Feeling down tonight due to some financial hardship. Thought a story with a green ending might cheer myself up.
Prompt:
A short story about sheep and a shepherdess and the river runs dry so she takes them on a journey out of the valley. They cross the mountains to find a new valley. Please write it like a parable.
Chapter 1
The Shepherdess and the Dry River
There was once a shepherdess who lived in a quiet valley where the river ran clear and the grass grew thick. Each morning, she led her sheep to drink from the cool waters, and each evening, she watched them rest beneath the shade of the olive trees.
But one year, the rains did not come. The river, once full of life, slowed to a trickle, then to dust. The sheep grew restless, their wool heavy, their bleating uncertain.
“The water will return,” the elders of the valley said. “It always does.”
But the shepherdess watched the sky and saw no clouds. She placed her hand upon the earth and felt its thirst. And so, she gathered her flock, took up her staff, and set her feet toward the mountains.
“Where do you go?” the others asked.
“To find water,” she said.
“You will be lost,” they warned.
“Better lost in search of life than still in waiting for death,” she answered.
And so she walked, and the sheep followed.
The way was hard. The mountain paths were steep, and the wind was cold. The sheep stumbled, and she lifted them. Wolves watched from the ridges, and she kept them at bay with her voice and her staff. At night, she wrapped herself in wool and counted the stars, whispering, “We will find it. We must.”
Then, one morning, as the sun stretched its golden fingers over the peaks, she saw it—a valley beyond the mountains, full of trees, wide and green, with a river running through its heart.
The sheep ran ahead, the air full of their happy bleating. The shepherdess knelt by the water’s edge, cupped the coolness in her hands, and drank.
In time, some who had stayed behind, now thirsty, followed the path her herd had carved through the mountain. The valley grew full again—not of those who had waited, but of those who had walked on in faith.
And so it was that the shepherdess did not merely find a new home—she became the guide of those who sought life beyond what they had known.
💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦💦
P.S. love the line below and it was all Georgina...
“Better lost in search of life than still in waiting for death.”
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