Chaos Theory: the flapping of a butterfly’s wings can destroy the universe. Well in this case it was not a butterfly and it was also not the end of the universe, but it was the end of the wonderful nation of Sintally. And it all was the fault of horseshoe nail, or rather the lack of one.

            It all started with a lazy blacksmith, he was in charge of shoeing all the kings horses and all the kings men’s horses (no, this isn’t humpty dumpty). He had come to the last one, a beautiful charger, the pride of the group, and belonging to the great commander of the army, General Falut Skintal. But he was one nail short. To get another would have required creating a fire in the forge, bringing it up to temperature, heating the steel, cutting the steel, forming the steal. A whole extra day of work, and with him getting paid by the horse and not the hour it would be too much a financial loss to be worth it for one little nail. There were six other nails to hold the shoe on, no one would notice.

            And unfortunately no one did, not before the troops were called to battle. The neighboring country of Vatila had declared war on the small and happy country. Evidently they were envious of the rich land and prosperous trade controlled by Sintally. And too many of their citizens were trying to escape Vatila’s despotic government and its overbearing controls by emigrating to Sintally which, though under the rule of a king, had a great amount of freedom and peace.

The great general galloped his horse up and down the line of troops creating much stress on the feet of his horse. The rough terrain slowly pulled the nails from the one shoe. Six nails at the start became five after the first league, nails four and three were gone before noon. As afternoon wore on only two nails held the shoe in place, but they too were loosening. The great beast began to get fidgety, but Skintal was determined to go on and continue motivating his men. He tightened his grip on the reigns and spurred the horse on.