Like Me (Centaur!Ivar x reader)
Summary: Ivar meets someone like him. Someone with 4 legs, and a horse body. Someone who has been alone most of their life because they aren’t normal. Like him.
Warnings: brief angst, fluff, mythical creatures, mentions of curses, strong language, mentions of death, nudity (slight)
Word Count: 2,128
7k Mythical Creatures Masterlist II Vikings Masterlist
Ivar was cursed while still the womb, but it wasn’t that he’d be born with weak bones and twisted legs. The pregnancy for Aslaug was worse than her others. But the birth was even worse. Because of the curse, Aslaug could not push him out. It was an obstructive birth and Alsaug begged for them to save her son no matter what.
The healers had to cut the queen open to get the child out. And what they saw made their blood turn cold.
Two eyes. Two hands. Ten fingers. A normal, human upper body. But four legs and the body of a horse. A creature they thought only exists in legends. A centaur.
Ivar grew up alone, hidden from everyone to hide what he is. People were told he is a cripple, unable to walk. They saw him only as a baby when it was relatively easy to hide his horse half. But when he started to walk, he was looked after by the healer that helped birth him, considering that Aslaug died.
He only really had his brother - when they were chasing after women. As young children, they were amazed at their young brother’s form, sometimes taking turns riding on his back. But it became difficult to run around the Great Hall as a grown stallion now.
Which is why Ivar chose to live away from Kattegat, in the hunting cabin, where the secret of his horse body would not be easily found out. His brothers help sneak him out during the night, and they visit every now and then to make sure he’s still kicking; literally and figuratively.
What Ivar loves about no longer living in the city, is that he has the freedom to run around whenever he wants to. He can gallop in the woods, as free as the wind.
He comes to a halt at the waterfall that pools into a small lake, the place he comes to after his run. It’s a place seemingly undisturbed by humans. A place that only adds to Ivar’s solitude. Until he sees a female body in the water.
He freezes, stares at your naked back as you hum a melody to yourself, cup water in your hands and bring it over the top of your head. Ivar can’t remember the last time he was so close to a human that wasn’t his brothers. Or, at least, a female.
Shifting on his feet, he steps on a branch, breaks it with a snap, and alerts you of his presence. Your head snaps over your shoulder. You gasp at the sight of a man staring at you over a thick bush and wrap your arms over your chest to cover your breasts. “Who are you? What are you doing?” you demand, turning around to face him properly.
He swallows harshly and goes to moves forward but remembers his horse-half body. You’d surely run away if you saw what he really is. “You’ve come to spy on me?”
“No,” he quickly replies, moving forward but staying behind the bush that hides his body. “How would I know you would be here if I have never seen you before?” he questions harshly, making you raise an eyebrow at him and shift in the water. “What are you doing here?”
You glance down at your naked front and the water you stand in. “What does it look like I’m doing?” you fight back, looking up at him. That’s when you realize that you shouldn’t really be able to see him behind that bush. “How are you so tall?” you ask, frowning as you try to look through the leaves of the bush.
He glances down at his body, at his front legs as he shifts in his spot. Lifting his head up to you again, he rolls his eyes at you and sighs. “That doesn’t matter,” he mutters, his eyes glancing down at your body for a second.
Clearing your throat, you make his eyes snap up to your face as you move forward slightly. “Do you mind turning around?” you ask, tilting your head to the side.
Staring at you for a while, he breathes out a huff and turns around, still keeping his horse body hidden. He hears you sigh before moving forward, making the water move as you near the shore. When you step onto the shore, he hears something unusual. Something that he doesn’t hear when his brothers walk.
Your footsteps don’t come one by one, like two-legged creatures walk. Your footsteps come two by two. Like how he walks. And instead of feet hitting the ground, he hears hooves hitting the ground.
He slowly turns around, his eyes meeting your back as you slip a tunic over your head. His eyes fall down, his mouth falls open. He stares at your body, your skin fading into a light brown horse coat, a long torso and four legs, like him. Your head turns over your shoulder to look at him again, a forced smile on your face as you shrug your shoulder at your appearance.
You’re like him. You’re a centaur.
It encourages him to step out from behind the bush. You turn around when he moves, his footsteps sounding similar to yours. And his body… “You’re a centaur,” you whisper, running your eyes over his body, his legs seem strong like he has been running every day.
“There are more like us?” he questions, walking forward as he glances up to your face again.
You shake your head. “I don’t know. I’ve lived alone in these woods for years. I was born here, but my father died before I was born. And my mother was killed by…” you trail off, realizing that you’re telling more than you should to a stranger. “You were born in the woods too?” you ask, stopping when you stand in front of him.
“I was born in Kattegat.”
“Around humans? There are centaurs in the city?” you ask, tilting your head to the side as a frown grows on your face.
He smiles at you and shakes his head. “No. There hasn’t been a centaur in Kattegat since I left,” he explains, stepping forward to get closer to you as you step back. “Were your parents human?”
You laugh at his words and shake your head, a smile growing on your face as you move to walk around him. “No. My parents were centaurs. Both of them. Like yours wer-” You stop when his head turns to you, an almost sad look on his face at the mention of his parents. And you realize why. “Your parents were human.”
“I was cursed while still in my mother’s womb. And I killed her when I was born,” he harshly states, turning around to face you before you start to walk again.
The two of you start to walk in circles, rounding each other and keeping your eyes on each other. “I’m sorry,” you whisper, bringing your hands up to tie the laces of your tunic. “You grew up alone? In the woods?” you question, changing the subject when you see that he doesn’t want to talk about it.
He chuckles, continues to talk in a circle around you. Shaking his head, he stops walking and moves his body behind him. “I’ve been alone for a few years, living in a hunting cabin belonging to my family,” he states as you stop walking and facing him. “And you? You live alone in the woods,” he says, more than asks.
You chuckle, bite your lower lips and glance down at the ground as your count lightly with your hoof. “I do. Hopefully, we don’t have to be alone anymore?” you suggest, lifting your gaze up to him and looking at him through your lashes.
“I don’t even know your name,” he chuckles, stepping closer to you.
“(Y/n),” you whisper, mirroring his move and stepping closer as well.
“Ivar.”
Just as he speaks, you hear something in the woods and turn your head to the side. Ivar follows your gaze and frowns. You turn, tilt your head to the side to strain your hearing. He glances between you and where you’re staring out to.
He’s trying to hear what you’re hearing.
Then, he hears men shouting in the distance. You startle, grab Ivar’s hand and make his head snap to you. “Run,” you whisper, sprinting away from the lake and pulling him behind you.
Hunters. Ivar’s amazed that you heard them from so far away and so easily. He only heard them when they shouted, but you…
Ivar realizes that you must have experienced situations like this a few times. Especially if you don’t live in a cabin like he does. If you live out in the open, you have to avoid them and therefore, listen carefully for them. Seeing as how he hasn’t heard anything of a centaur being in the woods when he was still living in Kattegat, you’re doing a good job at that.
His head falls from yours when you both pick up speed. And it turns out he is faster than you. He is bigger, so you’re not surprised. You knew he had a strong body for a reason.
Running in front of you, he leads you through the trees, glances over his shoulder to make sure you’re keeping up with him and he meets a bright smile on your face. You laugh as you both jump over a fallen log and when he stumbles a bit. You’re agile, landing smoothly on the ground, regaining your footing easily. But you’re still not fast enough to overtake him.
You don’t know where Ivar’s leading you. But surely, he wouldn’t be leading someone like him into a trap or to their death. You know what it’s like to be alone. And now, you know what it feels like to meet someone that has something in common with you.
He only slows down when he breaks through the trees and comes to an open field with a cabin in the distance. A hunting cabin. The one he lives in.
Walking up beside you, panting together to try and catch your breaths, you stare at the cabin with a small smile on your face. “Stay with me,” he whispers, making your head turn to him.
Your gaze locks with his as you shift on your hooves. “I’d love to stay,” you whisper, slipping your hand in his and weaving your fingers with his.
He glances down at your hands in shock before he chuckles and looks back up at your face. Then, he starts to walk forward, pulling you with him like you had before starting to run from the hunters. Walking slightly behind him gives you a chance to take in his horse body as well as the back of his human half. Even though he wears a tunic, you can see some muscle pushing against the material.
His hair is neatly kept in braids. Compared to your hair, yours looks like you’ve been through bushes. It’s still damp from when you bathed in the lake, but running has given it a crazed look and a few leaves have found their way to decorate your hair, taking place of the flowers your mother used to put there.
Your eyes snap to the cabin when you see a man standing by the door and you freeze. Ivar turns back to face you and steps forward as you slowly begin to back away. “It’s alright. It’s my brother,” he calmly says, holding his hand out to you after yours had slipped out of his hold. “He won’t hurt you. I promise.”
His eyes stare at you, taking your breath away because under a clear sky, they seem so bright. Slowly placing your hand in his again, you feel a smile growing on your face as he pulls you forward again.
Your eyes flicker to the man again. You forgot that Ivar’s parents were both human, that he was cursed to be a centaur. That his family are all human. And here, after only just meeting Ivar, you’re about to meet a brother.
His brother spots you two and you bite your lip to see his expression fall off his face as he pushes himself off the wall. He stares at you, in shock, in awe, in wonder, in relief. You never thought someone was able to express so many emotions at once. But it makes you chuckle to yourself as you and Ivar continue to walk closer. “By the Gods,” his brother mutters, stepping closer and never breaking his stare from you.
He must be another person that’s happy that you and Ivar met. Happy, that his brother is no longer alone.
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