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Sheep have become the trademark of sleeping industry, the receding light for insomniacs, the joy for people selling toy
sheep! But how did they get to be so popular for the sleeping impared? The answer is here.
A long, long, LONG time ago there was a man called Nicholas Revernies. He was a simple sheep herder near the Rockies.
He was well respected and quite the ladies' man! It was all good. But one dreary night, an avalanche covered his town killing
everyone inside. It was sheer dumb luck that he had fallen asleep while herding his sheep about 10 miles away, so he and his
sheep were safe. The avalanche made a really BIG noise, so he obviously woke up. When he made it back to his town and saw
it covered in snow, he was heart broken. All of his friends and family had died inside. He now had a choice to make.
He could 1) sit in the snow, dwelling on the dead, until he shrivels up and dies himself. 2) force his sheep to
dig into the snow so he could find his people and then pretend like nothing ever happened. 3) brave a not-so-trecherous trip
over the Rockies to ANOTHER town and start a life there. I bet you can all guess what choice he made! No, not the dig up the
dead people one, but instead he simply shrugged it off and headed for the mountains.
The trip was indeed easy, but not very fun. The sheep didn't like the deep snow and kept running off looking for wolves
to play with, but luckily enough they managed to reach the end of the day without anyone getting killed, or worse... talking
back to the herder. Nicholas set up his tent and put his sleeping stuff inside. (no I don't know where he got that stuff,
he just has it, ok?) He felt bad for his sheep, because they had to sleep outside in the freezing cold. It was also bad luck
for a man to put himself before his animals, but he shrugged it off. It was just a superstition anyways.
That night Nicholas couldn't sleep. He imagined his sheep, frezzing in the cold. Bawling in the snow as they watched
their friends and families get covered, just as his had. He braved through the night in a dreamy haze, and when he awoke,
2 of his sheep had died from the cold. He was sad, but a storm was coming, so he left their carcases for the wolves. They'd
be playing in heaven now.
The rest of his day went well, as had the one before, but when night fell his fears returned. Again he could not sleep,
for his sheep could be heard trampling in the snow, looking for warmth. He was just about to slip into a fitful trance of
almost sleep, when one of his sheep rammed through the tent, covered in blood. Nicholas jumped from his bed and ran outside
to see what was the matter. He looked around and found no sheep in sight. Even the sheep in his tent was gone, but the hole
was still there.
"What the bloody hell is goin' on here," he whispered. "I can answer that," came an eerie woman's snake-like voice. "You
have betrayed our kind, left us out in the cold, to freeze, not once thinking for us. You slept all comfy in your tent last
night, while we panicked for warmth. You drove us mad out here, and now we shall do the same to you!" All at once millions
of sheep dropped from the lciffs and pounced on Nicholas. He screamed, sheltered his face, and braced himself for the worst.
He felt nothing. Nothing had happened. He looked around and found that he was in his own tent.
It was just a dream, he thought. The hole was gone, and he was safe. He looked outside to find most of his sheep sleeping
peacefully, but he could see that another 3 had died form the cold. So he packed his things and walked on until the next night.
He sat in his tent, unwilling to sleep. Even if the horror of last night had only been a dream, he was still frightened.
It had seemed so real, he thought, that disembodied voice still rings in my head. Suddenly, shadows surrounded the tent. Nicholas
was not too afraid because he could tell that it was only his sheep, but it was what happened next that shocked him. His tent
burst into flame! He yelped and ran out. His sheep had dissappeared from the scene. He figured the fire had scared them, but
what had caused the fire in the first place?
Nicholas heard footsteps behind him. He wheeled around to find all of his sheep blankly staring. He sighed out of relief.
"You shouldn't feel safe yet," came the sinister voice from the night before. "We have just begun." Nicholas was puzzled.
Where had that voice come from? He looked at his herd of sheeped and choked in shock. One sheep, a sheep he hadn't noticed
before, had something different. This sheep appeared to be glaring angrily at him, a look of intensity apon its face.
"...Hello, Nicky boy." Nicholas shrilled and darted off towards a near-by valley. "Where are you going," the sheep yelled.
"We aren't finished here!" But Nicholas kept running until he reached the town.
The towns people thought Nicholas was merely a mad-man, his brain altered form the horrid cold. His talk of evil sheep
was ludacris! Now, I would like to say that since the sheep were gone that Nicholas slept peacefully every night for the rest
of his life, but he didn't. he never slept again. He said the sheep would get him if he did. The nice people at the asylum
tried to demolish his fears by making him face them. It didn't work, but it seemed to help the other "insane" people. Soon,
everyone in the town used sheep as the way to get to sleep. Eventually it became a fad around the world, and it still exists
today. But beware, treat your sheep nicely, or it may come back to haunt you someday.
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