Chapter 2: Nest Ambush

What is it with these guys? thought Scamper to himself with hatred as he watched a flock of seagulls charging from the nearby mountaintop down to their nests. By this time, Scamper and Snowflake had greeted the spring on the shore. They were both three years old by now, and were finally ready to participate in nesting season (Both Scamper and Snowflake, as well as everybody else, just knew that they would choose each other as mates for nesting season: something made it inevitable). Scamper built his nest on the spot that his father, Gilbert, made his. After the period of se… uh, "the use of reproductive organs", Snowflake had laid three eggs, and had left to the sea to replenish herself, while Scamper kept the eggs safe. Just prior to this, the males had stocked up a hefty pile of fish for each nest, so the penguins wouldn't be tempted to leave the nests for food, as they had wrongly done a few years ago, and lost many eggs as a consequence. So the male penguins stayed at the nests to protect the eggs from harm. But now, at the end of this period of the breeding process, came a flock of seagulls, with an appetite for some poached eggs.

"Here they come," said Scamper. "Why won't these cannibals just eat fish like any other bird?"

"This is not good at all," said Bert. Bert was Scamper's second-in-command. He was appointed that role when he helped with a situation with some fish the year before. He was very military-minded, and saw Scamper as his commander.

"I'll tear them limb from limb!" said Ice, a lean penguin with grayish-blue feathers and a very aggressive attitude.

"Everybody stay calm," said Scamper. "No fighting. Just cover your eggs, no matter what." The penguins remained on their brittle little eggs, and clutched the ground with their feet. And then the seagulls attacked. They swooped down, strafing the penguins, determined to snatch those tasty eggs from them. One of the seagulls flipped Ice over, and two more took his eggs. He saw the seagull take his eggs away and, knowing they were too far away to fight, looked around to find a nest to steal from. All of the penguin nests were sealed shut, so he probably couldn't take any from them. The only one not on his nest was Scamper. He saw that too many penguins were getting injured, and, being the leader of the flock, knew he had to help them. But before that, he took his three eggs and ran over to Bert.

"Bert," said Scamper. "I need you to protect my eggs while I go help the others."

"Sir, yes, sir," said Bert. Scamper put the three eggs into Bert's nest, but two of them were sticking out. Ice saw this as an opportunity to break the eighth commandment. He sneaked over to Bert's nest and stealthily snatched the two eggs. He sneaked back to his nest and covered the eggs as if nothing happened.

Scamper heard under the cawing of seagulls and the shouting of penguins, a splashing noise in the distance. He looked over his shoulder and saw a bunch of penguins jumping from the water and onto the shore.

The girls are back, thought Scamper. This is not good at all. Thinking quickly on his webbed feet, Scamper quickly helped his father, Gilbert, onto his nest and ran over to a nest where a seagull was trying to attack. The gull was clawing at the penguins, and ended up taking his egg. Scamper had made up a plan for this right on the spot. As the seagull ascended with the egg in its talons, Scamper jumped into the air and grabbed the egg that the airborne bird was trying to steal. Scamper's weight dragged the seagull to the ground. The two birds tried desperately to claim the egg in a furious tug-of-war. It was tied very evenly. Scamper pulled the egg toward his chest as much as he could, and at the opportune moment, he bit one of the seagull's talons, just as he had done three years earlier when he was trying to escape from the clutches of a seagull. The seagull squealed in pain and surrendered the egg. The angry birds flew away from the penguin nests with many fewer eggs than they had hoped to achieve. Of course, even though they had the advantage, they never had a victory over Scamper, the Indiana Jones of the Antarctic World. Scamper held the egg with triumph, and returned the egg to its owner.

"Bert," inquired Scamper, after the turmoil was all over. "Two of my eggs are gone. Do you know where they are?"

"I don't know, sir," said Bert. "All I know is that you stuffed three eggs into my nest before you ran off to help the other penguins, and I laid on them throughout the whole thing, and when it was all over, there was only one." Scamper sighed.

"Oh, well," he said. "At least it wasn't a total loss. At least I still have one." Scamper always had an optimistic appraisal of most situations. That was one of the things that made him the hero he was today (And almost got him killed as a child a few years ago). But he still felt a small sense of loss, though, after having an abundant three eggs and being reduced to only one. Still, they had finished the brawl just before the girls arrived. Snowflake rushed over to Scamper's nest and hugged him.

"Oh, Scamper," she said. "I'm so glad to see you again. When I saw those seagulls attack…"

"It's alright, Snowflake," said Scamper. "None of our eggs were stolen. Not by seagulls, anyway." Snowflake was confused, and a bit afraid to ask what he meant.

"What do you mean?" she asked nervously.

"I mean," said Scamper. "I had to help the other penguins protect their eggs, so I gave the three eggs to Bert. When the attack was over, Bert was still on his nest, but there was only one of ours." Snowflake was astonished.

"Only one?" she echoed. "Where are the other two?"

"I don't know," said Scamper. "Don't be upset, though, we can still have one baby chick."

"I know," said Snowflake. "But I'm still sad that we can't have three." She embraced Scamper in her sorrow.

"Me, too," said Scamper, patting her gently on the back. "But let's not worry about what we lost. One was enough for our parents, and one is enough for us."

Ice, who was at his own nest, hugged his eggs with pride as his mate, Isabelle, ranted about how he was able to protect their eggs, but he was listening in on Scamper and Snowflake's conversation. Listening to the dismayed tears of Snowflake and the futile reassurances of Scamper, Ice began to feel somewhat sorry for the two, and then began to wonder if what he did was the right thing to do. He may've been an aggressive penguin, but he wasn't completely without morals. So in an attempt to set things right, Ice came clean to his spouse and took the two eggs to Scamper's nest.

"Scamper," said Ice. Scamper and Snowflake turned to Ice, slightly letting go of each other.

"Yes, Ice?" asked Scamper.

"Scamper," said Ice, taking a deep breath. "I lost both of my eggs today. I took two of your eggs from Bert's nest to make it seem like I didn't lose any. I thought that since nobody knew that my eggs were stolen that I could… take a few without anybody noticing. ."

"Alright," said Scamper. "May I have one of them back?" Both Ice and Snowflake were taken by surprise.

"One?" asked Ice. "Just one?"

"One?" asked a vexed Snowflake.

"You admitted your wrongs, and that's a good skill to have," said Scamper to Ice. "Consider the other egg yours." Ice smiled as he handed one of the eggs to Scamper. Scamper took the egg and put it in his nest, and looked toward Snowflake, who had an expression of dread on her face. She clearly thought that her mate had gone a little too far this time. She clearly didn't want to see Scamper just give one of their eggs away. Scamper thought of an easy way around this.

"There's only one condition," said Scamper. "I want that little chick to live to become an adult."

"Thanks, Scamper," said Ice giddily. "I promise!" Ice and Isabelle left for their own nest, while, in their own nest, Snowflake was furious at Scamper.

"Scamper!" she said angrily. "Why did you do that? Don't you remember how hard we worked for those eggs?"

"Snowflake," said Scamper. "It doesn't matter who takes care of the eggs. Besides, Ice promised he would take care of it." Snowflake didn't care about that.

"Scamper," she said. "You can't just give away our eggs to anybody who doesn't have one!"

"Stop that, Snowflake," said Scamper firmly. "You're starting to sound like a prideful jerk." Snowflake realized this, and was embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, Scamper," said Snowflake honestly. "You're right, two's enough for us." The two penguins made up, and over the next few months, the eggs hatched gradually.