It was a hot and humid day. Not unusual as I live in the tropics. Fortunately I had a decent insect repellent which meant I was relatively bug-free. Today it was only relatively decent as I'd been tapped to butcher one of the pigs, which was always a fly attraction.
Butchering the pig was minor - a hard blow in the right spot and the pig went from wondering what's going on to lying on the ground, deceased. Unfortunately the subsequent skinning and cleaning of the blasted animal took somewhat longer and was a whole lot messier. Fortunately my father had rigged up a hoist and all I had to do was tie the pig's back legs to it and yank on the pulley and up he came. Then it was a case of skinning and gutting and getting incredibly stinky and messy. I told my father that the pig was done and on the hoist and if he wanted it stored somewhere it was on him. He just grunted and said he'd fix it.
"I am now going down to the river to cool off and clean up," I told him and he waved me on my way.
It was the middle of the day but safe enough to go to the river. The farm hands were all out working the fields and tending the animals so wouldn't be at the river trying to sneak a peek. Pigs weren't the only swine on the farm. You had to keep your eye on the two-legged ones as well. Stupid of them to try it on with me as my father would demonstrate the correct way to use a machete if they actually did anything to me.
I grabbed some clean clothes and my fishing gear and traipsed on down to the river. There's a bend in the river near our farm and this has resulted in a nice pool being carved out on our side of the river. Dad says it's a work in progress and in another hundred years will result in the river having a different course, just as soon as it finished carving its way through the ridge that currently redirects it. Not that I cared about that. I just cared that it was secluded and gave me a place to bathe and fish. The muck I washed off would attract fish and I could catch some after I'd bathed.
The first thing I did was clean myself up on the down-river side of the pond. After that I moved over to the up-river side and simply relaxed and did some swimming in cleaner water. Hopefully the time spent swimming would give some fish time to follow the blood scent and congregate in the pond.
Finally I left the pool and spent half an hour sun drying myself before getting dressed. Then I went to start fishing. That's when I heard a noise in the bushes. The amount of noise seemed to indicate that there was a large animal back there and the only large animals in the area were people. The only one stupid enough to be spying on me was Pietro. I was furious.
"Pietro, if I catch you spying on me I'm going to jam this fishing rod up your ass and catch your lips with these hooks. I'll then tow you home by those hooks and give you to my father to practice his gutting skills."
There was laughter from the bushes and to my surprise three men came out from behind them. Not farm-hands but soldiers. What the hell were soldiers doing here? There wasn't any call for the army to be in the area. They were all about my age, eighteen plus.
"What have you got against me?" one of them asked, "and why do they get off free?"
"What are you doing here and who are you, anyway?"
"We're on deployment for a training exercise. And I'm Pedro who you so cruelly threatened. Don't you like Pedro's?"
"I was threatening Pietro, not Pedro. Pietro is one of the local farm-hands. Still, no need to worry as I don't mind encompassing all three of you peeping Toms in my threats."
"Peeping Pedros, you mean but don't worry. We weren't peeping," denied Pedro. "We were just taking our rest break when you came along and stripped. Not wanting to embarrass you we just stayed quiet. Oh, we also kept watch to make sure no-one sneaked up on you. True gentlemen -- that's us."
I gave them all the evil eye. They'd been deliberately watching.
"If you'll excuse me, I'll be going," I snapped, turning towards where the rest of my things were.
"We won't," Pedro said, sounding very happy.
I turned back to face him, confused.
"You won't what?" I asked.
"Excuse you. It seemed to me that you knew we were there and deliberately teased us. Not a very nice thing to do."
"What? I did no such thing and you know it," I snapped indignantly.
"I dunno. It seemed that way to me. What do you think?" The last comment was directed at his two friends.
"I'd have to go along with you, Ped," said one of the men.
"Same here," said the other, smiling and nodding happily.
"See. We have consensus," said Pedro with a laugh.
"Actually, we don't," I snapped, "as I strongly disagree."
I turned away from them again, intending to grab the rest of my things and go.
I didn't get very far. One of the men grabbed me by the right arm and another by the left. Pedro moved around in front of me.