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. There
are over one hundred extra stories on our premium service,
with a new one released every Friday, and this is
another one. R s R are premium members from Flores
Island in the Azures, and they would like a story
with a baby deer, a baby wolf, and a baby
albino owl. Don't forget to listen to the animal facts
after the story to learn more about these creatures. If
you'd like to suggest an animal for a story, then
please do let us know a podcast at Animal tales
dot uk. As premium listeners, we guarantee to write one
for you. For now, it's time to sit back and
get comfy, because it's time to begin Forbidden Friends. Once
upon a time, there were three very young animals, a fawn,
a wolf cub, and an owlet. They were little more
than babies, so didn't know much about the world or
what was expected of them, and they certainly didn't know
that they couldn't be friends. Deer, wolves and owls would
normally have nothing to do with one another in the forest,
but nobody had told the three youngsters this. All they
wanted to do was spend time together and play. River
was the tallest, being a fawn, her long deer legs
had been wobbly at first, but now she enjoyed running
and jumping through the undergrowth. Rainy was smaller, but being
a wolf cub, she was always looking to play. She
enjoyed pouncing and discovering new and interesting smells with her
sensitive nose. And then there was Shine, the owlet, still
wrapped in a covering of fluffy down. It would be
a long time until her adult feathers grew that would
help her to fly. What's more, Shine was albino, so
every feather was a brilliant white. They were a strange sight,
the fawn, the wolf cub, and the owlet, but all
that mattered to them was having fun together and not
knowing any better. That's what they did then. One evening,
while they rolled around amongst the bracken and foxgloves, a
hoopoo bird landed on a near by branch. It was
so surprised to see the three animals together that the
tall feathery crest atop its head almost popped off. What
is the meaning of this, the hoopoo snapped crossly. An
owl playing with a deer and a wolf has the
world gone mad? The three friends were so stunned by
the stern voice that they stopped playing immediately. We were
only playing, said Shine the owl at quietly. Then you
should be playing with your own kind, said the hoopoo sternly,
another owl, perhaps, or at the very least a creature
with feathers. A deer and a wolf are not friends
for you, But why, asked Shine innocently. Deer are simple
and foolish, while wolves are ferocious and deadly, stated the hoopoo,
flicking its long beak upwards as if to say there
was nothing more to be said on the matter. Shine's
experience of her two friends didn't match what the hoopoo
was saying at all, but she was too young to
argue with such an impressive bird. However, during this exchange,
she had noted something curious about the hoopoo, something she
had never seen before on a bird. What's that wrapped
around your foot? Asked the howlet. The hoopoo was surprised
by the change of subject. Its foot was tangled up
in fishing line, something it had accidentally trodden in while
foraging for insects beside a river. The more the hoopoe
had pecked and pulled at the line, the more knotted
it appeared to get. It was now very uncomfortable, making
standing on the foot difficult. It's something a human threw away,
grumbled the hoopoo as it glanced at the fishing line.
And now I'm stuck with it. It's certainly nothing you
need to concern yourself with, but I could help, said
river the fawn. If you'd like to hear more, please
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I look forward to seeing you there