3How the Horse Came to Be
by Val Evenstar
Author's Note: I wrote this in my sophomore year. This is the unedited version, which I like a lot. This is one of my favorite writing styles, though. I hope I've improved a little since then, but enjoy this anyway!
Gone is that beautiful world that once was, its inhabitants reduced to the dusty bones that now give clues about its existence. And yet one of the most interesting and fascinating stories they tell is how the Horse came to be.
Even then, these dry bones can only hint at what had been and much was left to my imagination to reconstruct the scene. It can drain your energy, looking at the bones of all the exquisite creatures that once ruled the earth alongside men – pterodactyls and dragons, the mighty winged reptiles, fauns, dwarfs, and other long-forgotten races, and the great monsters of the deep. The skeletons seem to want to speak, to tell of the ancient war whose effects are still felt today, for as a result of that great battle, man won supremacy over all the creatures of the earth.
Those were times of peace and joy between all things living, until the day when man, greedy and ambitious as is his nature, declared that the earth was his. The great warriors of the skies and sea laughed, for what could small, defenseless men do against the might of their sharp-fanged peoples? The pterodactyls and dragons, swiftest of all beings, surely had nothing to fear from him, for even the fauns could best him in speed. Even so, it was a bold and courageous act when man declared war on all creatures of the air, earth, and waters. So it was that the leaders of the pterodactyls, dragons, leviathans, fauns, and dwarfs came together to discuss how to removed the little pest, man. The gathered great armies of their kinds and set out to remove man once and for all. And what could man do against such power and speed as was displayed by these creatures?
But the enemies of man had underestimated him; for what he lacked in muscle and swiftness, he made up for in cunning. The men of that time had a great knowledge of magical arts. Using that tool, he created a beast that could outfly a pterodactyl, outswim a dragon, and catch even the most agile faun. He called it Pegasus, and with its aid bought down the great kingdoms of his enemies; for it was a great friend of man. Later, Pegasus no longer needed to fend off flying creatures; without wings, it was called Horse. Neither did it need to swim, and it was contented with being a swifter runner than all others. As for man, he fought amongst himself and became as diverse as flowers growing wild.
That was the price paid for mastership of the earth, the bones say. That and the loss of the creatures that every heart still secretly longs for. However, there was one benefit greater than the losses – the Horse itself, most beautiful and noble of animals.
Author's Note: When I think of dragons, I think of the Chinese kind – they can both swim and fly. They do not, however breathe fire. Win some, lose some.