Horses Develop an Extra Pair of Limbs

Walter and Mavis sat up rubbing their sore heads.

Alpha barked.

Star gave a neigh.

Peanut Butter farted.

‘I’ve only been here in this school for a month and I’ve already fainted twice,’ remarked Mavis.

‘You’re forgetting it was your fault both the times,’ pointed out Walter.

They regarded their surroundings and were amazed when they found themselves on what looked like a large battlefield. In the distance, they could see a little mountain range with snowy peaks. On the battlefield, they could see that thousands of tiny pointy-eared men were at war with thousands of giant grey warty-skinned creatures. They looked up at the sky and saw a dozen massive winged creatures flying around breathing fire at all the pointy-eared men.

‘Cool,’ said Mavis, a little too calm.

Then a piece of rock flew over her head and she and Walter ducked behind a large mound of dirt.

‘The afterlife is certainly scary,’ Mavis muttered to herself.

Then suddenly one of the pointy-eared men came running up to them and ducked behind the mound too. ‘Ah! There you are!’ he squeaked. He looked at their horses. ‘What have you done to them?’

Mavis and Walter stared in alarm as the tiny man stuffed two rock-like things into the horses’ mouths.

Star gagged and Peanut Butter collapsed onto the ground and started kicking her feet into the air.

Walter frantically pulled out a bottle of water and forced some of it into each of the horse’s mouths, but it was no good.

The horses kicked and neighed then suddenly lay motionless. ‘They’re still breathing,’ gasped Walter, noticing the look on Mavis’ face.

Suddenly what looked like a tuft of feathers sprouted out from the sides of the horses. The tufts grew bigger and bigger till both the horses had a pair of wings each. They stood up looking dazed and neighed in astonishment when they noticed their new wings.

Mavis and Walter stared open-mouthed.

Star and Peanut Butter beat their wings and floated up into the air.

Mavis said, ‘Diapers.’

Walter looked as if he was about to faint.

Alpha looked surprised.

‘You look like you’ve never seen a horse fly!’ cried the tiny man.

‘But we haven’t–’

‘Oh, what have you done with your weapons!’

‘But we don’t have–’

The tiny man pulled out two swords.

‘Use these for now,’ he said, handing Walter the weapons.

He looked at them, confused. There was a small carving of what looked like a bird on the hilt of each of them.

He was just about to march away to the war when Mavis asked in a small voice, ‘Where are we?’

‘Phylarra, in The Land of Mrindawa,’ cried the elf in disbelief. ‘Were you born yesterday?’

‘Can you be a bit more specific? What year is it?’ asked Walter, suddenly nervous.

The elf groaned. ‘Gone crazy, have we? Well, according to all those silly dates the humans will invent in the future, it’s approximately 1500 BCE. I can’t give you the exact date, though, because I don’t know.’

Mavis and Walter gaped at each other in shock. Was it possible? Could they have time-travelled?

‘I don’t understand,’ gasped Walter. ‘How can this be 1500 BCE?’

The elf looked at him curiously. ‘You mean to say you aren’t from this time?’

‘Yeah,’ said Mavis. ‘Nor this world, I’m sure.’

The elf smiled broadly. ‘Wonderful! If you aren’t from around here, I probably mistook you for someone else. But no matter.’ He patted the horses. ‘I’ve given them rinkverdiam. With enough practice, they’ll be able to fly!’

Mavis choked.

‘But what’s Mrindawa?’ asked Walter.

The man looked delighted. ‘Mrindawa is a landmass south of that other piece of land. What was it called in present-day? New Holland?’

‘New Holland?’ said Mavis, never having heard of it.

‘Australia,’ said Walter quickly. ‘That’s what you mean, don’t you?’

‘Eh, I guess.’

‘Okay,’ said Mavis weakly. ‘Why are we here, though? If we time-travelled, we should still be at home; just, in another time.’

‘Yes, but you have not only travelled through time but also through space! In other words, you travelled to an entirely different land too. Time machines can do that, you know. They should really change their name.’

Walter looked thoughtful. ‘Hey, don’t you think you’re not supposed to know English if this is 1500 BCE?’

The tiny man grinned. ‘Well, the previous generations of Mrindawians time travelled often and learnt English. And that language has been passed down generation after generation, because why not? Still, don’t expect everyone to know English. I’m one of the few who knows it.’

‘Can you please tell us how to get back to our time?’ asked Walter hopefully.

The man opened his mouth to speak, but just then they heard a loud roar.

Mavis and Walter spun around in surprise and saw one of the giant winged creature’s breath fire at their silver box. The box slowly melted into a silver shining liquid.

‘Oh, so that was your time machine. Pathetic, really. Out of all the three ones, you had to get the malfunctioning one.’

‘But that’s our only way back!’

‘Ah, yes. That’s true. Looks like that dragon didn’t like it.’

Walter looked like he was going to burst into tears.

‘But I know another way for you to get back to your time!’ added the tiny man quickly.

‘Then tell us, will you!’ cried Mavis.

One of the dragons breathed magic at the elf. He yelped.

‘No time now!’ he cried frantically, and sped away to avoid the dragons, leaving Mavis and Walter there.

There was a shocked silence between the two.

‘Diapers,’ Mavis said finally.

‘Diapers,’ Walter agreed.

‘So, what now?’ Mavis asked.

‘I dunno. Let’s hide somewhere till the war’s over.’

And that’s what they would have done if it weren’t for the troll that rushed at them with a roar.

Walter stuck out his sword in panic. The troll collided with it, and I’m not going to say anymore.

‘Ew,’ Mavis said.

Walter sighed as more trolls decided to charge towards them. ‘You know what? We can’t hide anywhere. Take this.’ He tossed Mavis one of the swords. ‘Make sure no one kills you,’ he said.

Mavis stared. ‘You’re not making sense, Walter. I’m already dead. This is all a hallucination.’

With that, she dashed into war, waving her sword in the air. Walter watched as Mavis hit her sword hilt on one of the elf’s heads. Thankfully, it was the wrong way so all that happened was that the elf squealed and told her that she had to hit only the trolls. With a nervous laugh, she ran to one of the trolls and hit its head as hard as she could.

It picked her up and flung her away.

Walter shut his eyes; he couldn’t bear to watch. Star quickly flew to Mavis’ aid.

‘LOOK OUT!’ Walter heard someone scream.

He gave a horrified gasp as a huge boulder flew over his head and crashed onto the ground beside him. It hit the ground with such a force that he was sent plummeting away.

He landed on the ground hard and lay there till he got back to his senses. His body ached and felt like it had crashed onto rock–which it had.

He slowly crawled to his feet and discovered that he was in the shadow of a huge catapult the size of a telephone tower. It was being loaded with a boulder.

Alpha and Peanut Butter came running towards Walter and whined, knowing that he was hurt.

Walter watched the machine fire. A huge boulder flew through the air, hitting a bunch of elves at once.

He choked and tried to get the image out of his head. But he couldn’t.

The trolls were now reloading their machine, getting ready to fire at the elves.

Many would die.

Walter suddenly felt a sense of responsibility. He needed to help the elves–even though he’d never even known them.

He looked at Mavis to see how she was doing.

It looked like someone had taught her how to use her sword properly, because she was waving it in the air and stabbing people, screaming, ‘DIE, TROLLS!’ while she rode Star.

‘Mavis!’ Walter called. ‘A little help?’

Mavis swerved Star around and galloped towards him.

‘Listen,’ he said pointing at the huge catapult; ‘we need to destroy this thing. Or else, a lot of elves are going to die. Possibly, even us.’

Mavis looked doubtful, but she nodded. ‘Okay, but how?’

‘Uh. I’ll figure it out. I need you to cover for me. You need to make sure no one tries to attack.’

Mavis gave an evil smile that reminded Walter horribly of his grandmother. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

Walter dashed away to the bottom of the catapult. Praying for the best, he grabbed his sword and began sawing one of its legs off. He didn’t saw it completely off but left a bit of wood so that the machine still stood up straight.

‘Back off!’ he saw Mavis shouting, chucking her sword at any troll who dared to come close.

‘MAVIS, GET OUT OF THERE!’ Walter screamed, waving his arms in the air.

Mavis looked a bit upset to stop hitting the trolls, but she obeyed and scooped Alpha up, jumped onto Star’s back and galloped away.

Walter hurriedly leapt onto Peanut Butter’s back and followed.

‘What did you do to that machine?’ Mavis asked when they were at a safe distance from it.

‘Wait and watch,’ said Walter, now grinning from ear to ear.

The two looked at the catapult.

The trolls tossed a boulder into the compartment on its lever again. But the moment they did, the weakened leg of the machine that Walter had sawed, began to wobble dangerously.

It suddenly snapped in half and the machine collapsed onto the startled trolls.

Mavis stared in amazement.

‘The war will get over soon,’ said Walter with a grin. ‘And we’ll be home in no time!’

Then, there was a loud bellow. ‘RETREAT!’

Mavis and Walter choked. A black dragon much bigger than the rest was soaring above the battlefield, breathing magic at the elves.

‘It’s going to kill us,’ Walter said.

‘Diapers,’ cursed Mavis.

‘Walter tugged at Peanut Butter’s reins, galloping as fast as he could. ‘Stay alive, Mavis!’ cried, not a very good parting phrase.

Mavis frowned. They already were dead, weren’t they?

Star suddenly reared and nickered as some of the dragons breathed shining blue magic at them. Why they were only targeting her, Mavis did not know; but she didn’t have time to think about it.

She pulled at Star’s reins and brought him into a gallop. They dashed over the battlefield to avoid the magic shooting at them. Star swerved and dodged them, but they couldn’t go on for long.

Goodbye, world! Mavis wanted to wail. But as far as she knew, she was dead and this was all a dream, so she just went for: ‘DIAPERS!’

She threw herself off Star. Even if this was a hallucination, no point in killing a non-real horse.

She tumbled on the ground, regretting her move at once. It was too late to do anything about that, though.

‘Goodbye, world,’ she whimpered, it dawning on her that all of this was real.

Then nothing happened.

She opened an eye to see that the dragons were gone and were now circling above the battle. Star was staring at her, wondering if she had gone mad.

She staggered to her feet and looked at the battlefield warily. To her surprise, the elves were charging towards the trolls from one side. On the other, trolls were charging towards them. Mavis squinted at them. If she was not mistaken, the trolls were attempting to kill their own people. Maybe she was dead after all.

Then she saw that the trolls charging at their own people were not trolls at all, but elves wearing troll armour. They had probably been hiding in the real troll army, waiting for a signal to attack.

Mavis hugged Star in happiness. ‘Finally, this nightmare will be over!’

But she’d spoken too soon.

The huge dragon was breathing magic, killing a dozen elves at once.

‘Oh,’ Mavis mumbled. ‘This nightmare is never going to end.’

Unexpectedly, fifteen arrows shot out from the elven army, each, with a long rope tied to it.

The arrows pierced the dragon’s hide. It struggled and flailed around helplessly, but the ropes were pulled and it hit the ground. Refusing to be held down, it breathed magic at the elves.

But the elves started to shoot down many of the trolls from either side, and the trolls knew they were defeated. And trolls are not known for their bravery and loyalty, so they naturally fled.

The great black dragon spread open its wings and managed to rip the ropes apart, taking to the skies, following the trolls and retreating.

The elves were exhausted and slumped off to their kingdoms without any applause. Some of them collapsed on the ground, to be dragged away by the others.

According to the movies Mavis had seen, war was supposed to last longer. But this had been a short one with less destruction and bloodshed. That was, of course, good for her. She had never been in a war before and had no idea how to fight.

‘Mavis?’ she heard the voice of Walter.

She turned Star around to face him. He had a few scratches and bruises but was otherwise completely fine.

‘Let’s go find that elf we spoke to earlier,’ said Walter. ‘He said he’d help us get back home.’

‘Of course,’ said Mavis. ‘I really don’t like this.’

And, so, they bustled through the crowd of soldiers going back home, to find the elf. They found him wiping the blood off his sword, which was creepy.

He appeared to be waiting for them because he was one of the few who was staying behind. And those were nurses and doctors carrying the wounded in stretchers.

Walter cleared his throat, and he turned to face them.

He looked a bit worried. ‘You two–didn’t you time-travel?’

They nodded.

He looked a bit pale. ‘And you’re not elves?’

‘We’re humans,’ was Mavis’ answer.

He began sweating with fear and excitement. ‘Come with me.’ He gave no further description, but Mavis and Walter followed him with their animals because they didn’t know what else to do.

They walked over the huge battlefield and found themselves at the gates of a huge city. Its walls stretched on either side for miles and were very high. The only way to get in was through the gates, which were lying open so that the elven army could go through. There was a huge crowd as they poured through, and they had to squeeze through.

The kingdom was built impressively. The whole thing was surrounded by a small ring of mountains with snowy peaks. To get inside, they had to pass through the small gap in between two of the mountains. The army was already pouring through, so they nearly suffocated as they made their way through.

The actual kingdom consisted of hundreds of small houses made of stone surrounding a pond. On the far end of the kingdom, the palace of the King stood.

It had a moat surrounding it, and a drawbridge to cross over to stop intruders from entering. A guard stood by the drawbridge so that he could lower it at any time.

‘I would like to speak with the King,’ said the elf with Mavis and Walter.

The guard near the drawbridge didn’t hesitate. He shouted for the drawbridge to open. With the creaking and groaning of machinery, it opened up. The elf hurriedly passed over it, and the others followed him.

The inside of the palace was even more beautiful than the outside. The walls were full of painted pictures of the current king and his ancestors. There were sculpted clay statues of animals that stood in a line against the wall.

They were clearly in the throne room, because at the end of the long corridor a huge throne stood, with the King sitting on top. He was old and had a long white beard. He looked grave and deep in thought. Like the other elves, he was tiny and had pointed ears.

There were many other smaller thrones in two rows on either side of them, on which the courtiers sat.

Everyone looked up when the elf, Mavis and Walter, followed by their animals, entered.

They looked surprised to see Mavis and Walter who were clearly not elves. The elf nodded at them, and they all tensed.

‘You are dismissed,’ the King said to the courtiers. They hurriedly stood up and exited the room.

‘It’s them?’ asked the King, his voice barely a whisper.

The elf nodded nervously.

They suddenly began to talk in hushed voices, as if they didn’t want Mavis and Walter to hear.

Mavis only caught a few words from what they said:

‘The prophecy–it’s happened too soon. And they’re so young . . .’

‘Is it safe to do it now?’

‘I’m not sure . . . no. We won’t.’

‘But–'

‘They will learn the truth later.’

‘They are the saviours and the protectors. We cannot–'

‘Telling them now is not safe,’ said the king firmly.

The elf looked like he wanted to argue, but fell silent.

Mavis tried to work out what this meant. What were they not meant to be told? Why did the elf call her and Walter the saviours and protectors? It made no sense.

The elf turned to them. ‘Your time machine is destroyed, but see here, one thing you must know, is that there are many time machines on earth. There used to be three, but since you got yours destroyed, there are only two left.’

Mavis and Walter looked at him guiltily.

‘Time machines were once used very often. But the effects of time travel are harmful, and soon, time travel fell into disuse. The three time machines were scattered. The bronze one was here in Mrindawa along with the silver one. The gold one, however, is lost and could be a mere legend for all we know.’

Mavis’ face lt up. ‘The bronze time machine is here?’

The elf shook his head. ‘Not anymore; it was stolen by the trolls months ago! You’ll have to find them first.’

‘We have to find them?’ Walter squawked.

‘Of course, you do.’

‘But that’s not fair!’ protested Mavis. ‘Just because Walter’s grandmother had a brain issue–’

‘Will be having,’ corrected the King. ‘Future tense.’

‘Well, whatever it is,’ snapped Mavis, ‘there’s no way we can fight trolls.’

‘Then figure out how to,’ said the King flatly. ‘The trolls live in a cave in the Wasteland; it’s where they would have fled.’

Walter choked. ‘The Wasteland? But wastelands are miles and miles of barren land! Don’t you happen to have a spare time machine?’

‘Of course not!’ snapped the elf. ‘Just because you’re in a magical land doesn’t mean there’s a time machine at every turn!’

‘Oh, we’re doomed!’ wailed Walter.

‘Soo doomed!’ agreed Mavis.

The king whispered something into his servant’s ear. He looked aghast, but scuttled away. He returned in a few minutes with a bundle in his arms.

He walked over to Mavis and Walter, and They realised that he was holding a light brown staff with branches sticking out at odd angles on one end, and a bow, with a few arrows, wrapped up in a blue cloth. Both the weapons had the same carving of a bird on them as the swords they had been using.

‘These are your weapons,’ said the King.

‘Then I’ll take this,’ said Mavis, grabbing the staff. ‘I’ll use it to whack people’s heads!’

The King gave an exasperated sigh. ‘You have a lot to learn. Hold it up straight and concentrate hard.’

Mavis did as she was told. Her staff produced a small shining blue spark on the end with the branches sticking out. But it disappeared as fast as it had appeared. She looked disappointed.

‘You’ll soon get the hang of it,’ said the King, waving his hand dismissively. He turned to Walter. ‘Aren’t you going to try?’

He blinked and picked up his bow and the arrows. He held the arrow to the bow and shot it. He had been holding it properly, and yet, he missed so wonderfully that he shot a picture of the King on the head.

The King flinched. ‘I guess you’ll get the hang of it too.’

The King’s servant brought them two sacks of food and water.

‘When you go to the Wasteland to find the trolls, take this. You’ll hardly find anything to eat there.’

Mavis and Walter exchanged glances, wondering if a journey to a wasteland was necessary.

‘May luck be with you,’ said the King.

‘It would have been better if you'd said, May the force be with you,’ said Mavis.

‘What?’

‘Never mind.’

The elf led them outside. ‘You’ll have to fly south on your horses,’ he said.

‘But we don’t know how!’ protested Mavis.

‘Learn, then,’ said the elf, before he walked away.

Mavis and Walter exchanged glances, wondering what to do. Five minutes later, Mavis grabbed one of the sacks of food and tied it to Star’s back. Then she mounted him.

‘Come on,’ she told Walter.

He reluctantly climbed on, tying the other sack to Peanut Butter and scooping up Alpha. ‘This is suicide,’ he muttered.

‘Don’t be such a grouch!’

She tugged at Star’s reins, and the horse spread out his wings and took off. Mavis shrieked with excitement.

Walter gawped, stunned. He tried, and Peanut Butter took off too.

‘THIS IS AMAZING!’ shrieked Mavis.

‘Wait–how do we control them?’ asked Walter.

Mavis froze. ‘Why didn’t we think of that?’

The horses were now flying towards a tower of the palace, unable to control their own wings.

The two screamed as their horses flew towards the tower at top speed, neighing in panic. Alpha barked in fright.

Suddenly out of instinct, Mavis tugged hard at Star’s reins, and he swerved right, missing the tower by inches. Mavis couldn’t believe it–she was flying a horse!

‘Walter!’ she shouted. ‘Flying a horse is the same as galloping one!’

He quickly pulled at Peanut Butter’s reins, and she swerved right.

‘We’ve done it!’ cried Mavis in delight. ‘We’ve flown a horse!’

Walter looked shaken. ‘Okay. Let’s find some trolls.’