The Adjacent Horse

 There are many animals that humans have depended on for much of history. It's easy to forget the great debt we owe oxen, dogs, cats and horses. But they do not forget, in their way. In their speechless trust that we will return the favors they have given us we betray them again and again. The spirit of that betrayal exists in The Adjacent Horse.

The Adjacent Horse runs with herds of normal horses, slipping alongside them. For horses this is not matter for concern. Their eyes long ago adjusted to see along their entire sides. To them the Adjacent Horse is a friendly member of their herd. One who moves in strange ways but not one worth fearing.

Not for nothing, I knew somebody once who told me the reason we invented horse blinders was to limit where The Adjacent Horse could exist. But that seems foolish. The Adjacent Horse does not move in herds alone. It is a stalking horse. It moves alongside those who have caught its attention, always at the edge of their vision, never resolving from the impression of a horse. The smell, the warmth, the huff of breath and thump of hooves. The sensation of something moving just out of the field of view. Present just outside the utmost edge of your peripheral vision as your head snaps left and right. It dances, prances on sharp edged hooves that have never borne a shoe. 

Someone else once told me The Adjacent Horse was born from some adventurer's misspoken wish for a constant companion. This too seems foolish, since it comes and goes on its own whims. Why it follows the people it stalks alongside I don't know. Maybe for crimes against horsekind, maybe out of some hate for the look of them, or maybe just out of some spark of cruelty that is banked in its enormous heart. It kills people, you see. Moves alongside them. Nudges them, bites at them, kicks them. When there's a gap in the vision of others, a space for it to slip in and set things awry. And each time it flits back away as their head snaps around. 

Of course, there's an easy answer. Close your eyes. Blindfold yourself. Strike out with your weapon at the shape just beyond you. It knows well enough to dance away, to move with a swiftness in and out of reach. The blind are its natural predators after all, so it has developed easy defenses. Avoid them. You can certainly try to strike it down, your sword snapping behind you, but that never helped anyone I knew. Maybe you'll be the first.

The Adjacent Horse

Stats for B/X D&D

# Appearing: 1 (20% chance to be accompanied by a herd of 4d10 horses)
HD: 5+5

Appearance: The vague impression of a horse just out of view. The smell and noise and weight of a horse just at the corner of your eye.
Voice: Huffs, rare whinnies and pained screams.
Wants: To punish humans for crimes against horsekind (or to cruelly harm the innocent, hard to say)
Morality: As horses are larger than humans, so to are its ethics beyond our understanding.
Intelligence: Horse.

Armour: As chain. Cannot be hit while looking at it. Apply negatives for striking something out of view as appropriate to your table.
Move: 2x normal. Stairs are no trouble.
Morale: 6. Cowardly thing.
Damage: 1d6 Bite or 1d10 Kick. It prefers instead to knock its prey off of ledges or in front of rumbling carts and tracks.