Captain Private
Hello readers. Welcome to the sequel to " Skipper's Skipper". Sorry that this took so long to put up. I've been busy writing chapters for " To Private's Eyes". Anyways. Here's the first chapter. Please enjoy.
Chapter 1
It was an early Tuesday morning, on July 10th, at 0400 hours, at the Central Park Zoo. All of the animals,
including the penguins, were still resting up from the over-night party that they had at the
penguins' headquarters, two days ago. Soon, Skipper, the new and improved General of the Army, had woke
up from his sleep and peeked up towards Private's bunk, which was located just above his, second to the
last on the bottom. Skipper climbed out of his bunk and gently tapped the new captain on the shoulder,
trying to wake him up. Today, he wanted to teach Private how to wake up before the team did, so he can
teach him how to set everything up for the day's training schedule.
" Private," Skipper whispered, still tapping the young captain's shoulder. Private still did not wake up. After a
few more taps, Skipper gave up, grabbed a one-gallon, plastic mop bucket, along with a quart of bottled
liquid nitrogen, which was located in a corner, over by the t.v., and waddled outside, in the dark, over to
the pool of the habitat. There, he had filled the bucket up to the rim with water then mixed it with a
dash of the liquid nitrogen, which had made the fluid too cold even for a penguin to stand. Skipper
waddled back inside the headquarters and dumped the ice cold water all over the young penguin.
Upon feeling the temperature of the water, Private woke up with a startle, fell out of his bunk, onto the
floor, and landed on his bottom. " Ow," Private flinched as he rubbed the sore spot over by his tail feathers.
He then looked up at Skipper, who was standing in front of him, tapping his foot.
" It's time to wake up. I have a lot of Captain stuff that I need to go over with you, today," Skipper sat the
bucket down then headed over to the corner of the room where he had kept the training supplies. Private
followed closely behind, curious of what Skipper had planned for the day. " You see these," Skipper held out
a couple of fencing swords.
" Yes," Private glanced down at the swords then at the clock. " But isn't it a bit too early to be waking up and
playing " Zorro" or " Musketeers". I mean, it is barely past four o'clock in the morning."
" They're not for playing, Private," Skipper glared at the young captain. " They're for practicing self defense in
case someone ever attacks with a sword."
" But," Private pointed at the swords. " Hardly anyone ever attacks with these nowadays. They're just used
for a fun sport. Kowalski told me so one day while we were watching " The Parent Trap". So, why would any
of us have to worry about learning sword fighting, if nobody really uses it to attack anyone, anymore?"
" You'd be surprised," Skipper glanced at Private, as he dug out the safety gear for fencing. He pulled out a
couple of face masks, padded jump suits, with butt pads installed, flipper shaped gloves, and boots. " Here,"
the general divided the gear evenly and handed half of it over to the new captain. " You'll need these. I don't
want to wind up poking your eye out or anything and have everyone think that you're a captain of a pirate
ship. Alright?"
Private took the gear, almost falling over, due to it's heavy weight. " But honestly, Skipper," the young
captain regained his balance. " Who would still attack with swords? It's very... What did Kowalski say it was?
Oh, yeah? Cliche`."
" Go to China and Japan and you'll know," Skipper put on his gear, grabbed his fencing sword, and climbed
most of the way up the ladder, to the fishbowl entrance. He hung onto the last two bars of the ladder up top.
Skipper then stared at Private, who was still holding the gear in his flippers. " Well come on," the new
general continued glancing down at Private. " Get yourself geared up. The sooner we get these fencing
lessons started, the better."
Private sighed, put his gear on, and followed Skipper outside, onto the top of the headquarters. When he
got up there, he looked around the area and saw Skipper resting his glove covered flipper on top of his
fencing sword. It turns out, that Skipper had been waiting at least ten minutes for him to come out onto the
platform." Okay," Private stuttered, afraid to find out Skipper's reaction for making him wait so long. " I'm
ready to fence now."
" Good," Skipper smiled as he lowered his face mask and lifted his sword into an attack position. Private
copied the same thing. "Let the fencing lessons begin. En Garde!"
He lunged his sword at the unprepared, young captain." Wait, Skipper," Private shouted in a panicky tone
as he lowered his sword. " You haven't taught me any…" Just before he could finish, Skipper knocked him
onto the ground with the plastic, safety tip of his sword. Luckily, the pads in the suit helped protect Private
from any injuries.
" Lesson one," Skipper lifted up his face mask then lowered his sword, staring at Private. " Never let your
guard down. Now, let's try this, again. And this time, please keep your sword up. You'll get creamed easily, if
you don't keep your sword up."
" Alright, Skipper," Private got up off of the ground and raised his sword. " Okay. Now I am ready. Bring it
on!"
" The actual words you should be using are "En Garde", Private," Skipper lowered his face mask. " But, we'll
work on the terms later. Right now, we need to…Oof." Suddenly, Private lunged at Skipper with his sword
and knocked him flat onto the ground. " Hey," Skipper lifted himself into a sitting position, balancing himself
on his flippers. " What was that for?"
" You said to never let your guard down," Private chuckled then lifted up his face mask. " And you let your
guard down."
" Okay," Skipper pushed himself up off of the ground. " You got me there. I guess I deserved that."
" Well, I wouldn't say deserve, Skipper," Private glanced at Skipper. " After all, you did teach me the first
lesson about fencing."
" I did. Didn't I," Skipper smiled underneath his mask then put his sword back up. " Okay. Next lesson. By the
way. Great job learning the first one, Private. I don't know why, but a lot of fencers have a hard time getting
that lesson through their heads. Even I forget it sometimes. Now, prepare to lose to someone who's had
years of experience with fencing."
Private nodded his head, quickly lowered his face mask, then raised his sword, once more with confidence."
Okay, Skipper. Prepare to lose to a beginning fencer."
Skipper scoffed at him. " In your dreams. Besides, I don't know the meaning of the word " lose". And I'm
saying that in a sarcastic sort of way. Not as an I don't really know it sort of way. And by the way, you'll be
learning these fencing lessons as we go. Just like I had to do when I first became a captain. Anyways. En
Garde, again!"
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Wow. I can not believe that Private just did that to Skipper. And as for the fencing idea? It came from watching one of the episodes of " The Suite Life of Zach and Cody" and the movie " The Parent Trap". Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 2, catch the conclusion of part of the fencing lessons. Please stay tuned and find out more. BTW: I don't know if people in China and Japan still use swords for attacks or defenses or anything, nor do I know much about fencing or where it came from up to this point, but this is a fictional story after all. Also, Tank does not appear in the story until later, but I don't know exactly when I'm going to add him in, yet. Thank-you for reading this message.