Flash Friday Fiction: Cock-A-Doodle THIS!

traveler

Cock-A-Doodle THIS! – 206 words

“Why did the chicken cross the road?” you wise-asses always joke.

No one ever asks about the rooster. No, forget the bloody rooster. I’m just comic relief, providing nicknames for male genitalia, supplying funny sounds for children to imitate (no self-respecting rooster actually SAYS cock-a-doodle-doo; don’t you people listen?), strutting my way around the henhouse. So you think.

Cockerel, I tell you.

Do you know what I do in my off time? It’s all subterfuge, sitting high on this fence day after day, pretending to guard those ridiculous hens below. They’d never leave the yard if given the chance. Scaredy cats. Oh, wait. Wrong species.

You think I’m following centuries-old hormonal directions, guarding my progeny from attack. Ha. I’m planning my escape. I’ve had enough, always voicing the alarm with nobody listening. Don’t you SEE what’s happening, what they’re doing? Bunch of chickens.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and I ain’t goin’ down with the chicken livers. They ain’t making no capon of me.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

So I’m off to Hollywood, to lights, stardom, fame, acclaim. If that idiot Foghorn Leghorn can succeed, I’m a shoe-in.

As soon as I figure out how to get across this road.


This week’s novel inspiration: Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer’s bitingly clever collection of tales by a colorful troupe of pilgrims — as a contest, no less, with a free dinner as the prize.

Story elements (we have to base our story on at least two of these elements)

* Conflict: man v man
Character (choose one): a knight on a quest, a patient wife, a treacherous wife, three foolish gamblers, a talking rooster, a saint who survives execution
Theme(s) (choose one): subterfuge, corruption, justice, pranks, courtly love
Setting: long road en route to a shrine

I chose character (talking rooster, obvs), theme (subterfuge), and setting (a long road en route to a shrine – because Hollywood’s a shrine, right?), and stuffed them all into a story fitting the limits of 190-210 words.

What do you think? Is my tail (er, I mean tale) anything to crow about?

Cockeral waltz your way on over to Flash Friday Fiction to check out the other stories, comment, or maybe add one of your own!

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