Chicken Rider

The day was hot, this battle was dragging on longer than intended, and General Fenn was about to kill his Supreme Commander.

“Matika?”

“Yes, General?” The tiny voice from his comm responded,

“Have you seen or heard from our wonderful Supreme Commander yet?” There was a pause, the General took the opportunity to scan the surrounding area. Stupid, foreign planets and their stupid populace, with this stupid, long, unnecessarily drawn out battle. The General swatted angrily at a bug that flew too close to his face. Supreme Commander Stone better have some good excuse for this, something better than ‘I foresaw that this planet would be necessary’. Stupid fortune-telling weirdo, not that the General believed in any of that nonsense.

“General.” the tiny voice chirped from his shoulder. Fenn pressed the button on his comm,

“Yes, Matika?”

“It appears that the Supreme Commander’s tracker has come back online. He appears to be headed your way.” Perfect.

“Thank You, Matika.”

“For the Order, General.” He sighed, feeling much older than his twenty-seven years.

“For the Order.” The General stood from where he’d been crouched behind a low rock. His men were restless, shifting, all wanting to ask questions but were too scared of their General’s violent temper.

“Ready yourselves!” Fenn barked “The Supreme Commander comes!” His men quickly shuffled back into formation. General Fenn could hear the pounding of feet, it appeared that the Supreme Commander had acquired himself some form of army.

“General!” Came the happy voice of Supreme Commander Stone, though the General had yet to turn around he could recognize that voice anywhere. After all that too young voice had been the bane of his very existence for the past two years. Fenn fixed a false smile on his face and turned,

“Supreme Comm-” and then froze.

Supreme Commander Helios Stone was riding a giant chicken. General Fenn simply blinked stupidly for a moment.

“General! I apologize for my absence. I thought it would be appropriate to acquire us some form of steed.”

They were doomed. If this was truly the most powerful man in their military, the Order was truly, and thoroughly doomed.

“You thought it would be appropriate to acquire these as steeds?” Who let this pathetic child off his leash? Who in all of the thirteen galaxies thought that it would be a good idea to allow this child to rule an empire? Why was this his life?

“Well yes, they are quite fast as far as I can tell, though they don’t seem quite...intelligent.”

Fenn rubbed as his eyes and cursed his luck.

“Much like you then?” He mumbled angrily as he stomped over to the chicken-riding maniac.

“What was that?” Fenn quickly shook his head he held out his hand to the second, riderless chicken.

“Nothing Supreme Commander, I was simply complaining of the heat.” Fenn doubted that Stone had bought it. The man might only be nineteen years but he could be rather sharp, the chicken pecked the General’s shoulder sharply. However suggesting that they were about to ride chickens into battle, it would appear that the Supreme Commander had no useful intelligence in that brain of his. Where did he get these things anyway?

“Come General, we have a battle to win and a planet to conquer!” The buffoon urged his steed forward and away. Curse it all, the General thought as he quickly clambered upon his ‘steed’.

Apparently letting a mad soothsayer ride into battle on a chicken was a good way to scare the enemy, at least long enough for the General to regather his men and stage a proper attack. Though naturally the Supreme Commander took, and was given, all of the credit. General Fenn had retreated to his temporary quarters to fill out reports and answer pressing matters that the Supreme Commander had simply not found pressing enough to answer on his own. He was just about to stop for the night when he heard a timid knock on his door.

“Enter.”

In shuffled a nervous looking Supreme Commander Helios Stone. “Good eve General.”

“Is it? I didn’t notice.” The Supreme Commander looked absolutely dejected, served the brat right anyhow.

“Jem, love, don’t be that way. I wanted to come and thank you and you decide to throw it back in my face, it’s rude really.”

Jemini Fenn heaved a sigh and sat up straighter, “What did you want to thank me for?”

Helios took a tentative step closer.

“For, you know, back there when I was finally able to join the battle. You could have, should have, berated me in front of everybody, you didn’t. You actually chose to keep my reputation intact by choosing to ride a giant avian as well...so thank you.” During the conversation Helios had somehow managed to creep even closer than he was before.

“You are an insufferable child.”

Helios smiled, as Fenn scrubbed a hand over his eyes. “Does that mean I can stay?”

Another long suffering sigh from Fenn, “Yes, you can stay.”