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Description
Once upon a time there was a penguin who liked to eat cheese. It was perhaps a more unusual habit for penguins, but there was nothing wrong with liking cheese. Unless you happened to not like cheese which would be odd as you like it and dislike it at the same time which creates a stupid paradox. Or even worse, you were allergic to cheese. That would be very unfortunate indeed. Luckily, this penguin was not allergic to cheese and he liked it very much so no paradox. The only problem with him liking cheese was that he lived in the South Pole. Cheese is a rare thing in the South Pole and it was made rarer by the fact that nowhere did delivery to the South Pole. Life sucked.

Our penguin, and we shall call him Herbert for the sake of differentiation, was considered a little odd by all the other penguins but his addiction to cheese didn't bother them too much since none of them liked cheese and he was always there to hoover up any scraps of cheese. In fact, if any of them ever found any cheese, they would think of Herbert and bring it back to him so he was very well loved by all the rest. Despite this knowledge, Herbert always desired more. The cheese the others fetched him was never enough to satisfy his hunger. In times of particular deficiency, cheese would start to haunt his dreams. Big golden slabs of cheddar, round fragrant brie, creamy feta and god knows how many other types of cheese would swirl around him, tempting him and just as he would take a bite, the dream would end and he would be left with an empty feeling.
One day, this became all too much and with a determined glint in his eye he packed the few things he had, which amounted to three and a half fish, and left the South Pole, never to return until he found a steady supply of cheese or at least somewhere that would do delivery.

When the other penguins found his deserted igloo, they became extremely distressed and started squawking or whatever noise penguins make and waddled around searching for their oddball. No matter how hard they searched they couldn't find any trace of the cheese loving penguin and soon gave up, not without shedding many tears for their lost friend who had disappeared without a trace.

While this was all happening, Herbert had boarded the largest iceberg he could find and set sail for where ever the current would take him. He spent days on the iceberg. He had lost count early on, mainly due to the fact that he couldn't count at all, but he cleverly enough had rationed out his food and ate only a little each day so by the time he reached land he still had a little left over. He didn't know where he was, but he had actually landed on the landmass we know as Australia. It was cold and snow was falling but the streets were awash with light from the shops and streetlamps. Herbert stared in wonder at this display of sparkling things that were mini suns all attached together by some unseen force. The only thing to be done was to investigate this source of light and, sliding forwards on his stomach, he approached the cluster of fairy lights. Flippers pressed to the glass, he stared into the shop through the fogged glass but before his mind could believe what his eyes were seeing his nose told him he was not wrong. It was a cheese shop.

Scrambling frantically and sliding around the icy pavement Herbert tried to run to what he thought was the door and slammed hard into the wall. Feeling dazed, he took things more slowly and waited for someone to come out before dashing into the warmth as fast as possible. All around him was the warm, comforting smell of cheese. He could smell Roquefort, Camembert, Stilton, Gorgonzola, Mozzarella, Gouda, Red Leicester and almost every other cheese in existence. 'I'm dead and I've gone to heaven.' Were his thoughts, or really thoughts to that effect since penguins don't know who or what god is, and don't have a religion anyway. He melted into his own little world of cheese and gazed hungrily at the cheeses on display, longing to know what all of them tasted like.

Only then did someone realise that a penguin had entered the shop, but instead of chasing Herbert out, they shooed him into the backroom where shelf upon shelf was full of cheese. When they closed shop and retired to the house they found a snoring penguin surrounded by cheese and two empty shelves, much to their dismay. The woman, however, found the amusing side and began to laugh.
'Well isn't that a sight for eyes! Who would have guessed that the penguin would eat the cheese, and two shelves of it, no less?' Still chuckling, she picked up the small penguin and carried him off into their sitting room to take a closer look at the thief. In her eyes, he was an adorable penguin of the fairy penguin species.
The next day the owners awoke to the sound of things crashing and a screeching bird. In the sitting room was a scene of destruction and the penguin hopped around flapping its flippers and crashing into tables and chairs. Praying that it would work, the woman threw a piece of cheese at the hysterical penguin and he miraculously calmed down.

Herbert had awoken to find himself in an unfamiliar place and so he had panicked and run around trying to find the route of escape. In no time at all he found himself with the nicest people he had ever met, who kept giving him cheese to eat and he remained like that for a long time, running in the snow to come back to the shop for cheese. He became the especial pet of the cheese shop owners.

However as time passed he grew lonely and longed for the company of the other penguins so he ran away whilst on one of his walks and swam for his life. He couldn't really remember the direction he had come from but that didn't matter as he aligned with the earth's magnetic field and found himself on the bleak shores of the South Pole once again, surrounded by the loving members of his colony.