Chapter 1 "The Begginning"

have you ever wondered what life would be like if humans weren’t the dominant species? in fact, if they never existed at all, and if an animal they bred for produce and food ended up taking up our place in the world, a world where not humans, but chickens ruled? well there is such a world lost deep in the reaches of space and time on a small planet known as Salanea, the planet is so small in fact that only 5 known countries exist on its surface they are known as Alman, Album, Alvis, Aloid, and the mainland is known as Alnet, we begin our story in the country called Alnet though not for long, in a small town in the north-west of Alnet lived a young chicken just about to take his first steps into the world of being an independent rooster. Thomas was a dark blue chicken who never felt like he belonged in Alnet the country that encourages social interaction above all else yet simultaneously asks people to stay in their homes on a device they call the pen, a device used to connect everyone in a kind of network.

"Okay, toothbrush, feather clipper, nail varn- wait why is that in there?" Thomas emerged up from his suitcase, a small bottle clasped in the feathers of his wing which he carelessly threw back onto the bed. "Well, that looks like everything", said Thomas as he zipped up his bag and laid back on his empty bed in his now empty room, the only thing left was a poster, one of his favourite book series "Captain Gutsy" and a postcard left on his bedside table showing a picture of an old library. Thomas sat up zipping up his light blue hoodie with red patterns looking at the postcard, picking it up and placing it in his pocket he carried his suitcase to the door, he looked back at the poster one last time before giving an over the top salute. "Dream on Captain, Dream on", he chuckled to himself as he walked through the door then down the stairs. "Goodbye house" he shouted as he left the building behind, Thomas had been living with his parents for the last nineteen years, he would give them a call when he arrived later tonight so they were fine with him leaving when they weren’t around. As the door closed Thomas took in a deep breath taking his case in wing and walking towards the bus station.

As the bus arrived it was already getting dark and Thomas looked down at his bag, pulled out his wallet taking out enough for the fare and got on the bus taking a seat near the back. The bus left and Thomas was on his way, he pulled the postcard from his pocket and looked at the other side, it was blank except for the name of the town it was from, the town of Keybreeze. Thomas closed his eyes imagining what the town was like, he had never been to keybreeze, he found the postcard on the floor one day and became entranced by the beauty of what he saw of the town, a rustic little library clearly been there for years with its design similar to victorian architecture with a more farmhouse-style exterior. The bus was going to be going for a while, it was an overnight bus traveling to the other side of the country and across the border into what seemed to Thomas like an entirely new world. luckily he had planned ahead and packed a Captain Gutsy book along with his diary, he packed his diary mainly for a book that was packaged with it, a little red book with blank lined pages. Thomas started to read his book opening out on the page he got to last, after his reading session that lasted nearly 2 hours Thomas yawned, resting his head on his luggage and nodding off to sleep.

A bump in the road jolted Thomas awake as the bus drove over the border and into Alman, the vast open fields and windmills as far as the eye could see overlooking the sunrise, the red glow over the horizon caused everything to look like it has a faint pink tint and it only made it look more beautiful to Thomas. "wow its so pretty" Thomas thought to himself as he stared wide-eyed out of the window, it was still hours before he would arrive in keybreeze but Thomas had already made preparations for his living arrangements and organised someone to help him find his way around, her name was Autumn and she was one of Thomas’s PenPals, PenMail was an application on the Pen that let people talk from all over Salanea and PenPals were the term used for the friends made through it. She should be waiting for him at the bus stop and walking him to his new home, Thomas was a little nervous, he had only ever seen pictures of Autumn and she was always quite affectionate, always ending and starting their conversations with the word hugs and always smiling, he knew it would be fine but he was still feeling nervous, Thomas opened his book again to continue reading, getting to the end of the chapter and bookmarking the page he slipped the book into his suitcase and looked back out the window, all his electronics were sent ahead of him, he only had his phone and completely forgot to get her number beforehand "you always forget something I guess" he thought as he looked at his phones screen as the bus began to slow, looking out the window Thomas could see a "Welcome to Keybreeze!" sign. the bus entered the bus station as everyone stepped off the bus, Thomas being the last as he carried his suitcase off and took a seat on the nearby bench.

Thomas took a water bottle out of his bag and took a sip of it, looking to both sides waiting for his friend when suddenly down the road he saw a pair of hens running towards him, one of them was Autumn sporting brown feathers and a mix of brunette and blonde hair, Autumn had always told Thomas about the pendant that she always wore in the shape of a green four pointed star, though what confused Thomas was the other younger hen that was with Autumn "Hey there, I’m Iris, are you Autumns friend?" said the little orange hen with purple and red hair as they arrived in front of Thomas, "Yeah I guess I am, the names Thomas" he replied as Autumn chimed in "Let’s get home, we can give Thomas a tour later but for now, I think we should relax" before hugging Thomas and starting to walk into town, motioning for Thomas to follow.

The walk to Autumn’s house wasn’t long but it was enough to learn that Iris was the little sister Autumn always told Thomas about and that while his house is being finished Thomas would be staying on Autumn’s couch "So I’ll be living across the road from you two right?" asked Thomas as he smiled to the hens walking to his side, "yep, and here we are at my place" replied Autumn as she opened the door and walked in, Iris and Thomas following behind and closing the door. Thomas and Iris both sat on the couch as Autumn went to get drinks for them all returning with 3 glasses of water. "So, how was your journey?" asked autumn as she handed Thomas his drink "long and bumpy, I slept for most of it luckily a bump in the road woke me up as I was crossing the border, read a bit of a book so pretty boring" replied Thomas lifting his glass for a sip "though I was wondering, you never told me what exactly you do in this town, how do you afford this place?" to which Autumn stroked under her beak and answered "I’m a therapist, I help people when they need it most but enough about me, tell me what you have been up to since your last message?" Thomas looked up remembering his past week and said "oh just this and that really, I’ve been catching up on reading, my favourite author Eggbert Cluck released a new book in his Captain Gusty series that I just had to check out" Thomas pulled out a book from his bag named "Captain Gusty and the attack of the Bird Magician" and continued "it’s a really fun action series with a lot of comedy and outrageous storylines" Autumn rolled her eyes, turned to iris and said "Don’t mind him, he always gets over-excited about his superhero stories" Iris looked back smiling "I understand, it’s his favourite thing I feel the same way about drawing".

Thomas yawned and rubbed his eyes "wow I didn’t think I was this tired" he said with a slight chuckle "well you did just travel for a whole day on a bus, Iris I think we should let Thomas have some rest, we can give him a tour tomorrow" said autumn as she grabbed a blanket from a cupboard and handed it to Thomas then took Iris’s hand and led her upstairs to their rooms.

The light shined in from a crack in the window as Thomas awoke, it was still early but he didn’t mind, what came next though shocked him as Autumn and Iris had already awoken and were sitting on the other couch drinking a morning cup of tea.

"finally awake huh sleepyhead?" said Iris noticing Thomas sit up "you have been asleep for 9 hours, it’s 7-o’clock already!".

Thomas looked at the clock and stood up, folding his blanket up and resting it on the sofa and said "well once I’m ready we can go have that tour" as he messed up Iris’s hair "you mean after lunch right?" said Iris giving Thomas a light hit on the wing, "yeah sure after lunch" replied Thomas .

Thomas, Iris, and Autumn all left the house and started walking around town looking at the sights. "That’s the Library, and that’s the tailors, we have lots of shops in this area, there’s a shop for everything" explained Autumn as she pointed out the different shops "oh and the bar should be just down the road, a guy called Nick owns it just in case you wanna check it out, let him know I sent you." to which Iris perked up with "yeah, he lets me hang out in there sometimes". "He sounds like a cool guy, what’s the name of the bar?" asked Thomas and Iris Replied with "The Foresoon Dragoon, your neighbour Max normally hangs out there, so you could maybe you could go say hi while Autumn and I go take your stuff to your place."

Thomas and the two hens went their separate ways and Thomas started to head towards The Foresoon Dragoon, opening the door he walked over and took a seat at the bar, the rooster behind the bar had black feathers with a few bald patches that looked like they came from the strain of being a bar owner, the barman turned round wiping a mug and said "Hey there, welcome to the foresoon dragoon, or as I like to call it Limbo, the name’s Nick what’ll ya have?" where Thomas replied " hey nick, Autumn sent me over here, I’ll just have a glass of water for now, I’ll come down later on for something else", Nick filled a glass with water dropped in some ice and placed it on the counter. "if autumn sent you that must mean you are Thomas, the new guy in town, nice to meet you, when you come by later the first drink’s on me." said Nick, Thomas picked up his water and took a few gulps and asked, "you seen Max around here? my place is next door to his so I’d like to get to know him" and Nick replied " he comes in here later, it gets quite busy at the 13th hour, Iris, Max, Jay, Charles and even more all come round here around 5pm so that’s the best chance you have of meeting the townsfowlk."

Thomas finished his drink and decided to have a walk around town on his own so he knew where everything was.

as he left the bar he walked out onto Trife street, looking down the road he saw the tailors and library that he passed with autumn and iris, turning to look up the road he saw a large theater on the bend in the road turning onto another part of Trife Street but just before that was the road he lived on, luchie road just opposite a small school, there was a path before the school that seemed to lead into a park called Lockwind Park as a play on words of the town’s name, Thomas walked past the school and turned the corner, there was a parked bus on one side of the street parked right outside of a restaurant, and next to that was a bakery, "seems like this side of the road was mainly food" Thomas thought to himself as he continued walking past building after building around the long curved street.

Something caught Thomas’ eye, a candy shop called the sweet treat thinking that he could get a gift for Autumn and Iris later, continuing around the street he saw general stores, art galleries, furniture shops, record stores and even book shops, and another entrance to the park, walking into the park Thomas saw a large field, with a small lake to one side, an ice cream bar in the middle and play area on the far end there were a few mixed hens and roosters in the park, like one hen with orange feathers and blue hair, and a rooster with red feathers wearing a top hat, everyone looked so unique, and smiling, when Thomas got to the ice cream bar he saw there was a leaflet stand with a map of the town on it, he picked up one of the leaflets, opened it out and had a look at the town, glancing over the map he started looking at all the places to visit in town and he was surprised to see so many different places in town, he was completely shocked to see the town had a train station finding out just how big the town was. Thomas put the leaflet into his pocket, he turned round and left the park.

As Thomas left the park he walked up to a guy with hair coloured like fire and red feathers wearing a jacket "hey, I just moved here it’s nice to meet you I’m Thomas" said Thomas extending his wing, the other chicken took his wing and they shook wings, "the names Will, I work at the bakery, but I mostly like making the sweet stuff pop in one time and I’ll get you a bag of doughnuts, I make the best ones in town if you get a chance check out the art gallery, a lot of the fowlks here have art in there" they released each others wings and both went in different directions, "see ya round will" said Thomas as Will replied "I’ll be at Limbo tonight if you are up for a drink see ya"

Thomas started walking back to the candy shop, entered the building and saw Two hens, one that looked Iris’s age sorting out the shelves and the other more aged hen behind the counter, the older hen spoke up "welcome to the sweet treat, I’m Lorenza and this is my helper Shelbie" the younger hen turned round with a smile, said a quick "hi" and turned back to working when Thomas asked Lorenza "I’m Thomas, I just moved here and I was wondering if you could help me choose out a gift for Iris and Autumn, they have been a big help to me over the past day" and Lorenza answered with, Iris loves these, and Autumn likes these most, so a bag of each should add to 10 silver eggs for it all", Thomas passed over the coins and took the bags of candy, saying "thank you" as he walked out of the shop and turned back towards his new house.

As Thomas arrived at his house he saw Autumn and Iris standing outside talking to each other Autumn with a wing to her chin "I’m sure Thomas would love to have you visit sometimes but you have to ask him first" she said as she spotted Thomas out of the corner of her eye "Took you long enough, what happened? did you have to chase after someone who took your wallet?", Thomas replied holding up the bags of candy he bought at the store handing them to Autumn and Iris, "you two have been so good to me over the past few days I thought you deserved a treat". The three of them entered Thomas’s new home and Thomas had a good look around before Autumn chimed in with "Hey, it’s 2pm, maybe we should have a late lunch, I’m kinda hungry." as she walked towards the kitchen, the fridge was fully stocked so they picked out a few items and got set to work making a meal of potatoes, bacon, and a red sauce, it took them about an hour to make the meal and another to eat it but that didn’t make the time any less fun and the meal any less delicious, "boy I’m stuffed" said Thomas as he patted his stomach, "yeah that was great we should do this more often" said Iris, they all picked up their plates and washed them up then all that was left to do was wait til 5pm for everyone to meet up at The Forsoon Dragoon for drinks and such.

during the hour wait Thomas, Autumn and Iris all sat listening to a playlist of songs by the popular bands The Hatchling and Hard Boiled Eggy Soldiers, these were some of Thomas’s favourite artists and he had all of their albums amongst his luggage, this playlist was a CD of all the songs from the band that he liked the most, " I like this song but I prefer Cant Stop off of HBES’s second album, the beat just works better, I hope they play it at Limbo later" explained Thomas, "you’re going limbo later? what for?" asked Autumn, to which Thomas replied, "well Nick told me that Max wouldn’t be there til 5 so I’m gonna head down there in a bit to check out the place when it’s a bit more lively, did you wanna come with me?" "hmmm I dunno I have to keep watch on Iris, but I suppose we could both go with you if you think it will be fun, we’ll meet you there though if we are going out we have to get ready" said Autumn as she took her bags and left the house, it was about 4:30 so Thomas opened his Captain Gutsy book to where he left off last and decided to read another chapter of the action-packed novel.

Thomas arrived at Limbo to hear loud music and see lights shining through the windows, he pushed open the doors to hear everyone in town shouting in unison "SURPRISE! WELCOME TO KEYBREEZE!" the shock nearly caught Thomas and threw him off balance but he caught himself and just smiled walking into the party they had set up for him, Thomas walked over to Nick " welcome to the party feather head, first drink’s on the house!" said Nick as he handed Thomas a glass of The White Bit, a clear sweet drink that turns white as you start drinking it, and a glass of The Yolk, a less sweet opaque drink that was coloured a blend of orange and yellow, this drink had an edible layer of the drink that looked like a skin, Thomas looked at Nick confused, "that’s two drinks, you said my first one was free" to which Nick let out a guttural chuckle and replied "you mix the two together, it’s called innards since The Yolk forms a sphere inside The White Bit when you pour one into the other" Thomas looked at this strange drink and poured one cup into the other amazed to see Nick was right, lifting this new concoction Thomas drank it all in one big gulp and let out a satisfied sigh.

Looking around the room Thomas could see a lot of faces that he hadn’t met before, there was one brown rooster wearing all leather with spiky blonde hair, a red one wearing all black with a wing-band with overlapping red, white and blue crosses on, and a hen who was covered in tartan attire, but those were just the ones that stood out to him, he assumed the leather-clad one must be Max his neighbour so he walked towards him first, "hey are you, Max,?" Thomas asked tapping the rooster on the shoulder, "why yes I am, I hear you are moving next door to me pop round one time, my band practices at my place and we could always use an audience" Answered Max in a thick accent to which Thomas responded with "sure, that sounds cool anyone you recommend me talking to next?" "Well Charles over there is always a blast to talk too, and he can introduce you to more people by the time you’re here so don’t worry about getting to know everyone tonight, just have fun." Said Max as he pointed towards the rooster in black, Thomas thanked Max and turned round.

The party continued for another 3 hours into the late night, as everyone was leaving Thomas spotted Will leaving as well, "Hey will!" He exclaimed, "you heading that way too? I live next to Max", and Will replied "oh? Well, I must live on the other side of yours then, your house is between mine and Max’s place" and Thomas responded with "that’s awesome." The two roosters conversed for a while before arriving at their houses, they bid each other farewell and entered their homes, Thomas instantly collapsed on his bed when he got up to his room and fell asleep.