Once Upon a Soup

( inspired by 'The Frog Prince" ) The duck completely lost track of how far up the creek bed he wandered, before he finally reached a place where there were smalls pools of water in the creek bed where he found some spongy damp moss to nibble on. Once he'd eaten that, he continued up the creek bed a long way farther until he found an actual pond in the shade of an impressive linden tree. The pond was very muddy all around its borders, but that didn't bother the duck. He waddled through the mud so he could get into the pond and swim out to the middle of it, where he paddled around in a circle until the mud washed off his feet. Temporarily contented, the duck shut his eyes and snuggled his head onto his shoulders and dozed a bit. The air turned colder as evening came on, and the duck started to feel like he was being watched. He looked around, though, and couldn't see anyone watching him. He looked under the water and still didn't see anyone watching. If the pond...

There once was a duck who had grown tired of life on the poor little farm he had always lived on, in a poor little village impoverished by famine and hard luck. So, the duck struck out on his own and went off a-wandering. Now the whole countryside round about had been hit hard by the famine, and most barely had enough to live on. The duck soon learned this, asking at each village he passed on his way, how things fared there. Every time, the animals he met outside each village all told him the same story, that the duck would be welcome, so long as the farmers should eat him first, instead of the other farm animals. That did not suit the duck at all, so he kept wandering along until he came to a great big forest at the foot of a mountain. “Perhaps I shall find some seeds or berries in there,” he said to himself, “for I am so very hungry now that all my provisions are gone.” So into the deep dark forest the duck went. He could hear a few forest creatures calling to each other, but mostly ...