When the rooster awakened fully, it found itself in the cage again, stacked upon other cages. Above, below, and to the sides were other cages full of hens. Some he recognised, others were new. The rooster felt that this change might not be so bad.

It lifted itself up and gave the new hens a greeting with a light crowing noise. The response was the entire section of cages shaking slightly alongside a deep chirp. A few cages away stood another rooster.

Its black feathers and deep voice gave it quite a presence. It shook its cage by flapping its wings and gobbling like a tyrant. The hens fluttered about before resting by the edges of the cages, clearing the way for the two roosters. The sounds of other, more exotic animals rang out in the background like trumpets welcoming the king.

There wasn't enough space in here for two cocks to fit. One of them had to give way to the other. And it wasn't going to be our rooster if he could help it.

He let out a high-pitched croon while letting his golden brown feathers start to puff out. Then he lifted his leg gently. The black rooster tilted his head slightly to the right in confusion.

Slam! A golden brown feather floated down amongst the sound of the entire cage rattling. A yellow leg, seemingly made of gold, connected to the metal bars separating the cages. A fierce display of power that could scare off everything from a curious fox to a rabid dog.

In response, the black rooster pruned its feathers casually; unfazed by the display of might. Then it let out a taunting crow, resembling a human's chuckle.

Confused by this, the protagonist checked if there was anything wrong with its legs. Lo' and behold, his beloved claws were trimmed. Gone. The pride and joy that protected his coop disappeared without him noticing.

He lowered his leg. The other rooster took this as his win and flapped his wings in celebration. His head bobbed back and forth excitedly.

But the battle wasn't over, there was one way to determine the fight now. If intimidation didn't work and claws were trimmed, then they must... compare size...

The size of their beards and crowns. Midway through the other rooster's celebration, our rooster puffed up his chest feathers and lifted up his head. The other rooster noticed and responded in kind. Both their bodies fluffed up their feathers as much as possible and showed off their beards.

Equally matched. That's all that could be said, either that or both were dissatisfied; neither had visibly larger beards. Onto their crowns then; the symbols of their royalty. Surely it could determine who's the real king of the coop.

It started with our rooster deflating his chest then lowering his head. Next, he leaned to the right, letting that delightful, red, and fleshy thing hang down freely.

The other rooster once again rose to the challenge. Bobbing his head up and down, making his crown bounce up and down sporadically. The hens in the other cages became restless from the display.

But there was one problem, its crown was smaller. It went crazy with it; but, in reality, the other rooster was all show. This weakness was noticed immediately, and so the finishing move was initiated.

From his lower right positioned head, our rooster moved. At first to the left slowly. Then diagonal upwards to the right. Finally, moving to the right with a quick jerk and flourish; flopping his fleshy crown to the left side of his face in the process.

It was fabulous. One of the hens fainted while the others fluttered restlessly. A sure win in both size and usage.

The other rooster couldn't accept the result. Letting out a deep, aggressive croon; rolling about in his mouth like a marble in a windstorm. Which was slowly building up louder and louder.

Little did he know, he was just digging a hole; our rooster was confident in his vocal skills and practised every morning without restraint. A response soon leaked out.

Both roosters slowly built up from a light, rumbling croon to a loud and proud crowing. Both heads rose as high as possible and let out everything that was being built up at once. Low and high pitched mixed together and flew through the air.

It seemed like they were on equal footing. But the other rooster's deep voice scraped against and irritated its voice, forcing it to stop midway. Leaving our rooster as the victor.

The other rooster then turned around and sat down, accepting its defeat. But it glanced back a few times with a look that said, "Next time, it'll be different."

Meanwhile, the rooster stopped crowing and lifted up one of its legs, making somewhat of a victory pose. It was a somewhat anticlimactic but satisfying win. All that was left was to make sure there were no other challenges to his newfound authority.

A quick glance around the cages didn't reveal any more roosters. But there were much larger animals that could be a problem. Most of them even had name tags outside of their cages.

The closest one contained a cow with the name tag of Clyde. The cow was munching away without a care in the world. A probing chirp captured its attention for one second before it resumed eating. Refusing to fight is the same as losing, moving on.

The next was a cage that was completely walled in. There was no way to see its contents, but a hissing sound leaked out of it. The name tag read Charlotte. Out of sight, out of mind.

Finally, was cage labelled Bonnie, containing a boar. It let out a snort; annoyed by all the noise from before. Then bashed one of its tusks against the cage, breaking one of the bars. Dangerous.

The grating noise of a door opening interrupted the rooster's search for a challenge. A voice said, "Shut those animals up and bring up tonight's dinner."

A man walked into the area with the cages under the instruction of the voice. He grabbed the cage of the black-feathered rooster. It was the closest cage to the man. The rooster inside moved to the side of the cage, as far from the man as possible.

Our rooster saw the man as the perfect challenge. It had won against one before but ended up being attacked unfairly and brought here afterwards. So it hit the cage with its leg to get the human's attention with the noise.

It was successful; the man set down the other rooster and came over. But something felt familiar about this man. He said, "Remember me?" while placing his hand on top of the cage.

Author's Note: This entire chapter was meant to be overdramatic; please, no comments about the behavior of the chickens being unrealistic. Leave the stuff about real cocks in your mouth.