The rooster cock-a-doodle-doos again, and I’ve never heard anything so vicious. They didn’t have that in the barnyard books; that’s for damn sure. The huge yellow foot raises, claws sparkling in the sunlight.
The bird raises both wings, flapping harm, and aiming his spur directly at Zan.
I screech and scrabble further backwards up until a tree trunk blocks my escape. Zan, meanwhile, has tucked and rolled to the side, avoiding the rooster’s strike better than I could have. I nearly weep with relief because Zan came back. He came backwhen I needed him. And by god, he is putting himself in the line of danger for me.
I have never had anyone do that for me before in my life.
I also have never been attacked by a giant rooster and a giant evil hen, but that’s neither here nor there.
In fact, it’s squarely in front of us.
“Do you have chickens that big on your planet?” I yell at Zan, cringing away as the hen pecks up the ground near me, dust flying up.
My stomach growls, and I put my hand on it. Not that it’s going to do anything, the noise has already drawn the attention of both huge birds. There must be some strange lizard part of my brain still firing from caveman days. One look at that rooster’s glossy plumage and huge wings, and my brain immediately pings to all you can eat barbecue.
He’s got some meat on him.
And I am really freaking hungry.
“Do you think you can kill it?” I yell at Zan, which is a stupid thing to do because the rooster cockle-doos again, laser-focusing one beady eye on me. The hen pecking at the dirt decides to lay down with both wings spread, dust flying in every direction.
“Of course I can kill it.” Zan looks outraged at the mere suggestion that he might not be capable of striking down some mutant rooster on an alien planet. “You question my honor?” he asks, thumping his chest with a fist, wings flying high.
“No, I don’t question anything, I’m just hungry. I want to eat the rooster.”
“Maybe my translator isn’t working,” he says with a questioning look, a spark of delight igniting in his gaze.
The rooster slams another talon foot down, flapping its wings to get extra height before enacting a strike that Zan dodges neatly again. Really, he’s pretty agile, and if I weren’t so completely dumbfounded by everything that’s happening, Imight actually be impressed at how he’s parkouring around a killer rooster with ease.
My stomach growls again. “I love chicken… So delicious.”
My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Yeah, I definitely hit my head on the way down.
I’m so damned hungry. On the Earth reality TV shows the contestants at least got rice.
We haven’t had anything.
Zan hoists a fallen tree branch up, waving it at the rooster, who bawks incredulously at Zan’s bravery or foolhardiness—who can say—and backs up slightly, still staring at him through beady eyes.
“I do not think my translator is working correctly. But if it is cock you want, it is cock you shall have.”
“What?” I ask, completely confused. “Yeah, I want to eat the rooster.”
Zan stares at me, mystified, then grabs his package between his legs. “I will make sure you are well fed by sweet cock.”
“What the fuck?” I blurt, burying my hands in my face, then peek through my fingers. “Shit, get out of the way,” I screech.
Zan narrowly dodges the attack. He lets out a garbled noise of surprise, and I suck in a breath, my heart racing because henarrowlydodged it. Except, the rooster has his tail. The curved, viciously pointed beak starts to peck, and Zan screams again, wielding the branch as best he can to fend off the rooster’s attack.
It’s not a scream of pain, though.
It’s anger.
The rooster’s barely made a dent in his scaled draegon tail, thank goodness.
I look around wildly while the huge hen dust bathes next to me, seemingly oblivious to the death—rooster megafauna homicide, or mutual planned homicide, on my part.
I’m so flipping hungry.
