goatherd

I wished I could return to my village, where I had chores of my own and knew how to earn a bowl from the goatherd’s stew pot.

An old goatherd imparts sage advice, telling Damien that “time shifts for the grieving. Our bodies change; things don’t quite appear the same anymore.”

“Or maybe a goatherd,” I said, shaking the others awake.

Whatever he was, whether a demon in disguise or just a simple goatherd, it didn’t matter.

The beast shook as he transformed himself back and forth between his goatherd self and the grotesque form of the fiendish chupacabras.