Warhorse | Teen Ink

Warhorse

June 29, 2012
By AsIAm PLATINUM, Somewhere, North Carolina
AsIAm PLATINUM, Somewhere, North Carolina
48 articles 3 photos 606 comments

Favorite Quote:
"According to some, heroic deaths are admirable things. (Generally those who don't have to do it. Politicians and writers spring to mind.) I've never been convinced by this argument, mainly because, no matter how cool, stylish, composed, unflappable, manly, or defiant you are, at the end of the day you're also dead. Which is a little too permanent for my liking." — Jonathan Stroud (Ptolemy's Gate)


Warhorse. Panting, straining, muscles rippling as he runs into the battles of man. Into the battles of man. Why? He is prey, built to run away from the enemy, fly with the wind, fleeing for his own life. He is not a predator. He has no fangs, no claws, no lust for blood. Yet he runs into the roar of death.

Built to flee, taught to fight. He throws himself on the sword even as human soldiers do the same. His thoughts are concentrated and his loyalty is unwavering. He will run until he dies, serving his master. He will shy from nothing, spare no valiant act.

He will overcome the nature of himself. Everything he is as a horse, he shall leave behind in the warm stables of peacetime. He shall stride forth a strange creature, in limbo between predator and prey, hunter and hunted. Like the men, he must forget how it feels to give in to fear, must learn courage. Must learn to strike rather than to run, and to never look back. He is a poor beast, a twisted version of what he once was, but proud, an angel woven from barbed wire.

Just like the men who ride him, once he has been turned he shall never be the same. Even when he returns to sweet hay and green pastures, he shall not forget the blood-slick ground and desperate cries. He will never truly be a horse again, the uncomplicated runner he was. There will always be fight in him, an edge no soft touch can tame.

Yet he is not to be looked upon with guilt, remorse over what he has become. For, though at a great price, he has grown, morphed into something quite more amazing, more valuable, more rare than a simple horse, knowing only the art of running to save himself. He has his shadows, yes, but with these stains he possesses wisdom, courage, strength. He has shed the trappings of his small mind and small world. He has become a warhorse.



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LordVetinari said...
on Sep. 5 2012 at 11:01 pm
LordVetinari, Lafayette, Louisiana
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
"Let me give you some advice, Captain. It may help you to make sense of the world. I believe you find life such a problem because you think there are the good people and the bad people. You're wrong, of course. There are, always and only, bad people, but some of them are on opposite sides."
— Lord Vetinari, Guards! Guards!

We will always be watching you