Chapter 11 Coming Back Now

Happy New Year! First chapter in 2016! We're starting this year off with going back to the chicks and seeing if their little plan worked out after all.

One more thing before the stuff I add every chapter. Recently I found a mean review on the review list. It was a Guest Anonymous review and I had it removed, along with the other two non-related story comments. I'm not going to accuse anyone for doing anything, but please let me clear something up. This story is not a dump for random, hurtful and inappropriate comments. Either give an honest, yet appropriate review on what you really mean about each of the chapters, or don't review at all. To quote Thumper from the movie Bambi, "If can't say nothing nice, don't say it at all." Thank you.

Enjoy the chapter!

"Chicks! Feeding time," Sasha called out. Her eyes traveled along the crowd of African penguins as she searched for the only puffin and Macaroni penguin somewhere among them. "Lovelace! Sven! Dinner time! Hurry it up you guys!"

Her body immediately rotated 90 degrees as soon as the nine penguins, plus one puffin charged straight by her. Two zookeepers stood nearby, tossing fishes to the hungry penguins nearby. Sasha sighed as she heard some begging from the chicks, Lovelace and Sven. The other members of the penguins already stationed here hadn't been exactly nice to any of them, ever since they got here. It was either ignoring them or letting themselves take most, if not all of, the fish.

Her thoughts snapped back into place when another set of loud footsteps made its way into the vicinity. Eyes turned to a trio of zookeepers walking towards the exhibit, each carrying or pulling equipment with them. She recognized a long cord coiled in one of the human's arms while the other two pushed/pulled along on a moving platforms what appeared to be a flat screen of some sort.

"Hmm. What are they up too?"

Her eyes followed as she watched them disappear behind the exhibit and she heard the sound of a heavy door squeaking open and the rolling of the television before the jingling of keys and the slow, yet loud snap of the closing door.

After about a minute of watching the inner part of the enclosure and waiting, she finally saw one of the zookeepers come in. Some of the penguins walked over to him, expecting more fish, but he ignored him and walked straight over towards the chicks. The chicks were chatting with one another when they looked up and noticed him approaching.

Her and their eyes widened in shock as they saw the human's arms spread out and cut them off from the other penguins while beginning to guide towards the inner part of the enclosure. They began to cry out in shock. Sasha started following after them, joined by her sides with Lovelace and Sven. Finally, she noticed that another zookeeper was standing nearby with a small, portable fence that she had heard was used for the smaller creatures in the zoos and the human's homes. As soon as all eight chicks were safely past the entrance of the inner sanctum, the zookeeper set the fence horizontally down on the cement and adjusted it so it was secure to the doorway sides. As soon as the zookeepers went away, Sasha, Lovelace and Sven charge towards the temporary gate and peered through the thin metals bars crisscrossing one another.

"Chicks! Erik! Skyler! Andrew," she called out.

"Skyler! Seymour! Nathan," Lovelace shouted.

"Yoo hoo! Chickies! Erika! Bodacia! Are you in there," Sven asked. He suddenly felt aware of himself being watched, so he turned to his companions and saw them both glancing at them with a look that clearly said, 'really'. He was about to respond when they heard the chicks' voices coming from inside.

"Lovelace. Sven! Sasha," Bo cried out.

"Guys," the others cried out and rushed to the fence. The inner enclosure was darkened a bit, unusually for it's normal bright lights inside, but still they could make out the faces of the Emperor penguins inside. Sven suddenly flapped his wings and landed, a bit unsteadily, on the wooden frame surrounding the metal bars of the fence. He looked down at the widen and scared eyes of the chicks.

"Are you alright chickies," he asked in concern.

"We.. I-I think so. Sven, guys, why did they place us in here," Erik asked. Sven shook his head.

"I'm not sure. Things like this are unusually strange of late and I'm not sure why they've did this now," he replied. The chicks' eyes turned towards the veteran of the penguin enclosure, hoping that she would know what this was about. Another shake from the head.

"I'm not sure either. This has never happened before, except for the times that they cleaned our home, but still, those times we were all sent in there. Every one of us, so it's just weird to have you go in and not us," she admitted. The chicks sighed as their hope waned a little.

"Well, we might as well figure it out," Seymour suddenly said, quite boldly in fact. His chest was stick out to make himself appear bigger and a look of determination was on his face. "Let's see what's in here and see if we can find anything that can help us figure it out." The chicks stared at his face for a moment, trying to figure out if he was being serious or not. after a minute, they turned back to the adults' faces, asking silent requests if they could do it. A nod from the three of them confirmed their permission.

It was settled. They would go in and see if they could find out why they were being isolated from the rest of the penguins.

The three adults, two penguins and one puffin,watched as the chicks slowly turned and started walking into the darkened room. They could only wish the best of luck for the chicks and that nothing bad would happen to them.

You know what's a characteristic about darkness. It can be unsettling. Somehow, when you're in the darkness, as in really black darkness in an unfamiliar place, somehow your brain decides that it wants to think about monsters and other things in the dark. It's not until the light comes that any fear or negative emotions about the darkness or what's in it disappears completely almost immediately.

Now the chicks knew that anything they could probably imagine as extremely scary or freaky that lurked in the dark was all in their imagination. Still, even with this knowledge, they could not help stop the cold caterpillars crawling up their spines and their baby feathers sticking straight up on their flippers. Their eyes darted back and forth in the dim room. Their was only a handful of lights on that aided their eyesight, but penguins are not the best seers in the night.

Luckily, they could see up ahead there was a zookeeper with a light working around something. They cautiously approached him. His back was turned, but they knew he probably knew they were there. Even though they knew he probably wouldn't hurt him, they were still wary around humans. All those tales their parents told of them, 'aliens' they called them, had left them still a bit fearful of them. He seemed to be fiddling around with a tall thing with a smooth, vertical, black edge on it.

The chicks slowly approached it, marveled by it's sheer height and the glint of light off the smooth screen, like a piece of black ice. All of a sudden then, they all hopped about a foot backwards as the screen suddenly glowed with a bright, blinding light. After a moment of adjusting with the light, they could see that the screen now looked like snow, white and grey dots constantly shifting on it. The zookeeper typed on something around the snow-screen and suddenly, the light changed again. Some colors filtered few. But the main one that caused the chicks to gape in shock was the brightest one of all. Blue. Sky blue. Bright blue eyes belonging to only one penguin in the whole world.

Mumble.

Instantly, the kids screamed out his name and charged for the screen again. The Mumble in the screen suddenly flinched back and let out a gasp of surprise. But gradually, his mind caught on to the sound of his name being called by multiple voices and his eyes widened in shock.

"Chicks," he asked tentatively. "Chicks," he called, louder this time.

"Daddy!"

The alien, right 'human', was fiddling with some black instruments and a black screen when suddenly voices shot through the blocky black objects and came out in the sound of his name being called. It was so familiar, almost as if...

"Chicks," he called out. He repeated, this time louder. In that moment, he could hear a buzz and a light blinded his eyes for a moment. His eyelids blinked to rid the hot flashes, and in place of the dark screen he could see eight Emperor chicks. His friends chicks. His chicks.

"Daddy," Skyler, Erik and Erika screamed. In that moment, it was as if a burden had been lifted off his heart. His body swelled up with joy and happiness. His chicks were there. Every missing chick was there. A wide grin made its way across his face. He charged towards his chicks.

"Erik! Skyler! Erika! Everyone," he called out joyously. They were right before him, he was heading quickly towards them and...

Whap!

His eyes stared dizzily up at the ceiling while he landed on his back. His brain rushed to recomposed himself. What had just happened? His muscles groaned in response as he hurried to get up. His eyes squinted as they readjusted to the screen. His and the other chicks were still talking, mostly in concern for him. He looked closely at the screen and quickly pecked his beak. A hard wall touched it. Still, it looked as if his chicks were staring right at him. Sadness spread quickly through him. Had he lost his mind already, was he now just picturing that his chicks and all the rest were right here? Was he just delusional hallucinating that they were calling out to him?

"Daddy," one called out. His eyes focused on to his son. Blue eyes rivaling his, sparkling with unshed tears, stared straight at him.

"Erik," Mumble said. The male chick smiled at him. To both to his and to the other chicks' shock, Erik suddenly charged at the screen like Mumble did, only softer and spread out his flippers, as if he was giving a hug. Mumble saw Erik's baby feathers press against the screen, like as if an invisible wall was between him.

"I missed you pa," he heard from the blocky objects. Only then did his paranoia of becoming insane again disappear. If he was really insane, Erik wouldn't had tried to come past the invisible wall and hug him. He hadn't disappeared like his friends and family did at the last alien exhibit he was in. He realized what he was seeing was Erik, he was there, but not where he was. They were reunited again, but they weren't together physically.

But what did it matter now? Relief flooded over him knowing that all his efforts to get out here and search for them while holding on to hope that they were still alive was all rewarded now. His children were safe. His friends' children were safe.

"Thank you Guin," he thought graciously.

"Daddy! Daddy," Erika and Skyler called out as soon as Erik separated from the screen. Their smiles couldn't get any bigger as they saw his face lit up with joy.

"Erika! Skyler! My beautiful girls. Oh thank Guin you all are safe. I finally found you," he said. Some of the chicks behind were still yelling or talking with great happiness. All their hopes and prayers had been fulfilled. They had been found at last. Veronica, Andrew, Atticus, Bo, and Nathan then bounced up and down, trying to get Mumbles' attention.

"Uncle Mumble! Uncle Mumble," they chanted.

"Atticus, Bo, Nathan, Andrew, Veronica. Oh, you're all there and safe," he said, his voice nearly drowning with relief. They all grinned as their hope rose.

"We're glad to see you two, uncle Mumble," Bo said.

"Yeah! We were so scared when we broke away from you, but thank Guin we got here," Atticus said. The other chicks nodded.

"Oh! And guess what, pa," Erika asked.

"What," he asked.

"We found Lovelace on our adventure," she replied.

"Lovelace," he asked in surprise. Eight heads nodded in reply.

"Yeah. It was so cool, and so scary. We were on the floe for about two days. Then we were picked up by the humans, or aliens as you told us. Then we found Lovelace and this cool bird, a puffin, named Sven. He has a cool accent and he looks like a penguin, but he can fly," Veronica rapidly explained. His eyebrows peaked up in surprise.

"Really," he asked.

"Yes really! Then we landed on this shore that's really hot and has no snow. Then we were taken to this place called a zoo where we are now. Oh, and there are lots of King penguins here and other cool creatures here uncle Mumble. Sasha, who's our friend, is standing outside here with Lovelace and Sven. We've also met these cool, rainbow birds, peacocks, named Kiburi, Alice and Nevaeh, and these flying rainbow birds named Mozart, Issac, Lily and Doonie, this cool liger who's our special friend named zach and a monkey who's really funny and is named Dash. And also..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa V. I'm sure you can explain it all later. But first thing's first, where are you guys," Mumble asked. The chicks stared confusedly at him, then at each other, before Andrew piped up.

"Sasha said we were at the South Africa zoo. We're not sure where that is, but that's what she told us," he said.

A short period of silence followed. Mumble's brain was in a frenzy though. His plan was to find the chicks and bring the home. To be honest, he hadn't planned this far as in how to get them home. I mean there was still a huge expanse of water between them and home. And it is a known fact that the chicks' fluffy feathers would only weigh them down in the water if they tried to swim, thus causing them to drown. So in short, they had a new problem on their flippers.

"Okay then. Um, so do any of you have any ideas on how to get to me or me to you?" Shakes of heads, pondering expression, eyes darting to one another for an answer. No. Mumble sighed. "Well, let's all put our heads together and try to come up with a good plan."

Everyone remained quiet, though a few hummed as they began to think. Mumble dipped his head to his chest, as he often did while he was deep in thought. His body remained still, but his heart was protesting. Even when silent and still, any true tap dancer knows that sometimes they just have to get out and start dancing. So, even while his form was straight and unmoving, he felt all this energy coursing through him. But he couldn't unleash it all right now, it was just break his concentration. So he just settled on tapping one of his feet in a pattern.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap tap. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

"Dum, dum, dum, dey, dey, dey, dey. Dum, dum, dum, dey, dey, dey, dey," came from one of the chicks. The seven rest of them, plus Mumble, all broke out of their concentration and swiveled their heads towards the source of the noise. Erik had his eyes closed, but they could see his beak moving. All was silent in the room, all that could be heard was the beat from Mumble's feet and the melody coming from Erik's beak. All of a sudden, a wide grin came onto Bo's face.

"Bum bum...," she sang. Erik immediately shut his beak and looked up shocked at all the eyes staring at him. Mumble stopped tapping and looked at his son.

"Erik. Huh, that was some pretty good singing there, son," he praised. Erik blushed and dipped his head down shyly, but then threw it back up again once Atticus slapped his flipper against his back.

"Yeah man. Why didn't you tell us you could sing like that," he asked. His head went down towards his chest again.

"Because I...," he trailed off in a inaudible voice. Some of the chicks leaned in to listen closer. Bo actually placed her flipper on his shoulder. Mumble looked at him in concern.

"Son, I'm afraid we can't..."

"I don't want to!" Erik's face came up again and everyone could see his eyes sparkling with unshed tears. "I can't, I just can't... sing in public, okay?!" He pointed his flipper at his father. "What with you being one of the greatest dancers along with mom and the others and with you guys...," he swung a flipper towards the others, "being so talented and all that... it... I just feel so pressured to try and keep up with all this heartsong business!"

Everyone was quiet again, the only sound being Erik's quick and heavy breaths while he struggled to recompose himself. It took about a minute till he was calm enough for anyone to try to talk to him. Mumble's face was filled with fatherly concern as he looked towards his eldest chick.

"Erik. I-I never knew how you really felt. I'm so sorry," he quickly apologized. Erik slowly looked up at him.

"It's not your fault, pa. I didn't want you to know since you wanted me to be a dancer, just like you and mom," he replied. Mumble's eyes widened in shock at this revelation, but then softened with sympathy.

"I never said I wanted you to be a dancer like your mom and I. I followed after you that day because I was scared about you. I was scared that I had seriously hurt your feelings by trying to teach you how to dance, but I had never wanted to force you to be something you didn't want to be. I wanted to tell you that we're all different. It's part of the job of life, to find out who you are and what you got. It may not be dancing, heck, you might be the singer your mother and I never got to be, but when you find it... it'll be all yours. You know what I'm saying, son?"

"Yeah," Erik replied softly.

"Right," Mumble said quietly. The chicks had been patient while waiting for Mumble to finish giving his comforting, fatherly advice to Erik. Now they took the opportunity to gather around Erik and wrap their flippers around him in a comforting embrace. Erik's body was shaking with shivers, not quite yet sobs, yet two tears snuck out from both his eyes and dripped down his cheeks.

Erika had enough of seeing her older brother crying and appearing so weak. Her mind quickly searched for something that could help her sibling. While her mind searched through, her heart was already surging its energy into her. All of a sudden, she found herself singing.

"Pressure
Pushing down on me
pressing down on you
No matter small
Under pressure
That tears a nation down
Splits a family in two
Puts people on streets"

Everyone stopped and looked at her. Her face was unsure at first, but then she gave a small smile at them. The others soon felt what she felt, Mumble began tapping his feet along to her voice. Nathan was the first to join in with her.

"Um ba ba be
Um ba ba be
De dey da
De dey da..
Da de da de da de da
It's the terror of knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends scream
Let me out!

Pray tomorrow
Take me higher
Pray tomorrow
Take me higher"

Their feet slammed down on the last note of the chorus. For a second, nothing happens. Their breathing is quickened from the exercise that just happened out of nowhere. They all stared widely in front of them. Ther joints twitched with anticipation, right after the hard drumming in their brains cleared. The hard drumming of their hearts. Then, Erika opened her beak wide again and continued singing.

"Why...?
Oh! why...?
Tell me why
Tell me why
Tell me why
Tell me why
Tell me why

Can't we give ourselves one more chance
Why can't we give ourselves one more chance
Why can't we give love, give love, give love, give love
Everyday, every night, every hour.."

"Yeah, come on! Take it higher," Atticus cheered while he sang.

"Come on, come on! Give love, y'all! Give love, y'all," Nathan added in. A sudden bang was heard from behind them and Lovelace, Sasha and vvSven appeared just a few feet behind them, staring at the dancing that was happening. Skyler motioned them over.

"Hey, get over here," she yelled.

"Who, us," Sven asked, motioning to the three of them.

"Yeah," she replied.

"Come on," Erik cheered.

"Every step counts," Mumble said. The three smiled and joined in.

"To care for
The people on
The edge of the night
And love dares you
To change our way
Of caring
About ourselves
This is our last dance

Ooh...This is ourselves..."

The tension and climax of the song was now. Everyone lifted their foot up and slammed right at the last step.

"Creatures of the world unite, strength in numbers we can get it right- one time!"

Bam!

The staff of both zoos were in excited enthusiasm for the video-chat link between both zoo's penguins, now they were wildly cheering and some even dancing along to the live-video feed they were watching. While the staff enjoyed themselves, some even crying tears of amazement at the sight, the directors went to phone each other and demand that their penguins, and perhaps the South Africa zoo's puffin, meet physically at once.

Man, I got some chills up my spine when I finished writing the last part. I apologized if the conversations with the others ruined part of the song, but I realized then that Lovelace needed to come home too. I wasn't about to leave him out, plus the other two are a great editions to the scene.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the new chapter. First of the New Year and after the tenth mark too. Please review, nice ones please, and I'll see you guys next time. Sincerely, v.t.7