Page 44 - The Grotesque Children's Book

chance of a repeat of what had happened with a colt by the name of Pegasus,
the only horse to break free of Helios.

It’s a little-known fact that once upon a time Pegasus was indeed one of
Helios’s slave horses, but he had bolted east. Helios had turned the chariot
round in an attempt to chase down Pegasus and re-enslave him. But three
be-yoked horses were no match for the powerful legendary Pegasus. The chase
had lasted the better part of the day, before Helios finally realized the futility,
and worse, how far away he was to the western edge. Helios abandoned
pursuit of Pegasus, desperate to make up for the wasted afternoon. Helios was
late, far later than he should have been, before his coursers burst into flame at
Journey’s Edge. By the end of it all, it turned out that Helios had added the
length of nearly an entire day, throwing the calendar off for hundreds of years
to come, forcing astrologers to contemplate adding a whole extra day every so
often, in the hopes of getting back on track. But it was too late; the damage
had been done to earth’s annual cycle. Some times of the year Helios’s steeds
make across the sky in a little faster time than the previous, making for shorter
days, or sometimes Helios compensates in other direction and days are longer.
You can blame Pegasus for that.

But this is the story of Bartolomeo, the winged horse who had no
intention of remaining Helios’s slave, not for a day longer, especially not for a
day which would end in his fiery demise. He would be patient only a few hours
longer. He would wait until noon, until they reached the very apex of their arc
across the sky, and then he would --

Hup! grunted the lead horse at Bartolemeo’s right flank, and they, the
four horses, leapt into the sky and dawn rose over the earth.

“Kick, kick, then beat down our wings!” said the lead horse. A wind
rushed below them, a wind of their own making. Their eight wings were more
powerful than the mightiest gold, and the air they pushed down with their

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