Together you ploughed through the ground. Some new colors of flowers needed to fill the garden. According to the old woman at least.

She missed something in her garden. Something was off.

Now that you were here, hearing her tales one by one, you thought you might as well help. There was nowhere you had to be. No place that required your immediate attention. You could help the old woman out for as long as you wanted.

You dropped another pair of seeds in the shallow hole in the ground.

The old woman smiled happily as she watched you. "Those are going to be beautiful, large sunflowers one day. Just you wait."

Happily you continued your work for that day.

Around noon you were called over. The old woman was sittig on the wooden bench beneath her window. She patted that empty spot next to her. "Quite a lot of work has been done already" she said, nodding as she looked around the property.

"We should take a rest now."

You accepted a cup of tea from her. A slice of cake was offered to you.

"The mud in which we are working reminds me of a story" the old woman said, a small smile curled up on her lips.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"There once was a piglet who had no tail. All his brothers and sisters had nice curly tails in all different kind of shapes.

One of his brothers had a triangular shaped tail. The second brothers' tail curled up in a perfect 'o'. And his last brothers' tail was square shaped.

Our little piglet also had two sisters. The eldest sister' tale was heart shaped and his youngest sister' tale was shaped like a star. And then there was our little piglet who had no tail.

While the others went out to play and have fun in the mud, our little piglet decided to stay in the stable. He would moan and he would grunt about how he had no one to play with. He stayed up in his room every day, all day.

His mother and father often tried to get him out but he would simply refuse.

Every now and then he would give an 'oink!' as a reply. And that was it.

His brothers and sisters would rush in the stable to ask him to play with them. Still he refused.

At the end he didn't even reply with an 'oink!' anymore. He simply turned his head the other way.

So eventually his brothers and sisters gave up. They wanted to play outside, so they did. And our little piglet stayed inside muttering about 'how life was so unfair!'

If only the creator had given him an awesome little tail as well. Maybe one in the shape of a crescent. Even a normal, curly one would do!

Now, after 8 months, there was still nothing. He still had the same little bump on his behind that had been there ever since his birth. He felt like the others mocked him even though he had never heard them say anything.

They probably said it behind his back. 

Our little piglet cried himself to sleep almost every night. He oinked and oinked to the creator to ask for his own little, special tail. The next morning he woke up with the same little bump.

The little piglet dragged himself out of his nest. One feet at a time, at a very slow pace, did he walk to the dinner table. He didn't look at anyone as he sat down for breakfast. His plate was already filled for him.

His brothers and sisters were happily chatting along. The little piglet decided not to join in on any of the conversations. Their stories were about the outside after all. He didn't go there.

"Have you heard about the magic stone of oink?" the black horse nayed to his neighbor. 

The little piglets ears turned in their direction.

"The magic stone of oink? I thought that was just folklore! I didn't think that you of all horses would believe in such a story" the brown horse cried out.

The horses were eating just a little away from the pig' table. So our little piglet could overhear anything they said without a problem.

The black horse whinnied. "I didn't believe it until I heard master duck talk about it yesterday evening at the pond! He said he had seen it with his own two eyes. And you can't deny that master duck has a great reputation!"

The brown horse didn't reply immediately. She was still chewing on some hay. "Well, if what you say is true," she spoke when she finished her mouthful, "then there is no denying it is not folklore."

"That was what I was saying" the black horse said. Together they went on with chewing on their hay.

But the little piglet wanted to know more. Without finishing his breakfast, he wandered over to master duck. The duck was sitting on a turned over bucket in the yard. "Master duck sir, may I speak to you?" the piglet asked.

Master duck opened one eye. "Can't you see I'm still asleep?"

The piglet cocked his head to one side. "Are you technically still asleep if you can see me and are talking to me, sir?"

Master duck grumbled but opened both his eyes anyway. "What is it I can help you with? And promise me you will leave me alone after you have gotten your answer."

Our piglet hurriedly nodded. "Aye sir, I promise sir. It is just that... well, the horses said that you know where the magic stone of oink is!" he squealed excitedly.

The duck now looked at the piglet more intently. "Why do you want to know where it is boy?"

"Well sir, you see sir, I still don't have a tail!" To show master duck the truth, the piglet turned around. "Do you see it sir? I am asking the creator for my very own tail every night but I still haven't received one! Maybe if I go to the magic stone of oink I'll finally get it!"

Master duck shook his head. "I don't know what is it with you youngsters but oh well. It isn't a secret that I meant to keep anyway." He waited, thinking about it for a few seconds. "You can find the magic stone of oink after going around the apple tree. Take fifty steps forwards, three steps to the right and cross the bridge.

Then you need to follow your nose and you'll find the magic stone of oink."

"Thank you master duck sir!" the little piglet squealed. He ran off before the duck was finished.

"-and don't forget to watch out for the farmer' dog. It is his job to keep us all on the farm, and- Oh, he has already left." Master duck settled back down. "I'm sure he'll be alright."

And so our little piglet went on his way.

He followed the road that master duck described. It should have taken him only a couple of hours to get there. But at night, he still hadn't returned.

Before supper, his brothers and sisters were still playing outside. They had played outside all day but were still not feeling even a little bit tired. The ball they were playing with went back and forth until-

The sister with the heart shaped tail kicked it a little too hard. It ended up flying towards the pond where master Duck was sun bathing.

"Look out!" the piglets cried but it was too late.

With a big splash the ball landed in the pond, making waves that covered master Duck in a watery suit. "What the quack is going on?" he yelled furiously.

He flapped his wings in anger, trying to shake off the water.

The piglets hurried towards the pond to recover their ball. The brothers went over to master Duck. "We are so very sorry, master Duck" they apologised together.

Master Duck grumbled something under his breath. When he saw the earnest faces of the piglets, he quieted down a bit. "Oh bother, it is alright then. As long as you truly didn't do it on purpose" he said, a warning in his tone.

The brothers quickly shook their heads. No. "We would never dare to upset you on purpose master Duck."

"Very well then. Say, how did you brother fare in his grand adventure to the magic stone of oink? I haven't seen him return yet" master Duck asked. He settled back down to sunbathe.

The two sisters now joined their three brothers in the conversation. "What are you talking about, master Duck? Our brother never goes out."

"No," the youngest daughter agreed, "he never goes out!"

Master Duck closed his eyes for his well deserved nap. "He came to me this morning to ask me where the stone was. I gave him directions and he went on his way. If he hasn't returned yet then I'm afraid the dog has eaten him." After that the duck fell asleep.

The siblings of our little piglet looked at each other with worried faces.  

"We have to go after him!" the eldest brother shouted.

The second eldest brother nodded enthusiastically. "It will be our own little adventure! And this time our brother doesn't stay at home. He gets to experience this with us!" He jumped up and down out of sheer happiness.

"But how do we get there?" the youngest sister asked.

"Yes," the eldest sister chipped in, "we have no idea how to get there!"

The youngest brother looked at master Duck. Before anyone could stop him he went over to the duck and yelled, close to his ear: "MASTER DUCK! WE NEED YOUR HELP!"

For the second time that day, the duck was in a state of fury.

The youngest brother quickly hid behind his siblings. "We need your help to find the magic stone of oink. We want to find our brother" he squeeked.

"And that means you have to wake me up in such a rude fashion?" the duck yelled. "I won't tell you a thing if you treat your elders this way! Did you know that I fought in the great war of the barns? And to tell you another thing-" He stopped, looking at the big, sparkly eyes of the two sisters.

How could he shout at them? "Alright, alright! I will give you the directions to the magic stone of oink." He sighed. If anything happened to them he was going to be in so much trouble.

"Or maybe I will just go with you." He stood up. "That is decided then. Follow me!"

He lead the group of piglets to the magic stone of oink. 

They went around the apple tree. After that master Duck carefully counted to fifty while they walked. They had to start over once because the youngest sister accidentally asked something which caused master Duck to forget where he left off.

After that they took three steps to the right, facing the bridge. And then they crossed it.

"Alright" master Duck said, suddenly stopping. The three brothers walked in to him, landing on a pile behind him. "Now all we have to do is follow our noses and we should find the magic stone of oink."

The three brothers untangled themselves and put their snouts in the air to sniff. Their sisters followed their lead. Master Duck simply closed his eyes. They weren't sure what he was doing.

"I can smell apples!" the youngest sister exclaimed. 

All of the piglets followed her as she lead the way. Master Duck was feeling quite annoyed that the piglet had found the smell before he did. But he did go after them since he felt responsible for the fate of the lost piglet.

Following their snouts they found a hole in the hedge that they had never seen before. The farm dog was sleeping in front of it.

On their tip toes the piglets managed to walk past him without alerting the dog. Master Duck was too scared to follow. He hadn't need to be scared though since the dog was old and wouldn't even hurt a fly.

So the piglets continued on their way without the duck. 

They walked for what felt like hours. Finally, they reached a clearing and found their missing brother. He was sitting in front of a huge stone, wiggling a... his tail!

"You have a tail!" the siblings of our little piglet exclaimed.

He turned around in confusion only to have all of his siblings jump on top of him in joy. After a few minutes of enthusiastic licks, the siblings got off of our little piglet and looked in wonder at his new tail.

It was as curly as a pigs tail could be! The swirl just kept on going and going!

"So majestic!"

"So fantastic!"

"Simply wonderful!" they exclaimed.

Our little piglet happily showed off his tail as they walked back to the farm stables by themselves. Master Duck apparently had left and gone back to his pond. The dog was still asleep when they past him.

The little piglet explained why he had gone for so long. "I was talking to the stone so much that I didn't realize my tail had already grown!" he said. "Then when I did see it, I was so overcome by emotion that I simply couldn't go home without an extensive thank you to the magic stone of oink!"

His older brother walked up him. First he said nothing. He simply walked next to his brother as they came closer to their home. Suddenly, he broke the silence. "You do know that you didn't need that tail to be outside with us? We wanted to play with you along" he said.

The little piglet nodded. "I do know that. It is just that... I felt like everyone was laughing behind my back. And I just wanted a tail like yours so badly!"

The older brother nodded. "That I do understand. But just know that you have always been perfect to us. Tail or no tail."

When they arrived, all the other animals came running at them. They had been worried since all of the piglets had disappeared.

The piglets told them all about their adventure and our little piglet showed of his tail to everyone. He had never felt this happy before. And he discovered that every single one of them had loved him the way he was even when he didn't have his curly tail.

They loved him for who he was.