Chapter 4: Cold Reception in Shiver City

Soundtrack: Yoshi's Island - 'CrystallineCaverns' by McVaffe

The bitter wind howled over the lifeless body of the Snuffleupagus. It had been hours since the carnage had taken place, and all was still. Suddenly, the body of the Snuffleupagus started to move, slowly but surely; it seemed to be struggling to get up. Then, with a mighty push, hairy beast's body flew feet into the air and came crashing back down a few yards away. Where the body of the Snuffleupagus had just been stood Bumpty, as sure footed as ever, though seemingly a bit dazed.
Blinking rapidly in a vain attempt to assuage the lights popping in front of his eyes, the penguin focused his thoughts to try and remember what had happened. Soon enough, it all came rushing back to him in a flurry of pain and color; Colonel Karmel's personal Snuffleupagus had attacked him and Abner. With a jolt, Bumpty looked about, but could see no sign of the boy's body. Thinking wildly that the Snuffleupagus must have ate the poor child, Bumpty could only look down at the ground in sadness - as always, the only people who ever died were the people he had failed to protect. Drawing his attention, however, were a flurry of penguin prints in the snow, and judging by the trail, they had been dragging something with them; something that was much bigger than any of them. Hope filling his little penguin heart, Bumpty dashed forward to start following the trail. Mere moments later, however, his heart fell once more; the tracks were headed directly towards Shiver City.

Abner tried opening his eyes, but everything remained black. Judging by the feeling on his face, he had a blindfold over his eyes. This coupled with the fact that his body was sore all over and he could apparently not move his hands, struck a panic into his chest the likes of which he had never felt. Surreptitiously trying to move his lower body, he let out a small groan of pain.
"Ahhhh, so our little guest is awake now, goody goody," said a familiar, but unpleasant, voice. "So I bet you're wondering where you are, hmmm, boy? Well, little though I'm sure you realize, you are in my wonderful little burg of a town, Shiver City. Specifically, you are in Via Penguifico, which is where we take those who are naughty for a bit of a proverbial spanking." Abner said nothing in response.
"Hmmmm, does this not fwighten the wittle boy?" the same person asked, this time in a mock baby voice. "Well, we will have to change that, I'm afraid, yes we will. Unless, of course, you're willing to tell me what I want to know."
"Like what?" Abner asked defiantly.
"Such as why you, a human, were found so dangerously close to the outskirts of Colonel Karmel's personal city!" At this, a voice could be heard screaming in the distance. "Pluckers, I thought I told you to keep our other guest quiet for the time being," the voice said with an airy tone.
"Y-y-y-es, Colonel Karmel," the apparent Pluckers hastily responded, and Abner could hear footsteps scurrying away.
"Well boy, care to answer my question?" Colonel Karmel asked as if there had been no interruptions.
Abner carefully weighed his options, but remembering what Bumpty had mentioned to him on the way here, decided he was better off not telling this penguin anything; he shook his head in response.
"Unfortunate, unfortunate," Karmel sighed, though Abner thought he could hear a slightly happy tone to his voice. "So, do you like cookies?"
"Cookies?" Abner repeated, completely confused. "I...well, yeah, I guess."
"Oh, excellent!" Colonel Karmel responded delightedly. "I'll have some made straight away then, and you and I can have a little chat while we delight in their mastication, shall we?" And at that, Karmel's footsteps were heard walking away, and then a heavy door closing.

Knowing that he had little time to work with, Bumpty had been quick in infiltrating Shiver City. Having been one of the heads of security before Colonel Karmel had come into power certainly helped, as he had been able to avoid all the security checkpoints thus far, and was now approaching Via Penguifico at full speed. Before Karmel's reign of terror had begun, Via Penguifico had been Shiver City's greatest achievement; a center of information that was of free access, run by the wise old penguin Herringway. Karmel's first act in achieving power, however, had been to destroy all of the books and other relics of knowledge inside of Via Penguifico, claiming that free thoughts and information could only lead to fear, and that Shiver City would be much happier without it. To prove his point, he had turned it into his own personal torture chamber, where all unruly penguins were taken, and in all cases never seen again. Hardly any of the residents seemed to note this cruel irony, and if they did, they kept it to themselves in fear for the safety of themselves and their families.

Abner was now in a full blown panic. Fear and hopelessness spread throughout the entirety of his being; even if he could escape now, where would he go? He had lost not only his guide through this strange place, but his friend. And now he was stuck in a village of talking penguins, tied up and being interrogated by the leader of them, who apparently had a liking of cookies. Just as this thought ran through Abner's head, he heard the heavy door opening once more, and the smell of masterfully baked chocolate chip cookies pervaded his sense of smell. Immediately, his mouth began to water.
"Sorry for the delay, but I figured you wouldn't mind the extra wait for just a hint of cinnamon in these cookies, and our supply was all the way in the basement," Colonel Karmel said pleasantly. "Oh dear, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot about that blindfold, you'll have to excuse me, I'd lose my beak if it wasn't attached." Chortling at his own joke, Karmel walked over to where Abner was still captive and removed the blindfold. Having been in complete darkness for so long, Abner expected his eyes to be blinded by sudden brightness, but to his surprise found nothing of the sort; this room he was in was metallic and completely rusted a reddish brown on every surface. It was barely any less dark than the blindfold had been.
Colonel Karmel had already picked up the plate of cookies again and was walking back to where Abner was forced to hang by his arms by the time the boy noticed him. Taking the penguin's appearance in, Abner noticed that it was nearly as cute as Bumpty was, thought with a slightly greener tint to him as opposed to Bumpty's blue coat. Other than that, Abner could see no other air of menace about this penguin, and indeed, the sight of him holding a plate of freshly baked, still deliciously soft chocolate chip cookies made the sight of this supposed evil penguin dictator quite pleasant and welcoming.
"Oh, you must like cookies a lot more than you let on earlier, with that kind of look in your eye," Colonel Karmel said with a grin as he noticed Abner hungrily looking at the plate of delightful goodies. Taking one from the plate, Karmel brought it within centimeters of Abner's mouth, letting the smell waft directly up into his nostrils. As Abner opened his mouth to take a bite, Karmel pulled the cookie back.
"Now now, that's not good manners," he sad sadly. "I'm offering you cookies, and you won't even tell me why you're here, by yourself?" Abner considered the situation for a moment; he was starving, and aside from the fact that he was hanging from the ceiling by his arms, this penguin didn't seem so bad. And, of course, those cookies seemed to be a gift from the God of Delicious Delights. Even as he thought this, Abner could see the aforementioned God, with his crown made of funnel cake and sceptre made of deep fried twinkies, standing in front of his oven in the clouds made of cotton candy, pulling these very cookies out. Letting his cupcake angels taste these perfect cookies and receiving their enthusiastic approval, the God of Delicious Delights started walking towards the windowsill to let the cookies cool, when he tripped over his puppy made of licorice, sending the cookies flying from this candy rapture, and landing directly onto the plate that this strange penguin was now offering him. And then, Abner again remembered what Bumpty had said to him, and the pain that was on that poor penguin's face as he had spoken the words. Though every part of his being was screaming for just one bite of cookie, Abner once more shook his head. Colonel Karmel considered the boy for a moment, rage building up inside of him. And as Abner looked upon this penguin, he could now see the angry dictator that he had been told of.
"FINE, HAVE MY COOKIES," Karmel screamed in the most frightening voice Abner had ever heard. And at that, the penguin took the cookie he was holding and smeared it all across the boy's face. Agony such as he had never known erupted all over his face, as the just melted chocolate that he had so once desired mere moments ago now became his greatest torturer, its melty deliciousness now burning his face like freshly spewed magma. Before the pain could even begin to recede, Colonel Karmel applies another cookie, and then another, and a fourth for good measure.
Abner could not take anymore, surely he was going to die; a death at the hands of one of the things he loved the most. But it didn't matter to him now, the pain was unreal, beyond anyone's physical limitations. Even he, who loved being alive, who had always been aware of how much of a miracle his own body was and was happy just to have the ability to breathe, now screamed for the release of death, and for his mother. At this, Colonel Karmel stopped applying the cookies, apparently satisfied with the results he had garnered.
"Well, if that's what you really want..." the penguin began, now not even attempting to hide the pure joy in his voice. Before anything else could happen, however, a huge rocking shook the ground where they stood.
"What...?" Karmel started, and immediately ran off to inspect the quake.
Abner, still hanging pathetically, had no curiosity about the rumblings; he had been pushed to both his mental and physical limit, and now he felt that almost nothing was left in his life to fight for. It didn't matter whether he lived or died here, so long as he didn't have to suffer anymore. Before he could expound anymore on these thoughts, he heard a noise.
"Abner, my dear boy!" another familiar voice said, though this one brought a feeling of warmth with it. Struggling to look up, Abner saw, barely daring to believe his eyes, the sight of Bumpty. Before he could get over this shock, Bumpty was already releasing him from his confines, and suddenly he was free once more. Before either of them could speak, Abner embraced the penguin, and held him tighter than he had ever held anything in his life. Letting go, he looked at Bumpty and saw, to his embarassment, the penguin's eyes were filled with tears.
"Yes, well," umpty started, clearly flustered. "We haven't much time, we must make haste."