Shepherdess Warriors Volume 1

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Shepherdess Warriors Volume 1 by Jonathan Garnier and Amélie Fléchais

Something unsettles the rats, making them chitter madly and their fur stand on end. Meanwhile, Molly is being yelled at to wake up or she’ll be late for the ceremony. Molly is ready, she was born ready to meet her destiny! But first… food!! 

While Molly’s mom leaves to help set things up, Molly finishes eating, grabs her green apprentice cape and goes to fetch Black Beard, her riding goat, who headbutts her in joy. Together they head off to meet Molly’s friends Abby and Erin and ride to the Shepherdess Warrior induction ceremony. Those already initiated are wearing classy blue capes, but Molly is determined to wear a red cape one day, the cape of the elite warriors. 

The ceremony is taking place at the top of a steep cliff in front of a giant pointy rock with elaborate carvings. It seems the entire village is there, including Erin’s embarrassing little brothers and Ellen, Molly’s bully. As they’re waiting for the ceremony to start, Molly and her friends spot a new girl picking her nose. This girl is clearly a boy in a straw wig riding a big fluffy dog with sticks for antlers pretending to be a ram. 

The ceremony begins. The Chief tells the gathered they are there to acknowledge the ten years that have passed since their brothers and husbands were called to the war in the Deadlands and never returned. The women of the village are not and will not be victims, they preserve and defend their village through the Shepherdess Warriors. At this point, the Chief pulls her sword and congratulates the recruits on their courage before revealing the infiltrator as Liam MacGregor and dismissing him. She passes to Mr. Mayor to conclude.

The Mayor thanks the village for their commitment and wishes the new recruits courage for their training. The recruits recite their oath and the ceremony is done. Molly, Abby, and Erin ride down together discussing their favorite Shepherdess, Molly’s grandma, who is both impressive and scary (as seen in the panel where she is randomly punching someone). As the girls separate, Molly runs into Liam. He figures the Chief saw his muscles and saw through his disguise, but Molly tells him not to worry, he’ll become a member of the order and a Shepherdess Warrior one day. His brothers don’t see that and are total jerks with cape envy. Molly and Liam head to Molly’s mom’s herd to help out. 

A few days later, the new recruits have their first day of training. They all line up waiting for their first instructor who comes out adorned in gleaning armor that looks like molded panties and corset… it’s Iron Buns himself, Mr. Ironton! Why he wears iron underwear is a mystery but he’s the best archer in the village. The lesson begins and while one or two have skill and natural talent, there is some frustration from some of the new recruits. Erin on the other hand strikes terror in Iron Buns. Her mother's reputation precedes her and is the reason for the “rather salient articles.” Erin hits the target, not Iron Buns. Phew! 

Later, Molly is telling Black Beard and her mom about her grueling day training before heading to Liam’s. Liam’s jerk older brother, Cian, is leaving his wife to tend to their baby so he can go “train” for the new order he and his other brothers are setting up to counter the Shepherdesses. Cian’s mum even defends him “burning energy” so he’ll be less grumpy. Liam’s Uncle Connor says Cian and the others have been mollycoddled. Liam’s oldest brother, Adam, went to war when he was just fourteen, lying about his age to take injured Uncle Connor’s place.

Liam and Molly head upstairs to the attic room and Liam explains the sensitivity of the ten year anniversary in his house. Uncle Connor interrupts and apologizes for his outburst, inviting Molly to tell them all about her first day of training. Later, as they try to sleep, Molly thinks about her father. He went to war but she didn’t know him and doesn’t know if he’s still alive. Liam promises that they will train until they are the best and go look for him and Adam. 

Later, Molly, Abby, and Erin are on their first mission with Granny Maria and it’s pouring with rain. Great. A little while into their journey, there is a funky smell in the air. Throwing her sword to slice the bush, Granny Maria reveals a big wet dog with Liam riding it. Unamused, Granny tells Liam to fall in line, his mother would not appreciate her leaving him to the wolves. Their mission is to take clothing from people who have fallen ill to the witches to do some magic to help them. First though, they’re stopping to see Granny’s friend Magda. 

As Granny is getting information on the valley from Magda, the kids are inspecting the barn and the great beast inside. That’s Magda’s Little Gaston, an absolutely freaking huge deer. Magda admires Liam’s huge dog who is eleven years young and was given to him by his Uncle Connor. Magda thinks he must have come from the Deadlands like Little Gaston because incredible creatures come from there. Soon the party have Magda’s clothes loaded to their wagon and continue to see the witches, though the storm is coming back. 

The wind starts to pick up and whips a piece of Magda’s clothing from the wagon. Molly goes after it, Black Beard easily maneuvering and climbing the rocky terrain. At the top of the hill, Molly grabs the item and spots a mysterious young girl who says something cryptic about birds before a murder of crows seems to sweep around the girl. Molly falls off a spooked Black Beard into a puddle where she meets more strange characters, the witches. Thankfully Granny and the others are there too. The trade is made with the witches and we learn the mysterious young girl is the daughter of one of the witches. Said mysterious young girl is creepily watching as the Shepherdesses and Liam head home. 

When Molly gets home, stinking of swamp from her fall, her mother wants to hear about her exploits, but Molly is going to head to Liam’s again. They get into a fight, Molly’s mum accusing her of using their home like a hotel and ignoring her, and Molly saying her mother never talks about her father. Molly runs off to the training grounds for a cry and sees the bully Ellen practicing her terrible archery. They end up talking, realizing they have some similarities. Molly then has the epiphany that she’s been horrible and selfish and an attention seeking show off. After a good cry, she runs home and jumps into the, now very cold, bath her mum made. Her mum tells her stories of her dad as she helps Molly wash. 

Time for a training montage and season change! Now it’s spring, and after seeing Abby’s serious mom having a serious looking conversation with Molly’s Aunt Jane, Molly, Abby, and Erin are ready to report for their mission. Aunt Jane makes sure the whole team is there, revealing Liam hiding in a huge barrel with his doggo behind. Abby’s mom challenges Liam, but instead of sending him home, she gives him a green cadet cape. Yey!! Time to go on their mission. As they ride through the village, Liam in his green cape draws a lot of attention. Most of it is good, but big brother stupid jealous Cian is the worst.

They head into the foggy hills, Molly feeling on edge because last time she met the mysterious young girl with birds in her hair and it was creepy. They don’t meet any mysterious young girls this time, but they do meet a family of thieves. The fight is a bit slapstick, but the apprentice Shepherdess Warriors are able to put them in their place until a giant angry wolf-like beast arrives scaring the thieves off. 

FLASHBACK to four years ago to when a young Molly and friends are paired with their rams. Molly’s Granny lets the cute little kids loose on the girls and it’s for the rams to decide on their partners. Molly is last to be picked. It’s not until she’s inside the stable miserable that not even the crosseyed goat will pick her when a baby Black Beard appears, headbutts a cantankerous Granny and chooses Molly. CUT TO now, and Molly is cradling an injured Black Beard while her friends battle the giant beast behind her. Jane tells Liam to straighten Molly out and as he’s pulling her up, his giant dog Vladimir growls victoriously and attacks the beast. 

Vladimir bites into the beast and Jane uses her huge war axe but nothing works, it’s as if the beast is made of smoke. Vladimir is thrown off the beast and Erin is bitten on the arm, but when Molly looks at the wound, she sees a small rat. The big beast is made up of smaller ones! She shouts to Liam to start a fire as Jane walks and thwacks at it to no avail. As the beast goes to chomp Jane, Molly shoots a flaming arrow into its maw, stopping it. 

Battle weary the group arrives home. The council has been called. Jane explains what happened and says she wants to go to the witches and seek their advice, and wants to take Molly, Abby and Liam with her as they can describe the events. There is resistance to taking the apprentice warriors but in the end they see the wisdom. Oh, and Granny is going too as she has the best relations with the witches. She is not happy though, she might run into Urty…

Liam goes to visit Erin and finds his brothers sewing capes under Erin’s mother’s tutelage. She makes the amazing Shepherdess Warrior capes so she knows what she’s doing. Abby is in Erin’s room, she stayed the night. When Liam leaves, his brothers, especially Cian, take the opportunity to mock him about the beast claiming it wasn’t real, however Liam is sick of it and storms off. This shocks Cian who runs after his little brother. It turns out he is jealous and feels he still has a lot to prove, especially since Liam is already at Adam’s level. After their conversation, Liam heads to the herd fields for Molly who is wallowing in self pity. He’s able to snap her out of it, reminding her they have the village to look after and their families to find. As soon as Molly and Liam head down from the field, it’s time to leave. 

On their trek to witch island, Liam asks Jane about the ram pin she wears on her cloak. It turns out she established the Shepherdess Warriors, not Granny, who everyone thought did because she yells at everyone all the time and originally ran the order. This blows Molly’s mind. Suddenly Jane hears something in the foliage, and thinking it’s the beast, she throws her axe but it’s just a witch called Fiada and her derpy doggo. She lives at and protects the gate that marks the border of the valley. Jane orders Liam to put their mounts in the stables where they wait as they have to continue their journey by boat. 

On the dock, Jane blows into a blue fire lantern which shows them the way over the lake to the witches’ island. After a complicated journey, they arrive at the island, greeted by Golam, a very bouncy and slightly strange man. Golam mentions that Gurro, The Great Botanist, already knows about the huge wolf creature. This should make the Shepherdess’ jobs easier. As Golam leads them through the forest, Urty arrives. He fawns over Granny and Jane much to the apprentices’ confusion. For the second time that day, Molly’s mind is blown because Urty is Jane’s father, so she and her mom are actually half sisters, and Jane is a half witch [insert exploding noise here]. 

As they walk to find Gurro, The Great Botanist, the mysterious young girl watches them from the trees and is unimpressed by how noisy they are. Gurro, The Great Botanist, who has a leaf growing from his nose, offers to help heal their friends but refuses to help with the giant wolf-like creature as they want to maintain their peace. Granny argues, saying it was created by magic and they should help, but Gurro, The Great Botanist, says only one person has that kind of animal magic, Sarah, the mysterious young girl Molly saw, who is currently eavesdropping. 

Gurro, The Great Botanist, tells them that Sarah’s power is too strong for her to control, therefore making her sensitive to the black magic of the creature. He then says the magic comes from the Deadlands and basically says the men of the Shepherd village that went to war failed and caused the creature so it has nothing to do with them. The bitterness Gurro, The Great Botanist, feels is because his daughter went to war with the village men and he is sure that she died. She was young and had a childhood crush on a fourteen year old boy, Adam, who went to war, and she followed. Molly tells Liam to keep his mouth shut. 

Gurro, The Great Botanist, orders Sarah to take them to her father for healing potions and nothing more. Granny, Jane and Urty will stay with Gurro, The Great Botanist, and try to get him and the witches to help fight the creature and save their village. At Sarah’s hut, her father starts making the potion. He doesn’t agree with Gurro, The Great Botanist, reasoning that it’s not the power that is dangerous, but the person who wields it. As he begins to make the potion, Sarah can feel the creature attacking and is overwhelmed by it, her hair birds flying wildly. Molly wades through the chaos of the birds and reaches for Sarah’s hand which causes her to see the village and the creature approaching it. Meanwhile, Sarah’s father has used a potion to send Sarah to sleep which calms her and the birds. 

Suddenly the peeling of alarm bells ring through the forest, the village is calling for aid! Granny, Jane and Urty dash off, telling Molly, Abby, and Liam to stay put in safety, they’ve already done enough. Gurro, The Great Botanist, tells Sarah’s father they need to find a way to suppress Sarah’s powers. Liam on the other hand has another idea. Once it’s just him, Molly, Abby, a now awake Sarah and her father, he uses a sleeping potion on Sarah’s father and tells Sarah not to be afraid of her power. Sarah agrees, she wants to help, so she fights for control of her power and creates a huge bird out of the smaller ones. While Abby will stay behind to get the healing potion for their friends, the giant bird will carry Molly, Liam and Sarah to Fiada’s for Vladimir, then over Granny, Jane and Urty racing for the village and onwards toward the source of the creature's magic. 

Meanwhile the creature has reached the village. They’ve closed the doors and are preparing to fight. The creature is huge and strong, it headbutts the doors, growling for entrance. Sarah can feel the black magic getting stronger and stronger as they fly toward the source until she can no longer maintain the giant bird and it separates into the individual little birds. At the center of a circle of thorns is a kneeling feral looking woman. She’s gaunt, dressed in rags, her huge yellow eyes with slit pupils stand out in her face, long matted hair flows to the ground and a rat sits on her head similar to the way Sarah has a bird. The feral woman screeches at them and they are swarmed by rats. 

Back at the village, Urty tries to reason with the creature saying he knows who they are. The feral woman is distracted for a second, seeing this happen, but she strikes out at Urty, Granny knocking him away. Cian and his small crew of Shepherd Warriors ride out toward the creature, their pitch fork weapons stabbing it. The feral woman can feel it. Molly, Liam, Abby and Sarah are being protected by the attacking rats with Sarah’s birds acting as a shield. When the feral woman’s power drops for a second they come out from their cover. Sarah can feel the feral woman trying to control her. They have the same power, the feral woman is a witch!

Molly and Liam hold on to Sarah as she battles the feral woman’s magic and they see visions of ten years ago. A young girl being betrayed by her father who was ashamed of her then the same young girl with a young boy ready to go to war, the young girl creating a huge wolf-like beast to try and protect her fellow fighters. 

As Liam processes seeing Adam in the vision, Molly jumps on Vladimir and races toward Gurro, The Great Botanist’s daughter. She rips the rat from her head where it looks like it’s had roots burrowing in and Gurro, The Great Botanist’s daughter collapses. Molly lets go of the rat, her hand blackened, and she falls to the ground and Liam and Sarah run to her. Molly's eyes are wide and unblinking and she doesn’t respond to their cries…