& The Bastion
of Den-Ted
A tale of preparation, pig dentistry, and a wolf who really should have made an appointment.
Sitting in the house of bricks with a cup of tea was the three little pigs' favourite moment. Feet cosy on the wolf pelt rug.
It had been three months since they'd dealt with that ferocious creature. Since learning of the dangers of the world, each piggie had decided to train and prepare in different ways. Living under this tiled roof: a martial artist, a sapper and… a dentist.
Glinting teeth sparkled as they sipped their hot drinks and schemed lofty dreams of someday taking down the wolves' castle — The Bastion of Den-Ted.
Cackling at ideas they never really thought would come to pass, they hopped down from the table and carried on their daily lives, always alert, always looking over their shoulder.
While in the middle of a root canal on Prickles the Hedgehog, a hammering knock came from the door. A muffled sentence drifted through the insulated bolt door.
Sighing, Denver the dentist pig tapped the intercom. "Watcha want? Kinda busy here. BRRRRRRRRR."
"I'll BZZZZZZZ and I'll puff and BRRRRZZZZ down!" came a crackling voice.
"Do you have an appointment?" replied the piggy, still concentrating on the extraction.
"Uhhh… appointment?"
"No appointment. No emergency. Phone reception between 8am and 6pm and we'll get you booked in. Goodbye. BUZZZ BRRRRRRRR BUUZZZZZ."
Any more noise from the intercom could not be heard over the drilling.
Outside the barbed wire fence perimeter stood a gigantic wolf, whose eyebrows were level with the guttering on this one-storey building — about twenty paces away.
Tentatively, shaking with rage, they tried to place the tip of their enormous paw-finger on the intercom button. They kept hitting multiple at once and thus failed to communicate.
"BRRRRRR BUUZZZZ BRRRR" is all they could get out. Frustration rippled through the body and with one swipe the intercom was knocked cleanly off the wall, dangling from a series of coloured electric cables.
Fist pummelling the steel door before the body went limp, slumping face-first against the metal. Teeth left a scratch or two. A whimpering growl of disbelief. These pigs had transformed an ordinary brick house into a well-fortified… fort. Of steel and brick and more steel.
Dejectedly looking down at their claws, the wolf began wandering away from the mission — then spun around.
"Appointment!"
awaits.
The wolves' castle still stands. The pigs are still scheming. This story isn't done — just resting between chapters.
work in progress