Part 1, if you missed it.
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“I asked you first,” the creature said, languidly chewing on something very green.
“I’m a penguin,” said Stumpy, “can’t you tell?”
The creature shook its head, stirring enough air for a bit of a breeze. “Never heard of you.”
“What are you?” Stumpy asked, trying to peer around thick legs like tree trunks. “And have you seen an egg?”
“I’m a me,” said the animal. “You can call me Terry. And we do have eggs.” Terry pointed their head slowly on a long, long neck to a collection of ovals the size of Stumpy. “But I know these aren’t yours. They’re Stella’s. And she doesn’t like anyone messing with her eggs.”
“Stella?”
“Hey, Stella, this pen-whatever wants to know about your eggs!”
A few hundred yards away, Stella turned her head over her shoulder, half a something four times the size of Stumpy dangling from dagger teeth.
“What’s that?” she said, but the words were muffled, blood rolling down her chin.
“No, no, never mind, never mind, not that egg. I mean…” Stumpy’s words trailed off as she caught a glimpse of white rolling down the small rise. “I think I see it now,” and she hurried best she could after it, through the unfamiliar and crowded terrain.
Plants she’d never before seen popped up here and there, dense in patches, sparse in patches, most much taller than she, and some quite sharp. There was a drone of insect wings, and the air smelled of things that were another time’s memory.
“Ouch,” she said as her leg brushed a leaf, and it cut her cleanly, blood already starting to rise. No matter, she didn’t have the time to worry about it, as the egg within an egg tumbled away from her, almost gleefully, she thought.
In the sky, huge beasts with fleshy wings circled, and herds like Terry munched the things that almost seemed to be trees, pulling some of them out whole, their roots raining clumps of dirt.
But even with all of that, with the busy sounds of life no penguin had ever heard before, Stumpy could almost feel that specific vibration of the egg, just out of sight as it was.
“Any luck?” Terry asked, suddenly beside her though she’d thought she’d waddled so far.
“I can’t see it,” Stumpy said, leaving little drops of blood from her leg, which was already starting to hurt.
Terry let out an enormous sigh, enough air to wave the plants around in the breeze. “I don’t do this for everyone,” said Terry, “but come on. Take a look.”
Terry lowered their head to the ground, and even flat to it, though still it towered over Stumpy.
“Are you telling me…”
“To hop on, yes,” said Terry.
“I can’t hop,” said Stumpy. The vibration from the egg within the egg grew fainter. “But I can try, I guess.”
Awkwardly, Stumpy wriggled and climbed and scrambled, until finally she found herself perched atop Terry’s head. Terry moved slowly, so as not to knock her off, and raised their head up, up, and up.
Below her, Stumpy watched the world unfold and wondered if this is what it was like for Edgar the seagull when he flew. She would ask him when she saw him again.
If she saw him again.
But she didn’t have much time to think about it, as she spotted the egg with in an egg in a small hollow lined with lichen and an array of oddly-shaped mushrooms, where the egg wasn’t purely white anymore.
“Over there!” she said, and Terry didn’t even have to take a step to deposit her, gently, in nest of ferns one hollow over.
“Hope it works out for you,” Terry said. “I find you weirdly cute.”
“A lot of people say that,” said Stumpy as she waddle-ran toward the egg. “Thank you for your help!”
“You’re welcome,” said Terry. “It gets boring around here, it’s nice to have a little something come out of the sky and shake it up, you know?”
“Not always,” said Stumpy, but Terry, only two steps later, was too far away to hear. No matter, the egg was there, within reach.
Only…it was cracking again. And this time, the light was orange.
TO BE CONTINUED
A Bit to Read 
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