Pengu's Adventures in New Zealand Book 1

Part 2: Secret: Chapter 6: Tracked

Pengu waddled sleepily into Kabdsxy's room. He was hungry, so he climbed up the small stairs Kabdsxy put next to her bed. She had made Pengu a miniature translator and a belt so it could go around Pengu's waist, and the pocket translator could be there to translate everything.

Pengu jumped up and down on Kabdsxy's bed. He picked up the translator on his belt, slipped his paddle through a loop and screamed, "Wake up!" into the translator. The chirp came out in English and Kabdsxy sat up. Kabdsxy had make sure that the translative button was always on, so Pengu could understand everything. He only needed to press another button to talk.

"What?" Kabdsxy asked. Pengu waddled up to her face.

"I'm hungry, do you have any krill?" Pengu asked. Kabdsxy shrugged and got out of bed. She slipped on her slippers and walked out of the room. Pengu followed her.

"Try diving into the water" Kabdsxy grabbed a bottle that said, "Krill for Pengu" She opened with a small 'poof.' In Pengu's room, Kabdsxy had put a heater, a swimming pool that modeled the sea, some small rocks and grass, a small burrow in the rocks and grass, and a cave. Kabdsxy dumped the live krill into the makeshift "sea" and Pengu dove in. The water was nice and cool. The string from Catcher and Starla fell off finally. Pengu fished up some krill and ate it, then he popped out.

"So, I wanted to tell you, I have a job here and I'll have to go back in a few days..." Pengu nodded.

"What are we going to do today?" Pengu asked his translator. The translator waited for a few seconds, then beeped out the words to Kabdsxy.

Before Kabdsxy could answer they heard a small sound: "Squeak!" Kabdsxy and Pengu turned around. A small mouse looked at them. It dumped some sand on the ground. Kabdsxy grumbled and muttered something, but then she gasped when Pengu pointed at the sand.

The mouse drew in the sand on the ground: "I'm Mirk the mouse."

Pengu nodded. "Do you have a spare translator?" Kabdsxy nodded but she laughed.

"But he doesn't need one." Kabdsxy pointed at Mirk.

Mirk had erased the writing and had wrote: "I can understand every word, even English. And I can speak English a little."

Mirk cleared his throat, which sounded weird, but Mirk amazed Pengu. "Hello." He spoke. His voice was very squeaky. "I used to live on the streets and found a hole in your wall. I grew up listening to your voice... Kabdsxy."

•••••••••

After a brunch, the front door suddenly creaked open, and they heard some meowing sounds. Kabdsxy groaned, "Not again."

Kabdsxy grabbed a bat she had prepared for Starla coming. Mirk dove back into his hole. Pengu had thought that he was scared, but he brought out a piece of sharp wood connected to a rubber band and some armor made from some tough candy wrappers. Mirk put the sharp horn on Pengu's paddle and wrapped the candy wrapping on him.

"The candy wrapping will shine and maybe stun your opponent." Mirk wrote. Pengu shrugged. Mirk then jumped back into his hole and told them that Catcher was also coming.

"How?" Pengu asked. Mirk rolled his eyes and wrote, "I saw them." Pengu nodded as Starla came in. Kabdsxy brought out her bat and wacked the cat. Starla yowled and bared her teeth.

"I bet Catcher," Kabdsxy did the quote-on-quote thing. "Doesn't give you good pay, like you're wacked for what? A skinny fish? I was a star batter when I was in middle school!" Kabdsxy wacked Starla again. Starla unsheathed her claws and charged at Mirk.

Mirk, however, smiled. He took out a bottle cap and threw it like a frisbee at Starla. It hit her near the eye. The bottle cap exploded, giving little poofs of scattered glitter. The cat's fur bristled and whined. She threw herself at Pengu. Pengu took out his sword and hit the cat just as Catcher came in Kabdsxy laughed as she smacked Catcher in the leg. Mirk threw frisbees at his feet. Starla and Catcher backed up and ran away.

Pengu ran at Starla and raked his sword against her. The cat yowled and bared her teeth. She swatted Pengu's face with her unsheathed claws. Pengu ducked and Mirk threw a bottle cap right at Starla's leg. Too bad Pengu's face was right next to Starla's leg. The bottle cap whizzed past Pengu's face by a millimeter.

"Hey!" Pengu shouted. Mirk sheepishly looked at him and continued to throw bottle caps at Catcher.

Catcher howled in anger and grabbed that cat by her scruff. He ran out of the door. Mirk shot one more bottle cap at Catcher before he disappeared out of the house.

"Don't step on the bottle caps, they might explode." Mirk squeaked just as Pengu was going to step on one. "They are really sharp too. But not enough to draw blood yet. Just a painful scratch."

"Is Catcher going to be, okay?" Kabdsxy asked. "I really don't like that man, but I really don't want to go to jail for hurting people." Mirk nodded. Kabdsxy held her breath.

"No hurties." He spoke. Kabdsxy let go of the breath she was holding and said, "Phew."

Mirk picked up all the bottle caps and shoved them into his home as Kabdsxy locked the front door with extra locks. As Kabdsxy clicked the final lock they heard a chainsaw.

"Again?" Kabdsxy muttered. She took out her bat and gaped at the door. They watched the house door get cut by a chainsaw. Kabdsxy grabbed a bat and wacked another Catcher at the door. Catcher II ran away.

"We need to get a stronger door." Kabdsxy wacked her bat at air. Pengu jumped. Something pinched him. Pengu looked down. A round ball grabbing his leg beeped red. Pengu grabbed Kabdsxy's hand.

"Look! What's that?" Pengu asked. Kabdsxy gasped.

"So that's how 'Catcher' kept finding us." Kabdsxy gently took hold of the stone and tried unhinged the hooks wrapped around Pengu's legs. Kabdsxy shook her head.

"This is a tracker. It finds others by some sort of radar that tells the tracker person where the tracker is. We cannot get it off, so we need to take extra precautions for where you are. First, we need to alert the police of a door killer. We won't say why, but we must alert them. Next, we need to buy a door." Kabdsxy said. Pengu nodded.

"Anyway, time for lunch. Mirk, I'll get you a tray to dump sand on, and I'll go look for a door. Go to sleep without me, okay?" Kabdsxy asked. Pengu looked at Kabdsxy for a split second saying "What?" and nodded again.

Kabdsxy walked over to Pengu's room and grabbed the krill can and opened it. She dumped the krill into the pool and Pengu jumped in. He fished up some krill and climbed out. When he was out, Kabdsxy had left. Peep tried to shrug and walked to the fan, where he dried out. Then he climbed under the massive cardboard cave, into the dog bed, and fell asleep.

•••••

Pengu woke up. It was the middle of the night. He waddled over to Kabdsxy's room. Kabdsxy lay there, blanket nearly on the ground and not covering her. Pengu grabbed the blanket and pulled it over Kabdsxy. Kabdsxy's eyes opened and smiled.

"Hello. Checking on me?" She chuckled. Pengu blushed.

"Yeah." Kabdsxy hugged Pengu for a few seconds and picked him up. She carried Pengu over to his bed and tucked him in.

"Good night." Kabdsxy smiled. Pengu gave her the best smile he could and feel half-asleep. He could here Kabdsxy's footsteps walking away, and then there was a thump, and it was silent. Pengu assumed that Kabdsxy had fell on the way to her bed.

Pengu got up again in time to see Kabdsxy looking at her knee and rubbing it. Pengu laughed silently and waddled back to his room and drifted to sleep.