Black Sheep

A sheep hated by all it's brethren learns a horrifying truth. Number 13 of the No One Special Fairy Tales.

Black Sheep

Once upon a time there lived a great many sheep, who grazed on a lush hillside. They frolicked and played together. They made friends with each other and paired off as mates to form families, leading simple and happy lives. However, in the group there was one sheep who none of the others ever seemed to notice. Every once in a while they would glance at him, but then quickly glance back, and would never speak of him. 

This sheep began to wonder everyday why it was that the other sheep would not acknowledge him. Finally he was struck with the painful realization that he must be the black sheep. Of course, he must be, for all the white sheep were so very happy. 

The white sheep did not speak much to the grey sheep, and would often mock them. The whiter sheep would make fun of those who were less white, and the whitest sheep still seemed to have no place in their circle for any who were not as white as they were. 

If he was hated the most of all of the sheep, and not even graced with the few simple words that even the grey sheep enjoyed, then truly he must be the one, lone, black sheep. And all seemed lost, like he must be destined to live, and die by himself. 

He sadly resigned himself to his fate, and kept to himself, merely admiring the pure white sheep from afar. He tried not to think of his own cursed, lowly state, while the brothers who forsook him pranced and frolicked by. 

However, slowly over time he became resentful of them. Why would they not look at him? Why would the not speak to him? A black sheep though he may be, it was not of his own choice and truly no fault of his own. He had never done anything to hurt any of them; nothing worthy of this stigma of being “the black one”. 

He grew to hate them more and more in his heart, although his lips remained sealed tight, refusing to speak of his dark feelings. Perhaps somewhere in him, he still wished that they’d accept him, right up until the very end. 

But one day, the deepest insult came. A very dark grey ewe that he had had his eye on to be his mate, for truly there were no other ewes darker than she, would not even look at him as he tried to win her attention. It was the deepest humiliation, especially since she had no others interested in her and had chosen she’d rather be mateless than have to choose him. 

He started to hate her more than any other, and in a moment of passion he ripped open her neck with his teeth and she fell dead to the ground. The other sheep were terrified, and outraged, and for the first time they finally paid attention to him. They meant to carry out a death sentence as punishment for his crime, but instead he charged against them, overpowering one sheep after another. The grey sheep, the white sheep, the whiter sheep, and the whitest sheep still until all of the sheep were dead, and he alone remained. 

As he walked through the piles of dead bodies, the solitary living being on the hillside, he finally noticed something on a crest of the hill. Far at the top, a place where only the whitest sheep used to play, he beheld a very clear pond. And for the first time he saw his own reflection. To his horror, he realized from his coat that he had not been a black sheep at all, or a grey sheep, or a white sheep, or a whiter sheep, or even among the whitest of all of the sheep. He was in fact, the white of all of the sheep, with a coat so bright and white like nothing before seen with mortal eyes. Or at least, he had been.

For now, seeping into his white coat, spreading across his body by the second was the red blood of his fallen brothers. He was not a black sheep, and no longer the whitest sheep, but a dark red sheep. From that day on he became an omen of death to all who saw him, and a reminder that things are not always as they appear. 

Author's Note

Number thirteen in the No One Special Fairy Tales (although not uploaded in that order.) Meant to be told in the style of a classic fairy tale.