Copyright notice: The story and characters are all ours. Nobody else is insane enough to invent a warrior chicken. One of the authors is a lawyer with a mean streak so look but don't touch.
Miscellaneous information: This story is a very brief episode in the otherwise exciting lives of Aquila, Billie, and Ergo. It takes place immediately after the last Fable: Pecking Order. And it shows that warrior chicks just wanna have fun.
Random thought: The television series Xena: Warrior Princess has ended. Lucy Lawless played Xena (and very well indeed). But Aquila is the warrior chicken, and her adventures will continue as long as Billie has breath to extol them.
Comments, feedback, unadulterated praise, movie contracts may be sent to smithm5@brick.net
"WHHHEEEEEEEEEEE-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
The yell of joy came from a yellow chick sitting on a piece of bark, as she slid across the snow. Aquila smiled as her young friend whizzed past her. Then the free-range chicken ran to where the sledder had come to a stop. Her job was to carry the tree bark/sled back to the starting point for Billie's next run. Being older and a warrior, she was much too dignified to sled herself; but this status didn't prevent Billie from pressing her into service as a sled toter.
Still sitting on her makeshift sled, Billie had a big grin on her face as Aquila came up to her. She jumped up so her bigger friend could do the heavy work of carrying the sled for another run.
"This is so much fun!!! I never knew you could play in snow ... back on the farm the one time I saw snow it was cold and the farmer kept us all inside the barn and he was kinda mad at the snow because he couldn't do stuff he wanted to ... but it looked so pretty and bright I wondered what it would feel like and now I know ... it's wonderful! Except it's a little too wet ... but it's more fun than wet." The chatterer paused. The dark-feathered chicken kept on walking up the slight slope to the sledding jump-off spot.
"Hey, Aquila," Billie called. "Look at this."
Aquila shifted the tree bark sled and looked around. Then the great warrior burst out laughing. Billie was lying on her back, waving her wings and legs back and forth in the snow. "And what do you call that?"
Billie got up and looked at her handiwork. "It's a free-range snow chicken, of course. Ergo," she piped to the mare, "come look what I made."
The pale gold horse trotted over to take a look at the snow chicken. She had tried sledding on a bigger piece of bark, but the only way she could figure out to stop was to sit down. So she had been amusing herself by building up mounds of snow and then crashing through them. Like Billie, she hadn't realized that you could have fun with snow. On the farm she had escaped from to join up with the wandering chickens snow just meant more work for her. Ergo whinnied in appreciation at Billie's creation.
"What is it, a free-range snow chicken?" she asked.
The artist made an I-told-you-so face at Aquila, who smiled and started walking again. Billie hopped along beside her, and Ergo slowly followed. When they reached the starting point, Aquila dropped the sled and positioned it for Billie. She said, "This is your last run, Billie. We need to get back down in the valley before dark and find a place to spend the night. It's too cold to stay here."
Billie looked disappointed but resigned. Days like this where they could relax and have fun didn't come their way very often. Hoping to prolong the day, she tried to talk Aquila into sledding before she took her last run.
"Sledding's a lot of fun, Aquila, even if Ergo had some trouble stopping ... you should try it ... I know you're all grown up and grown-ups don't play but it takes a lot of skill too, steering and keeping your balance and everything ... I'm sure if you did it just once you'd be a better warrior so go ahead and try it." She smiled winningly (she hoped) at her companion.
Aquila merely shook her head. "No; this day is for you, Billie. Hop on and I'll give you a good push."
Admitting defeat, the yellow chick sat on the sled. She got herself ready to enjoy this last sled ride. She felt Aquila give it a hard push. Then she felt a slight bump, and a pair of long, dark wings wrapped around her waist. She grinned when she realized that Aquila had jumped on with her. This would be the best run of the day!
"WHEEEEEEEEEEE-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" she yelled one last time. She heard the serious warrior chicken join in her happy cry, as the two of them flew down the slope.
All too soon the ride came to an end. With a final squeeze, Aquila got up and held out a wing to help Billie stand. Ergo galloped up and stopped in a flurry of flying snow, spraying the two chickens.
While Billie was spluttering and shaking the snow off, Aquila, with her warrior instincts, made a snow ball and tossed it, hitting Ergo on the flank.
"Two can play this game," she mock glowered.
Getting into the spirit of the game, Billie threw a snow ball at the free-range chicken. Ergo kicked up more snow. Within a couple of minutes, all three of them were covered in snow and laughing so hard they could barely stand.
"What a great day!" Billie exclaimed.