Distant Lives//Book Two of the Separate Entities Trilogy

Chapter Five

Addison led us proudly, his nose up in the air. Grunt ran around our group excitedly, though I supposed it must have been a long time since he'd met anyone new. All around us, hiding behind tufts of grass and small bushes, were faces of a great many animals, must of which were furry in some way. As soon as we reached the very middle of the plains, Addison rose up to his hind legs.

"Have no fear, everyone!" he called out. "I'd like to introduce the children who so bravely defeated our unwanted loop guest!" Not half a minute after he finished speaking, more and more animals revealed themselves to us, and Addison graciously introduced them all to us. The first was some sort of top half giraffe, bottom half donkey that had only two legs. "This is Deirdre, our resident emu-raffe. She's much like a donkey and a giraffe put together, though with fewer legs than one might expect. She's got quite the temper, as well. She is quite the sore loser when it comes to cards. Won't you say hello, Deirdre?" Then Addison leaned closer and spoke only in a whisper, "Never play cards with an emu-raffe."

"Goodbye! Horrible day! It's a displeasure to meet you!" Deirdre said, drawing her horse lips back in a large, toothy grin before she back to laugh. "Oh, I'm just joking!" I couldn't help but smile.

"Deirdre believes herself to be quite the comedian," said Addison, clearly not as amused as I was.

Olive looked perplexed. "If you're supposed to be like both a donkey and a giraffe, why aren't you called a donkey-raffe?"

"Because that's such a terrible name, don't you think? Don't you think emu-raffe sounds much better? It just rolls right off the tongue." When she finished speaking, Deirdre stuck out her tongue, which had to have been at least three feet long, and used it to fix the position of Olive's tiara. The little girl squealed and giggled as she dashed behind Bronwyn.

"So, do all of you talk?" Jake asked, referring to the other animals who were still showing up in small groups.

"Only Deirdre and I," Addison explained. "But I can't say I'm complaining. The chickens seldom shut up already, and they can't speak a single word!" As soon as he spoke, several chickens, each clucking loudly, strutted towards us. "Oh, here come the girls now."

I noticed where they were coming from - a burned coop, still smoking a little at the top. "What happened to their coop?" I asked. Addison sighed.

"No matter how many times we rebuild it, they always manage to burn it down again. It's really quite bothersome." Then Addison turned a little and nodded in the opposite direction. "I suggest you back up a bit. When the girls get excited -" he couldn't finish his sentence. A loud bang went off like a stick of dynamite, making us all jump. The few intact boards of the coop that remained were destroyed. "- their eggs go off."

Through the clearing smoke, we all could see the chickens continue to make their way toward us, surprisingly both unharmed and unfazed by the explosion. Several feathers floated around them, reminding me of large fluffy snowflakes.

"You're telling me these chickens lay bombs?" Enoch asked, jaw dropped and eyes wide.

"Not bombs, but eggs which explode," Addison corrected. "And they only go off when the girls are excited. Most other times, the eggs are both safe and delicious. It is the exploding ones, however, which awarded them with their rather nasty name: Armageddon chickens."

As the chickens began bobbing around us - one of which bumped into Millard's leg, startling it and setting another egg off inside the nearly non-existent coop - Emma grew agitated. "Get away, now! You'll blow us up!"

"Oh, no need to shoo them away. They're sweet and harmless, I promise you that. And they only lay their eggs in the coop," Addison said, a hint of a laugh in his voice. The chickens began clucking happily as they weaved between our legs. "They quite like you, see?"