#the flock;

[houseoflaamb]

My little lamb, you’ve gone astray A heart is not to tuck away The world is big and here to stay But there will come another day When bombs go off        And right away                   You’ll smile                             and laugh,          and turn my way You’ll say to me in hidden ways                                           “I think I like it here today.”

(x)

[houseoflaamb]

The Flock

Though there are many tales of the golden prize in the heart of her woods, one would be doing their listeners a disservice should they forget to mention the flock of wild sheep who are never too far from their shepherdess, ready to hunt when she calls Wolf.

Over the centuries, Lamb has fought her loneliness by building a flock of sheep, pulling from pastures and promising curious ones protection to go along with freedom. She is always careful and quiet when visiting these tamed flocks during the night, drawing their curiosity by speaking their tongue when she’s a maiden, or simply visiting as a strange faery sheep. For three nights, she will visit the flocks with compassion, as well as inspiring a few to leave their monotonous lives and join her in the woods where none would dare challenge them.

This does not work all the time, for she has left pastures on the third night, walking alone, but much of her flock today are descendants of sheep who have willingly followed her beyond the tree line. 

The “Pasture” Sheep

These are the sheep whom she has collected from flocks near her woods. They listened to her sweet words and this growing desire to break from monotony and fear, resulting in leaving their flock for the maiden’s wild call. They were once domesticated, and due to their nervous nature, they are most likely to stay near the wild flock’s home and care for each other there. Rarely does a pasture sheep join the Hunting parties, unless the numbers are absolutely needed, or a particular ram or ewe is feeling violent.

The Hunting Party

     “The world is full of wolves and sheep, and I choose to corral the sheep before they are left to the mercy of wolves.”

She does not take people into her flock, for they are still wolves to her. “Wolves” to Lamb is everyone who has posed a threat to her and her flock in the past, even children have posed themselves as threats (though not as consistently as adults). She has no remorse for lost children in her woods, though she has helped them find their way out in the past, and sometimes...sometimes she shows pity, or favors someone who is doomed to the forest if they didn’t receive help.

But regardless of how much she likes a person, there is always the rule she never bends: 

She does not take in wolves.

...but she does take in sheep. How one becomes a sheep, means they must be rid of their “lupine pelt”.

The Hunting Party is primarily a party of sheep who were once “wolves” or victims who was drawing their final breath when she removed them of their pelts to pick up wool and horns. These sheep are the souls of vengeful spirits who had either been killed by their other “wolves”, and thus their rage for what wronged them in that life is what fuels them to hunt for their golden matriarch, or they are the spirits of the rare lost folks she has grown fond of before they tragically pass while searching for the way out. Yes, this does mean she intentionally doesn’t guide them towards civilization in hopes that they die in her woods eventually and she can add another to her flock.

The Hunting Party also contains descendants of these more vicious sheep, and sometimes they decide that they do not wish to join the hunt and instead protect the pasture sheep.

Their duty is to be within earshot of their matriarch, so should she call for them in a wolf attack, they become the predators along with her. Sometimes there are champions in the flock who have saved Lamb from a wolf, or was a great help in the hunt. Her sheep-once-wolves carry the deepest love for her, so they find it a great reward when she calls them her champion, the one who walks by her side and whom she leans on when the flock comes together for sleep.

No matter what part they play, however, her sheep are the most precious creatures to Lamb. She truly does love and care for her flock, so much so she will kill for them; and should harm come to her? They will not hesitate to kill for her.

[houseoflaamb]

What happens to sheep who choose to stray from Lamb’s flock?

Should they be a Prairie sheep who has decided the wild is not their home, they leave on their own accord. But without the protection of the golden sheep, they are soon a fine meal for predators that still lurk in the woods.

If they are a sheep reborn from a human soul? They are then a lost, wandering soul. Predators view them still as a threat and will keep their distance, and the soul gifted life by the maiden of the woods, stays intact for longer than it should. The once predatory, vengeful spirit locked in a sheep, now wanders the wild alone, perhaps becoming a completely different beast that has forgotten its purpose in life and only knows to hunt and kill with that eternally burning fury fueling their drive.

Or, if the sheep-locked spirit was one who did not care to hunt while in Lamb’s flock, they too will find themselves wandering in the woods, lost and alone as they are avoided by creatures who know better than to mess with these odd sheep. These sheep grow mad in their loneliness and aimless wandering, for never were they supposed to leave the flock and now that they have, they have lost any sense of self.