Ronald Rook and the Penguins

Ronald Rook and the Penguins(Faith Tyler) As the morning wore on Ronald became bored just sitting in the church tower. The sun was shining and he was getting very hot. He thought that he might like a bath if he could only find some water. Most of the puddles had dried up because the sun had been shining for days now. He remembered seeing a large amount of water the last time he flew over the zoo. Perhaps they would not mind if he took a quick dip. He took off from the church tower and flew in a straight line across fields and houses until he came to the zoo. He circled round until he spotted the pool of water. It was full of strange looking birds swimming round and round as if they had nothing better to do. He flew down and perched on the edge of the pool and watched these odd creatures. The water did not look too deep as it only came halfway up the sides of the birds so he thought that he might just jump in. As he did so three of the penguins swam straight over him at full speed and pushed him right under the water. Ronald came to the surface spluttering and coughing until he thought he would burst. That was definitely deeper than it looked. He shook an angry wing at the penguins but they carried on swimming as though they had not even seen him. He was most indignant. Here was the best looking rook in town and that was the treatment he got. Well he would show them. He had seen a notice telling people that the penguin feeding time was at 11am so he thought that he would hang about and see if they were fed anything that he could eat. He sat on the edge of the pool and dried his feathers in the sun, stretching out his wings as far as they would go to soak up every bit of sun that he could. When they were dry he sat and sorted them out, laying every one down straight so that he would be able to fly properly.

As he sat dozing in the sun he heard the humans clapping and so he opened one eye to see what was going on. A man in a uniform was coming along the path and in his hands he had two large buckets. Perhaps it was food. Ronald was awake in an instant as the man reached the pool. Fish started to fall into the pool as the man threw them to the penguins. Flapping his wings as fast as he could Ronald dived across the top of the pool, took two steps on the backs of the penguins and grabbed the largest fish he could. Holding on tight to his catch he soared up unto the air and away he went to find a quiet spot to eat his meal. After he had finished he flew back to see if there was any more and sure enough the penguins were still being fed so down he dived. This time the penguins were waiting for him and as he flew over the water two of them leapt up in the air, grabbed him and dunked him in the pool again. He really did not want a second bath. Now he was cross and as he came to the surface there was a fish floating towards him with a large penguin after it. He took the fish in his beak, shook his wings free of water and with an almighty leap he landed on the edge of the pool again. The penguins were jumping out of the water trying to reach Ronald but he was too clever for them. Just as they thought they had him he gave a sideways hop and kept out of their reach. They tried several times and then gave up and swam away in disgust. Ronald shook the rest of the water out of his wings, gave a cheeky wave and off he flew back to his quiet spot to finish his meal. After he had eaten his fish he tucked his head under his wing and went to sleep to dream about his next adventure.