FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A chicken among the foxes, that's what my friends call my job. I've had a rather unexpected job for a chicken for about a week now, I'm enjoying it and I'm getting paid so there's nothing I can complain about. My name is Haris Reid and I work at Nando's as a waiter. I can see the strange looks I get, the shocked expressions on peoples' faces as they see a rooster waiting on them. I haven't told my parents, they think I work as a barista in the cafe nearby which is owned by a friend of mine, so whenever they check on me I can pretend to work there. If they knew I'm sure they'd kill me for getting a job here, none of my friends have told them either so for now my secret's safe. I know they care about me, that's why they'd be so concerned that I work at Nando's. It's dangerous, a chicken like me working in a place that almost exclusively serves chicken. I've been called insane by more than a few friends but I've told them the manager that actually gave me this job is even more insane than I am. All meat comes from terminally ill or sick people, but even then I've seen a few hungry glances at my tail feathers as I walk away from people. No one had actually done anything, not until tonight that is.

My shift started like it always did, I'd got the late shift and the entire place was empty since it wasn't really the time people wanted spiced chicken. I waited around trying to look busy, sometimes even dancing a little to the music playing throughout the whole place, as the hours passed by with no customers, no customers until a rather large hyena dressed in a red tee-shirt, jeans, and a black leather jacket came waltzing in. His eyes widened as he saw me. I put down my cleaning supplies on the table I'd been cleaning for the third time and happily walked over to the hyena.

“Hello! Welcome to Nando's. Table for one?" I asked with a smile on my yellow beak, my white feathers contrasting with the decor and my red comb laying in a casual way.

“My my….." He mumbled as he took me in. “Yeah, a table for one, please." I gave him a friendly smile, ignoring his looks like I do so many others at this job, and guided him to a table. I caught him looking at my greenish-black tail feathers as we made the short journey, his eyes glancing at my main sickles.

“Here you are, sir. Have you been to Nando's before?"

“Yeah, it's my favourite place to eat." He told me.

“So you've been recently then?"

“Yeah, don't worry, I know how to order and everything." He chuckled softly, obviously aware that I was just going through the same questions I do with every customer.

“Would you mind coming back in five minutes to take my order, I know that's not how it works here but you don't look very busy so it might give you something to do." His request was unusual but I was bored and I had another two hours before my shift was due to end.

“Uh….. sure, I guess. I'll come back in five then." I walked away and made myself look busy again, glancing every now and then to my one and only customer.

“Finally going to get to cook something, what do you reckon, does he look like more of a medium or hot person?" The only cook in the kitchen asked me while I was close to the counter. This Nando's is small, probably the smallest really, so one cook and one waiter are all that's needed even at the busiest times. I'm sure my parents would be even more worried if they knew that there's only one other person looking out for me here if something happens. Still, he is a buffalo so I think I'm in safe hands since who would want to mess with 8 feet of pure muscle, even if Josiah is a big softy that wouldn't hurt a fly.

“I'd say a bit of all, maybe lemon and herb once in a blue moon." I told him while leaning on the counter and stretching my legs a little.

“That's just you covering all the bases, which do you think he's going to go for tonight then?"

“Medium, everyone goes medium." I looked over to my customer and he looked back at me, a small smile appearing on his face as his eyes looked me from feet to comb.

With a shove off the counter I started walking back over to him, taking out a notepad and a pen from my pocket. “Hello, what do you fancy?"

“I'll have 5 chicken wings, please, with two sides; one PERi-salted chips, and one garlic bread. I'll go with hot for my spice and I'd like a bottomless coke for a drink." I wrote down his order as he spoke but he kept talking after he'd finished, this time asking me a question that made me stop writing his drink down. “So a chicken working in Nando's, how's that work?" Unbelievably, he was the first person to ask me this, other people had obviously wondered but no one had asked me before.

“Uh, I applied and got the job. I'm just a waiter, I don't do the cooking." I responded as I finished writing down his order.

“I could see you cooking." That seemed to stop our short conversation there, but that wouldn't be the end of it. I walked away back to the counter to give his order to Josiah.

“Hot, guess that answers that question." He said looking over the order. He started preparing the food and I could feel the hyena's eyes on me as I went about my business. Every now and then I'd look back to see him looking away from me like some scolded puppy, I wasn't too phased by it since I guess in some way I might be making him hungry. It was a strange thought but I shrugged it off with a grin and thought about what I was going to have for dinner once I got home. Josiah snapped me out of my thinking as he called that the food was ready. I picked up the hyena's food and walked to his table, the smell of cooked and spiced chicken entered my nares as I carried it over to him.

“Here you go." I said placing everything down on his table.

“Hey," he started as I turned to walk away. “It must be strange working in a place like this, I mean you're……" he gestured to me in a waving motion.

“I get paid and I get to meet lots of new people so it's not too bad." I told him, giving him the canned answer I made up for that question. “Is there anything else you need before I go?"

“Nah, I'm good." I walked away and flinched a little at the sound of bones breaking in the hyena's jaws. With nothing much to do, me and Josiah talked about nothing to pass the time. Half an hour passed with the sounds of our eating customer pervading the air, meat getting stripped from bone and bone getting broken by his strong jaws. It had never been that empty so each sound rang all the louder, usually I'd have been able to ignore those types of sounds by blocking it in the white noise of customers chatting along with the music playing throughout the restaurant, but that wasn't an option tonight. It isn't a pleasant thing, hearing the cracks and munching of someone eating what could be you, and I think Josiah realised that because he started asking me about the most random things in an effort to distract me.

Eventually, the hyena had finished his meal so I approached his table again to collect his plates.

“Since you ordered in a different way than usual you'll have to pay now, since you didn't pay before like usual." I was a rambling mess as I talked about the hyena paying, trying to compose myself again.

“That's fine. Though, I think I've spotted something else I'd like to eat so I don't think I'm done yet." He said while he smiled brightly, his teeth on show.

“Oh, shall I get you a menu?" His phrasing was a little strange but I thought nothing of it.

“No, I already know what I want." His eyes lingered on me, sliding up and down me like chilling oil.

“Okay, what would you like?" I got out my pen and notepad and waited for his response, I'm no idiot so small alarm bells were sounding in my head but I decided to ignore them because what they told me couldn't possibly actually happen.

“Well you look tasty, so how about you?" Either what he said was the worst, most out-of-touch, most inappropriate pickup line in existence or he had just asked to eat me.

“What?" Was all I could manage to get out of my beak. It seemed like everything went silent, the ever-present music stopping and all that remained was a small silent bubble with only me and the hyena inside it.

“I'm Sonny, by the way. I think it's good if my meal knows my name at least."

“What?" I asked dumbly again.

“Well, you smell like all the other food here and you are a chicken so…."

“Y-you can't eat me!" I stated forcefully, surprised beyond belief.

“But this place serves chicken and here you are, you've looked so delicious all night so you must be on the menu." I couldn't believe it, this man had just asked to eat me as if it were a common thing.

“L-look, there are plenty of other equally nice chickens you can have." I offered, trying to reason with him. I thought it might have been a joke, a really ill-thought-out one, since the hyena seemed so nice. “You can't eat me, I'm not on the menu." I told him more sternly after his eyes had moved over me again and he had licked his lips.

“But all those other chickens aren't you, I've had my eye on you, my rooster friend, since I came into this place, since you surprised me by being here." His voice carried a disconcerting air to it, like this was fun for him, as if he could forgo talking and just get what he wanted at any time. I started to get nervous then, Sonny's eyes held a hungry sort of look in them and he kept licking his lips.

“S-sir, I-“ I didn't know what to do or say and I was panicking so I looked for help and turned to look at Josiah. Except he wasn't there, he wasn't in the kitchen area and I'd just made my biggest mistake of the night by turning my back on Sonny. There was the shuffle of moving leather and then the strong feeling of constriction around my white feathered neck as Sonny had jumped up from where he was sitting startlingly fast and gripped my neck in his jaws, his head turned sideways. I let out a surprised squawk as I felt this, and tried to move but all that led to was him biting down harder into my neck until I stopped trying to struggle.

So here I am, with the jaws of a hyena around my neck, jaws that can easily kill me, jaws that belong to a hyena who wants to eat me. His saliva and breathing wets my feathers but I'm powerless to do anything other than shiver in terror, even my shivering is subdued by Sonny with his arms wrapped around me to hold me still. I snap back to the present after my mind goes back through all the events of the evening in some cruel reminder of my mistake in trusting Sonny. 'This is it, this is the end. All he has to do is bite down harder and that's the end for me.' I think, time around me slowing to a crawl. Sonny's teeth dig into my skin and I can feel that they've drawn blood, his tongue moving to taste it. Out of the corner of my wide eyes I see a hooved foot move out from the direction of the toilets, the rest of Josiah's leg follows it and my heart skips a beat before plummeting as I realise that Sonny could so easily just kill me and throw my lightweight body somewhere Josiah can't see me.

I don't dare to make a sound in case that makes Sonny's decision for him, I can already feel his saliva drooling down from his jaws hungrily. Josiah takes a quick look around the restaurant to see what's going on and stops dead in his tracks as he gets his answer. The shock in his face says it all but he snaps out of it almost as quickly as it descends upon him and he rapidly moves towards Sonny and I until he's about halfway between us and the counter, only stopped by Sonny growling fiercely and me crowing alarmingly as best I can as he bites harder into my neck. Seeing he's got his message across, Sonny eases up his vice-like grip on my neck, it's still enough for his teeth to be piercing my flesh though.

“H-hey man, just calm down," Josiah says with his arms up in a non-threatening position. “Just let Haris go. I'll make you all the chicken you want, what about that?" He offers, clear worry for me on his face. Sonny doesn't make any moves or let go of me, but he isn't biting any harder so I can be thankful for that. Seeing that Sonny might like that, Josiah starts slowly lowering his arms. I notice Josiah very slowly moving his left hand towards his phone in his pocket, Sonny must have noticed this too and I kick my legs wildly as his jaws clamp down. “Alright! Alright!" Josiah shouts quickly, rapidly moving his hand away from his pocket. “Let Haris go, no one else will know," Sonny growls at Josiah so he raises his hands again. “I'll give you all the chicken we have and then you can just go on your way. You don't need to worry about us telling anyone. Just let him go." Josiah looks into my eyes and I feel pathetic, I'm helpless and at the mercy of somebody else all because I was stupid and decided to work here.

While I wallow in self-pity, Josiah sticks his tongue to the left and his left hand lifts a finger. 'That's odd.' The small voice of my rational mind observes as the rest of my head screams loudly in stupefied terror. 'That must mean something.' It continues, pulling up all the action movies I've seen. Before I can get any further, Josiah charges forward. In that split second I realise what he wants me to do; I throw all my weight to my left to try and break Sonny's arms' hold on me and it works. Josiah moves far more quickly than I'd thought possible for such a burly man, in a swift motion he jabs Sonny in the throat and pulls his teeth from around my neck, letting his momentum barrel them both over onto the floor. They land with a thud while I collapse to my left, relief at being free filling me up and making it impossible for me to move properly as I just lay there. I return to my senses in a moment and move away from Sonny and Josiah as quickly as I can. I want to help Josiah but if I get caught again then I doubt Sonny won't just snap my neck and be done with it, thinking of the consequences only after he's killed me. Once I'm at the counter I turn and see Josiah pushing Sonny's muzzle hard into the ground with one hand and his other arm pressing the hyena's head flat on the floor, Josiah's sheer body weight pinning the rest of him down.

“C-call the police! I've-“ Sonny tries to break free of Josiah and snap at him but he just brings his elbow down on the top of Sonny's head making the hyena yip and stop struggling for a moment in pain. “I've got him." Josiah shouts to me with a strain in his voice. I quickly fumble with my phone and soon the police are on their way. I start feeling woozy after a moment and I raise a hand to my neck, touching it and wincing before looking at my hand to see it stained red with my blood. I feel like I'm outside of my body as I drop to the floor and the world goes dark.

My eyes flutter open and I'm in a hospital. “Hey! Welcome back, Haris!" I turn my head to see Josiah sitting at the side of my bed, wincing at the pain of moving my neck.

“You passed out from blood loss but I dealt with that hyena and called you an ambulance while making sure you didn't lose too much more blood." He tells me.

“Thanks." I can't think to say anything else since my brain is still trying to fully wake back up.

“What can I say, I'm a regular old lifesaver." Josiah says with his worst heroic face on. “The manager has given you full paid leave for the next two weeks and leave after that for however long you need after that to recover from….this. She's also said she completely understands if you quit, given everything." I smile at Josiah and wince in pain now that I'm awake.

Two and a half weeks later and I'm waiting tables again, Josiah is in the kitchen. There are a few new things though; both of us have panic buttons we can press if anything happens which call the police, Josiah and I are getting training in self-defence, and I have scars on my neck under my feathers from where Sonny's teeth injured me.

A customer enters and I walk up to them with a smile.

“Welcome to Nando's."