FMF | Percy’s Disco Iceberg

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday blog link-up. Where I join up with a community of writers and bloggers of all ages and stages who gather around a single-word prompt to free-write, unscripted, unedited, for five minutes. This week’s word prompt is {{Penguins}}

This week we’re meeting up over at Andrew’s place—a big thank you to Andrew for hosting Kate through the end of the year. Andrew will be picking fun word prompts for us to write about.

So I looked at the prompt last night and thought about it all day today. What can I write about penguins? So this is what I came up with. This was way over 5 minutes, but I was on a roll and it was fun.

Percy’s Disco Iceberg

In the vast, shimmering white of Antarctica, lived a small Adélie penguin named Percy. Percy was, to put it mildly, a bit bored. The days were long, the fishing was good, but the evenings in the rookery were just… squawky and a little drab.

One blustery afternoon, while scavenging for particularly smooth pebbles to gift his friend Penelope, Percy waddled past a fresh crack in the ice shelf. Tucked inside the newly exposed crevice was something utterly, astonishingly un-Antarctic.

It was perfectly round, covered in tiny, reflective glass squares, and downright dazzling. It was a disco ball, likely lost overboard from a distant cruise ship.

Percy stared. A ray of sun, momentarily piercing the clouds, struck the sphere and sent a thousand twinkling diamonds of light dancing across the snow and ice. Percy gasped—a tiny, happy “Gah!”

He carefully nudged the strange, beautiful thing out with his beak. It was a bit bigger than his head, and certainly too heavy to waddle far with.

Percy, fueled by a sudden, electric excitement, knew precisely what he had to do. He spent the next three days moving the ball, inch by painstaking inch, using a system of slippery fish scales and a small, supportive mound of snow he packed himself. He was hauling it to his favorite spot: a high, flat-topped iceberg that floated just offshore.

Finally, he secured the disco ball right in the center of the iceberg’s peak, propping it up with a few sturdy, frozen clumps of seaweed.

That evening, as the Antarctic sun dipped low, casting an ethereal, pinkish-orange glow, Percy invited his friends over.

“You must see this!” he squawked, his usual dignified waddle replaced by a bouncy little hop. “It’s going to be the most magnificent thing you’ve ever beheld!”

A small group gathered: Penelope, the cleverest fisher; Bartholomew, the biggest, clumsiest penguin; and a handful of curious youngsters.

As the sun settled on the horizon, Percy flipped the disco ball. (He really just gave it a good, hard spin with his wing.)

The result was magical.

The setting sun caught the spinning mirror facets, throwing streaks of gold, rose, and sapphire light across the icy platform. The drab blue-white iceberg was instantly transformed into Percy’s Disco Iceberg.

Bartholomew, usually stoic, let out a booming, delighted “Aark!”

The young ones immediately started sliding on their bellies through the dancing lights, giggling and flapping their tiny wings.

Penelope waddled right up to Percy, her dark eyes sparkling. “Percy,” she said, giving him an appreciative nudge. “This is absolutely… dazzling.”

Percy’s heart swelled. He started a little, joyous jig—a shuffle-slide-and-a-head-bob—and his friends joined in. The Disco Iceberg became the hottest spot in the whole rookery.

Every night, as the long, golden twilight descended, penguins would gather. They didn’t need music; the happy flaps, the clumsy squawks, and the swoosh of their feet on the ice, all set to the silent, shimmering light show, was rhythm enough.

And Percy? He was no longer bored. He was Percy, the Keeper of the Lights, and he knew that even in the coldest, quietest place in the world, a little bit of unexpected sparkle could turn an ordinary iceberg into the happiest, cutest dance floor on Earth.

I’m linking up this month with these AMAZING Blog Hop/Link-Up party hostesses!