"You must let what happens happen"

This story is part of the Vocal + Assist on Facebook Lost in a Story Challenge. You can learn more about it here:

Something happened when I grabbed that jar off Clare, because as I twisted the lid, I felt a pop, and for a millisecond, thought I’d opened it. But it was just my arse hitting the mud.

The swamp filled my slippers immediately, but its tug on my mind was slower. It’s funny how sometimes survival thoughts are so much faster than reasoning ones and I was on my feet, running to help before my splashes had landed.

The horse was up to his belly, stinking mud creeping up his grey chest, his fathomless eyes a mirror of the brown depths he was sinking into. Atreyu was shouting, despair ringing the horse’s name as it left his mouth, and I knew that would not do. I snatched the reins. “Artex, come on now, up you come” I said, bright, confident. “There’s a beautiful boy, walk on.” But the sludge was sucking at his flanks now, and I could see from their heaving that his fatalistic placidity was giving way to glimmers of fear. Fear means hope, I thought, and pulled again. “Artex, MOVE!” I shouted. Atreyu, hearing the taint of panic in my tone, took hold of the bridle and together we pitched our weight again the sinking horse. “Artex, fight against the sadness, Artex PLEASE!” Our shouts fell dead in that all-devouring grief fogged landscape, and though the whites of the horse’s eyes pricked out a glinting light in the brown-grey world, the swamp dragged him down, swallowing his withers as we pulled and screamed. I stepped away then, and watched through scalding tears as Atreyu held his friend’s proud head, and told him he loved him, as he slipped beneath the mud.

Wretched, I retrieved my discarded jar, the lid still tight shut, and turned into the endless mist.