Backstory: Name: Tikoosue (Often shortened to Tikoo by other penguins) Tikoo was separated from his parents during a particularly violent blizzard when he was still very young. The blizzard scattered eggs and chicks across the ice. He remembers clinging to his father's leg one moment, and then being tossed about by the wind the next, waking up alone in a drift of snow. After the storm, Tikoo was found by a group of older orphaned chicks who had also been separated from their parents. They banded together for survival, forming a makeshift colony on the edge of the ice shelf. He spent his formative months learning to hunt small fish and krill, avoid predators like skuas and leopard seals, and navigate the treacherous ice. One of the older penguins in the lost chick colony, an elderly penguin named Kai, had once been a scout for his breeding colony and knew the general direction of the main Emperor penguin rookeries. Kai told Tikoo stories of the warmth and comfort of the rookery, further solidifying Tikoo's desire to find his family. Before Kai passed away from old age, he gave Tikoo a simple map etched on a flattened fish bone, marking the approximate location of the rookery While hunting near the open water, Tikoo witnessed a leopard seal attack and kill all of his friends from the lost chick colony. This terrifying experience made him even more determined to find his parents and the safety of the rookery, while also revealing his own vulnerabilities in the harsh Antarctic environment and increasing his fear of the open ocean.
