Chapter 6:

Unusual Acquaintances

We slowly opened our eyes.

We felt both scared and relieved that someone had yelled to stop him. We looked up to see that the leopard seal had stopped his approach and was now looking behind him.

"Aww, come on!" he said. We peeked past him to find another leopard seal behind him, who seemed to be of the same age as this leopard seal. "I just wanted one, tiny taste! No biggie!"

The seal behind him scrunched its eyes at him. "No biggie? No biggie?!" it said, revealing a feminine and young voice. "You took an oath Growler!"

"I had my fins crossed," I heard him mumble to himself. He then growled at her and then back at us, causing us to back up to the wall more.

"Oh stop scaring them already and let them go," said the female leopard seal.

Surprisingly, the male leopard seal stepped aside. We didn't know what to do. Should we run? Or should we see where this was headed? My body kept saying "Run Allard! They can't be trusted!" while my conscience was saying "Stay and find out why she did what she did."

What should I do!

"Thank you," the female leopard seal said. She then started for us, picking my knife up with her mouth. We were scared stiff. Did she tell the other seal to back off so she could kill us? The young penguin's grip tightened around my waist as I held my breath to brace for what might happen.

She continued moving closer.

I started to close my eyes.

Closer.

I blocked my face with my flipper, my other protecting the young penguin.

Right in front of us.

I waited for the pain of being slashed to come.

The sound of something hitting the snow was heard.

"I believe this belongs to you." I peeked down through my flipper to find my knife resting on the snow in front of me. I was struck with complete and utter confusion.

"Aren't y-you gonna...k-kill us?" I asked as I slowly took away my flipper to stare into the leopard seal's face. I didn't see what I had expected to see. I didn't see a face of a killer. I didn't see a face that lied.

I saw a warm, friendly smile.

She giggled. "Kill you? What the heck for?" she said, her words adding to the confusion. "Do I get a 'thank you or not?" she asked with slight sarcasm.

"Uh..." I started. Should I say thank you? I mean, she did keep the other leopard seal from eating our faces off, but she's a leopard seal too. "Th-thank...you..." I replied softly, unsure of anything else.

"You're welcome," she replied with a smile. "My name's Hunter. That lying pile of blubber over there is my brother, Growler."

Growler then growled at her. "And I guess you can see why he is called Growler," she said. "What's your name?" she asked, her tone sounding almost innocent.

Nervously, I choked out, "A-Allard. Allard G-Goldbeak."

"Oh, don't need to get your feathers in a bunch. I promise I won't hurt you," she assured. "Speaking of which, how is she?" she added, looking at the young penguin who was still burying her face into my side and clamped onto me.

Remembering what had happened before, I quickly faced the young penguin. There were tears in her eyes as I gazed into her ice blue. "Are you ok?" I asked, trying to forget the leopard seal, who introduced herself as Hunter, behind me, which may be a bad idea.

She nodded as I helped her wipe the tears from her eyes. She looked so young, maybe about five or six penguin years old. I could feel her shivering from fear. "It's alright now. What's your name?" I asked her, remembering that I had no idea who she was since I just saved her.

"So...Sophia," she said. "S-Sophia Snowf-feathers."

I gave her a warm smile. "That's a nice name. I'm Allard Goldbeak."

"But your beak is o-orange, not gold," she said. I chuckled. For a young penguin like her in this situation, I had expected that she would be in shock, but apparently she could quite easily find the silver lining in the dark clouds and flip the mood from negative to positive.

Wish I could do the same sometimes.

I turned back to face Hunter and answer her question from before. "Yes, she's ok." I glanced over her to see the male leopard seal, Growler, sulking. "You mentioned an oath. What exactly is this oath?" I asked curiously.

"An oath? Oh, you mean the oath we took about not eating penguins," she replied, stressing a lot on the last part towards Growler.

"A leopard seal that doesn't eat penguins? Is that even possible?" I asked her. For my whole life I have never met a penguin's predator that doesn't eat penguins, till now.

"Yep," she replied with a confident tone and smile. "In fact, I started it."

"And I hate it," grumbled Growler.

"Don't be such a downer. You'll get used to it...eventually." She faced us again. "So, I also have to say that I'm sorry about what my brother did. He can be such a rebel sometimes."

I opened my beak to ask her why she didn't want to eat penguins, but she apparently read my mind and answered it for me before I could do so. "Oh yeah, the reason I don't eat penguins is because they taste disgusting...and because I have a penguin friend in New York. Mostly because they taste horrible."

"New York?" Sophia then asked out of the blue. "You know what New York is?"

"Not what. Where. It's a human city about eight thousand five hundred twenty-three miles north from here. It's a pretty cool place compared to this icy wasteland. Why?" asked Hunter.

"Because," she started. "The hunters that took my parents said they were taking them to New York."

I was surprised by her sentence. The hunters took her parents? They took the parents of a young penguin and left her to fend for herself when just a few minutes ago, she was running for her life from the brother of a leopard seal who doesn't eat penguins? That seemed as bad as what happened to me those many years ago.

"The hunters took your parents? That's terrible!" Hunter said. Then, an idea sparked in her head. "Hey, why don't we help you find them? I know the way to get there."

"Yes, please!" Sophia quicky replied, her voice glinting with a new-found hope. I could already see that she has lost her fear in Hunter and has accepted that she didn't want to hurt us, whereas I don't know if I could trust them myself, especially Growler.

"But you can't," I quickly objected. She turned to me with a confused look on her face. Not wanting her to take it the wrong way, I quickly explained myself. "I mean, you won't be able to swim there without your swimming feathers. You might just drown if you try."

Hunter and Sophia quickly got into thinking about it. "You're right," supported Hunter. "How old are you Sophia?" she asked.

"I'm...uh...seven penguin years," she replied with a new, adorable voice compared with her fearful one from before. From her tone, it seemed she was talking to someone whom she knew her whole life, and I'm pretty sure we all just met.

"And um...Allard right?" I nodded. "Uh...how old do you penguins usually get your swimming feathers?"

I thought for a while. "Well, everyone's different, but we usually get them between eight to twelve penguin years," I answered with a trivial tone. "I got all of mine when I was eleven."

"Ok, good to know." She then started pacing back and forth, apparently trying to think of a way around this problem.

"Why don't you just use a human boat?" Growler suddenly suggested. "You know, the old ones that were made of the grainy brown stuff that floats?" he explained.

"You mean we could just push it with them in it?" Hunter asked. Growler nodded.

"What is a boat?" I asked them. "I have never seen nor heard of one of these before."

The two looked at each other before Growler answered, "It's what the humans use to get here from their lands. Before, they used these small brown ones the come here, and many were left behind here. I know where most of them are, and I'm sure they still float."

"Ok then, where can we find these...boats?" I asked while trying to picture what these 'boats' looked like. All my life I have always wondered how the hunters got here. Now I know that they came in these things they call boats. I knew they didn't swim all the way from their homelands.

Growler then looked a ways behind him. "It's quite far from here, but if we start now, we should make there in maybe...a day or two? Yeah, that should be right."

I pondered about it. 'Should I follow them? At least to find this girl's parents?' I asked in my head. I looked down at Sophia for her approval. She nodded back.

"You can trust them Allard," a voice in my head said. I almost gasped before realising it was my father's voice.

So I wasn't hallucinating, I think.

"Remember son, we're always with you," my mom then continued for him, soothing the tension of trusting predators. I gazed back at Hunter and Growler after the voices vanished as suddenly as they came.

"Ok, you can help us find Sophia's parents. Just...please keep your word on not eating us," I requested. They nodded and Hunter raised up a fin, the other on her chest.

"I promise not to eat you," she said. I glanced over to Growler, who didn't swear he wouldn't eat us. Hunter turned to face him when she caught the direction of my gaze. "Growler! Promise them!" she argued.

"I don't wanna," Growler said with a playful smirk.

Hunter scowled at him. "Either promise them or do the oath again, WITHOUT crossing your fins," she shot back. Growler then let out a huge sigh and grumble.

"Fine fine!" He then repeated Hunter's previous actions. "I...pro-mise...not...to eat you guys. There, better?!" he replied to her harshly.

"Better," she replied, smirking at him. "Come on, we should get started. Like Growler said, it would take a day or two to get there, and the sooner we get a boat the sooner we can go on to find your parents," she added, directing the last sentence to Sophia. They both turned to the direction we needed to go in.

"You guys coming or what?" asked Hunter. Sophia then ran for her, making me follow right after.

"This is gonna be one interesting journey," I said to myself as we went on our way.

A/N: Been a long time since I posted a chapter, so here is another for The Chosen Series! Well, I have a couple chappies for you guys to read up before I have to write more, so hopefully I can finish my stories, not that I forgot any of them!

See ya in the next chappie and in other stories I will be doing!