Kowalski caught what he was sure, was more than enough fish for the family. He looked around at the others, still fishing. He wanted to get home, he wanted to be sure, he wanted to be there to make absolutely sure they would be all right. Kowalski looked back to the icy shore. It wouldn't hurt if he just left now... Kowalski turned and swam for shore. He was only a few yards away, when he spotted a shifting shadow beneath the shelf of ice.
Oh no.
Kowalski whipped around, and shot back for the safety of the colony, the leopard seal jolting out after him. Kowalski swam in all directions, trying to shake the predator off his tail, failing miserably. Deeper, deeper, deeper he dove, hoping the creature trailing him would give. It didn't.
Suddenly the seal snapped forward, clamping its jaws down on Kowalski's feet. Kowalski yelped, then shouted, crying out when he felt bone crack. Suddenly, faster than he ever thought possible, he had been dragged onto the ice, legs still in the grip of the leopard seal. He cried out, his legs cracking as he felt himself being lifted off the ground, feeling his stomach dropped, then the air whipped past him and he was struck with an icy blast of pain, slammed against the ice. Kowalski struggled to get free, panicked and disoriented.
No! He shouted in his mind. No! I have to get back home! I have to feed my chicks! Kowalski felt pain shoot through his body as he was slammed against the ice again. Please! I'll do anything! Just let me get back home! Kowalski felt the heat of tears in his eyes, as he sensed the seal swinging him back into the air, ready for the last blow.
Please...
Suddenly the pressure on Kowalski's legs was released, and he dropped to the frozen ground. His vision spun and he heard voices, shouting... yelling. Kowalski resisted the urge to throw up. He lay his head down, giving up on trying to find out what was going on, and instead opted to hold his head in his flippers in a desperate attempt to ease his skull splitting head ache. He closed his eyes, nauseous, head spinning.
"Kowalski! Kowalski oh, what happened! Is he alright!" Kowalski began to stir at the sound of Karakter's voice.
"Dad? Daddy!" Kowalski opened his eyes, to see two pairs of tiny coal colored ones staring back at him, tear filled. His chicks… Kida and Kona. Kowalski forced a smile.
"I'm fine, just a little accident, that's all." He whispered, hoarsely.
"Right." Kowalski turned his head to a group of penguins behind him. Four of them stood there, one was tall, a quite impressive specimen of an emperor penguin, who had quite the air of leadership about him. Another carried a bag on his back, and was grinning proudly, the third stood strait and tall, clearly intelligent, while the fourth and final…
hid behind the rest.
Kowalski looked at him. This was a chick, who looked to be rather small and only five years old.
"Of course, a second more of that 'accident' and you wouldn't be telling them this right now would you?" The leader said. Kowalski nodded weakly.
"Yes, you're right. Thank you." He said, struggling to sit up. The penguin grinned.
"Why don't we just say you owe us one, aye?" He said, extending his flipper. Kowalski nodded, reaching out to shake it. The leader suddenly turned to the chick hiding behind him.
"See there Private. We do a lot of good on this team, I think you'll like it." He said grinning. The small penguin grinned back. He turned back to Kowalski and his family.
"You should be fine after a few days' rest. We patched you up before we got you here." He said. Kowalski nodded.
"Again, I give my thanks." He said. The leader grinned.
"Let's just not forget our favor okay?" he said chuckling. Kowalski grinned weakly, and nodded.
"Right, men" the leader snapped. The three, snapped into formation, the little one stumbling a bit. "Sorry to leave so soon, but we've got a headquarters waiting for us." He said, grinning at the family. He saluted Kowalski, the other doing the same. "Let's go men!" Soon enough, the penguins had slid out of sight. Kowalski turned back to his family, smiling through his pain.
"It's alright." He whispered. "Everything is alright, I'll be fine."
Kowalski smiled a fairly small smile.
"Of course I learned later on, who three of those penguins were, though I don't think they remember me… Rather I don't think one of them remembers me. The other two are apparently deceased." Kowalski said, wiping away a few eraser shavings. He looked up at Skipper, who only continued to stare at him amazed.
"I remember that." He said quietly in contemplation. "They had come to recruit me that day. I didn't want to go. They took me off to explain what it was they did, and that's when we saw you…" Skipper mumbled. Kowalski nodded. Kowalski nodded.
"Yes." He said. Skipper raising his eyebrows. "That explains a lot." He said. Kowalski nodded again.
"I would assume it does… Anyway, as you can imagine, I healed perfectly well over a short amount of time, and I was on my feet again. Utterly disappointed in myself I might add…" He sighed, picking his clipboard up again.
"I miss my family, you know…" He looked up to the others, showing them a clipboard. They all stared. On the paper was a picture, so much more detailed than any of his others were, seeing as he took his time.
It showed a tall penguin, grinning with his arm around his wife. Kowalski, obviously. The female penguin next to him was indeed beautiful, with and hourglass figure, and large, intelligent eyes, reaching up almost to Kowalski's height. Below the two were two penguins, who at this point had seemed to have lost their down feathers. They looked like they had been laughing at something.
"This is them?" Marlene asked quietly, staring at the picture. They all seemed so happy. Kowalski nodded, smiling bitter sweetly, seemingly lost in thought. Private looked up at him.
"Kowalski… What happened? Why aren't you all still together." He asked.
Kowalski stared at the picture longingly, trying to swallow the lump in his throat. He felt something he hadn't felt in a long while. He quickly wiped the tears away before they could fall and ruin his picture.
"You know…" He swallowed, his voice shaky. "When, you look at it statistically, I guess… I guess I should have seen it coming." Kowalski swallowed and sniffed. "I mean, the odds were only one in one thousand that a family that supported two chicks would all survive. Even… " Kowalski tried yet again to swallow the lump in his throat.
"Even if the circumstanced were almost impossible to predict, I… should have know. They were three years old…
and we were having so much fun…"
