The box was waiting for me at the lair. Snake was not amused by its presence. It trembled every now and then from something within. “Livestock? Here? At least the wyrm is taking care of itself, but a chicken?”
I opened the cardboard box to find just that. A black chicken. It looked up at me and clucked. It didn’t try to leave the box. It just sat there, watching me. A tag was loosely hanging around its neck. “Hold me.”
I looked at Snake. He only shrugged. I picked up the black hen and coddled it. It clucked and wiggled in my hand. I felt something warm and round pushed into my palm. I let go of the hen who quickly made an exit out of the lair. In my hand was a freshly laid egg, still wet and sticky.
“Well, this is a first.” Snake only chuckled.
“You weren’t expecting that?”
“This tops the Spanish Inquisition, I think.”
The egg quickly dried. The ooze formed words as it hardened. “Hold me” was barely recognizable.
“Are you ‘Alice’ now? And since when are you in the habit of coddling livestock?”
I smiled, shrugged, and held the egg close to my chest. It quivered and broke open, hatching an adorable little black chick. I continued to hold the chick close. It sneezed and in the shaking grew to an adult black rooster in the blink of an eye. It crowed loudly, announcing its maturity.
It jumped from my hands to the table and looked about for something to eat.
“Now what would you feed the black son of a black mother?” Snake was strangely at ease with the miracle cock.
“Quit distracting me with semantics. I know whose cock this is, and I’m sending it home.” I grabbed the rooster and chucked it out of the lair. It never touched the ground, but flew off at once.
I had barely turned back towards Snake when the rooster flew back in. It landed on the table and crowed twice as loud and twice as long. It kept facing me and I saw a tag tied around its neck.
“Feed me”
Snake leaned on me, holding something small in his hand. “Sure you know whose bird this is?”
I sighed. “Hand me the keepsake box. I know you’re holding it.” I held out my hand as the cock crowed again.
Snake smiled smugly and chuckled again as he placed the box in my palm. I opened it and looked at the small opalescent jewel still sparkling within. I placed the box before the cock. I have learned the hard way birds overshoot their target when eating. I did not want to find out what kind of wound that bird could give.
The cock eyed the jewel this way and that. It circled the box as if inspecting an offering. The jewel was approved for consumption and it pecked it up and swallowed it at once. The cock flapped its wings furiously and let out such a crow that the shelves trembled. Apparently, the jewel was pleasing.
After its display, it flew off the table and left the lair. I knew it would not return. Snake broke down the cardboard box that held the hen, and finding nothing within it, chucked the pieces into the fire without the lair.
I was wiping down the table when he came back in. “For someone that was very concerned about the baby’s spirit, you are strangely at peace watching a chicken eat it.”
“Like I said, I know whose black cock that was. I’m just slightly miffed that I was out-crafted. However, that crafty bitch did it with style. I won’t forget about this anytime soon, that’s for sure.” I finished cleaning in the chickens’ wake. “Good ending is good. I’m at peace about it.”
“I’m not. You had opportunity to snatch some black chicken feathers and let it fly away.”
I gave Snake such stinkeye that he openly chuckled at me. “After dealing with the crow feathers for Malphas, I’ll take peace and quiet, thank you very fucking much.” Snake laughed warmly. We sat down to sort through the rest of the messages I received and the night went on without incident.