, but it was to deaf man's ears. They wouldn't understand his language anyway. He felt the painful impact of a whip, and he screamed in agony. And another hit. His captor pulled him again, forcing him to walk along with the hunters. With his hind legs tied, walking was a bit more difficult, let alone running. He saw with helpless eyes how the hunters rounded up his herd's livestock they left behind in their panic, tied up, revoking their freedom just like his own. All of them had to follow the hunters, and Meldan had no idea how long they had to walk. The sun had already begun to set, and no camp or town was in sight. He was getting tired, but everytime he broke pace, the rope around his neck got pulled again. Were these men so heartless that they didn't see they were doing this horror to a thinking and feeling creature like him? And for what? A bounty? He couldn't have surrendered to such cruel men so easily. There was something he had to do. He had to escape, but he could see how. Maybe he could run at night, when they were all asleep. But he guessed they'd have prepared for that. Maybe if he pulled hard enough the rope would break... but he couldn't run with his hind limbs tied. He tried to come up with plans, one after the other, until -

Meldan woke up in his bed, breathing heavily, and covered in sweat. His room was dark, only lit up by the digits of his alarm clock. He checked the time. 03:46.
"Ugh, I'm too tired for this manure," he mumbled to himself.
He turned on the lamp on his night stand to light his single-room apartment a bit, and lifted up his heavy body. Another bloody nightmare haunting his sleep again. They seem to have come more frequently now, slowly he walked to the sink to get himself a glass of water. The water was flowing from the tap into his glass, and he thought that some of his ancestors would wish they had safe drinking water at the convenience of their fingertips. Especially his great-grandfather Hajangu. Stida's Wisdom, that's what his nightmare was about! His story was passed on from generation to generation on his mother's side of the family. Hajangu lived on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in one of the free native centaur tribes, until the colonists came to take their land. Manifest Destiny, they called it, and his great-grandfather was just a mere pawn in their conquest. They took everything from him. His family, his home, his freedom... good grief, he was sold as a slave!

He took a sip from his glass of water. He had imagined himself in his nightmare walking in his great-grandfather's shoes. Yesterday he had read into the slavery practices on the other side of the Atlantic, and how this atrocity only ceased a century ago. Many centaur lives had been destroyed, among other non-human sentient creatures that were captured and forced to serve humans. A big trauma for his people, and yet, this episode of history was barely covered while he was in school. Only glanced over briefly and quickly moving on to the Gilded Age, as if it was nothing. Most humans nowadays don't even know it happened, or just wave it away as "some foolish thing from the past." It made his blood boil that humans seem to deny the scale of the injustice, or worse, completely deny it ever happened. A revolutionary war, freeing the slaves from their oppressors, all of it forgotten and left on the dusted pages of history. He could hardly believe the public's ignorance of it.
"This is how they keep on suppressing us," he thought to himself, as he slightly opened the curtain to look out over the city bathing in the light of the street lamps. "They just deny they ever did something wrong to us."
He thought about how the slavery affected his people nowadays. Even though his great-grandfather was freed in the war, he wanted to get away as far as possible from the lands he once called home. It has irreversibly changed, and would never turn back to the way he remembered it. He sneaked himself on board an ocean liner, and sailed all the way to Europe for a fresh start. He had no money, no family, and had to live off the charity of the Rinerthist Temple for a while, learning the language and helping to keep the Temple tidy and clean. His hard work was noticed by another centauress who regularly attended the Temple, and that is how Hajangu entered his family. Meldan's mother told him the tale years ago, and it had left a great impact on him. For him, it explained a lot of what was wrong in the world. Even though centaurs earn a salary these days, they often have greater expenses than humans have. Even he himself felt that he had seen the bottom of his wallet too many times, even though he earned a relatively generous salary for centaur standards as an engineer. And yet, whenever he'd say something about it, most humans would dismiss his concerns. "You earn the same as we do." they'd often say. That this was "fair." What was so fair about having to pay from the same salary twice as much food, because your body requires more to live? Or having to pay for larger and more expensive furniture and housing, because the cheaper options are not fit for your body? His people were perpetually poor, all because the world was not built to accommodate them. Even though he was one of the "lucky ones", he had to live in a small apartment in a busy city that was making him feel trapped. Sometimes he wished he was one of those centaurs of those native tribes, living simple lives, before the colonists came...

Meldan finished his glass, and went back to bed again. He laid down and turned off the light again. One day he'd get out of this place, something that resembled his quiet hometown he was born in. But for now, he couldn't afford it. He had to do with what he had. At least he had a few friends here that made it better. Especially Fedor, the friendly minotaur colleague at work. Probably the only one who would understand his struggles. He closed his eyes again, and quickly fell into a deep slumber again...

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This is the accompanying story for a YCH illustraiton, drawn by the wonderful Reigohoo over at DeviantArt. Check out their gallery, they do a lot of art featuring centaurs.
The original artwork can be found here