Looking Fowl: Eye of Weakness

There was a chicken with a Looking Eye, the Eye of Weakness. Once ones eyes met them they could never look away and all strength in their body would simply drain away. They were at the mercy of the fowl or any passer-by who might avert the bird's eyes.


A guard passing through the woods can find many things, as this one did today. A hen was roosting int he middle of the path. Normally he'd pay it no mind. Step around it or kick it aside, but today the man lowered himself down to move the bird out of the way. He was truly a generous sort on this occasion.


Unfortunately for him this bird was not sitting there randomly. The guard had fallen into a thief's foul trap. As he grasped the bird it's eyes opened and the guard collapsed, his eyes locked on the bird. Mere moments later a man took the bird from his feeble grip. Soon this man would have all of the guards things, and the guard would draw his last breath.

But, a small mercy saved the guard. The bird turned it's head and met the eyes of the thief. As the hen looked away from the guard his strength flooded back, and the thief quickly collapsed. The guard's boot brought an early end to the thief's career, crushing his hand. Uncertainly he lifted the bird under one arm, and took the thief in the other.

On that day the bird was a hero who had helped with catching the thief.

Looking Fowl: The Eye of Recovery

I haven't touched any of my projects since the 15th of May, and that doesn't seem right, so let me fix that.

There was a chicken with a Looking Eye, the Eye of Recovery. In his eye you would see the path toward your recovery. No matter what ailed you looking at the eye would give you a sure way to save yourself, though you may not like what it asked of you.

The only doctor in the town kept him in a small pen. He wasn't alone. In fact he was quite well treated. But more importantly noone in town ever saw the chicken except for the doctor.

A frail man with a shattered rib entered the doctor's office. The doctor dismissed him to bed rest and said he would do some tests. As the frail man left the doctor cracked his own rib. He was constantly injured, but he always recovered so people had ceased to question it.

He stumbled  back to the stall and grabbed the chicken by the neck, staring into it's eyes. And with that the doctor saw how to repair his own rib. With concentration and care he fixed his own rib, and recovered enough in short order before calling the frail man back.

The doctor recreated the procedure he had preformed on himself for the first time less than a day ago. If the patient died noone would question it. After all even a doctor couldn't always save you. They would know he tried his best.

Looking Fowl: Eye of the Blind

There was a chicken with a Looking Eye, the Eye of The Blind. Colloquially it was known as the Dark Sight to many. To see in the dark was a strange thing. To those using it it was as if everything was glowing green. At least everything the chicken looked at did. When you met its eyes you saw through them, and you saw the light. Useful in the mines, though most people just stuck with nice sensible light sources, like a lantern.

Most of those who used The Eye of the Blind were like the man who had this bird by the neck. He had been in the market during the day, and he knew where the merchant kept this one. And now he was about to succeed in his goal. Well, it wasn't his real goal. Stealing the bird was just helpful. Sure, it took a hand to hold the bird, but compared to a flame it was practically invisible. Well, assuming it didn't make a bunch of noise.

The thief lifted the bird from the cage. It was surprisingly calm. Probably the thing had been trained like that. It was freaking out a bit though. The thief dropped the bird into his hand. He hadn't really thought it through. Maybe if he had some sort of cage... Holding the bird was awkward.

Looking around he didn't see anything he wanted to store the bird in. He looked at it again. Seeing like this was disorienting. He had to work out how to do this. It was damn near impossible to work accurately. He was seeing second-hand.

The next night he stole again, and no one saw any lights. No one saw him. The door was open in the morning, and the gold was missing from the vault. Even those who knew the thief didn't see him the next day. He was as gone as he could be. Certainly nowhere near that town.

The thief lived like a king and the chicken sat in a gilded cage. Well, you couldn't really say it was gilded. It was solid gold, not just some cheap plating. That actually made it rather weak as a cage, but the chicken didn't seem to mind so long as the thief kept it well fed.

Looking Fowl: Eye of Time

Eye of Time

Well, it's time for me to start a project, like I said I would. This one will be a series of Vignettes set in a shared universe and possibly a short story or two if any of these characters catch my eye. Anyways , the first few will serve mainly to establish the world, but I don't really want to do a  big chunk of exposition so I'll just sprinkle out the settling as part of the story as I go. The important part is magic chickens.

There was a chicken with a Looking Eye, the Eye of Time. The future is seen in the eye. The past is hidden behind that. And a rather creepy looking man stood between young Stanley and it.

Why some fowl held gained such qualities was anyone's guess. The breeders would tell you all about the carefully maintained bloodlines but who knew how much of that was true. A Looking Eye was a strange thing and not many knew how they worked. They made a creature different though, and somewhat scary. And absurdly valuable

Still, regardless of the amount that was true Stanley needed access to one of these birds. He couldn't remember anything. He had to see what had happened to him in the past. Stanley knew only one thing for certain. In his pocket he had an absurd amount of cash. He didn't want to but he accepted the creepy salesman's price.

He took the bird in his hand and lifted it up. Their Eyes met. His human eyes stared into the Eye of Time.

Stanley saw it all. His orgin. It was clear to him and he regretted knowing it. His lips closed tight together and he dropped the bird he had purchased to the ground. He had seem the bird's past and future. But he only saw it for a moment before it gave him what he wanted. The bird stared at him. Stanley didn't know why but he had an eerie feeling that it knew everything about him.

He supposed there was a reason that they treated the fowl that possessed such things as valued things, rather than livestock. Stanley crouched down and tucked the bird under his arm. It glanced at him again. This would be enough for now. He looked at the salesman then turned and left, without a thought. He didn't want to look at that man any longer.