by Brooke White

Once upon a time there was a little yellow duck who couldn’t swim. His name was, Little Duck. He tried and tried but never seemed to master swimming. So one day, while Little Duck was swiftly walking along, an evil black tree suddenly appeared!

"Reveal your name," boomed the tree.

"I am Little Duck," he replied.

"Oh," said the black tree.

"Do you know how to swim?" asked Little Duck.

"I don’t, but I know who does," replied the tree.

"Who?" asked Little Duck, excitedly.

"THE WISE OLD MAN," replied the evil black tree.

"Where could I find him?" asked Little Duck.

"In the scary swamp, in the scary forest," said the tree.

"Oh my gosh. Not there!" screamed the duck.

"Yes, you must go on a quest to find him. MUAHAHAHA! Here is a map for your quest. The password to get into the Wise Old Man’s house is HOO HA!" said the black tree.

The tree then gave Little Duck a map and Little Duck went on his way toward the scary forest. When Little Duck made it to the scary forest he looked at the map. It showed him exactly where he was and where he had to go. On his way he saw nothing but water.

When he thought he was there he said to himself, "Hey! The scary swamp isn’t scary at all".

But it wasn’t the scary swamp. It was the nice caveman’s swamp, which was full of pretty flowers.

"This is the nice swamp. The bad swamp is over there!" said the caveman’s bed of flowers.

The flowers then pointed to a sign that said, "Scary Swamp".

Little Duck was once again on his way and followed the sign. It was very spooky.

When he got there he saw a snail drowning in a puddle of toxic waste and the skull of a bull floating in it. Everything was such a mess.

The next thing he saw was thick gray fog swirling about on the ground around his feet. As it moved away from him he followed it. It led him to the Wise Old Man’s house.

"Hello?" said Little Duck. "Wise Old Man, are you there?"

"Go away. Leave me alone. Leave me be!" said the Wise Old Man.

Oh yeah, thought the duck and shouted, "HOO HA!"

"Come right in sunny," said the Wise Old Man.

Little Duck walked into the Wise Old Man’s house.

"Good job on your quest. I will gladly teach you to swim," said the Wise Old Man. "Lets go!!!!"

Little Duck finally learned how to swim and they swam happily off into the sunset – together.