A handsome adolescent Mallard duck was swimming in his pond lamenting the trash floating around him that was washed in during the last rain storm. He was surrounded by empty water bottles, empty trail mix packages and cigarette butts. These were all left behind by self proclaimed “nature lovers” who entered these woods to escape their own trash filled urban streets.
A small yellow duck caught his eye. The duckling´s movements were not very natural and it seemed to be swimming on its side. The Mallard swam over to see if he could offer assistance to the possibly injured young duckling.
“Are you all right?” The Mallard asked. No response was given. The Mallard dipped his head under the water and lifted up as to right the injured duckling.
“There you go, now you are upright my little friend” the satisfied Mallard said to his new young friend. There was no response from the duckling.
“You´re welcome” the Mallard said, a little peeved by the duckling’s lack of manners. The young duckling just bobbed up and down. The Mallard shrugged and swam away.
The Mallard went on with his day not giving much attention to the young duckling. As the day started to retire the Mallard noticed that the young duckling was very close to the shore bobbing up and down and still without any sign of a mother duck.
The Mallard swam back over to see if he could be of any help to the duckling. “Where’s your mommy?” he asked. No response. The Mallard was getting impatient. “I just want to help!” he said. No response. “Let me at least help you onto the shore. It´s going to get dark soon” No response.
With that the Mallard started to nudge the yellow duckling to even more shallow waters. He didn’t notice that sprinkled into the rocks of the shallow water was a lot of broken glass. As he pushed the yellow duckling towards the shallow rocks the yellow duckling let out a pssssssst noise. The Mallard noticed a bunch of air bubbles rise from the belly of his young friend. The Mallard went into a panic. He was frustrated with the duckling but surely he didn´t want to do any harm to him.
The yellow duckling started to flatten out and sink to the bottom of the shallow water. The Mallard was very upset. He had never caused bodily harm to anything save a minnow. He started to cry out for help.
In the meanwhile on the shore, two young boys laughed hysterically as they watched a Mallard duck quacking his beak off while nudging a flat rubber ducky.
By Ryan 
A lovely story! Thanks!
Thank you! (for reading it). I am always glad when you like my stuff.
Great stuff. A fine read over breakfast this morning.
Thank you!
I saw it coming yet was hopeful for a happy ending. 😦 Still, well written!
I too feel it was rather obvious. But I hope it was at least enjoyable. Thanks for reading!
It wasn’t obvious. It could have been a dead duck. Nicely done.
Thank you for reading! It’s always great to hear reader POV because as the author I never imagined a dead duck, but of course it could have been!
Gosh! I thought it was a sad ending until i read the final lines! I love it! And thanks for your tips! I appreciate it! ^^
No problem at all! Thanks for reading this story. It´s one that I like a lot. I am glad you enjoyed it as well!
very well written, the beauty of the story is I am still undecided should I be laughing at the duck’s folly or lament the situation he brought himself into !