Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to a special taster of our new
premium only story. We hope you like it. Hey 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. Jane is a premium member from Santa Monica,
USA and she would like a story with an ostrich,
a Komodo dragon, and a blue whale. 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
at podcast at Animaltales 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 the Ostrich Glitch. Jane had laid an egg. She
was very proud of it, not least because of its
impressive size. As an ostrich, a large egg was to
be expected, but even so, actually seeing it with her
own eyes made her giddy with happiness. Now all she
had to do was help it to hatch. That was
the difficult part. Jane lived like all ostriches on the
grasslands of Africa, where sinister predators hunted and sneaky egg
thieves proud. This is no place to hatch my egg,
decided Jane as she listened to the roars, growls and
grunts around her. I need somewhere far away from all this.
And so the Ostrich wrapped up her egg to keep
it warm and set off in search of somewhere new.
The problem she discovered was that no matter how far
she traveled, there was always some sort of vicious carnivore
already living there. Jane had no choice but to keep
walking onwards in the hope that just over the next hill,
or just across the next stretch of water, she would
find the perfect spot to hatch her egg, which was
how the Ostrich arrived on the shore of an island.
Now this looks more like it, said Jane, talking to
her egg. It's pretty, it's peaceful, and it's the perfect
place for you to come out of your shell. She
strode off, looking for a spot to call their home.
But if the Ostrich thought that the island was safe,
than she was in for a nasty surprise, for this
island was home to a very large and formidable creature.
The Comodo dragon, and one of these giant lizards had
seen Jane arrive. Oh boy, oh boy, said the Comodo dragon,
as it licked its lips with its long forked tongue.
What a tasty looking pear. I don't know which one
to eat first, the big chicken or its gigantic egg.
My belly will be stuffed after those two. The big chicken,
he had noticed, had very long legs, so he knew
he could never catch it if it decided to run away. No,
it would be much better to let it get settled
somewhere and then pounce. He flicked his tongue in and
out a few times, tasting the air, before slowly following
the trail. Jane, meanwhile, had found what she felt was
a lovely spot amongst the trees on the hill side.
She had a beautiful view of the beach and could
enjoy the gentle sounds of the ocean waves breaking on
the shore. It's paradise, grinned Jane, still talking to her egg,
she had scraped a shallow pit in the earth, set
her egg down, and was now sat upon it. Here
there were no Loathsome lions hassling hyaenas horrid honey badgers
or any of the troublesome predators she'd grown up around.
But how wrong she was. The Commodo Dragon had tracked
her down and was now watching her from amongst the bushes.
The only thing stopping him from racing forward and claiming
his prize was that he was still unsure what to
have first, the big chicken or the egg. If you'd
like to hear more, please join our premium service. You
can find out how in the description. The premium service means.
You can listen to all animal tales stories advert free,
get bonus stories, and we guarantee to turn your animal
suggestion into a future tale. I look forward to seeing
you there.