The Fourth Piper: Extras

The Winter Sheep

Inspired by Ellowyne and autumn_sunfire's little shorts of making their characters animals and writing something in a children's book style, I decided to write something small for the characters of "Little Schiva" and promptly enjoyed myself way too much.

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One snowy, starlit night on one wintry, lantern-lit farm, a little sheep the color of moonlight was born. The mother sheep and the father sheep and the big sister sheep all huddled around him, for he was very small and cold.

"We must keep him warm," said the mother sheep, "so that the winter outside doesn't get inside."

Now the little sheep felt warm all the time even when the blustery snowfall covered the lantern-lit farm, so when the snow melted and the flowers dotted the land, the little sheep felt so warm that he liked to run and play all the time. One season, he wanted his mother sheep and father sheep to play with him, but they told him, "No, Little Sheep. We must sell our wool to the sunlit village and we must leave the lantern-lit farm soon."

So the mother sheep and the father sheep left the lantern-lit farm for the sunlit village to sell their wool.

The little sheep frolicked around the pasture until he found his sister sheep. And he asked her if she would play with him, but she told him, "No, Little Sheep. Mother Sheep and Father Sheep have left to sell their wool, so I must be Mother Sheep for them. I cannot play so I can watch over you in case you get hurt."

But the little sheep was already hurt from before, and so when the sun shone down on the lantern-lit farm, the little sheep found that he was cold and did not know why.

Shivering, the little sheep decided, "I will find other things to keep me warm."

Seasons passed and the mother and father sheep did not return, so the little sheep found many things to keep him warm—for even though he was now growing little horns, he was still very small and cold. He liked the farm dogs that strayed around the barn, and going into the barn and doing things he should not made him nice and warm for a little bit. But the warmth did not last because his sister sheep wanted him to work to sell wool like the father sheep had taught him.

"But I am going to be cold," he said to her.

"You are cold because you are far away from me," she replied, nuzzling him with her fuzzy snout. "My woolly coat will keep you warm."

The little sheep did not believe that she was right, so when a pack of dogs from the largest farm in the land asked him to leave the lantern-lit farm to play, he left without saying goodbye so that his sister sheep would not miss him so much. But the little sheep missed his sister sheep anyway even though he liked playing with the pack of dogs, and sometimes he still shivered because he missed her woolly coat and the warm coats of his mother sheep and father sheep even though he told himself he would not.

One day, the sun would not shine and the dogs played by themselves, and the little sheep stood away from them. His knees trembled and his teeth chattered because he was so cold inside, but a little dog with floppy ears and bright eyes noticed he was alone and scampered up to him.

"Won't you come play?" asked the floppy dog.

"You are my playmates, but I do not feel like playing so much today."

"You need more than a playmate," said the dog, tilting his face as his tongue fell out of his mouth. "I think you need a friend, and I will be your friend forever."

Now forever was a very long time, even longer than the biggest pasture on the lantern-lit farm, and the little sheep did not know what to say. But the floppy dog did not need him to say anything, so they sat on the ground and shielded the other from the coming winter. The dog told him how the sheep's wool was very warm, and the little sheep wanted to tell the dog how his fur was also very warm and soft, but he could not because he had let some of the winter inside before. Without saying a word, though, the floppy dog knew what the little sheep wanted to say.

"It is good that you let the winter in," the floppy dog told him, "because then you will know when summer comes."

And that made the little sheep the color of moonlight feel bigger than he was and warmer than he had been in a long time.

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I mean...*dies in feels*

Little sheep – Loschal

Sister sheep – Johina

Floppy dog – Getzenn