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Chapter 5: The pig pens
Aurelie had not been lying. She was really exhausted, both physically and emotionally. As such this particular crawl was especially difficult. She could only walk on the tip of her knees and elbows and this was a much unusual way of progressing. Much painful too. The leather of her limb sheaths was thick, but not enough to completely protect her from the sharp pebbles that were ubiquitous on the ground. As she crawled behind him, she was grunting and moaning helplessly, while her breasts were swinging grotesquely under her torso.
As they moved on slowly, a very distinctive smell of animal filth was getting stronger and stronger. Eventually they arrived at the place where the pigs were kept. Aurelie was forced to crawl inside, her knees and elbows sinking into the filthy mud. Pablo attached her collar to the end of a long chain that was fixed to a ring in the wall. Both ends of the chains were locked with a strong padlock. The chain and the rings looked quite thick and heavy, solid enough to contain a bull.
The place was like any pig pen, no matter how much effort you put in maintaining it clean. It was littered with mud and pig dejections that had accumulated for many days. Not far from the wall to which the chain was fixed was a large trough where the grains and leftovers of food were placed, and another half filled with water mixed with dirt and pig drooling. The stench was very strong and Aurelie wrinkled her nose. When she realised that Pablo was intending to leave her for the night, she began to shake her head frantically while emitting strange guttural sounds that could not possibly be human words. She was trampling her stumps furiously in the mud. Added to the strange look on her distended face and threads of saliva swinging from her chin, the sight was rather comical. But Pablo did not let himself distracted and he announced the rules of the new test:
"I have placed the key to your padlocks in the pig feeder over there. I would seek and fetch it as soon as possible if I were you. I shall come here tomorrow to see if you have been able to free yourself. If you manage to do it, please take a shower outside before entering the hacienda. I would not want you to ruin my carpets with pig shit. I'm told that the stench can never be completely washed out. Oh! and one last thing: remember that you earned that ring-gag yourself. I had warned you..." And on these last words he left, leaving Aurelie alone in the midst of the pigs.
She was outraged, shocked. How does he dare to do that to me? He will hear news from me tomorrow, as soon as I get out of this pit! she fumed inwardly. But for now she felt very helpless and passably ridiculous. The most humiliating was perhaps this thread of drool that kept dangling from her chin. She shook her head to get rid of a hair-lock that was sticking to her face across her eyes and looked around, assessing her situation. It seemed that the chain was long enough to allow her access to any part of the pen, at least if she could straighten the chain enough. Of course, maintaining that chain straight would be an effort by itself, notwithstanding several animals thrice her weight walking around and even stepping on the chain. There was a dozen of pigs of various sizes. Five of them were really enormous, probably weighting about 180 kg. The animals did not seem to be interested in her. Actually, they were presently gathering around the food trough which Pablo had just filled with rotten vegetables and grains.
This reminded her what Pablo had said: the key was in the trough. A sudden fear gripped her bowels: could those gluttonous animals swallow the key? Looking at how they were gulping down the food, it seemed quite likely a possibility. Aurelie hurried toward the trough. With her pink stumps, now spotted with mud and her round mouth, she did not look entirely alien to this foetid place. The hungry pigs were swarming around the trough and she had to force her way among the smallest individuals. She finally reached the food.
It was stinking, disgusting and she felt her stomach heaving. Hundreds of flies were flying around, crawling on her skin, on her face, entering her gaping mouth. Those were those same flies that had been crawling on the pig backs and on the rotten food. The thought made her feel nauseous again. The pigs were stomping beside her, pushing her in all directions. She looked again at the trough, trying to gather some courage. The key was somewhere there, among that foul matter. And she had to look for it.
She knelt up and rested her arms on the rim of the trough. Pigs were all around her, grunting and wolfing the food down. The feeder was already half empty. She looked all around for any glimpse of metal. It was hard to say among all those hungry beasts. Taking a deep breath, she let her arms slip inside the trough until she rested on her armpits, with her breasts pressed against the rusty wall of the trough, on the outside. She began to use her elbows to push the vegetables around while scanning for the key. It was so gross. Here she was among the pigs, hurrying around their food as if she wanted to eat it as well. The thought was as revolting as the stench. As she explored the food, the tip of her long hair was soaking into the trough.
Pushing the pigs around her, she tried to move along the trough. It was emptying quite rapidly. Aurelie was afraid at the idea the key might have already been swallowed. But she reflected that Pablo had probably dropped the key in the feeder before pouring the food. The key would then be somewhere close to the bottom. She had already explored two thirds of the trough, but the last third was under the power of the biggest animals. There was no way she could displace them.
Life among animals is always survival of the fittest, meaning fight for your food. As the stronger males saw the strange quadruped approaching their end of the trough, hoarding around at their food, they did what they always do in such situations: bite and try to push the other animal away. Aurelie was no match for them. Without the help of her hands and feet she was reduced to a pig. A smallish pig at that. As they tried to bite her, she quickly moved away, while keeping her eyes focused on that part of the trough she had not yet explored. A this moment, one of the smaller pigs jumped into the trough. He began to squeaked and squirm as it was also bitten by the others, and doing so he was moving all the food from side to side. In the end, he ran away into a corner of the pen.
Aurelie felt a bit of despair at this sight. Everything had to be done from the start. But then she saw a positive side to it. Maybe the piglet would have brought the key out of the territory of the strong males where she did not dare to go. Thus she started again, rummaging with her elbows through the foul stuff. By now it had gotten a shiny sheen from all the pig saliva. And from her own drool, Aurelie realised. She was by now a sad sight. Her naked body was all soiled, her hair was matted and clogged with dubious remains. She was covered by a swarm of flies that kept trying to get into her nostrils, mouth and eyes, while bugging also her sex and anus. She no longer matter now. More disturbing was the pig snout snorting near her ass, which she kept pushing away but somehow always came back.
And suddenly she saw it! A glimpse of metal. Already it had disappeared under a leaf of salad. Aurelie became frantic. She climbed into the trough, among a concerto of angry grunting and squeaking. She felt snouts hitting her from all sides. A pig bate at her butt. But she did not care. She was rummaging frantically with her elbow. And there it was again, glistening like a gold nugget in the mud. She plunged her face right into the disgusting brew and tried to catch it with her tongue. With her jaws so widely and so achingly wide apart, it was no easy task. The key kept gliding away and she followed it, looking very much like a pig hunting for truffles.
However, at last she reached the end of the trough. The key could go no farther. Her tongue managed to push the key into her mouth. Once it was done, she quickly scrambled out of the feeder, keeping her head high all the way. May I not swallow the key myself, she prayed. Dragging the heavy chain behind her, she went to a solitary corner. There she considered her new challenge: opening a padlock with only the help of her tongue...
If she turned her head entirely to the right, she could see the padlock holding the sheath closed there. It was in reach of her tongue, so there was hope. Carefully, she lined the key along the tip of her tongue and then she stretched it out, her eyes crossed over the tiny padlock. She slowly pushed the key against the hole, hoping it would enter it. But the key kept moving on her tongue and she had to reposition it. Five times she tried, and five times she missed. At the sixth attempt, the key seemed to enter the hole. She moved her tongue so that she could push it further into the key-hole.
It was a delicate affair. The key had hardly entered the lock. As Aurelie moved her tongue, the key tipped and fell. It landed into the mix of mud and pig shit that was covering the whole pen. Aurelie's eyes grew wide with horror and frustration. Quickly, she lowered her face into the mud. She could still see a bit of the key emerging from the horrendous litter. She plunged her face into it, her tongue sticking out, trying to recover the key. All she managed to do was to push it deeper into the filth. After a moment, she had completely lost the key. She began to rummage around with her face, trying to locate the key. From time to time she could see it, and then it disappeared again.
Her strange behaviour had attracted the attention of the biggest pigs. They had finished their meal and were looking for more. To them, Aurelie's action could mean only one thing: she had found more food into the mud. They ran towards her with all the speed their fat carcasses could manage. Soon Aurelie was bumped away by their sturdy snouts. They were rummaging around wildly, tramping the mud helplessly. Aurelie was sitting a little farther, sobbing silently, waiting for them to go away.
When they finally did, the place had been trampled and overturned on a desperately large surface. Aurelie had no choice but to rummage among the mud and pig shit, looking for the precious key. She worked hard for one hour. By then she was really a mess. A casual observer might not have distinguished from the pigs. At the very least he would not have seen her as a human being. She was covered with mud from toe to hair and was stinking like a true pig. And she had not found the key. By now it was too late. The sun had set down and the darkness was growing fast.
Soon the night fell completely. Aurelie rolled herself into a ball and tried to sleep. She was so tired that managed to fall asleep, in spite of the cramps growing inside her limbs and jaws. She kept waking up because of the pain though, and also because of the mosquitoes. When the sun came up the next morning, she was hardly rested and she offered a very miserable sight to Pablo as he came to check her. I hope the bastard at least took care to keep a spare key, Aurelie thought as she saw him approaching.