//------------------------------// // An Entity Unknown // Story: Her Mistake, His Resolve // by Sacred Blade //------------------------------// It was getting late in the day before he realized it. Once shining through the gray clouds above, the sun descended towards the horizon. Jacob eyed the nearby clock on the wall as he wondered about what to have for dinner. There was a leftover pizza still in the refrigerator. It was only a two days old. Nuking a few slices for a minute would satisfy his stomach for a time. Am I really hungry though? he asked himself. No. No I am not, he concluded. It had only been three, maybe four hours since he stopped for lunch, so he decided to do the next best thing one, such as himself, was great at. Sitting. Before he got to his favorite chair, Jacob glanced out the window and blinked in mild disbelief. “Geez. It is still coming down hard out there.” He paused, simply staring out into the clearing in front of the window. He then shivered, “God it’s cold!” He sniffled back a possible ailment he would be irate and none too pleased to get. With his nose cleared, he set foot into the living room and plopped down on his chair. It was in front of the crackling fireplace. A cozy spot he liked to snuggle into. Thunder was heard. It was a low rumble that shook the glass windows. Jacob paused his internal ramblings, brow furrowing in amusement as he commented to himself, “Man, I haven’t heard thunder like that in a snow storm since I was ten.” He eyed the television with scrutiny afterward, pondering whether to turn it on. At this time of day it’s practically all news and if the channel didn’t have any of that, it certainly had a rerun of a sitcom or cop show. Scratching his face, his attention shifted toward his computer instead. “Maybe a game or two until I’m hungry?” Yet, after a minute, he still simply sat there in front of his cozy fire. Jacob opted to simply stare out the window for a spell, watching the thick flakes fall in layers across the homestead. He lived in log cabin his parents had contracted to build many decades ago. It is the very home he grew up in despite his parent’s divorce that happened a little over a year after they all moved in. The divorce was thankfully on good terms back when he was five. He lived there until he was out of school at the age of eighteen. His mother, at which point, found him a place to stay shortly after graduating high school. Jacob lived on his own ever since. Thanks mom. Now thirty, his mother had left him the house and the land it sat upon as said in her will. She passed away a little over two years now. Lung cancer is a bitch, eh? Jacob had begged her to quit smoking ever since he was old enough to know what it was. The main reason being he couldn’t stand the smell. Ironic, considering her entire side of the family were tobacco farmers. It was actually a surprise his mother went before his aunt with all things considered. The inheritance allowed him to return home and quit his job. He was not going anywhere anyway and Jacob figured he would take a break from working in general. That was about a year ago. To say he was a lazy bastard was not entirely accurate, but it was close. He never did finish college since he had rent to pay. That required a job. His parents did not save or help him go to college back then, so it was rough trying to juggle a job, housing, and college fresh outta high school. He also had a disability which didn’t aid in him finding a job either. He couldn’t do much bending, walking, or standing for long periods of time. He was born with fused bones in his left leg, which prevented a natural birth. A C-section was required in order for him and his mother to survive. Rotating in the womb was impossible. About sixteen months and one procedure later, baby Jacob had his fused leg bones broken apart to how they should have originally been. An artificial patella was thrown into the mix since one had not formed nor ever since. Doctors gave him little to no chance at walking, but he managed to defy those odds. While his left knee could only bend to roughly 110 degrees with force, it was enough to walk, run, and roughhouse as a child. He even played different sports up until High School. Now it was a burden. The scar running down the length of his leg was an ever constant reminder of his disability. Even after recent surgery, his newest injury prevents his knee from bending beyond 90 degrees without shearing pain. Jacob huffed. He tried to rid himself of such depressing thoughts. Instead, he refocused his efforts on the outside world beyond the glass pane. As the wind howled, snow drifts piled up. Winter was his least favorite season. It was the one he could do without, considering the risk he took whenever it snowed. Slippery surfaces don’t go well with his bad leg. He was just one poor fall away from doing extensive damage. A full knee replacement would then be in order and at such a young age. As his thoughts began to drift toward his poor bodily state, again, a slight movement caught the corner of his eye. Turning his head, he saw an animal flee the treeline in the distance. Jacob narrowed his eyes in curiosity, only to see two more figures burst from the brush. “What the hell?” Jacob’s words fell silent. He suddenly realized the first animal that appeared, to him, was some sort of a foal from the distance between them. Admittedly, the snow it kicked up made it difficult to properly discern, but it definitely had the shape of an equine. Jacob gasped as he saw what was happening. The foal was chased by wolves! They never come this close, not without a reason, he thought. Yet, their reason was right in front of them. A meal. “Shit!” If there is one thing he hated about the natural order, it was the fact that a foal, or any baby animal for that matter, was an easy target for a meal. It just didn’t sit right with him. He would be damned if he let those wolves have their dinner at the little one’s expense. He sprung to his feet and hobbled toward the door. Jacob grabbed his coat and nearly fumbled to put it on. He practically hopping into his boots, Jacob didn’t bother to tie them. Lastly, he snatched his gun from its perch above the fireplace. It was an old scoped Winchester his grandfather gave him a few years before passing. Jacob learned how to shoot from that old coot and those experiences were the better times of his life. After his grandfather’s death, Jacob only took it down from time to time in order to clean and keep it, and himself, in perfect condition. Right now, however, he had a life to save and others to potentially take. Darting outside into the frigid air, Jacob made his way to the end of the porch to survey the chase. To his surprise the foal seemed to have changed direction, closing in on his cabin. Even now, he could not make out much of the equine’s details at this range. He then raised the rifle and honed the scope in on the distant figures. As soon as he found them within his crosshair, the lead wolf attacked. Tearing into the youngster as it scrambled to get away. He watched helplessly as the foal kicked at its attacker after it plowed onto the ground. The equine managed to finally connect a hoof to briefly disorient the aggressor. Jacob’s crosshair stayed with the wolf that took the foal down. Jacob’s breaths calmed as he switched the safety off. He rested his finger on the trigger with intent. He was ready. Watching as the wolf scrambled to its feet, Jacob held his breath. He trained the scope over the wolf’s head and squeezed his finger. He felt the familiar kick to his shoulder as the explosive roar discharged the bullet downrange. The wolf dropped to the ground. Quickly, Jacob zeroed in on the other wolf as he prepared to take his next shot. However, he saw it flee toward the forest. With a breath of relief, he withdrew his finger from the trigger, letting it rest along the guard. A second death was not needed. He let the second wolf go. Lowering the rifle, he quickly looked to where the foal was. It had managed to get onto its hooves. With determination in its eyes, the equine wobbled and limped its way toward the cabin. Jacob frowned as he watched it stumble and fall back into the powdery snow. Flipping the safety switch, the human slung the rifle over his back. Pulling up the hood of his coat to block much of the wind, Jacob hopped off the porch. He began his trek to where the foal had collapsed. His eyes looked once more to the area where the foal had fallen. He only managed to spot the pools of blood it had left behind. Not good! As he closed the distance, confusion began to settle in as specific details of the equine came into view. The color of its fur first offset him. Are those wings? Is that a freaking horn!? As his boots come to pause in front of the supposed foal, Jacob’s eyes observed the wounds it received from the attack. Those did not look good at all, Jacob said to himself, shaking his head. His gaze shifted along the body once more before he stopped at the wings, again. I don’t even… What could I even say to explain that? His expression found itself neutral as he caught the look of the creature before him. It gazed back at him before it passed out in in the snow. “Damn…” came his sympathetic mutter. Jacob paused as he gave the horn a closer inspection. One of his hands came down to give it a gentle touch. It didn’t yield and held firm. Just like goat and rhino horns, it was a part of this creature. Jacob concluded that it was some kind of horned pegasus. The whole winged and horned-type horse wasn’t not beyond his understanding. He did studies about them in his youth. It has to be some kind of mythic creature, he thought. Pegacorn was it? “Seriously!” he shouted. “What the hell am I looking at?!” he added to his disbelieved frustration. The wings felt real. The horn was real. It was actually real. Reality was messing with him, wasn’t? It also didn't look like a foal of any sort, nor a full grown horse either. Pony was about as close as he got in classifying this equine. This… His thoughts paused as he looked behind it and underneath its tail. Female. This mare… Whatever! With these thoughts complete he crawled around her. Slipping his hands underneath, he tested her weight before committing to picking her up. Jacob felt she wasn’t heavy, nor light either. He grunted as he began to lift the mare up into his arms. His bad knee wasn’t a good assistant in the endeavor, but Jacob managed to work himself back up to his feet. As quickly as he could while keeping the mare stable, he made his way back to the cabin. He had to stop this bleeding and fast. Jacob’s own adrenaline kept him from questioning his sanity any further. He knew he will face it later when the mare is medically stable. As of now, time is of the essence. If he remembered anything about horses though, it’s that they bleed. They bleed a lot. A glance down at the mare’s bite wounds confirming just that. She bled like a horse. Disappearing into his home with the mare in his arms, the man set out to mend this pony in any way he could.