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// Nowhere to go 
// Story: The plague 
// by TwiwnB 
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She wasn’t going to make it. Her body was feeling heavier after each movement: she was exhausted and completely lost in that inhospitable part of the land. The huge amount of rain coupled with the darkness of the night was making any attempt to locate herself completely useless. Even the full moon had somehow decided to stay hidden behind the clouds, only to show itself once in a while as if to taunt her with its pale light.

The same pale light the mare could see at that moment. A distant light, that she knew couldn’t help her. She was about to give up completely and accept her fate, but she noticed something quite unexpected: the light wasn’t disappearing as it had so many times before. It was faint, it was pale, almost inexistent at that point, but it was still there.
It was a hope, her last one.

The mare fixed her gaze on the light and convinced herself that, if she could reach it, whatever was there would save her. So she mustered up her strength to move again, but failed. She tried again and failed once more.
She cursed her current weakness. No way she would die so close to salvation: she tried again and this time one of her hooves responded. She coughed. Her whole body was burning, her sweat mixing with the flow of water falling from the sky. Ignoring it, she achieved to cling onto some rock in the middle of the mud and to pull herself a little closer to the light. She was moving. That simple thought revived her. She moved her hoof again and, to her pure delight, felt another one of her other hooves responding too. 

She was going to make it. 

Once again, she moved, and again, and again. Each time crawling through the mud, but each time a little faster, a little further and with it the hope becoming bigger and closer.

She could see the light way better now. It was still distant, but she could identify it. It was a home, a little cottage to be exact, but clearly inhabited, and certainly able to shield her from the cold and the rain. For a second, she felt her strength declining however, but for a second only as the proximity of that house triggered a new reaction that filled her with energy as if she had been struck by lightning. With great effort, she managed to stand up and began to run towards the cottage. A smile appeared on her face as it became near.

But in her state, she didn’t see the stone in her path, hit it and, under the violence of the shock fell on the ground, paralyzed. It had used the last of her reserves. In despair, she looked at the cottage, so close to her, then at the stone, whose silhouette she could see very clearly from where she way laying. A very clearly carved silhouette, rectangular, like a little door put there only to close her way to life.

She closed her eyes, knowing it was going to be the very last time, but then heard a voice:

“Miss? Are you hurt? Miss?”

With difficulty, she opened her eyes again just long enough to see the face of another mare, with yellow fur and a pink mane.

“Oh my, oh my!” said the voice in panic. “Quick.” She added, as if she was speaking to someone else. “We have to take her inside.”

But already, the mare had lost consciousness.