Private wakes up to a large and mystifying thunder clap, that racket's through the HQ harshly, leaving the small penguin alone in the darkness, with only silence to woo him back to sleep. But even the mightiest lullaby wasn't going to put him back to sleep.
He was an African penguin, he wasn't used to such storms. Maybe a few harmless and small dust storms here and there, but they weren't so fierce. The winds weren't as strong as they were on this particular night.
He tossed and turned, but couldn't get back to sleep at all. He knew he would fall asleep eventually. As his eyes lids began to close, another clap of thunder made its way through a funnel of clouds outdoors, making him jump and coward into his bed sheets.
Just before he gave up all the hope he had of falling back to sleep, he felt something grab onto him and poke him slightly. He jumped in fright, throwing the pillow he was grabbing onto into the intruders face as hard as he could.
He expected the worst. His mind flashed images of green and red ghouls, followed by scale-covered monsters, beyond his imaginations capacity. His eyes were shut, tears already streaking their way across his terror filled face as he finally gathered the courage to look down to where the pillow had fallen.
To his surprise, the intruder wasn't a ghoul, or goblin, nor a monster, in fact, he wasn't an intruder at all! It had been Kowalski, who was now rubbing the side of his own head in partial pain and agony as he sat on the floor.
He quickly took to his side, he gasped as he removed Kowalski's flipper from where his pillow had struck. It was red, not bleeding, but still bruised.
"Kowalski I'm so sorry, I-I didn't mean it, I swear!" he spoke in his English accent as he apologized sincerely.
Kowalski winced as lightning struck again, he got up and looked at the youth. He placed a flipper around his shoulder as he walked him back to his bunk. "It's ok, I shouldn't have snuck up on you like that anyways. But, what are you doing up? You should be asleep by now."
"I was, until the thunder woke me up. I can't go back to sleep." Private explained.
"Not used to storms like this yet?" Kowalski commented as he looked and the smaller penguin who was now leaning on him.
Private yawned before responding, "Nope. And by the looks of it, you haven't either…"
Kowalski smiled as he got up and went to his bunk, he grabbed a small dusty book from beneath his pillow before blowing on it to remove the filth it was covered in.
"My mother used to read me this book all the time, it always helped me get to sleep, and maybe it'll help you too." He smiled as he looked back down to Private, who was now smiling as well, leaning on him again.
He shut his eyes and listened. Listened to both Kowalski and the soothing sound of rain as it poured outside.
Kowalski told the tale of a dragon who had once long ago been a lovely princess, before she had been cursed with an ancient spell by a witch. He told of other things, such as how she got turned back into a human.
After a while, Kowalski looked down to see a sleeping private hugging himself as he leaned even further into his already ruffled chest feathers.
Kowalski looked back at the book as he held Private closer to him with his other flipper and read, "The end" as he closed the book.