Hello everyone once again!

Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brennt! (German Christmas poem for Children, meaning „Advent, Advent, a little flame is alight")

This is the sequel of "Feather of Maat" and therefore features not only the penguins and Marlene, but also Manfredi, Johnson, Freija-Solveig and some new OCs. And as it is a sequel, I kind of refer to what has happened in "Feather of Maat". You have three possibilities now: Remember it, re-read the old story (Chapter 15, for example), or wait for part two of this story. If I explain things now and here, then the suspense would be lost. The story itself takes place after the episode "The Penguin Who Loved Me". (My German beta-reader asked me this, so I want to add it here: The beginning is no real quote, because G.A. is the crazy auk they met in Copenhagen's sewer. It's related to Chapter 15 again.)

I am in a kind of writer's block at the moment and think that returning to a story which I wrote with a lot of motivation and joy might help to break down the walls keeping my fingers mute. But this is also a thank-you for all the readers out there. Recently I got a comment again and checked the statistics of my story... and I was overwhelmed with joy. When I started writing "Feather of Maat" I had never expected this. "File Number: Tippy Top Secret" is what I'd like to give you back as a thank you.

There are four parts and I'll update them every Advent Sunday. See it as a tiny Advent calendar. ;)

Enjoy it!

Yours Oxymora

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Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of PoM

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Part 1: Farewell

A not so long time ago the world was divided into two major ideologies, and everyone believed his way was the right and should be the only one. Heretofore developed weapons turned into luck under the circumstances, as their threat caused no blood-shedding and the war between those two sides stayed cold. It was the war of the spies, double agents, and defectors, who sounded out the enemy and caused the creativity of authors to run wild. However, the best stories remained untold and never saw the ink ribbon of a typewriter. They were simply too fantastic to be believed.

But now and then one of those old stories finds its way to surface, especially when hatred cannot be forgotten and fault cannot be forgiven.

- A life of war, by G.A.

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"Men, I am proud of you. We have come all this way to today; survived blizzards in Antarctica, rescued hippies from Madagascar and from crazy animal control officers – I'm not so sure whether this is an achievement though – defeated mad dolphins, two-faced puffins and mammals, diabolic children and cuckoo Officer X, vicious as well as dump squirrels, news reporters and aliens; we survived our crazy lemur-neighbours... and even Kowalski's inventions."

Skipper added a break to give his words time to sink in. It was a special day and perhaps the last time he could tell his team how much they meant to him.

"But all good times come to an end... it is not a real end though; it is just a new chapter in our lives as soldiers, with new duties..."

Marlene looked up into the sky, past the US flag in her hand, above the penguin habitat in the Grand Central Zoo. It was late November, the days darkened very early already, at least they darkened as much as they could in the city that never sleeps, but there was still no snow expected. Everyone was preparing for Christmas and there were only a few cold- and rain-proofed visitors left in the zoo. Concentrating on them was Marlene's way of stopping her tears, but eventually her memory reviewed the events leading to this very day. Sure, it never had been easy with Skipper and the others, but they were her friends and she could not picture living without them. The zoo would never be the same again; she could only imagine it as calm, peaceful, and unbearable boring. That day, when the penguins return from a mission that appeared as crazy daily-life as any other, was the first time it occurred to her that life in the zoo would not continue forever without a change. It was the day of Dr. Blowhole's re-re-re-shelostcount-revenge and this time the penguins finally imprisoned him. It turned into Kowalski's greatest triumph and saddest day, while he proved his leading skills and lost Doris' love forever.

A silver, H-shaped metal on his chest was his reward for loyalty to his country. He was promoted to a captain and officially appointed to leader of his own team. Orders had arrived only a few days later and the ADM wanted Captain Kowalski and meanwhile Lance Corporal "Private" Tux to support an operation in South Africa. The time for the good-bye was short, but obviously Skipper wanted to make it as soppy as possible. After talking about their classified and even more classified operations, he started talking about his old teams.

The day had started quite normal for King Julien: A delicious morning smoothy prepared by Maurice, kick-Mort-as-far-as-possible exercises and some dance moves to stay in shape, and the daily survey of his self-declared kingdom. But then his eyes spotted something unpleasant, something that smelled like conspiracy.

"Maurice... MAURICE! What is this, eh?" he asked his right hand man and pointed in the direction of this matter.

"It seems like the penguins having some super official ceremony," the lemur suggested, looking at the fake-ice island in the middle of the penguin habitat. The three penguins stood chin-up, decorated-chest-out in front of their leader who gave a speech longer than anyone could endure. Marlene was standing slightly away from the others as the bannerman.

"It's surprisingly calm, if you mean that."

"That's not my King-Julien-flag!" He pulled an US flag with tiny Julien heads instead of stars out of nowhere and held in up. "Maurice, do something!"

"No outsider must know about the things I told you," Skipper continued, but was interrupted when Kowalski pointed at the otter.

"Skipper, you know that I was invited and that I am here, don't you?" Marlene remarked.

"Ehrm... I might have forgotten... never mind. As long as this information stays among non-mammals everything is save; one cannot trust mammals," he lowered his voice as if he expected to be eavesdropped on.

"She IS a mammal...,"Private remarked.

Skipper looked at Marlene startled, but then he remembered. "Oh... right. You are. Well. You've proven many times so far that you are a respectable penguin in the wrong body."

"Thank you... I guess...," she answered.

"Otherwise, we would have to...," he paused, and pulled from behind his back a bottle of ketchup. "... use our Amnesia spray!"

"You have Amnesia spray... in a ketchup bottle?" The next moment Marlene already regretted to have asked. She knew them long enough to know that this was a low case of weirdness when it came to her penguin-friends.

Kowalski stepped forward. "Of course! Where else should one put it? At first we had it in different fish conserves hidden in our food storage place, but Rico started eating it, but forgot about it instantly and kept on eating all of our fish supply."

Rico's mumbled answer sounded similar to: "Wasn't mine fault"

"Wait a second... isn't that the same bottle I had in my hand the other day when..." before Marlene was able to get into rage, a female voice shouted: "Careful, Skip! The enemy is onto you!"

Black and white feathers scattered in all directions, when something hit Skipper. He went down, without any of the penguins being able to notice what had hit their leader. Only when the intruder stood up, they recognised her.

"Freija-Solveig!" they shouted surprised. It had been one and a half years, since they had met the tough and beautiful head of the Danish Penguin Academy in Copenhagen. And only seconds later two other familiar, long-time-not-seen faces appeared on the scene: Manfredi and Johnson. They positioned themselves in front of Freija-Solveig and Skipper, while latter was pushed down to the ground by the lady-penguin.

"Yes... yes... hello to you too. Let's save this for later, because there is something important. Have you seen a sable here? Looks remotely like her," she pointed at Marlene, "but more vicious."

"Fre..." Skipper tried, but was stopped immediately by the female, who held his beak. "Not now, Skip."

The unexpected visitors did not wait for an answer from the New York Citizen friends, but immediately looked and sounded out the situation. Even with combined forces, they spotted nothing suspicious and after they were told that no stranger had been around, they eased a little bit.

"I can always build a sable detector", stated Kowalski and pulled a toolbox from behind his back. "How long can Skipper..."

"Thank you, Kowalski. But I think he'll find a way to avoid detection", marked Manfredi. "We have to keep an open eye."

"Hold still, Skip. This is important. I could have sworn he had been..."

"You should let him go, otherwise you finish our job. And I hate when someone else does my job. It leaves me... jobless", a deep voice with Russian accent said from behind the female soldier.

By a reflex Freija-Solveig looked down at the leader first. He still tried to gesticulate that she was holding him down at his throat, what nearly caused him suffocation. She removed her wing fast, when her mind finally caught up. She hurled immediately around to hit her enemy, but he simply blocked her wing with his paw. Everyone except for the tall Manfredi was at least one head smaller than the stranger that looked now into the lady-penguins deep blue eyes. "You did a big mistake coming here. This is none of your business."

"Oh, you have no idea!"She shoved him a little bit away. On the expression that flickered shortly over her face, one could read that she had expected more to happen. But although he was in advantage, no smile strayed onto his snout.

"Skipper, get out of here!" Menfredi shouted. "You are in grave danger! He is here to kill you!"

He and Johnson were forming together with Freija-Solveig a wall between the brown, muscular sable and their friend, who finally managed to stand up.

"If he is here to kill me, he has to step in line. There are a lot of enemies out there who have the same wish. And I've never cut and run", Skipper said, pushing his friends aside and placed himself in front of the stranger. "Who are you and what is your business with me?"

"I am glad to hear this. My name is Sergej and as you can hear I'm Russian. I am working for Ilka, Ilka Sokolow. Your body language tells me you know about my business now." He put his paw behind his back. It caused everybody except for Skipper, who stood still, and Marlene, who moved back, to approach the sable. He grunted. "I find it fascinating that you still expect me to ambush you. If I had planned to do that, you all would be dead by now."

Instead of a weapon he produced a letter from behind his back. "This is an invitation letter. Ilka wants to duel you. Just the two of you. An affaire d'honneur, as the French say, to redeem his father's honour. No one else must interfere."

Skipper eyed the envelope. There was a name written of it, but no one was able to read it, as the leader placed – intentionally or not – his wing just above it.

"Letter opener", he ordered and Rico regurgitated a small knife in the shape of a katana. "Thanks."

He cut open the upper side and took out a piece of paper. He read it carefully and put it back inside.

"Quite old-fashioned, isn't it?" he said.

"I'm not in the position to judge it. I'm only the delivery boy," was the response. "What is your answer?"

"I accept. I shall be there."

"Good. As I said, I'm glad to hear that. In this way we do not have kill to innocent people."

"What do you mean by this?" Kowalski asked, joining the front row. "We won't let anything happen to anyone!"

"Correct!" Private confirmed and Rico grunted agreeing.

Sergej appeared not very impressed by this. "We know that this zoo is dear to Skipper, therefore we take it as hostage and if Skipper does not follow the deal, we feel forced to... well, you will see... if necessary..."

"THE WHOLE ZOO?" Marlene shouted.

"MY KINGDOM?"

They turned around to see King Julien. "This place is under my protection! No one does anything to it... except for my kingliness."

Freija-Solveig rolled her eyes and wanted to pull the lemur out of the situation before he got himself into bigger troubles than he already was in. But Sergej's missing reply made her stopped. Instead he was just eyeing the strange creature.

"Who are you?" he asked finally. "And... what are you?"

Maurice cleared his throat and started as it was written down in his job-description: "Presenting your Royal Highness, the illustrious ring tail lemur King Julien XIII, self proclaimed Lord of the Lemurs, King of Madagascar, Africa, and New York City, etcetera, etcetera, hurray everybody." The mouse lemur hoorayed.

"Ring-Tail," Skipper facepalmed. "Get out of here..."

"Why?" Sergej chuckled, which caused Skipper and Freija-Solveig to exchange puzzled glances. "I think he should be your assistant."

"But... but...," the leader tried, but was interrupted by Julien: "I am no one's assistant! People assist me, as I am the king."

The penguin was already about to breathe out in relief, when the sable tossed in: "In a duel, the assistant – the coach – is the most important man for the dueller. He keeps the rules tight, and who if not the king is capable of keeping people walking the line, as you say here in US."

"But... but...," Skipper started again. However, it was enough to soft-soap Julien and he agreed: "No buts, silly penguin. I shall be your as... rule-keeper. A king is always there for his people, and who else than me could be capable of taking this heavy load."

"Perfect. I have to leave now and prepare for tomorrow," the sable said and first turned to Skipper alone to say, "Sjáumst á morgun, svikarison." Then he turned to King Julien and his face expression switched from stone to a soft smile: "And see you, handsome." He moved back and disappeared into the water.

Skipper was too confused to answer. It was Freija-Solveig who spoke first: "Did he just... flirt... with..." She could not say it, but pointed at the ring-tail lemur.

"Handsome... Add that to my introduction, Maurice," Julien said without realising why the sable had said it. "And for what do you need me as an assistant, less-handsome penguin?"

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End of "Part 1 – Farewell"

Do you know this situation when your characters start doing something you actually didn't plan or want them to do? I never plan that my characters fall in love... it just happens (like Freija-Solveig and Manfredi). I added the lemurs to the original version of this chapter and the very second Sergej and Julien met, Sergej was head over heels in love. And no, Sergej didn't talk Russian. I won't say more, because... spoilers. (Yes, someone watched too much Dr. Who recently.)

Have a nice week everyone!