“Er– Mrs. Atell, I really–”

“–Then you know what he said to me?” Mrs. Iseul Atell plundered on without hearing the monk. “He said that he could listen to me talk all day and that suited him fine! Which was just about the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me! How is your tea? Too warm? Too cold? I’ll put on more hot water just in case!”

“N-No, no, thank you, Mrs. Atell. We just came from-”

“Oh goodness, where is Ciaran? I sent Binna out to get my husband and her brother ages ago! Sorry to keep you waiting. While it isn’t our busiest time of year work certainly does seem to keep finding a way into our lives. Just this morning we had a sheep wander off and– Oh, that must be why they are taking so long coming back if they are having trouble finding the–”

“Mrs. Atell,” Lou raised his voice carefully. He was all too aware it wouldn’t take much to loose his superior, booming voice ability from Reckish. “Please do not feel the need to hurry your husband and son. I know we stopped by unannounced. I was just–”

“–Oh but it’s so rare we have company! And I was looking forward to meeting you ever since I heard that you–” Iseul Atell dove right back in, cutting Lou off while carrying on speaking without needing to take a breath.

“Mrs. Atell.” Lou’s interruption filled the quaint cottage home, startling Benny and even Iseul into stopping and looking at him. The monk smiled awkwardly. He’d tried to restrain himself but Benny hadn’t been joking about Iseul Attell’s long winded speeches. He decided with her attention momentarily captured, he’d get to the point and hope against all hopes that he and Benny could escape in the near future. “Mrs. Atell, the reason I came today was to extend a formal invitation to my sermons. I know Mrs. Kelly and Mrs. Duffy would appreciate your… vivacious presence.”

Benny cleared his throat in such a way that it sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

“W-Well isn’t that kind of you, Brother! You know, I’m a little ashamed to admit that I am not entirely sure of the meaning of the word ‘vivacious’, but I can tell you mean it in a nice way! Benny, dear, would you like some water? I just knew the tea was too hot, goodness. What kind of hostess am I that I didn’t think to warn you how hot the water was!”

Lou decided to let the woman carry on for another little while before attempting to interrupt her. Especially as the monk felt relieved over the fact that she took loud interruptions all in stride…

Poor Benny on the other hand had his lips twitching fiercely as he struggled against laughing.

While Lou may have been just starting to settle into his seat at the Atell family kitchen table, the front door to his left burst open, interrupting Iseul as she started talking about the best and worst pastries to serve with tea.

The interruption was thanks to a young girl, perhaps twelve years old, with long, straight black hair that reached her hips, with dark slanted eyes like her mother– though her paler skin was closer to most of the residents of the mainland of the empire of Birming.

“Mum! Dad needs help! Something is really really wrong with the sheep!” the young girl panted, her brow shining with sweat.

Benny was up out of his seat in an instant. “I can go. Brother Lou, feel free to stay here,” he called over his shoulder as he hastily made his way to the door.

Iseul’s hand found her chest and she let out a breath of appreciation. “Goodness! Thank the gods you happened to be here, Benny, you know I don’t really have a way with animals the way you and Ciaran do!”

Benny gave an absent minded wave over his shoulder as he followed Iseul’s daughter, Binny, out to where her father and brother most likely needed help.

“Now, Brother Lou, you had mentioned our family joining your congregation, and, while at first I wanted to say no, I have to admit, knowing that Maureen and Bryn are going makes me think it’d be a good idea if I were there. I don’t like the old residents any more than the rest of us original settlers, but to be quite honest with you, I don’t like that we should feel chased out of a place of worship for the Gods!”

Lou opened his mouth to agree, but found himself reminded in no time that he didn’t need to be an active participant in the conversation. Particularly as the main purpose and message of his visit had been carried out already. So he settled into his seat, enjoying the aroma of the peppermint tea, and allowed himself to tune in and out of Iseul’s steady stream of conversation that, at the very least, followed a familiar rhythm that became quite soothing once the pressure to interrupt was removed.

However after the better part of an hour had passed, Lou started to eye the fine grandfather clock that sat flush against the wall beside the hall that most likely led to the family’s bedrooms, and wondered if everything was going alright with the runaway sheep.

Surprisingly, Iseul noticed this move as she finished dicing the tomatoes from her garden for dinner.

“I’m getting a little worried about them out there. It isn’t like Benny and Ciaran to have troubles with the sheep.”

Lou stood, though he noted that his lower back ached with stiffness having been sitting at the kitchen table for the better part of the afternoon…

“Perhaps Benny and Mr. Atell are simply having a lengthy chat themselves. I’ll go look for them to see if there are any issues. Do you happen to know which direction they might be?”

Iseul opened her mouth to reply, when once again the door burst open, this time revealing a small nine year old boy who looked a great deal like his sister.

“B-Benny…” the boy panted heavily. “Says… Br-Brother Lou… Should come…!” The poor lad was doubled over, the gray shirt he wore drenched down his back with sweat.

“Oh dear! Junior, is everything alright? What is happening? Is something wrong with the sheep? Is he ill, or-”

“Come on!” Junior, all too familiar and used to his mother’s conversation tendencies, lunged for Lou’s hand and dragged him forward with all the strength his wiry little body could muster.

Feeling his senses prickle, Lou didn’t waste any time asking questions, and instead hurried after the boy.

They darted across the picturesque green fields, the sunny day disappearing behind a thick wall of clouds that had rolled in while Lou was inside the Atell’s house. Junior was struggling to keep going, his steps thumping down heavier and heavier as his stamina waned. His gasps had Lou worrying that the child was going to pass out from exertion.

Something truly terrible must have happened…

It was a lone sheep, right?

Why in the world would Benny have asked him to come…?

By the time Junior and Lou could see the lush treeline across the field belonging to the forest that wove down the land in a ribbon– spanning all the way to Lou’s own house– the occasional droplet of rain was splattering their cheeks.

Junior stopped in his tracks, collapsed to all fours, his breaths consuming his being. Yet he still managed to raise a weak hand, and point toward the nearest shrubbery that bordered the woods, just through one of the gates to the pastures.

“I’ll go check on your father and Benny, you make sure to rest,” Lou reminded the lad sternly as he continued in the direction Junior had pointed.

At first he wasn’t even sure Benny or Mr. Atell were there, as not a sound could be heard other than Lou’s own footfalls in the grass… that is until a man of average height, with sandy brown hair, stumbled out of the bushes while pressing Binny ahead of himself.

Lou took a guess and presumed that the man was Mr. Atell.

“Pardon me?” the monk called out.

Mr. Atell whipped around, his grasp around his daughter’s shoulders turning protective, his eyes wild with fright until he registered who was approaching.

“Thank the gods! Brother Lou, right? Please, please go help Benny! The sheep has been demon touched!”

Lou froze in his tracks, his heart thudding against his chest. “Are you certain?”

“Yes! Yes! Sheep don’t usually have red eyes or sharp teeth!” the man hollered frantically.

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“It moves so fast! I think it’s going to eat Benny!” Binna wailed, tears already rolling down her face.

That was all the confirmation Lou needed before moving as quickly as possible into the foliage without thinking nearly as much as he should have about proceeding with caution.

Once through the brush, and fully encased in the woods, Lou peered around, his nerves humming with excitement.

Gods… this is a trial isn’t it? I know that Zeviras said they wouldn’t tell me when they’d happen, but how can this not be a trial? What if Benny gets hurt because of me?!

As Lou progressed deeper into the cool, shaded woods, he began to feel a presence he had never experienced before…

It felt…

Awful.

As though something was watching him, surrounding him… Like an uneasy, horrible, sickening being wanted to drag him into one of the layers of hell.

Without any shadow of a doubt, Lou knew evil was nearby.

And the second he acknowledged that fact, he felt power thrum in his being. Power that, against the oppressive atmosphere, felt like salvation. As though there was still a measure of goodness within him that could offer protection…

A sudden crunch and pattering of footstops had Lou jolting in alarm as he watched Benny leap down from a nearby pine tree, and start to dart to a thorny thicket when he caught sight of the monk.

“Oh thank the Gods you’re here! Do you know how to– oh no!” Benny bolted into the thorns just in time for a blur of fluffy wool to chase after him.

Lou gaped as the animal bleated and… snarled.

Its noises became more and more demonic the harder it struggled to wriggle its way through the thorns after his prey.

Lou gulped, and despite feeling like a fool who had no clue what the hell he was doing, decided he couldn’t just wait and strategize what to do, he had to help Benny.

Facing the wagging, wooly rump of the demon touched sheep that was half stuck amongst the thorns, Lou could see Benny desperately trying to push his way through the bristled knots away from the animal.

Not having any better ideas come to him at that moment, Lou reached down, seized the sheep’s backside and half flung it out of the thicket, well aware that his superior strength was the only thing giving him the ability to do such a thing.

The sheep shrieked, and as it whirled and skidded in the dirt, it tried to round on the monk, only one of its hooves to get caught on an errant tree root, making it stumble.

“Benny, stay in there! Is there a-a-a weapon of some kind?!” Lou shouted while carefully backing away from the sheep that did indeed have red eyes, and razor sharp front teeth…

“No, I–ow– I don’t carry one with me, and Mr. Atell didn’t have one when I arrived!”

Lou’s mind raced for another solution as the sheep began to paw the ground.

“Are there hunter traps or, or a swamp, or something useful nearby?!” he cried out just as the sheep charged him like a raging bull, forcing Lou to leap out of the way.

Amazingly, the sheep had bolted blindly, and once Lou had removed himself from its path, the animal wound up running head first into the trunk of an old maple tree.

“There’s a cliff! It drops down into the river! Brother Lou, don’t you know any prayers or anything that could help the sheep?!” Benny insisted while still fully immersed in the thorns.

Lou was saved having to immediately answer as the sheep darted for him after having quickly recovered from his crash.

However the beast was starting to gnash its teeth a little too close to Lou’s ankles, and so in a fit of desperation, Lou swung his foot out, kicked the wooly monster, and watched as the sheep sailed through the air, baa’ing along its airborne journey deep into the forest, the demon element in it too startled to let it out a sound.

Lou stared wide-eyed in the direction the sheep had disappeared.

He’d just punted the animal so far into the woods he couldn't even see it…

“Brother Lou? Brother Lou are you alright?! Are you hurt?! Ow… ow…” A series of crunches and rustlings sounded behind the monk.

Luckily, there was no way that Benny could have seen the inhuman strength Lou had just used to send off the demon touched beast.

“What’s happening?! Where’s the sheep?!” Benny looked around frantically, a scrape across his left cheek already beading with blood.

“Oh… erm… I… prayed and it… ran away. I think it might come back though…”

Benny turned to look at Lou with a frown. “Can’t you just keep praying then? Isn’t there a way to save the sheep?”

Lou pressed his lips together and squinted his eyes. “Only priests learn how to exorcize those that have been demon touched… and, well, I am not trained as a priest.” It wasn’t really a lie… he hadn’t been trained as a priest yet!

“Gods I feel terrible…” Benny caught his breath while looking into the shadowy woods for the possessed farm animal.

“I’m sorry to say that I think it’d be best if we simply killed the sheep,” Lou reached up and gently clasped Benny’s shoulder.

The Oxby local swallowed and twisted his mouth unhappily. “Poor thing. I wonder what great sin was committed that a demon touched appeared…” Benny’s shoulders slumped.

Lou’s mouth felt dry and his stomach queasy.

I’m sorry Benny, the gods like to torture me, and so they decided to create a demon touched sheep for me to battle…

A demonic roar echoed from the depths of the forest snapping both the men’s attentions toward the north.

“I think we better go get a proper weapon. I don’t think my… prayers… will work this time,” Lou turned to Benny quickly.

If he needed to fight the sheep again, he couldn’t do it in front of any witnesses.

Benny rounded on the monk, his brows lowered in concern.

“I’m not leaving you here to die!”

Lou dropped his hand from the younger man’s shoulder, and forced what he hoped appeared to be a calm smile on his face. “Benny, my prayer’s may work again, and in the meantime, we need a weapon. It’s best if you go. Besides, I bet you’re faster than I am.”

Benny opened his mouth to object, but another terrifying bellow stopped him, and prompted Lou to reach out and forcibly turn him around.

“Off you go, and hurry, please! I’ll try to lure it over the cliff you mentioned in the meantime. What direction is it?”

With his feet finally moving back in the direction of the Atell’s house, Benny pointed with a wince over his shoulder. “The way it ran into the woods. North.”

Lou bit his tongue and nodded, still keeping his serene mask in place.

“Well then, I suppose we have our tasks. May the gods mind your feet.”

“And yours.” Benny gave an uncertain smile, then looked forward, and took off in a sprint.

With the Oxby local no longer nearby, Lou let out a long breath. “Right… Time to finish off this day with evil infused mutton chops…”