Theirs was a well-to-do household.
At its head was the father, a skilled merchant.
His three sons had easy childhoods, not least because their father was away on business too often to discipline them.
Even as adults the boys made no effort to work, living the high life on their father’s coin. Years of wanton feasting left all three of them fat and round.
The three pig brothers.
That was what the others whispered about them, though the boys paid it no heed. Given the choice of rich pig or deprived humans, they gladly chose the former.
But when sudden illness took their father, things changed for the piggy trio. In his will, the merchant left all he had to his wife. What share went to the boys would be for their mother to decide.
She chose to give them nothing.
Not to keep her late husband’s wealth for herself, nor for lack of love for her sons.
Indeed, it was love that made her worry for their future. At this rate, they’d never amount to anything, drifting idly through life like kept livestock.
So, though it pained her dearly, she drove them from her house. She shouted after them, calling them lazy pigs, but the tears in her eyes betrayed her true emotions.
Yet the fool brothers could not see their mother’s tough love for what it was. They cursed her for a gold-digger, convinced she’d acted out of greed.
Unsure what else to do, the trio wandered the town square. There, they saw a call for mercenaries. Too naïve to know how hard the sellsword’s life was, they decided to take the test on a lark.
In a curious move, they fashioned masked painted to look like pigs to wear to the test. Perhaps they hoped to grow famous as the three pig brothers, so tales of their feats might someday reach their mother’s ears.
Whether they hoped to spite the woman who’d called them pigs, or to assure their mother they’d become fine men, only they could say.
Next, they split up to procure equipment. Sheltered though they were, they knew better than to turn up empty-handed.
A few days later, the trio reconvened.
The eldest had woven straw into a mockery of amour. The second carried a wood plank he called a shield.
To think of marching into battle dressed in such scraps was beyond naïve. They were truly fools.
Only the youngest had any sense. He’d fashioned a mace out of brick rubble.
On the day of the test, the eldest donned their gear and entered the ring. Needless to say, he lay face down in the dirt in seconds.
Only the mace drew praise, and the youngest brother was quick to claim credit. He was eager to curry favour with the judge, and to distance himself from his foolish siblings.
He felt it was unfair he’d been cast out in the first place. His brothers were pigs, to be sure, but he was far better by comparison.
His sycophantic tone and glory hogging paid off. He alone was to be granted a second audition some days later.
Despite his clear efforts to ditch his brothers, the older boys looked on with a smile. He was still at that impetuous age, they knew. They found it endearing.
…Or so it appeared.
The day of the test arrived.
The eldest never came. He’d sacrificed his body to become a set of armor
The second never showed up either. He’d sacrificed his body to become a shield.
Just hours before, they had both been visited by a strange chalice that offered them a bargain. Pay the price, and any wish was theirs. Both brothers accepted, and so they were transformed.
The newly minted armor and shield spoke to their brother. “Use us to pass the test.”
If any of them were to find success, they knew, it would be the youngest. And so they gave up their all to aid him…
On its face, it seemed like a noble tale—a paragon of brotherly love. But inside, the older brothers were laughing. Let the youngest carry them, and they could live in ease.
They hadn’t changed at all. They’d simply found a new set of coattails on which to ride through life, replacing their father’s.
They were parasites still, and they’d found a new host in the third brother.
While they were far from wise, they had reached one epiphany: If you aim to live easy, cast your pride away.
A sense of entitlement or duty as elder brothers would only get in their way.
As they would readily admit, the youngest was the least hopeless among them.
He soon saw through his brothers’ intentions, and heaved a deep sigh.
He shook his head at their total uselessness, and felt ashamed to share their same blood.
As for the equipment the brothers’ sacrifices bought, well…
When a worthless human offers his all, it only buys so much. The result was nearly as useless as the boys had been before.
Even a pig has its uses, but this…
The youngest brother was thoroughly fed up. That was when a strange vision came to him.
A while chalice hovered there. It spoke into his mind: “Pay the price, and any wish is yours.”
He nearly fell over. But, cleverest of the fool trio as he was, he quickly sussed that this was how his brothers had become as they were now.
He paused and gave thought to what he truly desired.
He image that came to him was unexpected: his father.
Now burdened with his brothers, he finally understood all his father had done for them. The weight of providing for others. He was ashamed, and wished to apologize and show his thanks.
He soon hit on a way.
He was repay his debt by providing for his brothers now, as his father had in life.
To support his siblings, these two fool pigs, he would need a mercenary’s income.
But if he hoped to pass the test, he would need a worthy weapon.
And so he made his wish. The moment after, he chided himself for stepping beyond his ken.
He’d forgotten his veins flowed with the same fool’s blood as his brothers’.
His desire for a powerful weapon saw his body transformed into a mace. It was a formidable arm, to be sure, but with his flesh now lost, there was no one left to wield it.
Man cannot fight his nature.
Nor can pigs, as the comparatively wisest of the three brothers learned.
Left no choice, the brothers put up a bluff. Armour, shield and mace joined to give the appearance of a warrior.
A hollow shell. An empty façade.
Even now, it’s said the three brothers-turned-objects wander the land, seeking someone strong enough to wield them.
"I know what they're plotting... They want to live off me."
