Lost sheep, dead sheep

Jospeh had found his lost sheep, but it did little good to him dead. Something had killed it and had already eaten most of it. Mange, the name of the sheep, Joseph was working on naming most of his flock, was covered in her own blood with its neck and most of neck missing. Her face had been eaten off as well, Joseph surprised himself by not vomiting at the sight of it, or the smell. Joseph sat in despair, he spent most of the day looking for Mange, having left the rest of his sheep under the care of Ben, the other shepherd. Ben insisted Joseph take a weapon with him, but Joseph refused. He had no skill with any kind of weapon. So Ben stayed and guarded the flock alone with his sling."Poor Mange, what monster could do this to you?"Wait, what did do this to Mange. Joseph had seen a few other sheep killed by wolves, it was very common in their neck of land, but this did not look like a wolve kill. The tracks were different, there were no wolf tracks, and the tracks were huge. There were also a few giant feathers scattered aound Mange's corpse, feathers too big to belong to any regular bird.

He had heard stories about flyign monsters like the griffen, or the roc, but he never had seen one. He looked around to see if there was any possible way to see why the creature went, but no luck. There were some scratches on some stone where it looked like the animal had cleaned its claws, but no way to tell were the monster flew off to. Sighing, Joseph gathered a few of the larger feathers as evidance before heading back to his flock.

A few hours later, just about two hours to sunset, the time when Ben and he should be taking the flock home, Joseph made back to where his flock should be. But it was gone. There was no sign of any of the roughly 41 sheep, the nanny donkey, or Ben with his sling. "Hello, Ben! Where are you?!" Michael shouted as walked around the pasture.

"Shut up, you idiot, before it gets you too!" Someone whispered loudly. Joseph jumped, startled, before he ran over to the source of the loud whisper. It was Ben, he was hiding behind a few bushes, with three sheep. Ida, Minny, and Tool. Ben pulled Joseph behind the bush so he was hid as well.

"Its a giant bird monster isn't it," Joseph stated. It was not a question.

"Yes, yes, it came back for more while you were gone," said Ben as he pointed across the pasture. There were four dead sheep, most in the same state that was Mange's was in when he found her a few hours back. There was a creature feeding off them as well. It must not have heard Joseph's yells because it the loud noises it was making. Joseph heard it before he saw it. Or more appropriately, her. It was not a giant bird. But a human figure with.. with bird wings. A harpy.