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Page-by-page synopsis of "The Rooster's Laughter"

Notes on “The Rooster’s Laughter”
Jarod Reizian Frank

Page-by-page synopsis


1.     A woman in heavy cloaking dances near a rooster, likely a witch or enchantress of some sort, bestowing her magic, granting sentience and sound body to the eggs the rooster has just laid.
2.     One of the first of the “Rooster Men” watches over the dyeing woman, alongside with the original rooster blessed by the enchantress.
3.     The rooster men have a burial for their beloved enchantress, all the while studying the human form of still living humans, in particular, human females (like their enchantress). Possibly for the purposes of invoking magic to revive their beloved mother or to learn the differences between humans and human-sized bipedal roosters.
4.     The Roosters have now spent a good deal of time hiring women to pose and allow them to study them, it appears as though they are trying to learn ways they could coexist in a world that would see them as freaks, maybe by weaving tapestries or clothing, something that they could do out of sight while still interacting with the outside world.
5.     One of the rooster men enters a bedchamber in horror, witnessing yet another of their close friends, (yet again a woman) taken from them, though this time it appears as though she was murdered. The roosters suspect foul play to be involved, and start to harden their hearts as a result.
6.     One of the rooster men peers over some dancing girls, possibly pondering how they could be so foolish. And if they are foolish, surly they must be of a lower intelligence, not fit to know what is good for them? The rooster begins to rationalize the concept of seeing these human females as sub-intelligent creatures rather than people.
7.     Another of the rooster men climbs to the top of a tower outside of town to visit some women who appear to have taken a liking to them, charming them with woodworking and stories from city life.

8.     Some of the rooster men have now taken to violence to claim their women, too angry and primal to try and woo them somehow.

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