Warriors With Chickens: Book One: Into The Forest

Chapter 4

"Wow, nice name." Longquill clucked. "But I guess I need to show you the rest of the camp."
The thin grey cockerel had the newly named Sunquill to a large section of the camp. It was decently enclosed by vines and had only high placed roosts for older chickens to roost on.
"Welcome to the warriors den." Longquill peeped.
"Wow, this place is huge." Sunquill replied, marveling at the section.
"Well of course, they have to have room for huge cocks like Longspurs and Tallcomb." Longquill joked.
"Well, maybe you would be in here to if you spent more time with your apprentice duties, instead of clucking about senior warriors." A black rooster clucked, stepping out of the den. "And hello Sunquill, I'm Tallcomb, one of the huge cocks Longquill mentioned." The black cock clucked.
"Oh, umm, sorry Tallcomb, I didn't realize you were there." Longquill peeped, bowing his head.
"That's no excuse to talk about senior warriors like that." Tallcomb clucked sternly.
"Okay, lets go to the medicine den." Longquill peeped, still shaken from being criticized by a senior warrior. "That's where we will need to go if we ever get injured."
As the two cockerels made their way to the medicine den they saw an orange rooster approach them.
"Oh hello Sunquill. Pleasure to meet you." The cockerel clucked. "I'm Longplume." He finished. His name was rightfully earned, as his tail plumes were quite unnaturally long.
"Hello." Sunquill clucked awkwardly before walking away.
"Smooth Sunquill, smooth." Longquill clucked jokingly.
"I'm sorry, I just don't know how to talk to such important birds, look at me, I literally just became a member of the Flock."
The two finally entered the medicine den and saw two white roosters. One was clearly full grown, and the other was a cockerel the two's age. This young white bird was somewhat unusual for his feathered feet, with fuzz and feathers going from his legs to his outside and middle toes.
"Hi Snowquill." Longquill clucked to the white cockerel.
"Hi Longquill." Snowquill replied. "Who's the brown one?" The white bird inquired to Longquill.
"This is Sunquill, he just joined the Flock." Longquill peeped.
"Wait, so he's a pettyhen?" Snowquill replied.
"I was a farm chicken, now I'm an apprentice." Sunquill clucked, somewhat annoyed at the term pettyhen by now.
"Well, welcome to the Flock, I didn't mean to be rude." Snowquill peeped.
"Well, good to see our conflicts are resolved, I'm Icebreeze, the Flocks medicine bird." The pure white rooster clucked. "And as for Snowquill, if you don't hold still, I won't be able to dress your wrenched toenail, and it will get infected."
"Good day Icebreeze, it is nice to meet you." Sunquill clucked, lowering his head slightly, trying to be as polite as he could muster.
After he said this Longquill ushered Sunquill out of the den.
"Now I suppose you should see the nursery, we will most likely end up cleaning the place quite often once Flowerpetal's eggs hatch" Longquill peeped as the two cockerels approached an inclosed den. As soon as the two entered a warm comforting air stream hit them. After the two looked around Sunquill saw a pretty brown hen with white feathers around her neck.
"Hello Longquill, and I suppose you are the new apprentice. Hello to you. I'm Flowerpetal." The brown hen clucked. Every time the hen shuffled, a rolling clinking sound could be heard. Clearly this hen was sitting on eggs. "And could one of you fetch me something from the fresh kill pile?"
"Sure Flowerpetal." Sunquill peeped before Longquill could say anything. He walked out of the den and approached what appeared to be a pile of dead animals. Longquill soon approached him.
"Why is this full of dead things?" Sunquill inquired. "Don't you all eat grass, and seeds and things?" He finished.
"Well of course, but you can find them everywhere, and you need lots of food when you are defending a flock as powerful as this."
Sunquill picked up a dead mouse and headed back to the den.
"Here you go Flowerpetal." Sunquill peeped, laying the dead mouse at her chest.
"Thank you Sunquill." Flowerpetal clucked before pecking at her mouse.
"You're welcome Flowerpetal." Sunquill peeped as he left the nursery.
"So now we have generally seen most of the camp. Oh mousedung! I forgot to tell you, tomorrow Longspurs is taking us on a tour of the territory tomorrow, so we ought to get some rest." Longquill clucked excitedly.
Sunquill began lower himself into a mossy nest of ferns and twigs, right next to Longquill. The moonlight filtered through the leaves above his head. As comfortable as this nest was, sleep did not come easily. This was his first night in a whole new world. No matter what the rest of his life had in store, it would happen here, all because of the decision he made to stay.
Meanwhile a dark shape stood at the entrance to the apprentices den. Two oversized spurs glinted in the moonlight. Two red eyes narrowed as they glared at one golden and brown apprentice.