{"id":6916,"date":"2011-09-29T11:45:59","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T15:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thegreathorse.com\/?p=6916"},"modified":"2017-06-01T12:59:28","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T16:59:28","slug":"on-the-run-in-the-middle-ages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/2011\/09\/on-the-run-in-the-middle-ages\/","title":{"rendered":"#80- On the Run in the Middle Ages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In which Meagan and her Mongolian warpony, <em>Targa<\/em>, are given a poor welcome &#8230; <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>SUCCUMBING TO THE taunts, the young knight lifted his legs wide and clapped them to Chouchou\u2019s broad sides. The heavy horse grunted and sauntered off to meet the line of horsemen.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6917\" style=\"margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 11px; margin-bottom: 6px;\" title=\"Galloping horse\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/excrpt80_deadrun.gif\" alt=\"Galloping horse\" width=\"180\" height=\"107\" \/>\u201cOf all the \u2026 <em>Henryk!<\/em> Come back here!\u201d A chorus of shouts came from the horsemen, and one shrill battle cry from Henryk. When the young knight raised his sword, it dawned on Meagan that Henryk was truly attacking\u2014though his charge was scarcely a walk. \u201cOh be serious, Henryk! There\u2019s seven of them! And they can\u2019t catch me anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The knights charged on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlease, Henryk. Let\u2019s just go. You don\u2019t have chain mail, remember? <em>Henryk!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The horsemen clashed in brief anticlimax. Henryk batted a lance away with his sword, but then Chouchou stopped completely. Henryk was left kicking to restart his mount while the seven continued on, coming for Meagan.<\/p>\n<p><em>Wonderful,<\/em> she thought, turning Targa in the other direction. <em>I hate knights.<\/em> She cantered over the top of a hill and glided down the other side. At the bottom she slowed, hoping the men had stopped. Moments passed before Meagan heard the rumble of hoof beats. Rising over the hill came the horsemen, swords out, lumbering in slow motion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is too ridiculous!\u201d Meagan said out loud in frustration. Clucking to Targa, she skirted in front of them and cantered back up the hill, leaving the horsemen to interfere with each other as they tried to turn. She cantered over the hill and almost collided with another band of riders.<\/p>\n<p>Targa ducked away from this second wave of horsemen. Looking back, Meagan expected to see her pursuers toiling away in the distance\u2014instead, three galloping riders were coming up fast behind her. These were not armored knights on slow heavy horses, but caped men on sleek runners.<\/p>\n<p>Meagan clamped her legs around Targa and gave the pony her head. Across an open field they ran, the pony mare stretched out in a dead run. Meagan saw a line of woods and turned toward them. The pony was fast and the long-legged horses did not gain\u2014but neither did they fall behind.<\/p>\n<p>After the day\u2019s travel Targa was beginning to tire. The racing mare\u2019s breath came in bursts. A shadow darted to the side of them and stopped\u2014they were past it before Meagan realized it was an arrow striking the ground. Another sailed past, closer. Crouching, she drove the pony toward the trees&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><small>Copyright \u00a9 2008 John Royce<\/small><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 10px; font-size: .9em; font-weight: bold; color: #330000; text-align: center;\">\u00ab \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegreathorse.com\/2011\/09\/at-a-medieval-watering-trough\/\">A Medieval Watering Trough<\/a>\u201d || <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegreathorse.com\/2011\/10\/mealtime-at-the-castle-sobrezy\/\">The Castle Sobrezy<\/a> \u00bb<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: .6em .7em 0em .8em; background-color: #c1dfff; border: dotted 1px #330000; margin-top: 25px; margin-bottom: 25px; color: #330000; font-weight: normal;\">The above excerpt is from \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/excerpts\/\"><strong>See all Excerpts<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d the medieval-era section of <strong><em>Eclipsed by Shadow<\/em><\/strong>, and is set in 1240AD. <em>(p. 235 Hbk)<\/em><strong>The Legend of the Great Horse<\/strong> trilogy is an adventure through history &#8230; each section is about a different time period.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em><strong>Eclipsed by Shadow<\/strong><\/em> (Book #1 of the trilogy) won <a style=\"text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thegreathorse.com\/eclipsed-by-shadow-awards-honors\/\">national awards<\/a> including the <em>Eric Hoffer Award<\/em> for best Young Adult Fiction, and the <em>Mom&#8217;s Choice Award<\/em> for best family-friendly Young Adult Fantasy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"color: #330000;\">\n<p>__________<\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"timeline-link\">\u00bb See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thegreathorse.com\/excerpt-page\/\"><strong>All Excerpts<\/strong><\/a> from <strong>The Legend of the Great Horse<\/strong> trilogy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"timeline-link\">\u00bb Read the <a href=\"http:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/eclipsed-by-shadow-chapter-one\/\"><strong>1st Chapter online<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"timeline-link\">\u00bb Check out Book #2 of the trilogy: <em><strong>The Golden Spark<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"timeline-link\">\u00bb See the <a href=\"http:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/media-kit\/\"><strong>Media Kit<\/strong><\/a> for more information about the trilogy.<\/p>\n<p><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Legend.of.the.Great.Horse\"><img style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\" src=\"http:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/images\/sm\/icons\/fbk-logo.gif\" alt=\"\" \/> <strong>Check out the trilogy&#8217;s page on Facebook!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6917\" style=\"margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 11px; margin-bottom: 6px;\" title=\"Galloping horse\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thegreathorse.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/excrpt80_deadrun.gif\" alt=\"Galloping horse\" width=\"180\" height=\"107\" \/>\u201cTarga ducked away from this second wave of horsemen. Looking back, Meagan expected to see her pursuers toiling away in the distance\u2014instead, three galloping riders were coming up fast behind her.\u201d &#8211; excerpted from <em>Eclipsed by Shadow<\/em> (Book #1 of \u2018The Legend of the Great Horse\u2019 trilogy)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[118,284,242,70,165,302,227,127],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15125,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6916\/revisions\/15125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}