When we left off...It was a grey, dismal day in central Massachusetts.
A thin rain hisses down, slowly melting the snow pack. There are silver
icy-cold puddles of water slicking the ground. Driveways have become
temporary stream courses. The streets are gritty with a winter's
accumulation of road sand. The only color is the deep green of the
pines. The sun's light is a frail thing, and the clouds never thin. The
sound of a family of crows off in the distance is mournful, and muffled
by the rain.....

The laughing and cackling of chickens at Hebert's shame died out
quickly when the rooster Three Bucks stepped over to the ferrets, and
bent down to sniff them, carefully and thoroughly. Todd could look
right into the roosters red eye, the size of the black pupil adjusting
every time Three Bucks raked his gaze over the terrified ferrets. Todd
could see the fine line of tiny feathers that served the rooster as
eyelashes, impossibly small.Todd could hear the rustle of the roosters
head and neck feathers as Three Bucks bent and sniffed. Todd could
actually look right *into* Three Bucks' sharp yellow beak, as the
rooster sniffed with it open, seeming to drink in their scent.

Finally Three Bucks rose and said "There is no scent of the wild on
these two. They smell of house! They smell of hoomins." There was an
immediate hue and cry in the coop, all of the hens chattering questions
at once.

"They are not wild?"
"The hoomins keep them?" 
"For what?" 
"They are ugly! Look at their four ugly feet!" 

And from Tina "Not wild? They are fed?" She had to ask her question
several times before it could be heard over the hue and cry. Finally,
she let out an ear piercing cry that silenced the others...

SKWAAA!!!

 ...and repeated her question. "Not wild, they are fed?"

The rooster looked down at Todd and Hebert and said "You are fed?"

It was obvious to Todd that Hebert wasn't going to say anything,
probably couldn't. Todd tried to stand a little taller and asked "Do
you mean do the hoomins feed us? Yes."

At that the rooster fixed Todd with his red gaze and asked "And you
live in the house?"

Todd replied simply "Yes."

There was silence in the coop. Tina sat back down on the clutch of
eggs. The two Leghorns and the Red Star all cocked their heads as
chickens do, considering what they had just heard. Tina's best friend,
the enormous Buff Orpington simply sat down in the straw and adjusted
herself, and considered.

The silence lengthened. Todd tried to kick discretely at a little bit
of straw that was itching his left foot. Hebert sighed deeply, from
his speed bump position on the floor.

Finally, the rooster stood tall, impossibly tall, and began to flap
his wings and holler in a voice like a summer thunderstorm.

"You are *fed*! You are FED! Yet you think to come here and murder my
beautiful wives, crush my sons and daughters in their shells and drink
them...for your SPORT?"

And then the enraged rooster pulled his wings in close to his enormous
body and lunged...

More Tomorrow
Alexandra in MA

[Posted in FML 6276]