vignettes

[marycatelli]

This week's prompt is:
cooing 🕊️

Anyone can join, with a 50-word creative fiction vignette in the comments. Your vignette does not have to include the prompt term. Any (G or PG) definition of the word can be used.

Comments

[starshipcat.livejournal.com]

The dovecote was full of nervous pigeons, cooing and fluttering as we opened the hatch at the top of the ladder and climbed in. Harvesting squabs for market was not one of my favorite duties, but I understood why we needed to do it. Not just because this luxury meat brought top dollar -- or mowsu, here in the Chongu Empire -- but also because if every pair raised both its squabs from every clutch, the population would soon outstrip our ability to house it.

Pigeons might not have the fecundity of rats and mice, but natural selection had shaped them for rapid reproduction in the face of predation by raptors. If we were to release the surplus population to fly free, this place would soon look like cities back on Earth, with pigeons nesting and pooping on every window ledge and air conditioner. Not to mention the potential of an invasive species to crowd out native species we might not even know about.

[marycatelli]

Also the farmers would rage over how their crops were ravaged.

[starshipcat.livejournal.com]

Which indicates that the narrator is most likely a city kid. Pigeons on every window ledge is personal experience, damage to native ecosystems was learned from books, but damage to crops in the field isn't on the radar.

[marycatelli]

OTOH, dovecotes were an upper-class prerogative for just that reason.

[marycatelli]

The doves's cooing, in the trees outside, was disturbed, and some took wing. Giovanni slid into his chambers, to secure the box.
When he came out, he walked into the courtyard, and found Constanza standing there.
"So. You left the bridal procession so soon?"
He laughed. "So slowly it moves!"