Felix leaned against the cage, studying the huddle of penguins.
"Look!" Felix cried out. "Phineas keeps stealing Mayberry's fish! That must be why he's so fat!"
"Right," Sadie agreed, sounding tired. She was sitting, back against the plexi glass window, her head lolling against her shoulder as she rapidly clicked buttons on her gameboy. "Mystery solved. Now, let's go."
"You know, maybe if you actually looked at the penguins like I do you wouldn't be so bored." Felix scowled and turned back to the animals.
Sadie shook her head. "Felix, why do we have to come here? Why can't you just conjure up some penguins and play with them back at the house, like you used to?"
"Because Carter said I'm not allowed to call them until I can put them back." Felix said. "Besides, I want to see if zoo penguins act different then regular penguins."
"Who cares what Carter says?" Sadie countered. "And really, aren't they all just penguins? I bet they act the same."
"No." Felix said. "We've only been here 20 minutes and I can already tell zoo penguins are lazier and meaner."
Sadie sighed. "Isn't 20 minutes long enough?"
Felix rolled his eyes. "No, it's not."
Sadie said something else, but Felix had lost interest in what was happening on his side of the glass.
A new animal had emerged from the pack, and the other penguins were trying frantically to get away from it. "Sadie." Felix breathed. "Sadie, it's a penguin puppy." The creature had the face of a dog, but its body was grey and sleek. It was half penguin and half dog. It had to be!
"Uh huh." Sadie nodded. "That's right."
"No, Sadie, really!" Felix started jumping up and down. "Sadie, look."
"A penguin puppy? You're going to have to do better, Felix." Sadie snorted, but didn't take her eyes off her video game. "It'll take more than that to get me interested."
Felix put his hands up on the glass, enraptured. "Wow."
Eyes locked on the creature, Felix reached for the disposable camera Carter had thought to buy him for the trip.
He was about to click the button, when something new, something silver, moved at the edge of the tank.
A girl. She had dark, spiked hair and was wearing a thin silver wind jacket. A metallic circlet flashed on her head. She was crouched low, clearly eyeing the penguin puppy.
Felix lowered the camera. "Sadie, now there's a girl in a silver jacket."
"Silver jacket?" Sadie yawed. "That sounds rather garish."
The girl drew an arrow from a quiver strapped to her back. Funny, Felix hadn't noticed it before. She raised a bow and notched the arrow.
A bad feeling bloomed in Felix's stomach. "Sadie…" Felix watched as the girl took aim. "Sadie! She's gonna kill it!"
The girl released the arrow and he cried out in alarm. "NO!"
Several things happened spontaneously. Multiple passers-by looked over in curiosity. Sadie whirled and finally looked in on the penguins. And the penguin puppy crumbled to nothing.
"What?" Sadie asked.
"It's gone. It's dead." Felix was horrified.
Sadie sighed, "Huh. Good job, Felix. You got me to look."
"Sadie, I'm telling the truth!" Felix said. "Look!"
He pointed, and Sadie saw the girl in the silver jacket disappear through a door disguised to look like an iceberg.
"That's her?" Sadie asked.
"Yes!"
Sadie turned to study Felix. "Did you really see a penguin puppy?"
"Yes! That's what I've been telling you this whole time!" Felix was fed up to say the least.
"Huh." Sadie nodded after a few moments of silent study. "You know, I'll bet that door lets out at the employee entrance we saw by the concession stand. We could still catch her."
"Let's go!" Felix took off, partly relieved Sadie was finally paying attention, and partly enraged that someone would dare kill something as magnificent as a penguin puppy.
Pushing past sweaty sightseers, they made their way over to the concession stand just in time to see the girl in the silver jacket walking toward the zoo exit.
"Hey!" Felix called, but she didn't turn.
"You, girl with the bow and arrows!" Sadie tried, getting the desired response.
The girl turned on her heel and, seeing them barreling toward her, frowned.
"What did you do that for?" Felix cried when they caught up to her. "That penguin puppy did nothing!"
"…Penguin puppy?" The girl asked, startled.
"Thalia!" Another girl in a silver jacket called from across the crowd. "Did you get it?"
"I got it, Pheobe!" The culprit, Thalia, called back.
"'Got it'? You think this is a game?" Felix challenged. "That penguin puppy did nothing."
"Look, kid, that telkhine messed with us before we ever messed with it," Thalia put her hands to her hips.
"Well, I don't know what a telkhine is, but I do know that penguin puppy didn't do anything wrong." Felix shot back.
The second silver-jacketed girl finally arrived at the confrontation. "Who's this?" She asked, looking down at Felix, a mixture of annoyance and disgust playing out on her face.
"Were you in on it too? Did you help kill that penguin puppy?" Felix scowled at her.
"Oh." The girl, Pheobe, said, rolling her eyes. "Come, Thalia, the lady awaits."
"Don't you go anywhere! We're not done with you!" Sadie finally spoke.
Thalia turned to Pheobe, shrugged, then turned back to Felix and Sadie.
"You didn't see me do anything. You aren't angry." Thalia snapped her fingers.
"What are you talking about?" Felix rolled his eyes. "You killed the penguin puppy."
"Huh?" Sadie said. "Hey…" she squinted at Thalia. "You know, you look kind of familiar."
"And it just disappeared!" Felix added. "Where did it go!"
Thalia stared puzzled at Felix until Pheobe nudged her arm. "We don't have time for little boys who can defy the mist."
The girls turned away.
"Hey!" Felix shouted. "Get back here."
"You look really familiar." Sadie said. "Where have I seen you before?"
The girls melted into the crowd.
"Where have I seen her before?" Sadie muttered to herself.
"Maybe when she killed the penguin puppy!" Felix turned on her. "Sadie, I thought you believed me! I thought you were trying to help!"
"Umm…" Sadie was starting to feel a bit dizzy, and her mind was clouded, she couldn't remember… "Let's go home."
"Gah!" Felix kicked a trash can.
-0-
Felix marched purposefully into the library.
"Cleo?" He called.
"Over here!" Her voice rang through the shelves, coming from a table in the corner.
Felix walked over and saw her hunched over a book stained with mustard.
"Cleo, could you tell me what a telkhine is?" Felix requested.
Cleo sat back in her chair. Frowning, thinking. Finally, she said, "That's Greek."
"But, what is it?" Felix insisted.
"Face of a dog, body of a seal, they play various roles in greek mythology—"
"They aren't half penguin?" Felix asked.
"Um, no," Cleo said, surprised.
Felix slowly felt the anger draining out of him. "Oh. Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure." Cleo answered.
"Okay. Well, goodbye, then." Felix turned away. "Thank you."
"No problem." Cleo stared at his retreating back in confusion. "Felix?"
"Yeah," He faced her again.
"Why did you want to know?"
"I saw one today."
Cleo frowned. "You thought you saw one, you mean."
Felix growled, old anger returning for a different reason. "You're just like Sadie!" Then he marched out of the library, leaving Cleo standing stunned.
Thank you for the overwhelming positive response, please keep it coming!
