Warrior Cats: The Four Clans

Shades of blue, green, purple, and red streaked the sky. Many Emperor penguins pointed their beaks in respect toward them. The colors of the lights made the ice beneath their feet shine with color, and the penguins huddled closest together. These were the first lights since the females arrived and saw what had become of their eggs. It had been a tough winter, and many eggs did not survive. The ones that did were treated with extreme care, and all the older penguins held their beak to the lights in respect. They hoped their Rookery would recieve good luck with the survivng young, and they huddled together without moving to pay respect to the Blizzardstars, or ancestors, in the lights.
"Where is Arcticfeather?" one huge penguin in the middle of the huddle asked the one next to it, keeping its beak high.
"I do not know," the one beside him replied. "She is not here."
"Where is her young?"
"With Flamebeak. Do not worry, she is experienced with the chicks, and has not taken her poor egg to harshly."
"I hope she will return soon," the first great penguin said. "It is rare for a penguin to miss the lights, especially when the full Rookery meets. We can only hope for good luck from the Blizzardstars."
He held his beak a bit higher with a worried expression in his snow speckled eyes.


Streaks of black, orange, and white zoomed across the vast ocean, and the water rippled around this object. It was a small Emperor penguin, the largest species of penguin. Her feathers were new and shone in the clear, bright water. This was her first time swimming, her old baby feathers from when she was just a young, fluffy chick had grown out, and were replaced by soft, shiny Emperor feathers. She was still quite small, about two feet, but she would grow to four feet when she was completely grown. Suddenly, the water behind her rippled more, and the ocean water felt heavy against her. Something big was approaching.

The young penguin strained her neck back. Even in the clear ocean she could only see a big, dark outline of something in the distance. She had no idea what it was, there were no other penguins around that could or didteach her how to identify predators and other, larger penguins, but she could sense that this was something much bigger than a penguin. And it seemed hungry, too.

The young penguin suddenly realized she should speed up, this creature was approaching fast, and she could now see that it was a big, brown animal with hard blubber skin. She zoomed through the water pulling her wings closer to her body and straightened her feet. Pointing her beak straight out forward, she went as fast as she could. But still the water grew heavier as the creature approched.

  She turned her neck back again, and realized this was probably a leopard seal. Her mother had told her about them just last Lights. But she had no time to think of that right now, she had to escape.

 As the penguin's heart pounded harder and harder, faster and faster, she sensed something beneath her, about a dive down. It was bigger than her, but not nearly as huge as the massive seal. She heard a deep growl behind her and tried to pull herself forward through the water, away from the seal. But her heart pounded faster and faster, until she could feel the leopard seal's breath against her feathers, about to close on her body. Her heart stopped then as the seal snapped his huge jaws shut.

-- Edited by Tabbypaw at 00:32, 2008-02-20