Guido rushed across the frigid artic ground. His order from Shear was clear; to warn the others when the invasion begun.
The small colony of penguins gathered around in a semi-circle underneath the washed out cliff bottom. When he had arrived, he let out a cry in despair.
“They’re here! They’ve come!” he wailed.
Guido gasped for breath, though he had been a general for two years now, he still hadn’t been in the shape he was required to be.
The young penguins shrieked as a loud boom shook the ground. Icicles fell to the ground above them, and the mothers coved their chicks.
A tall penguin swaggered before the group, the leader of the colony.
“Let us not be alarmed! We will fight, we shall win!” he brayed.
The penguins roared and shook their wings in the air. Several of them shouted and yelled. Young penguins rushed to the fallen icicles swinging them like swords. One important thing ran through Guido’s mind…
His family.
It didn’t take long for the meerkats to arrive. Most of them ran across the freezing tundra, while some came by airplanes, plummeting to the ground. Guido rushed across the colony, calling out to his sister.
“Stand your ground penguins!” Shear shouted.
Chaos ran rampant though the penguins. Many of them ran to their homes in fear. Others ran to the infantry to fight.
Guido ran to his family, hugging his young sister.
“Be careful,” his mother said as she kissed him on the cheek.
“I promise I will mom,” he said.
The weight of the world had fallen on his shoulders when Shear had chosen him to be a leader for the infantry. A pang of sadness ached through his heart as a tear shed from his eyes. He rarely got to see his mother and sister anymore. Which was difficult since he had to lead the family after his father was killed. Guido broke away from his embrace, and gave them a farewell. Hoping he could return home after the madness.
He sighed as he marched through the snow; there was no way for the penguins to beat the meerkats. There was way to many of them; and such too few penguins. He wished he could just stay home and guard his mother and sister. If only there was a better way…
He blacked out when a grenade exploded in front of him.
“Take that sucker!!!” a meerkat soldier yelled as the bomb exploded. Snow flew through the air as Guido tumbled to the ground. He gasped for air and jumped to his feet, sliding across the ice. Pain coursed through his veins, more than the adrenaline that flowed through him.
Wading through the injured and the explosions, he finally made it to the armory. A slight tinge of regret ran through his mind, he should have stayed at the armory. Shear will tear him in two after the battle. If the meerkats don’t get to him first.
The battle raged on for hours, penguin troops had been injured but not killed. It was like the cruel meerkats wanted them to suffer and live in pain. Though… the penguins put up one wail of a fight, it was clear their kind would be permanently maimed.
“We can’t get rid of them!” Guido shouted to Shear, whom was now fighting alongside his warrior penguins.
“We have to! What else is there to do?!” Shear shouted.
“We could surrender, sir…” Guido muttered under his breath while whacking a meerkat soldier with an icicle. He slowly backed up, he had an idea. It might work, could it work? There was only one way to find out…
He flew across the ice, the drones of meerkats raged on. They had to have a leader, someone who could put an end to the madness. As he got closer to the water, he saw a giant ship.
So that’s where they’re coming from... he thought to himself as he watched them rush out of the monsterous ship. Fear washed over him like a raging wave, what if they killed him? He just had to try… Perhaps they would not kill him if he came unarmed. He dropped him icicle in the snow and covered it up.
As he approached the ship, two meerkat guards jumped him, knocking him to the ground.
“Who are you and what do you want!?” the short, fat one asked.
“I’m Guido, I’m with the Penguin Guard. I come to request an armistice,” Guido said, gasping for air.
“We should kill him,” the taller, muscular meerkat snickered.
“We can’t! It’s against the orders of Sniks!”
“She won’t care. ‘Cause she won’t find out!” the meerkat snickered again, an evil grin formed across his face.
“EXCUSE ME?!” a female voice barreled.
A tall, young meerkat trotted forward. Armed with grenades and pistols, she held on to her dagger with one hand. A small crown sat atop her head as her red robe fluttered through the chilling breeze.
“So sorry, mum. I didn’t mean it, mum. Please don’t throw me into the dungeons, mum,” the guard stuttered as he slowly backed away.
“Be gone with you. I don’t want to see you again,” she shooed him away. “Now what can I do for you, brave, but foolish penguin?”
“I’ve come to invoke a truce. A partnership with the meerkats and penguins… Why exactly do you fight us anyways?” Guido stared at the ground.
“You bloody penguins! So clueless to the world!!” Sniks threw her hands towards the sky. “In a land far, far away, humans are fighting over who is cuter… Us,” she combed through her ginger hair. “Or you,” she scoffed at Guido. “If we could get rid of you morons. We could be the cutest of them all!!”
Guido stared at the meerkat, she was obviously insane. To think that there were human beings. Foolish meerkat, everyone knows humans don’t exist! He shouldn’t argue with the beast, so he played along…
“We could join forces, and both of us be the… ‘cutest’.”
“Nonsense!” she barked, waving her dagger through the air.
What could Guido do? There had to be a way to get through to her… to make peace with the creatures.
Look for part two next week!
