Chapter 2

Margaret and Randi ran most of the way to the sheep corral out of sheer joy. Randi asked about Margaret's sudden change of heart, but eve she couldn't explain it. The only reason she came up with was that it wasn't her fault if everybody hated her for what she was. She had her family, her dog, and her sheep, and she was happy.

When they reached the corral Margaret stepped up on the bottom rung and leaned over, greeting her sheep with enthusiasm. They could sense her happiness and were quite eager to be let free in the field. Margaret and Randi herded the sheep down the hill and out into the field to graze. Then she sat down on the hill and began grooming her tail.

After lunch Margaret sat looking out over the field and her sheep. A breeze came along and she held her head back so it could blow her hair around. She breathed in the tangy smell of her beautifull sheep. But there was another smell in amongst that. A smell she almost recognized. She listened hard but didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. However she saw a white sheep come around the bend. This put her on her guard. The other girls shepherded white sheep. Soon an entire herd of white sheep had come around the bend. Margaret stood up, to ready herself for the arrival of the Peep girls and their friends. But it wasn't a girl that came around behind the sheep. It was a boy.

There hadn't been a male shepherd in Little Lamb Village for as long as Margaret could remember. And she had never seen a male shepherd in any part of the fourth kingdom that she had been in. Where had this boy come from?

Margaret put her fingers to her mouth and blew a loud shrill whistle. From next to her Randi gave a low growl as if to say 'you could've just asked.' Margaret just gave her a look and she ran off to herd the sheep closer to the hill and farther from the boy's sheep.

At the sound of the whistle Margaret could clearly see the boy rub his ears and look up in her direction. He waved his hand in greeting and started to walk up the hill to her.

Huff puff, she thought to herself, this wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to be chased away. In her nervousness she began to bite her nails, a bad habit she'd had since she was very small.

"You know, biting nails isn't becoming for a lady of such beauty." The boy said with a playful grin. Margaret jumped at his statement, not realizing her was there. He'd climbed the hill awfully fast.

"Who are you?" Margaret asked warily. She recognized the boy's scent, although she couldn't for the life of her remember where she'd smelled it before.

"Forgive me for not introducing myself first. My name is Jeffrey Sheridan. I'm a lonely shepherd wandering the countryside in search of a cure for my lonliness." He said with a bow. Margaret was shocked by his formality.

"I'm Margaret Wo-" she began, but stopped in shock. When Jeffrey bowed, she could clearly see that he had a fluffy brown tail.

"You're a wolf!" she cried out. Jeffrey straightened up, looking slightly disappointed.

"Please, don't be put off by my tail. I'm really quite harmless." Jeffrey said with a touch of sadness.

"It's not that. It's just, I've never met another one before." Margaret said shyly.

"Another...wolf?" Jeffrey asked incredulously, his green eyes wide.

"You bet!" Margaret replied, swishing her glossy tail back and forth.

"But what are you doing shepherding sheep?" Jeffrey asked.

"I might ask the same of you, Mr. Sheridan." Margaret said putting her hands on her hips.

"I have to shepherd these wonderful cloudly creatures to keep these filthy clothes on my back, my dear." he said holding his arms out wide and spinning for her to see. He was wearing brown cotton pants covered in dirt, an old white shirt and a brown vest as dirty as his pants. He didn't have any shoes. His sandy brown hair was long and fell in his emerald eyes. He certainly looked like he lived alone in the wilderness.

"Where's your family?" Margaret asked, feeling sympathetic for this poor boy.

"I'd rather not talk about that right now." Jeffrey said, managing to keep a pleasant smile on his face, although his stance changed to slightly defensive.

"Well then let's talk about something else then. Have a seat, you look like you've been travelling a long ways." Margaret said as she sat down on the ground, patting the grass beside her. Jeffrey quickly sat cross-legged next to her.

"So why are you shepherding, Margaret?" Jeffrey asked after a minute of awkward silence.

"I shepherd for fun, Jeffrey. I don't need to do it to support my family. My parents own a prosperous inn in the village, and all the food is grown by my mother and my little brother. My father helps with the cooking. My oldest brother raises pigs and sells them in the market, my oldest sister raises horses and sells them in market, and my youngest sister raises chickens and sells the eggs in, take a guess where?"

"The market?" Jeffrey smirked.

"You got it! As for me, I shepherd the sheep, and sell the wool when they get sheared. Yes, I sell it in the market." Margaret added when she saw Jeffrey's sarcastic smile.

"Yes, it must be wonderful to have a permanent home. I haven't had one since I was very small. I've been herding my sheep for a too many years for me to remember. I shear all of them myself and sell the wool in the nearest town where I use the money to buy myself new clothes and feed for my sheep. For my own food, I usually catch it myself." Jeffrey said, leaning back to lie in the grass, staring at the clouds. Margaret lay beside him.

"What do you see when you look in the clouds, Margaret?" Jeffrey asked.

"I see sheep. White ones." Margaret said, wincing at the memory of white sheep shepherding Peep girls. The wince caused her black eye quite a lot of pain."Ow, ow, ow, ow." Margaret said, holding her hand over her eye and rolling over away from Jeffrey.

"Margaret? What is it?" Jeffrey asked, raising up on his elbow to see her better.

"Oh, it's nothing, just my eye." Margaret said, taking her hand away from her squinted black eye.

"How did you acquire all of these wounds?" Jeffrey asked, indicating the scratches and bruises on her legs, arms, neck and face.

"Oh it's nothing, I just got in a bit of a fight last night."

"A lady like you, fighting? What is this nonsense?" Jeffrey asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

"I didn't go looking for a fight. It came looking for me." Margaret said grumpily, looking away from Jeffrey.

"You got beaten up, didn't you?" Jeffrey asked. Margaret's head whipped around, a hard look in her eyes.

"What makes you say that?" she asked after a second.

"I'm a half wolf too. I've had my share of wolf haters." Jeffrey said seriously.

"Yeah, well. You wander. You're not always in a village of people who hate you." Margaret pouted.

"I'm sure they can't all hate you, my dear. Why don't you show me this wolf-hating village of yours, and I'm quite sure that I will be able to find someone who doesn't hate you." Jeffrey challenged.

"Alright. But where would you stay?" Margaret asked.

"I'll find someplace." Jeffrey shrugged.

"If you had some money you could stay at my family's inn." Margaret suggested happily. "We've got the best food in the village, nobody can deny it."

"I'd love to, but I'm afraid I have no money. I don't really need it, traveling in the woods alone." he said. However, Margaret had a solution to this. She began digging through her shoulder bag. She pulled out several copper wendells and handed them to Jeffrey.

"These will get you one night's stay at Wolfson Inn. The food is free if you stay the night." Margaret said.

"That would be great. I can't remember the last time I slept in an actual bed." Jeffrey replied happily, taking the coins from Margaret's outstretched hand.

"You probably want to start heading to the village now, just in case you get lost." Margaret advised.

"And which way would that be, my dear?" Jeffrey asked, as he got up off the ground.

"Just go straight up the hill and you'll find a path that takes you straight the the village square." Margaret said with a smile as she pointed to the top of the hill.

"Well then, I'll be off. It was nice meeting you, Miss Wolfson." Jeffrey said with a graceful bow.

"It was a pleasure, Mr. Sheridan." Margaret replied with an equally graceful curtsy.

"See you later." Jeffrey said with a wink as he turned and walked up the hill.

-LittleCrazy1