It was a warm spring day, and the sun made young grass shine with a glow that almost seemed to come from within. Light breeze moved wisps of clouds through the acutely blue sky and brought smells of the first spring flowers to my nose. The ground and the grass were soft and cool under my back, just as I liked.

I couldn’t say that my life was the best one out there, though I knew I had it better than some. At least I had a roof over my head and bread on my table. I knew there were people out there who didn’t have that much and get beaten even more than I do.

That still didn’t stop me from thinking about my lot. When your job was to look after grazing goats all day long, you had a lot of time to think about stuff. Other shepherd boys often slept under the sun, but I didn’t dare to. If my father came to check on me and found me dozing off, he’d give me a good trashing for sure.

There were five goats in my father’s herd. Once I gave them all names, but then my father beat that out of me when I cried over a goat butchered for meat one winter. So now they were just goat one, goat two, goat three, goat four and goat five.

At least I could count this far and read everything that was in my character sheet, not that there was much. I liked to open it from time to time and imagine what cool abilities could be there if I was an adventurer and had a class. I’d run away to become one if I wasn’t so young. But just in two more years I’d be sixteen, and that was old enough, I was sure.

I took another look at the goats from where I lay in a shadow of a lone oak. They grazed without care, but none felt the need to wander off. I turned my eyes to the sky again. When I looked up there, I could almost imagine it weren’t clouds that moved, but myself. That I was on a ship or on a cart, travelling towards a new, exciting adventure. I could stare at the clouds all day long.

I had to look at the goats too, though, from time to time. I lifted my eyes again to check if they were still together. They were, but just when I thought to lie back down, I spotted something in the grass. Alarmed, I sat up and tried to look better.

There weren’t many predators in the meadows, and none attacked the herds in the spring, but in winter it wasn’t uncommon for hungry wolves or foxes to come to feast on farm animals. It wasn’t the season now, but if there was just a chance…

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The creature blended well with the grass thanks to its own green colouring. I only saw a hint of it—something just a little smaller than me, and vaguely lizard-like—before it dashed towards the goats with a thunderous sound.

Only a second later, I realised it came from the creature’s insect-like wings, but it was too late by then. The goats, scared by its presence, scattered with panicked bleats, except for the one that was too slow to do it.

The creature landed on the goat’s back, sinking its claws into its neck. The goat wailed in pain, and this was the sound that made me move.

With a scream that overshadowed the goat’s, I ran towards home. “Monster! Monster! Help, there’s a monster!” I kept shouting until my throat became hoarse. My heart threatened to leap through my throat with each beat, and I didn’t even remember how I ran all the way from the pastures to the village.

Just one moment I was less than a couple dozen steps away from the monster, and the next moment I was in the village, with everyone gathering around to listen and with tears threatening to spill through my eyes. I held those in. Men didn’t cry—only girls and wimps did. I wasn’t a girl, and wimps got beaten, and not just by my father.

“There was a monster! It came from nowhere and just went right for the goats! It looked like a lizard, but with wings, like a beetle!” I repeated over and over. “Please, we have to stop it before it eats the goats.”

The goats. Somehow, I was sure that if all the men went now, we could stop the monster from eating the goats. The goats were a priority. My father only had five, and goats weren’t cheap ever since last year’s poor harvests.

“What kind of monster is this?”

“Like a lizard? Is this a kobold, then?”

“Who heard about a kobold with wings?”

“Who cares? It’s just a single creature. Men, take your pitchforks and sickles, let’s go take him before it comes for children instead!”

“Yes! Hector, come with us, lead the way!”

I didn’t want to see the monster again, but I shoved that wimpy fear away and followed the gathered crowd before my father heard what was going on. At this time of the day, it was too early for him to be drunk asleep, so he must’ve been in the fields, too far to come soon.

Better for me. It would be much easier to explain everything to him later, when we caught the monster and saved all the goats. I kept thinking this to myself all the way back to the pastures. It wasn’t the long one.

The sight of it threatened to break my hopes. Not a single goat was in sight, and neither was the monster.

“The goats… the goats must’ve ran away after the monster scared them,” I said, hoping against all hope. “Please, help me gather them!”