Ezra calmly looked over at Liam as if that kind of thing happened all the time.

"Jep!" Ezra said to the chicken. "We've talked about this. You cannot eat people's noses while they are attached to their face."

Jep looked a little embarrassed but still did not release the firm hold his beak had on Liam's nose. He squawked a reply to Ezra while he continued to clamp down.

Liam had never seen a chicken look embarrassed before. He had also never seen a chicken bite someone's nose, let alone get nearly the entire nose between its beak. As uncomfortable as Liam was, he was somewhat impressed.

"Let him go, Jep!" Ezra sounded like he meant business and the chicken tried to release but seemed to have some trouble detaching.

Liam noticed the chicken was acting funny. It started to make a few odd noises. At first, he didn't know what was happening, but then he figured it out.

"The chicken's about to puke!" Liam hissed! "Get him off me now!"

Ezra didn't seem to pick up on the urgency of the situation. Although it had never occurred to him to worry about such a thing, Liam was sure he did not want to experience a chicken barf up his nose. Ezra slowly started into action. He reached for Jep to try to get him off Liam before it was too late.

"Hurry before I..." Liam wasn't sure what he would do, but he knew he needed the chicken off his nose immediately!

Ezra, unfortunately, seemed quite curious about what Liam might do. "You know, I'm willing to hurry, but you need to finish that sentence! Leaving a sentence half-finished is like..." Liam waited and then got the picture.

"Hurry before I get chicken puke up my nose!"

"Ahh, that makes sense. Why didn't you just say that?" Ezra reached over and detached the gagging chicken from Liam's face.

Liam looked down at the chicken. He was about the size of a normal rooster. "Why was he doing that?" Liam was sure the chicken smiled at him.

"Why was he doing that?" Ezra asked. "Wouldn't you start to gag if you had someone's nose in your mouth?"

"No, I mean why did he bite my nose?"

"No time for that now. We have to move." Ezra appeared ready to take charge. "It seems to me that if we can make it across the market without being spotted by one of the guards, we should be okay. I think if we charge right through the market screaming as loud as we can that everyone should look the other way, we'll get through without being seen."

Liam wasn't one to criticize a plan right away. He always liked to encourage other people and build them up for their ideas. He liked to emphasize the strengths of a suggestion and downplay the weaknesses. But this time there didn't seem to be any way to be gentle.

"That plan stinks, Ezra."

Ezra looked over at Liam with a look of confusion on his face. "You see some flaws in my plan?"

Liam decided to take another approach. "What if we kind of hide our faces and try to sneak across the market quietly. Maybe we will go unnoticed."

"What's your name?" Ezra asked.

"Liam."

"Okay, Liam. Think this through. If we try to act like we don't want to be seen, don't you think we're just going to draw attention to ourselves? YOUR plan stinks! I think someone who just recently couldn't pull a chicken from his nose shouldn't be so critical of another person's plans. When we stand up and scream, "Look the other way," everyone is going to look the other way! It's the perfect plan. Don't you know anything about people?"

With that, Ezra stood up in the market and screamed, "Don't look at me! Look the other way!"

To Liam's amazement, everyone looked away. Some even covered their eyes. There were even guards in the middle of the marketplace, and they put their hands over their eyes or held shields up so they couldn't see.

Liam watched Ezra run. He screamed his way right through the market and into a doorway on the other side. These people were nuts! Wherever he was, it was an absolutely bizarre place. There was only one thing to do. Copy Ezra.

As Liam was about to stand up and scream for people to look the other way, Jep took advantage of the distraction and latched on again. There was no time to waste. The plan was in motion, and Liam refused to be stopped.

"Everyone look away; I have a chicken on my nose!" Everyone's faces went red in embarrassment and turned away. He screamed again, "Look away, chicken-boy coming through!" As he ran, he could hear people saying, "Poor young man. How will he survive with a chicken on his nose?"

Liam zigzagged through the non-lookers and found his way to the same door Ezra had charged through. By that time his nose hurt a lot, but he decided to wait until he saw Ezra again to get his help in dealing with the nose-biter.

As he closed the door behind him, he could hear the crowds get back to buying and selling as though nothing at all out of the ordinary had happened. He looked around and took in the sights and sounds and smells of the new place.

The room was dark and small. The entire house (aside from a bathroom) seemed to be in that one room. There were two bunk beds built into the one wall to his right, one a total disaster as if it had just been used and another neat and tidy. Next to the bunks on the back wall was what appeared to be a small kitchen area with a stove that could clearly heat the place as well as cook food. Up against the left wall was a small table with three chairs set next to it.

In one of the chairs sat Ezra; in another sat a most disagreeable-looking creature. She had curly, matted hair which stuck out in every direction. Liam couldn't see her eyes through the thick mess of tangled eyebrows. The hands were more claw than anything with sharp nails and hooked fingers. As the creature sized up Liam, it began to let out a terrifying cackle.

Liam stood there with the chicken still attached to his very sore nose. He was pretty sure Ezra had just led him to his death.

I hope you are enjoying the first part of Arestana: The Key Quest. Keep reading to find out what happens next! If you want to get a hold of this entire story, you can pick it up from Amazon, Chapters, Foyles or just about everywhere else!

www.shawnpbrobinson.com/books

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