Hello pirate pandas!

 

Professor Bookworm has found some exciting and interesting facts in his old history books about Panfu! He told us that pirates once lived in the Old Port. Here is a story he told us which we wanted to share with all pandas (after all, it’s important to know the history of where you live!).

 

Long ago, the sea was stormy and wild and pirate pandas roamed the lands. There was a popular tavern called “The Gilded Canon Roar” (the building still stands today with its famous lantern on the front!). It was in this tavern where pirates liked to come and meet and boast about their adventures of robbery, treasure and the wild seas. They came here to drink their favorite brewed hot chocolate and sing rowdy sea-faring songs.

 

One pirate in particular was well known for being the toughest and roughest, his name was Captain Knut, he was an unusually large panda with a wooden leg. Legend has it that he lost his leg as a child when he was sailing in his father’s ship and a whale breached out of the water and bit off his leg in one bite! His only companion was a green Bolly called Hark, who was so loyal that he saved the captain from drowning that fateful day as the green Bolly was an excellent swimmer.

 

Both the captain and his Bolly wore eye-patches and rumour has it that they both lost an eye in a friendship pact they made together. They decided that they would forever be companions and tore out each other’s eye as a sign of that solid friendship!

  

 

 

One stormy night Captain Knut, his Bolly and their crew were sitting at their regular table in the The Gilded Canon Roar and everyone was in a very good mood. He and his crew had had a successful day on the seas. Their loot for the day consisted of twenty-three barrels of bamboo lemonade, a chest of timeless jewels and crowns and fifty-seven colourful Bollys! Their victim that day was a large cruise ship full of rich passengers sailing around the coast of Patagonia.

 

Tonight was a night of real celebration for the Captain and his crew. His Bolly, Hark was especially enjoying himself because back in those days, Bollys were still quite rare and very expensive (worth as much as gold). They were sometimes kept in gold-cages, much like a songbird by high-society lady-pandas. Hark was thrilled to have some more Bollys around.

 

“Harrrr Arrrrrrr!” laughed the Captain as he held a toast with his crew sitting along the long wooden table in the tavern. “The little beasts may be small but we’ll sell them for hundreds and hundreds of Panfu coins each and live like kings! Soon we’ll buy another big ship and sail the seven seas causing more fear and terror! Arrrrrrr!”

 

Listening to all this was a young panda-boy of 11 years old called Simm. He was the beer-boy at the tavern and mostly no one took much notice of him. He was horrified to hear that the Captain was planning to sell the poor Bollys to only be kept in cages but rich pandas. He had heard so much about the rare Bollys and believed that they should never be locked away.

 

So Simm planned to free the Bollys from a fate of living in narrow, small cages but he needed to be clever. Simm knew that pirates loved to be flattered. He said to the Captain, “Captain Knut, you are so brave and have such an adventurous life. I want to be just like you when I grow up – a big, brave pirate!”

Of course this pleased the Captain very much to hear such compliments. He invited Simm to come and join his party at the long wooden table and even gave him a few Panfu coins in tips. Simm kept filling all the pirates’ cups full of chocolate beer.

 

After an hour of getting to know the pirates Simm asked the Captain, “Captain Knut, tell me, if I want to be a pirate like you I would need to have a good hiding place for all my treasure. Can you give me a tip on such a hiding place?”

 

“Arrrrrrrr!” cried the now quite drunk Captain Knut, “Yes indeed you need to be shrewd to be a good pirate like me. I have the best hiding place in all of Panfu, a place that only my crew and I know about”, and he took another swig of his beer. “In fact”, slurred the Captain, “it’s not too far from here. A small island that no one knows or visits because it is always covered by thick fog. That’s where we’ve kept the Bollys we stole today! Haaaaaaaa! Arrrrrrrrr! Hiccup!”

 

Simm smiled at this useful information and simply poured more beer for the Captain and his crew. The pirates continued partying and Simm crept out of the tavern into the dark night.

 

The stars were shining brightly although Simm could hear that a storm was coming. But he kept walking. Somebody had to free those poor Bollys before the pirates had time to sell them off as cagebirds…..

 

TO BE CONTNUED

 

 

Pandas, that’s the first installment of this story. We’ll tell you the second part soon. Be sure to check the Blog.

 

For now, we’re off to the beach to play pirates! See you!