Chapter 7 Adjusting
Summary: the chicks, Sven and Lovelace now have been placed in a zoo where they meet new friends and make new enemies. How will the adjust to their new environment. Well, read to find out!
I own nothing. Happy Feet 1&2 and all its content belongs to its original owners. Skyler the Elf Owl and I only own our OC's and WaterBendingQueen88 owns her OC's, Eria and Matt.
Enjoy the story!
A week had gone by for the chicks, Sven and Lovelace and they would have to say that they were adjusting nicely. Sasha helped out hugely, what with showing them around and introducing them to some of her close friends. She also showed them what was the best chance to get the most fish from the humans during feeding time.
The other animals they had met, aside from the jerk hyenas twins, had also helped. They explained things of 'how' and 'why' about this place and did their best to help the chicks feel more at home here, or at least tell them how to feel more at home here. But not to say they didn't still miss their home and parents.
The friends they made did try their best, but sometimes their comfort wasn't enough to make them feel better. Many times one of them woke up crying from a dream they had of the day they got separated. The only real comfort they could receive was from their sibling(s).
They could only really hope that they could be again with them soon.
Meanwhile, back in Antarctica, Eria and Matt had stayed true to their word and with their help and the Amigos they were able to convince the rest/majority of the penguins in Adelie land to allow the Emperors to fish on their shores. Everyone one was thankful for the privilege granted to them, but they all still had a little part in them that was worried about where they would go next for their quest to find a new home.
But that wasn't the only worry on the penguin's minds. Mumble, Gloria, Violet, Seymour, Krista and Cole were worried for their chicks. For over a week now, their chicks had never been far from their thoughts. Were they safe? Were they even alive? Would they ever be seen again? So many questions, but no answers. They could only pray and hope that maybe, just maybe, they had survived the ocean.
Their behavior as of late had not gone unnoticed. A few members of the colony had given their sympathies to the heroes of emperor land and their parents had done their best to sooth their grief. And as of now, another well-known and respected member of the colony was there to give consolation to them.
None other than Noah, the high penguin Elder.
Not much was known about him, but what was is that he was the eldest penguin among them, having lived for more years then anyone else. His wisdom was what the others sought for and often came to him for advise and guidance. While he held strictly to traditions and was not too happy when the four had brought this 'pagan movement' to the colony a year before, he still was reasonable and was more supportive off the harmony within the colony.
Yet it still came quite a shock to them when they saw him approaching. Though they no longer feared him for him exiling them a year ago, they still felt mildly intimidated by his presence, like one might feel before a king. Mumble stepped forward first, since he was considered the head of the group and the main speaker.
"Noah. Nice to see you, but why are you here," he asked. The high Elder was thinner than most penguins, plus his feathers were outlined with grey ones against the back. One could get a sense of the wisdom he had picked up from over the years of serving.
"Hello Mumble Happy Feet and close friends. I was hoping that I could find you here," the old penguin greeted. Violet stepped up to him after Mumble did.
"Is there something wrong Noah, I mean, aside from what has already happened," she asked. The Elder nodded.
"Yes, but it lies within a group of penguins here. A particular group of six penguins who recently lost their chicks to an ice floe on the ocean lately," he replied. The ix dipped their heads in sadness.
"We're going to find them," Cole said seriously. Noah shook his head.
"Not with the fate of the entire colony at stake. You play such a key role in the preservation of our colony. We just can't have you all just go out there and find your chicks with no idea where they are or how you'll get to them if they are out there," he explained.
"But Noah," Mumble began to protest, but Noah help up a flipper to silence them.
"You didn't let me finish, Mr. Happy Feet. I said not 'all' of you can go out and find them, but one or two of you would be an acceptable number to go out there," he said, before turning to go, leaving them where they were. The others stared at him before at each other.
"D-did he just let us off the hook to go find our kids," Seymour asked.
"Kind of. He meant for only one or two of us to go while the rest stays here to help the colony out," Gloria explained.
"Well then, who stays and who goes," Krista asked.
"I'll go," came five voices.
"You can't go all together! What about the colony. They're counting on us to help find a new place to live. If we all go, then who will stay behind and watch the colony," Krista asked. Each of them looked at each other again, trying to figure out the answer. The colony did need them, but their chicks also needed them. And they needed them too.
"I'll go, you all stay," Mumble spoke up then. They stared him before shaking their heads. He couldn't go, in their group he was pretty much the leader of them. He always was the one who came up with the ideas and plans, plus he was their main motivational speaker. He couldn't just go off and leave them clueless of what to do. Plus, what would Violet do if we disappeared?
"No, no you can't go. You're too important to leave off on some random mission to find all our chicks. Noah is right, we don't know where they are or even if their still out there. I won't having yourself risk your life out there," Violet finished sadly. Mumble waddled over to her and gently touched her flipper with his.
"Vi', I know its dangerous out there, and hey, the odds of finding our chicks are very thin, but I know, I just know, that they're out there. Somewhere. And I know I can find them if you'll just let me go," he said. Violet nodded and two tears slipped out of her namesake eyes. Mumble quickly brushed them away.
"I'll be back soon. I promise." He then turned back to his friends. "Make sure the colony is safe while I'm gone. Ask Eria, Matt and the Amigos for help is you need it too."
"On it," Seymour replied.
"And Mumble," Violet started. He turned to look at her. "Be safe." He nodded.
"I'll be back soon," he replied, and began heading towards the ocean, leaving behind his wife and four friends to take charge of the colony and to hopefully lead them to someplace safe.
"So you see Zach, we penguins eat seafood since it's what we have back home," Veronica said to the liger across from her. He had been curious of why they ate so much fish everyday and not get sick of it.
"Well I still think you should have something different, like this white meat chicken, to give some variety in your diet," he said as he snacked on some of the meat. Veronica cringed a bit. After talking with Sasha, she had learned the hard way what Zach ate. Sven had fainted after hearing it and tried his best to stay away from him, despite Zach telling him that he would not eat him and there wan't even a way he could get out of his enclosure and into there's.
"Yeah... anyways, can you tell me a bit more about Africa," she asked. After hearing what land they were on, the chicks hadn't been able to stop asking about it. To be honest, many of the other animals were sick of answering. Zach rolled his eyes.
"Fine, but only if you let me eat my lunch afterwards," he said. Veronica nodded her head rapidly and signaled the other chicks to come listen.
"Okay, so like I said, this place is way up further North then where you are, and its closer to the middle of the earth, the Equator, so it gets most of the sun's rays which makes it warmer," he explained.
"Yes, but what about the land itself," Bo asked.
"If you don't stop interrupting me then you'll never know," he replied. Bo immediately placed her flippers over her beak.
"Anyways, since the land is much hotter than where you come from, things grow much faster. The plants like the ones you can see somewhat around us-," he pointed to the trees, flowers, bushes and vines, "-grow very fast, and that means a lot of animals that eat the plants can grow quickly too. Animals like monkeys and parrots who eat the plants or stuff from the plants. And that means meat-eaters like myself and those two over there," he said as he looked at the hyena bros, "have lots to eat too."
"Are there penguins that live in Africa too," Erik asked.
"Yes, and that is where we come in," came a voice and Sasha waddled over to them. "African penguins, such as myself, live near the coast and swim and fish in the cold waters."
"I was gonna say that," Zach pouted.
"Well I beat you to it. Now go eat your meat and let the chicks eat their lunch, though it is nice to see you interacting with other creatures. Their arrival has made you more open-going then before, Zachery," Sasha said. Zach scoffed but obediently started eating his meal.
"Zachery," Erik asked. Sasha chuckled and Zach pretended not to notice.
"His full name. Now c'mon, little ones. Time to eat," Sasha said. The chicks said their goodbyes to Zach and headed towards the zookeeper with their daily meal.
Meanwhile, the hyena brothers were watching the penguins waddle off while sitting in their enclosure. Mikey and Kenny both smirked as the chicks didn't even notice them as they watched them from afar, completely unknown to them. What they didn't know is that the hyenas were planning to get the chicks into trouble.
If someone had been looking in the hyena enclosure at the time, they would had seen two logs, one on top of the other in the form of a crude see-saw. On one end of the top log was an indentation, capable of holding, meh, a tennis ball roughly. And that was what was in there. A tennis ball. A partially-chewed, dirty tennis ball.
"Ready to fire, brother," Kenny asked. Mikey saluted him.
"Yes, I just hope it gets in this time. Three sticks, two tennis balls and my favorite chew toy gone from misfiring isn't exactly a proud thing to say when your about to really aim for something," Mikey whined in reply. Kenny just growled in reply. Mikey held up his paws in surrender. Being second born did have some disadvantages. "Whoa, whoa! I get the drift. I'm firing, I'm firing," he said before hopping onto a rock platform just about a foot above the seesaw/catapult nearby.
"Here goes nothing. Gueranamo," he cried out as he hopped down on the other side of the wood, sending the other side up and the tennis ball flying into the air, over the hyena enclosure, over the path between the enclosure and straight into the penguin enclosure where it landed out of sight with a loud thump. The two brothers listened in to hear if anyone had been startled or screamed from the sudden projectile. Five seconds passed and they still didn't hear anything.
"Um, maybe it overshot," Mikey offered. Kenny glared at him and was about to reply, when-
"What the freaking heck!"
Both hyenas stared in shock at the voice that came from the penguin enclosure, then turned to look at each other and grinned.
"Direct hit," Kenny said.
To say Evan wasn't the nicest penguin around here was an understatement right now. He was positively furious at the moment. He had just been right at the water's edge, getting his feet wet, nothing more, when suddenly, something hit his head and sent him off balance and into the pool, head-first. He hadn't planned on going swimming today, he wasn't planning to get wet today.
He looked over to where the tennis ball was floating lazily in the pool. He looked up ahead and saw three annoying penguin chicks, standing all together, conversing with each other. He narrowed his eyes. them. They must had thrown it.
And they would pay.
"You," he yelled at them as he waddled out of the pool and over to them. the three scrunched together in fear as he approached. "You think its funny to throw things at other penguin's heads," he barked. The gazed up at him in fear.
"No, sir. We didn't throw anything at you," Skyler stammered.
"Yeah, we don't know what your talking about," Erik added. Evan glared harder at them.
"Oh! Is that so," he sarcastically replied. "Well then, how can you explain the tennis ball just being thrown at my head out of nowhere!" The chicks were beginning to shiver in fear.
"I'm telling you, we had nothing to do with it," Erika pleaded. Evan didn't stop.
"You bad, bad chicks! I knew you were trouble here from the start, but did anyone believe me?! No! You're just a bunch of troublemaker chicks," he accused. Tears began to form in each of the chick's ice blue eyes and they began to whimper. Suddenly, a flash of black and white catapulted over their heads and right before Evan.
"Hey! Stop picking on my friends," Bo said as she blocked Evan's way to the siblings. Atticus, Andrew, Nathan, and Veronica joined her side.
"Yeah man. Stop accusing our friends for something they didn't do. And trust me, they didn't do it," Atticus added.
"Yeah, we were watching the whole thing the entire time," Andrew commented. Nathan and Veronica nodded in agreement.
"What's going on over here," Lovelace said as he, Sasha and Sven walked over to them.
"These three, right here, threw a tennis ball at my head when I was getting my feet wet, and now they won't admit it," Evan said. The three chicks piped up.
"We didn't do it! Honest," they said all at once, trying to prove their innocence. The looks on their faces and the tears threatening to spill down their faces was enough evidence to prove their honesty though.
"Well if the little ones say they didn't do, then I believe that they didn't. And you should too," Sven reasoned. Evan looked shocked before glaring.
"You're in on it," he accused. Sasha and Lovelace then stepped forward. Sasha got straight up in Evan's face while Lovelace shielded the chicks.
"That enough, Evan! I am so sick of your negative attitude to our new guests. If they say they are innocent, then you should believe them. I was watching the chicks and I didn't see any signs of them throwing the ball at you. Look," she said, pointing to the ball, "It's a tennis ball. Penguins aren't given tennis balls, but you know who does? The hyenas." All eyes turned to the hyena enclosure, and sure enough, two brother hyenas were laughing on the floor of their home.
"They did it," Lovelace concluded. All eyes turned back to Evan, who looked down looking very humiliated indeed.
"Now Evan, I want you to go over to these chicks and give a full, heart-felt apology to them for accusing them for a crime they did not commit," Sasha ordered. Evan nodded and looked up at the chicks, specifically Skyler, Erik and Erika.
"Sorry," he mumbled, before waddling away.
"Are you three okay," Andrew asked. They nodded.
"It wasn't very nice of him to say those things to you," Atticus added.
"Yes, please excuse him behavior. He-he's always been this way, but I never thought his attitude was this bad. I'll go talk to him," Sasha said before waddling after him.
"Thanks guys," Erik whispered. "Thanks for standing up for us." Everyone smiled and went over and hugged them all.
"You're welcome," they all replied quietly.
Zach looked up from his enclosure as he heard footsteps on the stone path. He opened his eyes to see one of the zookeeper looking in to the penguin exhibit with a camera. He looked closer and say the chicks, Sven and Lovelace together in a group hug. He smiled and placed his head back in his paws.
"Man, the're all just too cute. They're going to receive a whole lot of publicity now when that picture goes out," he thought and went back to sleeping.
Meanwhile, back in Antarctica.
Mumble stood alone on the ice outcrop leading out to the ocean, the same place where he had stood on his graduation day as he was the first of all his classmates to plunge into the water for the first time. He looked out towards the setting sun.
"I'll find them, no matter what it takes. I will find them," he thought. His feet then left the edge as he plunged in head-first into the dangerous and cold waters. He opened his eyes as he entered the water.
The bubbles looked like stars in a watery sky. He twisted himself towards the surface and burst out of it, skimming the water above before plunging back in. His course was set. He was going to find his chicks and the others, no matter what.
Short chapter, but there's much more yet to come. Mumble's re-entering the alien's world, but will he succeed in finding his loved ones? I guess the future chapters are the only way to find out.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review and thanks to those who have already reviewed. I'll see you next time. Sincerely, v.t.7
