Boris paces nervously in the mess hall, waiting for the seven hog soldiers he had sent for to arrive.
"Escapees," he muses aloud, drumming his fingers along his chin. "How did that happen? Are the pigs getting smarter? Are her spells weakening? Could now be the time to...?"
His thoughts are interrupted by the clumsy arrival of his men. They snap to attention in a straight line once they enter, their long spears with jagged-bladed tips snapping sharply as they do.
"At ease, hogs," he grunts, and adjusts his belt. "We have a situation. Six of the mistress's latest aquisitions have escaped into the island at large. It is up to us to retrieve them, and fast. If we do not do so, we are to be reverted to complete pigs and take our places on the meal ticket. Am I understood?"
"Sir, yes sir!" they all shout in unison.
"Failure is not an option, gentlemen. Our lives are at stake. It is either us or them. They will be brought back."
***
"Wait, what?" Wil squeals as Beth proposes they rescue the other pigs. "How are we supposed to do that? We're just pigs! And they've got an army of monsters and a powerful Greek sorceress! We can't possibly..."
"We don't have a choice, Wil!" Beth responds harshly. "She'll never stop hunting us as long as she has the power to. It's a long shot, but we have to try. I'd rather die fighting than give in. And if you won't lead us, then damn it, I will!"
"You've got my support, sweetheart," Tobin grunts, causing Wil to shoot him a thoroughly angry glare.
"My sisters and I are with you as well, Beth," Sophia says as her sisters nod in agreement.
"So what's it going to be, Wil? Are you in or out? Are you going to fight for our freedom or give in like a whiney, squealy piglet?"
"I... I'm in..." Wil hangs his head in shame, taking a deep breath. "I just don't see what we could possibly do against magic like the stuff she's got. She could probably kill us with a thought."
"Aye, she could, little piggies," a new voice says from behind them, but in English. They can still understand it, but they couldn't speak it even if they tried. Out from the shrubbery steps a wiry old man dressed in tattered old rags. He is missing several teeth and his right eye socket is empty and gaping. "Long ago I tried to take her down, I came here to save me wife from life as a sow but I couldn't do it. She took me eye and left me here to fend for meself. But she did give me m' wife back, so I learned your language long ago, but I don't got the chords for it. It's good t' finally see pigs smart enough to organize. Maybe now's finally the time."
"You can help us?" Beth asks, hopefully. "You can help us beat her and return us to normal?"
"Normal? No, lass. Ye'll never be human again. Not if ye want t' free all her other captives. The only way t' do that is to reverse Circe's magic on herself, make her a powerless pig. Then ye'll all be free."
"Why couldn't you do that yourself?" Beth asks, tilting her head to the side.
"The incantation c'n only be speaking in the piggish tongue, and I'm nae able t' speak it. It's that loophole she put into her weakness, assumin' that no pig'd ever be smart enough to use it. But I see it in you six. You're smart enough, you have a chance."
"You said your wife was with you. Can we meet her?" Sophia asks.
"Oh, no. She passed some time ago. Had 'er cremated so nobody could make a meal outta her. But that's neither here nor now. You've got to stop her, for your sake. For all a' your kind. It's the only way. You'll never be human again, but that don't mean y' can't live happy, free lives. I got some magic trinkets that'll help y' t' sneak in without bein' noticed. Come along, I'll show ya to 'em."