The box was waiting for me at the lair. Snake was not amused by its presence. It trembled every now and then from something within. “Livestock? Here? At least the wyrm is taking care of itself, but a chicken?”

I opened the cardboard box to find just that. A black chicken. It looked up at me and clucked. It didn’t try to leave the box. It just sat there, watching me. A tag was loosely hanging around its neck. “Hold me.”

703 words.