Storytelling Week 1: The Poultry Kingdom

Storytelling Week 1: The Poultry Kingdom

"LADY bird, lady bird, fly away home;
Thy house is on fire, thy children all gone—
All but one, and her name is Ann,
And she crept under the pudding-pan." -

The Nursery Rhyme Book

     A long long time ago before humans ever roamed the earth, chickens ruled the land in present day Spain. They built a vast empire from the ground up and were able to control other birds within their kingdom. 

Queen Lady Bird 

     The ruler of the Poultry Kingdom, Queen Lady Bird, was a ruthless leader that would do anything to grow her empire. The only thing she cared more for than her kingdom was her four very cute chicks: Bucky, Clucky, Ducky, and Ann. 

     Ann was very special to Queen Lady Bird. She would be next in line to the throne. Everyday she would groom Ann and tell her how wonderful she was. 

Ann

     "Ann, you will be the ruler of this fine poultry kingdom someday," the queen would tell her daughter, "you must be prepared to make tough decisions to stay in power."

     Ann would sit and listen to her mother speak about how important she was and how she must learn to be a ruthless leader, but the more she listened to her mother, the more she realized she did not want to be anything like her. She thought that there had to be a way to be a great leader without being so ruthless.

     One crisp fall morning, Ann was woken by the Queen frantically.

     "Ann wake up. The Reptile Kingdom has invaded from the East. I must travel with the troops to stop them from reaching the heart of the kingdom," the queen shrilled. "This is your test sweetie. You must take charge here in the main village while I tend to the soldiers. Can you handle this?" the queen asked.

     "Ye.. Ye.... Yes," Ann stuttered. 

     "Good! Now get dressed and be ready to address the subjects in thirty minutes. You must tell them to be prepared to fight. They must all be willing to sacrifice themselves to save the kingdom." the queen said.

     When Ann addressed the frightened subjects of the kingdom, she couldn't tell them to sacrifice themselves for the kingdom. She knew her mother would be angry but didn't think it would matter since the soldiers would stop the invas....

     "PPPPPSSSSHHHTTTTT BBBOOOOOMMMMMM."

     In the instant she had thought everything was okay, flaming rocks rained from the skies. The loyal subjects of the poultry kingdom fled the castle courtyard for cover.

     "The reptiles have infiltrated the last line of defense! Be ready to fight!" a grungy guard shouted at Ann.

     Ann could feel the blood rush out of her head. She had just told everyone that they were safe instead of preparing them to fight. 

     In the next few seconds she realized everyone had fled to the woods to take shelter, even the castle guards. She was alone surrounded by a burning kingdom crumpling all around her. 

     Word got back to the Queen about the incident in the next few hours. She ran as fast as she could to find her beloved Ann. When she arrived to her castle she could hardly recognize anything. The colorful blue and red bricks of the castle were now only dust and the beautiful fountains ran brown with muddy water. She started searching for Ann franticly. 

     "Mmm... mot.. MOTHER," Ann barely got out. "Mom. MOM!" she yelled this time.

     "Ann where are you?" her mother screamed.

     "MOM!" Ann yelled.

      Ann had taken shelter under a big kitchen pot and somehow survived a flaming rock landing on it. The queen grabbed her daughter and ran for the hills. 

     That was the day the poultry kingdom fell and never regained power in the world. 

      

Author's Note: My story was loosely based on the children's nursery rhyme "Lady Bird Lady Bird Fly Away Home". You can find it in "The Nursery Rhyme Book" as seen at the top of the post. In the original nursery rhyme, a birds how caught on fire. All of her children had left except for Ann. She hid under a pudding pan. I used to love writing fiction stories as a kid, but since starting my journalism major I haven't written anything other than news in a long time. My crazy creative side came out while writing this and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of writing it. I kept the two characters from the original but everything else was thrown out the window. It was really fun incorporating dialogue throughout the story too. I love taking simple short stories or rhymes and then expanding on it to create an elaborate tale. I chose those images because I wanted to show that Ann didn't look like her mom at all, and she didn't act like her either. I was told after the fact that I chose a rooster instead of a chicken for the Queen. 

Bibliography:

Book: The Nursery Rhyme Book

Author: Unknown 

Editor: Andrew Lang 

Illustrator: L. Leslie Brooke

Year: 1897

Digital Release: August 6th, 2008

Web Source: The Nursery Rhyme Book