A single sheep

Since neither could understand the other, they just walked in silence, with Ovce leading the way, heading back to her sheep.

By the time they got there, the sun was already gone, and three moons appeared in the dark sky instead, illuminating the world with their pale silver light.

Deset studied them curiously, not being used to three moons. In truth, he was not really sure what he was accustomed to, but having three moons in the sky just felt wrong to him. The world of the dark forest had no moon at all, which had also felt strange, but still more normal than seeing three.

They reached a small tree with nine sheep tied to it with leads. Ovce walked over and checked each one, sighing in relief, but also with regret.

‘I wonder what could have happened.’

He stepped forward, wanting to take a closer look, when Ovce suddenly turned to face him. Noticing his questing look, she thought for a bit, then pointed at a nearby sheep, saying a single word.

“Sheep.”

Deset nodded and repeated after her, indicating that he understood.

“Sheep.”

Ovce then extended her hands, showing him all her ten fingers.

“Ten.”

Once again, Deset repeated.

“Ten.”

She put one finger down, saying a word again, with Deset repeating it right after.

“Nine.”

“Nine.”

Putting eight of her remaining fingers down, she said:

“One.”

And Deset said:

“One.”

Ovce suddenly broke into a sprint, running some distance away, leaving Deset unsure of how to react. Soon, she came back and said a single word after catching her breath.

“Run.”

‘Oh, so she wanted to teach me the word for run. She could have just ran in place though... Well, never mind that.’

“Run.”

Nodding approvingly, Ovce pointed to her sheep while still looking at Deset and said:

“Ten sheep. One sheep run. Nine sheep.”

‘So, she’s basically saying one of the sheep ran away? Is that what she was doing before? Looking for the missing sheep? I guess she didn’t find it.’

Raising his left hand to signal Ovce to wait, he crouched down and spread his wings. Deset jumped up and flew high into the air, a strong gust of wind blowing Ovce’s hair back and forcing her to take a step away.

When he reached at least a thousand meters above ground, Deset looked around in all directions, trying to spot any moving objects.

While his vision wasn’t nearly as sharp in the dark, he could still discern shapes and their outline from great distances, and even some color and fine details up close.

It didn’t take him long to spot a small round shape moving at a slow pace a few kilometers east, hidden behind a cluster of trees.

‘Got you.’

Smirking proudly, he flew down towards it. However, as he got closer, his instincts started ringing like alarm bells, alerting him to imminent danger—just in time for him to lean sideways, managing to dodge the animal launching at him with terrible speed.

“Are you serious? Really?!”

Immediately after evading the sheep’s attack, he flew upward, hoping the sheep wouldn’t be able to reach him in the air—he was right.

Once Deset was high enough, the sheep suddenly seemed to lose all interest, turning the other way and ignoring his existence completely.

“Damn it! What the hell was that?! Huh? Wait, why did I say that? Ugh, who cares. Just what is wrong with that damn sheep?”

Hovering above it, Deset thought about what to do.

‘I could try to fight, but I don’t know if I have enough energy for that. My memories are still lost, so I can’t even give it my all. But if I leave it alone, it could attack someone else. There’s Ovce as well. She’s only about ten kilometers away.’

“BEEE!”

An almost inaudible bleat could be heard faintly from behind him, alerting him to the presence of another sheep.

Turning around sharply, he saw exactly what he didn’t want to see.

Ovce was leading her nine sheep on leashes, walking in the direction of Deset and the cursed sheep—or whatever it had become by then.

‘Damn it, I signaled her to wait. Why is she here?’

Unfortunately, Deset wasn’t the only one who noticed someone else was nearby.

The cursed sheep twisted its head almost one hundred and eighty degrees, staring in the direction Ovce and her herd.

‘Oh, man-’

Barely finishing his thought, he dove down to intercept the cursed sheep, who was frenzied to devour its own kind—as well as Ovce herself.

The sheep easily sidestepped his attack, ignoring him and continuing its relentless chase.

Deset barely avoided smashing into the ground, flapping his wings at the last second and continuing after the crazed sheep. Missing an entire limb, his balance was off, making high-speed flight difficult—he barely managed to keep up with the sheep, even falling slightly behind.

‘Not good.’

*

“I just don’t get why he suddenly flew off like that. I mean, isn’t that just strange? You think so too, right?”

“BEEE!”

“I knew you would understand.”

Not long after Deset flew away, Ovce decided to simply head back to her village. She was already late enough, so she wanted to get back as soon as possible.

‘I thought he seemed like a nice person. Did he only want to steal my clothes? Such a meanie.’

Ovce was quite a bit bummed about her new friend leaving just like that. She had never seen a human with wings before, but she had heard of them. In stories her mom used to read to her before bed, ‘angels’ were the messengers of their respective Gods. Each angel served a single God, who bestowed divine powers upon them to spread their influence and will.

There was the God of the sun, the God of the moons, the God of nature, the God of animals and the God of hell, who ruled over dead sinners, cleansing their minds and souls so they could go to heaven and eventually be reborn.

However, the Gods were too powerful and mighty to descend to the living world and be among the humans, so they each split a fraction of their power from themselves, giving them life and sending them to guide the humans. Those were called angels.

As Ovce walked, her sorrowful mood sinking even lower than before, she heard a distant scream. She couldn’t make out the words at first, but as the shouting grew louder, she eventually recognized a single word. Her own name.

“Ovce! Ovce!”

‘Is... is that Deset? He came back!’

She still couldn’t see him, but she recognized his voice. Ovce was so overjoyed, she overlooked how panicked Deset sounded, quickening her pace a little.

Soon, she could see a vague shape flying in her direction with incredible speed. Deset was still yelling her name at the top of his lungs.

“Come on, there’s no need to be so loud. I already see-”

Before she could finish her sentence, something blitzed past her in the dead of night, knocking her aside. Moments later, Deset flew past her at full speed, diving toward her sheep.

Ovce could suddenly hear the distressing calls of her herd, as well as something that sounded like a desperate struggle.

Two sounds stood out—the bleating of one sheep was so disturbing and unnatural it could hardly be called that at all, sounding almost demonic. The second was Deset’s pained voice, grunting with strain and agony.

When Ovce fell down, she dropped the leads, letting the sheep run free. They scattered in every direction, running away in fear.

“Wait! Come back!”

Not wanting to lose any more sheep, Ovce took out her bell without thinking, ringing it loudly, hoping that they would return to her. Ovce was sure that if they got too far, she wouldn’t be able to find them while it was this dark.

“NOOO!”

Deset screamed something, but Ovce could not understand him.

‘Why is he still so loud? What is he doing, anyway, flying recklessly like that?’

Most of the sheep ignored the sound of the bell—all except one.

A single sheep turned its head toward her, shifting its focus from one of its siblings to Ovce, charging at her with unnatural speed for a mere farm animal.

Ovce was glad that at least one sheep had listened to her call, not realizing anything was wrong until it was only a few meters away.

Everything happened in an instant after that.

Finally noticing how bizarre the sheep was acting, Ovce took a step back and saw it all clearly.

Blood was smeared all over its once white and gray wool. Its eyes glowed crimson, with a sickly green tint. It had numerous spiky fangs, with blood, flesh, wool, and its own saliva dripping from its mouth. The sheep’s entire body leaked a thick, abnormal liquid, the same sickly green that glowed in its eyes.

Mere centimeters away from Ovce, the sheep opened its mouth—or rather its maw—more than wide enough to swallow her head in one bite, lunging at her neck.

Before it could reach her, though, Deset slammed into its side, sending both of them tumbling away.

Ovce’s knees trembled. She stood there like a statue, frozen in terror. The vivid image of the murderous sheep was burned deeply into her mind.

Eventually, her legs gave out, and Ovce collapsed to her knees, her breath caught in her throat.

*

Deset and the fiend—it could not be called a sheep anymore—rolled down a small hill. The fiend tried to sink its monstrous fangs into his flesh, forcing Deset onto the defensive, only managing to block with his wings, which remained unscathed and in perfect condition the whole time.

Unfortunately, not all of Deset’s defenses were successful.

The fangs hungrily dug into his right thigh, tearing a large chunk of muscle from it and devouring it a split second later.

Deset let out a tortured wail and retaliated by driving his left wing into its eye, piercing deep into its brain.

A wound like that would normally be fatal for any sheep. However, the abomination before him was no ordinary creature.

The fiend simply jerked its head back grotesquely, wrenching free from the feathers and kicking Deset in the stomach, pushing him back and knocking the air out of his lungs.

Both staggered back but quickly regained their footing, lunging at each other once more.

The fiend was both stronger and faster, but at the end of the day, it was still only a mindless, frenzied monster. Deset, however, was a human—at least he believed himself to be one. Humans were not at the top of the food chain because they were the mightiest. It was thanks to their keen intelligence and adaptability.

Right before the two of them clashed, Deset changed the direction of his charge ever so slightly, rising above the fiend just enough to avoid its strike. Before it could react, he tilted his body sideways in midair, slicing the fiend’s forehead and back with the end of his left wing.

The fiend let out a pained growl and tried to counterattack, but Deset was too high for it to reach, leaving it biting nothing but air and thrown off balance.

Deset wasn’t about to let any opportunity slip by. He swooped behind the fiend, cutting open its left side. Blood and a sickly green liquid gushed out, staining the grass with its stench.

After each attack, Deset soared back into the air, where the fiend couldn’t reach him, before diving down to strike over and over again.

His stamina was rapidly depleting, but the fiend was faring far worse.

It was bleeding from countless wounds, its torn insides spilling out. One of its eyes was missing, leaving it vulnerable on that side.

Finally, after Deset slashed its neck from the blinded side, the fiend crumbled to the ground, growing motionless. Its body began to rot at an unnatural speed, sickly green particles seeping out like noxious gas.

Deset himself was bleeding all over, with pieces of flesh missing here and there. Most important of all though, he managed to not lose any of his remaining limbs.

‘I just can’t catch a break. I can hold on for now, but I’ll need to sleep eventually. It’s already been over ten days!’

Too exhausted to worry about the rotting fiend, Deset made his way back to Ovce. Along the way, he passed several dead sheep, some torn apart worse than others.

‘I wonder how many managed to survive...’

Finally spotting Ovce, he wanted to call out to her, but realized he was once again naked, and badly wounded on top of that. The sight of him would definitely not calm her down.

Seeing her bag some distance away, he searched it first and found a small blanket inside, wrapping it around his waist. He circled in front of Ovce and gently called her name.

“Ovce?”

She was kneeling on the grass, her arms hanging limply from her shoulders. Hearing Deset’s voice, Ovce lifted her head, gazing into his eyes with an empty expression.

“Deset?”

He nodded as Ovce said something else, though the only word he recognized was ‘sheep’. Understanding the general meaning of her sentence—at least Deset hoped he did—he only shook his head, not saying anything.

Ovce’s eyes slowly swelled with tears, her crying breaking the silence of the quiet night.

Not knowing what else to do, Deset kneeled beside her on the right. Before he could do anything, Ovce buried her face into his chest, weeping even harder and louder.

Surprised, Deset panicked briefly, but forced himself to calm down, carefully patting her head and gently stroking her hair.