At the chajio, chakula cha jioni table, the feast is blanketed with silence, above the background noise of protestors against me. The smuggling pressure of my father's constant want for a different son, and the crowd's demand for Cain as prince, makes me realize I don't even want the throne. It is if there is no place for me. The only one I feel refuge in is my mother. Only is my father cheerful, on this dark night. His eyes beaming with excitement as he instructs of how to defeat my foe.
"And if wewe lose you'll end up like this fish: On the seal's chajio, chakula cha jioni plate." He chuckles, gulping down a plump grouper. My mother brings me closer to her, hugging me. She shakes her head at him in agrivation. "How can wewe joke about your own son's survival?!" She gasps. He stands up menacingly, towering over us. "One zaidi outburst like that, and I'll have both of your heads!"
"But it's not fair! He's a child! My baby!" Mother began sobbing. "Exactly! Your baby needs to grow up and be a man ..... a prince, and if he can't ... he doesn't deserve to live!" He shouted pounding his fist on the table. Still weeping and carrying me, she rushes into her room, sets me down, and lays her head down in her flippers. I crawl to the end of the kitanda and jump to my feet standing tall. "I'll be okay, Momma," I assure her. She looks up at me. "No matter what any one else says, you're the bravest and strongest penguin, I've ever met, Skipper." She whimpered. "No, I'm not," I sigh. "Yes, wewe are, don't ever say otherwise!" She holds my flippers tenderly in hers. "I'm g-gonna do it, momma! I-I-I'm gonna w-win." I promise. "I'm so sorry, my son. I shall go to the ends of the earth to free wewe from that possible cruel fate. Your father may be king, but he's a simple and wicked one. But you, you're different, my child. You'll make a marvelous prince. It's penguins like you, who become legends and change Antartica. I upendo wewe so much!" She explains and hugs me.
The servants prepare me for battle. Bands are wrapped around my shoulders. I tremble at what is written. My name is in bold print, so they will be able to identify me in the future gory mess that will be my body. "This is put on your flippers and it will be on your legs, so if wewe do unfortunately lose we can identify your body. Let's just say the last leopard seals didn't leave the head of the last challenger. That tends to be their inayopendelewa part, and then it's the body." The servant boy explains.
On a mto sits the purest icicle my eyes have ever met. With quivering fins, I watch my petrified reflection. They all nod at eachother, stepping back and watching their labor.
They pull open the doors as I step out regally. I stop at my father, who smiles and reveales a crown hidden behind his back. "Win, and wewe get to live, but zaidi importantly, wewe get this." He says, putting his own on.
The arena is a gigantic funnel shaped coliseum. As father takes his kiti, kiti cha the crowd cheers. My mother is petrified inayofuata to him. Her sympathetic eyes meet mine, and she mouths out: "I'm sorry! I upendo you,"
My father gestures me forward. I take cautious steps. My moyo thumps haste fully. My father's voice bellows. "Release the beast!" He sits down eagerly and whispers to a guard on his left. "What's black and white and red all over? This fight," They began laughing harshly.
I gulp and try to calm myself down, but it is simply no use. I close my eyes and think of my mother. I envision her lamenting cries for her boy. I imagine my father's careless eye roll, and tafuta for a better prince. I picture Cain taking the kiti cha enzi with delightful ease, but then I picture the muhuri bringing me to my doom.
A tremendous roar stirs up from the arena space ahead of me. I pry my eyes open, to find a drooling, restless muhuri in chains being pulled in kwa guards. Saliva and blood ( penguin, auk blood) drizzle from its rows of lethal fangs.
My father claps his flippers and the muhuri charges full speed. I ready my weapon and race towards it. Everything slows down around me as a shot of pain enters my flank and forces me to the ice.
I stare frozen in horror as the monster scoops me in its mouth, as if I weigh nothing at all. The fiercious thrashing begins as I screech for help. I have to do something! Just then I remember I'm not helpless after all. I pierce my sword into the beast's tongue. Rapidly responding, it spits me out.
I'm still too paralyzed with fear to songesha an inch. I lay on my side grasping my ribs that seem to be split, groaning. "Skipper, please get up! Get up now! Please, Skipper!" My mom cries. I weakly turn my bloody and sweaty face to see hers. Her eyes, full of tears she looks deep into mine. While the muhuri is inspecting its unanticipated wound, I push up to my knees. With all the strength I have felt I struggle to get to my feet, but I tumble down once more.
The muhuri slides closer. I look to my mother. It suddenly hits me, that this will be my last sekunde on earth.
My eyes glance at my sword, and I notice the muhuri blood. If I can do that, I can get up! I thrust my sword in the ground, and grasp it for balance to make my way up. my mother stands up bawling for me. I prepare for battle, but before I even lift my sword, the muhuri pounces.
It chomps down on my neck. Mighty jaws intake my head, and are about to end my life. When a saving voice rings out. "Stop!" Mother pleads, and even the muhuri yields. "What are wewe doing?!" Father shouts. She rushed kwa my side, shielding me from the killer.
In seconds, the leopard muhuri is tied up and pulled into the cage it was in before. Just when I think I'm rescued, Jezebel jumps to her feet with Cain at her side. "Let the weakling meet his fate! wewe only spare him, since he's your son!"
"Yes, he's my son! And I'll never let any one hurt him! I don't care if that includes his father, the elder, the oracle, au all of you! How could wewe sit here and watch a little innoncent boy be killed for amusement!?" She carries my bleeding body out of the coliseum, hustling. "Guards! Get them! I don't care if wewe kill them! Just bring me them!" Father orders.
"Momma, where are we goin'?" I murmured. "We have to leave, Skipper! I know some one who will help us!" She answers. As we get farther and farther away, her run turns into a waddle.
siku turns to night, pelting a treacherous blizzard on our backs. Covering me with her flippers, she shelters me from the storm. A shabby snow hut, nothing compared to the palace, sits alone in the middle of nowhere. It seems incredibly cozy.
She knocked warily. The door slid open revealing only a slit of a penguin. His shocked expression bewilders me. "Marie? I mean, my lady, what are -" She interrupts him. "We need your help! Please, Sam,"
"Of course, come in." He says opening the door. We enter and she sets me down on a worn out mattress. The two adult penguins embrace. "What happened?! Did he hurt you?!" He asks worried. "Guards are after us, and I need you."
"All right, I know a place, but we have to hurry."
As if on que, a pound on the door quakes the house. "Open the door, peasant! We know they're here!" One guard with a booming voice commands. "Out the back way!" Sam whispers.
We rush out into the blizzard of night. Guards are hot on our tail feathers. They carry weapons: swords, bows and arrows, and even blowguns. We make it far, before a big brute shoots an arrow at Sam's back. He falls to the ground and howls in pain. "Sam! It's going to be okay-" Mother cries. "Run! Get him to safety, I upendo you. And I always will ..." He gasps his last words and my mother and I escape in tears. What a cruel fate.
As the sun comes up over the horizon, a village appears bringing new hope. "Skipper, meet our new home." Mother says drying my eyes and holding my flipper.