Sid was very proud of his smart tummy and his very yellow beak, and spent many happy hours admiring his glossy black feathers.
He watched his brothers and sisters diving into the sea and shivered, thinking how the cold water would spoil his handsome looks.
He wouldn't help his brothers and sisters hunt and each day they would bring him fish to eat.
"Don't get scales on my handsome feathers!" Sid would shout, carefully picking up the fish with his bright yellow beak, and very daintily he would eat his lunch.
Sid would spend so much time grooming to look as handsome as he could that his brothers and sisters were soon fed up.
"You are too vain, Sid - you must help us to hunt!" they insisted.
But Sid ignored them, and carried on grooming.
One day he was so busy grooming that he didn't notice when his brothers and sisters hatched a plan.
"We will move to another island in the sea - Sid is too vain to swim so he won't follow us. When nobody brings him any fish to eat he will soon be so hungry that he will have to hunt for himself."
And that is just what they did!
Sid didn't notice that they had gone until his rumbling tummy told him that he hadn't been brought any fish for breakfast, or lunch, or even dinner - and now it was almost supper time and there was nobody around!
What was Sid to do? He looked all around him and there wasn't a single fish to be seen - and his belly was rumbling louder and louder!
But Sid had never dived into the cold water to hunt his own fish - he didn't know what to do!
He liked sitting on the ice, watching the others, grooming himself and admiring his handsome reflection in the surface of the sea.
Sid walked closer to the edge of his island of ice, peering over the edge. The water was blue and cold and deep.
Sid knew that if he wanted to eat tonight he would have to dive in - but he still didn't really want to. But his tummy rumbled and, looking around, he saw no other penguins.
With a grumpy face and a deep breath Sid dived into the water for the very first time.
Under the water he was amazed to find that he felt more beautiful and more graceful than ever before.
Deep, deep down he dived, swimming in the swirling waves, and Sid was amazed to see a whole new world.
Bright colours, waving plants and swirling shiny sand spun around him as he dived beneath the water.
All kinds of animals and fish swooped and dived in the currents below the sea's surface.
Sid had never known anything more beautiful.
For the first time in his life Sid stopped thinking about himself, and about how handsome and special he was. Compared to the beauty below the waters Sid realised that, though he was a lovely penguin, he was just a small part of an incredible, rich world.
Sid spent an entire day and night swimming in the sea, diving to collect fish for his brothers and sisters, gifting a meal to each and every penguin in his large family.
Never again did he think of himself as too special - and never again did he ignore the beauty of things around him.
Instead Sid spent every day helping others to hunt, showing the young penguins the beauty at the bottom of the sea and teaching the babies to swim.
Even though it sometimes made his handsome black feathers and smart white tummy grubby.
