The clear, crisp air of autumn always beckons for a ride around the ranch. That day, instead of my usual route, I rode Joey deeper into the woods surrounding the pasture, eventually reaching a wide, open meadow. The grass was dry and yellowed, intensifying the feeling of late fall.

I lingered for a while at the edge of the woods and the meadow until I heard a strange rustling nearby.

I looked in the direction of the sound, at first thinking I saw another young man on horseback, but quickly realized something was off. The figure seemed to be topless, his light-brown skin blending remarkably well with the autumnal wilderness. He was looking into the distance, and his seated position seemed too far forward for someone riding a horse. I urged Joey a few steps closer and then spotted the truly odd part—the man appeared to have no lower body, and the horse he was on had no head. His waist connected directly to where the horse's neck should have been. What I had first assumed were two separate bodies was, in fact, a singular, fused existence.

I must have gotten too close. The man spun around quickly, his expression one of surprise, but he made no move to flee, simply standing still.

"Uh... hello?" I said.

Logically, seeing something so contrary to nature should have frightened me, but for some reason, I became curious about the creature's form. This image seemed familiar from certain myths, though I couldn't quite recall which one.

"...Hello," he replied, his voice somewhat hoarse, as if he hadn't spoken in a long time.

As Joey and I approached, I got a clearer look at his peculiar appearance: the man's lean upper body transitioned seamlessly at the narrowest point of his waist into the texture of reddish-brown horsehide. The musculature of his abdomen flowed smoothly into the horse's body below. The physique was so organic and naturally formed that it completely shattered my initial guess of a "movie prop."

"Who are you? Is this... some kind of film shoot?" I asked, though I knew in my heart no costume could achieve such a natural effect, let alone allow him to control the lower body's four legs so freely.

A look of confusion crossed the man's face.

"No... I..." The man stuttered. "Sorry, I'm not very good at talking."

"That's alright, take your time. I'm Andrew."

"I'm... Red."

Perhaps captivated by his marvelous form, a bold idea suddenly sprang into my mind.

"Let's go for a walk, on hooves," I said playfully, gesturing to Joey beneath me.

***

We ambled slowly along the edge of the woods, the hooves making a crisp sound on the fallen leaves. As we talked, I gradually pieced together his story.

Red had forgotten his age. He did, however, recall living in the small town closest to the ranch, on the other side of the woods, when he was a child. He hadn't lived with a family; he was an orphan, raised in the local orphanage. Back then, he was just a regular boy, running around on two legs.

Yet, whenever he spoke of that period of his life, a look of pain would cross his face. Though the details were blurry, those days were anything but happy. He mentioned loneliness, fear, and even physical pain.

"Whenever I was bullied or scolded at the orphanage, I would sneak into this forest. I really loved those times wandering alone," Red shared.

The year he turned fifteen, he hid in the woods as usual, fleeing the people at the orphanage. There, he saw a figure beneath a towering redwood tree. It was a foal, its coat a reddish brown like an acorn, shining softly in the sunlight filtering through the canopy. But it was lying on its side, motionless. Red went over to check and found its front leg bent at an unnatural angle. It was likely broken.

Listening to the foal's faint breathing and low whimper, a wave of intense sadness washed over him. He visited the ranch on the other side of the forest, but was met with a cold response. To them, a horse with a leg injury was worthless. When he even mentioned the foal's location, the ranch owner's eyes shifted slightly. He immediately understood that this was probably their doing.

So, Red bought some supplies from the town pharmacy and supermarket and began tending to the foal's wounds. Inexperienced as he was, it took him considerable effort to bandage and splint the injury. Afterward, he regularly returned to the woods to feed and check on it.

He hoped everything would get better over time, but the wound on the foal's leg never fully healed.

It was a drizzly morning when Red arrived with an umbrella beneath the redwood, only to find the foal's condition worse than ever. The wound was infected, and its breathing was extremely shallow.

Red panicked, but was utterly helpless. Finally, he lay down beside the foal, wrapping his arms around its faintly trembling body, ignoring his soaked clothes and muddy pants, hoping only that his body heat could help it survive the cold rain.

At some point, the boy must have fallen asleep. When he woke up, the clouds had dispersed. Sunlight streamed through the trees and brought a wave of warmth. He realized he was no longer holding the foal and anxiously tried to get up to check on it. But as he tried to move his legs, he felt his body become unexpectedly heavy. The boy looked down at his lower half and saw not his own legs, but the foal's front legs. He tried to move his feet, and the pair of horse legs moved with them. It was as if those horse legs were a part of him.

Terrified, the boy whipped around and saw the foal's body attached to his waist, its chestnut-colored tail gently swaying. He reached out to touch the side of the horse's body. The feeling of his fingertips sliding across the coat sent a shiver down his spine. It was indeed his own body. How could this be?

He grabbed the redwood for support and struggled to stand up. The four new legs pressed into the damp earth, helping him balance the horse body. It was still that of a foal, but already quite weighty. He felt the limbs tremble at first. Then they slowly grew steady and firm, as if they had always been meant to stand that way.

It was then he noticed the front legs, his or the foal's, showed no sign of injury. Only the loosened bandages remained. He stood on four legs for the first time and stared at his body in astonishment. He also saw that only his upper T-shirt and denim jacket remained intact. The pants he had been wearing were now just rags by the tree.

He lifted his shirt and saw his abdomen merge seamlessly into the reddish-brown horse body. It now seemed impossible to separate. Where was the foal? He turned to look around. There was no sign of other animals in the midday forest. It appeared this lower body was, in fact, the foal. Just as he realized this, a warm sensation spread through his horse barrel.

At that moment, he noticed a peculiar circle of mushrooms had grown around the spot where he and the foal had been lying beneath the redwood. A fairy ring? He had a gut feeling that what happened to them was connected to some entity in the forest. However, apart from the mysterious mushroom circle and some fine, subtle glitter scattered around the redwood, he received no further explanation, even today.

Red stood frozen in the woods, feeling faint air currents brush against this still-unfamiliar new body. He despised his former life—the orphanage, the town, the school. Those places had brought him only anxiety and pain. Only when exploring these woods had he felt truly happy. Was this fairy mischief or some kind of blessing? Either way, he decided to embrace this moment together with that little foal, now one with him.

He began to trot through the forest on hooves.

He fed on fresh grass and berries. He drank from the forest's springs and ran freely along the forest paths and across the meadow. Gradually, he shed his clothing and his language. The forest became his true home.

"Red" was neither the boy's name nor the foal's, but a new name the centaur chose for himself. It reflected both the warm color of the redwood and the gentle reddish-brown hue of his horse half.

***

This was Red's story. He had since grown into a magnificent, powerful stallion. Perhaps from the moment I first encountered him, I had already become fascinated by that beautiful and extraordinary creature.

Our acquaintance continued. I often ventured into the woods to chat with him, occasionally inviting him to visit the ranch to talk about what had happened in the world during his years of seclusion. I apologized for the decision to abandon that foal all those years ago. I believed it must have been the previous ranch owner's doing.

I did not know it at the time we met, but it was because of my encounter with Red that years later, when Joey had his accident, we were able to reunite in another form and begin a new story together.

---

Finally made a sort of prequel to a past story snippet. This time it tells the story of another centaur named Red, who is how Andrew knows about centaurs and the possibility of becoming one.

Here's Andrew a few years after he met Red: You have changed a lot