BELLWETHERFLOCK 1 OF 3
PENNED0/5
COMPOSURE
100
Eight bells on the hills. Five sheep on the grass.
PHRASE
silence
A valley of eight bells
Bellwether
The flock follows the bell it can hear best. Ring low and the stragglers come; ring near and they bolt. Compose a phrase the whole flock will walk on, and walk it home to the pen.
- Sheep go to the nearest bell that is still ringing. Hold a bell's attention and the herd lines up behind it.
- Ring a bell too near a sheep and it panics. Panic scatters the flock and costs composure.
- Eight pitches, three flocks. Pen five, then seven, then nine.
Keys 1–8 ring the bells · arrows turn the valley · H for help
The valley waits
The flock is holding where it stands.
How to ring
- 1–8
- Ring that bell. A ringing bell is lit and pulls the sheep nearest to it.
- E
- Ring the next bell of the phrase you are composing.
- Space
- The keeper’s call: a soft low peal that draws every sheep toward the pen gate, at the cost of composure. Twelve seconds to recover.
- C
- Settle: the flock stands still and panic drains three times faster.
- Shift
- Hold while ringing to keep a bell sounding longer — and to make it louder, which panics sheep from further off.
- J / R
- J rings the bell nearest the flock. R repeats the bell you last rang, to gather a straggler.
- ← → ↑ ↓
- Turn and raise the valley view.
- Esc / M
- Pause. Mute.
A phrase that steps up the scale, or drops a fifth to land, is a cadence: the flock settles and you regain composure.
The pen is full
Flock penned
Every sheep is inside the rails.