Watermelon Snow

Kowalski took a deep breath.  "Sitrep: rectangle is audio moose nameplate operated by keys given to kiddies."  He deflated.  "Which I activated.  Prepared for disciplinary slap, sir."

"Stow apologies and go go go!  We'll surprise them while they're still mobilizing!"  Skipper charged through the fence and instead of sliding, he tobogganed on his bottom down the snow slicked outer slope of the moat.  He seemed determined to waddle across the expanse even though the moat's ice was not much more than rime and clear water ribboned in the middle. Kowalski dove in front of him with Rico and Private right behind before Skipper could step out past the wintry sad pussywillows.  No sounds came from the moose stable.

"Get out ... of my way.  I'm ... going to kung fu her plan ... against the king if it's the last thing I ... do."  The burst of activity had winded him.

Kowalski formed a blockade with Rico and Private.  "The ice is too thin.  We didn't save you from the Eternally Foggy Sea to see you throw it all away by falling into the water and catching pneumonia."

"Pshaw.  Launch me, then."

"Nuh uh."

"You too, Rico?"  Skipper bent as if to gather himself for a leap but then gasped as he straightened back up.

"It's too far for you to jump in the shape you're in now, sir."  Rather than argue further, Kowalski gestured to the others.  Rico formed the sturdy base of the tower as usual and Private clambered onto his shoulders.  Kowalski backflipped onto the top and deliberately overbalanced towards the jutting rock in the middle of the moat to topple the tower.  Flippers outstretched and honed muscles taut in triple linked support, the penguin pontoon felt Skipper's feet patter on their backs.  He huffed impatiently while they repositioned so he could complete the crossing.  

Skipper paused after rushing to the lip of the inner slope.  He still had enough breath for a few familiar stingers.  "All right ... fine ... I'm compromised and I know it ... you mollycoddling mother-loving mall walkers ... soft pretzel nibbling widdle nancy kittens ..."

"And we love you too, Skippa."

Skipper made a rude noise, poked his head over the skyline and pointed.  "To the scaffolding."  He put action to words and soon they took battle stances just outside the stable.  Silence pervaded the entire area.  If Hugo and Sasquatch had gotten up to something, they were engaged in complete silence and darkness, unlike Mason and Phil's cavalier ways.  The night's increased gray haze provided diffuse light now and formed nary a shadow underneath the six-foot scaffolding walkway.

The leader changed his battle plan on the spot.  "Private and I insert from the south door.  Rico and Kowalski, you are reserve just outside the north door.  She's faced off against the Private and me already and you two will be a nasty surprise.  Wait for my signal."  He ground out the rest of his scenario.  "She's compromised like me so I think we four can take her.  Hugo, well, we'll just have to wing it with him."

Private spoke up.  "I'll pop him like a grape if he tries anythin'."

"You'll obey orders if neither of them wants to talk first."

"Talkin' first?  You didn't mention that."  Time for this penguin to up his game, Private thought, because his commander's goin' to figure out an assassin. Crikey.

"Yeah.  I thought it over.  Ole has a point.  Didn't I bring that up well I am now.  I'll try to ne-ne-negotiate first."  He moved to smack one flipper against the other and stopped himself.  "Everyone quiet like a shadow's shadow of a shadow.  We roll."

"Aye."  Rico and Kowalski glided around the back of the stable and disappeared.

IOIOIOIOIO

IOIOIOIOIO

"What the heck was that?"

Sasquatch continued to stare at the television screen.  "I don't know.  Keep watch, Hugo.  He'll appear any moment."

Minutes passed while Hugo alternated peeking out the north and south doors.  He squinted at the scaffolding, then shook his head.  He scented the air.  "I smell something, something I've not smelled since --- "

Two penguins appeared as if by magic before him.  "От всей души поздравляю,Снегурочка," Skipper said to Sasquatch's back.

"Sasquatch, look over here --- "

"Wait, Hugo, wait, I've got to take this call --- "  The pulsing white dot flared.  Sasquatch zeroed in on the screen to the exclusion of all else after a quick glance at the newcomers.  She pressed herself even closer to her caller as she twisted the television a fraction outwards.  

"We-e-e-e-lll, right on time.  I like that in a minion."

"Blowhole?" Private squeaked.  Skipper wrapped both flippers around the young penguin and lifted him bodily away from the television's range.  Hugo seemed anxious not to be seen by the dolphin mad scientist, too, and scuttled with them far to Sasquatch's right.  They scrambled behind the manger where Skipper slipped to the ground.

"She said you're dead, no no no, you can't be here --- "  Except for covering his ears, Hugo resembled the classic see no evil hear no evil speak no evil simian trio.  He blotted out the troubling part of his world and moaned behind one broad palm.

"Skippa, say somethin'!"  Private chafed his leader's flipper and smacked his cheek.  Skipper fluttered his eyelids but then he swam where Private could not follow.

cause its ukiuk annits cold outside

"Wot was that?  Wake up all the way, I need you!"  All sound in the stable hit Private's earholes in waves as if engineered by the geniuses responsible for Shirtless Ninja Action Theater.  Time distorted in the same fashion that it did during his fall from Kastelholm and it was like everything swamped his senses at once.

i changed my monkfish surprise recipe for you private the pepperoncinis are crucial    

" --- look, Sasquatch, I had nothing to do with it --- "

"Blowhole, you gave your word --- "

Time roared back to its normal state when Hugo dropped his hands from his face.  "Is he finally dead?"  He reached over to poke the fallen penguin, but Private karate chopped the finger down as he regained focus on the situation.  Skipper would want him to.

"Keep your bloody hands off him!  We'll give you wot for in a minute!  Skippa, come back!"

"Uhhn.  Stop, Private.  Don't shake me any more."  Skipper raised his flipper to his head.  "Dizzy."

Blowhole broke off some nattering boast as his next words filtered through to the group slinking behind the manger.  "What's that noise in the background?  Are you entertaining?"

"Nobody has ever accused me of being entertaining."

Skipper said in a pained sotto voce, "Private, we run Routine Six."  Private obeyed.

Hugo was all ears.  "What is Routine Six?" he whispered.

"Play Statue."  Hugo followed suit.

Suspicion laced the dolphin's next statement.  "You're picking a fu-u-u-unny time to be funny, old lady.  It's not like you."

"I picked up new habits in stir, Blowhole."

Blowhole was not put off.  "Well, what is it then?"

Sasquatch shot a glance at the manger with its dribs and drabs of leftover moose hay.  Through the slats, she met Skipper's hostile stare.  She didn't falter.  

"Mice."

IOIOIOIOIO

TBC