Chill Bill & The Shy Pangolin 🐯 🌙 Sleepy Bedtime Stories For Kids | Rewind

[00:00:10] Hello and welcome back to Koala Moon, a podcast of original bedtime stories and sleep meditations for kids designed to make bedtime a dream. Tonight's sweet story is about a shy pangolin overcoming his need to stay small and hide. I think it's one for all of us who sometimes feel the world is just a bit too much, too noisy, too hectic, too busy, and makes us want to shut it out.

[00:00:38] Happily, the wise and gentle tiger Chill Bill is someone who knows a thing or two about shyness and is here to coax Pogo out of his shell. Can you picture a pangolin? They're small, greyish-brown, covered in scales and have a long snout with a long tongue that they use to snuffle about with and eat ants. They are extremely intelligent and curl up into a ball when they're afraid, a little like our friend Prickles the Hedgehog.

[00:01:07] Hmm, I wonder if one day they'll meet and challenge each other to a downhill roly-poly rolling contest. We'll just have to wait and see. Now then get ready for a beautiful trip to China. Lie back in bed and take some nice deep breaths. If you want, you could try this little exercise to help you relax.

[00:01:29] You've got to tense all your muscles from your feet through your legs, your shoulders, neck, arms and hands. Then you hold. And then next, you take a deep breath in. And then whoosh, you let it all go. And you release all your tension and lie heavily in bed. Do you want to try again?

[00:01:53] Okay, so you've got to tense everything up, up, up, up, up, up. From your feet to your legs, to your tummy, to your shoulders. Nice and strong. Tense, tense, tense. And then breathe in. And, oh, relax. Brilliant. You can do that one more time if you like, but I'm going to get started. Before we begin, here's a quick ad break. Then we'll start tonight's bedtime story.

[00:02:23] If you'd like to support our podcast, enjoy ad-free listening and unlock all our premium stories, you can join the Cocoa Club. To join, follow the link in the show notes. This is Chill Bill and the Shy Pangolin by Jane Thomas. High in the mountains of southern China, right up on the tip of one of the peakiest peaks, a tiger known as Chill Bill practices the ancient art of Tai Chi.

[00:02:53] He can spend entire days pushing the air one way and pulling it another, feeling the invisible forces of the universe as he moves his arms slowly forwards and back, up and down. And sometimes, not so very often, but sometimes, Chill Bill comes down the mountain to see the people and creatures of the nearby town, sharing with them the skills he's learned.

[00:03:23] It's easy to know when he's entered the town, for a sense of calm wraps itself around everything. Even the buses seem to toot a little less, and the cars are slower and quieter, and any strong winds that were swirling around become little more than a gentle breeze.

[00:03:43] So everybody knows where to find Chill Bill, and what he can do for them, helping them live a peaceful life in an increasingly busy world. And usually, if help is needed, they will either wait for him to put in an appearance at the market square, or they will make the long trek up the mountainside.

[00:04:04] But on this occasion, the situation is such that the creature who needs help isn't able to go up the mountain, and he isn't able to go to the market square either. The creature is the shyest, sweetest, quietest, cutest, cutest pangolin that ever existed.

[00:04:27] A little, armour-plated, pointy-eared, pointy-nosed, black-eyed ball of bumbling brilliance, called Pogo. Pogo is so very shy that he hardly dares unfurl himself from the safe little ball he turns himself into, emerging only to eat, and sometimes to play a quick game with his brothers and sisters, but then retreating once more into the safety of his shell.

[00:04:58] It is quiet in his shell. Nothing bad can ever happen to him when he's curled up with his armour on the outside. It is the ultimate safe space. Pogo's mother thought that her youngest little pangolin would grow out of his shyness, but over the years it has just become worse and worse. Whereas once he was happy to answer the door to the postman and take in parcels, now he won't even do that.

[00:05:28] He used to talk with the birds in the trees outside his window, but now he stays safely wrapped up inside instead. Once upon a time, so many years ago, Pogo's mother can barely remember, he even used to like going to the park, swinging high on the swings, rushing down the slide, and twirling around on the roundabout until he couldn't walk in a straight line when he got off.

[00:05:57] She has the idea that maybe chill bill can help. She isn't sure why, but she hopes she's right. So one morning, while the birds are still rubbing their eyes in their nests, she takes a basket, packed with sandwiches and apples, and leaves her little home and starts walking towards the mountain.

[00:06:19] The walk is much the same as the one chill bill took all those years before, when he first left home and went to seek the wisdom of the owl, who taught him the art of tai chi high up on that mountain. Pogo's mother finds that as she leaves the city, the houses become bigger and bigger, set further back from the roads with wider, more glorious gardens.

[00:06:47] Then there are the farms, with fields sprawling in all directions. And then she's walking by the river that tumbles along its rocky route. At the bottom of the mountain, she met fishermen, just as chill bill had done. And they stood, silently, with their rods reaching out into the river, baskets of shimmering silver fish by their sides.

[00:07:15] The sun flashed and danced on those silver fish scales, and played on the silver-blue water of the river. Further up the mountain, she saw farmers working in their fields. Water buffalo working their way through knee-deep watery mud, pulling plows behind them as they slowly went back and forth, back and forth across the fields.

[00:07:43] The farmers followed behind, lifting their legs high, hats woven from reeds that looked as if the sun had settled on their head. As she climbed the mountain, Pogo's mother felt a sense of peace come over her. The noise of the city was far away, and up here there were just the birds, the rustle of trees in the breeze,

[00:08:11] and the sound of the sound of the silver stream tumbling its way down the mountainside. The path wound its way round and round, slowly taking her higher and higher. She saw women in a row working in a rice paddy, a line of colourful round hats that moved in perfect unison across the perfect rows of bright green.

[00:08:39] White birds with long pointed beaks and even longer legs picked their way carefully across the fields, legs lifted high before feet were returned to the watery mud. Pogo's mother continued on her way, coming to a stop at an old temple with red pillars and a green-tiled roof that sailed upwards towards the sky at the corners.

[00:09:07] Here, she took a rest for a while, taking the sandwiches and apples from her basket and eating them while looking out at the view. The valley stretched before her, mountains on all sides, the city in the heart of the deep V that nestled between the rugged rocky peaks. She fancied for a moment she could even make out where her little house was exactly,

[00:09:36] and she imagined Pogo curled up inside, his pointed nose buried into his armoured shell, and she packed away her bits and pieces and started to walk towards the top once more. She was determined to find Chill Bill and see if she could help her youngest son overcome his shyness, even if just a little for a moment here and there.

[00:10:04] Up she went, so high that the mountains were wrapped in mists, and then she was above the cloud, and all she could see were these rugged peaks emerging from a blanket of white. She could see the ends of bridges that hung low into the clouds, so it seemed almost as if there were whole worlds up there, loosely hung together by the most delicate threads of rope.

[00:10:33] Pogo's mother thought that here, high in the Wooling Mountains, must be the most peaceful place that had ever existed. A few birds soared high on the thermals, but here, protected by that blanket of clouds that danced and swirled in strange and mysterious ways, there wasn't a sound. And then she saw him.

[00:11:01] Chill Bill, the tiger, standing balanced on a rock with his back to her, perched on a single paw. He moved slowly and gently, this way and that, pushing invisible forces around. Pogo's mother sat on a rock and watched him, knowing from the odd flick of his tail that Chill Bill was aware of her presence.

[00:11:32] The sun rose higher and higher in the sky, and before long, she sought the shade of the only tree that grew so high up here on the mountain, leaning back against its trunk and half closing her eyes in the warmth of the afternoon. She didn't know how long she'd been asleep, but when she woke, Chill Bill was sitting alongside her,

[00:11:59] his back also resting against the great trunk. And in his hands he held a sketchbook and pencil, and he was roughly sketching the birds that flew in the sky, getting the angle of their wings and the point of their beaks just as they needed to be. It seemed to her as if the birds almost flew about the page. Well, come,

[00:12:26] said Chill Bill as he saw her open her eyes. She smiled across at him and thanked him, telling him how beautiful his sketch of the birds was and how much she admired everything he did for the people and the creatures of the town. I, uh, I have a favour to ask for my son Pogo. He's so very shy that he hardly dares uncurl himself. He's a pangolin

[00:12:56] that spends all day wrapped up in a ball of his own armour. I worry that he's missing out on the world. I worry that he's missing out on all this. And here Pogo's mother waved her hands to show the mountain tops emerging from the blanket of cloud and the birds soaring above and the blue, blue sky that spilled each way to a distant forever.

[00:13:27] So it was that the two of them went together down the mountain. They walked down through the mists and along the paths that wound round and round, passing over little bridges that arched themselves up and away from the silver stream that tumbled merrily down the mountainside. They passed the temple where Pogo's mother had stopped and eaten her lunch. And

[00:13:56] they passed the ladies in the rice fields with their coloured hats, a series of discs moving slowly and serenely across the bright green fields. Still, the white birds with their long pointed beaks and even longer, more pointed feet strode slowly and serenely through the rice paddies, probing for treats hidden in the watery mud.

[00:14:24] Then came the fields with the water buffalo moving slowly and steadily through the thick red mud. Farmers in hats that looked as if the sun was resting on their heads, following slowly behind. Further down were the fishermen standing alongside baskets that were even more full of the silver shimmering fish. And the river

[00:14:54] seemed to flash even more brightly in the light of the late afternoon sun. Shadows stretched longer across the road as chill Bill and Pogo's mother walked towards her home, passing the farms and the big houses with the big gardens. And then the buildings of the city that were so close together you could often stand in one and touch the next.

[00:15:25] As chill Bill entered the city everything seemed to calm a little with the trams rattling a little less and people standing calmly to wait their turn to cross the road rather than looking hurriedly left and right for an earlier opportunity. everyone stopped rushing from one shop to the other and slowed their walking taking time to look up

[00:15:54] and see the others smiling and exchanging good afternoons and by the time they reached Pogo's home good evenings. Pogo's mother led chill Bill up the steps that led to her front door blue grey the colour of stormy seas and inside she led chill Bill to Pogo's bedroom and opened the door to show her son

[00:16:23] quite curled up in himself. She went to speak but chill Bill held up a paw and motioned for her to leave them alone and so she returned to the kitchen and distracted herself by making bread. She always found it soothing to roll and push the great ball of dough around working and working it time and again so that it would get

[00:16:52] the best rise and the softest crumb when it was baked slowly and gently as quietly as if he were a breeze a thousand miles away chill Bill moved into the room and kneeled alongside Pogo Pogo. He matched the little pangolin's breathing listening to the rise and fall of his breath. He knew

[00:17:21] that Pogo knew he was there because his little eyes flickered open for a moment and then quickly squeezed themselves shut and the ball became a little tighter. But as chill Bill lay with him also curled up breathing in time he saw that Pogo relaxed and quite literally started to come out of his shell. It took

[00:17:51] time so much so that by the time Pogo dared to squeak out a little hello his mother had made three loaves of bread and was starting on a fourth. but eventually Pogo had quite uncurled himself and was looking curiously across at the tiger who had appeared in his room. Not looking over at him chill Bill started to push

[00:18:21] the invisible forces of the world slowly and steadily against his paws closing his eyes and careful to keep his breathing in time with that of the little pangolin alongside him and it wasn't long before Pogo started to copy the tiger's moves finding that he too could feel the energy that swirled in the air but could not be seen.

[00:18:51] After an hour and another loaf of bread appearing on the side in the kitchen chill Bill sat back on his haunches looked over at the pangolin and smiled delighted to meet you Pogo he said softly the pangolin smiled shyly his cheeks a little pink chill Bill breathed in long and deep

[00:19:20] that bread your mother has made smells truly delicious shall we see if we can have some Pogo considered this for a moment and then nodded leading the way from his room to the kitchen his mother raised an eyebrow but said nothing when the two appeared helping them slice the bread and cover it in a

[00:19:50] thick layer of yellow butter and watched as they drizzled golden honey onto that the tiger and the little pangolin closed their eyes in ecstasy at the salty sweetness and softness of the warm freshly made bread delicious said chill Bill when he finished delightful said Pogo as he licked the honey from

[00:20:20] his paws the pangolin snuck a look across at the tiger his mother held her breath this was the first time in as long as she could remember that her littlest son had said a single word in front of a stranger i liked moving my arms said Pogo slowly and carefully it made me feel free

[00:20:51] chill Bill nodded but said nothing i think said Pogo surprising himself by the number of words coming out of his mouth i think it would be nice to do that outside sometime with the breeze on my face again chill bill said nothing but just looked over at the little

[00:21:20] pangolin and smiled perhaps said Pogo his boldness quite overtaking him now perhaps i could do that outside with you sometime perhaps perhaps i could join you on your mountain top one day chill bill smiled and bowed his head he walked to the door and opened

[00:21:50] it gesturing outside by now it was quite dark with stars pricking the black sky above there were a few sounds of the city but it was quieter in the night than in the day almost everyone was back at home eating their dinner or climbing into bed or snuggling down with their favourite book pogo caught his

[00:22:20] breath it seemed quite an adventure to go out so very late at night and he glanced across at his mother who nodded she went over to pogo and helped him into his cosy red hat and warm blue coat for it was a cold clear night the kind when the stars can shine more brightly than ever and she stood at the top of the steps the glow from the

[00:22:50] house showing her silhouette in the doorway and watched as her littlest son and the tiger headed slowly down the street pogo reached up and took chill bill's hand and in this way they walked out past the farms past the big houses with the big gardens past the place where the fishermen stood during the day and cast their lines into the

[00:23:19] silver waters of and retreated to their homes only the owls and the stars saw as the little pangolin walked slowly and steadily up the path that wrapped itself

[00:23:49] around and around the mountain crossing over the tumbling silvery stream and passing the temple where only hours earlier his mother had sat and tried to find her little home in the heart of the city when they reached the very top of the mountain pogo gasped watching as a full golden moon rose over

[00:24:19] the horizon and lit everything below in a soft golden light it is so very beautiful up here he said in a very peaceful i wish i could take this place down to the city with me and have it there always and forever

[00:24:50] at last it was time for the wise tiger to speak but you can little one you can he said gently take all the beautiful places you have seen and hold them in your heart and when the world is too much when there is noise and chaos and you feel afraid

[00:25:20] that you will your heart and find those places again i find that if i close my eyes they come to me and then i can feel the world working with me again and i can sense the invisible energies that flow around

[00:25:50] and this is where i know how to face them with my paws and feel at once again that the world is really a peaceful place we just need to learn to block out the chaos around us everyone thinks i'm odd because i spend so much time in my shell

[00:26:19] said pogo quietly looking at the ground i smart thing to do said chill bill fold yourself up and tuck yourself away but see see how much you are missing if you never dare to uncurl and come outside pogo looked around again

[00:26:49] at the silhouettes of the jagged mountain peaks darkness against a light of the moon he saw how the clouds moved and swayed below them i think i'd like to play with my brothers and sisters more said pogo feeling very brave to be saying these things out loud but

[00:27:18] sometimes he trailed off and chill bill finished for him sometimes they are too loud sometimes they have so much energy it is exhausting pogo nodded in the darkness he didn't think anyone would ever understand that feeling we

[00:27:48] aren't all made the same said chill bill some of us like the noise and some of us like the all i will say is that you will miss out on an awful lot if you shut out everyone all the time when you feel it is too loud and too busy and too chaotic