Drover, Head of Ranch Security

Chapter Three:Monsters

Nobody hardly ever went into the farthest borders of the machine shed---a place where the Loper and Sally May stored things they once had use for in the days before children. It was dark, musty, and the silence was spinetingling. So it was a surprise that Drover would be the only ranch resident to make this eerie place his special hide-out---where he came to escape Reality.

Since his argument with Pete, Drover had spent the rest of the afternoon laying on the old sheet-covered couch that he had deemed as his special seat. He remembered when Slim was trying to drag Hank to obedience school, Hank had made a surprise visit to Drover and had asked if he could stay back there for safety. Drover remembered not granting the request, since he had always felt rather possessive about the place and wasn't too happy of Hank being there in the first place. After all, Hank was a part of the Reality that Drover was always trying to escape from, and the older dog's presence seem to ruin the solitary mood. Hank had ended up comandeering the place and even stole Drover's special seat, which really made the little dog mad so out of revenge he purposely led Slim to where Hank was so he could go to obedience school. But after the fact, he did feel a little bad about doing so. Hank hadn't always been in his right mind, he knew, and held this certain air of grandeur about him. Drover wished HE was confident in himself like that.

He hadn't realized he had drifted off to sleep until the sound of hoot owl outside woke him up. He jerked himself awake, his mind scrambling to figure out where he was and to focus his eyes to the extreme darkness that surrounded him. Even though this place was HIS, he had to admit that at night it was pretty doggone creepy.

Drover made his way through the maze of junk that was thrown about the floor of the shed. The task was simple only to him because he had memorized the entire shed contents. If someone else were to try to come back there, they'd trip and break their nose.

He finally made it to the opening of the shed and glanced around in the dark. Normally he would make his way back to the gas tanks to his gunnysack bed, but considering that Hank had slept there just this morning, the idea of it struck him a little uncomfortable. After searching his memory for another place to sleep, he figured that where he was right now was as good a place as any to continue sleeping, so he plopped down on the concrete floor and closed his eyes.

He was almost in dreamland when he heard the sound of faint scratching getting closer and closer to him. He didn't recognize what it was at first and naturally he sat back up and scanned the outside world for something that could make that noise.

"Hello?" he asked timidly, not sure what he would get as an answer.

"Hello?" he heard back from in front of him, nearly spooking the little mutt enough to go charging back into the shed.

"Who's there?" Drover replied, hoping it wasn't a coyote or a stray dog.

"It's me, J.T."

Drover blew out a breath of relief. J.T. Cluck, the ranch's rooster, wasn't one to be out and about at night. The rooster scurried up to him and he had a look of panic in his eyes.

"Say, dog, word's been spreadin' that you're the security around here, right?"

Would people please stop asking him that?

"What's wrong, J.T.?"

"What's wrong? He asks 'what's wrong?'! Good grief, dog, what is wrong is that there is a monster in my henhouse frightening all my hens. I suggest you follow me and chase it off this instant!"

Drover gulped. "A monster? You sure?"

"Sure I'm sure. What you waitin' on, dog, let's get to it!"

Drover was scared to death. It had always been Hank's job to run off monsters...even though, most of the time the monster wasn't ever actually a 'monster', but some normal everyday thing----example being that the alleged laundry monster had simply been Eddy the Raccoon. Drover stopped shivering for a minute when he thought about that. Maybe the chickens had just gotten spooked by a mouse or something. Hopefully.

All the hens were outside, clucking nervously about the monster that was inside their home. J.T. pointed his wing towards the henhouse. "It's in there, dog, get rid of it!"

Drover stared at the henhouse for a minute before sucking in his gut and making his way towards the front entrance. He turned his head towards J.T. and asked,

"Uh, J.T., what does this monster look like?"

"Um...well...it was...huge, with a giant mouth full of razor sharp teeth and long arms to grab you with."

Oh dear, that didn't sound very normal at all. It sure wasn't gonna be Eddy the Rac this time. Drover started shaking again, pondering whether or not to go inside or not.

"What's the matter, dog? You scared?"

Yeah he was, but he couldn't let them know that. Drover took in a deep breath. "It don't matter whether I am or not. A dog's gotta do what a dog's gotta do."

"That's the spirirt, now hurry up and run that monster out so we can sleep!"

Drover was getting agitated with the little rooster but he chose to ignore it. He shut his eyes and boldly stepped inside the henhouse. He opened his eyes after counting to five and glanced around the place. All he could see was empty nests that the hens had abandoned. He sniffed the air and couldn't get anything but the usual chicken smell.

"J.T., you sure you saw a monster?"

"You callin' me a liar, dog? I saw it with my own two eyes!" the rooster clucked angrily from outside. "It might be hiding in one of the nests."

Drover figured that made sense, so he steered off to the left to look inside the first nest. Nothing but a couple of eggs in there. Phew. The next few nests had only eggs in them too. They probably all did but he knew the hens wouldn't feel safe unless he checked them all. The sooner he got done, the sooner he could go back to sleep.

He had just finished looking over the last nest on the bottom row when suddenly a figure rose from the top row and made a terrible "RRRAAARRR!!!" sound. Drover let out a yelp of surprise and stumbled backwards, ending up flat on his backside.

"GET OUT OF MY HENHOUSE!!"

Drover was absolutely petrified. The dark shadowy figure loomed over him with its arms spread out ready to snatch him up and devour him. Drover put his paws over his eyes.

"No, don't eat me, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Just then he heard a horde of laughter coming from outside. What on earth, why were they laughing? The monster was right there and...

J.T. and the others were crowded around the front door of the house laughing their fool heads off. "Oh brother, dog, I can't believe you fell for that! Ya really thought it was real!"

Drover looked confused and stared at the giant fat chicken in front of him that had been hiding on purpose. She had a big booming laugh that almost made the floorboards shake.

Embarrassed beyond imagination, Drover turned himself back onto his feet and hurdled his way out the door and back to the machine shed, the chickens laughter still ringing in his ears. Why was everybody trying to hard to see him fail? Maybe he was a joke after all.

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