The Three Feathers - The Magnificent Journey of Joshua Aylong Read Online Free PDF

battlefield, it took all possible control for him not to take off and run—run away from it and never confront it again.
    “How did you escape?” Joshua asked after a while.
    “I don’t remember,” the horse answered. “All I know is that I never saw the others again. I don’t know if they survived or what became of them.”
    “I’m sorry,” the wolf thought into the silence. Then he walked over to the horse and lay down in front of it. His head on his paws he looked up at the large war horse.
    “I can help you with your reins,” he quietly thought to him.
    As the horse looked at the wolf, the moon broke through the clouds illuminating the snow covered ground and reflecting in the still pond. For a while the horse stood motionless. Then it went down on its front legs and lay on the ground across from the wolf. Joshua watched from a short distance as Grey slowly got up and walked toward the horse. Without hesitation he took the bridle in his mouth right between the horse’s ears and slowly pulled on the leather strip. It slid off and the horse was free.
    “Thank you,” the horse thought.
    “No,” the wolf replied. “I thank you.”
    “What is your name?” Joshua asked after a moment.
    “Krieg,” the war horse answered.
    “What does it mean, Krieg?”
    “It means ‘war’. Just ‘war’. I was bred for the war, born during the war and trained for battle.
    “Is that where all your scars come from?” Joshua asked.
    The horse looked toward the dark horizon, lost in its thoughts.
    “I have seen death and too much of it. On the battlefields of Toloose where men fought men for land that belonged to neither. For riches that held no value other than a handful of sand that amounted to nothing. I saw blood there that ran like crimson rivers across the charred soil. It spilled from brothers and fathers and sons, from big hearts and small ones and the blood of each flowed into the others’ and in death they became one once again and they forgot why it was they had fought.”
    He turned toward Joshua and the Wolf. “I just want peace. I do not wish to fight for my life anymore. I’m too old. Too tired. Soon. Soon, I will follow my fathers’ path into the great vast grasslands where the sun never sets and the water is plenty, and where there is peace for all living things. Until then, I am in your debt, Joshua. In both of yours. Until then, tell me how—”
    “You are not indebted to me, Krieg. Not in the slightest,” Joshua answered. “Anyone would have done the same for you.”
    “Be that as it may, red one, the debt stands until it is paid. To both of you. End of discussion.”
    All was still after Krieg spoke. Joshua looked from the horse to the wolf, letting his eyes rest on each of them for a moment. He realized that the two creatures would probably not be friends under normal circumstances. But under normal circumstances neither of the three would likely be friends with either of the other two.
    “I had a dream.” Joshua thought into the silence. “A dream of three feathers somewhere in the depths below the Storm Mountains. In my dream the feathers were so dear to me and I to them that I want to find them. I am not sure what they mean or if they mean anything at all, but I know in my heart that I must find them, even though I do not know why.” As he looked at the others, he knew that they saw what he saw—an immense cave with the three feathers resting on a black, polished cylinder of stone.
    “I will help you,” Krieg thought. “Your peace is mine, Joshua of the Great Lake.”
    “And mine,” Grey added.
    The night held its breath for a moment. The moon stood low and clear in the sky and it seemed as if everything around them became a quiet witness to this pact. And Joshua, for the smallest of instants, had an inkling of what it means to have companions by his side.
     

6. W ATER
    They walked for three days, crossing a valley that stretched out for miles before them, and passing