The chickens were up bright and early. It was just like any other morning on the farm except today is the day that the chickens would learn how to 'fly'. They gathered around hut twelve as Rocky began an important lecture
"So, you want to fly? Well, it ain't going to be easy and it ain't going to happen overnight either. Flying takes three things. Hard work, perseverance and...hard work." Rocky had trouble thinking of another word to use
"You said hard work twice!" Fowler shouts from the doorway of his hut
"That's because it takes twice as much work as perseverance." Rocky said. He licked one of his fingers and showed it to the hens, laughter filling the air
"Codswallop! Cocky Yanks think they know it all, always have a snappy answer, why back in my day..." Fowler mutters to himself and went inside his hut, closing the door
"Grandpa is in one of his moods." Ricky laughs. He and Grayson weren't participating in the flying lessons, watching from the shade of hut fifteen
"You think he's right about it being a bunch of codswallop?" Grayson examines his fingers
"Possibly. I guess we'll have to see." Ricky shrugs
They quieted down after seeing their father walk over to an old wooden chair a few inches away from the flock
"The most important thing is, we have to work as a team." Rocky said
The hens looked at each and nodded in agreement. That was definitely something they agreed on. Team work is the most important thing
"Which means you do everything I tell you." Rocky adds, everyone except for his mate and his daughters nodding once more
"I'm pretty sure that's not how working as a team goes." Lillian whispers
"You and me both." Ava leans to one side
Rocky hopped up onto the rickety old chair. "Right, lets rock and roll!" He started doing a simple wing raise exercise and the hens copied him. He got a sudden cramp in his left wing and clutches it while crying out in pain, the hens of course copying him except for his girls
Grayson and Ricky look at each other. They couldn't be serious. This had to be some kind of a joke. The brothers sure were glad they weren't participating especially since the exercises got weirder from pedaling their feet in midair while laying on their backs to toe touches. Rocky stared at his mate from behind though Ginger caught him in his act and the rooster acted innocent, walking away
Ricky stared at Agnes and Buttercup from behind and boy did they look stunning. Like father like son. He was of course interrupted from the fabulous view after Grayson smacked him upside the head
"Ow! I wasn't doing anything!" Ricky rubs the back of his head
"You know, you and dad give roosters a bad name." Grayson scowls
"No we don't. And you hit like a hen." Ricky scoffs
The hens moved on to a different exercise which Grayson and Ricky can only describe as Kung fu chicken. Things lightened up though as they watched the hens do push ups, Bunty showing off by doing it with one wing behind her back and Babs doing it completely wrong, pushing off with her body
"Why are we doing this again?" Ava grumbled
"Your father is doing this because we need to get into shape." Ginger glances back at her daughters
"My wings are killing me." Lillian huffs
Mr. Tweedy was making his rounds with the guard dogs when he saw the chickens doing the pushups. As he turned to get Mrs. Tweedy's attention, Grayson made signals with his wings to the flock. Operation act natural. The hens quickly stopped their training and began pecking, flapping their wings and clucking. Rocky, Grayson and Ricky joined in on the act
"Mrs. Tweedy! The chickens are...pecking?" The daft man feeling as though his eyes were playing tricks on him
Mrs. Tweedy hits him on the head with her clipboard. Idiot
"That was close." Agnes whispers
"Not as close as you are to me, baby doll." Ricky winks while walking past her
The chickens continued on with their flight training once the coast was clear, doing sideway stretches when Rocky told them to stop, go down and make little circles in which the hens started making tight circles as they spun around. Ginger and her daughters stopped when they noticed Rocky sitting in a jacuzzi while Ducky uses an air pump to blow bubbles in the water, Marion massaging the roosters shoulders and Amber fanning him
Ginger clears her throat and the three stop what they're doing, smiling apologetically and going back to training with the others
"I thought you were teaching us to fly." Lillian folds her wings
"That's what I'm doing." Rocky said
"Isn't there usually some flapping involved?" Ava slightly flaps her wings
"Hey, do I tell you how to lay eggs? Relax, we're making progress." Rocky wiggles a foot
"Really? I can't help but thinking we're going round in circles." Ginger gestures to the dizzy hens still spinning around
"What the? Hey! Cut it out! You're making me dizzy." Rocky calls out to them. "I think they're ready to fly now."
"Good. Because they certainly can't walk anymore." Ginger said
"This is becoming too unbearable to watch. Why not call it quits?" Ricky walks over with Grayson
"Because we're not quitters." Lillian simply tells him
"We can tell from watching." Grayson leans against his brother
"Hey, hey! I just groomed them!" Ricky pushes him off of his sleek feathers
"Boys, don't fight." Ginger sighs at her sons
"He started it, ma." Ricky points at the black rooster
Rocky stands up in the jacuzzi. "Up and at 'em, gals! Let's flap!" He calls out
"Finally." Ava mutters
First there was the ramp. This was a wooden plank, it's end propped up high in the air. One by one, the chickens took a running start up the makeshift incline, flapping madly as ascended to the top. Off the end they plummeted as Rocky gave them a cheerful thumbs up. Anything to get Ginger and his daughters off his back
Nick and Fetcher crawled out from underneath a hut, Grayson and Ricky looking at them for a quick second before returning their attention to the hens continuing with their plunges
"What's this caper, gov?" Nick brushes off his suit
"They're flying." Grayson said
"Obviously." Nick rolls his eyes
"They're gonna kill themselves. Wanna watch?" Fetcher remarked
"Yeah, alright." Nick shrugs. They didn't have anything better to do. Not to mention it would be great entertainment
The next brilliantly conceived exercise involved hot water bottles. The chickens would bounce over the fence using the hot water bottles as launching pads. Then there was a new flapping exercise. The flying lessons continued. Rocky's next big idea was the roof run. This meant that the chickens ran along the ridge of a rooftop and flapped wildly as they went over the edge. They fell like lead weights
"Go,go,go,go,go,go!" Rocky yells as he stood by the edge of the rooftop
Grayson and Ricky watched from the ground beside Nick and Fetcher's makeshift bleachers. They weren't impressed as each one failed, piling onto one another
"Poultry in motion!" Nick laughed
Ginger took a running start, flapped and flew a few inches, landing on something soft and...moving? She looked down, frowning. It was a pile of chickens beneath her feet
Grayson and Ricky had a slight glimmer of hope that their mother would have flown but had it taken away after they saw she didn't even when she herself thought she did
"Birds of a a feather flop together!" Fetcher cackled
Ginger looks at Rocky with her wings on her hips, Rocky smiling innocently. The chickens tried getting off of one another which resulted into them toppling onto the hard ground, feathers flying. Rocky worriedly looks down below at the groaning hens and got off of the rooftop
The hens walked back to their huts in pain from training all day and the only results they got were getting hurt
"Great work, ladies. Great work. The pain you're feeling is a good thing, pain is your friend. Keep the faith there, Agnes. Ducky, I think you flew four feet today!" Rocky gives her a high five
"Four feet! From the roof to the ground!" Nick and Fetcher laugh from peering behind a corner of a hut
"It's all part of the process, ladies. Nothing to worry about. You cheesy little-" Rocky started walking back to hut seventeen when Lillian joined him
"Dad, are you sure we're doing all the right things?" The tan hen holds her right side
"Of course. I'd never mislead you." Rocky kisses her forehead
The ground started to rumble which worried Rocky and his daughter. It couldn't have been good. "Woah, the grounds shaking. Are we worried, are we worried?" The American rooster extends an arm, stopping Ginger
A large truck arrived, the chickens staring at the blinding headlights as it slowly made its way down the driveway. They watched as it backed up towards the barn, Mr. Tweedy guiding it. Large boxes were loaded off of the truck which intrigued the birds, Ginger and Lillian watching the whole thing through a pair of binoculars. Once the truck left, Mr. Tweedy bidded them farewell, suddenly looking over at the chickens gathered by the fence. Ginger and Lillian look down at the binoculars in their wings and hide it behind their backs, the birds whistling in innocence
"It's all in your head. It's all in your head." The farmer told himself, walking over to the crates and got to work on unboxing it's contents
The chickens went back to their huts after Mr. Tweedy was gone from sight. Grayson was in his nest when he saw Ricky escorting Buttercup to her bunk. Her left leg was bruised so she needed a bit of help walking. The dark brown hen carefully sits down on the edge of her nest and thanks Ricky for his help
"No problem. Holler if you need anything." Ricky smiles softly at her before going over to his nest
"I thought you liked Agnes." Grayson asked him
"You need to keep the ladies guessing into who you're really interested in. Haven't you learned anything?" Ricky gets comfortable and shifts his bedding around
"Apparently not." Grayson rolls his eyes
Ginger approached her nest and sighs to herself. Why weren't they lifting off of the ground? What were they doing wrong? She'd have to ask Rocky what the problem was. The feisty hen went outside to look for Rocky. He was preening himself in front of a broken piece of glass
"Darling, I need to talk to you." Ginger said
"What's on your mind?" Rocky flips his comb over to the left side
"Have we flown over that fence?" Ginger folds her wings
"Not quite." Rocky glances at her reflection
"Then there's a problem." Ginger states
"Hey good things come to those who wait, doll face." Rocky straightened up and turned to face her
"How long did it take you?" Ginger rolls her eyes at her nickname
"To do what?" Rocky asked
"To fly!" Ginger said
"Apples and oranges, baby doll. I'm gifted, they're not. You can't compare the two. The point is, these things take time." Rocky explains to his mate, turning back to look at himself in the mirror
"Which we are rapidly running out of and we haven't even lifted off of the ground! Why?" Ginger pesters the American rooster
"Thrust!"
Ginger and Rocky turn around. "What?"
"I went over my calculations hen and I forgot the key element is thrust!"
Rocky gave the Scottish hen a blank stare. "I- I didn't get a word of that."
"Thrust! Other birds like ducks and geese when they take off, what do they have? Thrust!" Mac explains
"I swear she ain't using real words." Rocky said to Ginger
"She said we need more thrust." Lillian translates for her father, Mac nodding and pointed at her notepad
"Oh, thrust! Well, of course we need thrust! Thrusting and flying are like this. That's flying and that's thrust." Rocky had crossed two of his fingers as a demonstration on how flying and thrust go together
"Can you excuse us for a moment?" Ginger asked Lillian and Mac
"Aye." Mac answers
Ginger grabs Rocky by the arm and pulled him away from the two. She lets go of him once they were out of earshot from the two hens. "If we don't start seeing some progress, you'll be spending the rest of your days sleeping in Fowler's hut." She pokes her mate on his chest
"You know, you're the first chick I met with the shell still on?" Rocky smirks at her
Ginger frowns at the rooster
"Sleep tight, angel face. I'll be back in a bit." Rocky winked and clicked his tongue. He turned around and walked away, disappearing behind a hut. He went to hut thirty one and got down on his knees, looking underneath and pulling out his old backpack and opening it and reaching in, pulling out an aged poster. He sighed to himself as he stared at it, memories flooding back to him. He didn't miss his circus days but he hated lying to Ginger and the flock about flying. He could only fly from the help of a cannon, not on his own
Hope you guys are enjoying it so far