Drip. Drip. Drip. Thats all he could hear.

Almost nothing. Just the drips of the
morning dew falling off the trees
surroundingt him, also the duckling heard
sound of his own two webbed floppy
feet sloshing on the wet soil path.
The path that led him to nowhere.

One wrong turn. The one time he
didn’t pay attention of what’s in
front of him. That night he spent
the night in the woods, the place
where he found himself in his
nightmares. The duckling slept under
a big white oak tree. As the salty rain
rolled down his cheeks he finally
drifted to sleep into a deep sleep.

When he awoke he was hoping it all
was just a dream, hoped to see his
brothers and sisters still sound asleep
next to him. When he opened his eyes
he realized that this all was happening.
His family was still gone. His brothers
and sisters. Even his mom. All gone.
Even though the poor ugly duckling had
always felt like he was unworthy of
his family, with all of his flawless
siblings. He still missed them.

He hoped they missed him. Hoped
they were searching for him for him
at this very moment. He shouted
for his mom. No response. He tried
again. Once again, no response.

All of a sudden he heard branches
breaking behind him. He started
running as fast he could, he
flapped his wings. Nothing happened,
he was still on the ground. He saw
some bushes up ahead on the right.
He dove beak first into them. Then
a small brown blob flashed in front
of him. A squirrel, he thought,
nothing to be worried about.

A few minutes later he popped his
head out of the bushes. Left then right
he looked. An empty path both ways,
so he kept walking on the endless path.
The poor duckling looked up, it was
beautiful he thought. The way the
sunlight pierced through the trees so
perfectly. Almost as if the heavens
were showing way the route to take.

He looked in front of him once again,
a whole new path was shown by the light.
All of a sudden his surroundings looked
familiar, a tree stump with stunning red
and blue flowers next to it. And the curved
tree that looked just like  a Y. The tree
curved its way through the sunlight.

It was all coming together. Ten feet
ahead he saw an opening. This is it,
he thought to himself. Home. Five feet.
A rush was going through him, as if he
was free falling 5,000 feet in the sky.
Three feet. He broke through the branches.

There they were. His brothers and
sisters all together with their
heads down in a circle. His mother
was steadily pacing back and forth
thinking of what to do next.
“Mom” he said quietly.

Now, all eyes were on him. The
next thing he knew his whole family
was surrounding him. Like a giant
pig pile and he was the unfortunate
one on the bottom. But this time
he was the luckiest one in pig pile.

That day, the little duckling didn’t
feel like the outcast anymore.
He felt more love by all of his family
than ever before. After that day he
then knew, that all he needed was
a little light to lead the way home.