This one was from a while back. We were camping in the Lake District, which involved a healthy dose of rambling around among hills and valleys. Being the brilliant navigator I am, we got lost plenty of times. On every occasion when we found our way again it was hot on the heels of a sheep. I promise it was coincidence, but it was not long before we joked that the free-roaming sheep were some kind of guide. But what if they were more…
Chossach looked down from the rocky outcrop and sighed her relief. The wanderers were safely back on their path again. Disaster had been averted once more.
She’d taken this assignment thinking it would be easy. After all, this was a nothing hill-top in a nowhere valley. A couple of valleys to the north her colleagues had a tougher time on the slopes of Scafell Pike. There, lunatic tourists waited for the sunniest days before attempting the climb in sandals with a single juice carton between them. Chossach’s little patch was supposed to be quiet. Ha! Fat chance of that. Not yet midday and already she had turned five groups onto their right paths.
Okay, that was perhaps overstating her task. For all Chossach knew, the paths she’d set them on might not lead where they wanted to go. The important thing was they led away from where she needed them not to go.
She scrambled down the rocky escarpment, sure-footed and agile, coming to rest beside the mountain stream for a well earned drink. Despite the overcast sky the day was hot. Especially with her thick black fleece.
Chossach hated her sheep-form. However, It was a necessary ruse. Her people had discovered long ago that standing on a hill as a human druid to direct walkers away from danger simply raised their curiosity. Instead of maintaining the no-go areas, they turned them into a tourist attraction. Acting as sheep seemed to work better. Beaten tracks were easier walking than forging through shoulder-high bracken. So her people became sheep to lead the unwary aside. To save the world from those beings that should remain locked away.
Looking about, she saw she was alone and decided to risk the change. The air shimmered. Chossach stood, a young woman in light green robes. A cool breeze wrapped around her bare arms and rippled her long brown hair. She dangled her feet in the water and delighted in the respite from the heat. It was short lived.
Voices drifted over the hillside. Chossach rolled her eyes and the air shimmered once again. She dipped her muzzle in the stream and drew another cooling drink. Then she trotted up the hill to turn another group away from disaster.
Brandon Lim 