Chicken Stroll
Part Twenty
“Yes,” Dekaras said in a very even voice. “It is amazing how people can surprise you with the things they say, wouldn't you agree?”
He flew down off his perch, and landed more or less soundlessly in front of Edwin, black wings spread out.
One of Edwin's claws described small circles in the dust on the floor. “I'm sorry I shouted like that,” he quietly said. “It was just...seeing that...and then I thought...and I just...”
“Your reaction, while exaggerated, was at least well within character,” the black rooster remarked. “You have your mother's temper - you always did. She never was one to listen either, while having a tantrum.”
“Er...yes.” Edwin looked up, his eyes pleading. “So you and Andorel...you really aren't...” Dekaras winced slightly. “I can assure you with absolute certainty, that while I find Andorel a good and loyal friend, I have no intention whatsoever of ever engaging in any form of amorous activity with him. He was quite right, you know - I don't feel that sort of attraction to men, and in 'men' I include male half-orcs, elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, half-elves and the masculine members of all other even vaguely biologically compatible species. Now, were there any more details about my sexlife you feel you are entitled to know about?”
“Um...no. Not really.”
“Good.” The assassin paused, regarding Edwin seriously. “I do not keep things from you for my personal amusement, I want you to know that. I have my reasons for wanting to be discreet about...things.” He blinked suddenly. “As for that, were you trying to imply earlier that you have been trying to spy on me in order to catch me in the middle of some sort of romantic tryst?” Edwin coughed. “Er...you see...that was all some years back, when I had yet to acquire my own current superlative personal technique in the erotic arts, and I was curious and wanted to find out if..that is, how one actually...”
“Yes?” Dekaras asked, very slowly.
“Ah...that is...maybe we could leave this subject? (Please, please, by Szass Tam's polluted underwear, let us leave this subject!)”
“Yes,” Dekaras said, a bit more firmly than before. “Yes, I think we should.” He made a brief hissing sound of amusement though. “And here I thought you had no inclination towards attempting to be stealthy. I suppose you simply needed to be properly motivated. Now, I most definitely do not approve of your behavior, but it will not be repeated, will it?”
“No, Teacher Dekaras.”
“Good. Do not feel too bad about not spotting me though - I have years of training at avoiding that, after all.” The black rooster cleared his throat, and now it was he who sounded uncomfortable. “There is something else though...something I would have preferred not having to tell you, but have come to think that you should be aware of. I only kept it from you because I knew it would cause you some worry, but perhaps it is better that you do know. I hadn't realized that you would get this upset about not being fully informed - and I am truly sorry about that.”
“What is it?” Edwin anxiously asked. “Is it...is it about that poison?” A horrible thought occurred to him. “You're not going to die, are you? (No! That is utterly unthinkable!)”
“Edwin, calm down! The...poison in question isn't going to kill me. Well, at least not directly. However, there were certain side-effects.”
“Side-effects?! You didn't mention side-effects before! What kind of side-effects?”
“Well,” Dekaras began, choosing his words carefully. “You know already that Andorel and I got accidentally linked. And you know about his unique heritage, do you not? Now, it seems that...”
But before Dekaras could get any further, there was a terrible racket outside. Clucking, terrified hens, the crowing of one extremely angry rooster - and growling. Hungry, bloodthirsty growling.
The red and the black rooster looked at each other, and spoke at the same time. “The fox!”
Then, they were out the door.
***
Andorel hardly noticed Dekaras and Edwin racing out of the coop. There was something else capturing all his attention. Beside him, Nalia quietly muttered to herself, repeating 'no' over and over again. Blood. The fox. Feathers. Brown feathers. She had obviously put up something of a fight, since the fox had red scratches on its muzzle, but now Saffron was a sad little lump of feathers, sprawled in the dirt. Andorel had seen plenty of fox attacks on the chickens at Candlekeep, but it looked very different from this height. They kill all the chickens they can in one go, then come back to collect them later. That's what foxes do. There was no time to think, though: the fox had chosen its second victim. Jackie trembled all over as the fox advanced on her, unable to move. She's been a chicken too long...she's all scared of it. She should run away. I've gotta stop it...
“Oi! Bollock brains!” He called out loudly. The fox's ears pricked up.
“Andorel, shut up!” Dekaras hissed.
“Look at me, I'm really tasty!” Andorel shouted, flapping his wings. The fox glanced at him, then looked back at Jackie, jaws dripping. “Jackie, RUN!”
Jackie looked around, distracted...and the fox pounced. There was a nasty crunching noise, and the fox dropped her corpse onto the mud. Her neck flopped uselessly.
Andorel gave an angry screech, and launched himself straight at the fox.
“Andorel, you stupid, fool-hardy, reckless hero!” Dekaras spat, and leapt forward, a black streak of fury. Nalia and Edwin glanced at each other, then dived into the battle. Andorel, still making furious squawking noises, stood on top of the fox's head, wings stretched to remain steady, pecking downwards at the sensitive nose and eyes.
Dekaras landed on its neck, raking downwards with his claws to find the vulnerable spine, while Edwin landed on its back and tried to find something to attack, finally settling for scratching it with his claws and spurs. Nalia, however, had nipped underneath the fox and chosen an entirely different target, which she attacked with a certain disturbing relish. The fox's eyes crossed and the three roosters winced in sympathy.
The fox howled in pain, and Andorel pecked it hard on the head. It slumped, unconscious, and Dekaras' claws burrowed down between the vertebrae, finishing the work. Andorel panted hard, and then looked up. In a circle around them, eyes glittered in the dusk. Ranks of chickens watched quietly.
“And that, girls,” Andorel said to the silent audience, “Is what you should do if another fox comes!” There was a moment's hush, then the watching hens erupted in squawks, howls and squeeks of applause.
Andorel, however, wasn't paying much attention to them. Instead, he was looking at the broken and bloody forms of poor Saffron and Jackie, and if chickens had been able to cry he would have been doing it already. “Poor girls...” he muttered, his voice thick with sorrow. “They deserved better than this.”
“So they did,” Dekaras quietly said, turning his head to look at Jackie's corpse. The black and white hen's neck was bent in an unnatural angle, and her eyes were already misting over. “So they did.”
He walked over to the hen, and carefully smoothed out her feathers as best as he could, then straightened out her neck. “Bad enough that she had to die a chicken,” he said at Andorel's questioning look. “She deserves to be given at least some dignity, don't you agree?”
Andorel nodded, then bent to do the same for Saffron. He had a harder job of it though, the fox had mauled her a bit worse than her friend, and a number of feathers had come loose, including one of the long ones from her right wing. Still, he did what he could.
“I'm gonna miss you, Saffron,” he said to the corpse, as he straightened up again. “I...know I'm no good with words and stuff, but I really liked ya, and I think you liked me too. Don't even think you minded me being green an' all that. And I was hopin'...that maybe you still wouldn't mind that once we all got back to normal.”
Edwin started to say something, but before he could do more than open his beak Nalia pecked him hard in the back of his head, and he squawked with pain, then fell silent.
“I wonder what they were doing outside, this late,” Dekaras mused, still with his eyes on Jackie's still body. “They were afraid of the fox...I wouldn't have expected them to...” Then he was silent, and his comb paled until it was a sickly pink. “Oh. Oh no. They were coming to visit us, weren't they?”
Andorel reeled a litlte as a violent wave of nausea hit him across the soul bond, the writhing blue tendrils of guilt that had once been enough to send him into a deadly coma. It wasn't quite that bad this time, he had learned to shield himself against the worst of his friend's inner demons, but it was bad enough.
“I reckon they were,” he said, then gave the black rooster a firm look. “And don't ya dare go feelin' it's your fault for Jackie fancyin' ya. It isn't your fault, and it isn't mine. It's the fox's fault and we took care o' him already.” He paused. “No, it's not really the fox's fault either, is it? Foxes kill chickens, that's what they do. It's the fault of those people who made them chickens. And they need to be stopped, before anybody else dies like this.”
Dekaras looked at him for a moment, then nodded. “Yes,” he said with a chilly finality in his voice. “They need to be stopped, and they will be.” His eyes locked onto the two dead hens again. “And these two unfortunate women will help us do so.”
“Teacher Dekaras?” Edwin hesitantly asked. “Do you mean to say that...”
“Yes,” the black rooster said, still in that distant, chilling voice. “I have a plan. We will escape at dawn, when there are no predators about, but before the humans awaken.” He was still looking at the hens, Jackie in particular. “And then, our two friends here shall be avenged.”
***
That night, they all sat together in the musty darkness of Nalia and Edwin's shed. They had it entirely to themselves: all the other chickens had got tired of their constant chatting and left to find more peaceful places to sleep
“...so Andorel's height, and this primary feather from Saffron will both come in useful.” He finished explaining.
“You honestly think you can pick a lock with a feather?” Andorel asked wonderingly.
“Of course he can!” Edwin replied hotly. “Do you think he's a liar?”
Dekaras and Nalia exchanged a brief look of suffering. “The quill of the feather, yes. It is quite strong- that is why they're used for writing, after all.”
“Well, make sure you trim those claws o' yours first.” Andorel remarked, scratching his beak lazily. “The only problem is that while we may be able to escape, we will still be cursed. I think we are better off tryin’ to figure out how to remove it once we are free from the threat of becoming someone's dinner.”
“Most curses are linked to a talisman or...amulet.” Nalia gave a quick nervous glance at Edwin, who scowled back. “Believe me, I know.” She muttered quietly.
“All long-lasting, stable curses such as this one require more than just a focused and inventive mind.” Edwin mused. “They also need a sample of hair, nail, blood or some other such bodily fluid.” Andorel's comb went a pale green at the mention of 'blood', but he shook himself resolutely. “Well, I reckon they could have got any of those from us.”
“Presumably, it would be stored in the mage's house. She must have a laboratory in there, and perhaps a storeroom for curse talismen.” Dekaras said thoughtfully. “So we shall have to find a way to look around.”
“A lab, you say?” Andorel said, looking thoughtful with just a touch of guilt. “Sort of...bottles and racks and things?”
“I can look for it.” Nalia said determinedly. “I may not be as experienced as Vadrak, but I can hide from view- and it should be easier, being this small.”
“...and wooden tables with stains and whatnot?”
“Very well- but be careful. I have no wish to stage a rescue.” Dekaras replied.
“...cages for the chickens, and rows upon rows of...”
“I can manage it!” Nalia replied hotly.
“Um,” Andorel said, sounding unusually diffident. “These talisman things...would they be little bits of wood with hair on them? Sort of wound about with white and yellow ribbons, and put in rows with letters over them?” The three other chickens turned and glared at him. He shuffled uncomfortably and his comb flopped over his left eye. “I've, uh, seen summat like that.”
“Pray tell us,” Edwin hissed through a grinding beak. “Why you didn't enlighten us with this knowledge earlier?”
“I was going to!” Andorel said. “Only...only then I kind of forgot. You know what it's like.”
“No,” Edwin said, still glaring at him. “Fortunately I don't know what it's like, being equipped with a brain the size of a very tiny grain of sand. Frankly, I'm amazed that your intellectual capacity is enough to keep you upright, rather than crawling through the slime with your fellow invertebrates. And furthermore, I...”
“That will do, Edwin,” Dekaras firmly said. “Yes, he should have told us earlier, but arguing about it will get us nowhere.” He cocked his head to one side, watching Andorel. “Besides, at the time he was in that place, he had good reason to fear for his life. Memories accumulated while you are experiencing mental trauma can be difficult to access, sometimes.”
Andorel blinked. “Yeah. Difficult to...er...what's that mean, then?”
“You are excused,” Dekaras summarized. “And now, I think you should go on telling us all the details you can recall about these amulets you saw. We want to be as prepared as possible, before our escape...”
