On How To Leave Your Limitations Behind

Hi everyone,

this is a small excerpt of the part in the story right after the moment when Wind, the Pegasus, tells Krieg, the war horse, how she got her wings. I thought it was worth including here. Of course, the end of this excerpt is not the end of the story but you knew that already.

Yours truly,

Joshua

For a while he was quiet. He became aware of the land around him and her presence next to him.

“How do you leave your limitations behind?” He asked.

Wind looked at him for a long time. There was a kindness in her eyes born of knowing the strength it took, the faith in both the goal and the means to reach it.

“Your limitations, you must not believe them. You must not fuel them with doubt about yourself. You must know they are not and have never been part of you. You must know yourself. And not only must you know yourself you must love it as well. Deep within, you must love... you.”

Krieg was quiet for a while. Within himself there was a small part, deeply submerged somewhere, that resonated with her thoughts. At that moment he knew that her words were true. But...

“...you are asking, what about the other part? The part that thinks you small and frail and puny?” Wind finished his thought.

“Yes.”

“You freed me from eternal imprisonment. I will help you go beyond your limits. I will help you get your wings. I will see you fly.”

The last part of her thought whispered to him. Krieg's eyes stung suddenly and he closed them to hide what he felt. It was as if his whole life, all his struggles, the preparation for war, war itself and all the horrors it brought, the time when he was captured and held prisoner, his friends freeing him and his pain of losing them again, flowed like small streams joining together towards a great river. He suddenly knew that his life was culminating in this. Not only that, but each step along the way had been a step toward it. He just never knew that that was the goal all along. Why did he never even have the slightest inclination that he could one day leave all that he thought would limit him behind? Or could he? 

He suddenly felt tired. “I'm not so sure I can make it. I'm old and the strength it takes to undertake this might be for younger steeds, more spirited horses, not an old war horse like myself.”

And with that he closed the door that Wind had opened. The sting of regret was easier to handle than the thought to even question his limits. It would never happen. And that was the end of it.