This is an alternate account for Grandour and I don’t feel like deleting what I wrote for Times so I’ll just leave it there. Maybe I’ll get around to finishing it
Merely putting this here for a friend to see.
Many years ago a young boy named Timothy Ezekiel Sharmus fell overboard on a cruise ship, into the dark dangerous water below. It was too dark, and the ship’s captain told his parents that they could not look for long for he was worried they would not make port on time. The poor boy’s parents cried for their lost son, they begged and pleaded, but the ship captain could do nothing. It seemed the boy was doomed. But unknown to them, their son was given a gift that night. It seemed the God’s had a thing for this boy, cause on that night at the same time he fell into the water, a portal to another world opened up beneath the waves. And in that other world, a war was being raged. A war this boy would soon be a hero of, for from that portal came a single shadowy figure. The shadowy figure swam upwards toward the young boy as he drifted downwards into the abyss. The figure, a young man, grabbed the boy and looked at him, curious. He looked up towards the surface and quickly swam there, almost supernaturally fast. As his head broke the surface, foam bubbling at his chin, he looked around, but saw nothing. The ship had moved on. He looked down at the now unconscious child in his hands, he had to help him. He look down into the depths below and saw the portal, still shining and glimmering under the water. What he thought in that moment, we may never know, but whatever it was it caused him to dive down and swim back into the portal. The portal closed with a flash and a pop, leaving no sign it had ever been there.
Once on the other side of the portal, the light of mid-day shone into the ocean, and scattered a prism of light across the man and the boy he was holding. The man erupted from the water onto an icy shelf and ran towards towards an ice cave, the boy’s body lolling back and forth in the man’s hands. He gently laid the boy down on a table of ice and ran into another room of the cave.
The cave had a small collection of books on a bookshelf, a countertop, what appeared to be a cooler, and in the other room the man had run into a bed, and a few cabinets. All made from ice and snow.
The man walked back into the room, followed by a penguin that was almost his height. They appeared to be communicating. The man mumbled something to the penguin and the penguin cocked it’s head at the boy and looked at the man. It’s beak opened and let out a gasp. At that moment the boy’s eyes fluttered slightly.
“Is he one of ours?” a soft voice said, apparently the penguin.
“No, I found him on the other side.” the man replied.
“The other side! What were you doing there? It’s dangerous for us there!” the penguin said to the man in a harsh scolding tone.
“It’s fine! I was in this form.” the man retorted.
The penguin sighed and looked back at the boy.
“What are we to do with him Charles? It’s not safe here for any of us. Our first born and your brother has already died in this war.” the penguin said saddened.
“Well…” the man started.
“And what will the others think? If we tell them he’s… one of them, they’ll hate him and if we say he’s one of us they’ll want to know why he doesn’t change form. And what will we say then?” the penguin sputtered out, getting upset.
“Lila…”, the man said looking at the penguin, “don’t you see? He’s one of them. He could help us.”
“Or he could be just like the rest of his kind! And kill us in our sleep!”
“Perhaps I could have a say in this?” a quite voice whispered from the table where the boy was.
The man and the penguin snapped their attention to the table where the boy was. He had sat up and was rubbing his head.
“Despite this obviously being a strange dream caused by sea sickness, I have to say. I’m not like other people. I can help with whatever it is you need, seeing as you’re simply my subconscious trying to tell me something.”
Both the man and the penguin cocked their heads at him. Then the man turned to the penguin and said, “See? He’ll help.”
“He’s delusional, Charles! He thinks he’s dreaming.”
“Wait… I get it now!” the boy piped up.
“See, he’s understanding now.” the man said mockingly.
“Yep, you”, he said pointing at the man, “are my thoughts, and you”, he pointed at the penguin, “are my feelings. And they’re fighting each other. I have to meet a happy medium with them. Thanks guys! I’ll go ahead and wake up now.”
The couple looked at the boy utterly confused as he pinched his arm.
“Did you hit his head against the ice?” the penguin asked the man.
“I don’t think so.” the man replied.
“Wait… Why am I not waking up? This usually works.” the boy said as he pinched himself again, harder this time.
“uh, Boy… You’re not dreaming. That’s why.” the penguin said.
The boy looked at the penguin, fear in his eyes as reality hit him like a meteorite, leaving an impact in his brain that shook his nervous system.
“So… You’re a… Talking penguin!” the boy shouted, rocketing off the table onto his feet and pointing at the penguin.
“Shh… No, I’m. Hang on.” the penguin said before walking out of the room.
“You might want to sit down, kid.”, the man told the boy sternly, but with a smile and a gleam in his eye.
The boy raised an eyebrow at the man and then recoiled at the sight of a woman walking back in from where the penguin just went.
“See? We’re shape-shifters. Or animagus, but we’re not really wizards.” the woman said.
The boy stared at her. “Yeah, sure…”, he mocked.
“Oh, you don’t believe her?”, the man said, “Well then, perhaps you need some more visual proof.”
The man snickered and smiled as snow on the ground swirled up and whizzed around the man. Light emanating from the center of the cloud of snow, then suddenly it fell to the ground and in the man’s place was a penguin, wearing the same clothes as the man.
The boy stared in shock as his skin went pale and he leaned forward and slumped onto the floor.
“Look what you did, Charles. And did you really need to add all that”, she flailed her hands out and shook them, “showy stuff!”, she said with disgust.
“Sorry, was trying to make it special for the kid.”, he mumbled back before he clapped his flippers, glowed, and turn into his human form.
The boy woke up, blinked and stared at a white ceiling. “ah, It was just a dream.” he thought. Then the ceiling dripped on him and he realised he was still in the ice cave and everything was real.
“Hey, you woke up!”, the man said, sitting up from a chair at a small snow table sticking out of the wall.
“Ugh, alright. Guess I’ll ask the question I should ask now. What happened to me?”, the boy said with disgust as he sat up on the table.
“Well you fell overboard on a ship I think.”
“Right! The ship.”, the boy said, remembering, “so you… Saved me?”
“Yes! And you should be grateful for that. I could have let you drown and went on my merry little way, but I didn’t. Who knows why, but I didn’t.”, the man shot back.
“I’m sorry. Thank you. I’m just… Shocked I guess.”, the boy said, lowering his head.
The man softened up and laughed.
“As you should be, given you woke up to a talking penguin-looking creature and a strange man who both happened to be shape-shifters.”
The boy laughed. “Yeah.”
“I guess I should explain where you are.”
The boy nodded slowly. “That would help.”
The man chuckled and grimaced.
“Well this isn’t your world. I came into your world through a portal actually. This, this is the home of the Pengwings!”, the man said excitedly as he waved his hands in the air and stretched his arms as wide as he could.
The boy raised his eyebrow and looked around, expecting to see other penguins, but saw none.
“Well, not here.”, the man said realising the boys error, “This is just the home of my wife and me. That out there is the rest of the world.”, he said pointing to the cave entrance.
The boy stood up and walked to the cave entrance. Outside were sweeping hills of snow and multiple other caves in the ground and in the surrounding mountains, they appeared to be in a bowl shaped valley. In the center of the valley was a single cave entrance that had no snow on it.
“What’s that?”, the boy said, pointing to the cave.
“That’s the meeting place for us Pengwings, it was also the first cave that the original Pengwing family took refuge in many years ago. Forced away from their home by ravenous creatures known as Reavers.”, the man explained.
“So, everyone here is related?”, the boy asked.
“No, the Pengwing family was just the royal family of the shape-shifters that live here.”
“So you’re royalty? You’re like… their king?”, the boy exclaimed excitedly, greedily smiling up at the man.
“Not exactly. My father is the King though, and that’s where he lives.”, the man said, pointing up at a cave high in the mountain nearby.
A small figure stood outside the cave and jumped onto the side of the mountain and slid down into the ocean.
“So, is he King Charles Pengwing the First?”, the boy questioned.
“Yes, how did you guess?”, the man asked, tilting his head to the side and crossing his arms.
“Well… your… uh wife… called you Charles and usually children of royalty are named after their parents.”, the boy replied.
“You are a very intelligent human.”, the man said curiously.
“My parents taught me a lot.”, the boy said with a smile, then realised he would probably never see them again and began to cry.
“Hey, it’s okay. You could see them again.”, the man said kneeling down and patting the boy on the back. “Here, uh… So you know my name, I’m Charles Pengwing”, he points to his wife who had just walked in from the other room, “and that’s my wife, Lila Pengwing. What’s your name?”
The boy looked up and thought for a bit.
“I don’t remember!”, he put his face back in his hands and convulsed with tears.
“Hey, that’s okay. Maybe there’s something on you that will help.”, Lila said as she walked up to them.
The man rubbed the boy’s back and felt a small piece of paper attached to the collar of his shirt.
“What’s this? A note?”, the man said as he pulled it out.
It had writing on it, but it was rubbed off a bit and had bled from the water, but it appeared to say “TIM E S”.
“Times? Is that it? Does that sound familiar?”, the man asked, hopeful.
The boy looked up and Lila wiped his eyes with a fuzzy flipper before it transformed back into a human hand. “I think so. That… That might be it.”, the boy said with a smile.
“Good! Well then, that’s settled. Your name is Times!”, the man said with a smile, “and maybe soon you’ll be fine with being Times Pengwing.”
Times smiled back and laughed.
“Don’t rush him.”, Lila said, “we don’t even know if the clan will accept him.”
“They’ll be fine. I’ll talk to my dad about it.”, Charles said, smiling, but feeling a bit worried about having to talk to his old-fashioned father who was set in his ways and may not accept such a change.