Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to a special taster of our new
premium only story. We hope you like it. Hell yo, Hello,
I'm Josephine and this is the Animal Tales podcast, home
to over four hundred and fifty stories written just for you.
Our Friday story is especially for our Premium subscribers only.
Henry is a Premium member from New Zealand and he
would like a story with a flying squirrel, a flying fish,
and an orca. Don't forget to listen to the animal
facts after the story to learn more about these creatures.
For now, it's time to sit back and get comfy,
because it's time to begin the flying boat. The Gliding
Glinder was a flying boat. Now, it's quite possible that
you've never heard of a flying boat, which means it's
even more possible that right now you're picturing a fishing
boat sailing through the clouds. Unfortunately, that's not what a
flying boat is. A flying boat is an aeroplane that
can land on the water with an underside that is
shaped a little like a boat's hull. What's helpful about
flying boats is that they can connect island communities and
coastal towns that don't have the room for a runway.
All the flying boat needs is water to land and
take off from, and that's exactly what the gliding Glinder did.
What have we got on to day, asked Henry as
he poked his head out of the flying boat's passenger door.
Henry was a flying squirrel, and he'd spent the last
half an hour checking the plane over to make sure
it was ready to fly. We've got forty crates of
bananas to take to the mainland, came the reply from
the wooden pier. This was spoken by Jackie, a flying fish,
who was checking her paperwork. And one special crate. Not
sure what's inside, but it's supposedly very important. A crate
is a crate, as far as I'm concerned, laughed Henry.
The peer that the flying boat was moored against was
on a small island, and they had flown the gliding
Glinda there yesterday with a cargo of essential tools and
goods that the island couldn't make for itself. Now it
was time to make the return journey to the mainland,
and that meant carrying items back the other way. Moments later,
an iguana and a spider monkey arrived, pushing hand carts
stacked high with the banana crates. They took them to
the flying Boat's large rear cargo go door that was
folded down to make a ramp, allowing them to get
the bananas inside easily. Working together, they soon had all
forty crates loaded. Then a gorilla turned up with the
special crate. It was small enough and light enough to
be carried. Shall I take that, asked Henry helpfully. Nope,
said the gorilla gruffly. I'll put it where it needs
to go. This sounded a bit rude to the flying squirrel,
but it didn't really matter, just as long as everything
was loaded properly, so he showed the gorilla to the
cargo door and where to set the small crate down.
The gorilla had a quick look around, seemed to decide
that everything was in order, then left without saying another word.
Er Henry said, Jackie, poking her head into the cargo bay.
We're expecting three passes, but someone's turned up. Who's not
on my list, so said Henry with a frown. There's
plenty of free seats. What's the problem, you'll see, said
the flying fish. She tugged Henry's arm and led him
to the pier where the passenger waited. Where do I
put my bags? Asked the orca. Henry gulped as he
took in the size of the animal. The killer whale
was enormous, much bigger than their regular passengers. Glancing back
at the passenger door, Henry could tell straight away that
the orca was never going to fit through it. I'm
terribly sorry, said Henry, but I don't think we can
take you as a passenger. You're much too big. Even
if we could get you through the doorway, our seats
are too small. How frustrating, said the orca. Of course
I could swim, but it takes such a long time,
and what would I do with my luggage. I was
really hoping I could fly. It would be so much easier.
Despite the Auca's enormous size, he wasn't threatening in any way,
leaving Henry feeling quite sorry for his predicament. Surely there
was something they could do. If you'd like to hear more,
please join our premium service. You can find out how
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future tale. I look forward to seeing you there