♦ Short Stories ♦

[cluckcluckluke]

Hay all

. I have decided to get into writting....people seem to think I have a bit of a knack for it! So these are just some practice short stories that I thought I would share. Hope you like

.
Constructive Criticism Is Most Welcome.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Here is the first part to my first story!
It's about two Mallard ducks...but I won't wreck it.

Two beautiful Mallard ducks sat on the edge of a pond as they watched the sun set over the gentle grassy slopes. When the sun had finally disappeared over the hills for yet another day the ducks shook themselves off and then took off into the pastel coloured sky. The ducks finally landed on the roof of a small broken, forgotten old rustic red barn. On the roof of the cobweb filled barn there were several warn slate tiles that had been broken and had left a small hole in which the ducks had taken great advantage of. The two green mallards jumped down through the hole into the attic of the barn. The attic was warm, dry and sheltered from the winds. Over in the far corner of the attic was a large nest of dry grass, sticks, hay, rushes, feathers and even fur from a badger. The ducks waddled over to the egg layden nest and snuggled down, covering each precious green tinged egg under their warm bodies. They slept.


Before long the sun had once again risen up over the dew covered hills and the ducks had started to stir. The drake, whose name was Grein was the first to waddle out from the nest, he stretched out his legs and beat his strong wings causing a small layer of dust to puff up into the air. It wasn’t till Grein reached the other side of the roof where the hole was that he realised his beautiful hen, Silhouette had not moved from the nest. He waddled back over to her and they clapped beaks, he realised that Silhouette wanted to be a mother. Grein helped Silhouette push her last egg under her wings then set off in search of food.


Grein waddled back over to the hole in the tiles and flapped his way up onto the roof to meet the sun still rising. The rays of light coated Grein causing his sleek plumage to shine back with a blue sheen. Grein waddled cautiously to the edge of the sloped roof, he placed one webbed foot onto the corroded iron gutter causing the gutter creak under his weight he lowered his head and drank from gutter that had been filled with water from previous nights. After he had quenched his thirst he stepped back from the edge, stretched out his wings and flew off the roof in the direction of his favorite pond.


More to come....

 

[Aacre]

I didn't know you liked to write! I love creative writing. I don't really do anything major- just short stories sometimes based on dreams I've dreamed, sometimes experiences. Love this! You are truly talented! I look forward to read more!
I have a couple of shorts on my chickens. Well, one is more of an introductory.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

I didn't know you liked to write! I love creative writing. I don't really do anything major- just short stories sometimes based on dreams I've dreamed, sometimes experiences. Love this! You are truly talented! I look forward to read more!
I have a couple of shorts on my chickens. Well, one is more of an introductory.

I wouldn't say truly talented.lol. But thanks

.

Perhaps you could add some of your stories here. I would love to read them.

 

[Aacre]

Sorry it took me so long, I had to find my story- couldn't find it on my computer, so I got it from my Wattpad.com account.

The days have been getting colder and the bugs are starting to become more scarce. The leaves from the tall cottonwood trees outside of the courtyard are turning golden yellow. The girls and I have never experienced this change before. We are used to hot summer days with an abundance of clover and black ants to forage after. This isn't the first time that our lives have been changed, so we are not afraid! Somehow, we know that everything will be okay. Our so-called master opened our courtyard door today. We are allowed a day out of the confines of our home. The girls and I are pleased, as it gets boring being stuck in the same courtyard for many hours. This privilege is also dwindling and Amelia wonders if it is connected to the coldness of the days somehow. I am not sure why this is, but we are allowed out and I'll be darned if I sit here quibbling over nothing!

“Where are we going to go today, Foghorn?” Helen squawked gently towards Foghorn.
“Helen! We are going where we always go! To the field behind the courtyard!” Amelia said, fluffing her feathers up, showing her lack of patience.
“Enough, Amelia! You don't have to be rude!” crowed Foghorn, as he scuffed his scaly feet in the yellowing grass outside of the courtyard. The urge overcame Foghorn as he grew excited for the day's adventure. His neck automatically crooked to one side as he closed his eyes and pointed his beak to the sky, letting out his distorted “cock-a-doo-a-rooh”.
“You know that you aren't doing that right, don't you, Foghorn?” Amelia couldn't help but giggle at the way he crowed. To avoid getting smacked with Foghorn's wing, Amelia hopped a ways away from the group, pretending to attack a non-existent black ant.
“Shush! You are just mad because you can't crow at all!” Foghorn said, defensively.
“Foghorn, I think that you crow so well and proper!” Helen cooed softly, trying to win over the affection of Foghorn. Not realizing what Helen was trying to accomplish, Foghorn started to lead the way to the field that Amelia mentioned.

We spent the whole day in that glorious field, finding the biggest and juiciest bugs and clover that is becoming scarce by the courtyard. Foghorn took us to this deserted courtyard where somebody forgot and left their fruit. You can tell that it was deserted because the fruit was already spoiling. This added a nice amount of flies to try and peck at while we feast on the delicious fruit. Apricots, peaches, and apples all over for us to enjoy! We discovered this hidden spot a few days ago when we came out to forage. We got stuck in the courtyard, but now that we are more familiar with it and not panicking, we know the way out of this place if danger should come. By the end of the day, when the sun started going doing, my belly was full of the fruit that I couldn't get enough of. Helen kept telling us we had better start making our way back to our own courtyard when the sun shifted, indicating that darkness was soon to come. Foghorn agreed, but he felt it wasn't safe to go back when there were dogs and cats near our courtyard.

“We can start to make our way back, but we have to stay far enough away until those darned dogs go away.” Foghorn warned the girls.
“Oh, I hope it's safe, soon Foghorn. I don't want to be in harm's way at all!” Helen squeaked worriedly.
“YOU ARE SUCH A CHICKEN, HELEN!” Amelia bravely announced, loud enough for dogs and cats all over to hear.
Helen began to sob and Foghorn's voice became gruff with anger towards Amelia for upsetting the sensitive little Helen. In the nearby distance, the trio paused, hushing their squawking about as they could hear their owners calling each of them by name.

“Oh no! We are going to be in big trouble when they find us, aren't we?” Helen said, huddling closer to Foghorn.
Amelia fluffed her black feathers up and began walking towards their courtyard, “Well, we will have to stand up to those dogs! If we stick together, they will be afraid of us!” Amelia began her march home, practically ignoring Foghorn's direction.
“Amelia, stay here! We will hide in this brush for a while until it is safer to go home” Foghorn said, motioning Helen and Amelia to a nearby bush.
“It's getting dark, Foghorn!” Helen cried, burying her face into Foghorn's chest of tawny feathers.
“Helen is right! It's getting dark and soon, it won't be safe and we will be killed by coyotes or dogs!” Amelia cackled and began to show fear.
When Amelia marched bravely towards home, Foghorn directed Helen to stay where she was at, while he went after Amelia. All of a sudden, he heard Amelia squawking loudly, as if she had been captured. He jumped and flapped his wings in the hopes that it would get him closer to Amelia.
“Foghorn! Help me! They got me! They got me!” Amelia panicked and tried to squirm out of her owner's hands.
“Just hold still! They will grip you tighter if you keep squirming like that!” Foghorn advised the scared Amelia.
Foghorn decided to put his life in danger and went after the owner that was holding Amelia, to see if that would distract him. He crowed out and the owner handed Amelia to his wife, who held Amelia close to her chest. While Foghorn distracted the one owner, the wife took Amelia and sat her in the courtyard. She went to close the gate on it amd Amelia had tried to scurry through, only to get caught in the closing gate. The woman gently opened the gate a little for Amelia to move out of the way. Amelia was so afraid, that she ran to her nesting box and stayed in there.
In the meantime, Foghorn had managed to upset the owner and he and Helen hid in the brush in the field. They stayed well hidden, making no noise until the owner and his wife grew frustrated and left them alone.
After a short period of time, Helen began to cry. “Amelia is gone, and it's all my fault, Foghorn!”
“It's okay, Helen. She is safe, in the courtyard. They closed the gate, so I am not sure how we will get in there. We may be staying the night out here.” Foghorn said, trying to reassure her.
“I wish we could get in! I don't want to be out here. It is so scary, the noises that we hear from the courtyard!” Helen sniveled at Foghorn.
The owners had come out two and three more times in search of Foghorn and Helen. The wife's voice had an upset tone to it, but that did not entice Foghorn or Helen. The man had checked for Amelia in the nest box, and didn't seem to find Amelia. The wife grew even more upset, as she had shown preference towards Amelia. By this time, the sun had disappeared and the air grew chilly. Foghorn and Helen had bedded down for the night and both were sleeping in the brush.
As soon as the sun started peeping through the mountains and hills the next morning, Foghorn arose and immediately went to the courtyard to see where Amelia might be. When they arrived, they found Amelia scratching in the dirt of the courtyard.
“Oh, Amelia! You are in the courtyard still!” Helen squeaked happily.
“Of course I am, Helen! I couldn't get out, I even tried, but I was blocked. So I went to bed and stayed there.” Amelia said, fluffing up her feathers in embarrassment as she realized that she had fallen fast asleep as soon as she got to the nest box.
“Well, the important thing is that we are all safe. Soon, the owners will be out and hopefully not angry with us.” Foghorn stated sternly. The three chickens huddled together, even though the fencing separated Amelia from Foghorn and Helen. As Foghorn predicted, the owners came out and opened the courtyard gate to let them be fully reunited. Since that eventful day, the owners have not let the trio out of the courtyard. Foghorn and Helen were content with this choice, since the weather only got colder and colder, but Amelia complained about it right away. As the wife said, until spring comes, they shall stay in their courtyard.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Very nice Aacre

!
I am assuming this is based on one of your chicken experiences?

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Here is some more of the story. The bit in blue is the part you have already read. I just added it in case you wanted to read back over.lol.

Two beautiful Mallard ducks sat on the edge of a pond as they watched the sun set over the gentle grassy slopes. When the sun had finally disappeared over the hills for yet another day the ducks shook themselves off and then took off into the pastel coloured sky. The ducks finally landed on the roof of a small broken, forgotten old rustic red barn. On the roof of the cobweb filled barn there were several warn slate tiles that had been broken and had left a small hole in which the ducks had taken great advantage of. The two green mallards jumped down through the hole into the attic of the barn. The attic was warm, dry and sheltered from the winds. Over in the far corner of the attic was a large nest of dry grass, sticks, hay, rushes, feathers and even fur from a badger. The ducks waddled over to the egg laden nest and snuggled down, covering each precious green tinged egg under their warm bodies. They slept.


Before long the sun had once again risen up over the dew covered hills and the ducks had started to stir. The drake, whose name was Grein was the first to waddle out from the nest, he stretched out his legs and beat his strong wings causing a small layer of dust to puff up into the air. It wasn’t till Grein reached the other side of the roof where the hole was that he realised his beautiful hen, Silhouette had not moved from the nest. He waddled back over to her and they clapped beaks, he realised that Silhouette wanted to be a mother. Grein helped Silhouette push her last egg under her wings then set off in search of food.


Grein waddled back over to the hole in the tiles and flapped his way up onto the roof to meet the sun still rising. The rays of light coated Grein causing his sleek plumage to shine back with a blue sheen. Grein waddled cautiously to the edge of the sloped roof, he placed one webbed foot onto the corroded iron gutter causing the gutter creak under his weight he lowered his head and drank from gutter that had been filled with water from previous nights. After he had quenched his thirst he stepped back from the edge, stretched out his wings and flew off the roof in the direction of his favorite pond.


Grein finally returned to Silhouette with a beak full of snails, worms and other small invertebrate. He placed the food down on the edge of the nest and Silhouette relished the juicy molluscs. Night came soon enough and the ducks snuggled down together.

28 days raced along in no time and soon enough the pair had 10 little ducklings running around all over the place. The paddling of soft feet against the wooden planks filled the attic. Mother and father knew it was time for adventure.



One day in the middle of Spring, 2 months after the ducklings had first hatched, the ducklings were all down at the pond learning to fly, when suddenly there was loud chugging sound over near the ducks old barn. There were 4 men standing around and a fat bloke in a bull dozer. The ducks sat on their pond watching the men, wondering what was going on. The men spoke for a bit then jeered as the fat, burger filled lump of a man heaved the almighty dozer into action. Smoke bellowed from the old exhaust as it spluttered into life. He cranked it into gear and drove the dozer into the ducks home. Bricks, wood and dirt were flung into the air, windows were smashed and the wooden frames of the old building splintered into an almighty mess.

Grein and Jemima flew up into the air in shocked, they quacked loudly as the men destroyed their nest and shelter. Grein flew at the man in the bulldozers quacking and squawking. He managed to pull some on the fat mans hair out and Jemima stole one of the other blokes sunglasses.



The men dismounted from their vehicles and started throwing rocks and rubble at the confused ducks. Jack, one of the old boy’s hit Grein on the chest, sending him plummeting to earth. A thud was heard and felt by the men as the poor duck hit the bare ground.

They cheered and laughed in victory. One of the men walked over to the unconscious duck and picked it up. It went limp in his grubby hands.

“Hey, you killed it jack” he said turning around with a big toothless grin.

“Good work” the other men cheered.

“Bloody duck deserved it” Jack said happily.

“What do we-” the man holding the duck didn’t have time to even finish his sentence before Grein had his head up and was pecking at the hairy man’s face.

“G-g- get of me, you flying vermin” he screeched.

The other men paused for a second then burst out into fits of laughter. In seconds they were on the ground holding their bulging stomachs and smacking the ground with the hands.



As all this was going on Grein had managed to escape and made his way back to Jemima and the ducklings, quite proud of what he had done.

The men laughed for a long time after that. They eventually left, leaving the ducks home half demolished and the bulldozer sitting in the rubble.


More to come...
( I am not a fan of writing speech in my stories but I thought I had add bit seeing as you had done it

. )

 

[Aacre]

Very nice Aacre

!
I am assuming this is based on one of your chicken experiences?

Yes! This was back when I first started out with chickens. I had just the three of them. The flock has grown since then, but they all still have their own personalities. I love making stories with them because of that.
Loved this second part of the story. I wonder what will happen with those horrible men who ruined the ducks' home. Poor ducks!

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Quote:
How many are you slaving for now.lol?
Thanks. Lucky my story isn't based on a true story.