Leave the Woman
Pick Your Peril: The Hero of Mudtown
(This is part of a series of choose-your-own-adventure articles. If you want to start from the beginning, click here. If you want to revisit the previous chapter, click here.)
There’s no time to waste. The woman might mean you no harm, but you need to get moving if you have any hope of finding your family.
You leave the garden and walk back out into the woods, glancing over your shoulder at the witch’s home as you make your escape. A hint of a haggard face appears at the window for a brief moment, but you are able to leave without any trouble. You set out to find the path you lost, and push on into the forest.
After an hour of trudging through the wilderness, the sun has completely set and you are still lost. You haven’t seen even a hint of a path, and trying to navigate in the dark, dangerous forest has become exhausting. The need to lie down suddenly becomes overwhelming, and you collapse on the first patch of grass you can find.
A dreamless sleep takes you the moment your head touches the ground, and a few hours of peaceful oblivion pass by. You groggily awaken in the morning light and find yourself swimming in a pile of cloth. You wiggle free and discover that the trees and the rocks and everything else seems much too large, and that the pile of cloth you crawled out of are the garments you went to sleep in. You look down at your hands and see only little piggy hooves instead.
You squeal in disbelief. Maybe that tea wasn’t as harmless as you thought. You trot around anxiously, a million questions in your mind. How long will this last? Are you going to be a pig forever? Where do you even go from here?
You consider going back to the witch’s hut, but you’re already lost and you have no idea how you found her ramshackle little hovel in the first place. You’re weighing your options when you hear something moving through the bushes. Several wolves emerge from the undergrowth, and you give a small squeal of surprise when you realize that you’ve nearly been surrounded by the pack. The only option is to run.
You dart away, frantically searching for safety. You dash through the bushes, fleeing for your life, when you hear rushing water. You crest a hill and see a river next to a large patch of thorny shrubs. You might be able to lose your pursuers by crossing the river, but you’re not sure if pigs can even swim. The current looks powerful and dangerous, but it will carry you far away from the wolves.
The patch of bramble bushes is thick and tangled, with a small gap under the thorns. It’s not big enough for the wolves, but you might be able to squeak by if you don’t mind a few thorny pokes. The pack is closing in, and you’re not sure how much longer you can keep running.
What will you do?