This is the first chapter to the book PigBadWolf
Point-du-Farme was a small town out far beyond the furthest edge
of Calabaza Lake, the major city of the Temperate Forest Biome,
actually a little further than that, on the northeast side of the biome’s
mountain range, in a valley that was the center of a large watershed, fed by
glacial rivers and streams.
The town was host to an array
of plants, animals and assorted geological features. Flying over town, a Falcon would see an
expansive pine and evergreen forest to the north, out of which flowed a
smallish, but not to small river bordering the town on the north and west
sides. The river ran south into a mid-sized lake, and out again at the south-western
tip, where a family of beaver maintained the old dam. The lake was a natural lake, with an added
dam to keep the water level constant and the lower end of the river navigable
for commerce.
Near the dam end of the lake,
on the west side of town, there were fields of grain; oat, wheat, rye, barley
and sorghum. Farther east Falcon would
see a mixed forest of hardwoods, especially noteworthy would be the large grove
of ironwood trees. A verdant carpet of
pasture lay in the northeast corner of the town just north of where the edge of
the hardwood forest meets the pine forest.
The town itself was a mixture
of homes built with a variety of natural products created by local home
builders and furnished by local artisans.
As mentioned earlier, the town is a bit too far from anywhere, not to be
sustainable in its own right with locally grown and produced products,
including the majority of the food and resources needed for the survival of the
local community.
Along with the old dam, the
beaver family ran a ferry service which provided transport to town folk,
carrying mail, produce, children heading to school and an occasional traveler
from away, across the lake to the town.
The ferry stopped at points along the shore to pick up and drop off
passengers and packages, the last stop being the edge of the rapids near
Strawhouse Hill.
On the top of Strawhouse Hill,
was the house for which the hill, and the lane leading up to it, is named. This was not your standard straw house made
by just any builder, this was the house of the FirstLittlePig, who apprenticed
in the fine art of straw weaving and straw home construction. The homes that he
built are made of the finest straw-bales, not only aesthetically pleasing on
the outside, but tastefully decorated on the inside with handmade straw mats,
wall hangings and furniture.
FirstLittlePig hired only the best straw artisans to work with him and
he maintained a fine, and respected reputation for the quality of his
construction projects.
From inside the house on a spring
day, you can hear the sound of the rapids as the water washes over the rocks
and down to toward the lake. Today was
such a day. As FirstLittlePig sat at the breakfast table, scanning the
newspaper spread out in front of him. The top of the front page read;
Wolves spotted setting up new home in the Pine Woods
The headline sent shivers up
his spine, his old childhood anxieties began to stir. MotherPig had told the boys stories about
their ancestors back when he was a very impressionable child. One such story was of a
great-great-great-grand uncle who fared poorly in an encounter with a wolf who
had a strong breath of wind.
FirstLittlePig had nightmares for months after and then several years of
therapy to recover from this story, his fear of strange wolves remained on the
surface even to this day, even with his success as a fine builder of straw
houses that could hold up even in hurricane force winds. New wolves in the area would not know how
this town ran, they would not know that all animals lived as equals in Point-du-Farme,
and that the only area for hunting was across the river in the Free Game
Preserve.
The local wolf population were
prominent members of the community, many were members of the protection squad,
who kept the town safe from raids by the L.A.B. facility many miles to the
south. The Laboratory Animal Business
was notorious for raiding the land south of the town, grabbing any animal it
could find and conducting secret tests on the animals, holding them forever to
see how the animal adapted to new surroundings or even worse selling them to
other research facilities or gasp to
food production. The town had many
community members who had escaped the L.A.B. facility or had family members who
had been in captivity there. The
protection squad had been hard at work for numerous generations, and no town
members had been lost in recent years.
So, FirstLittlePig knew the
value of the town wolf population, but he feared any new wolves coming into the
area, his phobia had been kept in check for so long, but this headline was
putting him well over the edge. Working
to settle himself down, he continued to read the paper and there on the bottom
of page five was an advertisement;
Wolves have you worried?
Fear no more, our new and
improved pill
Wolf-Phobia-Be-Gone - will keep your fears at
bay!
Only $19.99 for a three-month supply, order yours today!
Most people would have skipped
past this add, but FirstLittlePig felt that one could never be too sure, and
the old phobia coming back now would surely hurt his straw home business. He took out his cell phone, found the website
and placed an order to be delivered overnight.
