“I now have enough endurance to fly across the world,” Pegasus whinnied as he flew from his homeland the next morning. The heaving morning breeze made it tougher to soar through the sky, and Pegasus found that thoughts of giving up were seeping into his mind.
“I can’t give up and I won’t. My parents and the Doubtfires have too much faith in me for failure,” he thought to himself.
With the motivation, he continued to plunge through the air. From miles away he saw a rather strange sign hung beneath a large wooden horse the size of a five-story building.
“Welcome to Troy,” he read from the banner.
Intrigued by the message and desperate to catch a break for a while, he decided to stop in this strange place. He touched ground miles from the large wooden structure, as he just didn't have enough energy to fly any further.
“Greetings, I’m Clyde. You are?”
Startled, Pegasus looked around trying to find where the greeting was coming from.
He spotted a blurry figure standing across the way. As he neared the figure, he realized Clyde was a human.
"Maybe this human is as helpful and encouraging as the Doubtfires back home," he thought.
Realizing he hadn't replied yet, he quickly shouted, “My name is Pegasus and I’ve come to this great place to take a break. I’m on a mission to find true love.”
Chuckling and trying to form a sentence Clyde said, “Good luck, we don’t have many horses here and I don’t believe that falling in love is an actual part of your life.”
He tried to gain speed to fly off, but he was so drained that his wings wilted up. Hurt and full of bitterness brought on by Clyde, Pegasus set off to see the wooden horse up close and personal. He walked across the hills with cement blocking, making sure to pick his legs up high enough to cross.
"Ouch, why is all of this cement in my way making it hard to maneuver?" Pegasus quietly spoke.
Clyde screamed, "Those are the walls that were built by Poseidon and Apollo to please the king, Laomedon. They surround the city of Troy, get used to it."
Pegasus certainly felt threatened.
"War?"
Though he didn't know what to think, he ignored Clyde and continued. Gaining sight of the huge wooden horse, Pegasus began to pick up his pace.
In utter amazement, Pegasus halted. Right before his eyes this huge wooden horse morphed. The horse was wooden one minute and then the most majestic buckskin-colored horse with a long, luscious black mane and tail the next. Not only did she morph into the most appealing, beautiful horse, she shrank to the size of Pegasus.
“I, I…I’m Pegasus,” he whinnied very timidly.
“I’m the most well-known immortal horse there is. I’m the great wooden Trojan horse. You can call me Troya for short,” she said with immense confidence.
The two were then joined at the hip. Where Troya went, Pegasus followed. Pegasus was amused with his newfound friend, and she seemed to feel the same with him. They pranced through town shoulders together right past Clyde. Clyde ran after the pair, but they picked up speed to leave him out of the loop, for he had already messed up any chance to befriend Pegasus.
“So, tell me about yourself,” Pegasus asked curiously.
"I have a long history. Back in ancient Troy, during the Trojan War, I was known as the great Trojan horse. During the war, I was constructed as a hideaway for the Greeks. Army men hid inside me to catch the Trojans off guard. As the Trojans pulled me towards Troy as a victory notion, the Greek army entered and destroyed Troy. The goddess, Athena, zapped me with magical abilities to turn from the giant wooden horse to the friendly morphed horse. Due to the massive destruction caused during this time, it is my duty to ensure that never happens again. I will protect this town until life ends," Troya proudly stated. She felt the sudden awkward urge to ask, "What about you, Pegasus? What's your story?"
“Wow, Troya, you are such a monument. I'm not nearly as interesting. I was born in Texas at a horse ranch. My owner, Mr. Doubtfire, said I was very special. I kept feeling very different where I was at the ranch, because none of the other horses had wings. Those differences caused me to really pay attention to the humans. I watched Mr. and Mrs. Doubtfire fall deeper and deeper for each other, finally understanding that was something called love. So I decided to get away. I want to find my true love and taking a journey around the world was the only way to do that,” Pegasus replied.
“Love? Pegasus, I know there are many other interesting horses around the world. There’s one in particular that I think could bring you much joy. Her name is Kanthaka. She's a stellar white beauty, and arises from the Buddhist culture, also known as the wisest of them all” Troya said.
Pegasus gleamed, for he wanted to hear more about this mystery horse, Kanthaka. Troya and Pegasus prowled through the ancient city discussing every little detail known about Kanthaka, and that’s when he knew that he was going to fly until he found her.
“Pegasus, I’ve got to go now for I have to return to my duty of standing guard for Troy,” Troya said.
Saddened, the pair hugged tightly and went about their separate ways.
“Bye, Pegasus, I want you to come back and see me. You promise?”
“I promise, you have my word. Thank you for everything, Troya,” Pegasus replied.
Pegasus found a place near Troya with thick forest-like trees to rest for the night, and drifted into heavy dreams.
“Did this really happen today, or was everything just a dream?”
Author's Note:
The Trojan horse was a very big part of history for the ancient city of Troy (now modern day Turkey). He's very important in Greek mythology, also known as the wooden horse, but for the purposes of a possible love candidate for Pegasus I made the Trojan horse a girl. I also changed the original image of the Trojan horse to actually come to life. I wanted this to be a cool journey for the first location that Pegasus made it to and to use the Trojan horse as a cool potential lover/bestfriend. Troya will most likely be featured again as Pegasus continues through his journey. Pegasus is such a strong character, and I wanted to keep the main focus on Pegasus. I want to have the character development really strong so that the readers can easily relate to the journey from his point of view. Clyde was featured in this story just to focus in on the ridicule that Pegasus has to endure even on a small level. It's not always easy going on a journey to find something that you're not sure exists. I will be revising this to add information about Mr. and Mrs. Doubtfire's reaction to Pegasus leaving if it seems fitting, or I'll just transition into focusing only on Pegasus until the end.
Bibliography:
Banner image: The Trojan horse image can be located on Wikimedia Commons.
Laomedon Information: Wikipedia.
Trojan Horse Information: Theoi website located here.
Trojan Horse Wikipedia. Accessed here.
Palladium Information. Accessed here.
The Ancient City of Troy. Accessed here.