But at that exact moment, one of the chickens in the village council screeched at the top of his lungs, “THERE’S A HAWK HEADING TOWARDS THE VILLAGE!” Every chicken erupted into panic, and the piercing aerial predator alarm call rang throughout the village, warning everyone to head to shelter. But several chickens around the village wouldn’t even budge. They were just too sluggish. “Get the greens, Loretta!” Courage yelled, tossing her an empty sack lying near the fields. “Run to the forest and get those greens!” “But I won’t be fast enough!” Loretta cried. “You should do it, Courage!” “I know how fast you can run, Loretta!” Courage crowed loudly. “I’ll try to get some of the tired chickens to safety for now. GO! Go, quickly!” Loretta nodded and streaked through the dense forest; ducking stray branches hanging close to the ground. She looked around wildly until she spotted a patch of leafy green vegetables emitting a sweet aroma like nectar. Nectar greens. She instantly grabbed as many vegetables as she could with her beak and dropped them into the sack. As soon as she did this, without wasting a moment to think, she tore back to the village as fast as she could. “I’VE GOT THE CURE!” yelled Loretta. “EAT THESE NECTAR GREENS, EVERYONE!” She tossed the frilly leafed vegetables towards all the chickens lacking in energy. As soon as they took one nibble, the chickens instantly snapped out of their sluggish states and scrambled to safety. Nearly a second after all the chickens were safely hidden from sight, a large hawk soared across the sky, casting a dark shadow over the ground. But instead of passing over the village, the hawk dived. “He’s heading for the village!” cried Courage’s friend, Pepper. “He must have seen us!” “That hawk may try to breach through the shelter!” A rooster crowed in panic. Courage paused for a moment to think. He then bolted out of the shelter area. “Courage! What are you doing?” shouted Loretta. “I have a plan!” Courage called back, and he crowed as loudly as possible to attract the hawk's attention. The hawk, who was about to land on the ground, caught sight of Courage. He flapped his powerful wings and started flying towards Courage instead. But the fast rooster had already begun pounding down towards the berry fields. With the hawk in hot pursuit, Courage quickly dashed under the cover of the berry plants. Several moments later; much to all of the chickens’ relief, the sickened hawk flew away with nothing but a mouthful of berries. I am a student currently taking courses at Coastline College. I like reading fantasy books and writing fiction stories, and I recently developed an interest in writing non-fiction stories. Some other things that I like to do are watching the mourning doves and other birds that visit my garden, drawing and painting, making bookmarks, doing arts and crafts, going for walks in parks, hiking, listening to music, and playing the piano in my free time. I am interested in majoring in web design and an environmentally-related field, as I really enjoy designing web pages and learning about the environment. Pratikshaya Ananthakrishnan
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