Sorry for my brief absence, I've been busy with university and my life as usual. Speaking of university, this fanfiction will correspond to my final major project and it will set the scene for my animatic. Therefore, it's always top priority. I just thought I'd try to write about something different besides my main fandoms: Ratchet & Clank, Mario (though, I haven't written anything to do with Mario since 2012) and Classic Spyro. This fanfiction is my first holiday-themed fanfiction since, "We Wish You A Paper Mario Christmas", which I've written back in 2008. Gosh, how time sure flies!

I would have written this story during Chinese New Year this year but as usual, I'm too busy celebrating it with my family. Sorry, but there are some certain priorities which are more important than others. Since next year is the Year of the Monkey a.k.a. my younger sister's (she's known as SnowCrystal on this website) Chinese Zodiac year, I'm gonna write this fanfiction this year before I completely lose my chance.

Regarding the future of Spyro & Jake Long: Ripto's Revenge, I actually still care about the story and I haven't really given up on it but I'm still struggling with figuring out how to continue from where I left off. If you could help me with thinking up of a beginning, I'd be very grateful. Originally, I would have updated it back in 2012 as my way of celebrating the Year of the Dragon at the time but I was too busy with celebrating Chinese New Year with my family. It's one of the largest holidays we celebrate at my home, aside from Christmas. When it comes to Chinese New Year, China and Hong Kong tend to take the partying seriously. In other words, they always go all out with the parties, parades, festivals and fireworks. Not to mention, I spent 15 days straight playing Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon as my method of celebrating Chinese New Year. According to my mum and my dad, the Chinese New Year celebration always lasts for 15 days. Just recently this year, when I came across the latest fanart of Jake Long by my deviantART friend, CartoonSilverFox, I felt the urge to update the story. I would but it's difficult to write a good beginning to a chapter without making it sound too rushed, if you know what I mean.

I don't know why I'm listening to the Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon soundtrack in the midst of writing the first chapter of this fanfiction but at least, it's related to Chinese New Year. Leave it to the Sorceress and her Rhynoc army to ruin the holiday for everyone in the Dragon Realms.

That aside, one of my university tutors suggested I should come up with at least three original/fan characters for the story. They'll be introduced in the later chapters as soon as I come up with them. All I can come up with is a female panda at the moment, original character wise. I'm thinking of getting some inspiration from Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon 'cause from what I remembered back in the day that there were female pandas in Bamboo Terrace, which is one of my favourite levels/realms. I initially wanted to describe the house, the rooms inside it, the barnhouse, the pig sty and the rest of the scenery of Mossy Bottom Farm but it's hard to describe them from memory. The reason why I also didn't describe Chinatown and the news reporter 'cause I don't have a rough idea of what they should look like at the moment. I'll describe them later when I know how they should look like. I'm thinking of describing Chinatown in a future chapter as the story progresses.

Summary: Shaun and the flock are planning on celebrating Chinese New Year right under the farmer's nose. Unfortunately, they knew next to nothing about the celebration so they figured that carrying out research is in order. The naughty pigs are jealous that 2015 isn't the Year of the Pig/Boar so they decided to stir up trouble for Shaun and his farmyard friends in order to prevent them from celebrating the Year of the Sheep/Goat/Ram.

Year of the Shaun

Chapter 1: Chinese Ewe Year

The sun rises on another ordinary day in Mossy Bottom Farm as the warm rays of the red-hot sun breaks through the abundance of white, fluffy clouds which can be mistaken for cotton wool or candy floss. The sheep (which consists of the following characters: Shaun, the twins, Timmy, Timmy's Mum, Shirley, Nuts and Hazel) were grazing on the meadows without a care in the world and Bitzer is holding his clipboard (which he uses to count the sheep and ensure that all of them are accounted for whenever he needs to) whilst he occasionally takes a fleeting look at them so they wouldn't leave his watchful sight, nothing out of the ordinary. Or so everyone thought.

As for the farmer, he's nowhere to be found. That's because he decided to kick back and relax to watch the television in the living room of his home. Meanwhile outside of the house, it didn't take Shaun long enough to become aware of the farmer's absence.

"Baa?" He pondered to himself while scratching his woollen head with one of his hooves, trailing in thought. That's odd, why isn't the farmer checking up on us? I'd better go check and see what's keeping him.

Letting worry and curiosity getting the best of him, he beckoned the herd to follow his lead with a swift motion of his black-coloured hoof. This resulted in the rest of the flock trailing behind him, save for Shirley, who is having a hard time trying to keep up with the members of the group due to her ridiculously massive and broad size, hefty weight and stubby legs. They were making their way to the farmhouse by scampering along the lush, green and rolling hills of the meadow (it didn't take them long to get themselves near their destination from their earlier positions) and just when they were within reach of it, Bitzer blocked their pathway which resulted in them skidding to a halt in front of him. Unluckily, this sudden suspension in movement also caused the rest of the posse to collide into Shaun's back.

Shaun's little, black round eyes slowly moved upwards until they were fixed on the sheepdog. He had to crane his neck and head in order to bore his eyes into the dog's own eyes due to him towering over him. Unfortunately for him, Bitzer's face is the picture of an annoyed canine. Right now, Shaun is testing his patience. He had the kind of expression on his canine face which said, "Where do you think all of you are going?" while one of his feet tapped on the grass impatiently. Shaun immediately rose up from his previous quadruped position so he is at the same height level as him.

He tried to talk some sense into the sheepdog through bleating, baas and gestures with his fore hooves which is his method of communication but he isn't having any of it which only earned him a low, guttural growl in return. This resulted in Bitzer to indignantly point towards the meadow with one of his front paws, which is his method of getting his message across to all of the sheep. To put it more simply, he ordered them to return to their previous positions. In response, Shaun shook his head in defiance and pointed the opposite way, attempting to persuade his close friend and sheepdog that he wanted to keep an eye on the farmer for a while.

As much as he wanted to lie his way out of his predicament, Shaun didn't have a choice. Realising that there is no way out of it; he merely told the truth to his close friend which involved in him and the herd spying on the farmer for a while. He only desired to find out why the farmer is taking his sweet time to return to the outdoors of the farm. Is that so much to ask?

Taking the leader of the flock's words into consideration, Bitzer rubbed his chin with one of his paws in deep thought. He's a stickler for rules and relegations but dismissing them all in the name of friendship is against his nature and it will smear his reputation. As much as he doesn't want to bend the rules, he didn't want to disappoint his best friend and his barnyard buddies. I suppose there wouldn't be any harm in allowing them to eavesdrop on the farmer as long as they won't leave the boundaries of the farm. But if I don't let them, they'll annoy me to no end until I permit them to do that.

After a few minutes of decision-making, he firmly nodded to the flock without hesitation before stepping aside and gesturing to the farmhouse in the distance with his paws. Shaun thanked him and this caused the woolly herd to scurry past him with the intention of locating their master. Just like earlier, Shirley is lagging behind due to obvious reasons.

Despite the setback, they soon eventually arrived at the front of the house. Once there, they made haste to the window which is overseeing the living room after their ears have picked up the ear-splitting sounds and noises which were blasting out of the television and they crowded around the above-mentioned window within several minutes.

Just as Shaun suspected, the farmer is in the comfort of his own home this entire time. There are times when he can be found in the farmhouse, the pig sty or any part of the farm to tend to his daily, mundane chores. But other than that, he likes to spend his time watching the television and relaxing in the living room or being occupied with his day-to-day routine in the other rooms. There's nothing quite like a quiet life, just the way he liked it.

Due to the size of the window, the rest of the flock were having a hard time trying to get a good view of the action which is displayed on the television and with the farmer's head in their line of vision, it made things much worse for them. The only main thing they can see is the back of the aforementioned farmer's head. Luckily, Shaun is able to perceive the whole news report, considering he is situated at the front of the flock.

He pressed his face and front hooves against the window and from what he had seen is a female news reporter on the television describing what is happening in the background behind her.

Chinatown is abuzz with the Chinese New Year celebrations and amass of people from all walks of life were gathered all over the streets and near the shops and buildings as a sea of Chinese lanterns were suspending from the phone wires. Not to mention, they were tied securely to countless sign posts. To put it much simply, the whole town is painted in the main colours which represented luck: gold (though, yellow is sometimes used) and red. The celebrations, parties and parades typically occurred to welcome in the new Chinese Zodiac year. According to the Chinese Zodiac, 2015 marks the Year of the Sheep/Goat/Ram.

She continued to explain about the celebration, the traditions (even if they can be superstitious), the Chinese Zodiac, the creatures and the animals of the Chinese Zodiac, the stories of why nearly everyone celebrates the celebration in the first place, the race which determined the order of the Chinese Zodiac and so on. She also discussed about the current Chinese Zodiac year.

Due to the deafening, lively sounds coming from the Chinese instruments, the constant chattering from the population and the fire crackers blaring out of the television, it proved to be difficult for him to listen and watch the entire news bulletin.

As he watched it intently with pure interest, he started to ponder to himself while he tapped the tip of his hoof to his chin in thought as a string of sentences instantly entered his mind one after the other and his black-tinted eyes glistened brightly with excitement. What is Chinese New Year? What is the Year of the Sheep? Whatever the Year of the Sheep is, it sounds like my kind of year to celebrate!

When the news bulletin ended, he and the flock scurried off back to the meadows as their little legs could carry them to ward off suspicion in case their farmer notices them taking a sneak peek at the television without him knowing.

Thanks to the news report, this sparked an idea in Shaun's mind which resulted in a plan to travel to the big city with the intention of investigating the parade and the parties behind the farmer's back. It sounded so elaborate in his head. The only flaw in his scheme is Bitzer (seeing as he is the second-in-command of the farm) and the farmer is in the way of him and his farmyard friends partying in Chinatown.

He may not know what Chinese New Year is but he felt ecstatic that he and his flock had the whole year to themselves. Not to mention, the year is dedicated to his species which he assumed. And what better way to commemorate this special occasion is to witness the celebrations themselves. The problem is he and the herd knew next to nothing about Chinese New Year, the Chinese Zodiac, the traditions and so forth. Unfortunately, the news didn't provide them enough information.

And so he laid down the plan to his chums through means of a chalkboard and a piece of chalk which he is planning to do just that. But before he can execute his plan, he needs to carry out his research at the farm.

Don't worry, the story doesn't end there. There will be more chapters in the pipeline. Initially, it's a one-shot but seeing as the story is becoming much longer than I expected, I decided to split this into several chapters. The reason why there is nearly no dialogue is 'cause I want my fanfiction to stay true to the cartoon and the Shaun the Sheep Movie. The words which were in italics represent the characters' thoughts. During the early stages of the fanfiction, its name would have been, "Chinese Celebrations", that is until I finally thought up the finalised title. The title is a pun on the current Chinese Zodiac year and due to Shaun being a sheep and he's the titular character of the cartoon and the film, it makes sense. The title of the first chapter is a pun on Chinese New Year, hence the reason why I included the word, "ewe", in the aforementioned title.

Anyway, you know the drill, review away and please no flames. Constructive criticism is fine as long as they help me to improve my spelling and grammar.