The Traveling Stray Sheep Bar

Stories at the sheep 1

It was a rather uneventful evening at the central library of Laistin! Lorsan the librarian was tending to his evening duties, that is, stashing away the returned books. He was looking through the books on the cart, figuring out where they belonged. It was the 13th year that Lorsan served as head librarian at the central library, by now he knew pretty much all the sections and floors by heart and knew where each book belonged just by seeing its title. 

Most people did not know, however, that the library at night was a miraculous place. Books, each written with their own story or spells had an influence on reality. Each book tried to bring its story to life and so the books were categorized and stored in a way to keep each other in check. Books were stored in alphabetical order by name, but in a way that each next book canceled the effects of the previous. 

As head Librarian, Lorsan had gotten to see some interesting things in the library at night. He was a wise, younger Elezen, in his 30s, having been serving at the library since he was 19, he had become the head librarian at the age of 25. The evening went by and the cart slowly became void of books, only 1 remained. He picked it up and smiled – “Well, little book? What story do you tell?” he spoke to the book as he dusted it off with his hand and read the title. 

‘The traveling Stray Sheep Bar of Rison’ He smiled as he flipped the book open to the foreword and read it out loud “The Stray Sheep Bar traveled from world to world, from city to city, until one day it ended up on a world at war with mighty being, dragons! A brave traveler from another world found himself standing before the bar counter, looking into the eyes of a beautiful bartender as she explained to him the task.” 

“Eolroth the destroyer of cities is said to be approaching our town! O brave traveler won’t you be able to assist us?” said the bartender to Lorsan who found himself standing in a bar, much like the one you see here today. Mina spoke again “Hello?” Lorsan blinked at her in disbelief – “Uhhm… Pardon me… what?” Mina smiled – “Oh, I was saying Eolroth the destroyer of cities is approaching! Are you not the heroic traveler sent here to save our city?”

Lorsan nodded and then grinned, thinking to himself – ‘I got absorbed by the book, yet again.’ He looked around at the many patrons of the bar and then back at the beautiful barkeep – “Aye, miss, I shall handle Eolroth! When is he estimated to arrive?” Mina smiled and let out a sigh of relief – “Last we heard from our patrons, he was no more than a week’s travel time from here”. Lorsan chugged his drink and slammed the mug on the table – “Aha! I shall find the bravest warriors to stand beside me in this uneasy task!” 

And thus Lorsan, an elezen librarian, a pacifist at heart, although excellent at magic arts, found himself the protagonist of a story. In a decade as a librarian, he had only been absorbed into another story once before, a short children’s story. ‘How does one fight a dragon?’ he pondered as he tried to recall other books he read before. 

To his surprise, he spoke fluently the language of this world, and despite it being late evening, found a good amount of people strolling down the streets. “Hey, hey you” spoke a grunting voice from the shadows around the alley’s corner. Lorsan paused a few paces away and squinted at the shadows, unable to see who stood there, only a vague shape, a vague, wobbly shake, of a man in trench coat. Hood covering his face

The wobbly man took a step back and leaned against the wall around the corner – “We.. uhh.. i “ he spoke in a grunting voice – “I am the Sha… Sh…” a quiet whisper, barely audible came from somewhere in the man’s vicinity – “Sherold god damn it, Sherold”. “I am Sherold the shadow dealer!” said the weird wobbly man – “Seek you help, information or anything else? I have all you could desire” 

*****Audience Input*****

Vikiridi Mikwel: (And now a question for the audience. Would our protagonist try to strike a deal with the suspicious shady dealer? or walk past him?)

Nagisa Shokushu: I like shady deals, what could go wrong?!

Mina KimuraLich: “Do it!”

Ashlandis KahkolZodiark: “I vote the same!”

Thidious SoroZodiark: Yeah, whats the worst that could happen.

Hotholion DrakonicLich: Eat the dealer!

Nia RoseZodiark: Make a deal. Nothing ever goes wrong 😀

**********

Lorsan approached Sherold the shadow dealer and nodded, speaking in a quiet tone, but being cautious, he prepared a spell to cast instantly in case something went awry. “I … seek mercenaries! And information” said Lorsan in a hush tone while examining his surroundings. The alley was narrow and dark, the main street on which he stood had people strolling on it still, so he kept his tone down. 

The dealer responded but his voice broke momentarily, sounding almost childish for a moment- “Nice!” he coughed and then the deep grunt returned – “Nice nice! What information does though seek?” Lorsan raised his eyebrow in confusion but continued “I ought to slay the might Eolroth! The dragon! I need to know which weapons and artifacts I need! I ought to know whom to hire for the job too!” 

The dealer nodded – “Yes..yes! I will sell this information to you for a low price of 50 go…” he let out a pained whimper as if he was pinched suddenly – “70! Seventy gold coins, no less!” Lorsan reached out around his belt and found a coin purse, pulling it open, inside, were dull metal-looking coins. He took one out and held it out, examining it in the dim street-lantern light. The man’s voice broke again- “ONE PLATINUM WILL DO!” before he coughed again 

The shady man grunted – “ugh.. Fine… i’ll tell you for 1 platinum..” Lorsan pulled his hand away and grinned – “oh no, no no! For this much, I demand more than that. Tell me the direction to the library. The dealer chuckled – “Of course friend!” his, surprisingly short hand reached for the coin, but alas it was too far for him to grab – “The…the… Nightfall Mercenaries will take on the task for a few of those coins” began the dealer

“The dragon need not be slain however” the dealer said, with an obvious smile in his voice before his glance quickly darted to the coin, and then returned back to the ground – “Ugh, well, I won’t tell you more” Lorsan sighed and took out 2nd coin, holding both of them, an arm’s length away from the suspicious dealer – “And now?” the dealer’s voice broke once more- “Of course sire!! The dragon can be sealed away by the empire’s wizards! But they cost more than mercenaries! Still, the beast will be put to sleep and released later into a sanctuary!” 

The dealer held his surprisingly short and small hand out – “Pay up!” demanded he – “Or else!” Lorsan, almost having put the coins in the dealers hand, pulled away in the last moment, which made the 3 lalafell inside the trench coat lose their balance as the middle 1 tried to reach for the coin. Awkwardly tumbling to the ground. Childish pained groans filled the street – “YOU IDIOT!” shouted one of them “SHUT UP! WE NEED THE MONEY” demanded the other one. 

Lorsan took a step back and stared at the 3 lalafel on the ground – “as I suspected!” the three of them quickly got up and lined up, making an angry face – “Yeah!? So what? Intel is true so pay up!” said the 1 one in the middle as he held his hand out. Lorsan nodded – “yeah yeah” as he dropped 2 coins into his hand and then looked down the street – “And… nearest library is where?” before he could turn back, all he heard was the sound of tiny footsteps and chuckling. 

The 3 lalas burst into a sprint, running away, awkwardly dragging the large trench coat behind them. Lorsan sighed and continued down the street. To his surprised, or maybe not really a surprise, considering he was a protagonist of a story now, the story lined up for him to succeed by the looks of things. The library was found just down the street. Lorsan quickly found himself searching for the book that had absorbed him, ‘The traveling Stray Sheep Bar of Rison’. 

To his surprise, he found the book!  He flipped it open to the middle, and the book was empty… he checked the end and it was empty. He flipped through the pages and on the earlier pages he found text. Upon reading the text, he realized the story was as it was happening to him. He was writing the story through his actions. ‘What an odd, curious magical story I found myself inside of’ thought Lorsan to himself before returning the book to its rightful place on the shelf. 

*****Audience Input*****

Thidious SoroZodiark: What if he writes something in the book ?

**********

A strange abnormality he noticed was the lack of desire to sleep, eat, or even drink. “Perks of being a protagonist in a book I guess,” he said out loud. A voice echoed from behind the shelf, and a pencil flew over the shelf and landed on the floor beside him – “Write something”. Lorsan, shocked at first, stood frozen in place, before suddenly dashing to the end of the aisle and turning the corner to see who spoke to him. To his surprise or lack of thereof, the next aisle over was completely empty. 

He returned to the book, took it off the shelf, and flipped it open once more, to the empty page. Picking the pencil up from the floor he wrote, slightly nervously ‘and there was thunder outside’. A loud thunderclap, a blinding flash of lighting. The thunder roared and the building shook. His eyes widened as he stood, awestruck by what just happened. “Who… who spoke to me?” he looked around, but the library was void of any other life besides his own. 

*****Audience Input*****

Vikiridi Mikwel: (what shall he try to write next??)

Ashlandis Kahkol: “A dragon gf?”

Nagisa Shokushu: “Borger, fries and a coke”

Ashlandis KahkolZodiark: “At least a cute magical sheep?”

Nia Rose: The weapon to defeat the dragon appears before him.

Theox Terrin: “Dragon is getting choked out”

Thidious Soro: I’m actually curious where the story would go if he wrote the thing with the dragon gf.

**********

And so he wrote – ‘And a weapon to defeat the mighty beast appeared before him, and then the dragon turned gorgeous humanoid and became his girlfriend’. And before him, out of thin air, in a small puff of fog, a sheep appeared. A cute little lamb that baah’ed at him. Confused by the appearance of the sheep he closed the book and put it back on the shelf “I thinkIi should not mess with the flow of the timeline and story any more…” he looked at the sheep with confusion. 

The night passed fast, Lorsan spent the dark hours in the library, reading through dozens of books on dragons and magic. With the magic sheep that he had previously summoned, turning his chair and table into a pile of plushies. A strange power that seemingly turned less comfortable things into cute, comfortable, piles of plushies. 

The morning came and he returned to the Stray Sheep Bar where he had originally appeared. Mina greeted him with a mug of mead which he drank despite having no thirst. As he sat down on the barstool, the sheep, following him, hit the stool with its hoof and it too turned into a pile of plush toys, sending Lorsan tumbling to the floor into the softness of the plushies. – “Ahhh! Stop that!”. 

Mina, stared at what happened before her with a surprised expression – “You… will pay for the chair right? And who’s your new friend?”. Lorsan got up from the floor and pulled a platinum coin out, placing it on the table and sliding it towards Mina- “uuhh… I don’t know, a sheep that turns things into piles of plushies… It wouldn’t stop following me, and if I hide inside, it just magically appears next to me again.” Mina chuckled – “Will it… help you defeat the Eolroth somehow?” 

Lorsan just shrugged and turned to leave – “6 days remaining, right?” Mina nodded – “yes… the city evacuation will begin tomorrow” He looked over his shoulder, his hair almost glittering in the morning sun, beaming through the window of the bar. His teeth, nearly sparkling – “We, elezen, never fail when we’re tasked with something” 

He went out that day in search of the nightfall mercenaries, but not to kill the dragon with their aid, nay, he sought their guidance and protection to reach the Wizards of the North! The empire’s best wizards who were said to be able to seal a dragon away. Lorsan, wished to avoid blood spill, and seemingly, he had the coin to do so. The Nightfall mercenaries, with pleasure, accepted the task, and a 2 day trip later, he stood before the great wizard’s tower. A large watch tower, used by the best wizards in the empire!

In the tower wizards roamed! Or better said, they flew and ran. Brooms swept the floors on their own! Dusters fluttered around like butterflies! Books seemingly swam in the vast halls of the tower, as if schools of fish. Wizards, all seemed to be in rush for no apparent reason! “WATCH OUT!” followed by a wizard flying on a carpet suddenly veering off to the right and hitting a wall at a pretty high speed, or, he would have if he didn’t go through the wall.

An hour of the most bizarre adventure imaginable. Walking on the walls and ceiling as the halls of the tower seemingly rotated without any logic, carpets randomly taking flight, having to dodge flying books and dusters, and occasional sounds of explosions shaking the tower, Lorsan, found himself standing before a massive wooden door! Metal door! Wooden door! The door kept changing its composition..

Lorsan reached to the door to knock on it, but before his knuckles made contact with the door, the magical sheep baah’ed, and the door crumbled into a pile of plushies. Lorsan’s gaze locked on the sheep, his expression, that of concern- “I WILL…” he began but was interrupted by a young girl’s voice – “My oh my if it isn’t Mister Baahalot! ANd I was wondering where you had gone, how could you suddenly disappear like that?” exclaimed the girl as she approached the sheep

The sheep did a little stepdance as a sign of its happiness and the girl knelt down to hug it – “There there mister Baahalot! Grandpa will be sooo happy to see you again!”. He was not, a moment later, the girl took Lorsan and the sheep to her grandfather, the chief wizard  “ITS BACK? GODS SMITE ME DEAD I THOUGHT I FINALLY GOT RID OF IT FOR GOOD!!!!!” Shouted an angry wizard and threw a magic tome across the room. 

Upon impact with the wall, the tome burst into a flame and burned to ashes. The wizard shouted once more – “NO DAMN IT WHY DID I DO THAT??? Now i have to rewrite the damned tome of natural disaster prevention!!!” Lorsan stood quietly watching the wizard with obvious anger issues angry begin scribbling away on paper, mumbling to himself ‘to prevent the earthquake of magnitude of…’

“Uhm, my name is…” the wizard ignored him, the girl continued playing with the sheep and patting it. This did not discourage Lorsan as he continued his speech – …. “And so we seek the help of the greatest wizards to seal the mighty Eolroth! I have the coin to pay” the wizard paused his writing and then mumbled to himself ‘to prevent a tornado you need to throw a dragon at it…. Wait… no…’ the wizard’s gaze turned to Lorsan “YOUNG MAN YOU ARE DISTRACTING ME!”

 He shouted – “Deal with your dragon ON YOUR OWN! Throw that damned sheep at it or something I DO NOT CARE!” The girl got up – “NO! GRANDPA! You can’t just feed mister Baahalot to a dragon!” the older wizard grinned at her- “Darling I can turn you into a frog and this entire tower into a biscuit! I can do whatever I want!!!! Now LEAVE! ME! BE!” demanded the wizard as he slammed his fist on the table. 

And in doing so, the table and the wizard seemingly folded in on themselves and turned into a piece of paper that flapped away on its own. The girl stood and stared at Lorsan, who in turn, stared at the girl, in awe.  – “erhm..” said Lorsan. The girl shrugged – “I… guess I’ll accompany you… though I’m only an apprentice and likely won’t be able to seal a powerful dragon on my own, but i’ll try.” 

And so they ventured back, and readied their trap. They set on an open large field, a 500 meters away from the city. Started a massive bonfire. The nightfall mercenaries readier themselves for the potential battle against the dragon. The wizard apprentice prepared her spells. Lorsan himself learned the sealing spell from the girl to be able to assist her. And so they waited for the dragon. All the while, mister Baahalot at random turned trees around into piles of plushies as he strolled around, eating grass and bushes.

“OVERHEAD” Shouted 1 of the watchmen of the nightfall mercenaries. All eyes turned up and stared at a shape off in the distance, high in the sky. Flying at terrific speed, the shape zoomed past them. “That…that wasn’t a dragon, was that a dragon??” said 1 of the mercenaries. Lorsan shook his head- “not sure, looked more like a pig to me… ear…flapping…flying pig…” he shook his head in disbelief of his own words. 

Another hour or so passed, and an older man strolling past their field inquired about information on a flying pig and which direction he flew in. “If mister Flapalot happens to return and take a landing here, please hold him before I can get to him!! That damned rascal always runs away from responsibilities!” said the old man and left. Lorsan, confused even more by the recent events, no longer believed in the success of the sealing, or slaying the impending doom. 

Another few hours passed in peace and silence. At last, a shape in the sky, a dragon! “Eolroth is approaching” said the apprentice wizard. Her wand in hand, her robes fastened, her gaze fixated on the approaching threat. Lorsan nodded – “Aye.. Alright Nightfall, you step in if we fail to seal the beast, but not before then!” The preparations were complete and all that was left, was to execute the plan. Eolroth was nicknamed the destroyer of cities for a reason. Lorsan was anxious, afraid, but ready. 

The mighty dragon descended, size no smaller than a mansion, its wings reached far and wide. Its shape eclipsed the sun as it passed overhead our brave heroes, examining them before deciding whether to spew fire or to land. The dragon did another pass. Each pass of it was followed by a gust of wind, mighty as a hurricane. The dragon landed in the forest and slowly stepped toward the open field of the obvious trap. 

Its snout lowered to the ground, to take a better look a the puny humans before it. Its nose twitched as it took a deep sniff, and then another. – “Well, attack me” a voice echoed in the heads of everybody present. Nervous shuffling, and deafening silence, before at last, a mumbled voice reading a spell filled the void of silence. The dragon’s attention snapped to the wizard girl who was reading a spell and stuttering. 

The dragon sneered as it took a step closer. Its eye, magnificent ember colored, size of a window, stared at the wizard girl who was now so nervous she kept misspeaking the words of the spell. “And by the smell…sm…sp..spell of the internal…e..t..eternal improvement! Impri…sonment! COULD YOU NOT BE SO CLOSE????” 

the girl snapped at the mighty beast before her. The mighty beast before her got pushed away by a powerful gust, sending the beast back a few meters, but in addition to the push, the dragon’s scales shone brighter than ever before! A relaxing, delicious, sweet aroma of flowers filled the air. A pink-colored fog stretched over the field, which seemingly carried the smell. 

The dragon stared at the wizard in silence, then took another sniff, and then burst out into a laughter- “BWHAHAHA! Thanks for the improvement to my scales!” the dragon rose on its hind legs and stretched its massive wings. Its scales shone and glittered like the drops of dew in the morning sun. The most beautiful of creatures stood before them now, reared up like a wild horse, but not to intimidate them. The dragon examined its wings and scales and then lowered itself back to all fours

– “What a wonderful spell! Had I known wizards could make me so beautiful I’d have attacked the wizard tower long ago!” The wizard apprentice growled – “LISTEN HERE YOU DUMB OVERSIZED…” Lorsan put his hand on her shoulder – “maybe… not” she slapped his hand awya- “NO! IF THAT BASTARD DID NOT STARE AT ME DISTRACTING ME HE WOULD BE IMPRISONED BY NOW!” The dragon blinked a few times at the bold claim – “I… am just doing what dragons do” 

The following screeching and shouting from the tiny human wizard was completely ignored by the dragon, whose attention was caught by the sheep. The oh so delicious looking sheep, trotting around the trees, eating grass. And, numerous piles of plushies, which stroke the dragon’s curiosity but not enough, as it was now hungry and wished for a meal. 

While Lorsan and the wizard girl argued about why it’s a bad idea to yell at a dragon nicknamed ‘destroyer of the cities’ the nightfall mercenaries made their escape realizing this situation was hopeless. At the same time, the dragon, snuck its way past the distracted elezen and human whilst they bantered, and in a single quick chomp, it consumed mister Bahalot. An audible swallow followed by a burp that threw out a fountain of plushies instead of a flame as Eolroth would’ve expected. 

Concerned by this, Eolroth turned to look at the elf and the human who suddenly turned to stare at the dragon – “NO SERIOUSLY! LOOK AT THAT THING! IT’LL EAT US ALL IF YOU DON’T CALM DOWN!” followed by – “Mmmmhh I don’t know kinda looks cute from this angle…and smaller?” Lorsan stared at the dragon as it began to shrink right before their eyes-  “Truly is smaller…” 

The dragon continued to shrink before spitting out Mr Baahalot due to its shrinking stomach size. The slimy sheep flew out of the dragon’s mouth and impacted a tree, turning it into another pile of plushies, and landing safely. (No sheep were harmed in the making of this story \0/). The dragon’s shape began to change, until eventually, before Lorsan and the wizard girl, stood a cute, female au’ra. 

Her scales still glittered beautifully in the sunlight. She examined her body with visible confusion before sitting down, wrapping her hands around her knees and angrily staring at the elezen and human before her- “W…WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? GIVE ME A ROBE OR SOMETHING!” Pouted the girl before them. Lorsan handed his coat over to her – “ahem. So urhm… that’s how you seal a dragon?” he asked. The wizard shook her head – “Not my doing! Must’ve been Mr Baahalot…??” 

The dragon girl upon dressing up in Lorsan’s coat spent a long while staring at her human finger and then sighed – “What did you idiots do to me and how do I revert this?” In that time, the wizard girl took flight and sprinted off into the forest out of fear for the dragon’s wrath. Lorsan on the other hand, found himself starstruck by the magnificent beast that turned into a gorgeous girl, and spent the following months in her company, attempting to revert her back to her original shape.

Years passed and she learned to live with her new body, accepting her new fate. In that time, she found herself in love with the gentlemanly Lorsan. Wise, literate, interesting, and attentive. They eventually wed and Lorsan, too, found himself, content with his new life, inside of a story. Which has now come to an end.