A/N: Alright mates! I have added in loglines for most of the stories I have wrote and these include this series, The Chosen Series, a few of my single stories and The Otter And Her Penguin, which is now a series I call "The Bonds Of Life Saga". The story of skipper's past also has its own series name, "The Chronicles Of Life", which includes whatever life stories about the penguins! The next would possibly be Private's, but we'll see. There will also be Rico, Kowalski, Marlene and Hans.
And, thanks to all the reviewers! You all get a jar of virtual crumpets…each! Baked by Private and his Uncle Nigel, so enjoy! Plus, Bagel is only half-owned by me. The creator of him is my real life friend, Eyelordcakless.
Chapter 8:
The Future Of The Past
[3 Days, 15 Hours since incident - 0726 hours New York Time]
Side to side. Up and down. The whole journey was monotonous and boring. We would sail south, change positions every few hours; Ernie to me, Manfredi, Johnson then back to Ernie. Most of us were bored out of our minds and did nothing but stare out into the great blue.
Ernie would take the early afternoon shift, I would take the late afternoon or evening shift, Manfredi the night shift and Johnson; the late night or early morning shift. The rest would either try to figure out the last few phrases to the riddle or go and get some fish for us to eat. It's pretty surprising that we've sailed for so long yet we just made it a few miles off Antarctica waters. Twenty-three miles left I guess.
It was now Ernie's shift, so I continued reading and re-reading the texts in the book Bagel gave me to try and memorise them. I still don't get how it would work for us if I never used magic before. Who knows? Maybe it wouldn't even work cause I'm just a normal, penguinized human. Well, normal in a sense.
"What are you reading there?" a voice asked, almost making me fall off the chest I was using as a chair. I looked over at the source of the voice to see Private, who seemed bored to the max.
I collected myself and put the book down for a while. "It's a...book that Bagel gave me before we left," I answered honestly.
"May I see it?" he asked innocently.
I tapped the space next to me and he climbed up the chest and sat beside me. "Here, maybe you'll have more luck understanding it."
He took it from my flippers and started reading. He flipped page to page, browsing through the various handwritten texts and drawings. "It says these only work when you say the original text out loud," he suddenly started.
"What? I read the whole thing but I didn't see anything saying something like that."
Private turned over to the front page and pointed at a line of text. "That's because it's in Portuguese. See?" True enough, the text was in Portuguese.
I looked at him, a bit amazed. "When did you learn to read Portuguese?" I asked. I know Nick and I taught them how to read English, but Portuguese?!
"I said I always wanted to go Carnival, so I taught myself after you guys taught us English. You know, learn the language of the place you want to visit to make it easier to communicate. It wasn't that hard."
I looked him, amused. I then took back the book and flipped to one page in particular. "So, if we read this text here out loud, it would work?" I asked, pointing at the Portuguese text on it.
"I can't say for sure, but that's what the book says."
"What book says what?" a voice suddenly started. We turned to face Manfredi, who was looking at us curiously from the foot of the chest. He seemed a bit suspicious, a bit like Skipper if you ask me.
I decided to tell him the truth, since I know he knows more of this magic stuff then me. "The book that Bagel gave me," I replied. "A book about spells like the one Bagel used, I think."
Manfredi instantly climbed up to us and asked if he could see it. He flipped through the pages as well and looked as confused as me. "Well, this is definitely not black magic. If it were, then the whole thing would have been in Latin."
Then, he flipped back to the page where we were on before. "Hey, this is a transportation spell," he inferred.
"You don't say," I replied sarcastically.
He just rolled his eyes and started reading the text. "Ready on the count of two, transport us to...Antarctica, one, two!" he exclaimed.
Nothing happened.
I did a faceflipper and took the book from him. "You're supposed to read the Portuguese text, genius." I then cleared my throat and tried reading. "Wait, um, what's Antarctica in Portuguese?" I asked Private.
"Antártica."
"Really? Whatever, here goes nothing." I leaned flipper against the wall and started. "Pronto...na contagem de..dois, nos trans-portar...para a...Antártica, um, dois!"
Still nothing happened.
"Huh, why didn't that..." My sentence got cut when suddenly a bright flash of light radiated from the boat and blinded us. Then, the boat crashed. But not on something in the water.
We crashed on the icy tundra of Antarctica.
"WHAT IN THE NAME OF COPENHAGEN JUST HAPPENED!" Hans yelled, after finding himself buried under Johnson and Rico. Nick and Ernie had also fallen to the floor, along with Private, Manfredi and I.
"Well...it works," Private said as he got to his feet. We all took a moment to gather ourselves. We immediately noticed the colder temperatures and passed Ernie the snow jacket, which was a bit oversized but otherwise effective.
Then, Johnson spoke up. "Ok, now can somebody please explain what just happened?" he asked. I was about to answer when Manfredi butted in.
"Transportation spell. The one in the book Bagel gave Josh," he explained. I held up the book just so they know what he meant. "Why he gave him the book, I don't know."
"He said it was to defend ourselves, possibly from the Chinstrap Sisters' black magic," I interjected. Manfredi nodded.
"I can see that possibility, but if it indeed is black magic it disguise or some other form of sorcery, then I don't think we should mess with it. It can corrupt the minds of those who use it, making them crave for destruction and violence," he said. "In other words, the devil inside you takes over, and you can't escape it without pure magic."
We all had the same reaction to his last words. "Pure magic?" we all asked, almost in complete unison.
"It's just a myth. Pure magic doesn't exist, because black magic destroyed it centuries ago, never to be used again. That is why the Chinstrap Sisters can't be stop. They are too corrupted to turn away from the clutches of black magic and the only other way to purify them is by using pure magic, or by killing them, as the saying goes."
Silence filled the space as the howling wind tried to break it. We were still processing the information Manfredi gave us, but I still had one last question on my mind.
"How do you know all this?" Manfredi gave me a gaze and pointed at the book.
"From the same guy who gave you that," he answered. "He's pretty much an expert on this kind of stuff, plus he seems to believe one day pure magic will rise again and defeat black magic," he added, intriguing me and the rest more. We all obviously wanted to know more on what we were up against, but not us much as me.
He looked at all our faces and sighed. "Ok, everyone sit down for a while, and I'll tell you about it. You all deserve to know after all we've been through." So, everyone did as told and he began relating the so-called prophecy that Bagel believed in.
"A few centuries ago, pure magic hailed dominant against black magic. Before, only humans used such power. The pure magic sorcerers always prevailed over the black magic sorcerers. Balanced was kept so long as pure magic sorcerers were there to keep it that way. Where the sides of magic originated from, nobody really knows. What we do know is this. The most powerful pure magic sorcerer, Zenocravatious, died from a death curse that was later named after him after two animals wielded the power of black magic. And you know who those two animals are?"
Immediately, we all replied, "The Chinstrap Sisters."
"Correct. But, because he died, so did pure magic altogether. The other pure magic sorcerers lost their powers and quickly they were eliminated. The world plunged into darkness, spiralling it into what's known as the Dark Ages. It was only after other animals and humans learned other forms of magic did the black magic die down, but not forever. Instead, it was practiced in secret, till the time was right. Pure magic never returned, but it is prophesied that after 500 centuries, pure magic will be reborn, but not by a human, but an animal; a penguin. When the Chinstrap Sisters finally caught up with the news, they sworn to eliminate this penguin before pure magic could get reborn. It was only faith that they thought that penguin was..."
"You?" Hans finished. Manfredi nodded sadly.
"I don't really know why, but that's what they thought. What made things worse was when Skipper and Johnson tried to defend me. Why did they? Because they used us to get them the most powerful artifact ever known to both pure and black magic sorcerers alike; The Talismen Of The Blood Moon Eclipse." He then took off his peg leg and poured out its contents. Obviously it was hollow.
He showed us what he hid in it, which was a beautifully carved red gemstone. It was shaped like a hexagon and looked like a gemstone Mentos or something. "I took this from that Talismen, which is the most important part for it to work."
We all awed at the diamond-like gemstone, mesmerised by it like it had magical properties of its own. "What is it?" Nick asked curiously.
Manfredi then put the gem back in his peg leg and replaced it. "It's a Blood Ruby; the rarest gem on Earth. Not many people know why The Talismen Of The Blood Moon Eclipse was even created for, but they say it is as old as the Earth itself. It is believed to serve as a key to open the gates to the underworld and free the Army of Darkness to take over the world, which was the reason why I took it, to prevent that."
"So," Ernie started, drawing our attention to him. "Now they are after us to get that from you? To reunite it with the Talismen and summon the Army of Darkness?" Manfredi simply nodded again. "So, why don't you just destroy it? That way..."
"I've already tried," interrupted Manfredi. "It's been enchanted to become indestructible. Only pure magic can make it destructible again. The only way to keep them from taking over the world is to protect it from them; make sure they don't get their flippers on it."
He then stood up and store out the door, into the eternal white of Antarctica. "I should have guessed it when you guys came to bust us out. That was the only place that was safe from their magic, because we were invisible there." He turned to look back at us. "That very prison was built directly on Zenocravatious' castle grounds; the very enchanted grounds to keep black magic out and protect the survival of pure magic and the world."
His gaze soon landed on Hans, and a slight smile crept up to his face, but quickly disappeared. "I should actually thank you Hans. If it wasn't for you, I would have never been able to hide the gem from them for this long."
"Uh...thanks?" Hans replied awkwardly. Manfredi gave him a nod and a small salute. He returned it and smiled.
"How come I don't know this?" asked Johnson. We all thought about it, and it was true. Why didn't he know about it?
Manfredi waddled over to him and said, "Because, they erased your memory." Johnson was instantly taken aback. "After I took the gem, you blocked me from being hit by one of their spells and, well, I think you can figure out the rest."
Everything made sense now; why the Chinstrap Sisters cursed Skipper. They did it so we would find Manfredi and Johnson, so they could retrieve the gem and rule the world. I waddled over to Manfredi and held out a flipper.
"Well, if they want to get that gem from you, then they'll have to go through me." I said with an air of confidence. Soon, the rest followed my example.
"They have to go through me too," Nick agreed.
"Us too," said Private, Rico and Ernie.
"You have my word, my old friend," Hans swore, giving Manfredi a bro hug.
"Thanks guys. Without your help, we may not be able to do this at all." He looked back out the tundra we were in, then back to us. "Now let's go save Skipper and Kowalski."
A/N: Ok then, I hope that this sheds some light on the magic subject and also gives a small sneak peak on what is going to happen in part 6. I hope you liked it! R&R!
