“The Medal”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Prompt: Write a story titled “The Medal”.

That medal was the one thing I truly cherished. I’d won it eighteen years ago at the Burnary Fair. Now, you might think ‘Oh, a fair, it’s probably just a little plastic medal that you get from those pop-up arcades’. No, it’s a real medal. A real metal medal.

Of course, it’s the achievement that gave me the medal that I’m most proud of. The day was the thirteenth of November, 2003. I was ten years old, just old enough to enter the youngest age bracket of the equestrian competition. My horse, Sweets, was quite literally the sweetest horse I’d ever seen. She was the perfect horse, jumping flawlessly over ever hurdle.

We won that competition easily. It was the proudest moment of my life, that first medal. The first competition that Sweets and I ever won. It was far from the last.

Now, as we lay Sweets to rest, I know that she deserves to take that medal with her. She won it for us; I just sat there and looked pretty. It’s not my medal; it’s ours.

Final Comments: This story began as something silly, then I figured that I could put a little bit more meaning behind the medal.

Overall Rating: 😌