Read Online Chicken Chicken by R. L. Stine - Free Book Online

circles. And the shape of my head was
changing, too. Growing narrow. My eyes were far apart now, moving to the sides
of my head.
    “No! Oh, noooooo!” I opened my beak in a mournful wail.
    “Come on—let’s hurry!” Cole urged. He grabbed my hand. Feathers brushed
feathers. The backs of our hands had sprouted a thick layer of short, white
feathers.
    “Yes. Hurry!” I repeated, bobbing my head up and down.
    We made our way down the stairs and out the door. Back out into the dark,
wind-swirled night.
    I had a strong urge to bend down and peck some gravel from the driveway. But
I fought it off and trotted to the street.
    We had to hurry back there. Back to Vanessa’s house.
    Would we make it in time?
     
    The trip was normally a ten-minute walk. But it took Cole and me much longer.
Partly because our chicken legs were so stiff. And partly because it’s a lot harder to see where you’re going when your eyes are on different
sides of your head!
    The gusting winds softened a little as we finally reached Vanessa’s
farmhouse. Pale moonlight cast shadows over the broken shingled roof.
    The windows were still dark. We leaned on the fence, catching our breath and
studying the house. No sign that she had returned home.
    Clutching the heavy recipe book to my chest, I pushed past the gate and led
the way to the front door. Once again, it opened easily. Cole and I stepped
inside, inhaling the strange, spicy fragrance of the house.
    “Cluuuuck, Vanessa?” I called. “Hello? Anyone home?”
    A pair of yellow eyes glared at us from the banister. The black cat let out a
yawn. Not at all surprised to see us back. And from the way it stared at us, not
at all pleased to have its home invaded once again.
    “She isn’t here,” Cole whispered. “Let’s bluuuck bluuuck hurry.”
    I dropped the recipe book on the coffee table and turned to the stack of
books beside the couch. As I turned, a bowl on the coffee table caught my
attention.
    Sunflower seeds!
    I couldn’t resist. I poked my head into the bowl and began sucking the tasty
seeds into my beak.
    “Crystal—what are you doing ?” Cole cried in a hoarse whisper. “Get
away from there!”
    He grabbed a book from the stack and began frantically pawing through it. I
pecked up a few more seeds. Then I grabbed a book, too.
    Cole let out a triumphant squawk. “These books—they’re all magic books!” he
declared.
    “You’re bluuuck right,” I agreed. “Hundreds and hundreds of magic spells.”
    Cole flipped rapidly through the pages of his book. His eyes were practically
spinning! “How will we ever find the right one?” he demanded.
    “I think I just found it,” I told him.
    I carried the book to the window and held it up to the moonlight to see it
better.
    Yes!
    “What does it say?” Cole asked excitedly. He dropped his book and came
bobbing across the room to me.
    “It’s a whole cluuuuck page of chicken spells,” I replied, holding the book
up to the window. “This one is called ‘Human into Chicken’. That sounds right—doesn’t it?”
    “No. Find ‘Chicken into Human’!” Cole exclaimed.
    My eyes swept over the pages. “No such thing,” I told him. “We’ll just have
to reverse the ‘Human into Chicken’ spell.”
    “Well, go ahead!” he cried, his feathery head bobbing up and down excitedly. “Reverse it! Do it! What do we have to do?”
    I saw that he was so excited, he couldn’t stand still. He tucked his hands
under his armpits, stuck out his elbows to form wings—and began clucking round
and round in a circle.
    “Cole—bluuuck bluuck bluuuck!” I scolded.
    He ignored me and kept clucking away. Flapping his arms and making a small
circle over the floor.
    I turned back to the book and carefully read the spell. It didn’t look too
hard. It didn’t call for any special ingredients. It was just a bunch of words
that had to be said rapidly. And the spell caster had to cluck a lot and do a
simple dance.
    Then,