Section I - Shadows on the Ice
For a thousand dawns, the sun had kept its promise: it rose. Punctual, tireless, golden.
But that day, it did not.
The southern lands, vast and frozen, awoke in a thick and mute gloom. Not even the wind dared to sing. Nor did the waters want to break the ice. It was as if the whole world held its breath.
In the snow, hidden under white coats and night vision goggles, three penguins strode steadily forward. Each carried with him a symbol engraved on his chest: a six-pointed star enclosed in a circle.
They were agents. Secretive. Dedicated. Raised in silence to fulfill a greater purpose.
Their mission had begun with a message in the dark.
An ancient temple buried under centuries of ice had emerged, for no apparent reason, just as the sun disappeared. On its walls was written a prophecy, fragmented, in a language forgotten by almost everyone.
But one part they were able to translate:
"...When the sun will no longer shine, and the ice will no longer sing,
only the golden sherbet will awaken the smile that will open the gates of the beginning..."
They did not know what the "golden sherbet" was.
But the word stirred something ancient in their memory. Like a flavor they had never tasted, but somehow missed.
They did not know who it was that should smile.
They only knew that it was important. And that they had to find it.
-Do you think it's real? -asked the youngest, named Tilo, with a thread of doubt in his voice.
-The prophecy appeared just as the sun went down. Chance? -replied Sarka, the quietest of the trio.
-Nothing is coincidental," closed Brann, the eldest, with a tone that allowed no reply.
And so, in the middle of the dayless night, the search began.
A quest that would take them beyond the ice, beyond time...
...and beyond what they knew about themselves.
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