‘Captain Mustard and King Penguin’
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there was a huge lump of ice called an iceberg, floating in the ocean. It is like a huge icy-pole that you eat from the refrigerator. These icebergs are huge lumps of ice that float in the seawater on the top of the world and at the bottom as well. Here it is very cold. Ask Mummy or Daddy to put a piece of ice in a glass of water and you will see it floating.
Living on the iceberg was some families of happy penguins. A couple of them were in love and the young lady penguin told her mate she felt that she was going to lay an egg very soon because her stomach was swelling up and her fur was sticking out around her belly.
As the big iceberg was blown around in the sea, the penguins would slip in to the water and catch lots of fish. All the penguins gave one of the fishes they caught to their King penguin. He was getting fat as he sat on top of the iceberg doing nothing for himself.
Mrs. Penguin suddenly popped and out came a baby-sized egg. She kept it in her furry folds at the bottom of her belly just sitting on the top her feet. She said to her mate, “Come and look at what we have got!” and lifted her fur up and he saw a baby egg. It must be a fairy penguin.
Daddy was very pleased and excited and asked mummy to roll the egg over onto the top of his feet where he could roll his furry belly out all over it to keep it warm. Mummy could now have a rest, go for a swim and catch some fish now that daddy was baby-sitting.
Off she went and swam a long way, catching fish, munching them up and storing them in her tummy to feed daddy and the baby when it breaks out of its shell. As she was going back to the iceberg she caught a nice fish for King penguin. The King penguin was very happy and asked when the baby egg is going to break. “Oh”, she said Daddy is there waiting patiently for the egg to hatch.
A couple of days later daddy said there was a tickling feeling on his toes. Mummy came over and stood close in front of him and they raised his furry belly up and there was a tiny penguin climbing out of his cracked shell.
When they introduced the baby to the King penguin he said, “What a beautiful little penguin she is! So small you will have to call her a fairy penguin.”, so they all gathered around and named her Fairy penguin.
As Fairy Penguin grew up she was like all little ones are, sometimes good and sometimes naughty. One day she was watching everyone giving King penguin his fish when she said, “Why do we give King Penguin fish, when he does not seem to give us anything?” Daddy said, “I never thought of that!” and he asked mother the same; “What does he ever do for us?” “Nothing, except talk and advice.” said mother.
The other penguins heard what they were saying and they all started to become unhappy and stopped feeding King Penguin, who was now too fat to catch fish himself. He put his head under his wing and sobbed as he sat on the top of the iceberg. Everyone was getting miserable and were waddling around with their beaks pointing to the ground, flapping their little wings dejectedly.
One day a boat came by, and sitting in it was a captain called Mustard. Now you all know that if you eat mustard it makes you very, very hot and he always ate lots of it to keep warm in the icy cold wind and snow and ice. He also knew that if you warm up some ice it melts, and he could make a nice cup of tea from the ice that melted into water.
King Penguin saw Captain Mustard sailing by the Iceberg.
As Captain Mustard was going by King Penguin’s iceberg, he saw him sitting alone on the top and shouted out “Oy! What are you doing up there on the iceberg all alone and why are you getting so thin?
“Oh dear me” said the King penguin. “All the penguins stopped feeding me and I am so lonely and no one seems to love me anymore”. “Well I do” said Captain Mustard. How you would like one of my special hot mustard sandwiches to fill you up and warm you up?” “Oh yes please” squawked King penguin.
Captain Mustard made one of the hottest and biggest sandwiches he had ever made and then, leaning backwards with his arms outstretched, he threw it with all his might at King Penguin on the top of the Iceberg. King Penguin opened his beak as wide as he could and swallowed the sandwich whole in one quick gulp. All the Penguins were looking up to the King, wondering what was doing because they could not see Captain Mustard who was on the other side of the iceberg. Waving and shouting out his farewells to King Penguin he sped away.
King Penguin started to get very hot and he could see he was melting the ice that he was standing on and he started to sink. First he sank up to his knees, then his belly, and finally all the way up to his wings and far below, all the other penguins saw him sinking. They all started to climb up the huge iceberg to see what was happening. King Penguin was now disappearing quickly – they could only see his golden feathers on this head. Then he disappeared! The ice was melting so quickly he was going faster and faster. As he was falling through the melting ice he hiccuped because of the mustard sandwich that he had eaten too quickly. This gave him hiccups and he hiccuped again and again as he made a round tunnel down through the iceberg.
Every time he hiccuped he made the tunnel go up and then down because he had not chewed his mustard sandwich properly. Now all the penguins had reached the spot where the King had disappeared and they were looking down the hole where King Penguin had gone. No-one wanted to jump into the hole to try and rescue him because they could not see how to get back out again.
The baby Fairy Penguin was the very last to climb up to the hole where King Penguin had disappeared. All she could see was a lot of penguin feet around the top of the hole in the Iceberg, so she decided to squeeze her way in through the feet, past their legs and bellies, until she was squeezing through towards the hole.
Meanwhile King Penguin popped out the bottom of the iceberg in to the icy-cold seawater where he bumped into a fish and grabbed it by the tail. It was the first time he caught one since he became the King of the penguins. This made him very happy indeed.
Just at that moment, baby Fairy Penguin on the top of the iceberg slipped and fell into the hole. She disappeared quickly and slid very fast. She was falling fast down the tunnel which went up and down because of the hiccups the king had had. Wow! What a ride, up and down up and down and up and eventually she popped out of the bottom, bumping into King Penguin who almost dropped his fish!
King Penguin was very pleased with Fairy Penguin because she made him realise that he needed to help the others instead of just taking from them, and this had made him active enough to catch his own fish again. As all the penguins jumped into the hole ,they slid down to the King, squawking as they slid over the bumps until they popped out in front of the him; they were saying, thank you for making them all the first slippery-dip that was ever made!
They all lived happily ever after and never stopped sharing fish they caught with each other, they were all very happy with their beautiful slippery-dip.
This story was originally published in the book Step Beyond Courage by William Lowther SC and is copyright (2018) All rights reserved.
The e-book, Step Beyond Courage has now been released and can be purchased from Amazon at the following link: