Seven Horses (image source from Wikipedia)
All the kings greatly envied the kingdom of Benares. The seven kings that gathered up against the kingdom, threatened the King saying, "Either yield up your kingdom to us or give battle."
King of Benares gathered his ministers and said, "You better not go out there and fight them head one. Notify to the Knight to fight the kings, if he fails, we will decide what to do,"
The King sent the Knight on the battle and the Knight had one request, "I need Destrier to defeat the seven kings. He will bring us glory." The King agreed and sent Destrier out with the Knight into the battle.
Out in the battle field, the Knight and Destrier were both armored from head to toe. The Knight was on the horse, gripping his sword tightly and ready to battle. As Destrier charged into the field, they kidnapped one king. They brought one of the king back into the kingdom's prisoner and kept him into custody. Next, they kidnapped the second king and bringing him back to prison. And it happened continuously until the sixth king. They kidnapped the sixth king back to prison, but Destrier was heavily injured.
The horse was streaming with blood and wounds, which caused him great injuries. The Knight made the horse rest and to forfeit since he was in severe pain. The horse did not want to give up. Destrier said, "We are almost winning. We just need to get the seventh king and they will lose. I do not want to waste everything I had accomplished. Let me finish this." The Knight did not want to put him into more pain but he cannot refuse the horses's dying wish.
They both got onto their feet and captured the seventh king. Once the seventh king was captured and into prison, the Knight took the horse to the King's gate. The horse told the king, "Lead with justice, truth, and honor. Continue on to do charity work and rule the kingdom in righteousness." The horse passed away. And the King honored the horse by burying his body with great honors.
The King released the seven kings and said, "You will be making an oath to never come back to my Kingdom and threaten us."
Author's note:
I did not change anything up in the original story, I told the story again in my own words. The characters, plot, and setting is the same.
Marie L. Shedlock, The Horse That Held Out to the End, Link
Hey Tracy! I have never heard of this story before but it sounds very interesting. Why did you decide to read this story and write about it? I did not know that the Buddha comes in so many different forms. Did the people and king know that this was the Buddha? It was sad to see the heroic horse pass away but he was noble and courageous. Good Job and retelling the story!
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ReplyDeleteHi Tracy!
ReplyDeleteI too have never hear this story before, and I enjoy reading the stories of the Buddha. I think reincarnation and the many lives that people can undergo is a very interesting subject. My only comment would be that you might add a bit about why you chose the story and what interested you about in, in your Author's Note and just to expand the note a bit more as well.
Hi Tracy,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your story a lot. Your retelling was detailed and did not leave out any information that may have been needed. There were some slight punctuation errors that could be fixed. The word king does not have to be capitalized and there were a few commas that need to be removed or added. I really wish to know though why you chose this story and what you found interesting. I hope you can maybe expand upon that! Nice job!
Hey Tracy,
ReplyDeleteI like how you started your story by explaining that although Buddha appeared in many different forms, for the purpose of your story he appeared as a horse. Also, I loved the amount of detail you added in your story. It helped me visualize the events that were going on in the story. Overall, I enjoyed reading your story.
So in your author's note you mentioned that you simply retold the story in your own words. It got me to thinking that sometimes we interpret and imagine things differently sometimes. I'm interested in how different this actually is than the original. Also, I really liked the image you chose.
ReplyDeleteHey Tracy,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your story. I know you said you didn't change it from your source story, but I can still tell that its uniquely told from your perspective and that's really cool! I didn't realize that Buddha came back in so many different forms, that's one smart horse!