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On a populated road, dozens of people were staring at the horse plodding along. On its back, there was a sack-like object with a fluffy tail. A basket filled with stale bread hung on the horse’s saddle’s horn. The horse had bags underneath its eyes, but its head was raised, looking down on everyone before it in disdain. Every time it passed a traveler, it snorted and whipped its head, causing its mane to flow in the air before settling on the other side of its head. Every time the horse passed a particularly fine-looking—in its eyes—mare, it gave her a wink and a whinny before passing her, its tail raised into the air. The owners of the mares had to placate them; otherwise, they’d have chased after the noble horse.
As the sun began to set and the surroundings were more dim than lit, the horse trod over to the side of the road near a stranger’s fire and bent its knees, resting on its belly. It stretched its head around and bit the edge of the basket, unlatching it from its saddle’s horn, and munched on the stale bread within. “This noble wishes to eat carrots,” the horse muttered through mouthfuls of breadcrumbs. “Which god of bad luck did this noble offend?” It turned its head around to glare at the snoring bundle on its back, but it didn’t dare disturb it. Its lips flapped in the wind as it snorted and resumed eating the bread. When it was done, it hooked the basket back onto the horn. Then it went up to one of the strangers sitting around the campfire and bit their water flask, raising its head into the air to bring the water down into its throat.
The people sitting around the campfire stared at the horse that had intruded on their space. A girl whispered, “Isn’t that the lucky horse?”
“You mean the one rumor from the forums?” a boy whispered back.
The girl’s head bobbed up and down. The horse dropped the flask onto the ground and rested on its belly before closing its eyes. The girl swallowed and reached into her bag, pulling out a piece of bread. She tiptoed over to the horse and dropped the bread into the basket and reached toward the snoring bundle on the horse’s back. Her hand hesitated for a second before grabbing the bundle’s side and rummaging around to reveal a foot. She gave it a quick rub before stuffing it back underneath the bundle. As she retreated back to her spot on the side of the campfire, she released the breath she didn’t know she had been holding.
“You really believe those rumors?” the boy asked, a strange expression on his face. The girl was smiling from ear to ear, holding the hand she had rubbed the bundle’s foot with to her chest.
“One can dream, right?” the girl asked and stuck her tongue out at the boy before giggling. “Besides, it’s only a piece of bread. I’m turning in for the night; keep watch, please.”
The boy sighed as the girl bundled herself up in blankets and covered her face with a hood before lying down. The rest of the people decided to call it a night as well, ignoring the unwelcomed horse, leaving the boy alone by the fire. He shrugged before taking out a piece of bread. The girl was right; it was just a piece of bread anyway. One foot rub later, the boy returned to his seat—which happened to be a basketball-sized rock—and stared at the fire. He wasn’t sure when it happened, but the sun shone down on his face, causing him to groan.
“I told you to keep watch,” the girl said. “But you fell asleep.”
The boy blinked and looked around. The sun was already above the horizon, and the bread-basket-carrying horse was nowhere to be found. In fact, the boy wasn’t sure if the events of the previous night had actually happened or not. “The horse?”
The girl shook her head. “It was already gone when I woke up,” she said, looking around. Her gaze landed on the dying fire; a blue piece of charcoal had caught her eye. “Hey, isn’t that a yew core?” She grinned as she ran over the fire, dousing it with the water in her flask. “I needed one of these to craft my wand!”
The boy stared at the girl as she reached into the still smoldering pieces of wood and extracted the blue piece. “Aren’t yew cores extremely rare?” he asked, a baffled expression on his face. The dried logs they had gathered for the campfire actually ended up being so magical? How lucky was that? An image of a piece of bread flashed through his mind. “It couldn’t be.”
“The rumors were true!” the girl said, posing for a selfie with the core held up near her face. “I’m uploading this to the guild forums. Eve is going to be so jealous.”
“I sacrificed bread to the lucky horse too!” the boy said, standing up. He kicked the basketball-sized rock beneath him. “Where’s my reward?”
The girl’s mouth fell open as she pointed at the rock. It split in half from the boy’s kick, and sunlight illuminated bluish-gold mineral veins running through it. “That’s, that’s—”
“Kalyterium!” the boy shouted, his eyes bulging out of his head. He burst out into laughter as he bent down and stuffed the fragments of the rock into his bag. “I can finally craft a decent sword!” He smiled as he hugged the bag to his chest. “Praise the lucky horse!”
Meanwhile, a noble horse plodded along a road. Today marked the seventeenth day of its solitary journey with the sleeping bundle on its back. On the horizon, a structure with sinister gargoyles and eerie red lights towered overhead. Dark clouds covered the sky, blotting out the sun. Lightning pulsed, occasionally striking the structure, and the low growl of thunder sounded like a beast. The horse shivered as it came to a halt. It turned its head and nudged the sleeping bundle, attempting to wake it up. When its attempts failed, it hesitated before taking a deep breath. With a chomp, it bit down on the sleeping bundle’s tail, causing an ear-splitting yowl to drown out the thunderous booms in the distance.
“Who dares steal my treasures!?” Khrx roared as he bolted upright. “Leave your lives behind!” He looked around with flared nostrils before realizing no one was around and he was sitting atop a horse. Then he saw the ominous structure up ahead. “Huh? Oh. Are we there?”
“This noble horse has finished the task you assigned. Please, let this noble horse go free.”
“Eh, yeah, sure, whatever,” Khrx said as he hopped off the horse. He grabbed a piece of stale bread and stuffed it into his mouth. He munched on it while inspecting the structure up ahead. “Weird. I thought the labyrinth with the skill was supposed to be underground.” He glanced at the horse. “You followed the map, right?”
The horse bobbed its head up and down. It stood in place, watching as Khrx went further and further down the road towards the structure. Its tail quivered as tears sprang into its eyes. When Khrx disappeared from view, it whirled around and galloped away while shouting, “This noble horse is finally free! If this noble horse disclosed this noble horse’s inability to read, this noble horse would definitely lose its poor little life. Followed a map? This noble horse’s nose is the best map around!”