The Penguin Who Wanted to Lay Eggs

Author's note: Only those that have read my other works know this is a story within a story within a story, but you don't need to know that.

If you noticed any spelling/grammar mistakes, please tell me EXACTLY where they are so I can fix them. Thank you and enjoy.

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     There once was a penguin who wanted to lay eggs. However, the penguin was a boy. If your parents have been honest about where babies come from, you should know that eggs are laid by girls, so this penguin needed to mate with one if he wanted eggs. It might seem so simple, yet this penguin was very special. This penguin wished to lay the eggs himself.

     Now normally penguins don’t have individual names because they are penguins, not people, but for the sake of convenience we shall name this penguin Variel. The other penguins thought Variel was strange for wanting to do something outside of his nature. Still, they were an understanding colony that merely felt confused, and hoped by talking to him they could clear up the misunderstanding.

     “Why do you want to lay eggs?” one boy penguin asked. “Can’t you just find a girl to do it for you?”

     “You don’t understand,” said Variel. “I want to experience the feelings of love and joy towards the child I gave birth to myself.”

     “That can happen while you’re waiting for it to hatch,” the other penguin replied. “You take turns keeping it warm, allowing the both of you to bond over the child who will bring love and joy equally to his parents.”

     “It’s not the same!” Variel protested. “What about the time spent in between mating and laying the egg? Everything else might be split evenly between the parents, yet doesn’t that make a difference?”

     “It may be so, but I fail to see why you would place yourself in that position. It’s too much effort for something that could be made up by spending more days with the egg than your girl.”

     The rest of the colony basically agreed, and viewed Variel as someone who was trying to make things more complicated than they actually were. Variel would have been all alone with his weird options if it weren’t for his best friend. Elvin, as we shall name him, had always been supportive of Variel since they were chicks. When times were tough and food was scarce, they got through it together until they became independent adults. The two of them were the only ones in the colony to not migrate to proper breeding grounds last year, so it was assumed they were mates. This was not really the case, though Elvin would never admit it.

     One day, Elvin eagerly waddled over to Variel with good news. “My dear friend! I’ve heard of a witch doctor who can solve any problem. I think he can make you lay eggs!”

     “That’s wonderful!” Variel replied. “Where does this witch doctor live?”

     “In a cave at the top of the tallest iceberg. It’s going to take a day to get there, so I suggest packing some fish for the road.”

     Variel did just that, shoving as much lanternfish and squid as he could into an old fishing nest he found on the beach. By noon they set out on their journey without telling anyone, but they doubted they would be missed. The land itself was a giant sheet of ice with very little rock, which was easy for the two to travel through. Along the way, they spotted a fuzzy, white creature floating on a chuck of ice barely its size. Upon closer inspection, they discovered it was a polar bear, a very sad looking one at that. This didn’t make sense because polar bears live in the Artic, not the Antarctic, so he was a long way from home.

     Variel boldly approached the bear and asked, “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be on the other side of the planet?”

    The polar bear sighed. “I fell asleep one day when the ice I’m sitting on broke off from the mainland and floated away. Somehow I wound up here and I’ve been stuck ever since.”