Pups are the true Gift!
Diaspore started a new serial story during Green Dragon Friday, December 27 2024. We'll add new installments here as the story develops!
Part 1
Added January 1
Many years ago, an aging hobbit couple, Bosco and Nina Whitfoot, lived in an isolated burrow south of Stock and not far from Willowbottom. Bosco hunted for meat and hides, while Nina raised sheep and wove woolen blankets, cloaks, mittens, and scarves to sell in town.
When one of the poorer townsfolk did not have enough warm clothes, Nina gave her knitted goods away. “We have enough for our needs,” she explained to Bosco. “We can afford to help others, and it makes me happy to see folks wearing what I’ve made.
Bosco and Nina had no children and received very few visitors, but they were never lonely. They were content with each other, their work, and their fine dog Willow, who was as good at finding game for Bosco as she was at herding Nina’s sheep.
One evening, when Bosco came home after a particularly long hunt, he found Nina weeping over a badly injured Willow. “It’s the sheep,” Nina choked out between sobs. “A pack of dogs set on them and although Willow fought hard, she couldn’t drive them away. We’ve lost all but the bummer lamb I’ve been nursing in the barn. I’m afeared that we’ll lose Willow too, bad as she’s hurt.” Bosco came over and took a close look at the brave dog. “Look, Nina,” he said reassuringly. “This is a bad gash, but you’ve cleaned it well, and it hasn’t pierced belly or lung. If I hold the edges together and you sew it shut, then I’m thinking that with plenty of your healing ointment, Willow will be good as new.
“As fer the sheep, it’s a bad blow to be sure, but it’s looking to be a good winter for hunting, and come spring we can buy more lambs. Another year, and you’ll have yer flock again.” So Bosco and Nina tended Willow, and by midwinter, the dog seemed as strong as ever she was. When Bosco left to hunt, Willow followed eagerly. Just after nightfall the two returned, Bosco carrying a load of fresh hides.
“Willow did a fine job, but I’m afeared the old girl’s wound is slowing her,” Bosco said to Nina. “Coming home, she tried to leap that stream back down a ways, landed badly, and strained something. You’d best keep her home a few days, give her time to heal.”
Nina nodded. “I think her eyesight’s fading a bit, too. Yesterday I whistled for her to bring in the lamb and she couldn’t see it. Plain didn’t see it at all. Poor dog was fair embarrassed when I took her back to try again.”
“Well, she’s still a grand dog for her age,” Bosco said. “Pity she never had pups. It’ll be hard to find a good dog to take her place.” The two hobbits sighed, watching their beloved dog lie before the fire.
In the next few months, Willow spent a fair amount of time lying by the fire or standing beside the lone lamb. She seldom followed Bosco out to hunt. Then, as the coming of spring brought flowers to the woods and new lambs to the flock, Nina noticed something odd. Willow showed every indication of expecting a pup!
“Could it be,” Nina asked her husband, that our dog will give us a pup at last?” “Might be,” Bosco mused, “or might be one of those growth things I’ve heard tell about, and come to nothing.” Nini shrugged her shoulders and went on with her spinning. “Reckon we’ll just have to wait.”
So they waited.
Yuletide had just arrived when Bosco and Nina woke up to find Willow lying on a nest of blankets, licking a single large pup – a healthy male. Nina named the pup “Gift” because, as she said, “he came as a Yuletide gift, just when we needed him.” Bosco said nothing to this, but his smile was so broad it almost swallowed his nose!