The four boys had been walking alongside the beach while thinking of what could have triggered the switch. It had been almost two whole days since Jack and Ralph had switched bodies, and while the cause was still unknown, they knew that something had to help with it. They tried all their might to think of what could have happened, but before any of them could really come to a plausible idea, the blonde boy's stomach growled loudly, and he held his stomach to try to suppress the growls. The fat boy looked at Jack and smirked slightly.
"Hungry, are we?" The darkened blue eyes that belonged to the hungry boy glared at Piggy.
"No, I'm not hungry. My stomach is growling because I have a sickening virus that aliens have sent to me while I was sleeping, and they transplanted it with using moose antlers."
Simon laughed to himself as the fat boy simply looked back and shrugged.
"Knowing Jack, this would be the kind of thing he would say.."
"What did you say?"
The fat boy sighed before rolling his eyes. "Nothing, Jack."
Ralph glared at the three shorter boys and that was enough to make the three boys stop talking. Another violent growl came through Jack's body, and Ralph looked at Jack with concern in his eyes.
"Before we do anything, we should probably let Jack eat...," Ralph started, and a bright glint appeared within Jack's eyes. He smiled widely before his eyes looked deep within the forest with a sort of longing. Ralph followed the direction Jack was looking in, and had an idea of what Jack wanted, and glared in reply.
"No." Ralph said, and saw as the expression from Jack's face turned from hopeful to angry in a quick second. The blonde boy's eyes looked challengingly up at the redhead and growled.
"Ralph, you don't even know what it's like, so how can you say no so easily?"
"Because I know that there is other food we can eat, like berries and nuts. We don't have to go hunting." Jack looked questioningly up and cocked his head to the side.
"Tell me Ralph, have you ever even been hunting? Just a simple question."
Ralph looked side to side and bit his lower lip, knowing he actually hadn't, but knew which direction it would go if he were to say no. Jack's smirk, however, showed that he already knew the answer.
"Thought so. Let's at least try to hunt, and if you really are too girly to handle it, you can leave." Jack's smirked widened as he ran quickly into the jungle, and could only leave the three other boys with confusion written on their faces. Ralph looked at the three boys and said, "I cannot believe I am actually doing this..."
Ralph and his two friends walked up to Jack who was bending over a river with paint and minerals by his side, watching as he started to paint his face with brown and green colors. He looked very preoccupied in his handiwork, so the redhead was sure that if he dared bothered him, he would certainly get it. Piggy neared Ralph and whispered so that the blonde wouldn't hear him.
"Ralph...are you sure you want to hunt? I mean, you hate hunting, so.."
Ralph looked at his friend in the same expression that Piggy was giving him, a look of uncertainty.
"I know, Piggy, but I really doubt he would listen to me anyways." Jack quickly laughed loudly, and cupped his hands to his face and make a loud Indian cry, dancing around and patting his chest wildly. Ralph rolled his eyes impatiently and watched as Jack beckoned Simon to do his face paint for him. Simon nervously looked at Ralph and Piggy, before gulping fear down his throat and walking towards his choir leader. It was a few minutes as the four boys put on their paint and Jack inspected them. He walked past Piggy and Simon and nodded before coming to Ralph and shaking his head while chuckling.
"What? Why are you laughing?" Ralph asked, watching as Jack placed his hands on the taller boy's shoulders.
"Nothing. You just have a weird looking face regardless of whether you're wearing paint or not." The blonde laughed louder as Ralph shook out of the other boy's grasp and punched him lightly in the shoulder, an angry smirk placed on his face. The three boys then spent a good few minutes finding proper sticks to use for hunting, and then they were off.
The sun that day wasn't nearly as bright as the day before, and the temperature actually felt a little cooler. The sky, cloudless as usual, guided the boys through the woods with the warm sunlight beating down on them, and as the boys walked through the forest, the constant cries coming from the pigs echoed through the trees. Jack smirked, his blonde hair all messy over his painted and Ralph smiled slightly at the boy's appearance. He was surprised that he would actually look like that if he had ever decided to go hunting in his body, with his hair like that and his face looking so savage. Ralph touched his own bony face and thought of the exact reason he hated hunting so much, that these masks created a different identity for the boys, an identity of savage and cruelty. The redhead just wanted this to be over, and hopefully they would catch a pig soon.
Eventually, they reached a spot in the woods where a wild pig was standing alone, eating leaves that were scattered on the ground. It was completely unaware of the predatory states piercing into it from a distance away.
"Now, if my instincts are right, we should have enough people to at least hold the pig down. All we have to do is remain nice and quiet until the pig comes out." Jack smirked before pulling out his spear sightly, as if ready to strike.
Ralph glanced at the pig uncertainly and noticed that Piggy's face, underneath his dark green and purple facepaint, seemed to squish together, almost like he was going to...
"Achoo!" The pig glanced up, startled at the random noise, and quickly sped off into the darker parts of the woods. Jack's eyes sent daggers at the fat boy as the boys slowly gave Piggy the death glare. Piggy, embarrassed, tried hiding his reddened face beneath the colors of paint on his face, and Jack gritted his teeth.
"Piggy...couldn't you have waited to sneeze until after we caught the pig?" Jack yelled, and as the other boys started to stand up, Piggy could only sigh as they began to walk around once again and try to find another pig. Jack suggested that some boys climb up the trees to scout the island for pigs, but nobody really seemed to be interested in that idea, so Jack just gave up. It felt like forever to find another pig, but when they finally found another one, the first thing Jack did was push Piggy back to make sure he couldn't sneeze again, or at least it wouldn't be so loud. Ralph, Jack, and Simon looked at the pig with hungry looks on their faces, and Ralph remembered how Jack described the hunts: there was a lot of blood, a lot of gut-spilling, a lot of violence in general...
'I really hope this doesn't come to haunt me,' the redhead thought to himself as Jack sent a sign to Simon that it was time to hunt, and the two boys quietly hid within the bushes, leaving Ralph standing.
The pig this time was way bigger than the first one, and according to Jack, it was female. Her legs were chunky, and the idea of meat coming from the pig was definitely promising, so Ralph watched as the two boys slowly started to creep up on the pig. Piggy could only turn to not see anything too gruesome, and Jack's eyes brightly glared at the direction of the meat he could practically taste.
"Let's get 'im!"
The two boys sounded the hunting call, and the pig gave the same startled expression as the other pig did before it was captured, but Jack and Simon struggled trying to keep the huge pig under their hands. Jack glared at Ralph, who was just standing there looking at the entire scene.
"A little help, blonde?!" Jack hissed, as the pig tried biting the boys off of her.
Ralph gulped before taking the spear into both of his hands and running into the fight, attempting to strike the sow with the blade. He pushed the blade into the underbelly of the pig, watching as the blood started to come out. A rush of satisfaction ran through his veins, and he couldn't help but wanting to strike again. Seeing the pig start to become blurry, Jack left the holding down to Simon as he assisted Ralph stabbing the pig repeatedly, and the two boys watched as the pig gradually fall down, her eyes closing and her breathing become more and more slow as all the blood came out. All the beautiful, glorious blood, Ralph never knew that hunting could bring such feelings like these. He glanced at his now completely red hand as Simon finally let go of the pig and sighed in exhaustion. Piggy walked out from where he was and rolled his eyes at seeing the dead pig.
"Well, you sure did kill her alright.
Besides Piggy, who couldn't quite keep up with the speed of the other boys, the three boys smiled as they walked quickly through the jungle with the pig's dead body being carried. They laughed and talked about the kill as it was the weather, and their faces showed the faces of happiness and hard-work being achieved.
"Did you see the look of the pig when we neared it? It didn't have a chance!" Jack laughed nasally, his blonde hair sticking to his forehead in sweat. Ralph simply rolled his eyes and laughed too.
"Well, Ralph? What did I tell you, didn't I tell you that hunting was fun?"
Ralph looked at Jack and then to the pig, seeing that the pig's mouth was open and blood still dripped from its teeth. It disgusted Ralph to see so much blood, but he did have to admit he never knew how much of a rush it was to hunt. He could understand why the other boy enjoyed it so much, but he still believed that the fire was most important.
The fire. Ralph's eyes widened as he remembered that a ship could be coming anytime, and that they needed to keep watch over it. He looked at Jack sternly.
"Listen, Jack. We have to go up the mountain and make sure that the fire is still lit. There could be a ship..."
"Yeah, yeah, of course the fire. We can light it again after we feed the other boys." Jack felt his arm getting numb from the weight of the pig, so he threw the end of the spear he was carrying over his shoulder to assist himself in carrying it.
Ralph shook his head at the boy's childishness, and he stopped walking to look at the mountaintop. He started walking in that direction, which caused the pig to be going the same direction he was going. Jack persistently dug his feet into the dirt to stop the redhead from walking, and Ralph's eyes widened angrily as the blonde gave him a glare from behind.
"Jack. Quit being such a child, we need to make sure the fire is lit!"
"Fire, fire, fire. That's all you talk about! Has it ever occurred to you that you might be the only one who actually gives a shit about that stupid fire?"
Ralph and Jack glared at each other fiercely, like two vultures fighting over for the roadkill. Piggy breathed heavily as he walked into where the three boys were, and cleaned his glasses from them being foggy. He noticed the awkward atmosphere, and he slowly walked over to Simon was and leaned over to whisper.
"What's going on?" Simon merely sighed and shrugged before picking up one end of the spear that was carrying the pig. Ralph looked back at Piggy with a desperate look in his eyes.
"Piggy, you care about the fire, don't you?"
"That's right, ask Piggy, as you always do." Jack hissed, and Ralph sent the boy a challenging look. Piggy sighed before looking towards the mountaintop and noticing there was no smoke.
"Listen you guys, as much as I enjoy you getting in each other's throats as much as the next guy, there is still the subject of rescue we have to maintain. We should still head over to the mountain and light the fire again," Piggy said, and Simon nodded in agreement.
Jack realized he had lost the election, once again, and sighed before picking the pig up.
"Okay, whatever. I will take the pig to the other boys on my own, since you girls care so much about your precious fire." The other three boys watched as the blonde began to drag the pig through the dirt and leave within the shadows of the forest. Ralph sighed, running his hand through his red hair, before looking at the other two boys.
"Let's go get the fire taken care of, then we can come back down here and eat...if the other boys haven't reached there first." Piggy and Simon exchanged looks of approval before walking side by side with the freckled boy through the forest and headed to the mountaintop.
Sunset was slowly starting to catch up the hunter as he took a break from dragging the pig and wiping the sweat off of his reddened face. He was clearly exhausted, since the pig weighed probably as much as Piggy, but the boy still trekked through the forest until a familiar face blocked his face. His eyes widened as Roger, who still looked uncomfortable from earlier that day, noticed him and glared as though his life depended on it.
"Roger, thank God you're here, now you can help me carry the pig. Just grab the other side of the stick and we can-." His sentence was cut off by Roger walking up to him and sending the most shivering of all all death glares. It was safe to say that, for the first time in Jack's life, he was actually very, very scared of Roger.
"Is this a fucking joke, Ralph? First you punch me for no reason, then you actually hunt? What sick messages are you trying to send, and I like sick messages as much as the next guy, but your messages are just...really weirdly sick. And this is me saying this."
The redhead had no idea what to say. He knew that that it would be hard to persuade his friend that he was actually Jack, and considering how Roger dealt with it earlier, chances were that it wouldn't turn out good regardless of what he did. He took a deep breath and let go of the pig, putting his hands on his hips. Blue eyes searched with dark brown ones, as the two boys stood there with the awkward silence around them.
"Roger...you know that it's me. You know I'm Jack, I mean I hunted for Christ's sake! Why can't you believe me?" Roger looked at his friend as if he didn't even know who was anymore.
"Anybody can hunt. Jack is just particularly better at it then anyone else on the island, so the idea of Ralph hunting...it's just stupid. He hates hunting."
"Well, yeah, but I'm not Ralph, Roger."
"How the hell am I supposed to know that?"
Jack sighed, placing his hand in the tangled, sweaty bangs over his forehead. He tried to think of a clear idea to show Roger who he really was, but nothing came to mind. Roger rolled his eyes and started walking in the opposite direction.
"Wait! What if we hunted? Together, tomorrow, first thing in the morning, you and me. Then I can prove I am Jack, not Ralph! Just please...trust me?" The blonde boy pleaded with the noirette, and Roger simply looked back and sighed.
"Fine, only I want all the hunters to come, not just me and you. Then we can see if you're just fooling us or not."
Jack watched as the other boy bounded away in the western direction, while the pig continued to stand still and start catching the attention of flies.
Ralph, Piggy, and Simon were walking back down the mountain once the fire was lit again, and they came upon a blonde boy eating his heart out to pork. He was by a tree stump, letting the oozy blood of the pig run down his chin, and he moaned at the tastiness of the meat. Ralph and Piggy grabbed some as well, and Simon just raised his hands to show he wasn't that hungry. The three boys sat there, content with their food, and watched the stars start to come out in the moon-loving sky. It was absolutely breathtaking, how beautiful the entire thing was. Jack sighed.
"So, I told Roger I would hunt for him, tomorrow...to prove that this whole switch thing actually happened." Ralph glanced up from his pig leg and gave the blonde a curious look.
"How do you suppose you're going to do that? Besides, we really need to figure out a way to reverse the spell, or whatever happened to us."
"Yeah, I know, geez, you sound my mother. Once Roger sees me hunting, regardless of whose body I am in, he'll definitely know it's me, alright. Besides, Roger can help reverse this thing too, you know. It's not just Simon and Piggy."
Piggy chuckled while almost finishing the portion of food he still had while Ralph didn't seem too convinced. The redhead wasn't completely sure what good it would do to being Roger into all of this. After all, the boy himself was a bit odd, and he honestly didn't have a skill to offer that might assist them. However, Ralph knew that Jack and Roger were pretty good friends, so if Jack really did feel like it was right, it wouldn't be such a bad thing...would it?
Ralph nodded and continued to eat the pork, while Simon simply yawned and walked away into the forest. The boys' eyes followed the smaller boy's trail.
"Where do you suppose he's going?" Piggy asked, and Ralph could only shrug.
"Who knows."
Roger and the other hunters were gathered around Castle Rock, a new location where the hunters had recently discovered not too long ago, and Roger was discussing matters of the hunt the next day to the boys.
"So, tomorrow, make sure you have your spears sharpened and your vision intact. If Ralph really is Jack, then he will turn out to be great in hunting, but don't feel the need to encourage him. He never know who he is, after all."
The other hunters gave each other different looks while listening carefully to Roger's words. The hunt tomorrow, they knew, would certainly be interesting.
"Also, if by any chance the hunt doesn't go great today and Ralph is still Ralph, then I forbid any of the hunters to discuss matters with him."
A hunter whimpered before standing up defiantly.
"But you're not Jack, so you can't make the rules..."
"Is Jack here? No, so shut up and sit down."
The boy slowly followed the black-haired boy's orders, and the entire crowd around them chorused into excitement for the upcoming hunt. Maurice stood up once they had left to go play or something, and he stood by his friend with a playful smirk on his face.
"Do you really think that it's going to be Jack, Roger?"
The other boy could only shrug apathetically before walking into the cavern and calling it a day, leaving the brown-eyed boy watching him leave.