Fish time
#1 of Happy Feet: "Frozen world"
Mumble moved his streamlined body into the water, swimming through it with minimum drag, his aerodynamic shape helping him. The cold was further penetrating his body each time he beat his flippers, 35 times per minute, propelling him to help him to achieve his goal.
Gloria was now approaching, so was Winter. He needed to feed, to resist against the icy blasts; she needed food as well, to create life. Mumble decided to move from his stationary state. He accelerated, charging in Gloria's direction...
The Aliens had removed the Argos tag from his body. It didn't hurt, since it was glued, but they had to cut the feathers around it and as a result, there was a weird rectangular bald spot on his back. He was thinking it was disgraceful, worrying about how she was considering his look. What if she didn't like it? He loved her; and because of this disgraceful back, he worried she might not appreciate him.
Those worries were partially vanished when he passed her, initiating the swimming he has always appreciated: a heart-shaped figure. Face-to-face with her, both rotating around a vertical axis while climbing, they suddenly broke staring each other and began the figure. Passing to 0.02 psi around the last 30 meters before the surface, Mumble's heartbeat began to accelerate, sending still more blood, charged by all possible cells owning the last nutritive glucose he needed. His body was preparing to do something. Perhaps simply to adjust to a pressure change?
Adrenaline is usually produced from the adrenal medulla because of a danger. Belonging to the sympathetic system, it is produced by hormones as a regulation phenomenon, by increasing cardiac rhythm and making the pupils smaller to help body remaining in an awakening state. But when Mumble's cardiac rhythm increased strongly as he propelled himself backwards, it wasn't danger which was coming. He ended the shape at the same time of her, retrieving himself face-to-face with her.
"Mumble..." she whispered. Adrenaline caused him to breathe irregularly, make his heart racing at a phenomenal rate, and he shivered uncontrollably. Gloria noticed his pupils dilating, rendering his beautiful blue eyes as best as possible. Mumble was speechless, even unable to reply at his own name. He nevertheless succeeded in smiling to her... And she smiled back. Now both were keen on and focusing on one topic, no matter the others...
The moment came, the one both had waited for a while. For so many months, separated by an ocean, only the thought of her allowed him not to become crazy at this zoo, and now it was real, really real. Before being separated by thousands of kilometers, they were now only twenty centimeters apart, for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, they were close enough to touch.
The moment was magic. Mumble's beak approached Gloria's. Still closer. They opened them, now touching each other's one...
"Oh!" she shouted. It was as if Mumble's heart had stopped.
"Once again, Seymour succeeded in ruining my life" was thinking Mumble, raging, as his "friend" was pushing the couple apart, using the fish he was hunting as an excuse. Why was there ALWAYS someone or something to oppose to his love? It was enough. Maybe he could remedy this later.
"Anyway..." Mumble always applied at the perfection his golden rule: "love will find its way". Since he was a chick, it always worked. All he had to do was wait. So, rather being angry, he smiled as he waited for Gloria to finish interacting with Seymour.
Mumble pondered. No matter how she looked like or seemed like, the simple view of her was sufficient to almost faint. He had reached a critical point, now it was time to ask serious questions. Gloria was his soulmate since he had hatched: in some measure, and it had been confirmed by all those events, she was the one who had the keys to his locked heard. It was true, when Mumble tried to get her rid of him to make her safe, she accepted it and never wanted to fell for someone else.
Gloria finally had to take his breath, and then returned to the surface. By his behavior, she kind of knew he was about to ask her that. Problem was... she didn't know whether it was a good idea, speaking of responsibilities.
She stayed silent as both exited the water. They waddled, speechless, until they reached this place they had danced on, several times. Then they stopped, slowly. Gloria turned towards Mumble's direction. He also stared at her beautiful brown eyes. He knew she was expecting for an announcement. "So, here we go..." he thought, his heart beating fast. Without demanding something, they were already holding each other's flippers.
"Gloria... Are you keen on... becoming my mate?" he asked, gulping.
"Yes, Mumble... I am." she replied from the heart.
They both approached their beaks, opened them, and kissed each other. Mumble was sobbing. She hugged him tightly, happy to be with him. She was hopping their love will last for life. They both hummed their heartsongs. Mumble was able to whisper his.
The sun was setting slowly onto the ice fields and the icebergs. Then the song became love...