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Crusader the Outstanding (#454)

Owner: 0x077E…3711

Story of Crusader the Outstanding

This town is really nice, nicer than the ones I’ve been in before, he thought as he walked through the town square, around him Gothic-style buildings. Other cities he also enjoyed because of the food or drinks or hospitality of the people or simply because he was in a good mood. He stopped in the middle of the square and under a few trees, there was a spacious sitting area and near that a luxurious bookstore. He wasn’t a big fan of reading, but he enjoyed all forms of art. That’s why he sat there for a moment, absorbing the heat of the afternoon sun, thinking about all the people around the world lucky enough to live in a beautiful city, just like this one. He, the great Wizard #9856, never had a real home. Not that he needed it, but he often thought it would be nice to have some kind of a refuge. After the sun started to set, its shine growing colder, he stood up and in a blink of an eye he was gone.

“This is just stupid”, the horse whispered to himself. “What did you say?” One of the men he was traveling with asked. “Nothing,” answered the horse, irritated. They were walking for hours now, without a single stop. “I would advise you so, Crusader,” the man said with a threat in his voice. The horse was carrying almost all of their belongings. The circus traveled all over the world with only one wagon, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t exhausting, especially if there was only one horse dragging it along. Finally, the day was slowly turning into night and with the dark always came bandits hidden around the main roads.

They stopped at the entry gate to a town. Even though this town was smaller, it could definitely compete with the bigger ones in architecture. The men jumped out of the wagon, untied the horse and headed to the nearest pub in hope of getting a place to sleep for tonight and some food and ale. They didn’t worry about their belongings or the horse running away as the gate to the town was always guarded. If anything happened the guards would handle it.

The horse, as he is used to, stayed behind, also guarding the wagon and munching on some grass in the meantime. I don’t want to do this any more, he thought to himself. One thing was traveling across the world, another thing was carrying a whole living for somebody else. Maybe that’s selfish, but isn’t it also wrong to use this horse as they please? Not only hitching him to a wagon but also using him for the circus performances. His purple nose and hooves and a shining rune on his back have always brought out a lot of people and more people meant more money. But there was never enough of that. They lived in poor conditions, especially all the animals. The men never really cared as long as there were people coming to watch the show. And the people only barely noticed how the animals are treated. And even if some of them noticed, they didn’t care just like the circus group that owned them. All of the money usually went to alcohol.

The Sorcerer materialized near the southern gate. Behind it lay a beautiful small town. He always liked this one. Not only for the buildings around a tiny square somewhere in the middle but also for the card game event. He was a passionate player. In these events it wasn’t common to play for money and that’s why he never joined any. He only played with people if it was for something, like materialistic things or just money, adding a little thrill to the games. One time he even used the old law of surprise as his opponent didn’t have anything to give him for his victory, but he never visited that man again to find out what he actually won and he probably never will.

He walked through the gate and headed to a nearby pub, where he knew there were some players and he was in a mood for some good card games. Walking through the town in the late evening he made sure not to stand out of the crowd too much, there were some specific features he had that could cause some unwanted attention he needed to avoid. Wizards weren’t an easy target but they sure were very tempting to take down, they had a bad reputation in almost all towns and villages. Not all of them but mainly there where they already had experienced a wizard's wrath and wanted to evade another.

Once he stepped inside the pub, he sat down in a darker corner putting cards on the table. He knew that was an invitation for others to join him at the table and play. And soon enough there were two men who just stood up from a table, where they were drinking with others and headed to the Sorcerer. One of them asked:

“You play cards?”

“I sure do,” he responds. Then they played. For money, for drinks, for food, for everything they had.

“One last game,” the man said as the moon slowly started to set.

“One last game. If I win I get all you won from us. If I lose, you get our horse.”

The Sorcerer never had any use for animals. He traveled long distances only by teleportation, so a horse would just be a burden. But before he could say anything, the first card was thrown to the table. And so he won himself a horse.

In the early morning a group of three men, one of them hidden in his hood, walked from the pub to the entrance of the town and through the gate outside, where there was a wagon. No horse to be seen.

“So, where is the horse?” The Sorcerer asked.

“There never was any horse, you peasant. You thought you could rob us of all of our belongings and even a horse? You thought wrong,” with that they approached him quickly getting ready for a fight. Luckily there was nobody around, so the Sorcerer didn’t need to hold back. As they came closer, he put his hood down. That seemed to have made and impression on them as they hesitated for a bit before saying: “No stupid wizard can rob us.”

There was a sound of commotion coming from the wagon. Can’t even leave for a little bit, just my luck, he thought as he started walking back from a shade under the trees.

“So what is going on here,” he said firmly as he stepped closer to the place he heard angry voices from. What he saw didn’t really concern him as much as it actually should. He saw a blue haired wizard in a long dark green coat getting ready to defend himself from the two men that left the horse there.

“Could somebody explain to me what you are doing before you get at it?” The horse asked, looking from the two men to the wizard and back. “I won you in a game of cards,” the wizard said.

“He is a liar and a thief!” “No, he didn’t!” The two men started to shout in hopes of scaring the wizard to back down. But he didn’t.

Instead he started to make his way towards the horse. The horse, being phlegmatic as he is, couldn’t care less to be taken by some weird sorcerer. Maybe it would be for the best, at least I would be rid of the circus, he thought. “Do you want to come with me?” The wizard asks the horse as he gets closer to him and away from the reach of the circus men. “I’m not going to take you against your will as I see you are very wise.”

“He is not going anywhere,” one of the men said walking closer to face the wizard.

The horse absolutely hated the last few weeks of travels and even as they spoke to the wizard, he despised these men for talking about him like he wasn't there. “I am not staying with them, that’s for sure,” the horse responded to the wizard's question. The men looked at him in shock:

“What do you mean you are not staying with us?! You are not going anywhere…,” he was getting angry again.

But before the man could even finish the sentence, the horse kicked him in the shin and started bolting it away, around the walls and to the other side of the town. He looked back, searching for the weird wizard, but it didn’t seem like he was still there. All of a sudden he was standing in front of him, forcing the horse to stop, otherwise he would knock the sorcerer down.

“I would advise you to get out of here and your own way, otherwise the guards will probably catch you,” the wizard said before disappearing again.

After a few weeks of wandering around The Wild, the horse bumped into the wizard again. This time intentionally.

“Hey, can you teach me how to teleport? I have been looking for you for ages.” The horse said impatiently. During those long days searching for him he always thought about how the wizard just disappeared. He had heard of wizards who knew how to teleport but he never met anybody who actually could, not until now and he is not letting this chance teleport from him again. The Sorcerer turns around to look at him.

“Oh, of course, Horse. Glad to see you again.”

“My name is not Horse, it’s Crusader the Outstanding(Pony #454).” The wizard seemed to think about what Crusader just said and then, just like he didn’t think of anything, he said: “Nice to meet you, I am Ofaris of the Keep. You are a magical horse, so you should learn how to teleport in no time.”

And so Crusader never needed to travel by foot again. Ofaris taught him all he knew about teleportation and other spells he could use. There are rumors that they became great friends and traveled the world together, side by side, a wizard and his horse, teleporting from place to place. Sometimes, the wizard stops to play cards and the horse waits for him. Sometimes the horse just runs around on fields, enjoying the day. And sometimes, when you go see a circus, you can notice a man limping around the backstage.

Story by: Tins

Entered by: 0x077E…3711 and preserved on chain (see transaction)