Pingus v.s. People

by Audriya M., 9

An August 2025 Monthly Story Challenge Winner 

Disclaimer: These events take place in a version of Earth where a penguin-like animal resides alongside all other animals.

Prologue:

A long, long time ago, the earth was a much friendlier place. It was full of beauty and amazing sites.

Every animal in the world was happy and content with their living. Their lives were simple, but enjoyable.

Then humans came along.

They were like most animals at first. Enjoying the simplicity. But slowly, slowly, they became aware of what was to come, and much more. They wanted much more. They experienced greed for the first time. And then they noticed. They could use, they could exploit, the materials around them. What they didn’t know was that the stream of materials wasn't infinite. They didn’t know that yet, so they relentlessly exploited the materials that they had at hand. Little did they know that what they did would cause much more than a little bit of trouble… 

Chapter One

Back to the Future! Wait, lemme redo that. Ahem. Ba-cough to-cough thECHOO *sniffle* sorry about that! fu-HOOONNNKKKK future. Ugh, I hate this haze!

Makes my throat all flam-y and my noh severli blnocked. The future is BAD.

You see? Our relentless exploitation of Mother Nature has caused this “future” to be worse than ever before on Earth. Even other creatures on this planet agree with me. Especially the Pingus. They are on a mission to stop this! They call this a menace! Now, let’s go 5 years back into the past, to see how they got this movement started.

Chapter Two

5 years ago… 

The Pingus were living happy, carefree lives. “The best it could ever be!” as they said. They noticed a change of their then safe haven of an environment. First came the warmness. It was getting a bit hot there. Then the melting. Of the Ice and Snow, of course. NOT the Pingus and other “Southpole-eans”. The melting meant less resting space. That, plus rising water levels, is bound to be dangerous for ANY animal!!! Oh, and another thing. Air pollution. That, plus all the other things is FATAL TO ANY CREATURE AND ECOSYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You get their point now? You should’ve after all I've explained.

Anyhoo, back to the story.

At first it was a mere annoyance, a very annoying one at that. Then it got worse, and worse, and worse. Some months it felt like they were gonna melt into a puddle of hot goo. Other months fierce storms raged across the continent. The Antarctic was no longer safe to live in.

Other animals, such as the arctic fox, packed up all their things and left in hope of a better place. The Pingus understood, though, that there was no better place. Somehow they knew. They also thought it was caused by something, or somethings. Somehow they knew that, too. Somehow.

Chapter Three

The Pingus were MAD.

Like, MAD MAD.

The type of enragement you see in GIFs, except 100. Times. More!!!

Yes, that mad. Well, come to think about it, they seemed more enraged than mad. They were, in fact, so mad, that they even thought of protesting against it, if that could even help. And guess what? Protesting they did!

The Council of the Pingus gathered up all the Pingus in the town square. Yes, they had a town square. And yes, they also had a Council. There, they made a few announcements.

“Ahem. Listen up, listen up. I presume that all of you (or most of you) have noticed a change in the environment, yes?”

“Yes,” came a chorus of voices. Every Pingus had noticed. Every. Single. One.

The council continued, “ Okay. Would anyone want to come up on stage and share an idea of what we should do about it?”

The crowd murmured. Only one Pingus volunteered to come up. A second wave of murmurs occurred. That was one brave fellow! And as brave as can be, as his idea, it was to start a movement, a violent movement at that.

He said, “My idea is to start a protest.” He began to scamper off the stage, as he was a child.

The council stopped him, as they wanted to hear more. “Go on, go on. We would love to hear more, little one..”

“Okay!” chirped the “little one”. He trotted back to the mic. “We should start a movement, a protest, against the things that are causing this.”

“More! More!” chanted all the ther Pingus. 

So he continued, very spiritedly, “ We should rebel against the things that are causing this. We should gather all our bravest, dare-ing-est Pingus, and set out on a quest to destroy all that is causing this change!” He had a fire in his eyes, a raging inferno. He seemed to light up from the inside. Every Pingus gasped. One, it sounded outrageous! Two, Why was he glowing, and why are his eyes like that? And Three, why did what he just said sound like it came from somewhere else? Something was definitely going on.

Chapter Four

They looked toward the council.

Some Pingus yelled, “WHAT IS HAPPENING?”

The council just stared. Every Pingus stared. The hatchling seemed oblivious to the stares. They sat there, just staring. Every Pingus eventually broke free. The child still had the look in his eyes, but had stopped glowing. The crowd burst into nervous chatter.

“What was that?” some Pingus asked.

“That was so scary!” exclaimed others.

The child's mother yelled, “What is happening to my baby?” It seemed like the other Pingus were too busy making their own comments, so she yelled louder. “Can some Pingus please tell me what is happening to my precious baby?!” She was definitely heard that time, as the worried mother yelled so loud you could hear her from 5 miles away.

The council replied, “To answer that, we need to do some story telling.”

Whispers of “Huh?” “Why tell a story? and “We’re not children!” could be heard throughout the crowd.

“Wait, wait! Let us explain. This story, or rather, legend, takes us back a very long time ago. Now, some of you might’ve heard snippets of the story from our elders. That’s fine. Just listen along, if you’ve already heard it.”

“We shall hand it over to the elders now.” Every Pingus turned to the elders. And thus did they start their story. 

Chapter Five

“Once upon a time, when Earth was brand new, it was even worse than it was now. It was a planet of volcanoes, lava and rock. There was no water, no cold, not even oxygen! Nothing could’ve lived on that planet. Then It came along. It was not like any other creature. We still don't know if It is living or unliving. Nothing knows what It is. Not even us elders! We only know that when It happened along Earth, It decided to give Earth life. Who knows why It chose this planet among others in the solar system, such as Mars, or Venus? Well, let's move on. When It decided Earth would have life flourish on it, It simply couldn't just think it. You see, that is not how It gives life. It had to come down from wherever It watches the universe. Then It glides down and sets foot on whatever it wants to make life on. Now, don’t get me wrong. It is not the creator of the universe. Not.

To be continued...

Photo: TC Photography of Unsplash