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We welcome you to what if world.
Hey there folks, and welcome back to What If World, the show where your questions and ideas inspire off-the-cuff stories.
I'm Mr. Eric, your host, and today, Ms.
Lynn will introduce our questions in just a minute.
I don't know what they're gonna be!
You see, she and I, on occasion, do a fully improvised short story for you.
Pay attention to where we stumble, where we sort of pause and just blurt out random things, saying yes to each other's ideas and hopefully giving you a fun story while we all grow our imaginary muscles together.
Okay, Ms.
Lynn, take it away.
We have three listener questions to help us prompt this story.
Why do you have a lot of skin on Christmas Day?
Um... want to help him out?
His name is Hudson.
His question is, what if a chicken lost a person named Amir Goodway?
What if a chicken lost a person named Amir Goodway?
The second one is... Hi, my name is Hudson and I'm 10 and I love chickens.
And my what if question is, what if there was a big surf competition?
In what if world, in the waves were so big, only the chickens were brave enough to go out.
Bye, thank you.
And then... My name is Evie.
I love chickens, kind of obviously.
And my question is, what if there was a chicken who was also a knight?
So chickens, chickens galore.
Hudson's and evie, thank you all three of you.
So much uh, but no, chickens are wonderful.
Uh, one of the meats i no longer eat.
And uh, when you heard this question, did you look up like, is there a person named amir goodway?
I did not look it up, i did not look it up.
Any relations to the real amir goodway, should they exist, are completely coincidental, because neither Lynn nor I know who that is.
No.
So let's find out what if a chicken lost a person named Amir Goodway?
What if there was a big surf competition in What If World and the waves were so big?
Only the chickens were brave enough to go out.
And what if a chicken was also a knight?
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Once upon a time, there was a brave knight.
And not just the kind of knight that rides on a horse, but the kind of knight that flies with its chicken wings.
Not for long distances, mind you.
Chickens really can't do that for the most part.
But this chicken had trained to fly in armor, which no other chicken alive had done before.
And of course, this chicken's name, was Hudson.
Yes, I am Hudson, the bravest chicken there ever was.
And I am out in the world. to find the next great challenge to chicken kind.
You see, in this little neck of What If World, chickens had come to rule them all.
If you've ever seen a really tiny bird and put that side to side against a chicken, well you'd know that a chicken could look kind of like a monster to a small bug or bird.
And that is how these chickens managed to conquer all of Featherton.
My fair troops, we have conquered Featherton and we must spread the way of chicken kind to all around.
And so the chickens took off, briefly, and then rested and walked.
And then they did that little pitter-patter chicken run that's so cute from our perspective.
But from the perspective of a town full of tiny bugs, Oh no, the chickens, they come!
I thought they were supposed to be noble knights, but they kind of just push us around with their big fluffy bodies.
Make it stop!
Hudson came to a halt in front of this row of beetles, ants, caterpillars, and moths.
He'd got a late start on the day, so there were a few moths out.
Also, I just really like them.
I think they're an underrated bug.
Agreed.
I digress.
Hello, dear bugs.
Do not worry.
We are not here to eat you.
We are here to conquer you.
That doesn't sound better.
No, no, no, no.
You see, we will spread the glory of Featherton to the rest of the world.
What do we need to do to prove to you that we are brave and true?
Well, there is a big surf competition coming up.
Yes, yes.
We will win the surf competition.
That will prove how noble we are.
What's this?
A missing poster.
There's a bug named Amir Goodway.
Is that so?
Yes, a mere good way.
He's my best friend.
He just disappeared.
We don't know what happened to him.
He went out surfing one morning and he never came back.
Did you recover his buggy board at least?
No.
Oh, that could have been a clue.
All right, chickens, let us all go surfing.
And as we win this surfing competition, which we most assuredly will, we will also look for the buggy board of a mere good way or any other clues to their disappearance.
And so all the chickens awkwardly got on these long planks of wood.
But although they were bug-sized, so they were only long by a bug's perspective.
This simply won't do.
They took them to the beach.
They were going to try their best.
But the waves were tremendous.
Basically about knee high for a human child.
But to a surfer bug?
Dude, these waves, it's way too much for me.
I'm outie, man.
Oh, you silly little bugs.
To us chickens, these waves are but a joyride.
And Hudson got on a tiny little bug board and started pedaling out to sea.
Ooh, what the doodle do is that?
An even bigger wave.
This one, up to the height of a human's belly button, suddenly came crashing towards him.
Oh, dear.
Oh, no.
Maybe I was a little overconfident.
Down he went.
All the other chickens fled from the ocean and Hudson smashed into the pebbles and dirt and seashells below the rough surf.
He pulled himself up.
Oh, dear.
Oh, I even have some kind of splinter in me.
He swam back to shore and removed the splinter with his roostery beak.
Hey!
Hey!
That looks like Amir's bug board.
Indeed.
So, Amir must have been brave like me, but perhaps a little too brave.
Got himself out to the deep, deep ocean where the waves could be as high as a human's belly button.
Let me put on my detective monocle and see if I can discover any more clues here.
Just be careful with that monocle.
Sometimes if the sun shines through it, it can be a little perilous for us bugs.
I'm just saying.
He turned the magnifying glass at the last moment and the light shone through it in such a way that it hit the ocean, which scintillated and glowed.
That's strange.
There must be something else out there.
Some sort of structure, or coral, or...
Sunken treasure, something glints below the surface.
Brave chickens, who is glorious enough?
Which of my fellow knights will come with me?
Chickens?
Those waves as high as a human's belly button.
One of those waves was as high as an elephant's knee.
I'm not getting anywhere near those.
Very well.
Are any of you bugs brave enough? to accompany me.
Ah, Amir's bug friend.
I take your cricket chirps as the sound of you volunteering.
I will accompany you, Hudson.
I need to find my best friend Amir.
So the brave bug crawled aboard Hudson's back, who did his best to fly out over the rough and rocky waves and look down with his magnifying glass on what was indeed a pile of seashells.
Oh, they're so beautiful, and piled up like that, it looks like some sort of home.
Hmm, that's strange.
He flew a little bit closer and he was able to perch, while balancing, at the top of a conch shell that stuck right out of the water.
Strange, what could this be?
It's like a seashell castle.
Perhaps I don't think I mentioned you, but Amir is an architect.
Oh, wow.
Amir, Amir, we're here to save you.
Amir.
Hey, I'm over here.
Hey, how do you like my new dig?
Is this what you've been working on all along?
Yeah, I was making a nice home for me and my friend Mirei.
Hey, Mirei.
Mirei and Amir, you have a new home together.
You know, Amir, I just... I'm not an expert on all living creatures.
I know a bit about bugs and humans and chickens and the height of an elephant's knee, of course.
But I'm pretty sure that you are, in fact, a crab.
What?
Yes.
That's the craziest thing I ever heard.
You've been underwater this entire time, haven't you?
Some of the time, in and out of the water.
Yes, crabs can survive for a long time out of water.
The mystery has been solved.
You are actually a crab, but I have one more mystery for you to solve.
Could you also build me a seashell palace by the shore?
Let's do it, Amir.
Come on, we can make a new resort.
Oh, Frabjous Day.
And so Amir the crab and Mireille got together with the rest of the chicken knights and started building palaces, luxury but affordable apartments and buildings and castles for all of bug and chicken kind to live in a fantasy sheet and a fantasy seashell kingdom forever.
Try saying fantasy seashell that's a new tongue twister.
The end wow.
You just never know where you're gonna end up.
When you start with the what if questions, yeah well, when it's i feel like, when it's three or more, i can't.
I've just, i'm just incapable of making a short story because i like, because i'll get part way into the story and be like oh wow, i still haven't even mentioned amir goodway yet.
I hope you all enjoyed your slightly elongated short story.
A little bit longer than short, but great, great story.
I mean, any affordable housing story gets top marks from me, Mr. Eric.
Well done.
Like keeping the seashells on the beach, that's an important thing.
Leave the seashells on the beach.
However, if you are native creatures like bugs and crabs that live on the beach, You might as well make them in the homes you know.
I mean, that's what they're for.
Especially if you're a hermit crab, they already are doing that.
Exactly, exactly.
Hudson, Hudson, and Evie, thank you so much for your questions.
Say you were going to make up a story with a friend or family member.
Start by thinking about one thing you remember from this day.
Something weird, wonderful, or even uncomfortable that happened.
What do you remember?
That's gonna be one element of your story.
Then you're gonna let your fellow storyteller add one thing from their day to the story.
Something they saw, something they felt, maybe even something they imagined.
Now take your two ideas and treat them like two what-if questions.
Don't worry about your story being perfect.
There's no such thing.
I hope Ms.
Lin and I have helped to demonstrate that.
Just try to find a time today to practice your imagination.
I often like practicing with my kids at bedtime, but it's a great activity for any time you aren't feeling too busy.
And hey, maybe the story you tell together will inspire your next What If question.
When it does get your grown-up's permission to email.
Hello at whatifworldpodcastcom and share your idea with us.
I'd like to thank Karen O'Keefe, my co-creator, my producer and fellow storyteller, Miss Lynn Craig Martinson for our theme song, and all you kids at home who know it's best to leave those seashells on the beach.
So all the crabs and creatures have a home.
Just take a picture if it's a really beautiful one.
And until we meet again, keep wondering.
