Weresheep Girlfriend: Mary 2 (special preview)

Several years ago, Henry and Braun both went off to war. Land disputes between the kingdoms had come to our lands, and our people decided it was not up for grabs. Our lands were defended as best as possible, but Miror still ended up taking us as part of their property. My fiancé died in battle, and my brother, Henry, came back changed. War changes everybody, especially the soldiers, so we had expected him to come home perhaps less of what he was.

I was mourning for Braun and suffered many sleepless nights, as did Henry, so we often stayed up together, talking in the dead of night. He told me about his nightmares, of a creature taking him and biting him repeatedly until he was riddled full of holes. I thought his dreams were about the guns of the Miror army. Henry showed me his wounds, though, once they were healed enough. They did look like bite marks, dozens of them. Henry told me in secret that Miror had sent wild animals into their camp. But the animals were strangely shaped, large, and vicious. They had attacked many of the soldiers, killing some, wounding others, and one had dragged off my Braun, who Henry had thought was dead.

I begged Henry not to tell me more, but I still began having nightmares of this monster attacking me and stalking me on the farm. It took time, but eventually Henry returned to life on the farm. About a year after, though, strange things started happening around our village. People made reports of a creature attacking their chickens. Which at first was blamed on coyotes. After that, the attacks began to escalate, this creature started to hunt down geese, who are quite dangerous themselves, then goats, and sheep. The villagers began to prepare, building bigger and better barns to protect their animals at night. Some used straw fortified by mud or cement, others used the same method but with strong sticks and lumber, those who could afford it built stone structures to defend their livestock.

Well, aside from the stone structures, the other two didn’t work out well. Eventually, the creature was taking pigs after destroying the stick and straw structures. Hunts for the creature began in earnest, with large sweeps going through the woods. At night, men would hide out with their weapons, hoping to catch a glimpse of something strange stalking around.

One man allegedly came across the monster and when he told him his livestock were safe in a structure, the creature told him: “then I’ll just blow it down!” For a few weeks, the hunt was all anyone could think about. Rewards were put up for the capture of this monster, people were building traps and finding ways to hide their animals. Henry would guard our barn every night, going as far as sleeping out there, while our father stayed inside with mother and me. Then, one night, someone actually shot the creature. They were able to track it because of the trail of blood it left behind. Unbeknownst to us, the trail led right to our barn.

I was terrified. Henry was in the barn! What if that monster had him! Father kept me and mother locked in the house while he joined the rest of the hunting party. It became known all too quickly what the truth of the matter was and it ruined our lives forever.

Whatever had bitten Henry had caused him to become this monster, this wolf like thing. He was able to run off that night, but everyone was still on high alert, even against the rest of the family. Apparently, something similar had done the same to Braun. Now, Mary’s family was in danger of suffering like mine had. They are not my favorite people, but even they deserve a fate better than mine.

I have been thinking hard about what to do, and I still can’t find the key to Henry’s room. Mom locked it up and hid the key somewhere. All I can do now is go about my day as usual, and ponder what to do. The sheep are grazing, wandering around between rocks at the base of the mountain, and happily playing between bites of grass. Demeter is standing beside me and she lets out a long, heavy sigh.

“What do you know about this?” I ask her.

Demeter tilts her head to the side. “About how to save your girlfriend?”

I grit my teeth and huff. “She is not my girlfriend. She is just a girl I know.”

“Sure, sure, sure.” She tilts her head again. “I may know something. But my powers aren’t quite yet up to what they used to be.”

I kneel down beside her so I can look Demeter dead in the eye. “Mary’s life is at stake here! What’s it going to take for those supposed powers of yours to come back? You’re a sheep! Surely you know the way to stop this. Do you know the monster that caused all this? The evil sheep that bites people?”

“Calm down! Just because I’m a sheep deity, you think I know them all?” Demeter sniffs. “These things take time, you can’t just simply force it. Great power takes a lot of care and nurturing. You can’t just take it or else you really become a monster.”