4 . THE HIGH TREES FOREST

 But that changed when they came to the High Trees forest.

They got tired. The widow had such a pain in her back. The young couple had more and more difficulty to take the egg on this bumpy ground and started to grumble at each other. The bachelors found that egg too annoying and suggested to drop it somewhere along the way. That made the widow very angry again . The serious penguin was grumpy because he hadn't brought his sandals. They would have come in handy now. The assistant did not approve of all the leader's decisions, but he could not show itt. He had to ensure that leader's orders were followed. In short, the whole group was in a minor mood and no longer believed that it would ever be okay.

For days they walked on the bumpy ground and had to sleep standing like this. There was not much food and the penguins were weakened. They lost weight and didn't have much energy. Even the widow was not  happy that she was finally getting slim. Singing naughty songs didn't help any more. The leader sent the 2 bachelors and the adolescent out to explore.

They had to wait a long time until the 3 penguins finally came back. The group was already half asleep.
"We have a house, a real house," shouted the 3 penguins from afar.  And they came running enthusiastically. “And there is also water nearby”
The group woke up a bit drowsy and hardly responded.
"With a real roof though!" cried the adolescent. Still little response.
"It's only a 2-hour walk," said the bachelor, and thought to himself, "but with that stumbling widow and that stupid egg, it'll be almost 3 hours."
It finally dawned on the leader that this was really good news.
He started enthusiastic a pep talk to his group.
Slowly life began to come into the group and they were getting ready to set off again.

You can read this story from the beginning by clicking on the dates at the bottom of the page.
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