Excerpt: The Sheepish Princess

I climbed up to my attic apartment, mulling over all I had just learned. While I felt bad for listening in on their personal conversation and was confused about its content, one thing was sure. I was going to go to this fabled “North.” The thought of venturing there didn’t scare me as much as I thought it would. In fact, I was almost eager to go. I lay in bed for a long while that night, thinking about what I would find there, besides the Fey and animal faced people. And the Witch. Perhaps she too was in the North…
When I woke, it was still dark out. Only the edges of the horizon had begun to light up. I looked around groggily and then I heard something that sounded like a sheep bleating outside in the garden.
With that one sound, Wolf’s promise to me last night surfaced in my mind. With all the speed I could muster in my body heavy with sleep, I heaved myself out of bed and ran to the attic stairs, not bothering to stop and look out the window.
I ran down the attic stairs, not caring how much of a ruckus I made along the way, grabbed my shawl from the peg by the door and ran out the back door to the garden. And there was Marabell, completely unharmed. I ran to her and nabbed her before she had the chance to run away again. However, once I grabbed her around the neck, I found this unnecessary. The once menacing sheep now shivered like a leaf and cowered into my waist showing no sign of ever wanting to leave my side ever again. Once I gave her a proper look over to make sure that she was truly unharmed, I happened to glace up at the hill. There, Wolf stood, watching me and the shaking Marabell. For a moment I was scared. With the blood red sun rising behind him, he reminded me so much of the first time we met in the woods, his jaws dripping with blood. But now as he stood there, with his head held high and his chest thrust forward, he almost looked regal. He was an intimidating and comforting sight to me.