This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people or locations is unintentional. Click here to start at the beginning.

Interlude

Ten years ago... summertime before The Troubles.

~ 

The children pulled her through the house, bubbling with excitement.

“Look!”

Outside the window nine Bighorn Sheep grazed, all rams with curling horns bigger than the children’s awe-struck faces.

“Aha! You have found one of my secrets! Eldest Gruff keeps his family hidden here.”

She had to smile at the sudden frowns of puzzlement.

“Have you heard the story of the Brothers Gruff?”

They shook their heads.

“Well then, let’s go out to the deck and I’ll tell you the story if you help me snap green beans. Deal?”

“Yes!” They bolted through the house, racing each other ahead of her.

~

The oldest ram with broken and scarred horns curled his lip and raised his head high to scent the air. One by one the other rams raised their heads and froze. The children peered over the deck railing and giggled at the odd tableau.

“Come over here you little rascals. Leave them alone. Let’s get started with the green beans and I’ll tell you the story of Eldest Brother Gruff and his family.”

~

Once upon a time there were three little lambs who lived far and far away above the icy fjords of Norway, and the name of all three was "Gruff." Their mother told them to go up to the hillside to make themselves fat and strong on the sweet grass that grows high on the mountains during midsummer.

On the way up was a tumbling creek they had to cross, and the only bridge was a huge old pine tree that had fallen many years ago. Under the bridge lived a great ugly brown bear, with big black eyes, and a nose as long as your arm!

So first of all came the youngest Gruff. He stopped on the boulder field before the creek and thought carefully about what to do before he began to cross the bridge.

"Trip, trap, trip, trap!" went his little hooves on the old pine trunk.

"Who's that tripping over my bridge?" roared the bear.

"Oh, it is only I, the tiniest little lamb Gruff, and I'm going up to the mountainside to make myself fat," said the lamb, with such a small voice.

"Aha! Now, I'm coming to gobble you up," said the bear, and little rocks slithered and slid and tumbled into the edge of the water as he shifted his bulky body to get up.

"Oh, no! Please don't eat me, you won't get fat for winter on my skinny bones - I'm too little," said the lamb. "Wait a bit, until my big brother Gruff comes. He's much bigger than I am."

"Well," huffed the bear, "that is reasonable enough. Be off with you!"

Littlest Gruff scrambled up the mountainside, safe as can be.

A little while later, there came the second little lamb Gruff, and he stopped and thought about what he might say to safely cross the bridge.

"Trip, trap, trip, trap, trip, trap," went his hooves on the old pine trunk.

"Who's that tripping over my bridge?" roared the bear.

"Oh, it's the second little lamb Gruff, and I'm going up to the mountainside to make myself fat," said the lamb, who hadn't such a small voice.

"Aha! Now I'm coming to gobble you up," said the bear, and little rocks slithered and slid and tumbled into the edge of the water as he rumbled and grumbled about his old bones and this damp, trying to get up.

"Oh, no! Don't take me. I'm hardly worth the trouble for you to get up from your comfortable bed. Wait a little until Eldest Brother Gruff comes. He's much, much bigger than I am."

"Is he? If he's so much bigger than you, he might be very tough, and my old teeth are sore from chewing the old elk who crossed my bridge last week."

"Oh no - he's just as tender as I am."

"Very well! Get off my bridge you scrawny little lamb" said the bear, settling back into the shadows.

But just then up came Eldest Brother Gruff. He saw his younger brothers in the bilberry bushes above the bridge, watching him with wide eyes. 

"Clip-clomp, clip-clomp, clip-clomp!" went his hooves on the old pine trunk - for Eldest Brother Gruff was hardly a lamb anymore, he was a ram! And the old pine trunk creaked and groaned under him.

"Who's that clomping over my bridge?" roared the bear.

"It is I! Eldest Brother Gruff," said the ram, who had an ugly, gravely, growly voice of his own.

"Aha! It's you is it? You are the one I've been waiting for!" and all the little rocks slithered and slid and tumbled into the water and the shadows heaved and rose.

A long brown nose was followed by a brown mass of fur bigger than the boulders in the field below. His eyes gleamed and his yellow teeth glowed in the fading light.

"Now I'm coming to gobble you up!" roared the bear.

But Eldest Brother Gruff was not at all frightened. 

"So you're a bear, are you?" He stomped his hooves and the great pine trunk shook.

"Well, come a long then! I have two curling stones and I'll crush you to bits, body and bones!"

That was what the big ram said. With a huff and a snort, he lowered his head and his big curling horns and rammed into the bear. The old brown bear slashed those horns and broke off chunks that clattered and crashed into the creek below - but Eldest Brother Gruff was quick and nimble and kept his hooves on the old pine trunk. He charged and charged and crushed that bear - crushed him to bits, body and bones. 

His brothers laughed and danced, but Eldest Brother Gruff looked down at the old bear, sorry to see him gone. 

Eldest Brother Gruff turned to his family and said, "Go and fetch our mother and sisters. Call our cousins and uncles and every sheep you can find. Call them up the mountainside. The last brown bear is dead and gone. The grass is sweet and we can grow fat, but that's no fun. Let us go up the mountain, to the highest peak, and find that place between the clouds. There is a new land, beyond the setting sun, where the grass grows sweet and long. Our old enemy has cousins living there. Many cousins, who will play our games for centuries to come."

Along the trail between the clouds, the snow was deep and the ice so cold, it would freeze the fur right off of their hides. Their long curly wool got shorter and shorter. The journey was long, and hard beyond imagining. They dug in the snow with their noses, sitting and laying down where they could to chew their cud. And so it was their fur froze in these places, and when they came down into these mountains it grew back in patches of white. 

She paused for effect, trying to keep a straight face while the children puzzled over her words.

"Eldest Brother Gruff has lived longer than any sheep alive. You can always tell it's him because of the scars of the old bear on his horns and the look in his eye when he wants to talk to you."

"Bighorn Sheep don't talk!" Jack burst out.

"Yes they do," she drew them closer with a gesture.

"Bhaaa-aa-a-a" she pushed her voice as deep as it would go and cocked an eyebrow at the children, cupping a hand to her ear.

Bhaaa-aa-a-a came the raspy response from the Bighorn rams milling on the front lawn.

Celeste rolled over giggling. Jack's eyes were big as saucers.

"Eldest Brother Gruff is busy teaching his new brothers how to be clever and strong before hunting season. They love to play tricks on anyone who might eat them - bears, mountain lions, or you and I."

"Why don't they just eat the alfalfa in the field with the elk?" Jack was frowning again.

"Life is no fun without a cliff to run up, or a predator to trick. Challenge and risk make life worth living. Bighorn sheep are never bored. Watch them up at your house and see if I'm right."

 

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