And here is finally the next chapter! Enjoy! :D

Chapter 3: The Abandoned City

She gasped and felt the car pushing hard against her ribcage and she could have sworn she heard something crack. She tried to breathe but the car never backed away. Even over the loud motor she could hear Magnus' maniacal laughter and for one moment she had no idea how to escape from this situation. That moment was quickly followed up by her losing consciousness and fainting while the car pressed her into the tree.

She didn't wake up before she was floating in the waters of a green-watered lake and turned herself around. She tried her best to catch her breath but something caused her to not get much oxygen in her lungs. She felt like a combination of drowning and suffocating, and that was exactly the moment she started to move. The water wasn't deep and to her surprise her struggling feet found the ground within the first seconds of her struggling against the stream. She stood up, shaking and gasping for breath. The more she gasped and coughed to try to clear her lungs and provide them with much favored oxygen she felt a burning pain around her chest area. She wanted to gasp, the pain was so intense, but she couldn't unless suffering excruciating pain. After at least an hour she seemed to be able to breathe normally, though shivering and she gave herself the chance to check her surroundings.

Tall, gloomy looking trees stood dark and high above her, looking down on her with a meaningful wet glance on their leaves and she shivered, feeling as if her father was the one judging her. She tried to look more into the forest from this point, seeing how she wouldn't come any further if she choose to swim, and her senses told her that was the way to go. She followed a path through the forest that had probably been laid there by a variety of wildlife; deers, skunks, even birds picking up seeds. She decided to follow the path. The trees had caused the road to be dry instead of muddy and her step increased in size every few meters. It wasn't long until she reached the edge of the forest and the trees started to thin out. She looked around and much to her surprise she was close to a little old abandoned city. The dust had been washed away by the autumn rain, but if it hadn't she was positive the place would be so dusty that the dust would lay mountain high.

"What was the hold up, man?!" A penguin with a deep, threatening voice said. "Why didn't you come immediately?!"

She waited for a reply while looking around the abandoned city, but none came. "They have reception at this dump?" She shrugged a little and looked around for a way to get back home. For sure her dad wouldn't miss her for until another few hours, if she was correct in estimating the time. She knew trying her mobile phone would be to no avail and waddling to a city would be pushing her luck onto a breaking point. This was the first time she looked down at her own body. Some wounds were softly stinging and bleeding and her feathers were covered in green, slimy stuff. Something seaweed like, she bet. The waddle through the forest had dried her up for the most part and it had also warmed her. The only thing she needed was to return back to home.

The man talking apparently came closer and she moved to a hiding spot behind a little wall. The penguin waddled past her, but obviously had company. It was a younger, presumably male, penguin, she was sure of it. The footsteps nearly sounded like Magnus. Or at least that was what she thought. She peeked over the wall and looked at them. Even though the younger penguin did sound like Magnus with his speaking pattern and the shuffling of the feet whenever he would get nervous, he didn't look like her previous 'date' at all.

She shrugged some and thought that the ways of observing that she was taught might have been flawed or something. At least the grammar lessons of her dad's had seemed illogical and unnecessary, so who wouldn't be the rest of his, admittedly, more interesting lessons had been the same.

Against better judgement she followed the guys waddling to a car. It was a car she easily recognized, though she forgot right at that moment where from. She watched them get into the car and speed away. She then turned and looked at the smallish city and thought that beside this city that would provide her with a shelter and the lake that could provide her with fish, she would manage to survive at least for a little while.

It was lonely at the abandoned city. Silvia felt like the silence of her surroundings would deafen her and as if the lack of company would drive her crazy. She now had stayed at this place for two days and she started to feel helpless. She felt dirty and hungry and above all her sides hurt her badly. Especially when she dove into the lake to get her food or when she slid towards it. She felt the burning pain especially when she coughed, but the cold and wet area had surprised her with a cold. She wondered about her father. She wondered if he was searching for her now, or if he was happy she was gone. She wondered if his 'girlfriend' would care at all. Would they send agents after her? Would they do anything at all to save her?

She no longer knew if staying at this place was the wisest thing to do. She pondered waddling to a dirty old road but it seemed to go to the middle of nowhere. Not that she wasn't there already. Even though the frequent bathes in the lake for her food, she wasn't able to get the green stuff out of her feathers. She felt dirty and tired and extremely moody when she a day later had made a decision. She would go waddling, or sliding, follow the road. It should lead to somewhere, she thought. Every road leads to somewhere, because why else would they make a road? She waddled for hours without a major change in scenery. The abandoned city faded out of her sight and the endless nothingness seemed to approach fast, but she waddled determinedly on.

"I should get somewhere sometime..." She mumbled to herself after nearly waddling for a day. She had now seen some mountains, or hills, she wasn't sure. That was a good improvement since she knew these were around the base, around her house. But just when she started to get her hopes up to ever getting back home, she felt herself growing faint and fainted right in the middle of the dirty, rarely used road.

Hope you enjoyed reading! :)