The One: The Tale of Yuzu

Somewhere nestled in between a large mountain and a powerful river, there was a tiny pasture where one hundred sheep were kept watch by a young yet competent shepherd. The shepherd's name was Yuzu, and though she was no older than ten, it was her duty to keep watch over all her sheep, every single last one of them--100 in total. If Yuzu were to lose even one, even just a little one, then she would most definitely be in trouble. So even though the sheep were sometimes stupid, and stubborn, or ignorant, it was up to Yuzu to keep them all in line. After all, a shepherd who does not take care of their sheep is pretty much up for unemployment, and this was the only thing Yuzu was good at.

Yuzu was most definitely not a fighter, so if there was a wolf in the area, she would have to fight it off with a sling. Sometimes, bears and even lions came around, stalking the sheep and probably Yuzu as well, and the little shepherd would have to either fight them off or hope for assistance. She had stunned a bear before, and held her own against a lion at least once, so even though she was small and young, she would defend her flock until the bitter end.

One day, during the darker hours of the evening, a rumbling came in from above and light flashed across the sky. A storm was threatening to brew, but until Yuzu felt a drop of rain on her face, then the only thing it would become would be a threat, and nothing more. Still, the little girl kept a strong vigil: one eye fixed on the skies, and the other trained on her flock. Most of the sheep continued to eat grass, while some just twitched their ears and trotted around the fenced-in pasture.

There were only a few flecks of rain that fell, so the storm apparently had more bark than bite to it. It was terribly loud and a little scary, especially to a little girl standing out in the middle of a grassy plain with nothing more than her sling for protection, but other than the grumbling clouds, there was nothing to fear. However, the sky stayed dark, so Yuzu had to light a few torches so she could see better. As a precaution, or perhaps as a habit, she counted her flock and made sure that all her sheep were still there.

Her pulse increased a beat as she realized that there were only ninety-nine sheep there with her.

Yuzu quickly took a count of the sheep and found the same number, then counted them one last time to be certain. No matter how she looked at it, there were still only ninety-nine in the entire flock, which meant that one was missing. Yuzu yelped out a little, and quickly began to scamper away. She made sure that the fence surrounding the sheep was tight and sturdy, and with a little prayer in her breath, she began to run off in search of the one sheep.

For a shepherd such as Yuzu, losing even one sheep was inexcusable. The duty of the shepherd was to make sure that the sheep were fed and protected, and to lose even one would mean that they were unsuited for the job, and thus would have to find other means of employment. Yuzu was only a little girl at the time, so she could definitely not find another job. Besides, she loved to take care of little animals, and so it would mean double trouble for her if this last sheep was gone.

Yuzu sprinted as fast as she could over the grassy plains, calling out the name of her sheep. Her eyes were trained to spot the snowy wool from great distances, and since the fields of grass did not hide a sheep's coat easily, she should have found it. Yuzu's fears began to increase as she went towards the river, and she hoped against hope that the poor stupid creature didn't fall in the fast currents.

Suddenly, as she peered towards the river, a faint bleating sound could be heard. Yuzu looked over in hopes that it was her lost sheep, and in the far distance, she could just barely make out a spot of white against the dark shade of the mountain. Yuzu could have passed it off as an illusion or something, but she was not one to take chances and thus charged towards the spot with all her might.

Yuzu ran past her flock and took a quick count, and breathed out a big sigh of relief as she got to ninety-nine. Satisfied that none of her previous sheep had went astray, Yuzu gained some wind and sprinted off towards the mountains in search of the delinquent lamb. The closer she got to the mountains, the louder the bleating sound got, and the clearer the spot of white became, until she was at the very foothills, and the sheep was right above her.

Yuzu yelled for the poor sheep to hop back down to her, but it was already at a high distance, and could never make the jump without breaking some bodily function. Letting out a grunt, Yuzu began to scale the mountain, first by foot, then by hands and knees (she had to thank every holy figurehead in history that she was wearing long pants, because otherwise, her knees would've been scraped to death on the rocks). The climb was fortunately not that long, since the errant lamb did not get too far, and in only about five minutes, Yuzu grabbed hold of the sheep.

"Gotcha!" she sang. The sheep let out a bleat, and Yuzu rubbed her nose against its face. "Of course I'm mad at you for leaving!" she said, interpreting its noises. "What if you got hurt, or eaten by a big bad wolf? Yuzu would be very, very sad if that happened!" The sheep bleated again, almost in apology, and Yuzu giggled.

"Yeah… but I'm happier that you're okay! C'mon, let's go back to the others!" And with a smile, Yuzu hoisted the lamb over her shoulders, descended down the mountain, and led the little animal back to its brethren, singing all the way.

"[…] If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off." --Matthew 18: 12-13

The End