The Shepherd Boy
protagonist · human
Given a job that involves sitting still for eleven hours a day, and not remotely equipped for it.
What they are like
- Kind
- 6/10
- Brave
- 4/10
- Clever
- 5/10
- Honest
- 3/10
- Curious
- 8/10
- Patient
- 1/10
How we meet them
Bored out of his mind on a rock, throwing pebbles at nothing in particular. The job is the whole character.
Personality
Not wicked, just ten and bored out of his mind. He discovers he can make a whole village move by shouting, and it is the most interesting thing that has ever happened to him.
What they want
For something, anything, to happen.
How they change
Learns what trust actually is by spending all of it, then spends a long time earning it back.
How they speak
At the top of his voice, because it is the only thing in his entire day that produces a result.
How the story treats them
Nobody in the village is ever cruel to him. They simply stop believing him, which is worse and entirely his own doing.
One surprising thing
He is never punished by anybody at all. The consequence is purely that people carry on with their work, which is the most realistic thing in the whole collection.
If they were real today
He would set off the fire alarm once, just to see what happens, and would think about it for years afterwards.
Things they say
- “WOLF! There's a wolf! Help!”
- “There's really a wolf, please come!”
Key moments
Your faces
The whole village comes up the hill at a run with rolling pins and hammers, and he falls back on the rock laughing at them.
“Your faces! Oh, your faces!”
A long look and nothing said
The second time nobody laughs. The blacksmith looks at him for a while without speaking, and then walks back down the hill.
Shouting until his voice gave out
A real wolf, a real shout, and a valley that carries on working below him. He shouts until nothing comes out at all.
Sitting on the rock in the dark
Afterwards he sits where he had sat all summer and works out exactly what he spent, and on what.
He kept telling it
In the morning he walks down and tells the whole truth, and then keeps telling it for a very long time before anybody believes a word of it.
Who they know
The Blacksmithneighbour
She came up the hill twice for him. The third time she did not look up.
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