{"sf1_id":618305,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Over Easy by AnonEmis","author":"AnonEmis","words":2942,"posted_at":"2013-11-26T02:39:00.000Z","tags":["Clean","Death","Drama","rooster"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/618305-over-easy-by-anonemis","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/618305","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=618305\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"Yes, I'm alive. I'd like to apologize for suddenly going off grid and failing to upload the stories I said I would. Things happen, but I'm back. I'm not sure if I will be posting as frequently as I used to but I'll do my best. Anyways, I'm trying to get back in the swing of writing so please feel free to leave feedback and critiques. Apologies for the formatting near the beginning, exporting from MS Word to the uploader is confusing.\n-AnonEmis","content":"\nOver Easy\nBy AnonEmis\n\n\"Since\nall life is futility, then the decision to exist must be the most irrational of\nall.\"\n\n-Emile M.\nCioranI was born one day with\nno alternative. I fell through my life already knowing what I was alive for and\nwhat I would be. However, that made everything hollow, without mystery or\ncurious dirt trails that led away from my routine to a grand adventure. I\nrealize now that it was not my fault, seeing as I was deprived of many. things.I have never seen the sun rise.\nI have never shared\nsecrets with a friend.\n\nOr felt my feathers catch\nthe wind.\n\nOr dreamt of a\nnightmare, for inevitability made fears and hopes useless.\n\nWhen my mother hatched\nme from my egg, the first thing I remember was feeling my someone's frightened confusion.\nThat frantic sense was omnipresent for my first moments in the world. I felt a\njolt of feral excitement as my beak cracked through the shell, the rush of air\ndrying out the fluids of my container, causing my feathers to plaster against\nmy paper skin. Like a frenzied maelstrom, I burst from my cage, shrugged off\nthe brittle fragments, and began crying out to the air.\n\nMy small warbles were\ncut off when a warm body fell upon me and forced me down into the straw nest. A\nfrantic rustle of feathers and a shifting of her body obscured my vision as I\nwas forced against her stomach. Suddenly, I felt something sharp poke my flesh.\nThankful for the distraction, I turned my head. I caught a glimpse of a cracked\novular object. The shape of the container was distended, squashed like a crushed\npastry. Yellow and white goo dripped and flowed from the jagged peaks of the\nrim. That was when I realized I was just born. I was alive. Alive and scared.\n\nI didn't see the next\nfew days, rather, it was like a series of sensations. If I was cold, another\nbody would draw closer and I would stop shivering. If I was restless, a soft\ncrooning streamed to my ears and lulled me to sleep. Despite the comfort, I kept\nmy eyes screwed shut, afraid of the terror from my first seconds. Eventually,\nmy curiosity won out. I opened my eyes.\n\nScreams punctuated the\nair as digits like thick armoured snakes snatched me away from warmth and\nenveloped me in plastic. I felt a rush of vertigo as I was lifted high into the\nair. Through the gaps between the gigantic fingers, I saw my mother's face for\nthe first time. Her frenzied eyes were all I saw. I looked up and I saw what\nthe fingers were attached to. A face, with features like melted wax and plastic.\nTwo bulging eyes, a pudgy beak-like thing with pulsating holes, and two rows of\nwhite slabs framed by red bands of flesh. A mane of red hair framed its\ngrotesque face. Fortunately for my sanity, the hands formed a sort of sphere\naround my small body and enveloped me in darkness. I could hear the desperate\nsquawks piercing into my skull, amplified by the darkness of my prison. My beak\nopened and I emptied my lungs in an outburst of terror, hoping desperately that\nmy feeble cries would penetrate the inky darkness. The shaking continued in a rhythmic\nthump, shaking me to my bones and drowning out the shrieks of my mother.\n\nSuddenly, the hands\nopened and I tumbled out blinking and saw in front of me, a grizzled and ominous\nrooster. He was somber looking, with dark drooping feathers that shrouded his\nthin frame and head with a ruffle of chestnut feathers that choked his neck in\na bristly collar. A cruel, curved beak supported two fleshy medallions that\nhung from his neck like shackles. His eyes were shot with red cracks. The\ncloaked bird peered at me from his beak, his crimson crown twitching as he\nexhaled softly. I met his gaze with reverence while he seemed disinterested,\nlike a predator would regard an unappetizing quarry. All of a sudden, he began\nto stride forward. Fear clenched my heart. Was I about to die? Frozen in place,\nI could only watch as his large form blotted out my sight.\n\n---\n\n Over the next few days I began\nliving with the grim-looking rooster in his own little house, the memories of\nmy birth fading fast. It was sparsely furnished with a large straw nest in the\ncorner and large bag of feed beside it. That humble place became my home while\nthe rooster began teaching me how to speak. He would trace letters into the\ndirt encrusted floor and then speak them out loud, expecting me to repeat. It\nwas an agonizing process, which often ended in the rooster painfully cuffing me\nacross the head and leering down at me with a single beady eye. I railed at my\njailor, screaming at him with words that would intermittently devolve into\ngibberish. I longed for the outside. So, so much. Eventually, Pluto tired and\nchanged his method. He would point out objects in the house and vocalize them.\nFinally I began to make progress. In three days' time, I knew how to say his\nname. By the end of the fourth week, I could speak full sentences. I remember\nseeing the surprise etched on his features and then the small smile that\naccompanied it. It could hardly be considered a real smile, more of a small\ntwitch of the lips, but it melted away all the resentment I felt towards him as\nI basked in his pride. With a motion of his wing, he urged me to follow him. My\nheart skipped a beat when Pluto neared the closed door. It skipped another as\nhe beckoned me over before pushing the door open and releasing me to the\nbrilliant light and air.\n\n As I stared out into the world in\nwonder, Pluto stood next to me, placing a protective wing around my small body.\n\n \"Your name is Charon.\" He said.\n\"Welcome to the world.\"\n\n Looking up at his face, I cheerfully\nchirped.\n\n \"Hello Pluto, my name is Charon.\"\nHis thin smile widened\nonly to vanish as a slamming noise resonated in the air. Both our heads snapped\nto the source of the noise and my heart clenched in terror. I could feel Pluto\nstiffen and quickly place his own body between me and the disturbance. As I\npeeked around his chest, I saw a gigantic wooden panel open on a nearby\nstructure to the left of Pluto's house. A shape shambled out of the open door.\nThe shape had a pudgy body, with stick like appendages protruding from the\nsides and bottom. I could not see his features, but my mind was resolute. It\nwas just like that nightmarish monster I saw when I was just a baby. A harsh\nnudge to my back galvanized my legs and forced me to move. As Pluto pushed me\nback to the house, I could feel tenseness in his voice.\n\n \"Humans,\" Pluto spat. \"Don't let any\nof those monsters see you.\"\n\nHis gravelly voice was\ntinged with a mixture of disgust and fear. As I sat inside and watched Pluto\nclose off my portal to the outside world, I felt a sort of relief.\n\n---\n Months went by in a whirl as Pluto\nslowly acclimated me to the way my life would play out. We would sleep in his\nlittle shelter until dusk, just after the two humans had retreated back to\ntheir home. Then, as soon as their door closed shut, ours creaked open. Pluto\nand I silently crept out of the opening and sat on the grass, positioning\nourselves so that Pluto's house hid us from the tell-tale glow of the human's\nwindows. It was a lovely routine, to be free of the stuffy miasma of the house\nand stretch for a few hours while the rooster simply talked. It didn't really\nmatter to me what he lectured about, how to avoid chicken-hawks and other\npredators but mostly about the types of trees and how they changed according to\nthe season. I remember occasionally glancing at the foliage of the nearby trees\nto give Pluto the impression that I was listening; I thought it was especially\nbeautiful how the lush green colours would slowly shift to a vibrant, fiery\nhue.\n\n\"What do you think of\nthose leaves?\" Pluto asked one day.\n\nI shrugged, lifting my\nwings and rustling them in indifference.\n\n\"They're very pretty.\"\nThe rooster snorted.\n\"How shallow.\"\n\"They're leaves.\nThey're red. They're nice to look at.\nWhat else do you think they are?\" I rolled my eyes.\n\nPluto turned his\nfeathered head, gazing at the crimson-wreathed branches. With a sigh, he spoke.\n\n\"I think they're a\nwarning.\"\n\n---\nMost of our times\noutside followed the same routine, with Pluto pointing out something visible\nfrom our spot in the grass and asking me for my impressions of it. He always\navoided drawing attention to the rickety chicken coop, the tattered roof just\nvisible from over Pluto's home. I was old enough to know that's where I was\nborn but Pluto still seemed to think I was too young to go inside. I would try\nto wander towards the ramshackle door, drawn in by visions of a crying hen and\na scared child. He always stopped me though from entering the coop with a small\nwhack on my head and a few stern words eventually pushed the coop from my head.\n\n\"Why can't I get this\nthrough your thick head? That place has nothing to offer you, Charon. Don't\nbother.\" Pluto glared at me, his red eyes unblinking.\n\n\"What are you hiding,\nold man? Why can't I go in?\" I glared right back, doing my best to force back\ntears from the pain. I stood with my feet firmly planted and met his eyes\nangrily. We continued staring, both of us daring the other to look away. Minutes\npassed and my legs began trembling, my resolve slowly melting and pooling at my\nfeet. Just when I was about to break down and apologize, Pluto shuffled forward\nand wrapped a ragged wing around me. The rooster was trembling.\n\n\"I'm... not trying to\nhide anything,\" He murmured haltingly, as if he were trying to find the words. He\nheld me a little tighter.\n\n\"I'm trying to protect\nyou. I'm not allowed in there either. Not anymore. The humans would likely kill\nus both.\"\n\n\"I hate the humans.\" I\nsaid sullenly. Feeling my anger dissipate, I leant my head into his side.\n\nPluto chuckled, his\nraspy voice like sawdust. He had a funny laugh.\n\n\"So do I.\"\n\"Not surprising,\" In\nspite of my best efforts, my lips turned up in a small smile. \"You hate almost\neverything.\"\n\nThat elicited another\ngruff chortle from the rooster. He looked at me and his smile became bitter.\n\n\"You're not wrong, I\nfind this world detestable.\"\n\nHe withdrew his wing a\nfew seconds later and the evening air snaked through my feathers, making me\nshiver.\n\n\"We're going back\ninside, it's almost dawn.\" Pluto began walking back home.\n\n\"You'll catch a cold or\nget eaten by a hawk if we stay here.\" He added.\n\nI nodded and began\nfollowing him.\n\n\"One more thing.\" Pluto\nstopped walking and stood still. I stopped as well and looked at him.\n\n\"Yes?\"\nHe turned his head and\nfixed me with a steady gaze.\n\n\"Don't call me old\nman.\"\n\n...\nMany more weeks had\npassed and Pluto's house became just a little smaller as I grew up. With each\npassing day, my thoughts strayed further towards that chicken coop. When we\nwere outside, I caught myself staring at the building looming ominously in the\nhalf-light but never dared to bring it up again. As far as Pluto was concerned,\nthe topic was taboo.\n\nIt was particularly\nfreezing day where the winds could be heard whistling through the cracks in the\nroof. We had been forced to stay inside for days because the cold had become\nmurderous and bit through my feathers and into my skin like talons. Even\ninside, the chill was present. For the first time in my life, I could not\nsleep. Pluto and I were sitting in our home, he was dozing on the shared bed\nwhile I lazily scratched words onto a clean spot of wall with a small piece of\ncharcoal Pluto scavenged from around the pile of junk by the human's house.\nWhile I wasn't envious of their blatant and wasteful attitude, I did envy their\nhands. Bits of dust and black powder often found their way into my throat as I\nhacked violently and let the charcoal fall from my beak onto the wooden floor.\n\nSLAM\nA splintering crash\nsnapped me out of my lethargic stupor. The sound echoed in the hollow space of\nthe house and I immediately knew where it came from. I quietly creaked open the\ndoor and was immediately blinded by the brilliant white. Snow. I remember\nlearning the word from Pluto but this was the first time I had ever laid eyes\non it. Then I heard the crunching, like eggshells being trampled underfoot.\nFeeling dread seize my body, I opened the door further and saw the human. In\nits pudgy hand, it clutched a limp figure. My breath lodged in my throat. With\na leg firmly grasped in the human's grip, a hen gawked lifelessly at me through\nglazed, dead, eyes. A switch flipped in my head and the floodgates opened.\nMemories, long since repressed by the trauma of birth, burst in front of my\neyes.\n\nMother.\nDead.\nThe door closed behind\nthe human and my mother's corpse. Frenzied panic seeped into my head. Grief\nwracked my body. My body shuddered in agony. My breath became explosive bursts.\nMy lungs drew in air.\n\nI screamed.\n\"Mother!\"\nI burst from the\ndoorway, the rusted clasp of the lock slashing into my side as my feet flew\nover the snowy powder. Vibrant crimson stained the sterile white snow but\nadrenaline strangled any notions of pain.\n\n\"Mother!\"\n I tripped and stumbled. Head over heels, I\nslammed into the ground face first. As I spat out freezing snow, I screamed\nagain.\n\n\"Mother!\"\nA sharp screech\nanswered me. For a brief, euphoric moment, I thought she answered me. A second\ncry from above shattered any illusions. As I skidded to a halt, I glanced to\nthe clear, morning sky. With massive wings spread, wicked talons outstretched,\ndagger-like beak ready to maim, a hawk dove upon me.\n\nI cried out in terror\nand agony as the larger bird landed on me and began tearing into me. I felt my\nflesh being shorn from my bones like wet paper. Tears flowed from my eyes as I\nwhipped my head in a frenzy and wailed in terrified agony. I was going to die.\n\nA thump and a startled\nyelp forced my eyes open. As I desperately tried to keep my insides from\nspilling out, my wavering vision turned to see Pluto and the hawk in a\nblood-fueled frenzy. The hawk's beak snapped at the rooster, tearing into his\nside and wrenching feathers and skin from Pluto. With a shriek of pain, Pluto\ndoubled over. The bird of prey took advantage and plunged down, aiming for the\nexposed neck. My heart caught in my throat as time slowed down. The hawk\nmissed. Pluto scrambled out of the way and buffeted the hawk with powerful wing\nbeats. Distracted by the multitude of blows, the hawk faltered. Pluto dove in\nand began his own vicious onslaught. His own beak ate through the larger bird's\nflesh as easily as air and his talons shredded the hawk's vulnerable\nunderbelly. The fight devolved into a maelstrom of bloodlust. Beaks and talons\ntore through skin and into organs. Feathers flew into the air. Red droplets\nstained the snow.\n\nWith relief, I eventually\nsaw Pluto stagger away from the motionless, mutilated, and bleeding hawk. But as\nI saw his one remaining eye widen in horror and grief, guilt shot through me.\n\nI caused this.\n\"Charon!\" Pluto's\nragged cry tore into my heart. As I watched him limp towards me, his organs\nbarely contained in his shredded body, I started to cry again.\n\n\"Charon!\"\nWhen Pluto collapsed\ninches away from my feet, still calling my name, I managed to choke out a few\nwords.\n\n\"I'm sorry, so so so\nsorry Pluto. I didn't mean-\"\n\nMy voice petered away\nas Pluto gently reached over and placed a shredded wing over my body.\n\n\"It's alright,\" He\ncroaked in between labored breaths. \"I caused all of this. All because I\ncouldn't control myself.\"\n\n\"What? What do you\nmean?\"\n\n\"This world is\nhorrible, child. I'm so sorry for bringing you here.\" Pluto had closed his\neyes, muttering deliriously. \"I'm sorry. For you and your mother.\"\n\n\"Pluto!\"\nThe older rooster's eye\nopened, a mere slit. He smiled peacefully at me.\n\n\"I'm happy though.\"\nPluto gathered me closer in his embrace.\n Blood\nran like rivers from our wounds and pooled on the ground.\n\n\"We'll see each other\nsoon. Okay? In a much better place, I promise.\"\n\nHe paused, blood\nstarting to leak from his mouth. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a\nhuman running towards us, a girl. With fiery-red hair. Another cough from Pluto\nforced me to turn to his mangled face again.\n\n\"Soon we'll be in a\nplace where we're free and happy, I swear to you, child. I'll wait for you ok?\"\n\nPluto's eye glazed over\nand his smile stiffened.\n\n\"I'll wait for you.\" He\nwhispered.\n\n\"Pluto!\""}