Gaelic Tales: A Collection of Short Stories

Madra Ionsaí.

Back in the late Nineties in the warm weather of the spring was greeted by many lambs out in the countryside, with them being checked on by the farmers of the land.

Many hills and valleys as far as the eyes could see, yet these farmers walked them with ease every day to collect their sheep. A house a mile outside of a town had the prized sheepdogs of the land, three to be exact two male one of them older than the other and one female the same age as the youngest.

These dogs fast as fast could be, Yet the old farmer who owned these dogs ties them with strong rope and caller outside, feeding them once a day. The dogs when loose, obeys the old farmers commands to the letter, with he and they knowing the way around the land.

These dogs plump yet not fat, skinny yet not thin, these collie dogs were noisy barking yelping and whining, because of the old farmers negligence. They all worked as a pack helping him collect his sheep, the old farmer a stickler on what he thought, but the oldest dog had a habit that would be easily puck up.

Yet one day the farmer went away, leaving the dogs alone outside and tied, with that strong rope the only thing left to hold them there, not feeding them enough as you all know make things skinny and malnourished.

A few days pass of them eating practically nothing other than small blades of grass, eventually the dogs got so skinny that the callers loosened around their necks.

One dog walked till there was tension on the rope and slipped out of its caller, the other dogs noticed this and copied the first tightening the rope and slipping the caller also.

With that done they all looked at each other and decided to go roam the hills that they know so well, they first go uphill to the highest point, to look across the land. They all noticed an old rusty barn in the distance on the other side of the hill.

They all followed the first dog as he was the sort of leader, eventually they got to the barn and at the barn entrance blocked by a fence unable to pass Yet still able to see into it. Finding it was full of old vegetable matter, rubbish and what they could hear rats, the second dog walks around the outside of the barn and finds a rusty hole that they all can fit in.

He runs back to the other two jumping with excitement, the other two followed the second dog too the hole. They all one by one walk in, first off walked in was the oldest one (leader) He crawled his way in next the female dog, going in with ease.

Last of the second male, he crawls in hearing sounds walking by of what seemed to be sheep guided by people, he hears the people just leave, leaving behind the sheep to graze on the grass around the barn. As he just got in, they scrounge around the place eating what edible which wasn't much. Yet it still wasn't enough, the vegetables were mostly rotten. The garbage was just metal and even the rats ran off.

The older dog got fed up with looking for food and decided as he heard the sheep outside, that's what he's go for, crawling out of the rusty hole he scratches his back injuring it slightly not enough to keep him from running after sheep, he catches up to them quite easily so he bites the leg from one of the sheep immobilizing it.

While the leader was at that, the commotion caught the attention of the other two, they walked to the door watching as the leader took the sheep down, they both ran out to the leader and started to eat the sheep as they were starving.

They ate their fill and left the corpse behind them, what they couldn't eat, believing this to be fun they all decided to do this from now on.

Days became weeks then became months with more and more sheep going missing. The farmers of the land got more curious and angry, so one young farmer got his quad and drove up to where his sheep were.