„Hey boys, look what I found!” Said a deep gravelly voice, its source dragging Fluttershy along the ground by her tail. “A little horse!”
“Our dinner!” Said a second deep gravelly voice. “I haven’t eaten horse in ages. Everyone’s so protective of them.”
“I have so many recipes for horse meat.” A third deep gravelly voice appeared. “They all sound delicious.”
The dragging stopped and Fluttershy finally regained consciousness fully. She groaned, because she could still feel the club on her head.
“It’s awake.” Said one of the, at the time, disembodied voices. “Should I kill it?”
“No,” replied another voice. “The method of killing depends on the recipe. Just stuff it in the cage, until we decide how to eat it.”
Just like that, the still awaking Fluttershy was thrown into a small cage that was suspended in the air. She struggled with her aching head, but at least she could now take a look at the situation she was thrown into. She saw three bald muscular and fat giants. They all had wide jawlines, with tusks protruding out of them. Their baldness was interrupted by tiny horns sticking out their skulls. One had a beard, the other wore a bear pelt and the third one wore leather armour.
“Here they are!” The bearded one grabbed a large book. “How’s this one? Boiled horse meat with salt and pepper, with added parsley, shallots and a dash of vinegar. We could even do something with those wings.”
“I’d prefer some sort of stew right now.” Said the one with the pelt.
“We could always make the stew out of the flank or the collar.” Replied the bearded one. “We could even add some caramelised onion and a whole bunch of vegetables.”
“I don’t actually like horse meat.” Said the armoured one, his addition followed by silence from the rest of them.
“Well then, we could experiment with all the spices I have.” Said the one with the pelt. “I have... hold on, what do I have? Let’s see, some mace, cinnamon, horseradish, garlic...”
“Horse with garlic sounds delicious!” The bearded one interrupted.
“Then we could see which one of us is a vampire!” The armoured one exclaimed, followed by a hearty laugh from all three of them.
“Um, excuse me.” Fluttershy interrupted them, to which all three of them went completely silent. “Could I have a choice in the matter?”
The three ogres stared in surprise for a second. “By golly, it talks!” Said the bearded one.
“With a beautiful angelic voice!” added the armoured one.
“It must be the talking magical horse Brendarr the sixth talked about!” Said the one with the pelt.
All three of them huddled around the suspended cage. “He said, it grants you three wishes if you let it go.” He continued.
“Wait,” The bearded one prepared a question. “do we get three wishes each, or do we get one wish per person?”
“I don’t know.” The one with the pelt considered the question for a moment, then turned to Fluttershy. “How do we get the three wishes?”
“I’m sorry folks,” She replied. “I’m afraid I don’t grant wishes.” All three ogres let out a disappointed groan. “But I’d still be happy if you could let me out.” Fluttershy continued.
The three ogres stared for a second. “Well, I’d feel bad about eating something that talks.” Said the armoured one.
“You had no problem eating those two dwarves last week.” Argued the bearded one.
“Yeah, but they were saying rude things and this one is so polite.”
“Besides,” The one with the pelt carried on the thought. “maybe we should conserve these talking horses. They’re clearly rare.”
“Ugh, fine, we’ll let it go!” The bearded one said with an air of disappointment. “But we’ll try one of these recipes the next time we find a horse, talking or not!”
The armoured one walked up to the suspended cage and unlocked the door. “Go talking horsey, you’re free!” He exclaimed, as he opened the cage.
Fluttershy stepped out of the cage, thanked the ogre, then run off into the distance.