In this world, I had long since stopped counting days.

  I didn’t know how long I had been here.

  I didn’t even know when “here” truly began.

  At some point, the idea of time became meaningless, slipping through my mind the same way memories fade when you stop reaching for them.

  I was a horse now.

  Or rather—

  my soul had settled into the body of one.

  There was no explanation.

  No system.

  No guide.

  No one ever told me why this happened or what I was supposed to do next.

  I simply woke up like this.

  And learned to endure it.

  Today, however, something changed.

  After countless days of training, days spent rising, collapsing, and rising again... I finally managed to walk several steps.

  Three legs.

  That was all this body had.

  The right front leg had been gone for a long time.

  Even before I realized I wasn’t human anymore, this horse was already missing a part of itself.

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  Balance was never natural.

  Every attempt to stand felt like arguing with gravity itself.

  Yet today—

  my hooves moved.

  Slowly. Carefully.

  Each step demanded everything from me.

  My muscles trembled, my breathing came in rough bursts, and my vision blurred whenever my center of gravity drifted too far forward.

  I fell more than once.

  Sometimes hard enough to knock the air from my lungs.

  But nothing serious happened.

  Just bruises and exhaustion.

  Finally, I succeeded.

  I could hear it before I fully processed it.

  The prince’s sharp intake of breath.

  The trainer’s voice, loud and proud.

  Stablehands congratulating the prince rather than me, as if my success belonged to him as much as it did to this body.

  The doctor sighing in relief, muttering that it was dangerous but acceptable, that we had avoided the worst.

  They were happy.

  I stayed standing.

  Three legs pressing firmly into the straw-covered ground.

  My body shook, but it didn’t give out.

  The prince entered the stall shortly after.

  The trainer stepped aside instinctively, making space for him without being told.

  In the prince’s arms was a basket filled with fruit—

  apples, berries, things that smelled bright and fresh.

  He stopped in front of me.

  From the basket, he picked out two apples.

  He held them out.

  I took them without hesitation.

  Apples in this kingdom were sweet.

  Far sweeter than anything I remembered from before.

  They had long become my favorite.

  I bit into the first one immediately, juice running down my mouth as I chewed.

  The prince giggled softly.

  “So eager,” he said.

  I didn’t slow down.

  I leaned forward and took the second apple straight from his hand, using my tongue to pull it into my mouth.

  He laughed again, pulling his hand back slightly.

  “That tickles.”

  I chewed, unashamed.

  Around us, the stable felt strangely quiet, as if everyone was afraid to disturb the moment.

  I lifted my head, standing tall on three legs without collapsing.

  This body had been broken.

  Yet it moved.

  For the first time since arriving in this world, I felt something close to certainty.

  Proof that even like this.

  I could move forward.

  And whatever waited beyond this stable, I would reach it on my own hooves.