(3 minute read)

 

Spring had arrived in the Lake District. Daffodils swayed in the breeze, lambs leapt in the fields, and the fells glowed a cheerful green.

Herdy stood tall on a small rock just outside the farmyard.

“Today,” he announced grandly, “we embark on the greatest adventure of the season!”

Sheppy trotted over, ears flopping.

“What sort of adventure?” he asked enthusiastically.

Herdy held up a brightly coloured leaflet he had found under the barn door.

“The Great Lake District Easter Egg Hunt!”

Sheppy’s eyes widened.

“Whoever finds the Golden Egg wins the finest prize of all!” exclaimed Herdy.

Sheppy barked excitedly. “What are we waiting for? Let’s get started!”

Off they set along the winding path towards the hills, Herdy marching with purpose while Sheppy ran ahead… then ran back… then forgot why he had run ahead in the first place.

Soon they reached the shores of Derwentwater.

“First clue!” cried Herdy, spotting a small wooden sign.

Sheppy read aloud:

“Where the water sparkles and the ducks say quack,
an egg lies hidden by a rock with a crack at the back.”

They looked around.

“There are rather a lot of rocks,” said Herdy.

“No problem—we’ll just check them all!” said Sheppy, darting from rock to rock.

Ten minutes later, they had checked twenty-seven rocks, one mossy tree stump, and a sleeping duck—who was not best pleased to be disturbed and muttered something that sounded very much like, “Off you quack!”

“Found one!” shouted Herdy, holding up a chocolate egg wrapped in shiny foil.

Sheppy wagged his tail (despite being allergic to chocolate and trying very hard not to lick it).

“First one!”

Herdy carefully placed the egg in his rucksack and declared, “Onward, brave explorers!”

They followed the path to the next clue, high on a hill overlooking the lake.

At the top, they found another clue tied to a fence. Sheppy read aloud:

“Where the sheep like to rest and the grass grows deep,
look beneath the wool of a friendly sheep.”

Both slowly turned towards a nearby flock of rather serious-looking Texels.

“Oh dear,” said Sheppy. “They don’t look very friendly to me.”

Herdy trotted over.

“Excuse me,” he said politely to a rather grumpy-looking ewe, “you wouldn’t happen to be hiding an egg, would you?”

The ewe opened one eye… and refused to budge.

Feeling miffed, Sheppy let out a fairly gruff bark. The sheep sprang to her hooves, revealing another brightly coloured egg.

“There it is!” laughed Sheppy, scooping it up.

“We’re rather good at this, aren’t we?” said Herdy.

Clue after clue, they discovered hidden eggs until they reached the final clue, pinned to a gate overlooking the valley.

Sheppy read aloud:

“For the greatest prize, look where brave friends stand tall,
the Golden Egg waits beside the wall.”

Up and down the wall they ran until Herdy gasped.

“There it is!”

Nestled in the grass sat a magnificent golden egg, sparkling in the sunshine.

They stared at it in silence.

“We found it,” whispered Sheppy.

“We certainly did,” said Herdy—doing a little victory dance before carefully placing it into his rucksack.

Just as they turned to head home, a gust of wind whooshed across the fell.

His rucksack tipped over.
And all the eggs bounced down the steep grassy slope.

“Oh crumbs!” cried Herdy. “The eggs are lost!”

Sheppy sprang into action.

“Don’t worry—I’ll round them up!”

“I’ll help!” said Herdy.

Together they raced after the tumbling eggs, scrambling and sliding to catch them before they fell into the stream below. One by one, they saved every single egg.

“We did it!” Sheppy barked proudly, (though still very disappointed he could not eat any of them.)

Herdy trotted over, beaming.

“That was un-baa-lievable!”

Sheppy wagged his tail so fast, spinning in circles, that he looked like a small furry helicopter.

“I call that my advanced egg-herding technique,” he said, bowing proudly.

They burst into laughter.

Just as Herdy was placing the precious golden egg safely back in his rucksack… it fell to the ground.

“Oh no, not again!” exclaimed Sheppy.

CRACK!

The egg split open.

But instead of chocolate inside… a pile of delicious doggy biscuits tumbled onto the grass.

Sheppy froze.

He sniffed.

“…Wait.”

His eyes grew wide.

“ARE THOSE DOG TREATS?!”

“They are indeed!” laughed Herdy.

Sheppy’s tail wagged so fast he nearly took off.

“A Golden Egg full of biscuits! This is the best treasure ever!”

“You earned it,” said Herdy. “You were baa-rilliant rounding up those runaway eggs.”

“So were you,” said Sheppy, happily munching a biscuit. “We make a pretty great team.”

“The best team,” agreed Herdy.

Herdy wrapped up the empty golden shell, and together they trotted home, ready to share the chocolate eggs with their friends back on the farm.

And as for the biscuits?

Well… Sheppy decided those were best kept to himself… after all, they were sharing the chocolate!