I woke up. There was just a hint of light. I called out for help and just made a strange gargling scream. Fairies that were gathered around me ran to the woods. There were baskets of fruit and baskets of bread. I’d emptied four baskets when I realized I could see, and my eyes could zoom in and look at things. Someone had made a huge gossamer mirror with a gossamer sign over it. Whoever made the sign didn’t write it in English, so I couldn’t figure out what it said.

With the mirror to help me, I figured out how to stand. Oddly, once I was on my feet, I could balance. I kept eating until I was well past full. Then I started walking, falling over, and walking. I was huge. Probably nine or twelve feet tall. I was a stocky half-bird, half-dinosaur that really did look like a brightly colored and proud rooster. No one was nearby. I practiced walking, pooped a giant and disgusting liquidy mass, then started down the slope next to a set of dangerous-looking stone steps. Craning my neck to see the best path through the trees, I saw a clearing on a hill nearby. I walked to the clearing. I needed the mirror.

I started preening feathers and realized my instincts were helping. I let myself preen and stretch my wings. I got hungry and went back to the fruit and bread at the top of the mountain. Someone had cleaned up my poop, and the baskets had been refilled. I ate my fill and went back down to the hillside to practice. I made a huge gossamer mirror and did a few short glides. I could lift to the air but couldn’t stay aloft for long. Looking up at the structure on top of the mountain, there was no way I’d be able to walk up there, but I could glide. If I landed on a tree, I was going to break limbs. Probably my own limbs although they seemed pretty sturdy.

I got brave after a few glides and got to the high end of the open area, ran, and took to the air. For a moment, I caught a lifting current of air, but then I passed out of it and made a controlled half-run, half-crash landing by the trail at the bottom of the mountain.

I was making my way back up the mountain when it started to get dark. I wanted a place to perch, but there was none nearby. I’d spent my day as a monster rooster, so I changed back into myself and continued up to the top of the hill. I was holding the bone with the rooster label and still had my backpack and clothing, so I didn’t have to worry about that. I put the bone back in my backpack, got to the top of the mountain, and sat at a bench eating bread and fruit.

It was dark so I slowed time to match with Real and summoned Mr. Hebert.

He connected. “I’m driving right now, but at the next light, you can come to me.”

I waited, then he brought me through.

“I’m a giant rooster. I strike terror when I make my bone-shivering call.”

Mr. Hebert laughed. “Really? How big?”

I said, “We’re going to need a really big measuring tape.”

#

In the barn at Mr. Hebert’s mansion, I turned into the giant rooster thing, stretched out my wings, and stood tall. I was taller than Mr. Hebert, but not by as much as I thought I would be.

Uncle Anthony walked over to the tool pegboard and took down the large tape measure. Mr. Hebert took the end and drew it out to the end of one of my wings.

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Uncle Anthony examined the measuring tape. “Thirty-one feet two inches. Phil, really stretch.”

I stretched further and Uncle Anthony said, “Hold it stable.”

He examined it a bit and looked over at Mr. Hebert. “Thirty-one feet nine inches. Mind if I try and lift you?”

I turned back into myself. “This thing doesn’t want its feathers moved the wrong way. It has instincts.”

Uncle Anthony said, “We’ll need scales. Roland, you keep up with dinosaur discoveries, what do you think it is?”

Mr. Hebert said, “Theropoda, for certain. I think coelurosauria is a safe bet, and so is maniraptoriformes. Really though, it looks like a rooster. Sad thing is that our fathers were around when these dinosaurs existed, but they couldn’t see or travel back then. Not that my dad was ever able to travel. We’ll have to look this up on the net. Can you fly in that form?”

I said, “No, but it gets really hungry. I’m going to the kitchen. Before I turn into it again, I plan to catch at least twenty of the perch we have in the long tank. The rooster’s had bread and fruit, but I think it wants meat.”

Sitting in the kitchen, Uncle Anthony said, “You’re not going to be easy to weigh. What do you think, Roland, three hundred pounds?”

Mr. Hebert said, “Seven foot two and a bit over two hundred and fifty pounds. I can hear the creak when we walk on the boards, and so he doesn’t weigh as much as we do. Can you fly?”

I said, “I felt a thermal lift me, but I didn’t manage to catch it. I can do a controlled fall.”

Uncle Anthony said, “You look airworthy, but who knows how far you had evolved.”

Mr. Hebert said, “His feet are spread out so we may have to use two bathroom scales to weigh him.”

After eating and netting up some fish, we went back out to the barn.

We spent a while trying to weigh me.

Mr. Hebert said, “Only two hundred and thirty and you just ate a good fifteen pounds of perch.”

Uncle Anthony asked, “Can you talk?”

I shook my head.

He said, “Try this: Aaa-Eeee-Iiiii-Ohhhhh-Uhhhhhh.”

I made an inarticulate bleet that shook the rafters.

Mr. Hebert shook his head. “For now, give up talking.”

Uncle Anthony said, “Just try this: Ouuuuu.”

I tried again more softly, but it still shook the rafters.

Mr. Hebert took out his cell phone. “No, sorry. We’ll try to keep it down.” He put the phone up. “Lady across the street said the noise was upsetting her animals.”

I nodded and changed back into myself. Uncle Anthony said, “It looks like it could fly. You probably just need practice.”

Mr. Hebert said, “Or practice trusting your instincts. It’s a fine line but worth practicing. So, the next thing the instructions on the bones said was for you to change into yourself.”

I nodded and realized that I didn’t have the bones. I panicked and went to Fairy.

#

In a large stone gazebo sort of building with several roads passing through the center of it, I was standing on a raised platform in the middle of a roundabout sort of intersection. There were signs I couldn’t read that probably led off to the various places I wanted to be. It was dark so shadow stepping was going to be slow and tedious. I took to the shadows and wove my way between shades and got even more lost.

Realizing that I had just taken myself to Fairy, I tried going to the building where I had first turned into the giant rooster. No luck, I didn’t go anywhere. I tried going to the throne and that didn’t work. I tried going back to Real. Nothing. I summoned Mr. Hebert and returned to Real.

Mr. Hebert was in the music room holding his lute. “You disappeared.”

“I was able to go to Fairy. Nowhere else apparently. I lost the bones I was given.”

Mr. Hebert smiled. “If the rooster bone turned you into that monster, you want to find them.”

I nodded and tried to go back to Fairy.

#

I was at the building with the roundabout again. I couldn’t read the signs, but there were seven roads leading from the center of this building.

I summoned Mr. Hebert, “Sorry, I was testing going back to Fairy and it worked. I may need to fill my backpack with snacks. Transformation and going to Fairy makes me hungry.”

Mr. Hebert said, “I want to visit the Fairyland, but first you should find the bones.”

I said, “Will do.”

I sped time.