Well here's a kind of short chapter. It's meant to fill in more of the actual plot of the story, so not a lot of music :(. The next few chapters are in the works and everyone please be patient with me. College is just a lot of work, so just bear with me. Mark my words though, I will finish this story.

The Escape

In Emperor Land, no one had any idea that Bo, Erik and Atticus had escaped to follow Ramon. Seymour carried a big fish in his mouth for his son. "Hey Atticus! Snack time." He said with a mouth full of fish. He received no answer.

"I think they're all snuggled up. All snoozy" Mrs. Viola said.

Mumble had his doubts though. He's had this bad sinking feeling all day and he couldn't bu think that something had happened to the chicks. He approached the crevice and bent down, so his head could go in the crevice to see if small trio of chicks were okay. To Mumble' surprise, he didn't see anything. "They're not here." Mumble said with a shocked expression.

As soon as he said that, all of the parents started searching all over Emperor land to see if they could find them. If the chicks were still in Emperor Land, which they're not, they were not responding to their parents. Mumble then had a small flashback to his childhood; he remembered when he went off to Adelie Land. Even though it was partly, because he was left stranded in that piece of ice he could have easily gone back home but he didn't. He didn't, because he felt as if he didn't belong there since everyone was always laughing at him. He had a hunch as to where the chicks went.

- Meanwhile -

The three fluffy chicks were fairly far from Emperor Land, as they went on further into the seemingly endless white. Erik, Bo, and Atticus were pretty far from Emperor Land at this point. The three of them had stopped racing when they all got tired, well at least until Erik and Atticus got tired, because Bo wanted to keep going. Erik and Atticus were now following closely behind Bo as she led the way. They were all lost in their own respective thoughts.

Bo was still bothered by whatever was bothering Erik; She had a feeling it had something to do with her, but she couldn't figure out what. Bo didn't think she has done anything wrong; she's always liked Erik a lot, so there seemed to be no reason for him to be mad at her or anything. Bo was actually scared that Erik would stop being her friend and she would do anything to keep that from happening. Another thing she was thinking about was Byron. It's as if all of a sudden he became a completely different penguin, but the question was why. All these provoking thoughts were keeping Bo occupied at the moment.

Erik was just reflecting on what happened at the party. He thought that since everyone was laughing at him it must be, because he performed that badly. Erik knew they going to laugh at him, but his father had told him otherwise. He felt like just falling down in the snow and cry his eyes out; If he was no good at singing or dancing then what was he good at! What bothered him the most though was the times he saw Bo and Byron together. It would burn inside whenever he would think about them being together in any sort of way. He didn't know why, but he didn't like it when Byron got close to Bo; He felt he was a bad influence on her. Erik kept his feelings to himself though, he didn't want to upset Bo in anyway.

Atticus was right beside Erik thinking about where they were going. He had heard stories from his father about his Uncle Mumble going to this Adelie Land and that Uncle Ramon was from there and that was why Ramon was so short. He was also thinking about food, because he was terribly hungry. He had another thing on his mind though; Unknown to Bo or Erik, Atticus had noticed what happened at the party or at least most of it. He was mainly wondering why Bo was hanging around all of a sudden and, like Bo, he also noticed how down Erik has been as of late. I mean sure Erik was a bit shy, but he was this dejected from them. Throughout this little expedition, Erik had barely said anything to either of them, so it makes him wonder if there's something more going on here.

"Hey guys! What's wrong with you?!" Atticus loudly said. He was tired of this silence; He didn't understand what was wrong with them. If there was something wrong with him he wanted to know about it.

"What do you mean what's wrong with us!?" Bo said; She felt offended that Atticus came out of nowhere with a question like that. Bo wasn't the type of penguin to take that without a fight.

"I mean you guys haven't been talking at all!" Atticus said. He was kind of frustrated, because usually they would be very open with each other as a trio, but now he felt as if they were never friends, just strangers passing by each other.

"Well neither have you!" Bo shot back. It was a halfhearted comeback, though, because she knew what Atticus was referring to. She was feeling kind of down, since the party.

"I'm talking now ain't I?!" Atticus said.

"Guys please don't fight." Erik said in cool and calm voice. This caught them both off-guard and they immediately forgot about their little scuffle. Their minds were now on Erik; They were worried for him. Erik was usually not like this, he was usually a lot more playful and open with them, but now it is as if they were strangers to him. They were supposed to be the closest of friends. There was a tense silence between the trio.

- In Emperor Land -

Mumble, Gloria, and the other parents were not having any success in finding their chicks. They have already searched all of Emperor Land, but still nothing. Mumble was really beginning to worry about the chicks. A thought hit him; What if Erik had run away? If Erik was anything like Mumble, then he would have gone outside Emperor Land. Mumble initially dismissed the thought, because even if they did somehow go outside, they wouldn't know where to go. Then it hit him though, they could be following Ramon.

"Gloria...D-do you think they could've, you know...run off?" Mumble asked.

"Outside? By themselves?" Gloria questioned.

"Maybe they followed Ramon." Mumble said.

"Baby..." Gloria remorsefully said.

"I know, I know. But I better go check it out, o-okay. I-I won't be long." Mumble said frantically. He was stumbling over his own words and you could clearly see that he was in distress.

"Mumble." Gloria called. "Relax." Gloria said. She saw Mumble let out a deep, but stressed breath of air. "We will find them and when we do you'll find a way to make things right. You're good dad." Gloria said in an honest voice.

Despite Gloria's attempt to calm him down, Mumble just had a feeling that the kids were somewhere outside Emperor Land. "Yeah..." Mumble said. "I'll be back as soon as I can okay?" Mumble said, as he turned around and started heading out of Emperor Land.

Gloria knew she couldn't stop Mumble from going outside of Emperor Land, but she couldn't help but to worry about him. She knew that Mumble's father wasn't much of a parent to him and she knew that he wanted to be there for Erik, but Gloria also knew that Mumble sometimes does blow things out of proportion. Nevertheless, she turned around and continued looking for her son.

- With the Trio -

"I know! Let's sing a song!" Atticus said, breaking the silence. He saw Bo spark up at that idea, but Erik kind of stayed the same.

"Mmm. What song?" Bo asked.

"Here I'll start. Just sing along." Atticus answered.

Atticus: Now walk it out
Bo: Now walk it out
Atticus: Now walk it out
Bo: Now walk it out

As soon as Atticus sang the first line, Bo caught the beat of the song and immediately followed along. Bo was following Atticus every step of the way; she was copying his words and choreography, then she performed right after him. Erik decided to stay out of it, since he was still unsure of his own abilities to sing, although it did look like a lot of fun. Despite Erik's previous feelings, this put a smile on his beak and brightened up his mood.

Atticus: West side walk it out
Bo: West side walk it out
Atticus: South side walk it out
Bo: South side walk it out
Atticus: East side walk it out
Bo: East side walk t out

Atticus and Bo continued to dance and sing, while Erik followed close behind them. Even though Erik wanted to join he couldn't find a space where he could jump in, so he just settled for watching.

All: Hey!

Suddenly, the trio of chicks saw their Uncle Ramon lying on the snow. It looked like he was planning to go swimming, since he was very close to the edge that separates the ice from the water. Since Erik knew the rhythm of the song, he knew he could join in here and so he did. When they all greeted Ramon, he got up and looked at them in surprise.

"What's this? What's up? What's up? What's up?" Ramon said quickly.

"We're coming to Adelie Land." Bo said.

"Oh no you aren't. You're without your parents, this is kidnapping. Now go! Raa!." Ramon said, trying to scare the little chicks away.

"But we can't. We're fugitives." Bo said.

"You're what?" Ramon asked.

"Fugitives." Atticus said with a slow emphasis.

"What?" Ramon said.

"Fleeing Emperor land." Bo explained.

"No happy feets." Erik said in his squeaky little voice.

"Huh?" Ramon asked.

"No happy feets." Erik said with a more emphatic tone. For even more clarification, Erik moved his feet a bit so Ramon could see what he was referring to.

"We're rebels seeking thrills on adventure!." Bo said.

"And tasty snacks." Atticus said.

"Ohh thank you. This guy...Okay. I want a big fish, three little ones. Oh oh! And some of the those tiny crustaceans, you know the little ones that go ewzewewzew" Ramon kept up his impression of a krill for a while. The thought of food snapped Ramon out of his responsible mood and he no longer wondered how the chicks got here. "Now go!" Ramon said suddenly stopping his impression.

"But we can't swim, we're way too fluffy." Bo said.

"Wha-" Ramon asked.

"Fluffy don't float." Erik explained.

"But it's too high. I'm a little phobic."

"Oh dude the water's right there, like right there!" Atticus said, while pointing at the water.

"I don't care! It's too cold for a hot blood like me!" Ramon said. With that he turned away from the chicks to think of what to do.

"Atticus stop!" Bo yelled. She was trying to get Atticus to stop chewing on his flipper. "He's chewing on his flipper." Bo told Ramon. Unknown to Ramon, the three chicks were just pretending.

"Okay Okay! Here's what we're going to do. You count to three and push on two, but you don't tell me okay?" Ramon said.

The three chicks nodded in response. They all started counting slowly, while rocking him back and forth. Suddenly they pushed into the water when their count reached two.

"Hey what you do that for?" Ramon yelled. The only response he elicited was three cute giggles from the chicks, who were just looking at each other and laughing. "Baby penguins, cute but ruthless." Ramon said, as if we talking to someone other than himself. He then went underwater to search for fish.

While Ramon was out getting fish, the chicks stayed on the ice for obvious reasons. They really had nothing to do except find ways to amuse themselves and, again, Erik wasn't very interactive. He was just resting against a small hill of ice. Bo decided to talk to Erik since he seemed to be distant lately. Erik may be a bit shy, but he was not the one to be depressed and unfriendly. She also had some questions that had been bothering her for a while.

"Hey Erik!" Bo greeted with a happy voice.

"Hi Bo." Erik replied with a distant voice. His eyes shifted to Bo, but went back to staring at the sky just as quickly.

"Do you mind if I lie down here too?" Bo asked. Now she was really worries about Erik. He would usually be excited to see her and it now he was barely paying attention to her.

"N-no." Erik stuttered. He was not expecting company and right now he would rather not have any, Erik was thinking about recent events, mainly the party. He kept replaying the whole event in his head over and over again. He wanted to stop thinking about it, but certain things would not stop bothering him. He had no idea what had come over him at the party, but when his dad encouraged him to sing his song, Erik couldn't resist. He remembers how he signaled Bo to join him and then she ran away from him. He remembered when shortly after Bo ran away, he saw her with Byron. This specific scene kept bothering him and each time he thought about,

"Hey Erik?" Bo asked after a moment of silence.

"Yeah?" Erik answered.

"Why did you suddenly decide to sing at the party? Bo asked sweetly. This question has been bothering her since the event. She has known Erik all her life, he was the first chick she met! She has never seen Erik act like that. It felt as if Erik was hiding something from her.

Erik remained silent. He knew Bo and Atticus were probably curious about what happened at the party. After all he almost never sang before the party, so for most it was very surprising. Erik was not in a mood to talk about it, so he positioned himself to face away from Bo.

"I mean..." Bo saw Erik turn away from her. This only confirmed her suspicions that there is something he isn't telling her. This upset Bo, since she considered Erik her closest friend. "I've just never seen you be so...brave!" Bo said.

Erik shifted in the snow and reverted to his original position. He was once again looking at the sky.

"Erik?" Bo called.

"I really don't know Bo."

"I was just watching everyone sing and dance, then I saw you and Byron sing your song, then my dad came looking for me and told me to sing my song." Erik explained with a sigh. Both chicks were silent.

"Did you sing that song for someone Erik?" Bo asked out of nowhere. This was one question that keeps coming up in her mind.

Erik remained silent. He didn't really know how to respond, seeing as he was just as confused. "I don't know." Erik answered honestly.

"Bo can I ask you a question?" Erik asked.

"Yeah sure." Bo said. She was still thinking about her question.

"Why did...Why did you run -"

"Yo guys Uncle Ramon is almost here. I can see him under water." Atticus said, cutting Erik off.

Erik and Bo got up and waddled, over to where Atticus was, as fast as they could. When they got there, the two chicks immediately spotted Ramon under the water. Then Ramon came flying out of the water at an alarming speed. He was swimming so fast, that he flew over the chicks. All three chicks turned around to see if Ramon was okay.

"Uncle Ramon?" Bo called.

"Kids take me home. Purrrr." Ramon said desperately. He had just encountered a leopard seal, so he was shaken with fear.

This had the chicks were on the ground laughing and rolling around in the snow. They knew they had to keep going though; it was just a matter of time before their parents noticed that they were gone.

And there it is! Next chapter is already in the works, but I need to know one thing. Do you guys want me to put the lyrics of the Mighty Sven song or not? I you could put this in a review or in a message that would be great and other than that just criticize anything that you think might be wrong!

See ya next time! ;).