Turkaletta plodded along the bottom of the ravine, her head swivelling about as she stared at the enormous walls to either side of her. With every step she took the walls kept getting higher, their looming elevation long past the point where her meagre powers of flight could have carried her to freedom. Perhaps a smarter animal would have considered turning around as a solution to her predicament, but if she were a smarter animal, she would also be wondering why she was the only animal present in the ravine, period.

After an eternity—or possibly 5 minutes, given Turkaletta’s ability to judge time—spent plodding down the ravine, Turkaletta let out a joyous squack when she finally stumbled upon the exit. At least that’s what she thought it was. What else could a gigantic cave be if it weren’t a tunnel leading back to the forest?

“Chiruck!” she exclaimed happily as she waddled towards the cave. Once inside, she discovered that it was warm and somewhat musty, with a rumbly noise not unlike the building where she’d been reared. Well, not exactly the same. This sound wasn’t a consistent thrum, instead coming in deep movements that started and stopped at a regular, long interval.

The sound of shouting outside the cave entrance startled Turkaletta from her reminiscence. She instinctively wanted to flee deeper into the cave, but that option was stolen away when a gigantic body inside the cave moved, pressing Turkaletta against the rock wall and sliding her along the worn surface until she was left with her head dangling outside, the rest of her body remaining squooshed between the rock and the enormous body of the cave’s scaly resident.

“Chiruuuck…” she wheezed, barely able to suck in any breath. She had a great vantage point to see what was going on outside at least, which in this case consisted of a group of two-legs standing in a tight huddle while another of their number—a wrinkly woman with gray hair—approached the cave with a large animal on a leash. When the woman got about halfway to the cave, she stopped and pounded a stake into the ground, tying the animal to it before calmly walking back to join the others.

All of a sudden, the world around Turkaletta began shaking as the thing that had her pressed up against the cave wall spoke, its deep, rumbling voice emanating at such a low frequency that her eyeballs nearly vibrated out of their sockets. When the rumbling stopped and Turkaletta could think again, she saw the group of people huddled together, their heads pressed together in conversation. Whatever they were saying had the wrinkly woman gesturing emphatically at the cave, but she soon stopped and walked away from the group, crossing her arms and very pointedly not looking at them.

One of the remaining group members looked at the wrinkly one for a moment, then shook their head and stepped forward to address the thing in the cave. Whatever they said didn’t go over well, as it caused the gigantic creature to roar and flex the rippling muscles beneath its skin, the subtle movement proving enough to squish Turkaletta against the cave wall with increasing force.

“ChiIiIiIrRrRuUuUuUuUuUuUCK,” Turkaletta groaned, her body squeezing into a smaller and smaller space until—

A ragged piece of newsprint fell to the ground.

Total body compression imminent. Consulting historical consumption catalogue…

…

…

Appropriate modification identified.

Implementing solution.

Suddenly, the pressure on Turkaletta stopped increasing, holding steady until the roaring sound stopped and the thing in the cave relaxed. When the pressure finally did release, Turkaletta dropped to the ground in a heap, immediately inhaling deeply to get some much-needed oxygen, barely noticing the odd sensation of her feathers unsticking from each other as her chest expanded. It only lasted a moment, though, so she soon ignored it, her focus instead turning to the scene outside the cave.

The people were gone. Well, most of them anyway. The wrinkly one was still there, saying something to the creature in the cave. That didn’t last long, though, and soon she too wandered away, leaving nothing but a bloody leg tied to a stake in the ground.

Turkaletta did a double-take. Hadn’t there been an animal attached to that leg?

That delicious, delicious leg?

Turkaletta took an unconscious step forward, staring at the bloody haunch of meat. She looked at the cave. Then back at the leg. Cave. Leg. Cave. Leg.

Bringing to bear the full brunt of her farm-raised turkey brain, Turkaletta happily plodded her way over to the ready meal just lying on the ground. Diving in with gusto, she was soon neck-deep in leg meat, entirely oblivious to the enormous, golden eyes that stared at her from within the depths of the cave.