Some Years Ago
(Narrator POV)
Antarctica…an inhospitable wasteland…but even here on the Earth's frozen bottom we find life. And not just any life…Penguins! Joyous, frolicking, waddling, cute and cuddly life. Look at them… Tumbling onto their chubby bum-bums. Who could take these frisky little snow clowns…
(Baby Skipper's POV)
"Seriously?" I said, "Does anyone even know where we're marching to?" "Who cares?" "I question nothing!" "Me, Too!" "Me, Too!" "Well fine," I said, "We'll just fly to the front of the line and see for ourselves." "Kowalski! Rico! Elsa! Engage aerial surveillance." The four of us began to flap our flippers as quickly as possible. "Here we go! Doing it! Come on!" "Skipper," Kowalski said, "we appear to be flightless." "Oh" I replied, "Well what's the point of these?"
Rico's face brighten as he got an idea and slapped my flipper with his flipper. "Hi-Yeah!" Rico exclaimed. "Whoa I like it," I said, "Hey; this could be our thing…" "What should we call it?" "The High one?" Elsa said. "Yes…Let's call it the High one," I replied. An egg rolled out of nowhere and knocked us all down. I watched as the egg rolled away "Hey did anybody see that? That's an Egg!" "Is someone gonna go get it?" I said. "We can't do that," an adult penguin replied. "Why not?" Elsa asked. "Well it's a dangerous world out there, and we're just Penguins. You know nothing but cute and cuddly." "Yeah! Why do you think there are always documentary crews filming us?"
A documentary crew was in fact filming us at that exact moment. How do you get used to that? "Well sorry kid," an adult male penguin said, "We lose a few eggs every year. It's just nature." "Oh, right. Nature," I said, "Well I guess that make sense… but something deep down in my gut tells me that it makes no sense at all." "You know what? I reject Nature!" All the adult Penguins gasped then looked away and kept on marching to who knows where. "Who's with me?" I asked before running screaming in the other direction. I then slid after the egg not looking to see if the other three followed. The Egg started to roll towards a cliff and when I realized this I tried to slide to a stop. I struggled to stop as I slid towards the edge knocking the egg off in the process.
In mere seconds I was in freefall with the egg but something stopped my fall. Well actually three somethings. Rico laughed and my three fellow penguins pulled me up. We could only watch helplessly as the egg fell rolled on spiky ice and rolled up into a giant snowball. The Giant snowball landed on a shipwreck and cracked open allowing the eye to roll safety on the deck. "The old Ship," Kowalski said. "No one's ever returned from there alive," Elsa said with a gasp. A seagull flew in and landed on an oil barrel on the deck. "Relax Kowalski and Elsa. There's a bird down there now," I said.
"Look, he's fine." I said right before a leopard seal appeared and ate the gull. "Leopard seals. Nature's snakes." "Aren't snakes nature's snakes?" Elsa asked. "How should I knew, I live on the flipping frozen tundra!" I said. "Language!" Elsa said. "Sorry," I replied. The leopard seals started barking…don't let their cute bark fool you leopard seals are an apex predator. "They're going for the egg!" Elsa shouted. "Give me a way down there, ASAP!" Kowalski turns to me and said, "All one would have to do is collect 300 feet of kelp…" while Kowalski talked a man with a microphone looked into a camera and said, "Tiny and helpless, the baby penguins are frozen with fear. They know if they fall from this cliff they will surely die." Not helping! "Gunter, give them a shove," he told the soundman. "…harnessing the jellyfish we've trained to obey simple voice commands," Kowalski said right as the boom mic appeared by us.
The mic slammed into the four of us and sent us off the cliff. "Now that's more like it," I said. And just like the egg we eventually ended up in a snowball and onto the old ship. Rico slid towards the egg as the leopard seals approached. He grabbed the egg as the seals got closer. "That-a-boy, Rico!" I shouted. "Don't let them have it!" Elsa shouted. Rico swallowed the egg momentary confusing the seals. "Okay! I guess that works," I said. One of the seals growled and snapped at me but Kowalski and I managed to jump out of the way.
The seals jumped on top of each other but we were to fast. "Get to high ground!" Kowalski shouted. The seals bumped into oil barrels as we ran away. I vaulted Rico from the lower part of the deck to the higher part of the deck. Rico grabbed me by the flipper and pulled me up right before a seal slammed into the wall. The four of us hopped onto a mounted harpoon and climbed to the top a brave seal following us up the gun. "I'd recommend firing it now!" Kowalski said. "Nope. Hold on." "Are you crazy!" Elsa shouted. "We really should fire it!" Kowalski shouted. "Not till we see the white of its eyes!" I replied. "They're mostly pupil," Kowalski said, "Very little white! Almost none!" "Just fire it already!" Elsa said. "They gotta have a little bit of white, right?" I said receiving an eye roll from Elsa. "None Whatsoever!" Elsa shouted. "What if they look really far to the left?" Elsa have had enough and grabbed the rope from me and fired the harpoon. "Fire in the hole!" I shouted.
The harpoon crashed into the smoke stack sending the four of us flying. We landed safely on a nearby iceberg on the ocean. Elsa, Kowalski and I landed perfectly on top of Rico I the egg landed on my feet. The smoke stack landed on the deck of the ship and the ship exploded than sank. "Kowalski, analysis?" I asked. "We are really awesome at this," Kowalski said as the smoke stack fell behind us. "Boys…and girl, we did it! Mission accomplished." "Hey, we could do our thing! High one!" The four of us did the high one even the egg got come action. We stopped when we heard a cracking we turned. "Oh!" I said, "My bad!" "Uh-oh," Elsa said. "Look," I said, "it's the miracle of birth!" "A moment of extraordinary beauty," Kowalski said. The egg literally exploded sending fluid and York at all over us. "Oh, that's disgusting," Elsa said. "I think I have amniotic sac in m mouth!" I said.
The baby penguin said, "Hello! Are you my family?" We look behind us to see that there was no way we were going back to Antarctica. We looked at each other and nodded in agreement. We turned back to the baby penguin and I opened my mouth to speak. Kowalski stepped in front of me and said, "You don't have a family, and we're all going to die! Sorry." "What?" the baby penguin asked. I elbowed Kowalski while Elsa gave him an icy stare. "What? I thought that was what we were all nodding about," he replied. I slapped him lightly and said, "No one's gonna die!"
"Know what you've got, Kid?" I said, "You've got us. We've got each other. If that ain't a family, I don't know what is." "Nice save there Skipper," Elsa said. "Thank you," I said. I saluted the young penguin and he saluted back. "So adorable," I said before turning to Kowalski, "Kowalski! What's our trajectory?" The baby penguin turned as Kowalski said, "95% certain we're still doomed." "And the, uh, other 5%?" "Adventure and glory like no penguins have ever seen before!" he replied. "I'll take that action," I said. "But where are we going?" "The future," I said, "The Glorious future."
(End of chapter one)