How It All Began

Chapter 1: The Chase

One night, in a cave during one of the coldest blizzards in Antarctica, an egg was born. Surrounding the egg were two penguins. One of them was a beautiful, gray-feathered female penguin and the other was a tall, muscular, flat-headed male penguin.

"That is one handsome looking egg." The male said

"It looks quite promising but it will be hard to raise an egg during a blizzard." The other commented.

"Silvia, It'll be fine. I can handle it." The male penguin said as he carefully slipped the egg under him.

"I hope so, Jon." Silvia added, "It will be long before this blizzard stops and with so many predators around, we can't move to safer ground. The egg can't survive alone you know."

Jon opened his mouth to reply but hesitated. After a few heartbeats he finally said, "Do you smell that…"

Before he could finish his sentence, out from the shadows, a big leopard seal barged into the cave, roaring in delight as it spotted its long-awaited dinner.

"RUN, SILVIA! AND TAKE THE EGG! GO THROUGH THE TUNNELS WE FOUND YESTERDAY!" Jon screamed at the top of his lungs.

"But we don't even know if it's safe! There might be…" Silvia stammered.

"IT'S NOT SAFE HERE ANYMORE!" Jon said, gently giving the egg to Silvia. "GO! RUN! RUN AWAY AND DONT LOOK BACK!"

Silvia did as she was told and headed for the back of the cave, clutching the egg in her flippers. Silvia ran through the first tunnel she found which led to the shore. She got out at almost the exact moment another leopard seal swam out of the water.

Surprised by the loud growl of the seal, Silvia was forced to run faster.

Because of the loud growl, it seemed that the leopard seal was bigger than the one in the cave with Jon. She didn't dare look back for she might slow down in the process. Silvia headed toward the Echoing Mountains where a secret military penguin force was located.

Jon, having learned so much in that secret agency, fought bravely against the leopard seal. But the leopard seal seemed to be trained and dodged his every move.

Soon, Jon found himself pinned down by the enormous creature, letting out a loud caterwaul before everything that can be heard was the hungry growl of the leopard seal.

Silvia struggled to keep moving. Her lungs gasping for air, her feet tired and sore, but she had to keep running for the sake of her newborn child.

At long last, she arrived at the bottom of the Echoing Mountain. She was too tired to climb but she had no choice. She began climbing rocks and boulders, hoping that the leopard seal wouldn't follow her up there. But she was wrong. The leopard seal was climbing the boulders as well!

He must be starving to follow me up here, Silvia thought.

Panicking now, Silvia waddled to a tiny cave. It's the only shelter I can find! … Well, at least my egg can survive longer than me. She thought.

Carefully, she hid her egg inside and spun around to see what happened to the seal. It was bigger that she imagined. I must lure it away from my egg! The seal was struggling to keep up, but it was growing closer and closer to Silvia.

Silvia drew away from the tiny cave and taunted, "Hey ugly! Want a piece of me?"

The creature turned away from the cave and looked at Silvia with hungry eyes and growled its triumph of finding its prey.

"Oh, I guess you do! Hehe… AAAHH HELP!" Silvia screamed. She ran forward, the blizzard blinding her sight. Where am I? The thought of being lost here made her shudder. Suddenly, "OOF!" she tripped over a rock right in front of her! She turned and saw the leopard seal pulling itself nearer and nearer.

Silvia tried to get back up and running, but her trip over the rock made a sprain in her leg and she found it hard to move fast. The pain slowed her every step and soon became so unbearable that she collapsed on the icy floor. Knowing that this could be her end, with the leopard seal right in front of her, she closed her eyes tight.

Suddenly, a yowl was heard from behind her. It was a penguin! He was a young Northern Rockhopper penguin with red eyes and bushy eyebrows. He shot out from behind her and kicked the leopard seal in the chest. The seal squealed with pain and snapped its jaws in attempt to eat them.

The Rockhopper penguin grabbed the leopard seal's tail and threw it down and unconscious. Then he looked at Silvia as if he expected her to do something. "Well?" He said.

Silvia looked around as if someone had followed her. "Me?" she asked.

"Yes you. What are you waiting for?" The penguin said, giving her a look of confusion.

Suddenly the leopard seal regained its consciousness and got up. It grabbed the Rockhopper penguin and opened its mouth. The penguin got a tranquilizer gun that seemed to come from his back and shot the leopard seal. Soon, the seal was unconscious once more. For a few heartbeats, Silvia met the other penguin's gaze.

"Are you gonna introduce yourself or what?" The Rockhopper penguin asked.

"My… my… n… name is S… Silvia."

"Well, Silvia, the name's Agent Buck Rockgut. You can call me Buck. Surely you have heard about me."

"Buck? Buck Rockgut? I never…" she began. But instantly, she remembered her egg and limped toward the tiny cave.

"Where do you think you're going missy?" Buck stammered.

Silvia examined her egg carefully. There were no cracks or holes. No damage at all. She sighed with relief.

"That… your egg?" Buck asked.

Silvia nodded.

"You're hurt. You and your egg must come with me to Headquarters."

"The SMPF?"

"Aye. That's the one."

"I…I was h…heading there my…myself because…"

"Tell me in the HQ. We need to get that leg treated right away."

Buck let Silvia lean on his shoulder all the way to the SMPF HQ. "Here we are. We are safe here." He said. Silvia sat down on a boulder and let Buck examine her leg. "Doesn't seem infected or too hurt. It just needs a little cold compress." He explained while chipping off some ice from a huge ice cube. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around the sprain and ice.

"Now, young one, you were saying?" he asked Silvia.

Clutching her egg, she told Buck everything that had happened. "Really?" Buck replied, "Well, I'm sure we can check the surveillance tapes for clues… I have a feeling that…"

Suddenly, another female penguin barged into the room Buck and Silvia were staying in. "Buck! Buck! We need you to see this! It's and emergency!" she announced.

What happened? What is the emergency? Find out in the next chapter of

How It All Began