It was a long ride to wherever they were going. The スノーモービル moved at a great speed, a speed that Tom had never experienced before. It would have been invigorating if he hadn’t had the attack on his mind.
The fact that his フレンズ and family were all dead hit him the hardest the farther away they moved from the village. He had no family. They were all dead.
He even found himself missing his parents. Despite the fact that they’d lied to him about his hatching and tried to keep him away from his best friend. He felt horrible about the way he spoke to them before they died. He would’ve 与えられた anything to just let them know that he loved them one もっと見る time.
And Kari. She had always been his one true friend. No matter what anyone 発言しました about him, she always saw him for who he really was. She took up for him and was always there when he needed someone to talk to.
Rico, Manfredi, and Johnson. He’d just met them, yet they still entered his thoughts. Manfredi hadn’t even healed yet. They all just wanted somewhere to fit in and they never got the chance. Tom thought they were going to become great friends, and they probably would have if they hadn’t been killed first.
Doctor Mavis. He’d done everything he could possibly do to try to heal him. He would have stopped at nothing to break him free from Death’s grasp. If only he hadn’t been killed first.
Everyone he’d ever known was dead.
He started to wonder who was responsible for the attack. He vowed then and there that he’d find whoever did this and force them to beg for mercy. No matter how long it took, he would have vengeance.
Finally, he felt the スノーモービル slow down and finally come to a stop. The ツノメドリ, パフィン climbed off and started walking forward. Tom peered over the 上, ページのトップへ of her vest and saw that she was heading toward the ocean, where something large was floating in it.
“What’s that?” Tom asked.
“That is called a boat. We’re heading overseas, darling,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン answered.
“Overseas? Where are we going? I thought Antarctica was supposed to be the only place on earth,” Tom said.
The ツノメドリ, パフィン chuckled. “Well, that’s certainly not true, my dear. There are all kinds of places around the world. We’re going to a place called Denmark,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン told him. Tom recalled Kari mentioning somewhere called Denmark when she told him about warm places.
“Denmark? Is it warm there?” Tom asked with a touch of hope.
“Why, yes. Very. Well, when it’s not winter, of course. The climate may take some getting used to for you, but you’ll manage,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン explained.
So, it’s true! Tom thought. There really are warm places!
“So…Are there really things called flowers? And the sun helps them grow?” Tom asked.
The ツノメドリ, パフィン chuckled again. “Of course. Where did あなた hear about flowers?”
“A friend told me about them…” Tom answered. “She 発言しました that they’re only in warm places. She also 発言しました that ペンギン military intelligence resides in warm places. Is that true, too?
“Mm-hm. That’s absolutely right. Where did she get all of this classified information?”
“Her grandfather was part of it. Her grandma told her about it after his passing,” Tom answered.
“Ah, I see,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン 発言しました as she boarded the boat.
So, there really were such things as warm places. Tom wished he could tell his parents. And Kari. Kari would be thrilled. The thought made his ハート, 心 wrench.
“Are あなた a military intelligence?” Tom asked.
“Well, もっと見る または less,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン answered dusting snow off of Tom’s head. That’s when she realized how warm he was. “Darling, you’re running a fever! Are あなた sick?”
Tom looked down. “Yeah. I was a late hatcher. The doctor in our village developed an untested therapy to try to cure me, but he died in the attack. My fever had broken, but I guess being in that snow for all that time and not having that medicine made me worse again. I guess that means I’m going to die, now,” he explained sadly.
“No, あなた most certainly will not. Let’s take あなた down and get your fever down. によって the time we reach Denmark, we’ll work on getting あなた better. No worries, darling. あなた are going to be fine,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン assured him.
“But I’m so young. I haven’t even gotten my adult feathers, yet,” Tom pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン 発言しました as she entered a door that led down into the boat. “You know, when I was your age, I came down with pneumonia. Want to know where I was? Alaska. That place is just about as cold as Antarctica. But I pushed through and survived.”
“But this isn’t just a bad cold. I hatched three days late. I wasn’t even supposed to last as long as I have,” Tom told her.
“Which is a very good sign. Life expectancy for late hatchlings is around a 年 at most. Some don’t even make it that far. You’ve made it…How old are you?” the ツノメドリ, パフィン asked.
“Four,” Tom answered.
“You’ve made it four years. あなた are one lucky penguin, my dear,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン told him. “You’re going to be just fine.”
She opened a door that led into a small room with a ベッド and a small 表, テーブル with two drawers. She set him down in the ベッド and pulled the covers up to his chin.
“Get some rest. It’s going to be a long sail,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン instructed. Tom nodded and she turned to leave.
“Wait,” Tom called softly, catching her attention. She turned back to face him.
“Yes?”
“What’s your name?” Tom asked.
The ツノメドリ, パフィン smiled. “Danica. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Get some sleep,” Danica told him before she turned and left the room, shutting the door behind her.
But the 画像 were still there, etched into the back of his mind. The blood-stained snow. The lifeless faces of the townspeople. The deathly silence leaving nothing but the howl of the wind in its tracks.
Sleep? He was afraid that he no longer knew the meaning of the word.
♦ ♦ ♦
As promised, Danica returned an 時 and a half later to find Tom wide awake without a wink of sleep. At the sight of his blank, depressed expression, she sighed and sat 次 to him in the bed, holding the bowl of small 魚 she’d brought him in her lap.
“I know it’s hard to lose someone あなた love. Especially everyone あなた love. It’s as if your ハート, 心 dies with them. あなた feel empty. あなた feel as if there’s nothing left for あなた in the world. That’s how I felt when I ロスト my parents and little sister in a house fire,” Danica told him. Tom finally looked her way when she admitted that she knew how he felt.
After a brief moment of silence, Tom asked, “How did あなた get through the pain? What made あなた strong again?”
Danica took a deep breath. “Well, I never really got over it. I still grieve when I think about it. What made me stronger was knowing that they’d always be with me. In here,” she 発言しました tapping the left side of her chest over her heart. “I knew that they loved me, and I them. And I knew that they would want me to 移動する on. So, I did. I left my hometown and walked. I walked for so long before I was found によって the men and women I work with today. They became my new family. They took me in and trained me to be there own. They’re my family, now.”
Tom looked down. “Wow…I wish it was that easy for me.”
Danica looked at him and smiled sympathetically. “It can be. How would あなた like to 登録する my family, too?”
Tom met her eye again. “Me? 登録する your family?”
Danica smiled and nudged him. “Sure. What do あなた say? Before あなた know it, you’ll forget all about the pain from losing your old family. Just like I did.”
Tom thought for a few minutes. He loved his old family. He didn’t even like using the word ‘old’ in the context. They were still his family, even though they were dead. Then again, the promise of no longer hurting was calling to him like the morning to the sun. He could have a new family. He could be someone completely new. Someone everyone would accept. He could start over and forget the past four years ever happened.
Everything would be right again.
He looked back up at her. “What do I have to do?”
Danica smiled. “Well, first we’ll have to get あなた better again. We’ll start when we reach Denmark. Here, eat this. あなた need to keep your strength up.” She handed him the bowl of 魚 and Tom accepted. Danica left him as he ate.
Thomas thought long and hard on the decision he’d just made. He’d just agreed to replace his family with a bunch of people that he didn’t know. Did he? Was he really replacing his family? Maybe he could think of it もっと見る as…Adding to his family. Just because he agreed to 登録する a new family, doesn’t mean his old family wouldn’t still hold a place in his empty heart. Right?
What would his real family say about this if he could ask them? Surely, they’d understand, right? They’d understand that he needs to 移動する on and that he needs to be with someone who will help him forget about the pain. The emptiness. The loneliness. He needed to be kept on his feet. And he needed to be kept strong.
After debating back and forth with himself for about an hour, he finally came to the conclusion that he’d made the right decision. It wasn’t like he had anywhere he could go anyway. He was too young to be on his own. And these people might be able to heal him. He can’t heal himself. He took a deep breath and thought about his ホーム one last time before he shoved it from his mind.
He was home, now.
♦ ♦ ♦
Tom’s fever broke once again about three hours before they docked in Denmark. Danica came to his room once they arrived at the coast.
“Tom? We’re here. Are あなた ready?” Danica asked at the door.
Tom hopped down from the ベッド and drug himself to her side.
“As I’ll ever be,” he answered. Danica smiled and picked him up to keep him from using up his energy. For what she had in mind, he was going to need it.
“Then let’s go,” Danica 発言しました as she made her way topside.
When they hit the naturally warm climate of Denmark, Tom was overwhelmed. The sun beat down on them and he had to shield his eyes from the blinding light. When his eyes adjusted, he looked past the coast into the woods that lay beyond.
“It’ll take about a half 時 to reach our base,” Danica told him.
“Base?” Tom inquired. He started to breathe heavily as the severe heat started to catch up with him.
“That’s what we call our village. I think you’ll like it. I can wait for あなた to meet my son. I think あなた and him will make great friends,” Danica told him with a smile.
Interrupting them, a ペンギン approached her and said, “Er du sikker på, at han kommer til at acceptere dette? Du kan ikke lyve for ham for evigt.”
“Tro mig. Han er ung og naiv. Han vil tro noget vi fortælle ham og spise lige ud af vores hænder. Desuden, hvis han ikke gør det, kan vi altid dræbe ham,” Danica replied. The ペンギン glanced at Tom, then turned and headed for the jungle.
Tom looked up at Danica. “What was that?”
“That is our native language, Danish. You’ll learn it soon enough. As well as many other languages. It will come in handy when あなた start joining in on our kind of fun,” Danica explained.
As she started moving through the jungle, Tom looked curiously at the world around him.
“What are those tall brown things?” he asked.
“Those are trees, darling. And the green stuff growing on them are leaves. Well, except for the fuzzy stuff at the bottom. That’s moss. It always grows on the north side of the trees,” Danica told him.
Tom watched as they passed other plants, and something small and silky caught his eye. It was the color of the sun.
“Is that a flower?” Tom asked slowly reaching out and feeling its soft petals as they passed.
“Mm-hm. It’s called a Primrose Willow,” Danica told him.
Tom couldn’t help but think of Kari. What he wouldn’t give to give her on of those beautiful flowers. He reached out to touch a group of leaves as they passed, but Danica jerked him back.
“Now, Thomas, be careful! Those were poison ivy leaves. If あなた touch them, you’ll get a terrible rash,” she warned.
“Oh…It sounds like I have a lot to learn,” Tom said.
Danica chuckled. “Yes あなた do. But don’t worry too much about it. You’ll pick it up in no time.”
About ten 分 later, they arrived at the base. It was huge. The majority of the population was penguins. Judging mentally, one could guess that the ratio of penguins to puffins was about seven to one. There were tents scattered throughout the base, some small, some relatively large.
Danica moved through the village, returning salutes to other MP’s as she went. Finally, she turned into a tent where a smaller ツノメドリ, パフィン about Tom’s age was practicing a ナイフ trick.
“Darling, あなた need to put your toys away. I want あなた to meet someone,” Danica told him. The boy ツノメドリ, パフィン set his ナイフ into a case and came to their side as Danica set him on the ground.
“This is Tom,” Danica introduced him. “Tom, this is my son, Hans.”
The fact that his フレンズ and family were all dead hit him the hardest the farther away they moved from the village. He had no family. They were all dead.
He even found himself missing his parents. Despite the fact that they’d lied to him about his hatching and tried to keep him away from his best friend. He felt horrible about the way he spoke to them before they died. He would’ve 与えられた anything to just let them know that he loved them one もっと見る time.
And Kari. She had always been his one true friend. No matter what anyone 発言しました about him, she always saw him for who he really was. She took up for him and was always there when he needed someone to talk to.
Rico, Manfredi, and Johnson. He’d just met them, yet they still entered his thoughts. Manfredi hadn’t even healed yet. They all just wanted somewhere to fit in and they never got the chance. Tom thought they were going to become great friends, and they probably would have if they hadn’t been killed first.
Doctor Mavis. He’d done everything he could possibly do to try to heal him. He would have stopped at nothing to break him free from Death’s grasp. If only he hadn’t been killed first.
Everyone he’d ever known was dead.
He started to wonder who was responsible for the attack. He vowed then and there that he’d find whoever did this and force them to beg for mercy. No matter how long it took, he would have vengeance.
Finally, he felt the スノーモービル slow down and finally come to a stop. The ツノメドリ, パフィン climbed off and started walking forward. Tom peered over the 上, ページのトップへ of her vest and saw that she was heading toward the ocean, where something large was floating in it.
“What’s that?” Tom asked.
“That is called a boat. We’re heading overseas, darling,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン answered.
“Overseas? Where are we going? I thought Antarctica was supposed to be the only place on earth,” Tom said.
The ツノメドリ, パフィン chuckled. “Well, that’s certainly not true, my dear. There are all kinds of places around the world. We’re going to a place called Denmark,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン told him. Tom recalled Kari mentioning somewhere called Denmark when she told him about warm places.
“Denmark? Is it warm there?” Tom asked with a touch of hope.
“Why, yes. Very. Well, when it’s not winter, of course. The climate may take some getting used to for you, but you’ll manage,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン explained.
So, it’s true! Tom thought. There really are warm places!
“So…Are there really things called flowers? And the sun helps them grow?” Tom asked.
The ツノメドリ, パフィン chuckled again. “Of course. Where did あなた hear about flowers?”
“A friend told me about them…” Tom answered. “She 発言しました that they’re only in warm places. She also 発言しました that ペンギン military intelligence resides in warm places. Is that true, too?
“Mm-hm. That’s absolutely right. Where did she get all of this classified information?”
“Her grandfather was part of it. Her grandma told her about it after his passing,” Tom answered.
“Ah, I see,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン 発言しました as she boarded the boat.
So, there really were such things as warm places. Tom wished he could tell his parents. And Kari. Kari would be thrilled. The thought made his ハート, 心 wrench.
“Are あなた a military intelligence?” Tom asked.
“Well, もっと見る または less,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン answered dusting snow off of Tom’s head. That’s when she realized how warm he was. “Darling, you’re running a fever! Are あなた sick?”
Tom looked down. “Yeah. I was a late hatcher. The doctor in our village developed an untested therapy to try to cure me, but he died in the attack. My fever had broken, but I guess being in that snow for all that time and not having that medicine made me worse again. I guess that means I’m going to die, now,” he explained sadly.
“No, あなた most certainly will not. Let’s take あなた down and get your fever down. によって the time we reach Denmark, we’ll work on getting あなた better. No worries, darling. あなた are going to be fine,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン assured him.
“But I’m so young. I haven’t even gotten my adult feathers, yet,” Tom pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン 発言しました as she entered a door that led down into the boat. “You know, when I was your age, I came down with pneumonia. Want to know where I was? Alaska. That place is just about as cold as Antarctica. But I pushed through and survived.”
“But this isn’t just a bad cold. I hatched three days late. I wasn’t even supposed to last as long as I have,” Tom told her.
“Which is a very good sign. Life expectancy for late hatchlings is around a 年 at most. Some don’t even make it that far. You’ve made it…How old are you?” the ツノメドリ, パフィン asked.
“Four,” Tom answered.
“You’ve made it four years. あなた are one lucky penguin, my dear,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン told him. “You’re going to be just fine.”
She opened a door that led into a small room with a ベッド and a small 表, テーブル with two drawers. She set him down in the ベッド and pulled the covers up to his chin.
“Get some rest. It’s going to be a long sail,” the ツノメドリ, パフィン instructed. Tom nodded and she turned to leave.
“Wait,” Tom called softly, catching her attention. She turned back to face him.
“Yes?”
“What’s your name?” Tom asked.
The ツノメドリ, パフィン smiled. “Danica. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Get some sleep,” Danica told him before she turned and left the room, shutting the door behind her.
But the 画像 were still there, etched into the back of his mind. The blood-stained snow. The lifeless faces of the townspeople. The deathly silence leaving nothing but the howl of the wind in its tracks.
Sleep? He was afraid that he no longer knew the meaning of the word.
♦ ♦ ♦
As promised, Danica returned an 時 and a half later to find Tom wide awake without a wink of sleep. At the sight of his blank, depressed expression, she sighed and sat 次 to him in the bed, holding the bowl of small 魚 she’d brought him in her lap.
“I know it’s hard to lose someone あなた love. Especially everyone あなた love. It’s as if your ハート, 心 dies with them. あなた feel empty. あなた feel as if there’s nothing left for あなた in the world. That’s how I felt when I ロスト my parents and little sister in a house fire,” Danica told him. Tom finally looked her way when she admitted that she knew how he felt.
After a brief moment of silence, Tom asked, “How did あなた get through the pain? What made あなた strong again?”
Danica took a deep breath. “Well, I never really got over it. I still grieve when I think about it. What made me stronger was knowing that they’d always be with me. In here,” she 発言しました tapping the left side of her chest over her heart. “I knew that they loved me, and I them. And I knew that they would want me to 移動する on. So, I did. I left my hometown and walked. I walked for so long before I was found によって the men and women I work with today. They became my new family. They took me in and trained me to be there own. They’re my family, now.”
Tom looked down. “Wow…I wish it was that easy for me.”
Danica looked at him and smiled sympathetically. “It can be. How would あなた like to 登録する my family, too?”
Tom met her eye again. “Me? 登録する your family?”
Danica smiled and nudged him. “Sure. What do あなた say? Before あなた know it, you’ll forget all about the pain from losing your old family. Just like I did.”
Tom thought for a few minutes. He loved his old family. He didn’t even like using the word ‘old’ in the context. They were still his family, even though they were dead. Then again, the promise of no longer hurting was calling to him like the morning to the sun. He could have a new family. He could be someone completely new. Someone everyone would accept. He could start over and forget the past four years ever happened.
Everything would be right again.
He looked back up at her. “What do I have to do?”
Danica smiled. “Well, first we’ll have to get あなた better again. We’ll start when we reach Denmark. Here, eat this. あなた need to keep your strength up.” She handed him the bowl of 魚 and Tom accepted. Danica left him as he ate.
Thomas thought long and hard on the decision he’d just made. He’d just agreed to replace his family with a bunch of people that he didn’t know. Did he? Was he really replacing his family? Maybe he could think of it もっと見る as…Adding to his family. Just because he agreed to 登録する a new family, doesn’t mean his old family wouldn’t still hold a place in his empty heart. Right?
What would his real family say about this if he could ask them? Surely, they’d understand, right? They’d understand that he needs to 移動する on and that he needs to be with someone who will help him forget about the pain. The emptiness. The loneliness. He needed to be kept on his feet. And he needed to be kept strong.
After debating back and forth with himself for about an hour, he finally came to the conclusion that he’d made the right decision. It wasn’t like he had anywhere he could go anyway. He was too young to be on his own. And these people might be able to heal him. He can’t heal himself. He took a deep breath and thought about his ホーム one last time before he shoved it from his mind.
He was home, now.
♦ ♦ ♦
Tom’s fever broke once again about three hours before they docked in Denmark. Danica came to his room once they arrived at the coast.
“Tom? We’re here. Are あなた ready?” Danica asked at the door.
Tom hopped down from the ベッド and drug himself to her side.
“As I’ll ever be,” he answered. Danica smiled and picked him up to keep him from using up his energy. For what she had in mind, he was going to need it.
“Then let’s go,” Danica 発言しました as she made her way topside.
When they hit the naturally warm climate of Denmark, Tom was overwhelmed. The sun beat down on them and he had to shield his eyes from the blinding light. When his eyes adjusted, he looked past the coast into the woods that lay beyond.
“It’ll take about a half 時 to reach our base,” Danica told him.
“Base?” Tom inquired. He started to breathe heavily as the severe heat started to catch up with him.
“That’s what we call our village. I think you’ll like it. I can wait for あなた to meet my son. I think あなた and him will make great friends,” Danica told him with a smile.
Interrupting them, a ペンギン approached her and said, “Er du sikker på, at han kommer til at acceptere dette? Du kan ikke lyve for ham for evigt.”
“Tro mig. Han er ung og naiv. Han vil tro noget vi fortælle ham og spise lige ud af vores hænder. Desuden, hvis han ikke gør det, kan vi altid dræbe ham,” Danica replied. The ペンギン glanced at Tom, then turned and headed for the jungle.
Tom looked up at Danica. “What was that?”
“That is our native language, Danish. You’ll learn it soon enough. As well as many other languages. It will come in handy when あなた start joining in on our kind of fun,” Danica explained.
As she started moving through the jungle, Tom looked curiously at the world around him.
“What are those tall brown things?” he asked.
“Those are trees, darling. And the green stuff growing on them are leaves. Well, except for the fuzzy stuff at the bottom. That’s moss. It always grows on the north side of the trees,” Danica told him.
Tom watched as they passed other plants, and something small and silky caught his eye. It was the color of the sun.
“Is that a flower?” Tom asked slowly reaching out and feeling its soft petals as they passed.
“Mm-hm. It’s called a Primrose Willow,” Danica told him.
Tom couldn’t help but think of Kari. What he wouldn’t give to give her on of those beautiful flowers. He reached out to touch a group of leaves as they passed, but Danica jerked him back.
“Now, Thomas, be careful! Those were poison ivy leaves. If あなた touch them, you’ll get a terrible rash,” she warned.
“Oh…It sounds like I have a lot to learn,” Tom said.
Danica chuckled. “Yes あなた do. But don’t worry too much about it. You’ll pick it up in no time.”
About ten 分 later, they arrived at the base. It was huge. The majority of the population was penguins. Judging mentally, one could guess that the ratio of penguins to puffins was about seven to one. There were tents scattered throughout the base, some small, some relatively large.
Danica moved through the village, returning salutes to other MP’s as she went. Finally, she turned into a tent where a smaller ツノメドリ, パフィン about Tom’s age was practicing a ナイフ trick.
“Darling, あなた need to put your toys away. I want あなた to meet someone,” Danica told him. The boy ツノメドリ, パフィン set his ナイフ into a case and came to their side as Danica set him on the ground.
“This is Tom,” Danica introduced him. “Tom, this is my son, Hans.”
