The Rescue of Wheelduck
The object fell on the water, remaining afloat due to its wooden structure. Feeling curious, the duck slipped her head through one of its many weird holes, thus turning the wheel into an improvised and certainly unconventional collar.
The duck looked at herself, and although she couldn’t smile due to the absence of lips, she felt pretty proud of her new look. The wheel was surprisingly light and not even uncomfortable, as others would’ve expected. As pompous as a webbed footed bird could be, she began to swim towards the shore, chuckling.
“Skreeeeeeeagh!”
Upon hearing this sound, and recognizing the only type of animal that could make such bone-chilling screech, her survival instincts kicked in. She tried to react, she tried to open her wings and flap as hard as she could to get away from that place. However, the eagle was faster, and snatched the duck by the wheel, carrying her to the skies.
The duck tried to free herself, but it was of no use. The eagle was tightly pulling the wheel towards himself, turning the once harmless collar into a trap that kept the prey from flying away. In fact, it was even causing her trouble to breathe.
Regardless, even if she was able to free herself, the eagle was faster and stronger than her and could surely have caught her again in the blink of an eye. She had been living in that river for long enough, and she had seen the terrible predator in action enough times to know that there was no hope left for her.
She was already trembling, thinking of her grim destiny, when the eagle stopped.
She looked. There was another duck in front of them, in the air, standing in front of the raptor in defiance.
“Skreeeeeeeeagh!” cried the eagle, hoping to scare her.
“Quack,” replied the duck, without flinching an inch.
The predator released an insulting chuckle, thinking that the intruder duck was just putting on a brave face and that she was most likely trembling in fear under all her bravado. He screeched again, this time more menacing that before, but it had no effect on the brown bird, who just repeated, very seriously:
“Quack.”
The eagle was left stunned. A feeble, insignificant waterbird dared to block his way? One of those pathetic bread-swallowers had the audacity to defy him, the king of the sky, the most terrible and feared hunter of that river?
The eagle filled his lungs and launched a terrible roar that caused the trapped duck to curl in fear. Some other birds, that had been watching the scene from far away, flew quickly to hide in the nearest bushes.
However, the intruder duck remained in her place.
“Skreeeeeeagh!” although the eagle was honestly surprised at the duck’s bravery, or stupidity, he was hungry and didn’t want to waste time playing games. He screeched again: “Skreeeeeeeagh!” hoping that, this time, the rebel duck would move.
But the brave bird’s only response was:
“Quack.”
“Skreeeeeeeeagh!” deciding to try a new intimidation technique, the eagle pointed to his talons with the beak, focusing the attention of the daring duck could on her trapped companion, so that the she would know the destiny of those who dared to stand against him. He laughed: “Skreeeeeeeagh!”
“Quack quack! Quack!” the duck pointed at the eagle with an accusing wing. “Quack quack quack quack! Quack quack quack, quack quack quack quack!
At an amazing speed, like a pair of brown lightnings, two other ducks emerged from the nearby trees and tackled the distracted eagle. The predator lost its balance and began to fall, but with a mighty flap of his wings he managed to return himself to the air, grasping his prey tighter than before.
The two ducks began to fly in circles around him, occasionally getting closer to hit him with their wings and beaks. The eagle tried to catch the ducks with his own beak, but it was useless. He couldn’t believe it, but the water birds were faster than him!
“Skreeeeeeeeeagh!”
Insulted by the disrespect of the worm-eaters, the eagle launched himself in pursuit of the closest duck. In doing so, however, he left an opening that the other one used to bodyslam him from above.
Due to the force of the attack, the eagle let go of the wheel. While the duck who had bodyslammed the great raptor flew away to a safe distance, the other one caught the wheel with her beak and rushed to get the former prisoner to safety. The eagle decided to forsake the one that had attacked him and turned around to recover his prey, but he was distracted when a sound came from above:
“Quack quack!”
Furious and scruffy due to the beatdown, and ready to release his merciless anger on the next mallard dumb enough to get near him, the eagle looked up. However, his eyes opened wide in horror when he saw the rebel duck, the first one who had stood against him, the one who had set the ambush, pileflying towards him from the heights, her small brown body spinning like a drill and leaving a spiral trail of smoke behind.
For the first time in years, the eagle, the great predator and lord of the river and the lands around, was scared.
The eagle tried to fly away, but once again, the little water birds were faster than him. Falling like a spinning meteor, the duck hit the tyrant bird right in the chest. The powerful impact released a shockwave that crossed the sky in all directions, causing some leaves to fall from their trees and shaking the surface of the river.
For a moment, there was silence.
Then, black feathers began to rain down.
Finally, a defeated and unconscious eagle fell to the ground like a dead weight. Not even a second later, the newly-freed birds and fishes of the river and the lands around erupted in cheers and celebration.
Meanwhile, the four valiant ducks landed at the bottom of a nearby waterfall, tired. One of them had some of her feathers burnt due to her recent spiral attack. With tears in her eyes, the one with the wheel hugged her friend and savior.
Although they couldn’t smile due to the lack of lips, the spiral duck extended a gentle wing and patted the head of her friend.
“Quack,” she said. “Quack.”
Author's Note
There’s a joke that goes like this:
What did the duck say to the woman? “Quack.” What else would it say? It’s a bloody duck.
This story was somehow inspired by that joke.
