Caipora

Caipora


It was on a full-moon Friday that Chico hid up on between the branches of a tree with his rifle and waited for them to come. The pigs, the boars. A group of them had been roaming around the area and upsetting the village. They were digging up fields, bullying the livestock and even getting into garbage tips. Tonight Chico was going to try to put an end to all that.

The tree was positioned strategically between the brush and a run down barb-wire fence, making it a natural trap. All it took was a bit of garbage as bait and a lot of patience to wait for the swines. Patience, which paid off handsomely in the form of a sounder of grunting and snorting boars after little over an hour wait. A little more patience was needed while they circled around the garbage, unknowingly positioning themselves for the slaughter.

It was a big group with at least five pigs,three piglets and a huge pregnant sow. Chico took aim, and fired the first shot, hitting one of the males on the head. The pigs squealed, startled by the shot and started to flee. He took down a couple more pigs along with one little piglet before they ran and got snagged in the barb-wire. He took down the other full grown pig and then fixed his aim on the sow.

The face of the beast for a moment had a look of almost human desperation and sorrow, pleading for mercy, but that did not stop Chico from putting a bullet through her head. He then managed to shoot another piglet as the last one managed to get away from the fence and flee back into the brush. Unprotected, it would die soon enough.

He was about to climb down the tree when he heard a strange whistle in the distance that froze him cold. He sat there paralyzed with fear as a strange figure, riding an enormous boar with sharp tusks appeared. The creature looked like a short muscular man, except that his body was covered by thick shaggy fur. His face was even more beastly looking, with a thick brow and two tusks coming up to from his lower jaw. He heard stories about this creature in his childhood, but he never believed it was more than a folk-tale. This was the Caipora.

The Caipora unmounted and sniffed the air, like a beast sniffing out its prey. It sniffed a couple more times and then took out a huge machete from the makeshift saddle he had on the boar. But instead of heading to the tree, it walked over to the slaughtered pigs. It raised its machete, and with a primal scream, brought it down inches away from one of the dead piglet’s head.

The piglet jumped up, squealed, and ran back to the brush. It raised its blade again, and with another scream did the same to the other piglet. He hit harder and screamed louder for the full grown boars, impossibly bringing them back to life with his machete. Finally there was only the sow left.

With a jump and a deafening roar, he planted the blade beside the sow’s head but she did not get up. Again he brought the blade down with a scream, this time harder to no avail. Enraged, it bellowed and brought the blade down so hard that it shattered into two pieces. This time, the sow got up and with a thankful squeal ran back to the brush to join the others.

Chico could had sworn that the Caipora had looked up, straight into his eyes, but apparently he was mistaken for it gathered its shattered blade, mounted his boar and rode off into the distance sounding the chilling whistle he made when he arrived. Chico did not come down from the tree until it was morning.

A few days later, Chico, still shaken up, was working on his general store when a strange little man showed up. He was a bald Caboclo, short but apparently very strong. He had a wide mouth and eyes that could had been best described as animal-like. Chico was unnerved at how much this man reminded him of Caipora were it not for the fact that he was bald and human.

“Give me two of those tobacco rolls.” he said with a raspy voice that almost sounded like a low growl.

“Ye-yes, sir” Chico stuttered. He grabbed the rolls placed them on the counter and asked. “Will there be anything else?”

A menacing grimace came across the man’s face. His eyes burned with malevolence. “As a matter of fact, yes.” he said and dropped something on the counter with a loud clanking that made Chico jump.

Chico looked down and saw a shattered machete. “Some jack-ass made me brake mine. I’ll be needing a new one.” The man snarled as he walked over to the machetes and picked up the most expensive one. “How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing!” Chico almost screamed. “Its on the house”.

The strange man grunted. “Good answer.” He grabbed the tobacco rolls and started walking towards the door. But before he left he turned to Chico and said: “But you let that good for nothing jack-ass know that if he ever makes me break another one of these, I’m going to to climb up that tree and tear him apart limb by limb. Understand?”

Chico understood well. He sold what he could and left behind what he couldn't and moved to the big city and never picked up another gun as long as he lived.