Snare Of The Fowler, parts 1988 - 1991

 1988. Vince thought up a way to waylay the owners of Otis after attending their performances. He could see how important the roles of the wolf and the rooster were, so he suggested to them that they might be interested in a talking Parrot he had for sale. He built up his description of the parrot, but not so much that they would expect too steep a price. Everyone was invited to his tent where he lived when he was doing business in the  town. They all sat down to dinner, the parrot also.

 1989. Like most Parrots, he repeated phrases as the spirit moved him. Anyone could see that he had no idea what the words he was saying meant. But  the fact was that what he said often accidentally seemed to be curiously related to the topic of the conversation at hand. The explanation for this, according to Vince the Fowler, was that he was recognizing words and phrases from the conversation that reminded him of something in his past, and sentences from that past would come blurting out. 

 1990. Anyone with a real knowledge of birds and their intelligence would have serious doubts with that theory, but we will not disturb the story to pursue that line of argument. Suffice it to say that the parrot seemed to be unusually keen, observant, and intelligent, even if everything he said was just an odd coincidence. 

1991. He was so smart in fact that the theatre troupe, Otis, and the rooster soon suspected that the fowler would never part with him for less than half a pound of ultramarine blue at the going rate, a sum of money none of them was likely to see in a lifetime. But by the time they realized the situation it was far too late. Vince had drugged their wine and their food, and before long everyone was fast asleep on the floor of the fowler’s tent.