A Predator's Rights by Anna Starobinets

Author:Anna Starobinets
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Courier Publishing
Published: 2002-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

Starling gaped at the screaming chicken. She looked exactly like all the others. The starling didn’t have a knack for remembering faces, so all the chickens in the coop looked identical to him. He did, however, have quite a knack for remembering voices—and he would’ve recognized this voice out of a million others. It was Chicken Four. The same one who ate all his nuts at the police station. The same one who’d apparently been murdered by Fox.

“Fox’s face is motionless?” repeated Starling in the chicken’s voice, but with the intonation of a question.

Actually, Starling was capable of speaking for himself, he just didn’t do it very often. Because his grandfather, Starling the Elder, once explained to him (and these words were permanently etched in his memory) that there was no better way to find something out from an animal than to repeat their words back to them. That way, the animal thinks they’re talking to themselves, and animals trust themselves wholeheartedly. So eventually the animal ends up spilling all their secrets. The main thing was to calmly and accurately repeat their key words.

“Fox’s face was absolutely motionless!” confirmed Chicken Four. “It was terrifying to see the stone face of a murderer!”

“Fox’s grimace is terrifying?” clarified Starling in the chicken’s voice.

“Yes, terrifying! More so than the first time, when Fox dragged me to the Far Woods. That time I didn’t even understand what had happened. But last night…I was sure my hour had come,” Chicken Four burst into tears. “When I looked into the murderer’s immobile eyes, I fainted!”

“My hour had come,” repeated Starling, adding a sob, just in case.

“Oh yes! Our poor, poor Chicken Five! Last night her hour had come! She was murdered by a monster! She was murdered by the crazed Fox.”

“Chicken slaughter! Chicken slaughter!” clucked the others. “Chicken murder! Chicken murder!”

“Nina Palna slaughters chickens!” said Starling. He wanted to lead the conversation toward what he needed to find out: what Nina Palna was afraid of and what she loved. “Nina Palna murders chickens!”

All the chickens suddenly fell silent. They stared at Starling, their eyes narrowed in suspicion. Starling realized his mistake—he hadn’t repeated their words exactly—but it was too late. Evidently, the chickens had never said that Nina Palna murdered chickens, only that she slaughtered chickens.

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