Pt 4

As the hunters and prey trooped down the hillside, judges were waiting to separate out those piglets who would be going home at the end of the day and those who certainly would not, other than in other people’s stomachs! Mackenzie glared daggers at the still-giggling sisters as she was ushered to the right to join the other paint-marked girls who would soon be butchered. She thought about protesting, about trying to explain that she had not been hit but that the sore losers, as she saw them, has transferred some of their paint onto her but she knew that there was no point. The rules were very clear. As nobody other than the hunters and piglets themselves were in the woods to witness what transpired, a piglet was deemed to have been shot if she had paint anywhere on her body other than the soles of her feet. It didn’t matter to the judges how it got there – a painty body meant you were on the menu!

As well as Mackenzie, Amy and the two sisters, six more piglets were rounded up for slaughter. Of the fifteen who had entered the woods only five, emerged clean, Polly included. These girls, after a brief inspection by the judges, were allowed to go and rejoin their families. Polly’s mum offered her a T-shirt to put on and some of the girls were wrapped in towels by their parents but Polly preferred to stay naked. The weather was nice after all and it was not as if she had any secrets to hide any more!

Once the prey had been sorted and the painted girls rounded into a sort of pen close to the scaffold and cooking area, it was the turn of the hunters. Two women stood by the pen where some of the piglets were crying but most were watching excitedly, ready to assess the paint colours on their little bodies and confirm who had been successful. Only one piglet appeared to be sulking, her arms folded angrily across her flat chest, and that was Mackenzie!

The ten camo-clad girls lined up, their rifles slung over their shoulders. Jenna was on the end, grinning to herself, looking forward to seeing the reactions of the audience where they learned there was going to be some spit-roasted teen meat on the menu in addition to the butchered piglets. On instructions from one of the judges, each girl took a pellet from their pouch, gripped it in a hand held out in front of them and crushed it before opening their palm to reveal the colour of their paint.

“First,” the judge addressed the watchers, “we have one of our most experienced hunters who is sure to have bagged us all some tasty treats for this, her last feast before retirement. Jenna Harcourt!” Jenna walked towards him with a confidence that bordered on swagger, already anticipating the mixture of shock and delight that would come when her “kill-count” was tallied up. “So, ladies,” the judge smiled, looking at the paint in Jenna’s hand, “how many of our piglets have orange paint on them?” The women began to look at the little girls in the pen, casually at first but then growing more intense and urgent, asking certain girls to turn around or stretch out their arms or legs.

“Um… none!” The woman looked up, clearly shocked. “She doesn’t seem to have shot any!”

“Well this is a surprise!” The judge looked at Jenna with suspicion, “Are you sure you have the right colour paint there? You’re usually our most skilled hunter!”

“I guess my luck had to run out some time?” Jenna grinned and gave a cheeky wink. “I guess that means I’m on the menu?”

“Well, um, yes!” The judge shrugged and shook his head. “Since you failed to shoot a single piglet, you will provide the centrepiece of the feast! Please disrobe.” Another man stepped forward and took the attractive blonde’s gun, belt, hat and glasses. She then shook her hair out and performed and unhurried strip-tease, much to the delight and appreciation of the crowd. Once she was completely naked, having removed the matching bra and panties she had bought specially for the occasion, she held her arms out in front of her demurely, wrists together, and allowed herself to be led over to the scaffold where she was tied with the rope around her wrists to one of the supporting poles. She stood with her curvy round bottom sticking slightly out as she watched the rest of the judging with interest.

“That certainly was a surprise!” The judge announced before moving onto the next in line. As each girl was called forward to be judged, the line closed up to fill their space and the crowd edged forward, closer to the action. Amy’s sister Carol’s paint could be found on eight of the ten piglets, other girls typically scored four of five but none less than two until it came to Beth, the girl who was unsure as to whether she had managed to shoot any piglets at all.

As Beth walked forward nervously, arm outstretched, Polly noticed that she was standing where the older girl had and the grass by her bare feet was splotched with the bright green paint of Beth’s pellet. As they had done with Jenna, the woman inspected all the piglets thoroughly for signs of green paint but found none.

“This is certainly the year for surprises.” The judge spoke to the crowd. “It seems we have another hunter who failed to mark any prey!” From her captive position, Jenna watched her friend’s face fall and she wished there was something she could do to help. “For the first time,” the judge announced, “we will have two hunters on the menu.” Beth bit her quivering lip and tried to hold back tears. “Of course as this is an unprecedented scenario,” continued the judge, a little uncertainly, “we only have one spit so we will decide how we prepare Beth in due course. But for now, Beth, I must ask you to disrobe.”

At this, Beth could hold back no longer and burst into uncontrollable tears. Never the less, she handed her gun and ammo belt to the man who stepped forward for it and began to unzip her jacket. There were no cheers, whistles or cat-calls this time as there had been with Jenna. Everyone, the judge included, was feeling very uncomfortable with the situation and wondering if there was any way to let her off without violating the tradition.

Glancing down at the floor, an idea occurred to Polly. Quickly, she crouched down and dipped the tips of her fingers in the paint and dabbed it on the back of her neck where it would be hidden by her shoulder-length blonde hair.

“Call out ‘I think you missed something!’” She hissed to the teenage boy standing behind her.

“Huh?” He was confused, too distracted by Jenna’s naked body to notice much else of what was going on around him.

“Call out ‘I think you missed something!’ and push me forward! Quickly!” Polly instructed again. The boy still had no idea what the small girl was talking about it but she seemed pretty insistent so he thought it best to go along with what she said.

“Hey!” He called out, loudly to the judge as Beth dropped her jacket on the ground and was just starting to lift her salmon-pink vest-top, ready to pull it over her head. “I think you missed something!” He pushed Polly forwards with his hands on her shoulders and the young girl walked almost as confidently as Jenna had over to where the judge and hapless hunter stood, watching her in surprise.

“What’s going on?” The judge asked, looking down at the naked little girl who now stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. Beth looked equally puzzled but with a flicker of hope on her face – was she about to witness a true miracle?

“I don’t think your friends did a very good job with the inspection!” Polly explained, trying to look serious and not to giggle. “I felt something hit me on the back of the neck in the woods. It might just have been a bug or something but I think it’s worth checking, don’t you?” She turned her back to him, popping her hip coquettishly as she stood. She saw her mum watching in the crowd, a look of warm pride on her face. Clearly she had realised what her compassionate young daughter was doing. Polly threw her a wink and she responded with a discrete thumbs-up.

The judge pulled Polly’s hair aside and saw the two small green splodges. He thought it was unlikely that they had been missed earlier and they looked suspiciously like finger-dabs rather than impact splatter but the girl had presented herself willingly and the rules did state that a piglet would be deemed to have been shot if paint was found anywhere but the soles of her feet! This was the get-out he and much of the audience had been looking for. He gave Polly’s shoulder a squeeze as he turned to address the audience, acknowledging her kindness and silently thanking her for it.

“It seems Beth did, in fact, bag us a tasty piglet for our feast!” He called to the approving cheers and applause of the crowd. “Go on, piglet,” he patted Polly’s bare bottom. “Go join your friends!” Polly happily skipped over to the holding pen where the smiling ladies let her in.

“The next stage, of course,” the judge called, “is the washing of the piglets! Since we now have two more piglets than hunters, perhaps we can have some volunteers to wash the remaining prey and help prepare them?” Various hands shot up and he pointed to two older teenage girls, themselves both veterans of the hunt. They came and stood with the hunters. “Thank you! Now if each hunter would like to select a piglet, we can begin!”

The hunters and their assistants made their way over to the pen while buckets of warm, soapy water were brought out. Beth of course went straight for Polly, taking her gently by the wrist and leading her out onto a patch of grass ready to scrub, not that she needed as much cleaning as most of the other girls!

“Thank you!” She spoke softly as she dipped a sponge in the water and began to wash the small girl’s belly. “But why did you do that for me?”

“You looked so sad!” Polly explained. “I wanted to help!”

“But now you’ll be cooked instead!” Beth looked worried but Polly only giggled.

“I don’t care about being cooked!” she grinned. “I wouldn’t have entered if I was worried about that. It’s not like anybody made me!”

“So why did you try so hard to avoid getting shot?”

“Because I like to win, silly!” Polly giggled teasingly. “I wanted to get out of the woods without being caught and I did! So I win!”

“But now you’re going to get cooked anyway, just like if you lost!” Beth began to wash the inside of her willing prey’s thigh.

“But I know I didn’t!” Polly assured her with a grin. “It was my choice, not because someone else was faster or cleverer than me!”

“Well I guess that makes sense!” Beth allowed herself a small laugh and she wiped the soapy wet sponge over Polly’s appealingly chubby vulva. “But anyway, thank you!”