Chapter 4: Beware of
Hog
The flood
finally subsided and the waterfall turned out to be his
saviour as it plummeted Scruffy onto a bed of lush
moss. It was quite a ride down the mountainside and it
took a while for Scruffy to calm himself. The calm was
short lived, however.
In the distance
he heard loud grunts, thuds and thumps echoing through the
forest. Was it a monster? A goblin? A
wicked witch? Scruffy crept slowly through the muddy
forest to investigate and what to his wandering eyes should
appear but a gigantic brown boar with tusks glimmering in the
sun. Crazed with anger, the wild hog charged through
the mud-soaked underbrush crumbling rocks and ripping the
bark from the trees. As the boar got closer, Scruffy
didn't know whether to run or
hide.
The boar spotted
the little skunk petrified with fear, charged directly
forward at full tilt and didn't stop until he was inches away
from Scruffy.
"DID YOU DO
THIS? (snort) WAS IT YOU THAT UNLEASHED THE WATER AND
(snort) DESTROYED MY TRUFFLES?!" The boar huffed
-- his hot, steamy breath landed heavy on the
skunk. "But but but... ...I can explain," said
Scruffy. The boar grumbled and ground his teeth.
"AHA, (snort snort) SO YOU ADMIT IT! YOU ARE THE REASON
FOR THIS AND YOU'LL PAY." Before the little skunk
could plead his case the mud-soaked boar picked the skunk up
and carried him to his lair.
"Oh please, Mr.
Boar. I didn't mean to hurt anything. I was just
trying to help the garden on top of the mountain
grow."
"I want no
(snort) excuses," The boar threw Scruffy in a cage and
locked the door. "There you will stay in my jail until
I decide what to do with you." And with that, little
skunk was trapped.
Days passed and
Scruffy started to believe he would never see freedom
again. He was hungry and scared and the fat old
hog showed no signs of relenting. The lock was strong
and there was no way to open it. The bars were far too
narrow to squeeze out. But when Scruffy tapped the
floor, there was a hollow sound. There might be a way
out through the bottom, the little skunk thought. There
was no way to get out while the hog was watching,
though.
The next day
when the boar went off to tend his garden, little Scruffy
dusted off the bed of grass from the cage floor and looked
for a way to escape. The wood was old but not rotten
enough for the little skunk to break. If only he could
grab a pole or a stick, he thought to himself, he might be
able to pry the floor up. And with that thought,
Scruffy spotted an overhanging branch he could almost reach
when holding onto the top of the
cage.
He scampered up
and stretched his little arms, but the branch was just too
far away. but by sheer luck a gust of wind blew the
branch downward and he finally managed to take hold. But in
the act of trying to pull the branch down, the tree's roots
shifted in the wet soil on the nearby escarpment, dislodging
a rock from above which fell on top of the cage with a
thud. As the rock hit, the cage clanged like a bell and
the resulting vibrations broke the floorboards. Scruffy
let go of the cage and tumbled down down down into the
darkness.
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