9

A few minutes before dawn, Nadjela is awakened by a distant scream. She rubs her eyes and yawns. On the horizon she sees Chester appear with an obvious sense of haste, carrying a jolting bundle.

"Run!" shouts the nobleman, now at 500 paces and subtracting. "Run like the devil take the hindmost!"

A hundred moving hills come behind, shaking the ground beneath his dusty gait. More and more outlined, Nadjela recognizes the wide snouts, and the pair of five-foot-long fangs capable of impaling a full-grown man. The girl lets out a high-pitched scream.

They flee from the stampede of giant pigs. The fortuitous escape takes its toll on Nadjela in the form of burning in her chest and pain in her legs, but the hoarse, hostility-laden grunts were a wonderful incentive to avoid slacking off. Chester, without pausing or letting go of what he's carrying, yells at her to get on his back.

(You don't have to do it again!)

Nadjela jumps up. Her hands go under his armpits and plant themselves firmly on Chester's pecs, at the same time her legs wrap around his waist. Chester doesn't even flinch as her nails dig into his flesh, only accelerates.

From her position Nadjela discovers what Chester so zealously carries. Another pig but of a smaller diameter, less than a meter, and almost completely round. It lacks tusks, and its fur also differs from the black tangles of anger that chase them, being white with a pink crest and tufts of the same pigment on the left side of the back, vaguely forming a flower. The small, glassy eyes reflect confusion. Nadjela, making eye contact with the piglet, wonders what it would be like to have a large, strange being take you in its arms and take you away from everything you know. Then it dawns on her that she understands her completely.

After the marathon they manage to lose the stampede. Chester allows himself to stop and fall face first into the dirt, bathed in sweat. Nadjela hurriedly moves away, avoiding to worsen the situation with her weight. The piglet pushes and manages to get out from underneath, but before she can get more than an arm's length away, Chester reaches out like lightning and catches her tail, making her squeal.

"Grab her" Chester says between gasps, his face powdered. "It's our emergency food"

Nadjela carries the animal. It's light and fluffy. The piglet's gaze seemed intelligent enough to read intentions, and to realize that the girl's interests were less carnivorous than those of the blue troglodyte, hence she behaves more docile in those gentle hands. During the time it takes for Chester to rejoin, Nadjela continues to soothe the little animal using caresses and cooing.

"There is a story from before he was born about my people trying to tame them" Nadjela tells the swordsman when he is already standing up. "But only one female is born for every 100 or so males, and the males are very irritable and hostile, plus their meat is too tough. So the idea of using them as livestock or mounts was abandoned"

"100 males. I don't know if I can eat something that has been given so many sides" Chester says, evaluating the piglet.

Those little porcine eyes look back at him with infinite reproach.

"But when the hunger gets the better of him..."

The little eyes are now bathed in horror, and the round little body trembles.

"Poor little thing. Leave her alone, she's afraid" says Nadjela.

"But it's the food! You don't spoil the food!"

"I was told that females are more docile. But this one seems particularly trusting"

Either that, or the sow is very afraid of Chester. Not a strange idea, she was terrified of him too.

Nadjela interrogates Chester about his encounter with the pigs. The swordsman reveals that he was looking for breakfast when he caught them circling and jumping synchronized, movements that in a more slender animal would look graceful, around the piglet.

"This one looked like it tasted better. So I went and got it"

"She was being courted. She must have just reached maturity, and it was her first time, hence the nerves" Nadjela deduced with all the understanding that a virginal maiden of La Cuna can give.

"Or she was just expecting one with bigger fangs" Chester babbles with his fingers in his mouth. He pulls a piece of cockroach out from between his teeth, a leg, and smiles triumphantly. But when two pairs of eyes glare at him, his joy disappears and he wonders what he did wrong.