" Days with the Down Feathers"
Hello readers and welcome to the story, which traces all the way back to the penguins' childhood. If I stole anybody's story title. I apologize for it. It was the only title I could think of, but at the same time, it sounded familiar, not from my own stories, but from somewhere else and I don't know why. But, hey? It's just a title. Warning: I may revise this chapter, again. BTW: This story was inspired by the episode " All Choked Up", when Skipper told Rico that he was his brother and Private said that the penguin on the T.V. looked like their Uncle Nigel. So, I figured that I'd post a story about the POM being brothers, along with a few more surprises, along the way. Anyways. Please enjoy.
Chapter 1
Many years ago, before the penguins had become the elite force that they are today, they used to live with
their parents, at the same zoo, as they do now. It turns out, that both of their parents had lived at the
Central Park Zoo their entire lives and were both assigned to each other for the breeding program. Together,
the penguins' parents had only three chicks, so far, which were four years apart in penguin years, with one
on the way. It was in early April and it was a beautiful, yet, chilly day out. The penguins' parents were both
taking turns incubating their new egg. The mother got her turn and placed the egg on her feet, to help keep
it warm.
" So, Honey," The tall, but slim father penguin turned to the short, but big boned mother penguin. He spoke
in a Spanish accent." What name shall we give to the little hatchling, once it comes out of its shell," the father
questioned as he put his flipper around the mother's shoulder, staring at her with his sapphire blue eyes.
" I don't know, Dear," The mother penguin pondered in her British accent as she stared back at the father
with her light blue eyes." We won't even know if it's a girl or a boy, until it hatches."
" And speaking of boys," the father penguin raised an eyebrow and looked around the habitat. " Where are
they?"
Suddenly, out of nowhere, three young penguins jumped out of the building and onto the platform. They had
begun chasing each other around, pretending to be military penguins in a war.
" Hurry up, Private," a short, flat-headed penguin squeaked to a tall looking penguin. The name "Private" was
a nickname given to whomever was playing as the lowest rank in the game. The short penguin's voice was in
the process of changing, while he was barking out orders, plus he was the oldest and about twelve years old
in penguin years. " The leopard seal captain, Rico, is coming!"
The tall penguin fell down, flat on his stomach, while he was running. " Skipper," he panted as he shouted in
a soft voice, whining. " Go on without me!"
" Come on, Kowalski," Skipper barked the penguin's real name as his voice cracked, again. He ran up to
Kowalski, who was still laying on the platform. He was the second oldest of the group and was only eight
years old. " A good soldier doesn't leave a man behind! Now come on! Let's go before the enemy comes,"
soon, a penguin dressed up in a leopard seal Halloween costume, which had used to belong to the father
when he was little, jumped out of the fishbowl entrance. He was not as tall as Kowalski nor was he as short
as Skipper, but he was strong looking and had a fast acting gag reflex, plus he had just barely turned four
years of age. The penguin charged at the two and went to tackle them. Skipper grabbed Kowalski by one his
flippers and dragged him out of the way by running, causing the charging penguin to fall onto the platform,
landing on his belly. He got up quickly and began running after the two penguins. While they were running,
Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico went around their parents, causing their father to fall into the pool and their
mother to pick up the egg from her feet with her flippers.
The father climbed out quickly, stood back up on the platform, and put his flippers on his hips. " Boys," he
shouted, glaring at his three sons. " Get! Over! Here! Right now!" The three little penguins stopped playing
and waddled over to their parents. They all lowered their heads and put their flippers behind their backs,
knowing that they were in trouble.
" Yes Daddy," the three penguins nervously stated simultaneously.
" Do you realize what you boys almost did," the father snapped, angrily. None of the kids answered, because
they were too afraid to. " You could've made your momma drop the new egg and break it or worse, you
could've gotten yourselves and me hurt! That's what you almost did!"
" Sorry, Daddy," the three penguins looked up at their father, guiltily.
" Juan," the mother penguin waddled to the father penguin, still holding the egg in her flippers. " It was just
an accident. They didn't mean for that to almost happen. They're just kids."
" I know, Maggie," Juan grumbled, turning to Maggie. " But the boys need to learn responsibility, especially
since the egg will be hatching soon."
" The egg will be hatching soon," Kowalski raised an eyebrow. " When?"
" Anywhere between now and the next few days," Maggie retorted, joyfully.
" Oh," Kowalski stated intriguingly then pulled out his abacus, which he had gotten as a Christmas present,
when he still had some of his down feathers. He began calculating. " According to my calculations and the
egg's incubation time," Kowalski moved the beads around a few more times, before stopping. " I'd say, it
should be hatching sometime today, but I can't tell you when."
" How do you even know that," Skipper stared over at Kowalski with a raised eyebrow.
" Because, unlike you, I actually pay attention in zoo school," he grumbled then put his abacus away.
Kowalski had actually skipped a few grades and wound up in the same group as Skipper, in the sixth-grade.
Rico took his leopard seal costume off and stashed it in his stomach. It turns out that the zoo veterinarians
did an x-ray on him a few days after he had hatched and found out that he could store large objects in his
stomach and cough them back out immediately, but later found out that it had damaged his vocal cords,
making it harder for him to squawk. After a while, Rico could only utter out a few words here and there, but it
would take a lot of effort. In order try and make himself talk, he would swallow objects, hoping to find
something that would help him speak, again, and continued to do so, ever since. After swallowing the
costume, he continued listening to the other penguins' conversation.
" Hey," Skipper started to argue, feeling offended. " At least I don't get trash canned at school by bullies, like
you do."
" That's only because they're jealous of me, because I get the better grades," Kowalski snapped back.
" No. It's because you're a nerd and an easy target for them to get to," Skipper put his flippers on his hips. "
That's why."
" Kids," Maggie tried to intervene, but was ignored.
" I am not a nerd and I'm not an easy target, either," Kowalski exclaimed, also putting his flippers on his hips.
" Kids," Juan attempted authoritatively, but failed. Meanwhile, Rico stood there, watching his siblings argue,
by turning his head from side to side.
Skipper removed one of his fingers from his hips, pointed it at Kowalski's chest, and gasped. " What is that?"
" What," Kowalski looked down at his chest. " I don't see…" Suddenly, without warning, Skipper snapped his
flipper up and hit it on the bottom part of Kowalski's beak, causing it to vibrate in place, until it came to a
stop.
" See," Skipper folded his flippers, using his cocky attitude. " Easy target."
" Kids, that's enough," Juan raised his voice. " Now Skipper, apologize to your younger brother, right now!"
" But, he," Skipper jumped, pointing to Kowalski.
" Skipper," Maggie butted in defensively, putting a flipper on her hip, while still holding the egg with the
other. " Mind your father, please."
" Yes, Momma," Skipper saluted in defeat then turned to Kowalski. He was not a huge fan of apologies nor
did he know how to say them well. " Kowalski," he stuttered. " I'm sorry that I made fun of you and flicked
you on the bottom part of your beak."
" Ah, that's okay," Kowalski raised one of his flippers and flicked the end of it down, acceptingly. " Brotherly
love, flipper shake."
" Brotherly love, flipper shake," Skipper and Kowalski smiled at each other then slapped flippers. Rico went to
join in, but was quickly halted when his two siblings pulled their flippers away. " Sorry, Rico. We still need to
work on the Brotherly love, flipper shake with you, before you can join us. Alright?" The penguin groaned,
lowered his head in melancholy, and nodded.
Suddenly, a few moments later, the family of penguins heard a cracking sound. They all looked down at the
egg in Maggie's flippers. It was finally hatching. After it was done hatching, all of the penguins looked at what
came out of it. It was the baby penguin that they had all been waiting for. The parents quickly checked to see
what it was. It was a boy. A beautiful, baby boy penguin, who had humongous, light blue eyes and fluffy,
down feathers.
" Wow," Maggie looked at the baby in her flippers with widened eyes. " He's so adorable."
" So, Maggie," Juan began, taking the baby out of Maggie's flippers and holding it in his. He began tickling his
tummy, with his free flipper. " Now that we know what it is. What should we name him?"
" We could name him after you," Maggie suggested as she looked down at the baby, smiling. The baby smiled
back.
" Nah," Juan huffed. " You suggested that we named Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico that after they had hatched
and I told you no. Remember? Plus, I've told you a thousand times that I don't like the name Juan, because it
is an easily mocked name around here. How about we call him Ace?"
" Ace," Maggie raised an eyebrow at him, curiously. " As in your Uncle Ace? The penguin that served in the
military and died before you had even hatched?"
" Yeah," Juan smiled widely. " That's the one. And he was one of the greatest heroes of all time. Which is why
I'm suggesting that we name him Ace."
" I don't know," Maggie glanced down at the baby then thought about it for a moment. " All right. Ace it is."
" Ah, Ace, our youngest son," Juan cooed as he hugged the baby. " What do you think of that name, little
guy?" The baby clapped and smiled at it.
" Ace," Rico shouted cheerfully as he watched the baby from behind his brothers. " Brother!"
" And our new private, Private," Skipper smiled, observing the baby in his father's flippers and turned toward
Kowalski, who was still looking at the baby. " Right, Kowalski?"
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Aww. Private has finally come into the picture. Tear . Tear. Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 2. Catch Kowalski's response to Skipper's question. Also see how well the family takes to a new baby being around the habitat. Please stay tuned and find out more. BTW : The title for the story was the best that I could come up with. It doesn't really go along with the story, but I guess, in someway, it does kind of go along with the story, seeing that Private had just hatched. Also, I made up the penguin's age differences. I'm not really sure on how penguin years differ from human years and I don't know the POM real ages, so I just made them up, plus I decided to keep their heights at about the same differences, only shorter, because I didn't really want to change them . Anyways. Thank-you for reading this message.