The Clumsy Squid

There once was a Squid, a very friendly squid but a squid who was very, very clumsy.
He was always tripping over his tentacles, you see and he would go barging into other fish or sometimes he would accidentally squirt ink in their faces.
And as a result nobody liked him and so he lived all on his own in a cave in a corner of the seabed and, because he had no one else to hug, he would wrap his tentacles around an old rock upon which he had drawn a face and hug that.
One day, however,  a little sponge that lived nearby started to suck in all the seawater from round about it and as it did, it grew; it grew bigger and bigger and bigger until it was almost as large as a boat and then it kept on growing and as it grew the level of the sea started to go down.
Ofcourse this caused a lot of worry to all other creatures of the sea.
"If that sponge keeps on growing", said King Whale, "Eventually it will be ginormous and there'll be no water left for the rest of us".
And so King whale offered a million sand dollars to anyone who could get the Sponge to stop growing.
And lots of sea creatures tried.
For example, there was a swordfish, the greatest swordsman in all the seven seas and he tried to use the sword at the end of his nose to poke the sponge full of holes hoping that the water would leak out through them.
"Aha, monsieur sponge", he said as he parried, lunged and thrusted with his sword, attacking the sponge, "Take that and that and that".
Unfortunately it didn't do any good. You see the Sponge was already so full of holes that a few more didn't make any difference.
But then an electric eel thought he would give it a try.
"I'll use my electricity to shock the sponge", he said, "That will make him give back all the water he's taken".
And, quick as lightning, the electric eel darted about, trying to shock the sponge with his tail.
"Zap! Zap! Zap!", he said as each time, like an underwater thunderbolt, he struck the sponge.
But this didn't do any good either because sponges aren't easily shocked like ordinary creatures, infact the sponge didn't feel a thing.
While all this was happening however, the Squid was in his cave hugging his rock and wishing that he could find a way to stop the Sponge when suddenly he had a great idea.
"I know how to stop the sponge from growing", he thought.
And, unwrapping his tentacles from around the rock the Squid rushed out of his cave towards the giant sponge.
Ofcourse, as usual, because he was so clumsy, the squid tripped over his tentacles and went crashing into the sponge.
Fortunately the sponge was so soft that the Squid didn't hurt itself but all the other fish, seeing how clumsy the Squid was started to boo.
"Boo!", they said, "Silly octopus. Get back to your cave".
But the Squid paid no attention to them.
"I know I can do this", he said, "I know I can".
Then he wrapped all eight of his long tentacles around the sponge and he started to squeeze.
He squeezed with all his might; harder than he had ever squeezed before.
And he squeezed so tightly that the squid squeezed all of the water out of the sponge and when he was finished, the sponge wasn't gigantic anymore but just as tiny as when it had started.
And seeing what the octopus had done, all the creatures of the sea began to cheer.
"Hooray for the Squid", they cried, "He saved us all".
"Congratulations", said King Whale, swimming up to him, "You've done it but tell me, however did you manage to squeeze so tightly that you could squeeze all the water out of a giant sponge. You must be incredibly strong".
"Oh no, I'm not", said the Squid, "I just thought of how much I wanted to hug him and all the other fish in the sea and then it was easy".
And, fortunately for the squid, after that he became so popular that everyone was happy to let him hug them, even the sword fish with his sharp spiky nose and the electric eel, although it often gave the Squid a terrible shock and, because he had so many friends, the squid lived happily ever after.