"Going to miss you cousin." Danny hugged Sara, who was in his flippers along with Elizabeth.
"I'm going to miss you guys so much," Sara sniffled, tears coming down from her eyes. She hugged her two cousins even tighter.
Elizabeth looked at her cousin fondly. "Promise you wont forget us?" she asked.
"I promise. It's impossible to forget you two," Sara promised. "Just like it's impossible to forget every one else in our family…"
"Don't go thinking about your parents now." Danny wiped away the tears from Sara's eyes. "Besides you still got us."
Sara then asked an unexpected question. Probably something she should have kept to herself. "Do you two miss your parents?" she asked.
Danny and Elizabeth both stiffened. A moment went by before Elizabeth answered, "Of course we do. It's hard to imagine anyone who hated our parents."
Sara looked at the ground briefly before looking back at Danny and Elizabeth, who still had their flippers around her. "Madison hates her parents, and I don't think Amber really likes hers that much. But I think Flora is fine with her dad," Sara told them.
"Why would she hate them?" Elizabeth asked curiously.
"I rather not say…" Sara trailed off. She didn't like thinking about it much.
"Well either way, just stay safe alright? And avoid snakes. Those things are freaky!" Danny exclaimed. He hated snakes, and he wasn't the only one.
"DON'T REMIND ME! I'M SCARED TO DEATH OF THOSE THINGS!" Sara screamed. It caught the attention of many colony penguins, but Sara ignored it. "Those things are creepy…" Sara clung to Danny's feathers even tighter and Elizabeth had to squeeze out of the hug just to breathe.
"Ok, ok!" Danny gasped. "Now let me breathe!"
Sara immediately let her slackened her grip. "Sorry," she apologized sheepishly. Danny coughed, and gasped for a breath of air.
"It's alright. Just don't do that again. Man you got a good grip."
"Amber said the same thing a couple of times before…" Sara trailed off and entered her own world of flashbacks.
Elizabeth clapped in Sara's face to get her out of her daze. It worked and Sara shook herself out of daydreaming. "Will you two be ok?" Sara asked, as the concerned penguin she was she wanted to be sure before she left them.
"I'm pretty sure that Zero will protect us." Elizabeth smiled.
Danny added, "And I know we can handle it."
"Well if you're sure…" Sara sighed. "Bye then."
"Bye Sara," the two chorused. Sara gave them one last hug, before her two cousins retreated back into the mass of the other colony penguins.
"Don't worry," Private spoke up. Sara jumped and let out a startled shriek. She had no idea that had Private been right behind her. "Sorry Sara. I didn't mean to give you a fright," Private apologized with round eyes.
Sara smiled at the sight. Private is so adorable with those eyes… She snapped herself out of her state and pecked Private on the cheek, which made him gain a pink tint to his cheeks. "It's alright. Please don't do that again though," Sara pleaded. "I almost had a heart attack! Oh and just in case, don't ever surprise Amber," she told him, waddling off to find her comrades.
"Wait up Sara!" Private called after her. Sara laughed and went even faster, Private at her tail feathers.
Flora had been watching Sara for a tiny bit, just because she felt sorry for the young penguin. She smiled bitter sweetly at the young penguins' running around many others. It must be hard for her to leave them, she thought. At least Private is there for her. Flora turned around when something tapped her shoulder. She smiled slightly when she saw her three sisters.
"Hey Flora," the three chorused, as they often did.
"Hello," Flora greeted calmly. She was aware of the slight tension in the air. "It's…good to know you three are alive," she said awkwardly.
Jenny looked at the ground then back up. "Well...same to you," Jenny said, just as awkward.
Flora sighed before saying, "Look…I know we have our differences, but I'm still glad were family. From what Skipper told me, Amber would have died if you three hadn't came along to help, so…thanks."
"Well you're welcome," Bella snorted.
This made Flora steam a bit, but she held down her anger. Unlike Amber and Madison, she had a leash on her temper. "So…I guess this is a goodbye then?" the female scientist inquired.
Jenny rubbed the back of her head. "Suppose so," she muttered.
"Aw, who am I kidding? Come here!" Terra bounced over to Flora and gave her a squeeze. "I missed you." Flora accepted the hug with a smile. Terra was the more likeable of the three to her.
"I missed you too," Jenny admitted.
"I might have also," Bella said reluctantly. They slowly wrapped their flippers around Flora and Terra. It may have not been the most touching reunion, but it was close enough for them due to their clashes in the past.
"That's so sweet," a voice that Flora recognized immediately said.
Flora was pleasantly surprised and suppressed a squeal. "Hey Dad," she chuckled as he grinned and brightened up considerably. "I thought I'd never see you again!"
"And I thought I would never see you with another penguin." Flora's dad stepped in front of her. Just like the whole family, he had brown feathers but had blue eyes. He was rather large and bulked for a penguin. It would be easy to say they weren't related if not for the brown feathers. "So what was his name? Walski right?"
Flora blushed. "It's Kowalski," she corrected.
"So he's your boyfriend then?" her dad asked, nudging her playfully.
"Uh, I guess so." Flora shrugged. They never officially established their relationship but it might as well be a boyfriend/girlfriend thing already.
"I knew it!" her dad exclaimed, which startled her. "I knew you would find someone just for you!"
Flora felt extremely embarrassed by her father. "Please Dad, not here. You're gathering attention." The father looked around and, sure enough, he was gathering quite a bit of attention. Flora cowered behind her sisters in an attempt to escape some of the colony penguins gazes.
Bella rolled her eyes in amusement. "Chicken," she snorted.
Flora silently fumed for being called. "I am not! I don't even look like one," she protested. "I just don't like being looked at…"
Jenny looked at Flora with surprise. "You should be thankful for being looked at!" she gasped.
"Who wouldn't want to have such attention?" Terra asked with exasperation in her tone.
"Uh…me?" Flora answered uncertainly.
"There is something wrong with you," Bella said coldly.
"There isn't anything wrong with her." Flora's dad scowled at the three sisters. "At least she's well behaved. Most of the time…"
Flora slowly took steps backwards to get away from her family when she bumped into something. She let out a startled yelp and whirled around. She visibly relaxed when she realized it was just Kowalski. "Kowalski don't do that. You almost stopped my heart!"
"Sorry." Kowalski shrugged sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "So is that your family?" Kowalski asked, clearly curious and possibly disturbed. He pointed to four arguing penguins behind her. Flora sighed and muttered, "Yes they're my family." Kowalski hummed in interest and rubbed the bottom of his beak, which made Flora become even more embarrassed from her own family.
"Hey Flora!" Flora's dad called out. She froze and kept wishing in her head that he wouldn't notice Kowalski. "Is that Kowalski?" She cursed the universe, and Sara's fairytales for wronging her.
"Is that your father?" Kowalski asked her, although he was pretty sure he was. Flora turned her head and watched her dad slowly approach them, along with her sisters that she wished would disappear.
Flora reluctantly nodded. "Yeah. Whatever you do, don't say something stupid, ok?" Flora ordered.
"Pssh." Kowalski waved his flippers. "Impossible."
That's when Flora's father came up from behind. "So is this Kowalski?" he asked.
"Yes, of course," Flora answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Jenny commented, "He's cute." She blinked her eyes at Kowalski, making him a bit embarrassed as he smiled nervously. Flora narrowed her eyes in jealousy.
The father of the four extended a flipper. "Nice to meet someone that's actually interested in her," he joked. Flora nudged her dad in the ribs. "Hey, I'm just joking."
Kowalski shook the larger penguin's flipper. "Nice to meet you," he greeted awkwardly. Flora mentally slapped herself.
Her dad's next works made her eyes grow large and made freeze her in place. "You two going to kiss or what?" That also made Kowalski freeze, but they both relaxed when he said, "I'm only kidding!" Flora's dad patted her back and announced, "Well, I don't want to interrupt you two. So I'll be on my way. C'mon girls, let's see if we can find Ness. He owes me some fish! I told him Flora would find a guy! I knew it!" The father continued to shout about how right he was, which made Flora's face beat red from embarrassment.
"I'm sorry Ko-" she was then spun around and facing her boyfriend.
"To be honest, I don't mind doing this…" Kowalski trailed off and planted a quick kiss on the side of her beak to make her feel better. A smile spread across his face. He had been longing to do that for a while.
Flora blushed and smiled at him. "I guess I don't mind either…" She then just kissed him on the spot. Kowalski face immediately turned into a deep shade of red, just like Flora's. But he slowly got a goofy grin on his face and kissed her back. They wrapped their flippers around each other, enjoying each others warmth and silky feathers.
The two didn't bother to notice the gazes of the colony penguins.
"Please don't go." Jake stumbled over to Madison, who was just adjusting her baseball hat before her brothers came over to her. "I miss my sister…" he whimpered. The chick made his brown eyes grow big and round. An absolutely adorable picture if he didn't look so thin.
Madison mentally groaned. Why does he do that? She remembered the last time she had saw him back in Antarctica. He still had most of his down feathers and had just recently hatched from his egg. He was just as cute then as he was now.
"Jake, don't do this to her man." Max picked up the chick and held him in his flippers. "She's gunna hang around The Big Apple now," Max explained to the hatchling. "Make sure you send us a postcard, ok?"
"And don't forget about us," Ted added. "We're just too good to be forgotten," Ted said without any sense of modesty.
Max's eyes started to well up. "I can't say goodbye. Ah man, why? I promised myself I wouldn't cry!" he cried out hysterically, making Ted and Madison smile at him. He came up to Madison and started shaking her, making little Jake dizzy as well as her. "Man, I love you sis! Don't forget to eat your vegetables!"
"Max," Ted addressed, placing his flipper behind his back. "We don't eat those."
The large penguin started petting the back of the mute penguin's head, making Madison disturbed but amused. "I'll always remember our pet fish!"
"It froze to death on the first day!"
"Don't forget us!" Max wailed hysterically, sobbing loudly, making everyone look in their direction. Ted finally dragged him away, telling him to calm down.
Madison smiled fondly at her brothers. How could she ever forget them? She turned her head to a something that sounded like footsteps. What she saw dropped her mood considerably. Her parents were coming over to her. Great, she thought bitterly.
Her parents pushed the three siblings away so they were in front of the silent penguin. Max wiped away his tears and sniffed.
"Well, looks like you managed to do something right for a change," her mom stated coldly. Madison felt her eye twitch at that comment. She curled her flippers up, trying to press down her rising anger. "But you almost messed up. Not the first time I might add. Why can't you stay out of trouble?" her mother added with her dad nodding in agreement. Madison was grinding her beak at this point.
Oh how Madison wished she could defend herself. She stopped and jumped slightly when a flipper was put on her shoulder. She looked over and, to her surprise, it was Rico. He didn't seem happy at all. He was glaring at her parents coldly. No doubt that he had heard what they had said.
"Who the heck is this?" Madison's mom asked, rather disgusted.
That made her blood boil, and she would have just tackled her mom if Ted hadn't stopped her. Ted came down toward her face and whispered, "It's not worth it. Let it be." The voice of reason inside the penguin stopped her, but she had to stop Rico, who had the same intentions she had moments ago. "Who is this anyway?" Ted asked.
"Rico," the psychopath answered simply, his anger going down slowly.
"Hey, you were that penguin that blew that wall with dynamite!" Max exclaimed, remembering when Rico blew up the wall and had jumped out of the wreck with some of his dynamite also. "Dude, that was sick! How do you do that? It's like crazy magic!"
Rico slowly smiled at Max, sharing a glance with Madison. It was entertaining to see the fat penguin waving his flippers around and imitating explosions sounds and re-acting everything.
"Alright take a breath," Ted told the 'big boned' penguin. Max stopped talking and took a large gulp of air. But he continued to hold it in and started turning purple. Ted rolled his eyes. "And breathe out!" Max started panting when he finally breathed out. He gratefully said, "Thanks bro, I needed that." Ted rolled his eyes. Typical Max.
"Well, what are you doing here?" Madison's dad pointed to Rico, saying words for him were rare since Madison's mom usually did all the talking for them.
"Madison," Rico answered and wrapped a flipper around her waist. This only earned confused looks from some the aquatic birds.
"What do you want with her?" Madison's mom asked, looking rather repulsed.
"She's mine," Rico grunted, tightening his grip around Madison and giving her mom an angered look.
Jake squeaked, "What do you mean by that?" Jake, being his age, was oblivious to it.
"Mine," Rico repeated and planted a quick kiss on the side of her beak. It made Madison get red from embarrassment, which made Rico chuckle lowly.
This brought many different reactions from the penguins. Jake was still confused, Ted was surprised, Max was barking out in laughter and the parents were just disgusted.
"I can't believe you want to waste your time with that...thing…" the mom muttered. Whether they were implying Rico or Madison was unknown. The two parents walked away after that.
Madison turned her head Rico and smiled widely at him. Rico did the same and wrapped another flipper around her waist. Madison wrapped both of her flippers around him, and they both hugged each other.
She was thankful he had helped her out but getting rid of her parents and he seemed to understand that as well. Who needed family when you had a psychopath for a boyfriend?
Amber smirked at her stepbrother, their earlier argument forgotten. "Going to miss you Zero." She patted Zero's back fondly.
"Just don't get into any trouble. I know how you are," Zero chuckled.
Amber frowned. "I'm not the only one who gets into trouble. Take good care of the colony or else whatever happens is on your head," she said sternly.
Zero waved her off. "I can take care of everything," he assured. With that said, he walked off to gather everyone up for their departure.
Amber smirked when a couple of familiar faces came up. Her stepsisters. "Galena and Nalani!" She waved them over.
"Hey sis," Galena greeted sadly, knowing they were going to have to separate soon once again. She had a large scar on her back, ebony feathers with a white belly and green eyes.
"Hi Amber." Nalani waved. Part of her beak was chipped off; she had a noticeable scar on her chest that formed a X. She had ebony feathers and a white belly and green eyes also.
"We saw you with…what's his face…" Nalani trailed off, trying to remember which penguin she was talking about.
Galena looked at her sister. "I think I heard his name was Skipper," she told her step sister.
Nalani brightened as she remembered. "Oh yes! That was his name," she exclaimed and smiled at Amber slyly. "So you two dating or something?"
Amber groaned. Not this again… "No, we're not dating! Why does everyone keep asking me that?" she questioned, clearly aggravated.
Nalani and Galena shared knowing glances and looked back at the irritated silver penguin. "Maybe because you two look cute together," Nalani suggested.
"That and a couple of penguins have seen you two all close up. You two practically flirt with each other!" Galena exclaimed.
Amber glared at her stepsisters. "We don't flirt," she growled, faintly wondering if she and Skipper did.
Galena shook her head while rolling her eyes and looked at Amber, square in the eye. "Yes you do."
"We don't flirt, case closed. Now bye!" Amber dismissed them by shoving them away, so she wouldn't have to deal with them anymore. The two went off snickering. Amber rolled her eyes, but they caught something. Her two other stepbrothers were coming up to her, who she honestly didn't want to see.
The first one had yellow eyes like Zero and ebony feathers. The second one had blue eyes and, just like all the other penguins, he had ebony colored feathers. Unlike the girls, they didn't have any noticeable damage on them.
"Hey Pedro," Amber greeted to the yellow eyed penguin. "Sup Ian," she greeted also to the blue eyed avian.
Pedro looked at her with affection and hugged her tightly. "Más tarde, hermanita. Nos veremos algún día de nuevo," he said confidently in Spanish. Ian and Amber were able to understand what their stepbrother said.
"I know we will," Ian added.
Amber shook her head "We might come around to make sure Zero doesn't destroy you all!" she joked.
Ian laughed lightly, "We'll see."
Pedro looked at Ian, confused, since he was unable to tell what they said. "No lo entiendo," he told them. Ian repeated what Amber had said in Spanish and when he was finished, Pedro seemed amused as he had been. "Cero defendería las colonias de pingüinos de todos modos," Pedro chuckled.
"Don't underestimate, no matter how small the threat!" Amber pointed her flipper at the two.
"You're just too paranoid," Ian sighed.
"Paranoia is a virtue in life," Amber argued calmly.
Ian shot back, "Not unless if it drives you insane," Ian shot back.
"Do I look insane to you?" Amber barked with her eye slightly twitching.
"Ella mira loco," Pedro muttered to Ian, making a circular gesture to his head. He laughed, finding Pedro's confusion amusing. "You're completely sane," he said sarcastically to Amber, noting what Pedro had said.
Amber looked cross at her two stepbrothers. "Yeah, yeah I get it. Honestly, can't get a loving reunion with anybody 'round here can I?" she grumbled.
Pedro sensed his stepsisters' annoyance and let his concern wash over. "No te enjoes!" Pedro and Ian then hugged her. It was unexpected, but she hugged back anyway.
"Mejor?" Pedro asked, Ian trying to pull him away because Zero was calling to them.
Amber sighed and pushed down her annoyance. "Yeah, whatever. Bye for now and don't die alright?" she chuckled.
"Not making any promises," Ian called over his shoulder as the two of them waddled away. Amber snorted and waddled off to find her team. After a minute, she found them talking under a large shady tree. Well Flora and Sara were doing the talking. Madison was just standing around, looking bored.
"I was wondering where you went," Flora admitted when she noticed Amber coming over.
"Just talked to my family. Strange enough, I didn't see my foster parents…" Amber trailed off, silently glad she hadn't.
Sara tapped her flippers together hesitantly. "Do you think Zero will do alright with the colony?" she asked, interrupting Amber's thoughts.
The silver bird snapped back to reality. "You know him. I'm sure he'll be just fine," she reassured and started walking away again. "Besides, they're his problem now." The leader chuckled.
"Well yes, I-Wait Amber! That's not a very nice to say!" Sara ran after her leader, yelling about what she had said the whole time. "Give your actually goodbyes!" she demanded. "Don't leave them like that!"
"I believe she's making a big deal over nothing." Flora rolled her eyes. Madison grunted in agreement but followed the two smaller penguins, Flora at her side.
After a while, Sara had finally convinced Amber to say their final goodbyes, mostly an excuse to spend more time with her cousins. They were currently waving and shouting their last goodbyes to the leaving colony penguins, who were also doing the same.
Sara had silent tears coming down her face. She was going to miss her family, even if it was only her two cousins.
"Ah, don't worry," Amber assured, noticing Sara's sadness. "Maybe we could visit for the holidays."
That perked Sara up considerably, and she smiled widely. "So we can actually visit them?" she squeaked in delight.
Amber cringed when Sara squeaked, making her gain a headache. "I suppose. Just don't squeak or giggle like a school girl in front of me," she mumbled. Sara snapped her beak shut to prevent any unwanted giggles, squeals or squeaks.
"Come on!" Skipper shouted from across the forest. "We're going to leave you all here if you don't move it!"
"AH! Don't leave us!" Sara shouted. She started running to where Skipper and his team were. Flora ran after, tripping and falling on her face as she did. Madison ran to her, laughing the entire time at the penguins clumsiness, picked her up, and the two both started running after Sara.
Amber calmly waddled after the penguins with a smirk on her face. That's my team alright, she thought.
Más tarde, hermanita. Nos veremos algún día de nuevo: Later sis. See you again someday.
No lo entiendo: I don't understand.
Cero defendería las colonias de pingüinos de todos modos: Zero would defend the colony penguins anyway.
Ella mira loco: She looks crazy...
No te enojes: Don't be mad.
I'm honestly not sure if my translations are correct.
Galena is a name, it means lead like metal in Latin. Nalani is a Hawaiian name. It means the calm of the skies. I know it's not the best chapter but I hade to get it moving, again. Review and I hope you like the story!
Sara: I like it!
Me: Why?
Sara: Because Private is there! He's the cutest thing ever!
Me: As sweet as that is, it makes me want to puke. Please review.