[Gpdd] (SILLY) Palace of the Piggle, Installment Three

[Kimberleigh]

(note: sorry for installment three's lateness, had a few problems, not the
least of which was our cat almost dying, but anyway, on with the story!)




“Oh deary deary me. Now, Lily, don’t you cry darling. Mama’s here. Tyler, stay
close, Willard, stop teasing Avis!” Dinah, the mother of the big brood, was
having a hard time keeping the children from panicking. She felt so angry and
upset. That horrible Rumblestrut! Such a thing to do to babies.
	Jared helped his parents herd the little ones into a tight group. “Everyone
must stay very close together,” he explained, “so nobody gets lost. We have to
leave the safety of the tall grass.”
	“I don’t want to go!” 
Lily was confused and frightened. This was all so sudden and strange. All the
bigger pigs talking in excited voices and all the goings-on! She didn’t like
it. She liked it best when things were quiet and when everyone was calm. The
fact that her parents and her older brother were apprehensive, when they were
usually brave and strong all the time, was not very reassuring.
   Avis was cranky and irritable and in need of a nap. Why couldn’t they stay
where they were, at least until they had rested? He missed his morning snooze
and was extra sleepy. He kept thinking of his soft bed of dried grass at home.
He hoped wherever they were going they would get there soon—and there would be
a place to sleep!
    Willard was restless with the desire to get Wildflower out of prison and
hopeful that there would be a way they could stay at home after all and not
have to leave, or at least not for very long. He didn’t like leaving home and
he was scared and confused about everything that had happened in the dungeon.
Rumblestrut was even more frightening up close than he was from far away! When
he thought of all the bad things the prince could do to Wildflower, like
calling her stink beetle, or taking away her favorite pebbles for pebble-scoot
(would he ever see his again?) or maybe even biting her ear, he got upset. 
Why wasn’t Jared doing something? His big brother was the strongest pig in the
world and he was supposed to be able to do anything. Surely getting Wildflower
out of jail couldn’t be hard for a pig like Jared! He’d just run in there, bop
Rumblestrut right in the snout (and it would serve him right, the big bully),
and carry Wildflower out to safety. That Rumblestrut was a stink beetle, dirty
fur, big old mean bully with FLEAS in his ears! Willard cast a guilty glance
Mama’s way and hoped it didn’t count as cursing if you only thought it.
     Tyler wasn’t saying much, but it was obvious he was apprehensive about
the whole business too. He was thinking about his best friend Saffron, with
whom he’d often played while Mama and Saffron’s mom talked together as they
groomed their fur. Would they ever play hop-skip or run-in-the-reeds again?
Tears welled up in his tiny eyes but he pretended that he’d got some dust in
his nose so he could wipe them away.
	“All right children, all right now,” said Gavin, their father. “Everything is
going to be ok. As long as we stay close together nothing bad is going to
happen, I promise.” 
	The little ones, somewhat bolstered by this, grew quiet and stuck in their
huddle between the three adult pigs. After about a half an hour’s journey,
they’d reached the border of the kingdom—where the tall grasses gave way to
flat scrubland that offered little shelter and many dangers. Poking his head
warily out, Jared checked to make sure there was nothing immediately horrible
to confront them before motioning his family forward.
	Jared was worried. He wanted very much to rescue Wildflower, but there was no
way he could leave his family, they needed his protection. And what would they
do out there in the scrublands? How were they to survive? Were there more
grasslands to the west? If so, how far were they? 
     As far as he could see in every direction the land was barren. They would
need to duck from bush to bush, and the bushes were thin and scraggly and
didn’t look like they would be decent shelter, especially for seven pigs.
There could even be hawks. He looked warily at his little brothers and sister.
He couldn’t stand to lose even one of them, but he knew that to a predator
they would be just the right size for a nice meal. He flexed his muscles
determinedly. Well, if there were predators, they’d need to get through him first.
     “All right everyone,” said Jared, “this is the plan. Do you see the bush
over there, the one with the funny thin leaves?” The children nodded. “Ok, me
and Mum and Dad are going to make a circle, and your job is to stay as close
together in the middle of it as you can. We need to get to that bush. We’re
going to pretend we’re one great, big, giant guinea pig, all together. Ok?”
Again the silent, wide-eyed nods. 
     The little circle formed and everyone scurried to the bush. It only took
about two minutes but it seemed to the little family like it took a year. They
were all expecting something bad to happen in this strange place.
     Avis yawned. “Mama, I sleepy. Wanna take a nap now!” His eyes grew
moist—it was so scary here! Maybe when he woke up, it would have only been a
bad dream. Oh, how he wanted to sleep!
     “Well, I suppose this is as good a place to sleep as any,” sighed Dinah,
as she scooped out a flat hole as far under the bush as possible. “Everyone
stay close, we’ll nap for a while before we press on.” Gavin and Jared stayed
awake, keeping watch over the sleeping huddle, twitching at every noise and
trying to think of what they were going to do.
     “Say, this isn’t such a good place to be, especially this time of year.
The hawks are raising their babies now, so they hunt extra!” Jared nearly
jumped out of his fur at the voice right behind him. A strange animal was
sitting next to him, watching him.
     “Who are you?” Jared asked in wonder. “Where did you come from?”
     “Came from this hole,” said the stranger. “I’m Hardy, fist battalion of
the Royal Guard of the Piggle.” Noting the startled and confused expressions
on Gavin and Jared’s faces, he continued. “You folks must not be from around
here. Act like you’ve never seen a prairie dog before. My family has served
her royal majesty for generations. Queen Chloe lives in the Palace of the
Piggle, and I’m on border guard today. Patrolling the border safely requires
use of these tunnels, and your little family is practically sitting on the
exit hole!”
     The pigs glanced where Hardy was pointing. Sure enough, a cleverly
concealed hole stood about a foot away from their slumbering family!
     “Do you know a place we can go where it’s safe?” asked Gavin. “My wife
and kids here and I were banished by our wicked Prince Rumblestrut, and we
don’t know where to go.”
     The prairie dog’s face broke into a wide grin. “Aw, bless your hearts,
I’ll take you straight to the Palace. You and the missus and all those little
ones, the very idea! This Prince Rumblestrut must not be a nice fellow at all
to dump so many little infants out on their ears. Follow me.”
     Jared gently woke Dinah and the children, and the whole astonished family
followed the strange border guard through a long tunnel until they reached a
vast palace made of cleverly woven strands of the living grass around them.
Hidden by the surrounding vegetation, the lavish place was virtually a town
underneath a roof, hidden from predators and comfortably able to fit all the
residents of a neighboring kingdom they’d never even known about!
     Hardy whispered to another prairie dog, who nodded and disappeared. In a
few moments, he returned and led the guinea pigs to their quarters. “You are
welcome to stay here as long as you like,” said the guard. “Tonight you have
an audience with Her Majesty. For now, finish your nap, you no longer have
anything to worry over.” Grateful beyond words, the whole family slept, this
time deeply, their earlier fears behind them. 
	








-- 
~~Kimi
http://www.thiscrazysite.com