Rise and Fall

Shellington

I wanted to give each Octonaut a chapter named after them, in which Angel bonds with each of them. Some are better than others, but I didn't want to leave anybody out.

Yeah, so, this is the first one. Just to let you know, the chapters named after an Octonaut won't all be one after the other. If you want, you could have fun trying to guess the order. (Although, if you've read this fic's summary, it's probably no mystery who's going to be last.)

Chapter 4: Shellington

Angel realised that she must have fallen asleep. She shifted around a little, not wanting to wake up. She just lay there, squeezing her eyes shut, hoping that the land of dreams would welcome her back. Maybe this time, they’d be a little kinder to her, instead of plaguing her dreams with horrific fires and storms, dead family members and talking animals.

Reluctantly, she found herself opening her eyes as saliva dripped down her chin. Gross!

“Skylar!” she called to her younger sister with whom she shared a bedroom. She half sat up and rubbed her eyes. “You won’t believe the dream I just had!”

She expected her sister to yell at her that she didn’t care or start singing a song that contained any of the words she’d just used. Skylar had a very annoying habit of doing that. However, Skylar remained silent.

Two seconds later, the door opened and that sound was followed by footsteps. Angel thought it was her mother coming to switch the light on and shout, “Wakey, wakey!” as she always did on school days. Wasn’t it supposed to be the summer holidays?

“Oh, good, you’re awake. How do you feel?” someone asked as the footsteps came closer. The voice was gentle and polite, but timid. It wasn’t Skylar or her mother or anybody else in her family.

It wasn’t a dream, Angel realised with a heavy heart as that penguin doctor appeared at her bedside. All that stuff really happened. It couldn’t have happened, but it did.

So, there went the only thing that had been a comfort to her as she cried her eyes out.

“It’s okay”, she’d whispered to herself when she’d calmed down just enough to speak. “It’s just a dream. None of this is real. None of this is real.” She’d moaned as she slapped herself in the face repeatedly. “Wake up, wake up, wake up!”

Now, she realised that she hadn’t woken up from a nightmare. She’d woken up to the nightmare.

“Oh, it’s you”, she muttered with crushing disappointment, flopping back down.

Peso didn’t say anything, but his surprised expression told Angel that her words came out harsher than she’d intended. She winced contritely and tried again, speaking fearfully.

“Sorry. I mean, I thought I was back at home.”

Fortunately, Peso was very understanding. “That’s all right. I know it must be rather strange, being here on the Octopod and, being a human, finding out that other animals can talk.” (And the Understatement of the Year Award goes to…) “Angel? Where is your home? We’ve got to find it. Your parents must be so worried about you.”

Angel didn’t answer. She didn’t want to cry again, not in front of Peso.

“Are you all right?” he questioned, concerned. “You were crying earlier. Did something happen?”

Well, that was embarrassing.

Angel didn’t know it, but Peso had come and gone several times. As she lay there, sobbing her heart out, he’d come in to try to comfort her. The soft-hearted penguin just couldn’t ignore someone suffering like this, especially a child. However, she’d been crying too hard to see or hear him and, after her panic attack, he’d been too afraid to touch her.