Walking past the edge of the sound wall, Talita sees the source of the noise. Far across the dome, near the apartments, a group of centaurs walk on the circular road. There appear to be five adults, four smaller and one larger, as well as four children half their height. All of them have half-lidded eyes and implacable expressions.

The four smaller adults are dressed in loose belted leather overpants on their rear four legs, with fabric undershirts that are neatly tucked into their waistbands to leave their upper torsos bare. They wear decorative fabric collars and necklaces adorned with dangling beads, strings, tufts of feathers, and pleating. In their manes they have tucked ornamental combs made from metal, bone, feathers, and beads. Three of them appear to be light in color with thin dark stripes and dark irises, and one is darker with broad stripes and light irises. All have a bar piercing through the upper portion of their trunks, and the oldest of the lighter individuals has two bars. They speak amongst themselves.

The four children wear identical dark capelets with tassels that appear to be furred tails. Three are light in color, one is darker. They look around with wider eyes, and one curls their trunk up. They stand close to the small adults, who put reassuring hands on them.

The largest adult stands in front of the group, speaking to an enthusiastically smiling Mel and politely smiling Tod. They are finely dressed in a tasseled skirt that covers their lower body and overpants, with a collared cape featuring long hanging panels with embroidery and a tasseled scallop pattern, with a brooch of a carved animal's head at their throat. A chatelaine with a six-legged turtle-like creature hangs from their belt. They are white with black stripes and dark facial markings that extend to the tip of their trunk, which has two bar piercings. The right side of their face is an eyeless crater of scar tissue, with bone missing from the crown of their head to nearly their nostril, an injury that on a human would have been instantly fatal.

The large centaur turns their single dark eye and makes eye contact across the distance with Talita, who stares back in dumbfounded horror.