Username: StripySeagull
Name: Dew
Pronouns: She/her
How they got the bell:
In her childhood, Dew, who lived and still lives in a remote mountain village, would walk through the village's main square hoping that she'd either encounter somebody willing to pet her or a dog, since she enjoyed running around with them, opening her mouth to try and imitate their yapping, and wagging her tail with them.
She really loved dogs, and she had always thought that they resembled her the most out of all the creatures that she knew: they were lively, unlike the sheep and cattle that padded around lazily all day eating grass, and they had courage and were not scared of barking at anything that they did not like, unlike those quick-footed rabbits and other small critters that scampered away at the sole sight of her; however, whenever she tried to talk to them, they did not seem to understand what she was saying; although they all quickly grew to recognise her voice and would walk up to her if she called when they were somewhere nearby.
If she stayed in the main square long enough, she would hear bells ring and, looking up, would see these bells swing overhead.
The thing is, the townsfolk, who are used to seeing unusual things and beings, did not really notice her. So Dew would wander around the main square and receive an occasional pat or stroke from a kind lady or a curious child, and when the old shepherd that took care of her, who had been napping in a field with his sheep, came searching for her in the village, nobody reported seeing her anywhere; and he would eventually find her walking around somewhere aimlessly.
One day, the shepherd woke up earlier than usual from his nap, and when he went down to the village to get Dew, who had yet again gone off on her own, he found her sitting in the main square looking up at the bells.
He was always annoyed that nobody noticed her since finding her was usually a hard job, and as he listened to the ringing bells he had an idea. He went to see the village's blacksmith, who was a good friend of his, and asked him to make Dew a bell. The blacksmith did as he was told, and attached the large bell he had made to Dew's collar.
And to this day, she has kept that same bell around her neck, and has taken such good care of it that, although some credit goes to the sturdy metal with which the bell was crafted, it doesn't bear a single scratch.
And of course, the old shepherd's idea worked perfectly: since the day the bell was given to her, people hear her bell and notice her, and whenever Dew goes to the village on her own, every person whose path she crosses knows where she has gone, but that's not all: lots of people past who she walks stop to stroke or hug her, which makes her very happy.
(500 words in total!)
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