by Tracey West
“We’re all set,” Edith said.
Mary and Joseph walked in.
“No, no, no,” Joseph said. “This isn’t going to work. We can’t have the baby here, Mary. We need stronger bedding. We need warmer—”
Mary reached out and firmly grasped Joseph by the arm.
“Joseph. I’m ready,” she said with a strong and confident smile.
Joseph nodded. He gently helped Mary lie down on a bed of hay. She smiled gratefully at Bo for finding the stable for them.
Bo smiled back. He looked at the stable animals.
“Thank you,” he said.
Then he headed outside.
Mary still wasn’t safe. There was one more thing to take care of.
Chapter Twenty
Chaaaaarge!
Bo stood in front of the stable gate, waiting. He didn’t have to wait long. Rufus and Thaddeus came trotting toward him, dragging their chain behind them.
“Well, well. Look who it is,” Thaddeus said.
Rufus growled. “We should have eaten him the first time we met him.”
“But, Rufus, if we had eaten him, he never would have led us here,” Thaddeus pointed out. He nodded at Bo. “We’ve been meaning to thank you. Now be a good little donkey and run along. You’ve served your purpose.”
Bo backed away from them.
“You guys are pretty scary, and you might be stronger than I am,” he began. Then he stopped firmly. “But if you want to get to my friends, you’re gonna have to get past me first.”
“Oo-hoo-hoo! I was hoping he was going to say that!” Rufus said, licking his lips.
The big bulldog ran toward Bo. The donkey quickly turned around and gasped.
“What is that?” Bo asked.
Confused, Rufus stopped and looked past Bo. “What’s what?” he asked. Then he realized he’d been tricked. “I wasn’t supposed to look was I?”
“Donkey kick!” Bo cried.
Bam! With a mighty kick, he sent Rufus flying into the air. The big dog slammed into the ground. The blow knocked him out cold.
Thaddeus snarled at Bo. “You’re mine!”
He charged at Bo. Bo knew he couldn’t fool this dog too. He closed his eyes, bracing himself for the worst.
Then he heard a clang! He opened his eyes. Thaddeus and Rufus were still connected by a chain, and the chain was stuck under Rufus’s body. Thaddeus stopped just inches from Bo’s face.
He snarled and snapped at Bo, who moved back toward the stable.
“Huh. I didn’t even plan that,” Bo said. “That was close!”
Then Thaddeus stopped snarling and sniffed. An evil grin spread across his face and he turned to look behind him. Bo followed his gaze.
The Hunter stomped up the path to the stable. Bo ran to close the gate.
As the Hunter walked, he stepped on the handle of a cart. The end splintered off. He picked it up with one hand. With the other, he pulled a cloth from a nearby clothesline. He coiled the cloth around the wooden stick. Then he swung the stick at an oil lamp.
The lamp shattered. The Hunter’s makeshift torch burned brightly.
Bo shuddered with fear. Then he gathered his courage. He galloped toward the Hunter.
“Not gonna let you do this!” Bo cried.
He lowered his head and rammed into the Hunter. They collided, but Bo bounced right off the big man’s muscular torso. The Hunter kept walking.
Bo winced. “Okay, you’re big.”
He galloped toward the Hunter again, but the man swung his arm and batted Bo away easily. The donkey hit the ground. As he got to his feet, he saw the Hunter moving toward the stable.
“No, no, no!” he yelled.
He ran at the Hunter again, but Thaddeus tackled him from the side. They slid toward Rufus. He pinned down Bo with one of his big feet.
“Now can I eat him?” Rufus asked.
“Very soon,” Thaddeus promised.
Bo couldn’t move. He watched helplessly as the Hunter opened the stable gate.
“No! Mary! Joseph!” Bo yelled.
The Hunter raised his sword. Before he stepped inside, he turned to smile at Bo.
“Mary, I’m sorry,” Bo said softly.
“Baaaaaaaaaa!”
The strange sound startled the Hunter. He turned toward it—to see Ruth jumping over a fence post!
“Chaaaaarge!” Ruth yelled.
Ruth’s flock of sheep collided with the Hunter. They swept him off his feet and carried him on their backs away from the stable. They swept up the two dogs along with him.
The sheep dumped the Hunter onto a street cart. He sat up, dazed, as the wave of sheep passed. But before he could get to his feet . . .
“Dave to the rescue!”
Dave swooped down from the sky. Just below him, on the ground, the three camels came barreling toward the Hunter. They crashed into him, knocking him back into the dog chain. They pushed the Hunter and the two dogs down the alley, to the edge of a cliff.
Bo raced after them. When he arrived at the cliff, the Hunter was dangling off the edge. He tried to claw his way back up, but he kept sliding back.
Bo peered over the cliff’s edge. The two dogs hung from the Hunter’s leg. Their chain was wrapped around his ankle. Panicked, they tried scrambling up the wall, but the chain attached to their collars choked them, holding them back.
“Help! Somebody help!” Thaddeus yelled.
“I don’t want to die!” Rufus wailed.
Bo knew that the Hunter couldn’t hold on much longer. All three would die if they fell off the cliff.
Not far away, he saw scaffolding—platforms for workers building houses—going down the cliff. There might be a way to save them.
Am I really gonna do this? he asked himself.
His answer came quickly. Yes. If there was a way to save these lives—even though they were mean, scary lives—he would have to try.
“It’s just another cliff,” he told himself.
He scrambled onto a platform just below the dogs. With his mouth, he removed one of the handrails. He wedged it between the platform and the cliff.
“Grab ahold of this!” he called to the dogs.
Thaddeus and Rufus paused, unsure if they could trust him.
“Come on! You don’t have much time!” Bo urged.
Thaddeus looked up at the Hunter, who was about to lose his grip at any moment. Thaddeus turned back to Rufus and nodded.
Rufus swung for the rail and managed to grab it with his two front legs.
“I got it!” Bo cried.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of a newborn baby crying. The Hunter tried once again to pull himself over the top of the cliff. That’s when he realized that the dogs were holding him back.
The Hunter lifted his leg—and kicked off the chain wrapped around his ankle.
The two dogs fell. Bo dove down the cliff after them.
The Hunter planted his sword in the ground and used it to pull himself up. He was about to get to his feet when the crack in the earth that he’d created with his sword widened. The chunk of the cliff under his feet broke off. He tumbled down the rocky slope and disappeared into the darkness below.
Dave, Ruth, and the camels rushed to the edge to look down.
“Bo?” Dave called out.
He flew down, and discovered Bo wedged between two pieces of rock in the cliff. He had the dog chain in his mouth, and Thaddeus and Rufus dangled beneath him.
Slowly, Bo made his way up the jagged cliffside. He took one step. Then another.
“Bo, you’re doing it!” Dave cheered. “Ruth, a little help!”
“All right, listen up, sheep!” Ruth called to her flock. “Start climbing!”
She looked down at Bo. “Excellent climbing form, Bo! Keep it tight!”
One of the sheep passed her. “Taught him everything I know,” Ruth bragged.
The flock of sheep scrambled down the cliff and helped Bo pull the two dogs up to the top of the cliff. The three ca
mels took the chain from Bo as he neared the top and pulled the dogs to safety.
The animals surrounded the dogs, eyeing them suspiciously. The dogs panted and wheezed, exhausted.
Bo wearily turned to the camels and then nodded toward the dogs. Cyrus, Deborah, and Felix leaned down and bit the dog collars off the necks of the dogs. The chains fell away. The dogs looked shamefully at Bo.
“We’re bad dogs,” Rufus said.
“You don’t have to be,” Bo told him. “You’re free now.”
Thaddeus and Rufus looked at each other, amazed. Bo nodded to them and then turned and started to run.
“Bo! Where are you going?” Ruth called out.
“We’ve got a baby to meet! Come on!” he urged.
The camels looked at one another.
“After all that, it is a baby shower,” Cyrus said. “I was right this whole time!”
“I was right too!” Felix protested. “It’s a birthday party! It’s the day of his birth!”
Deborah shook her head. “I’m gonna let them have this one,” she said.
Then the three camels followed Bo, Dave, Ruth, and the sheep to the stable.
Chapter Twenty-One
A Child Is Born
A peaceful hush fell over the stable, interrupted only by the sound of a baby crying.
Bo slowly approached. The light from the Star illuminated one corner of the stable. Bo walked past Zach, Leah, and Edith to Mary, who was lying back in the hay, cradling a baby in her arms. Joseph knelt next to them.
“Hey, little guy,” Bo said.
Mary handed the baby to Joseph. He held the baby out toward Bo. The donkey leaned in curiously, and the baby’s tiny arms brushed his snout. Bo jumped back, startled.
Joseph laughed, with tears of joy glistening in his eyes.
“It’s okay, Bo,” he said. He stood up and gently laid the baby in the manger full of hay.
All the animals had gathered in the manger to watch. Even little Abby, the pygmy jerboa, had found her way there. She climbed onto Deborah’s head.
“You know, I was there when this whole thing got started,” she bragged in Deborah’s ear.
“Everyone, this is Mary and Joseph,” Bo announced. “And that’s their new baby.”
“The flock is growing,” Dave said with a smile at Ruth.
Thaddeus and Rufus slowly padded in. The other animals tensed up, suspicious, and blocked their path. Bo studied them. Their eyes looked sad and sorry—not scary.
“It’s okay,” Bo said. “Let them in.”
The two dogs walked up to the manger and looked at the sleeping infant.
“See? He’s just a baby,” Bo said.
The two dogs felt their hearts melt as they gazed at the baby.
“Aw, look at him!” Rufus said sweetly.
They turned to leave, nodding at Bo.
“So, are we good dogs now?” Thaddeus asked Rufus.
The bulldog smiled at him. “We have to try.”
The three wise men walked in next, holding their gifts. They smiled at Mary and Joseph. It didn’t matter that this baby, the Messiah, had been born in a stable. The Star had led them here, and that was all that mattered.
“I’m sorry, is this your stable?” Joseph asked.
“No,” Balthazar replied. “We’ve come to honor the new King.”
“I’m sorry, king?” Bo asked, confused. “Why does everyone keep talking about a king? What king?”
The three wise men knelt before the baby in the manger.
“What’s his name?” Caspar asked.
Mary smiled proudly. “His name is Jesus.”
The wise men presented their gifts.
“For Jesus. Gold,” Balthazar said.
“Myrrh,” Caspar said.
Melchior presented a small pottery jar. “Do you guys like frankincense?” he asked. “I never know what to get.”
“Thank you,” Joseph said.
“For the newborn King,” Balthazar said, and all three bowed toward Baby Jesus.
Bo couldn’t believe it. All this time, Mary had been carrying a king in her belly! He gazed back at the animals in the stable. All of them were bowing before the child.
Bo bowed his head.
“Guys!” he whispered to Dave and Ruth. “I carried a king on my back!”
“We’re never gonna hear the end of this are we?” Dave whispered back.
Ruth smiled. “And I hope we never do.”
“Yeah, okay. Me too,” Dave admitted.
The whole sight moved Deborah the camel.
“You know, I think people are going to remember this night. This moment,” she said. “What happened here around this manger will be celebrated for thousands of years. Families will come together and exchange presents, have feasts, and sing carols. All to remember the grace of this moment that we are witnessing right now.”
Her words hung in the air for a moment—and then Cyrus and Felix began to chuckle.
“Okay, Deborah,” Cyrus said, shaking his head.
“She’s back to talking crazy again,” Felix said.
Baby Jesus started crying again, and Mary stood and picked him up.
“Thank you,” she told the wise men.
She sat back down on the bed of hay, and Joseph joined her. Mary motioned for Bo to join them. He suddenly realized how tired he was. He limped over and plopped down next to her.
She stroked his head. “What have you been up to all night, Bo?” she asked.
Bo looked at Mary. Long story, he thought. And one I’ll never be able to tell you. But that’s okay. Because we’re all safe. You, me, Joseph, and Baby Jesus, the newborn King.
Outside, the bright Star faded away.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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