Once there had been a shepherd with sheep on a great, green field. Among his sheep was a beautiful ewe, her coat was sparkling gold of groomed curls with hooves as if polished ivory. The Shepherd also took on an apprentice, a boy who verily loved to play with the fellow children in the nearest towns wherever they so went.
One day the Shepherd decided he must leave on pilgrimage. The Shepherd said to the Boy, "You must remember to cut the Sheep's hoof, so that she does not tumble, & to shear the Sheep's wool in a month's time, so that it does not soil." So thus did the Shepherd take leave of his flock. The Boy himself left for the nearest town as swiftly as the Shepherd had gone from sight.
A month passed & the Sheep's hoof was not cut. Though she pleated as he passed the Boy paid it no heed. Games of merriment & revelry filled this day.
A month passed & the Sheep's coat was not sheared. Though she pleated as he passed the Boy paid it no heed. Games of merriment & revelry filled another day.
A month passed & the Sheep pleated no more. A hoarse croak hit upon the Boy & he took heed of what had made it. A mottled coat of brown stood on long stilts of chipped gray hoof, it was an ugly animal of wretched state. "You cannot be my master's sheep! For where is your golden fleece or polished hoof!?" cried the Boy, "Away with you! You despoil the flock!" The Sheep unsteadily fled the Shepherd's field, but her shadow stayed where it lay. The Shadow irritated the Boy but the Shadow would not leave no matter what the Boy said or did. With a huff the Boy went to town once more.
On his way the Boy rested in shade of a tree. From the Tree the Boy heard a soft voice, venerable & kindly. "You have hurt your master's flock & brought curse upon yourself. Worry not for I shall shield you from your err this time, but do not travel in shadows again lest your own catch up to you." The Boy did not heed the tree & ran with the village children through alley & bush. A foul thing raised before him out of the dark. It had his limbs but elongated, larger yet thinner beneath a matted coat of oil-slicked black with fingers ending each in hooves. The Boy moved to demand it leave, to scream it away, but found he could not speak as the Shadow wrapped a lengthy tongue 'round his neck. It is there, staring into a face like his own smashed with an ewe of stunted muzzle, did he see the sunken, begging eyes. The Boy escaped when a child of the village he was friendly to assaulted the thing's side. The Boy ran, far & long, until he reached the Tree.
The Boy threw himself beside the Tree to beg for its advice, but the Tree had already given answer once & nary would it waste a warning again. As the mark from that thing's fetid tongue seemed to spread 'cross his shoulder did the Boy run off feeling sickly. The shade were growing long, the wound gnawed upon his life, & the Boy had seen hollow eyes in near' e'ry shadow. With time growing ever shorter the Boy cried out "Oh Sheep! It was wrong of me to send you away! It was wrong of me to have not cared for you! I cannot leave you in such a state for the Shepherd! Please, come out!"
Ho, there stood the Sheep from the dark. With a coat of soot on gnarled stilts, the Shepherd's sheep wabbled downhill toward the Boy. With night closing the Boy tended to the Sheep, cutting hoof & shearing coat. The Boy spent the last glimmers of light taking the Sheep down to the river to wash her ears & scrub her softly, beholding the glittering gold that had been unearthed. There the Boy sat, awaiting his haunter. The Shadow never showed again, though the mark upon his neck always stung the thing with sunken eyes were not seen nor felt.
With the fleece sheared he carefully treated its volume, pulling threads & washing it through. Each day he spent all his time grooming out the golden wool or tending the Sheep, wishing his fellows well but away while he tended the results of his prior faults. Many an individual thread were tediously untangled by his tireless hand.
The Sheperd returned to his sheep as beautiful as he left her. On this, praises were hefted upon the Boy but he declined & lowered himself to the mercy he had been granted. The Shepherd followed in his own gratitude at having returned safely to his flock.
Though some faults remained even after the Boy's great efforts, the fleece was salvaged & the Boy was forgiven easily with his honesty.
Some seasons later the Boy was given a golden lamb born of the Sheep & would grow to tend his own flock of equal majesty. The Boy, the Lamb, the Sheep, & the Shepherd would all live well forever on.
There is a note roughly scribbled beside the story in the page's edge: "This appears to be a story of the origin of a mogher, a Fell fiend. Cross reference bestiary later."