The Quest of the Warrior Sheep (16 page)

‘And a brave flock of Warriors will be put to the test.

For this monster has woken from centuries of sleep,

And its stomach will hunger for sheep. Then more sheep.

Hundreds of thousands will die every hour,

All the sheep in the world it will seek to devour.'

Sal paused for breath but before she could start again, Jaycey's trembling voice had taken up the verse.

‘Like a gigantic dog from the West it will come . . .

And the name of this monster, be warned, is: Red Tongue.'

Jaycey looked at them all with frightened eyes. ‘My Mum taught me that.'

She wobbled on her dainty feet then fainted.

There was silence for a few moments then Links said, ‘So. We's done for, is it? We's all gonna be eaten by a monster dog.'

‘The Songs of the Fleece are never wrong,' said Sal.

Oxo frowned. ‘Yeah but what was that about Warriors?'

Jaycey opened one eye. ‘They'll be put to the test,' she wailed. ‘I don't want to be put to the test.'

There was another silence while they all pondered.

‘Is it us again, Sal?' asked Wills.

Once before, the little flock of Rare Breed sheep from Eppingham Farm had been called by the Songs of the Fleece to save sheepdom. They had destroyed Lambad the Bad and saved Lord Aries, the mighty Ram of Rams who lives above the clouds.

Sal answered Wills' question by reciting the next two lines.

‘Who will come forward in the hour of need?

Hope will lie only with those of Rare Breed.'

Oxo turned towards the doorway. ‘Can't be clearer than that,' he said. ‘Let's go!' and he charged out.

‘Yeah, man', agreed Links. ‘The Eppingham Rare Breeds is the rarest of the rare, innit.'

‘We did it once, we
can
do it again,' agreed Wills bravely.

But then Oxo reappeared. ‘So, um, where does this Red Tongue hang out, exactly?' he asked.

Sal thought hard then cleared her throat again.

‘To the place where the monster first wakes you must go,

Where the sun scorches fleeces and the hottest winds blow.

But only the bravest will withstand this test.

Remember. Red Tongue . . . will wake in the
West
!'

She dropped her head, briefly overwhelmed by the task facing them. The discomforts and dangers of their first quest came back to her. They came back to all the sheep. Was it really possible to survive and triumph a second time? And where was the
West
, anyway?

Wills ran through the verse in his head. They had to go West, to a place where the hottest winds blow . . . Not Wales then, he thought. He had been born in
West Wales and didn't remember any hot winds there. No, it had to be somewhere much further away than Wales. He tried to picture the maps in Tod's atlas. West . . . Very hot . . . He realized the others were looking at him expectantly and tried to sound more confident than he felt.

‘The most likely place,' he announced, ‘is America.'

‘No problem,' said Oxo and turned once more towards the barn door.

‘Uh, there is actually,' said Wills. ‘America's across the sea. How will we get there?'

‘We are sheep!' declared Sal. ‘Famed as great thinkers. Think, all of you. Think.'

So they thought and they were thinking so hard they didn't hear a car drive slowly along the lane and pull up outside the farmhouse.

The smartly-dressed driver leaned from the car window and wrinkled his nose.

‘Ugh!' he said. ‘The country!'

He straightened his tie, picked up his briefcase and stepped out, placing his shiny shoes in the mud. He had an important message for Mrs Ida White. He had better deliver it.

Christopher Russell was a postman when he had his
first radio play broadcast in 1975, having given up a job in the civil service to do shift work and have more daytime hours for writing. Since 1980, he has been a full-time television and radio scriptwriter, and, more recently, a children's novelist. His wife Christine has always been closely involved with his work, storylining and script editing, and has television credits of her own.

THE QUEST OF THE WARRIOR SHEEP is the first book they have written together.