When Pigs Fly: the Story of a Pig
My name is Zamiel. I am a pig who lived in a time when pigs were slaves to the wolves. Here is my story.
The day I was born, the wolf king, Akalla, sent his soldiers into the slave village to kill all the male pigs under two weeks old. My mother, Yeisha, didn't want this to happen to me so she told my sister, Mariella, to put me in a basket and send me down the river where, perhaps, I would be safe. At the time, I was asleep, but when I woke up in the river, I was frightened, so I squealed.
One of Akalla's daughters, Raneila, found me while she was taking her morning bath. Since she had no sons of her own, she took me in. She named me Zamiel because I squealed so much that she finally threatened to muzzle me.
I was raised as a wolf, but I knew that I wasn't one of them. I always had a soft spot for pigs because they looked like me.
One day, I saw a wolf attacking a pig. This was natural if a pig was being slow or lazy, so I didn't pay any attention to it at first. Cut then he continued beating the pig past due punishment. Finally, it want too far. Irate, I attacked the wolf. I repeatedly kicked him in the head until he died. The pig I had saved was already gone.
I knew I was in trouble, big trouble. If I didn't run fast and now, I would be killed for murder. I ran, and kept running until I came to a well. This made me realize how thirsty I really was. There was a girl pig there, with a bucket. I asked her for a drink, and she gave me one and invited me home for the night.
Her father, Nathaniel, was kind and gave me work to pay for my food and shelter, despite my past. For years, that was how I lived. Nathaniel even gave me his youngest daughter as my wife. She was Evania, the one who first met me by the well. We even had a son, Jasriel, at that same well.
Finally, the monotony was broken. I was walking in the mountains when I saw fire in a cave. Curious, I went to investigate. At the back of the cave was a burning lily. Tow things were strange about this lily. The first I saw was that it was growing up from the stone; the second was that it was on fire, but it wasn't burnt. I wanted to run, but I was drawn to the flower.
I stepped forward, but a voice from the lily said, "Stop. Kneel, for where you are standing is holy ground." The voice was powerful and commanding. I knelt. "I am the Great Pig, the father of your fathers."
"What, Great Pig, could a poor, sinful pig like me do for a pure, holy pig like you?"
"My people have been under the control of the wolves for too long. You are to go to the king and ask the king to let my people go. When he asks for a sign, throw dirt over your back. I'll take care of the rest."
I was scared, but I went home and packed to return to my native land.
When I arrived, I found someone to take me to King Akalla.
"Who are you to come before me?" He snarled.
"I am Zamiel of the pigs. Your servant was sent by the Great Pig to tell you to let his people go."
The king just laughed. "If you really are a messenger of this 'great pig'," he said, "Then tell him that I will let his people go – when pigs fly!"
I just shrugged and threw dust over my back. For a while, nothing happened, and I began to feel foolish. But then I began to rise and float around the room. I didn't have wings, but I wasn't touching the ground, either. I landed in front of the king, who stood, awestruck.
"That doesn't count as flying. I still won't let them go."
Not knowing what to do, I went back to a tent I had set up on the edge of the city to sleep.
The Great Pig visited me in my dreams. He said, "Go back to the king. Tell him to let my people go. Perform five signs in front of them." Here he listed the signs and how to do them. "Also, give him a warning – if he doesn't let my people go, I will let death loose in his lands."
The next day, I was terrified to go back to the king, and I knew it wouldn't work, but I went into the jaws of the beast anyways.
"The Great Pig tells you to let his people go or he will let death loose in your lands."
"What proof do you have that this 'great pig' even exists? Show me. Do something that my magicians cannot do and I will let his people go."
"Bring me a bowl of water." I stuck my snout in the water, waiting until the water was swirling to take my snout back out. When the water calmed, it was blood – red. In fact, it had turned from water into blood. Akalla lapped up some to test if it really was blood. Then he motioned for his magicians to come forward. They also had a bowl of water with them. After sprinkling some powder into it while stirring and muttering a few words. The water turned red. Akalla tested it and also deemed it to be real blood.
"Is this the best you can do?" He sneered. "My magicians were able to copy your little trick."
So I tried again. I took a stick from a pile near the fireplace. Holding it in my mouth, I raised my head and brought it down to the ground, hitting the stick on the ground in the process. For seven minutes I waited, and I had begun to feel foolish when finally I was rewarded for feeling foolish. Frogs came spilling out from every drop of water in the land. They even hopped out from the water bowl beside the king's chair.
Out of fear, the king yelled, "Stop this nonsense! Stop it and I'll let your people go. I lifted my head and all the frogs went back into the waters they came from.
Now in his own mind, Akalla refused to set the slaves free. "Try again."
I'd always been taught to do whatever the king told me to, to I tried again. I opened my snout and a gnat flew in and I shut my snout again. Seven minutes later, I couldn't keep it shut any longer. My snout snapped open again and out gushed thousands of swarms of gnats. They attacked the wolves that were in the room, buzzing around their heads, getting into their coats, and biting at their skin.
Again in a frenzy, Akalla yelled, "Take away these blasted gnats and I'll let the slaves go." I sucked in all the gnats and when I opened my snout, only the original gnat flew out.
Regaining his composure, Akalla rearranged himself on his throne and said, "Next go," even though his magicians had not copied my "trick" and, in fact, had run away when the frogs came.
Still, I had two more signs to go, so I continued. A gnat landed on Akalla's tail and he swatted it and killed it. This acted as a beacon to all the flies in the land. They all came swarming in and around the palace, sped on by a miracle. There was no room left to maneuver, hardly any room to breathe, and certainly too much noise to hear anything.
Somehow, Akalla got enough of his voice to travel for me to hear, "Get-rid-of-flies-and-people-go-free!" I nodded once and the flies dispersed, leaving only one fly to hover around. Instead of killing the fly when it landed on his tail, Akalla merely moved, causing the fly to flitter off. He didn't want to go through that again.
"Anything else?" He asked.
"Just one." I lifted my head and brought it down once. Then I waited to seven minutes in that exact position. I was finally getting the hang of the "stupid for seven minutes" thing. At the end of seven minutes, the ground shuddered and there was suddenly a lot of animal noises right outside of the palace. Stretching for miles, starting directly below them, livestock from all over the land called and crooned as they stood there, making a lot of racket and not doing anything productive. The wolves, with their special hearing, were especially affected.
I yelled to Akalla, "Will you let the pigs go?" All he could manage was a nod, but it was enough. All the livestock went back to their respective homes. Now the only animals that could be heard from the tower were sounds from the palace livestock.
"Get out of here!" Akalla ordered. "If you think I will let the pigs free after all you have made me suffer through, you are sadly mistaken."
There was nothing I could do but leave. However, I did not go back to my tent. Instead, I went to each slave house. I told them all to get ready to leave, to dump all their yeast out on their doorstep, and that they had seven minutes to do so. Then I went back to my tent and did the same.
Then, seven minutes later, a spirit came from the Great Pig and took all the firstborn children from the land. Even Akalla's son, Remian, was taken.
After the ordeal was over, I went to see Akalla. He didn't even look up to see who it was. He knew it was me and just said, "Go. Take your people. I don't care anymore. I want nothing more to do with you.
And so we left the land of the wolves. Evania took Nathaniel and the rest of her family and joined us. And though there were many more hardships to come, we survived another day. And we were free!