When Jesse Met Reuben

Trust Through Sandwiches

It was pretty late in the day when Jesse decided that it would be safer to stay at the waterfall than return home. The pig had gone back to not trusting her again after it had eaten her chips and refused to come out of the brambles. Jesse wondered if it even knew if it was free from the vines yet.

The child had been resourceful; having made a small hut near the waterfall, she did some minor scouting for some wood after. She had constructed her own crafting table with little fanfare or celebration, as the fun of making her own soon went away when she found that she had to craft tons more objects now to stay alive for the night. Jesse did keep it in her mind to thank Gramps for the secret, though, but she was never going to build another crafting table in her life if she couldn't help it.

Morning came far too quickly for Jesse. She made do with the waterfall's lake and rinsed herself off a bit before looking over at the bramble.

"I wonder if that pig is still there..." she hummed to herself. Once more curious, Jesse found herself walking over to the bramble. Sure enough, the piglet was still there. It was sleeping, however. The child gave the tiny creature a small smile. It was a cute little thing- for a pig, at least. Quietly getting back up, Jesse went back inside her hut and started to craft a sandwich for breakfast. She could only eat half of it, so she saved the rest just in case the pig wanted something to eat.

Jesse went back to the bramble and found that the piglet had woken up.

"Hi." she smiled to it, accidentally scaring it in the process. It looked over at her and gave a rather unhappy grunt. Realizing her mistake, Jesse gave the pig a rather apologetic chuckle while scratching the back of her neck. It was there that Jesse saw the young pig's leg that had been trapped in the vines yesterday; it looked horrible, having been an open wound earlier, upon closer inspection Jesse almost wondered if the foot was fractured as well.

Without much warning, Jesse started to move toward the pig to get a closer look at the leg. The pig took this as a sign of attack and started to squeal at her in protest. Immediately, Jesse returned to where she was, reminded that the poor creature wasn't sure whether to trust her or not. She figured that it was already in pain, and fear of her wasn't going to help that any time soon.

Gramps had once said something about gaining a dog's trust. What was it again...?

Ah yes, now she remembered: if you know the dog is friendly, you should offer the back side of your hand so it can get used to your scent and know that you are not an enemy. But would it work on a pig like that? Jesse figured, at this point, that it was worth a shot at least.

"Here piggy, it's alright..." Jesse coaxed, offering her hand out. "I won't hurt you. Promise."

But the pig went further back. Jesse recoiled a bit to rethink her strategy again. This plan obviously wasn't working, but there had to be another way. Then the child had an idea and started to dig around her inventory for the other half of the sandwich she had made earlier.

"Are you hungry boy?" Jesse then offered. "I've got a sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly, just for you."

The snort she received was no less trusting than the others (in by saying that it was not), but there was definitely a hint that the creature did want some food. Jesse answered by pulling out the half of the sandwich and placed it close enough for the pig to eat it. The creature took to it as if it had been the only thing it's eaten in a week. Jesse watched as the pig ate, and when it finished she then said to it,

"You know, I could make more sandwiches for you if you wanted. But you need to trust me, and let me take you inside my little hut over there. I'll even bandage your leg up so it doesn't hurt as much. What do you think about that?"

The pig looked up at her- skeptical, and wondering if it really was hungry enough to trust her a bit longer. It lulled its options over for a few moment before giving Jesse an affirmative oink. 'I'll trust you for now,' the oink informed the child, 'But only if you feed me and make the hurt go away.'

Jesse smiled.

. . .

"There you go." Jesse said as she sat another sandwich down in front of the pig. "It's turkey and swiss cheese this time."

The pig didn't seem to care and dug in regardless. As it ate, Jesse looked around it to get a better look at its foot. How come every time she looked at it, it always seemed to look worse than what it was? The pig seemed to notice her hesitation, turning to her and giving a rather informative oink.

"Sorry..." Jesse apologized, "It just keeps getting worse every time I see it."

The pig gave her an annoyed snort that essentially told her that she needed to fix it, obviously, if it looked so bad. But Jesse shook her head.

"I think it needs more than just the first aid I know." she decided. "I think I need to take you to Gramps. He'll know more about fractures."

The pig let out an alarmed squeal. 'More? There are more of you?!' Jesse immediately picked up on this distress and threw her arms up to show innocence.

"He's just like me, promise!" she told it, as if it was going to change its mind immediately, "He looks just like me but with older and with tons more wrinkles. Gramps is nice, and friendly, and won't eat pigs that are my friends. Promise."

The piglet looked at Jesse with a less than thrilled expression. 'Sure, sure he is...'

"Let me quickly wrap up your leg though, then I can pack everything up and we can go get him. Is that alright?"

The pig let out an oink in reply. 'I've trusted you this far,' it implied, 'Not what we originally planned though...'

Jesse gave an apologetic side smile before going over to her knapsack for the first aid kit. Before she started to patch up the pig's leg, she made it one more sandwich to distract it. It seemed to appreciate the gesture and tried not to winch too much when Jesse would tie something a bit too tight- the child always apologized for it, mentioning something that she got real fidgety when nervous or something.

Meh, it could get used to this kid.

For now.