Here comes chapter 4;)

CHAPTER 4: In sickness and in health

***
suivant day...
"Dahahahah!" Take that toi freaky little pigeon!" laughed Terry.
"Hey, watch it!" shouted Frankie the pigeon when the plastic bullet collided with his bum. Rico and Terry burst out in loud laughter. But her face fell when she spotted her older brother, standing in front of her, his eyes frowned, his handsome face distorted in a grimace of disapproval.
"What?" she said, confused.
"You give this thing back to me, pronto!" he demanded, stretching his flipper out.
"Oh maaan! Can't we just have some fun!" sighed Terry.
"I won't tolerate any kind of bully in this zoo as far as I live, sister!" remarked Skipper, resting his flippers on his hips.
"Wasn't that just the same pigeon, who wanted to drop some doody on commisioners suie?" asked Terry.
"He already had his lesson" retorted Skipper. "And I'm not going to punish him twice for what he had done just once. Besides, toi have no right to mistreat him like this, since he hasn't done anything bad to toi in the first place. Comprenday?"
Rico dropped his head and started to dig the ground with his left foot, embarassed.
"That goes for toi as well, Rico" muttered Skipper.
“Marrnghn” moaned Rico.
"Give me this sling, Terry" a dit Skipper, his voice calm but decisive.
Terry sighed and handed her brother the sling.
“Is he always like that?” she asked Rico as soon as Skipper vanished behind the corner.
“Marbbrha” answered Rico, shaking his flippers energetically.
“I see” muttered Terry.






****
"What the heck is this, Mom?" cried Skipper, taking the blanket in his flippers.
"Terry told me about your bunk. It's way too uncomfortable to sleep in" confessed Auriga. "That's why I decided to cover it with the blanket, to make it plus warm, soft and cosy for you" she added up, clasping her flippers together and sending her son a loving smile.
"And what is ... oh God...TERRY!!!!!" Skipper roared, goggling in shock at his bunk wall, all covered with chalk drawings.
"What's the fuss, bro?" asked Terry. "I just wanted to decorate it somehow. It was way too simple and austere in its style. Why, don't toi like it?" she then took several sips of her favourite coffee and set back to her comic.
Skipper felt his left eye blinking uncontrollably. A violent, hot wave of anger overtook his body. He balled his flippers into fist, and leaned slightly forward.
"Oh dear" gasped Private. He knew perfectly well what was it about to announce. Skipper was going to throw a fit. He already had the chance to see his leader in such a state, specifically to say, in the night were the lemurs invaded their habitat without invitation and started messing around in their HQ. And he was right. Several secondes later, Skipper's load, angry roar whisked the air, echoing all over the zoo.

***
"Skipper hun?" asked Auriga shyly, waddling up towards her son. He was lying on Rico's bunk, his flipper resting on his chest, the other one dangling down.
"Yes, Mum" he muttered, fixing his eyes on the ceiling.
"Are toi okay?" she asked, anxiety and concern written all over her face.
"I'm fine, it's just a little headache" mumbled Skipper. He let out a deep sigh.
Auriga kneeled down beside her child and rested her flipper on his forehead.
"You're burning up a little. Do toi feel feverish?" she asked.
"No...." moaned Skipper, too exhausted to maintain the conversation.
"Ooooh, Skipper honey, I know we might be too imposing ou annoying sometimes" a dit Auriga, stroking her son's forehead. "But it's just that we really care and.. we want the best for you..."
“Yes, I know”...
He went back to his thoughts about Terry and Rico. Those two seemed to be spending a great deal of time together. Were they really fond of each other? Rico had very little experience with girls; actually he didn’t’ really care about maintaining this kind of partnership for longer than a couple of days. Romances were definitely not his cup of tea. He would rather spend his free time riding a car, fishing, practicing, flying a cerf-volant and throwing dynamos.
Suddenly Skipper gulped. The very thought of Rico accidently blowing his sister up brought him violent shivers down his spine. Knowing how violent Rico can turn sometimes... was it really sûr, sans danger to leave Terry par Rico’s side?
***
It was the last jour of their visit. Private suggested that they should go to the park all together and breathe some fresh air. The weather was perfect for a common stroll. Terry was stamping quietly behind her brother’s back throwing spit balls at Frankie the Pigeon’s colleagues when Skipper wasn’t watching.
“This lass is really something!” hissed Bob the Pigeon, Frankie’s distant cousin from New Jersey. “I guess it’s the highest time for a little payback!”
“No!” Frankie barred his way from the girl. “You don’t know what you’re asking for, mate! I had to deal with her brother once, I ‘m telling you, it’s no use! Better leave those two alone, if toi don’t want to end up with your feather tails smashed up!”
“If that’s what toi say” mumbled Bob. “All right then, let’s déplacer somewhere else”
“Stupid cowards” hissed Terry when seeing the pigeons flying away. She then turned her eyes back on her brother.
“Skippa..” she started timidly. “Are toi still mad at me because of those drawings on the bunk?”
“What?.. Nooo, it’s okay” he muttered involuntarily, his eyes fixed somewhere far in the distance. “Maybe your right.. maybe my style really is austere”.
Terry gave him a stare. He definitely wasn’t his usual self today. What’s got into him anyway?
“Skippa, you’re feeling all right?” she asked half jokingly half seriously.
“I’m absolutely fine” mumbled Skipper.
“You’re sounding like a sleepwalker” stated Terry, eyeing his bro suspiciously. There was a short pause between them. Terry glanced back behind at her parents who were strolling several meters away, embraced and set her eyes back on her brother.
“Have toi fell in love?” she asked all of a sudden.
“Have toi ever tasted a snowcone?” he asked at the same time, turning his sleepy look at Terry.
“Erm... snowcone? Yyes” she answered, puzzled. “But it was quite a long time il y a since I had one”.
“We can go and buy some if toi wish” he proposed.
“Good idea” nodded Terry, but even the pleasant thought of tasty, icy-cold snowcones wouldn’t draw her attention away from her brother’s condition. Something was definitely wrong with him.
His cheeks were blushing and his sapphire blue eyes were slightly foggy.
“I hope it’s not a warm” thought Terry, feeling plus and plus nervous.
Skipper gulped and fixed his eyes on the ground. His cœur, coeur was whomping like crazy, his forehead was bathed in cold sweat. What was going on with him? There was that unpleasant feeling deep down in his stomach.
“Oh my God!” they heard their mother’s terrified cry. They both turned their heads towards where Auriga was pointing. A small, creamy – white egg slid off of the edge and was now rolling down the hill. Mother canard let out a short scream and threw herself towards the edge to rescue her un hatched baby but it was too late.

George threw himself down the colline to catch the egg. Scarcely had he grabbed it in his flippers and pressed to his body when he felt something sharp and hard colliding against his back. A sudden wave of excruciating pain pierced through his body. He rolled back and let out a painful scream.
“Oh dear!” Auriga clasped her beak with her flippers and staggered slightly. Meanwhile, Skipper and Terry cried out:” Dad!” and immediately rushed down the colline to pick him up. Aurige found herself right away beside her injured husband, tears forming in her eyes. The skater didn’t even notice what happened and continued his ride down the alley.
Private picked the eggy up from the ground and waddled up towards the rest of the group.
“George, honey! Are toi okay?” asked Auriga nervously, stroking her husband’s face.
George opened his eyes and sent his wife a languid look.
“It hurts” he whispered. “It hurts soo bad.”
“Oh dear” moaned Auriga and hid her face in her flippers.
“Stay calm, Mom. He will be fine!” stated Skipper. “Rico! The stretcher!”
Rico coughed up the stretcher, picked George up from the ground and placed him on the pillow.
“Right. We’ll escort him back to our HQ. Then we’ll make sure he’s gonna receive some proper treatment. Private, toi take care of the eggy and bring it back to Mother Duck.”
“Ayeaye, Skipper” a dit Private, taking the eggy in his flippers.
Skipper kneeled on the ground, picked the stretcher together with Rico and the whole group started to make their way towards penguin’s HQ. The leader manchot, pingouin a volé, étole a quick glance at his father’s bruised beak and he felt his cœur, coeur sink.
“Did I predict this accident?”





***
It was about 9:00 pm, when Marlene found herself in front of the iron doors leading to penguins HQ. She pushed it gently and took a discreet peek inside. She learned from the lemurs about George’s nasty accident and she really wanted to give a hand right now. She didn’t get a chance to sneak out earlier because of Alice, who decided to tidy up her HQ. As she was still suffering from a deep hangover(Marks the Zookeeper’s big birthday party) her moves were very slow and clumsy, and it took her about one heure to do the job she would have usually done in less than twenty minutes.
Marlene spotted George lying in Skipper’s bunk, covered in a red blanket, his head resting on a pillow. There were some visible marks of cuts and bruises on the left side of the beak. His right flipper was wrapped in bandages.
Auriga and Skipper were sitting beside the table, arm par arm, sipping coffee from copper cups.
“That jour we took toi to the park” continued Auriga against George’s silent breath. “ toi slid and fell from the edge of the colline and rolled down on the street. Fortunately, there was a flock of ducks feeding themselves on the path. The father canard spotted toi and immediately rushed vers l'avant, vers l’avant to prevent toi from the fall. He caught toi in his wings in the last moment.’ She stopped for a while and turned her heard back, trying to hide her tears from her son.
“At that moment I was sure I was going to lose toi forever” she confessed, her voice shaky. “ Although toi were save I still couldn’t get over the shock.”
Skipper just sat there, his flippers clasped together, his face still and sorrow. Marlene gripped the mur with her paws.
“That’s why we may seem a bit overprotective towards both of you” a dit Aurora. “But that’s only because we l’amour toi to death” she let out a quiet sob and threw her arms around Skipper’s back and pressed him to her breast. Marlene heard Skipper muttering some calming words to his mother.