Welcome to Story Quest, a weekly podcast where we bring your stories to life!
In this episode we bring Ayla’s story Unicorns and Penguins!- to life.
If you have a story idea, you could be like Ayla and have it turned into a Story Quest. All you have to do is send us your story idea here. We know you have the best imaginations and together we can create the most brilliant stories!
That’s just what Ayla did. You can watch the story they suggested come to life below, plus they tell us all about the inspiration behind the story at the end.
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Read along to Unicorns and Penguins! Here
You can read along to the story while you listen. Just follow the text below. Don’t worry if you find a word tricky – you can pause the video whenever to give yourself more time.
PENGUIN PANDEMONIUM
Once upon a time in the magical land of Glittering Meadows, there lived a joyful group of unicorns who loved to frolic among the rainbow-colored flowers and dance in the moonlight. They were known far and wide for their shimmering manes and kind hearts.
Across the realm, in the Misty Mountains, resided the fierce and playful dragons. These dragons were masters of the skies, painting the clouds with fiery hues and occasionally having heated but friendly debates about the best way to cook marshmallows.
Now, Glittering Meadows and the Misty Mountains were separated by the Great Icy Ocean, where the penguins lived on a small frosty island. The penguins weren’t magical, they were just. Well. Penguins. Once the whole realm had been a landscape of ice and sparking snow, and the penguins had been in charge. But what with all the fire breathing from the dragons and rainbows and sunshine and sparkles from the unicorns, the Icy Ocean was… well not much more than a pond now.
I mean most of the penguins didn’t mind much, after all the unicorns could create magical rainbow fish to eat which were delicious and there were always marshallows around with the dragons, and on the right occasion a toasted marshmallow was just the thing… but SOME penguins vowed revenge and were determined to take over the earth once again. Chillyflaps the penguin was the ringleader. With his hench penguins he came up with an evil scheme. Under cover of night the worked on a secret project – and after many weeks of strange clanking and bonking he finally called the penguins together for the great unveiling.
“I PRESENT TO YOU…. THE FREEZINATOR!”
Chillyflip puffed his chest out and pulled the cover off his invention.
It got stuck on a lever.
“Ahem. THE FREEZINATOR!”
He tried to swish it again but it was still stuck, he heaved himself into a jump and then another jump and with a very irritable huff managed to unveil his invention.
The tall silver machine – as tall as a Skyscraper glinted in the bright sun and all the penguins went “Cooo!”
“No longer shall we be confined to a stupid little pond – the planet shall become the GLITTERING SEA once more – we start NOW!“
A team of penguins leapt on the contraption and slowly winched the canon towards the unicorns meadow – And POW!
A stream of snow and ice shot out in a thick deluge reaching into the sky and arching over the lands to where the unicorns were happily munching on some sparkly grass.
Sparklehoof, leader of the unicorns looked up, suspiciously.
“Is that … snow?? There’s not been snow in the glittering meadows for centuries” –
… then she saw the tsunami of snow and ice gathering in the sky and began to RUN!
“AVALANCHE! Run for your lives!” she whinnied to the others. And with that the terrified unicorns ran and flew to the higher grounds as best they could – and even if you’re magical it#s quite hard to fly in a snow storm.
The penguins looked at the chaos through their binoculars and cackled to themselves – the plan was working. Now to tackle those pesky dragons.
“Target North north east. Left a bit… Left a bit more” directed Chillyflaps. He was having to jump up to try to get a good view. “And ATTACK!”
POW! Once more the Freezinator launched a deluge of snow and ice – as high as the horizon and so thick it blotted out the sunshine.
The dragons had been enjoying a marshmallow feast and were pretty much asleep – they awoke with a squeal and a shout and to be honest quite a lot of swearing.
“SNOW STORM!” Fly for your lives! The dragons flapped this way and that but the sky was too heavy with sleet and ice. They couldn’t even melt a path with their fiery breath – It was too cold – none of the dragons could even blow a breath of steam.
They gathered at the top of some trees which bent with their weight and huddled together desperately hoping the snow would stop.
It snowed and snowed on the glittering realms and misty mountains with the Freezinator sending fresh snow out every day – the penguins surveyed their new realm and a cheer went up!
Icy… Snow covered… Glittering and bare. They were very smugly satisfied with their work and skated and waddled around happily exploring their new frozen paradise. But… WAS it a paradise?
Some of the penguins began to secretly wonder.
“I mean, we used to have magical fish to eat. They tasted like starshine and rainbows – remember? Now all we have in the icy ocean are miserable old pilchards.” Said one penguin very quietly to his friend.
“I know what you mean. I mean I LIKE being cold all the time. Don’t get me wrong. Totally LOVING the whole being cold all the time thing but I’ve just not got the blubber for THIS. I miss being able to bask on the dragon’s coast after they’d roasted their marshmallows. Sometimes they’d leave us a few. You know what they say on the right occasion…”
“A toasted marshmallow is just the thing, yes.”
“Maybe they weren’t so bad after all” said the first penguin. And it turned out he wasn’t alone. More and more penguins began to miss the magical realm – but they were too scared to say anything to Chillyflip and his guards. But one little Penguin decided to do something.
On the highest precipice of the Misty Mountains were the Cavermous Caves. This is where the dragons and unicorns had ended up, huddling together miserably around what fires the dragons could conjure, with meagre magical food from the unicorns. The little penguin, Pango trudged his way up and nervously poked his beak around the door.
I can’t say they were pleased to see him but he quickly explained how all the penguins were miserable and missed the magic and marsmallows and had they got any idea how disgusting pilchards are? And is there any way they could help?
“We’re too sad to be magical” sniffed Sparklehoof. This snow is making my mane all frizzy”
“And what little fire we can breathe barely makes a dent” said Flameclaw – “the Freezinator just keeps making the snow deeper and deeper. There’s nothing us dragons can do.”
“And we penguins are no match for Chillyflaps and his guards. But what if we worked together…? We can’t just give up – we can at least TRY?”
They came up with a plan.
So the big problem was that Chillyflaps and his guards were always surrounding the Freezinator so no one could get close but that was about to change.
The sky overhead was canvas of swirling hues, painted by the majestic dragons that soared through the clouds, their wings creating shimmering trails of fire and smoke. Then from the snow meadows stood the unicorns, their coats glistening like polished gems in the radiant sunlight. They formed a line, their horns pointed forward with determination, and their manes seemed to catch the very essence of the rainbow itself, creating a breathtaking display of colors that danced as they moved.
With roars that echoed like thunder and eyes that glowed like molten gold, the dragons were a sight to behold. They hovered in the air, wings outstretched, casting imposing shadows upon the ground.
The atmosphere crackled with anticipation as the two forces advanced towards the centre of the Icy Ocean, to Chillyflip’s nest, where he and his footsoldiers were guarding the Freezinator.
CHARGE!
The unicorns charged forward with a synchronized gallop, their hooves barely touching the ground. They unleashed beams of pure magic from their horns, each beam bursting forth like a cascade of stars, illuminating the sky with a radiant glow. The dragons met this magical assault with bursts of flame, creating a mesmerizing clash of elements. Fire met light in a spectacular display that painted the battlefield with brilliance.
The dragons swooped down, their claws slashing through the air, engaging in breathtaking aerial manouvres with the nimble unicorns. The unicorns, agile and quick, evaded the penguins attacks with graceful leaps, their horns glowing brighter as they retaliated with waves of healing magic that mended the land wounded by the battle.
And what about the penguins? Well Chillyflip and his men were soon ovcerwhelmed by the onslaught and waddled as fast as they could into the depths of the sea and the other penguins grabbed their chance. They HEAVED AND HEAVED to turn the cannon on the Freezinator and jumped up and down, changing the controls to the opposite settings and then 3.2.1…
POW!
But instead of blowing snow, the enormous contraption began to SUCK and SUCK all the snow and ice from the land – slowly the green sparkling meadows were uncovered and the misty mountains lost their snowy carpet.
We did it! Cheered the dragons and unicorns, high fiving with the penguins, although it was more low fiving – you can’t get much lift on a flipper. Working together had saved the planet, and returned things to the way they had been before. Well most things went back to normal
Some things did change a bit – the unicorns and the dragons agreed that the penguins could have more of the land for their oceans which seemed only fair, and Chillyflaps, after a very long sulk agreed that maybe he’d got a bit carried away and the Freezinator was sunk into the deepest part of the ocean. Because even he had to admit that a toasted marshmallow on the right occasion was just the thing!
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