The Book of the Dun Cow (Chauntecleer the Rooster, #1)

Walter Wangerin's profound fantasy concerns a time when the sun turned around the earth and the animals could speak, when Chauntecleer the Rooster ruled over a more or less peaceful kingdom. What the animals did not know was that they were the Keepers of Wyrm, monster of evil long imprisoned beneath the earth ... and Wyrm, sub terra, was breaking free. Winner of the 1980 National Book Award Chauntecleer summons his band of animal warriors, including a humble dog, a few brave hens, ants, and foxes, to face the task of overcoming Wyrn, a monster of destruction who is breaking free from his long imprisonment beneath the earth Good struggles with Evil as Chauntecleer the rooster fights against the mysterious Wyrm. In the middle of the night somebody began to cry outside of Chauntecleer's Coop.