Tales of a Snow-Winged Goose (I)

	Name	Tales of a Snow-Winged Goose (I)
	Type (Ingame)	Quest Item
	Family	Book, Tales of a Snow-Winged Goose
	Rarity
	Description	A short fairy tale that is quite popular in Fontaine. Many children saw the exquisitely drawn cover and thought it was really written by the kind Madam Snow-Winged Goose of legend.

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Item Story

Pers the Penguin

Legend says there is a sea of ice far off in the south. That is where the penguins live.
Penguins are chubby little ladies and gentlemen, with tuxedos of black feathers pulled tight over their cute white bellies. You might think they look awkward on land, waddling about, unable to fly like other birds. But just you wait. You'll see them throw themselves onto those bellies and slide as if snowboarding, right into the water. With a splash, they become elegant and talented swimmers, their thick, flipper-like wings helping to streamline their bodies as they zoom about underwater.
Now, lots of children already know these penguin facts. And children who love penguins will know all this by heart.
But there is one thing that even the penguin-loving children don't know. Every penguin in the world comes from outer space, far beyond the skies. Great flocks of penguins once flew across the universe, their flippers steering them between the stars, their sleek feathers reflecting what little starlight there was out there in the void. From red giants to white dwarfs, from the shoulder of Orion to the glimmering Tannhauser Gate... The penguins explored it all. The penguins remember it all.
But, perhaps because of some interstellar catastrophe or even a simple family argument, several penguin clans split off from that galaxy-roaming flock and landed in the icy waters to the south of Teyvat. They became our first penguins. But those new arrivals found our atmosphere too thick to fly in, and their lack of prior experience with water left them unable to swim as well. Until, that is, the birth of the marvelous Pers the Penguin — the first penguin to learn to swim.

Like many young penguins, Pers would gaze up at the starry night sky, or the blue skies of daytime, and say to himself: "If only I could fly, like my ancestors!"

And so Pers decided to learn from the birds. How did they fly so high?
First, Pers the Penguin asked the biggest bird he could find: a frigatebird. And the frigatebird said: "Haha! Piece of cake! Once you bring me 30 fish, I'll spill the beans!"
And so Pers spent 50 nights on a moonlit beach, collecting 300 shells. Then he found a whale who liked shells and exchanged his 300 shells for 30 fish.
The next day, the frigatebird swallowed those 30 fish in one great big gulp before laughing and flying away. As he flew off, he called down to young Pers: "The secret to flying is to be light! Why not try losing some weight?"
Well, losing weight was easy enough. But if a penguin lost its thick layer of fat, it wouldn't be a penguin anymore. So, Pers shook his head.
And as all children know, the frigatebird got a new nickname after all this for its greed and unreasonable nature: the piratebird.

Next, Pers asked the seagulls for help. But all they did was squawk and croak. Pers was thus none the wiser, and the seagulls wound up having a big argument. In fact, some of them became so angry that they refused to fly ever again, becoming auks... Though that's a different story.
And so Pers asked a petrel for help. But the petrel would only teach him some impractical tricks, and not the basics that he needed most. Because, that noble seabird thought, surely it was better to learn how to soar through a stormy sky than to worry about trivial matters like taking off and landing.

Pers was now a very disappointed penguin. He waddled back to the beach and gazed out across the peaceful nighttime ocean. And as he did so, he noticed for the first time ever that the stars of his celestial homeland were reflected in the ocean. And he found them so beautiful that he simply... jumped in.
And, after a brief moment of panicked sinking, Pers the Penguin realized that he could fly — underwater, at least. He could whizz speedily along, or twist and turn. It was, after all, what those strong wings and that smooth round body had been made for!
And that is how Pers the Penguin became the first penguin to learn to swim. And after Pers, many other penguins plucked up the courage to take that leap into the waters and, like their ancestors, soar amongst the glimmering stars, exploring, feeding, and playing.
Once Pers had shown them the way, the penguins took to life in the water and forgot their spacefaring past. Not even in their dreams did they remember that limitless void. The penguins live here now, between sea and land.