Amorette
Legacy Name: Amorette

Amorette loved the idea of love. She just wasn't sure what it was.

It all started when she was a wee little lamb just learning to stand on new legs. Her mother was lying contentedly just a few feet away while the other ewes grazed or welcomed their own little ones into the world. Amorette toddled about, sniffing the sweet patches of clover she would soon devour with relish. Every butterfly and bee that flew by was a temporary distraction in this wonderful new world though nothing could be more important than her mother's gentle bleat when she strayed too far.

Until the monster approached the fence.

It was shiny as the sun with hard red skin like a beetle. Two strange creatures with dark wool only on the tops of their heads were riding in its belly. The monster rumbled and growled, its noise brought to an abrupt end when the creature with the shorter wool did something with his front hoof. (Not a proper hoof at all since it split into five pink sticks.) The two creatures leaned in toward each other, their lips meeting. Elvis' "Can't Help Falling in Love" played softly from somewhere inside the monster.

...but I can't help falling in love with you...

The male creature rumbled three words in his thunderous voice. "I love you."

The female smiled, her softer words not nearly as sweet as a mother's call but still soothing to the ear. "I love you too."

Amorette bounded through the sweet-smelling grass, nearly colliding with her mother. "Mama, what is love?"

Angora nuzzled her neck. "Love is the warm, tingly feeling you get deep down inside when you curl up against me and I tuck you in to sleep."

Amorette loved that feeling but it wasn't quite what she'd seen in the female creature's eyes. Surely love was more than just a warm tingly feeling?

Six months passed in a whirlwind of sweet clover and sunshine. The first hints of winter wind were a nasty surprise for a young lamb rapidly rising to the height of a full-grown ewe. Still, her fleece was getting thicker every day and the farmer provided good blocks of hay and alfalfa fortified with extra nutrients to keep his flock healthy through even the worst winter storm.

Amorette had asked her many woodland friends from the songbirds to the cunning fox what love really was. Each had a different answer. Some said it was finding someone to build a nest with. Others insisted it was the feeling of contentment one gets from a full belly and an hour's nap in the sun. The other ewes insisted it was born of a wallow in the special place beside the fence where healing mud seeped up and provided coolness for aching hooves.

Amorette even dared to ask the head ram once. He was an impressive creature with impossibly thick wool and magnificent curling horns. He was amused by the shy child with such an obvious question. Love was showing respect for your leader by following his commands and never questioning his authority. Amorette didn't agree with that answer at all but somehow she didn't think it would be a good idea to say so.

Spring returned at last. The other yearling ewes were following their hearts and noses across the pasture, making their introductions to the young rams. Amorette watched the other youths going off together in pairs. She almost thought she saw something in the eyes of these temporary pairs but when they'd spent a few hours roaming the open fields away from watching eyes, they would go their separate ways and never spare each other another glance. Whatever it was they were doing, it certainly didn't have the feeling of love.

A couple of rams tried to make their approach to her but she warned them off with teeth and flailing hooves. She would have no part of this strange ritual. She was holding out for love!

The farmer came in the heat of summer to claim the fleece that made life a misery for the flock. Amorette sighed her relief as the last scraps of wool fell away. She gave the farmer's hand an affectionate lick and he smiled, patting her gently on the head.

His dog Swiftie was not so amused. She huffed her annoyance and allowed her ears to droop. Amorette studied the sleek not-fox with the silky brown and white fur. "Can you tell me what love is?"

Swiftie snorted. "Are you talking to me, sod-muncher?"

"Sure. Why not? I talk to the animals outside the fence all the time."

"The intruders, more like. If they get too close to the house, I'll eat them to keep the Man safe. That's the biggest love there is, protecting your human. Bigger than snuggling up to your mate or allowing your pups to drink your milk. Your kind doesn't show love the way mine do though. You don't know what it is to take food from human hands and to lie beside the fire. You go crazy for a few days in the spring and then forget the name of the mate you spent hours with just the day before. You're too fickle to find out what real love is."

Amorette stared after the dog long after she'd left the pasture. It couldn't be true. She could love.

She'd seen the way Swiftie could leap right over the lowest part of the pasture fence when she was called by the farmer. Amorette tried this and got a bump on the head for her efforts. Going under was also out of the question. Even with her fleece gone she was much too rotund to slip beneath the low bar. She kept working that same section of fence every day until she finally worked a board loose.

The farmer's children were playing in the yard in front of the house. They were delighted by the unexpected visitor that came trotting into their midst. Amorette admired the youngest girl's doll. The child took great care in "brushing" her straw curls and smoothing the length of her pink cotton dress. The child looked at that doll with the look. Amorette found herself staring at that doll. It smelled of food but she would never eat it. Maybe this is what love was supposed to feel like. When the children went into the house for lunch, she did her very best to follow, earning herself a rope around the neck.

"You are one odd little lass." The farmer led her back into the lane, laughing from the core of his belly at the antics of such a silly sheep. He spent the next day repairing the fence with the help of his two sons as Swiftie sat on the back of the truck and smirked.

She was at it again the very next day but even serious determination can only do so much against new lumber. She very nearly knocked herself silly when she tried to head-butt the fence.

"What are you doing?"

The young ram stood a few feet away, staring curiously at her. Amor was his name.

"I'm trying to break this horrid fence so I can figure out what love is! Humans seem to be so good at it so I figured if I could spend more time with them, maybe I could figure out what it is that makes their eyes get all soft and far away."

He laughed so hard it seemed he would shake his horns off his head. "Oh my sweet alfalfa! Who told you that?

"Er...the dog."

"Well that's no surprise. Dogs only care about eating and having their ears scratched. They know nothing about sheepish love."

"Sheepish love?"

"Yes. Of course, many of our kind never get past the spring mating ceremony. They don't care to. It takes a very special pair to figure out what sheepish love means. I've traveled all over this land. You see, I used to be part of a circus act before I was brought here. It was a restless life but it allowed me to meet rams and ewes of all kinds. I've seen sheepish love happen three times and all three of those couples went on to become the leader of great herds."

"Really?

"Yes. It all starts with finding someone you just like to walk about with. When you find a particularly tasty patch of thistles, you take turns biting off the heads so you both get a good taste. You trample down beds for each other. You stand side by side and face any scary predators that come your way. When you find sheepish love, you would rather die than let anything happen to your life-mate. They are as much a part of you as your heart or your eyes or even your belly."

"Wow."

She could see just a hint of that special something in his eyes. "Would you like to take a walk with me?"

The sultry summer weeks passed slowly. They went to all the best grazing places. They found a corner of the healing mud that none of the other sheep had disturbed. When it came time to be shaved, he waited for her and she waited for him. Though humans are typically slow to notice such things, the farmer was particularly clever. One day he came to the pasture with Swiftie heeling at his side.

She went straight for Amorette, tail wagging as she herded the sheep toward the scary monster with its tongue sticking out the back. She didn't want to go up the ramp but Swiftie nipped at her heels and gave her a good scare. Amor charged from behind, ready to send the dog flying for threatening his love. Swiftie dodged at the last possible moment, leaving both sheep handily loaded.

The drive didn't last long. When the monster stuck out its metal tongue, Amorette and Amor bolted back outside into the welcome sunshine.

This was a new pasture, one with plenty of tasty grass and an even better mud pit than the last. It was the most beautiful place they had ever seen and they had it all to themselves.

The farmer put a hand on Swiftie's head and smiled. "Those two are going to keep us in meat with the flock they'll bring now that we have this new plot, eh girl?"

Swiftie smirked at the frisking pair and wagged her tail. No more silly sheep in her yard.

As for Amorette, she went around telling every blade of grass and tuft of thistle that she loved them all because this was the home pasture she'd never even known could be, the pasture she would share with her true love.

Credits

Profile by Ringo | Character Art by vivify | Story by Pureflower
Overlay by Ankoku