The Rise of the Thinking Pig
by G. Michael Smith
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Table of Contents parts 1, 2, 3 4 |
part 3
The Studio
Over the next few days, she and Paulina discussed how they would proceed. The plan was simple. First Viola would behave like an artist. That is, she would say odd things when asked about her doors. She would avoid any explanations regarding their construction. She would go for long walks alone in the forest. She would behave this way for as long as it took for Paulina to get the Mayor to agree to her terms. They consisted of a new double burrow with a concealed open-air studio. That is what she would call it. A studio. It was a term from The Before Time and it meant a place where an artist could work in private.
She also wanted at least three young boars or sows to collect materials from the forest under her direction. Once the new burrow and studio were completed then, and only then, would Viola start to create the doors. She would also need a food supply to be delivered daily to the new burrow. It must only be the best of the best for an Artist should never have to worry about such a mundane thing as gathering food.
To both Paulina’s and Viola’s surprise, the Mayor readily agreed to everything. They ignored the teachings of the Great Boar: “You must not ask for so much.” They replaced them with: “Hey, why not ask for more?” That is what Paulina did: she took advantage of her newfound power. It started to make a certain pig concerned. That pig was Duffy.
After the first week, Duffy arrived at their new burrow/studio. He snuffed and snorted at the new double door that Viola had previously constructed and had mounted at the opening to their burrow. No one answered. He called out, “Viola, Paulina. I need to speak to you.”
It was early. Paulina had not completed her morning ablutions. She felt a little unprepared for a visitor. She looked through the gate and saw Duffy. “What do you want, Duff?” she asked. Her tone was rather dismissive.
“I have been asked by the Mayor’s wife, Hermione, as to when her doors might be completed?”
“When they are done, I guess,” said Paulina. She was about to turn back into the burrow, but Duffy’s sharp response stopped her short.
“I have been instructed by the mayor to inform you that the door must be installed within the next two days or this little scam of yours will come to an abrupt end. Do you and your Artist friend understand me?” He spat out the last part with a palpable glee and turned and trotted down the path. He stopped suddenly and turned back. “It is my duty to remind both of you that you will be expected to attend the Joining Ball as I assume you will both be in estrus soon if the smell emanating from your burrow is any indicator. I know of several interested boars.”
Paulina could not control herself. “Frack off, Duffy,” she whispered and turned back into the burrow. She heard Duffy snort loudly.
She wandered back to find Viola in her studio. She found her weaving a heart into a door. “Forget about the fancy stuff. We have two days to get the great sow’s gate installed. When will you be finished?”
Viola stood back admiring her work. “It is done. It’s a little plain. I was going to add some embellishments, but this will have to do. Let’s install it tomorrow. Get that young boar to carry it. He can use this to pound the hinge post into the ground.” She indicated a bulbous piece of root. I will have to show him how to pick it up in his jaws and bang the top so the sharpened bamboo gets driven into the soft ground.
* * *
The Oak Tree
After the Mayor’s door was installed, things settled. All the well-to-do sows that lived in and around The Hill wanted doors. The Mayor had slowly stopped supporting Viola and Paulina after his doors were installed. That did not matter for now Viola’s creations were in great demand. She was being supported lavishly as long as the doors were being created. She knew it could not last, for once everyone who could afford doors had them, her clientele would disappear.
But Paulina came up with a brilliant idea. The doors for the last two less affluent sows on the hill were deliberately more ornate than the original doors for the Mayor. This opened up a whole new business model. Everyone had to have the latest style of door. All Viola had to do was change the decoration on one or two new client doors, and the entire community would want those new and presumably better doors.
Viola was kept very busy. She was also very affluent. That brought another problem. Neither she nor Paulina had attended the Joining Ball, much to Duffy’s chagrin. They had hidden in the woods until their peak of estrus had faded. Paulina knew this was going to be a problem in the future. Contrary to community expectations, neither she nor Viola were interested in being piglet factories. They both felt that this was a case of mind over body. They knew they would have to hide out to avoid a bunch of young boars sniffing about. They knew it would be difficult not to present and be mounted by one of them.
It was then that Viola had an idea. It was simple at first, but became more complicated as she explored the possibilities. They needed to have a place to hide out that would not attract a bunch of sniffing boars. They had made it through the first heat because no one expected it. Their next heat would be different. They had to be prepared.
Viola returned to that section of the woods where the huge old oak stood. It had the perfect hiding place in the spot where five large branches met. It was like a cradle of sorts. She laughed at her little joke, for it was the perfect place to be in order to avoid the cradle of a bunch of piglets.
The problem she had been mulling was how to get up there but also keep anyone else from climbing up. She had no words for “stairs” or “ladder,” but that is what she wanted to build. She wanted a ladder that would allow her to climb up to the cradle to avoid being impregnated by any passing boar. The cradle was at least five shoulder heights from the ground. She knew she had at least twenty-one days before she had to hide again so she started preparing.
There were already several bamboo poles on the ground at the base of the tree. Her helpers had cut them down to harvest the smaller branches for door construction. She shimmied one of the poles up the tree until it was standing at an angle. It reached the cradle. She chose two of the largest and lay them parallel to each other in the small semi-hidden clearing behind the tree. It was not going to be a quick job, for she was experimenting with attaching steps to the poles. They had to be attached to the poles at an angle and hold her weight. After much lashing of vines and bracing of cross-members to two short experimental poles leaning against the tree, she constructed two steps that held her weight.
Paulina had not been privy to Viola’s plans. Viola was a little afraid that she would think her plan was an impossibility. Pigs don’t usually like heights, so the thought of climbing up and sitting in the cradle of a tree was, to say the least, very unpig-like.
But now she needed Paulina’s help. Getting the two long poles leaning up against the tree was going to be a difficult job. If she attached all the steps, the ladder would be very heavy. She attached the top step and the bottom step only. That would hold the ladder together. She would mount the remaining steps once the ladder was in place.
Viola realized that her tentacles had become very strong. She could lift a lot. Paulina did not have this advantage. She found it very difficult to do any of the things Viola wanted. Everything slowed down. That is, until Viola had a new idea. She wanted to have a vine that went right over the cradle and down the other side. That way she could attach one end to Paulina and the other end to the ladder.
Viola was very strong and could easily pull the ladder up against the tree. Getting the vine over the cradle was a whole new problem. She tied a rock on the end of a long vine and used her tentacles to hold on to the vine and spin the rock around her head. After much trial and error, she succeeded in getting the vine over the cradle and down the other side. Now lifting the ladder in place would be easy.
Viola set her project goal at one step per day. Six steps were required to get to the top. It became more and more difficult to build the steps as she went up the ladder. She could not look down, and she could not turn around. Going down was much more frightening than climbing up, for she had to go backwards. Only once she reached the top could she turn around and walk down. When that day came, she was so filled with elation that every hair on her body stood up and shivered.
The final piece required that she hinge the top of the ladder to the tree with vines, toss another vine over a protruding branch, and tie the end to the bottom of the ladder. Now she could climb up the ladder and pull the bottom up so no one could climb up after her. It was perfect.
She inspected the base of the cradle. It would require some touches to make it livable for the five days she would be fertile. It needed some leaves to sleep on, a place to put supplies, and a location for her waste. All those things were just details. Paulina, if she wanted to join her up here, would have to help with that.
She had at least three days before she started estrus, at least that was what she thought. But her body was thinking something different. She realized that her estrus was coming sooner than she expected. If she went anywhere near a male, her biology would take command and her beautiful brain would become a slave to the imperative.
* * *
A Night in the Cradle
Viola did not return to her den that evening. She practiced climbing up and down the stairs. She practiced pulling up the ladder and tying off the vine. She gathered more vines and stowed them in the cradle of the tree, just in case. Just in case of what, she had not yet decided, but she knew that things could go wrong, and she had to be prepared if they did.
While sitting up in the “Cradle,” she had a bad thought. What if the ladder broke or fell? She looked over the edge, and the ground seemed to be a very long way away. She could not jump. If she fell, she would be seriously hurt or dead. A seriously hurt pig in her village was as good as dead, for the hogs would kill anyone who became a burden to the village. She had no intention of risking death. She had to think of a method of getting down in case of an emergency.
The only thing she could think of was another ladder as a backup, but she had no time to build it. She finally drifted off to sleep. The Cradle was comfortable; too comfortable. She started to roll over in her sleep when she was startled awake. She was right at the edge.
She heard her name being called and became fully alert. She looked over to the path that led to the tree. Paulina was trotting along with the handle of one of Viola’s woven baskets in her mouth. She set it down and called out to Viola in a loud whisper.
“Where are you? I looked for you last night. Viola. Viola?” She never thought to look up. It was not in a pig’s nature to consider something up high in a tree.
“I’m up here,” said Viola.
Paulina looked up. “Oh,” she said and stared. It was like she could not believe that Viola was actually in the cradle of the oak tree.
“Wanna come up?” Paulina had helped with the ladder-building and bamboo-gathering but had never really thought that Viola’s plan would come to pass. “I will lower the ladder and you can climb up.” She sniffed the air. “What’s in the basket?”
“Apples,” said Paulina. She picked up the basket and set it down at the base of the oak.
“I will lower the ladder and you can bring them up,” said Viola. She untied the vine and gave the ladder a shove so it teetered at its apex and slowly started to drop. She controlled it by gripping the vine rope with her tentacles and lowering it slowly. It settled gently on the ground. “Come on.”
Paulina picked up the basket and lifted her hoof onto the first step. She stopped and raised her head.
“That’s good, Paulina. Take another step. It is easy. Just don’t look down.”
Paulina moved forward until all her hooves were on one of the steps, then she froze. “I can’t,” she said and stepped backward until she was back on the ground. “Come down and get the apples.”
“Okay. I will show you how easy it is. I still can’t go down frontwards but I will get the hang of it soon.” She slowly backed down the ladder and snuffed Paulina playfully behind her ear. “See. Going up is easy. She picked up the basket of apples and practically ran up the ladder. She set the apples in a crook above the main cradle and turned to Paulina. Paulina was shaking her head. Viola went down the ladder frontwards, albeit much more slowly. “Go ahead. I will help you by coming up behind you.”
Paulina attempted to mount the steps while Viola encouraged her, even nudging her from behind. Finally, Paulina stepped on the cradle. She was ecstatic, right until she looked over the edge. She crouched down in fear. “I can’t look over the edge. It’s just too far. What if I fall?”
“I have been thinking of that. I nearly rolled over the edge in my sleep last night.”
“You slept up here!”
“Yep. And soon, so will you.”
“We’ve got a couple of days before estrus.”
“Nope.”
Paulina sniffed Viola. “You are about to start. You are early.”
“Yes, and we have a lot to do and quickly. I cannot go back to the village, so you will have to get more food and water. I need to gather the makings of an emergency ladder as well as a couple of harnesses so we don’t fall out of bed, because it is a long way down. I want to be safely up here by tonight. Those hogs will be sniffing around real soon. My musk carries when I am on the ground. Hopefully being up in the Cradle will help to conceal us. If it doesn’t, we will just keep an eye out. If we are silent, they will not even look up. They will probably sniff around the trunk though.”
She snuffed Paulina playfully again. “Now get going. You have not started yet, so you will not be bothered. My pantry has more fruit in baskets, as well as some root veggies I gathered. I have work to do here. Come back just before sundown, and we will take refuge in our cradle.”
* * *
Copyright © 2025 by G. Michael Smith
