The pig trotted away to the middle of the farmyard, squealed loudly, and stood up on its hind legs with great difficulty.
Then he laughed and ran across the muddy yard to leap up on the grey stone wall, legs lengthening as he went, hair sprouting on his head. He squatted on the wall for a moment, shining in the rain, then dropped down the other side and ran off into the woods, laughing.
He'd always been a bit of a prankster, my brother, but as I watched him disappear among the trees, I couldn't help licking my lips and thinking how tasty he'd have been if he'd stayed a pig.
Sheep
It had been a tiring walk, so I sat down on the long grassy slope to rest beside an outcrop of rock. The view was magnificent, with steep green hillsides tumbling down to a silvery stream at the valley floor.
I leaned my back against a large outcrop of rock, sticking out of the side of the hill like a huge granite thumb hoping to hitch a lift elsewhere. I'd just shut my eyes for a moment, to relish the relative silence, when there was a sudden bleating "Hello" from above.
I'd thought I was alone. Annoyed, I opened one eye and looked up. A small sheep had stuck its head over the edge of the rock and was looking down at me. It opened its mouth and repeated the long bleating "Hello". I snorted to myself, shook my head, closed my eyes and rested my head against the rock again. I'd had a touch too much sun, of course, but I'd be alright now that I was in the shade.
After a few moments, I felt a nudging at my arm. I opened my eyes and there was the sheep again. "It's me. It's me," it kept bleating. I pushed it away and it bleated in complaint.
The animal wasn't going to give up and, as soon as I'd closed my eyes again, it was there tugging at my clothes with its yellow teeth. I snorted with exasperation and was about to get to my feet and resume my journey when it said "It's me. Don't you recognise me?"
I felt obliged to give some sort of answer. "But I don't know any sheep," seemed to fit the bill. The sheep bleated a laugh, or laughed a bleat, and then said: "It's me, your sister."
The sheep opened its mouth wide and, sure enough, there was my sister's face peeping out from inside, damp with ovine saliva.
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