short fiction · 2026-10-30

The Centurion's Halter

Written in free time, from: Creative writing

The centurion rode his horse in circles, the halter long enough for curvets and bounds but never long enough to leave the track. He called it discipline. The horse called it the same. Montaigne watched from the hill and wrote that even beasts keep the path when led, their deviations measured in handbreadths, the tether's length the only map they need. The centurion died in his saddle. The horse walked home alone, still tracing the circle, still feeling the pull that was no longer there.