Becoming the Legend

It was the advantage of a lifetime for Melanie. Something she could use to finally win back her spot as ‘Master Adventurer’. Looking through the woods for the magic horse which Billy had been talking about was a cinch for her. She would definitely not fail.

That is, if she knew where she was at the moment.

Come to think of it, the area seemed like the exact same place she had started. Meaning she had been going in circles. Meaning she probably should have grabbed a more useful GPS, not her best friend Sophia.

“Um, the tree looks sort of looks different, I think?” The young girl said, probably trying to cover the fact that she had gotten both her and Melanie lost.

“By different, do you mean exactly the same?” a crude voice replied to the ‘question’.

Right, Tyler, forgot about him for a second there. I guess he was lost too.

“Not to worry guys, I have an idea on how to overcome this obstacle!” as Melanie said this, she immediately began running towards the even darker part of the woods forgetting that she herself was afraid of the dark. A few minutes later, she ran back out faster than she went in. “Yeah never mind, scratch that idea off the page.” She said, out of breath.

“So, what now? You’re certainly not going to keep following this irrelevant map, are you?” Tyler said, giving a rude point to Sophia, who in return stuck her tongue out like a grown child.

“Who are you calling irrelevant?”

“Well I thought it was obvious who.”

“Why you- “

“Hush children.” Melanie intervened. “I hear something.”

The sound of a whinny was clearer as soon as the two stopped arguing. It came from the path that definitely wasn’t there before, or the human GPS would’ve made note of it already. Right?

The trio made their way toward the path that they were sure never existed until this very moment. Once they had finished the short trip, they walked into a meadow. A meadow with beautiful flowers and exquisite grass, which is more than you can say about regular grass. It was also a meadow which harbored a white spotted mare with a long brown mane. It had been chewing on the grass of the meadow as they stepped closer inside, which gave Sophia a bit of an excited stance.

“It’s over there! The magic horse! I’ve found it!” she shouted with glee.

“I?” both Melanie and Tyler questioned.

“We?” Sophia tried to correct. There really was no reason for her to take claim. She didn’t even like horses all that much.

“It’s all right Sophia, you just got caught up in the moment.” Melanie said, trying to sound comforting. But really now, this was Melanie’s big adventure. Not her best friend’s.

As she looked back at the horse she said, “This is so great, just wait until Billy hears that we’ve found the magic horse.”

“Yeah okay.” Tyler intervened. “It’s true that we found a horse. But this most definitely isn’t a magical horse.” He picked at a thorn from a flower he had picked up. “Magical horses don’t even exist.”

The girls still haven’t figured out why he came with them in the first if he was to be this horribly realistic.

“Well it might not be a magic horse.” Sophia reasoned. “But it still is a beautiful horse. And how many people do you know have come across a horse like this in the middle of the woods?”

Before the guy could answer what he thought to be an extremely stupid question, Melanie shouted with disdain, “Guys, the horse is gone!”

All three of them turned back to where the horse originally was, only to find a patch of soil where grass used to be. They turned to each other again to find the horse right next to Sophia.

“Ahh!” she screamed.

The horse stayed still.

“Ahh?” Sophia started again, this time questionably. It was still unmoving with grass in its mouth.

“Well I’ve never been more creeped out this morning since now.” Tyler said as the horse slowly started to chew its food once more.

“Did, did it teleport?” the adventurous Melanie asked. “My god, this horse truly is magical!”

“That doesn’t prove anything. Don’t get ahead of yourself, it probably just started walking over here while we were distracted.” The negatively realistic guy realistically stated. I mean, of course it would make sense for a strange horse to just walk over to a couple of noisy kids for the heck of it.

“Listen Tyler, does it not strike you as odd for a horse to suddenly be interested in some strangers?” Melanie asked.

“Well if that’s the case, then the horse obviously knows who the greatest is. Me. And that’s why it came over here.” He concluded. Why yes, the guy was full of himself as well.

“Why don’t we just ask the horse?” Sophia cut in. she then looked at the horse, “Excuse me, do you find us to be interesting in your eyes Mr.-Mrs.-um, horse creature?”

Poor Sophia, now she was going insane. Whatever shall we do about that?

“For goodness sake Sophia, just go sit way over there for a second.” Tyler said, pointing at the other end of the meadow.

That, that is what we can do apparently. A bit rude, but it works I guess.

After Sophia made her way to the empty space she claimed as her temporary resting place, Melanie started up again. “Right, so now what do we do with the horse?”

Tyler stared, “Now what do we do? We leave and forget about this whole thing. We saw a horse in the woods, it started acting strange. Big whoop. Let’s just go home and pretend today was actually not as boring as it is right now.”

“So we pretend that we haven’t seen the most beautiful creature at all in the journey through the woods? Great thinking, Tyler. You’re truly the best.”

And so the two went on arguing since Tyler loves to start arguments. This is going to take a while, so don’t wait up for anyone’s sake. We’re done here.

“Hey wait a minute! What do you mean we’re done?” Sophia called out from over yonder.

I mean what I said, there is no way to continue this if all you’re doing is acting idiotic and arguing about possible horse magic.

“That’s not very narrator-like, you should know better.” She then started to get up and walk over to where she thought I was.

And you should shut up. Because we’re done. End of discussion.

“Do you humans mind staying silent while I finish eating my lunch? Thank you very much.”

It was silent. Which was what the voice wanted, but only for a few seconds.

“Did...” Melanie started.

“…that...” Tyler continued.

“…horse say words that sounded like English?” Sophia finished.

It would appear so, then again you all could also be going crazy. So as I said before, we are do-

“Yes, I have said words that are of the English language.” The horse interrupted. “Also, you humans are very loud. Is it usually like this with you creatures?”

“Only the annoying.” Tyler answered rather bored.

Still no idea why he was here.

“Sophia the camera! Quick!” Melanie shouted.

“Camera?” the young girl looked confused. Too confused.

“The camera I had asked you to bring so that we could document our discovery?” Melanie seemed confused as to why her best friend was confused.

Oh, there is nothing better than the silence of realization surrounding the two girls.

“Oh, I didn’t bring it.”

More silence? Careful now, you don’t want it to get awkward.

“As interesting as it’s been.” The horse said preparing itself for leave. “I must be going now. Good evening human folk.” As it bid farewell, the horse then started to vanish before the trio’s eyes.

Melanie, Tyler, and Sophia were left awestruck, dumbfounded, and just plain dumb.

“Um,” Sophia started towards the stunned girl next to her. “At least you have a great bedtime story to tell your children in the future?”

“Or something to get you landed in the looney bin so you can hide from possible embarrassment from your peers.” Tyler added, turning to leave because he too had decided he needed to be going.

With that, our story is finally done. For real this time. And though Melanie may not have found evidence for the retrieval of her adventure status, she just may have gain experience. Which really isn’t special at all, but oh well.