The Rescue of Wheelduck

by Alpha Scorpii

The Rescue of Wheelduck

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.

Comments

[Mattricole]

Amazing, truly the greatest tale of heroism ever to be written.

[Tachyon Xenophile]

memearchive.net/memerial.net/7132/why-cant-i-hold-all-these-wats.jpg

[Booster Spice]

And so Wheelybopper was made side canon. Thanks to Wheel Duck.

Quack.

[Weeping Angel]

Oh Celestia. I knew this story would pop up one place or another.

Ah well. I'll give it a read.

[MoltenXKid]

You deserve multiple cookies for this

[Headless]

Needs more Judas Priest.

[StageQuill]

Ohmigosh. That was- interesting. I love the music.

[Avenging-Hobbits]

media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7s6a1qxFz1qiq5w9.gif

You sir...are a genius.

Oh, and for bonus funny, this is the actual call of a Bald Eagle:

[epreeses1]

“Quack quack! Quack!” the duck pointed at the eagle with an accusing wing. “Quack quack quack quack! Quack quack quack, quack quack quack quack!

"Pika, pikachu pika PIKA pikacu pikachu" What's the difference between these two statements? One, the quacking inspired the second statement. It's like pokemon, all the pokemon can say is their names. I honestly thought of the squirtal squad when I read that part, with their eager antics and all.
the grammar in this wasn't too bad, an occasional comma splice, but in general it was good.
Something you and a lot of writers suffer from is the passive voice.
I compare a story like this to cooking. Say you're making spaghetti; the premise is the noodles, the action is the sauce, and you have that (although you need to change a few words. I don't think an eagle is related to the raptor.) If this wasn't in a world filled with magical ponies I would call you the fuck out of the entire story. Even though they would probably win, ducks of our world would run away from an eagle, leaving their friend to die. These little world building add ons are the salt and pepper. Now, that's a good and hearty meal on its own, but you aren't a real writer until you can personalize your story. You have to make your narrative your own. Say the eagle fell like a coin in a wishing well, or the ducks gushed water at its foe like a pokemon. The latter is a little brash and I'd say don't go that far, but these are just examples.
Once you can give your spaghetti its own unique flavor, it's not your story. Get the picture?

[Alpha Scorpii]

3806758 Isn't it funny when animals in cartoons sound nothing like they do in real life?

3806804 Sorry, but I don't get what you're trying to say.

"Raptor" is also a synonym for "bird of prey", or at least Wikipedia says so. I wasn't talking about the dinosaur.

[epreeses1]

3806868 Yeah, I guess it takes a good brain to understand my simile, or is it a metaphor, not exactly sure, but it is something every writer needs to learn eventually. It's what makes a writer different from all the others.
And I know you aren't taking about the dinosaur becouse my school's mascot became a raptor. The main thing I was trying to get across with me saying an eagle's not a raptor is that you might confuse your reader, like you did to me, raptors and eagles are two different birds, and not everyone knows that raptor is an umbrella term

[ColdGoldLazarus]

Quack quack quack quack. Quack!

[MaggotKing556]

Good story.
There were two hats on a hat rack. one says to the other "you stay here I'll go on a head"

[FashionablyHospitable]

now this is the kind of quality content i like to see