Eli tried to speak but words wouldn't come out. All he could do was form the words in his mouth, looking like a complete fool. It had all just happened so fast, Eli had trouble comprehending it. But Eli didn't have time to sit around and think it over, and the centaur, Animus, was growing impatient. "Get up. Now." he said. But Eli was still frozen where he lie. Animus then grabbed Eli with one arm, and hoisted him up like Eli weighed nothing. Eli finally found his voice. He managed to say, "A-are you okay?" as he pointed at all the blood on the centaur's chest. "It is not my blood. It is the blood of the Metus." Said Animus. "M-Metus?" stuttered Eli. "The creature I just killed." Animus explained. "Now come on. We do not have much time." "W-wait, where are we going?" said Eli. "We are going to my homeland, Kentauros." said Animus. "But, I need to get home." said Eli. "You cannot go home right now Elijah. I am going to show you your new home." Animus said. Eli was very frightened. He didn't know this man, or centaur, and he had no intentions of going to Kentauros. But Animus was not inviting Eli to Kentauros, he was telling him. "Let us go! Before more Metus show up!" said Animus.
      Eli had so many questions. Where the Metus coming from? Why are they here? Why does this centaur want me to visit his home? How does he even exist? How do the Metus exist? But they would have to wait, because Animus had grabbed Eli again and plopped him on his horse back. Eli had never ridden a horse before, let alone a centaur. "Hold on." said Animus. Eli obeyed. It was a good thing he did, because Animus immediately took of deeper into the woods. He was going so fast, Eli's face began to flatten like a pancake, and tears started freezing onto his face, and saliva flew from his mouth. Although Eli had never ridden a horse, he was almost certain that a horse couldn't go this fast. In fact, he doubted any animal could go this fast. After what only seemed like a few seconds, Animus stopped. He ordered Eli to get off his back. Then, he said something that Eli could not understand. "Aperi!" Then, out of nowhere, a large circle of light appeared in front of Animus. Animus looked at Eli and said, "Go."
     "What?" Eli said. "Step into the portal." Animus said. "P-portal?" said Eli. "Yes. Now!" Animus said in a deep thundering voice. Eli walked toward the bright light, and put his hand through it, slowly. Nothing happened. His hand had just disappeared. Before Eli could contemplate it any further, Animus shoved Eli into the light. He screamed and closed his eyes. The next thing he knew, he hit a solid surface, hard. He opened his eyes. He was on the floor, but not the floor of the forest. He was lying on a shiny marble floor, the color of gold. Eli turned around, and there stood Animus, standing in front of the light, or portal. "Close." Said Animus. The portal disappeared. "What is this place?" said Eli. "This is Kentauros." said Animus. Eli stood up. He was in some sort of corridor, with large pillars in front of him. Bright light shone from the other side of the pillars. Everything in the structure looked to be made out of gold. Eli stepped towards the light coming form the pillars. Once his eyes adjusted, he saw a city. But it wasn't just any city. It was the most beautiful city Eli had ever seen. Everything looked expensive and exotic, and there were beautiful structures everywhere, and there were people walking across the streets. Wait, those weren't people, they were centaurs! "There's more of you!?" Eli said excitedly. "There are thousands of us." said Animus, with no emotion. Eli was amazed. Then Eli asked a question he never thought he would have asked. "Are-are we still on Earth?" "No. This is a parallel universe. We are trillions of light-years away from Earth." said Animus. Eli was amazed. How was this possible? The only people who have traveled outside of Earth were astronauts, and they only went to the Moon, which certainly wasn't trillions of lightyears away from Earth. 
     "Why did you bring me here?" asked Eli. Animus hesitated, then said, "That is not important right now." Eli was a bit frustrated, but he ignored it. He moved on to his next question. "How do you know my name?" Eli asked. "I have been searching for you for centuries, Elijah Woodburn." Animus said. "Centuries? How long have you been alive?" Eli asked. I am 4072 years old." said Animus. Eli gawked. "How is that possible? The oldest a person can live is like, 100!" said Eli. "I am not a person." Animus said. That made sense, Eli thought. "Why have you been searching for me for so long-actually, why have you been searching for me at all?" asked Eli. "All your questions will be answered soon. Follow me." said Animus. then he began walking. Eli followed Animus for quite some time. They walked  all throughout the city of Kentauros. It was truly magnificent. But the best part about the city was how many other centaurs Eli saw. They all looked so different. Their faces were different, like humans, and they also had different colored fur on their horse half. Some were white, some where black, some where beige, and some where gray. There were all different types of centaurs.
     Finally, they reached a very large building that kind of looked like the White House, except it was beige. They entered, and there were about 12 centaurs huddled together in the middle of the room. When the centaurs saw Eli and Animus, they turned to greet them. They greeted Animus very kindly, but they looked at Eli with confusion and a bit of disgust. One of the centaurs, probably the oldest one, Eli thought, had long gray hair and a long gray beard. He said in a language Eli could not understand, "Quis est hic?" It sounded like the language Animus was speaking when he opened the portal. Maybe it was their native tongue, Eli thought. "Est electus." Animus replied. Suddenly, all the centaurs replaced their faces of confusion with faces of shock, then faces of delight. Eli was once again, very confused. Then, the oldest centaur approached Eli. "Hello Elijah Woodburn. My name is Prudentia. I am the king of Kentauros. You have no idea how wonderful it is to finally meet you." the centaur said. "What do you mean finally? And why am I here? Why has Animus been searching for me? I want to know!" Eli shouted, now getting frustrated. But Prudentia acted like Eli had just complimented him on his hair. He looked at Eli with very kind eyes and said, "Elijah, you are the chosen one." 

"The chosen one? Chosen one for what?" Elijah asked, still confused. "You are destined to save our race." Prudentia replied. "Save you? From what?" Eli said. Prudentia then pulled up a chair and said, "Sit down, boy. I'm going to tell you a story." So Eli sat down. "A long time  ago, we used to live alongside another race. They were called gryphus, but in your language they were known as griffins. They were like us. But instead of being half human and half horse, they were half eagle and half horse. The upper half of their bodies were filled with feathers and they had piercing eyes which gave them great vision. They also had beaks. And they had wings as well. The griffins and the centaurs lived in perfect harmony, until about 1200 years ago. There was always one griffin that stood out in particular to me. His name was Exousia. Exousia was always a very noble griffin. He was always the one in charge. He was basically the leader of the griffins. But I could always tell that Exousia was jealous of me. He wanted to be the ruler of all of Kentauros, not just the leader of the griffins. And once he became the leader of Kentauros, he would have wanted to rule the entire galaxy, the galaxies. He wouldn't stop. Exousia was power hungry. That's why he was dangerous, and he had to be stopped.
     "One day, Exousia approached me and said, 'Prudentia, I, along with the other gryphus, have decided to start a democracy. We think that you have been the ruler of Kentauros for a very long time, and it's time for a gryphus to lead.' and I replied, 'And who would rule Exousia? You?' he said, 'Well, if that's what my people want.' Which obviously meant yes. I wasn't going to allow Exousia to rule Kentauros, because he was young and ignorant and foolish, and most of all, he was power hungry. He would have lead our world to doom. So I denied his request. He grew very angry. He said it wasn't fair that I always treated the gryphus like second class citizens, next to his centaurs. That isn't true, by the way. We all received equal rights. Exousia was just being bias. Anyway, he became so angry, he said he wasn't going to tolerate this any longer. He said if I wasn't going to give his people more rights, we were going to go to war. We all told him to stop, we told him he was being foolish, but he didn't want to listen. Then, Exousia discovered the Metus in the deepest, darkest corners of the universe, and he made them his minions. Exousia discovered that there was going to be a chosen one, and he discovered who and where you are. Then, he sent his Metus to kill you. Thankfully, Animus here, saved you just in time.
     When Exousia started the war, there was so much blood shed. Many of us died. Kentauros used to be much bigger than this Elijah. Exousia has taken so much from us. And he will not stop until we are all dead, and he is on the throne. 
     "We knew we wouldn't be able to defeat him alone, so we prayed to our gods to send us a chosen one. One that would lead us to victory. And the gods told us that they would send us one. They said he was going to be fearless, smart, balanced, and kind spirited. And they said his name would be Elijah Woodburn. And alas, the gods answered our prayers. You have arrived Elijah. You are certainly  not what we were expecting, but we know you will lead us to victory." Prudentia finished. "But, I'm just a 12 year old kid! I don't know anything about battles! I've never been in a battle in my life! You guys are like, thousands of years old! You've probably been in a ton of battles. How am I supposed to save you from a bunch of crazy griffins?" Eli asked. Prudentia chuckled. "You will receive training." he said very calmly. "But it doesn't matter! Look at you guys! You're huge and muscular and you probably got a bunch of wisdom since you're so old, I have none of that! Even if I got training, I wouldn't stand a chance against Exousia or his army of griffins. Besides, I have a life, you know. And I wanna get back to it. My mom is probably worried sick about me. So could you just open up your portal thing and let me go home?" said Eli. Prudentia only smiled. He showed no sign of annoyance or impatience.
     "You don't need to be as old or as large as we are, Elijah. You are far more powerful than any of us. You just need to learn how to use your power. And you will want to stay here and defeat Exousia because if you do not, our race will die. And after our race dies, Exousia will travel throughout the universe and take control of every single planet that exists, including Earth. If you do not help us, you will be sending your people to their doom. You can save the world, Elijah. You can save billions of worlds." said Prudentia. Eli had to think about that for a while. Was Prudentia telling the truth, or was he only bluffing to try and get Eli to stay? But what if he wasn't bluffing? What if he was telling the truth? What if Eli didn't save the centaurs, and Exousia took over everything in the universe? But it was a lot of pressure to put on a 12 year old boy to save the universe. "Okay, even if I did decide to stay here, who would train me? You said I won't need to be big and strong like you guys, so how would I train?" Eli asked. "We have someone who will train you. His name is Pharmakeia. He is a sorcerer, just like you." 

"I'm not a sorcerer!" Said Eli. "I don't know where you guys are getting these crazy ideas!" said Eli. "Oh but you are a sorcerer Elijah. You just do not know it yet." Replied Prudentia. Eli thought for a moment. It would be pretty cool if I could do magic, Eli thought to himself. "Who is Pharmakeia?" Eli asked. "He is the sorcerer who is going to teach you to be a sorcerer. He is a gryphus that knows a lot about magic and sorcery." Prudentia said. "Wait, I thought you and the gryphus were at war?" said Eli. "Yes, but this particular gryphus is a friend." Prudentia said. "Well, if this Pharmakeia is a sorcerer, why can't he save you guys?" Eli questioned. "Pharmakeia is not the chosen one. Besides, he is old and his powers have grown weak. He cannot possibly defeat the rest of the gryphus. But you, however, are young and strong, and if Pharmakeia can pass his knowledge and power down to you, we stand a chance against the gryphus." Prudentia explained. Well, doesn't seem like I have much of a choice. Eli thought. "Fine. I'll do it." He said. Prudentia smiled from ear to ear. "Excellent. Well, you've had a long day, so I will have Animus show you to your new living quarters and you can get some rest." Prudentia said. 
     Animus then walked Eli through the city of Kentauros once again, this time at night. The city seemed to take Eli by surprised all over again. It seemed like an entirely new world at night. Once they got to Eli's "living quarters", Eli couldn't believe what he was seeing. His room was as big as his entire house! Maybe even bigger! "This is where I'm gonna live?" Eli asked in astonishment. "Yes." Animus said. "Wow! This is awesome! Does it have a TV?" Eli asked. Animus looked at Eli like he was confused, but then he had an 'aha' moment and said, "Ah yes, Television. I forgot you humans have those machines for enjoyment." Then Eli remembered that he was in a different galaxy, and that these centaurs had no idea what TV, or any kind  of technology, was. Come to think of it, Eli didn't remember seeing any thing technological in his tour of Kentauros. It was beautiful, but it was very old fashioned. "You guys don't have modern technology here?" Eli asked. "Compared to you humans, no. But we have magic, which is more technologically advanced than anything humans have." said Animus. And Eli was about to learn how to do magic. "Wait, so if you don't know what TV is, then how come you remembered that we have it?" Eli asked. "I studied humans for about 200 years." said Animus. "And it wasn't easy, because you humans are always evolving and developing new technology. It was very difficult to keep up." he said. After that, Animus said goodnight, and Eli was left alone in his room, thinking about what had just happened in the past few hours. 
     Eli had gone to his backyard, discovered a monster that was trying to kill him, was saved by a centaur, taken to a distant planet in a different galaxy, and told that he was destined to save an entire race. Wow. Eli thought about his family. He thought about how worried his mom was right now. She had probably called the police and they had probably sent out a search party, looking for Eli right now. Then, Eli thought about Jack. He thought about how Jack had run from the Metus, how Eli would have died if it wasn't for Animus saving him. Eli couldn't believe that his best friend, or x-best friend, had done that. If only you could see me now, Jack. I'm about to save a bunch of centaurs, kill a bunch of griffins, and ultimately save the human race. Ha! Eli thought. Then, Eli drifted off to sleep. 
     In the morning, Animus took Eli to see Pharmakeia. Eli rode on Animus's back, and they traveled for a long time. Finally, they arrived at a large, old house in the middle of nowhere. Eli hopped off of Animus's back, and then Animus knocked on the large front doors. A few moments later, the door opened, and a creature stepped out that spooked Eli for a moment. It looked like a giant bird at first. It had a large beak, and large yellow eyes, and white feathers all across it's head and neck. Then, it's feathers turned brown at the creature's chest. The creature also had giant wings, the size of a small plane. Then the bottom have of the creature's body looked just like Animus's. It was brown and furry and looked like the bottom half of a horse. This was a griffin, or gryphus. Eli had completely forgotten that Pharmakeia was a griffin. He thought Pharmakeia would be a centaur, like Animus and Prudentia. It caught Eli by surprised at first, but then he looked at the creature in amazement. This griffin looked very old. It's feathers had turned gray, and His eyes looked like it had been through a lifetime of war. 
     Then the griffin looked at Eli directly. It's unwavering gaze was terrifying. It took all of Eli's will not to look away. Then, the griffin smiled. It was like a smile that your grandfather would give you after not seeing you for a while. It was warm and friendly. The griffin's piercing gaze softened. "Well hello, young man." said Pharmakeia. His voice matched his smile, warm and friendly, but also rough with age. "You must be the chosen one, Elijah Woodburn. It's a pleasure to meet you. I have been waiting for you for a thousand years, Elijah." said Pharmakeia. "Please, come in!" Eli stepped inside the old griffin's house. It looked different from what he'd seen in Kentauros. This house had a completely different design, a completely different feeling to it. "Please, sit." said Pharmakeia. Eli sat. "So tell me about yourself Elijah." Eli hesitated. This was the first time he had ever talked to a griffin. "Um, I like video games and playing outside." Eli managed weakly. "Very interesting. Tell me about your family, and the people you spend time with." said the griffin. "I have a mom named Mary, and I've never met my dad, and I don't have any siblings." Eli  said. "I hang out with my friends from school mostly. My best friend-er, x-best friend, his name is Jack." Eli finished. "Why do you add an "x" at the beginning of the adjective? asked Pharmakeia. He said it so unnaturally, it took Eli a second to figure at what he was talking about. "Oh, because he's not my best friend anymore." He said. "And why is that?" said Pharmakeia. "Well when I was attacked by that Metus, Jack was there with me. He got scared and ran. He never looked back, even when I tripped and fell and the Metus was about to kill me. He left me to die there. What kind of best friend is that?" said Eli. "Yes, well I see why he is your x-best friend now." said Pharmakeia. 
"Where do you lived?" asked Pharmakeia. "Georgia." said Eli. "Interesting. So, you said you have never met your father? Do you know anything about him?" asked Pharmakeia. "No, my mom never told me much about him, except that he was a great man." Eli replied. Pharmakeia nodded.  Now it was Eli's turn to ask some questions. "So now you tell me about you." Eli said. "Alright. Well I enjoy reading, flying, and sleeping." Pharmakeia began. "I had a wife and a son. I do not spend time  with many beings, I enjoy being alone." said Pharmakeia. Eli noticed that the griffin had used past tense when talking about his family. "What happened to your wife and your son?" asked Eli. Pharmakeia looked at Eli, then sighed, and said, "My wife died when the war began. My son...he left to fight in the war. Haven't seen him since my wife died." he said. "I'm sorry." Eli said. "No, it's quite alright young man, it's quite alright." he said. "Alright well, now that we have, how you say, broken the ice, let's dive right in to your training. The first thing we have to do is to get to know your enemy. That would be Exousia. Now, Exousia is a very smart gryphus. He is also very strong and powerful. He's ruthless, and merciless as well. But, he does have his weaknesses, just as anyone else. You see, Exousia has a very hot temper. If you make him angry, he will not use his brain. He will be blinded with emotion and anger. He also has a weak spot in his rib cage where he will go down immediately if you can land a blow there-" Pharmakeia was saying. Then Eli interrupted, "How do you know so much about Exousia?" Pharmakeia looked at Eli and smiled. But this time, it wasn't a warm friendly smile, but a smile of deep sadness and regret. Then, he said, "Because Exousia is my son."
 

"Exousia is your son?' Eli asked in disbelief. Pharmakeia nodded. "Wow. I can't believe it." "It is the truth. I raised Exousia." "Well,"Eli said, "How did he, you know, turn bad?" "Exousia always wanted authority. He loved to boss people around, always. He wanted to rule the world. He slowly worked his way to being the leader of the gyphus, but that wasn't enough for him. He wanted more. So when Prudentia denied him the role of being the leader of all of Kentauros, he grew very angry, and he retaliated." said Pharmakeia. "I'm not proud of what he did, but I do think that Prudentia made the right decision not letting him being the king of Kentauros. Exousia was young and foolish." said Pharmakeia.Eli didn't say anything.
     "Well, enough talk about Exousia. We need to start your training. You are going to learn how to be a sorcerer." said Pharmakeia. Eli got excited once again. "The first spell you are going to learn is called Obstupefaciam. Now, what you need to do is focus on an object, then say Opstupefaciam. This spell will stun the target. Since you cannot stun non living items, you will have to test the spell on me. Are you ready?" said Pharmakeia. "I guess." said Eli. "Remember, focus." said Pharmakeia. Eli prepared himself, then he said Obstupefaciam. Nothing happened. "Did it work?" Eli asked. "No." Pharmakeia replied. "Why not?" Eli asked. "You are not focused. You must calm yourself and empty your mind. "Okay." Eli said. "Calm myself and empty my mind." Eli took a deep breath, then tried again. And again, nothing happened. "Why isn't it working?" Eli said, frustrated. "You are too excited and hyper, and you do not know how to completely still your mind. Try to think of something or someone that calms you, makes you happy." said Pharmakeia. "Okay." Eli thought. Who did he know that made him calm and happy? Immediately, Eli's mother flashed into his mind. That's her. That's the one. Eli's mother was always very kind and loving, and she definitely calmed Eli, and made him happy. 
     Eli focused on his mother, then he said the spell again. Pharmakeia's eyes suddenly went wide, and he started stumbling around, then he fell to the ground. Eli  was pretty sure it worked, but he wanted to make sure. "Did it work?" Eli asked. Pharmakeia looked up from the ground and mumbled, "Yes," 

"That was awesome!" said Eli. "What's next?" "Slow down there," said Pharmakeia. "Just because you were able to perform the spell once does not mean you have mastered it. You must complete the spell over and over." "Fine." said Eli. So the entire day, Eli repeated the exact same spell. It actually got boring after a while. Eli was soon able to perform the spell without even thinking about it. At the end of the day, Pharmakeia said, "Great work. You are a very fast learner, Elijah. "Thanks." said Eli. "What'll we learn tomorrow?" "You will find out tomorrow." said Pharmakeia. And with that, Eli left the old griffin's house with Animus. "How did you do?" Animus asked. "Good." said Eli. "I learned how to stun people." They arrived back at Kentauros. Once they got to Eli's living quarters, they saw a young female centaur. She looked at Eli and gave him a nice warm smile. "Oh, Elijah, this is your personal assistant, Aureum. She will be serving you your meals, tidying up your living quarters, and she can answer any questions you have about Kentauros." said Animus. Aureum was the most gorgeous centaur Eli had ever seen. "H-hi" Eli stuttered. Aureum gave Eli a nice fluttery smile. She had golden hair and glowing blue eyes. She was Eli's dream girl. If only she were human. Eli thought. Aureum walked off. Animus said goodnight, and Eli went inside his living quarters. He wasn't tired, and he didn't want to go to bed. So he decided to explore his new home. The place was huge, so there was bound to be something fun to do in there. After looking at peculiar looking objects and wandering around for a few minutes, Eli found what he was looking for. A giant bookshelf lay in another room Eli had failed to notice. He gawked in amazement, then immediately began rummaging through the books, only for his hopes to be crushed when he realized all the books were written in the centaur's native language. Eli slumped down on the ground, feeling upset that he had an entire bookshelf filled with books he wanted to read, but couldn’t. Then, Eli heard a high pitched voice from behind him say, "You need some help with these?" Eli jumped, frightened, but then relaxed when he saw it was only Aureum. "Oh, no thanks, I just wanted to read these books, but they're not in English so," said Eli. "Would you like me to read them to you?" Asked Aureum. Eli thought he was in a dream. He tried to hold back the big grin on his face and said, "Uh, sure." "Which would you like to hear?"  She asked. Eli picked up the book he had been holding and handed it to her. "This one looks cool." He said. Aureum took the book from Eli and looked at the cover. Then she smiled and said, "Good choice." "What's it about?" Eli asked. "It's a legend about a centaurian hero. It is well known amongst my people." Aureum replied. And with that, Aureum began reading the story. "There was once a centaur named Pater. Pater was a brave and powerful centaur. His goal in life was to end the war between the griffins and the centaurs. Pater thought it was foolish for the leaders of the centaurs to pray for a chosen one, because Pater thought he was the chosen one. He thought that he was the hero that would end the war, and he had reason to. Pater has killed many Metus, and many griffins. He was the strongest centaur ever known. But for some reason, the leader of the centaurs did not believe Pater was going to end the war, for the leader of the centaurs did not think Pater was the chosen one, and only the chosen one can end the war. Pater tried to convince the leader of the centaurs as best he could that he actually was the chosen one, that he was the mightiest centaur that ever lived, and that he would lead the centaurs to victory in this war. He said that he would kill every last griffin if he had to. But no matter how hard he tried, Pater failed to convince the leader of the centaurs. Pater became enraged, and his new goal in life became to prove to the leader that he truly was the chosen one. So he set out to Archiki, the home of the griffins, to attempt to slay the entire army of griffins, and even Exousia himself, alone. But Pater was never seen again. Some say he valiantly fought the griffins, but they eventually overwhelmed Pater with their great numbers. Others say Pater was met with Exousia as soon as he arrived in Archiki, and that Exousia killed him on the spot. And some say that Pater never even made it to Archiki, because of how treacherous the path to Archiki is. But no matter which tale you believe, the bottom line is, Pater the Great, is no more.