| Now that it was Fall, it was colder at night than before, and the daytime was cooler than it was in summertime, too. The unlikely duckling also found it harder to find corn and other grain to eat, like his brothers and sisters ate, especially since he was not on the farm anymore. That was alright with him, though, because he always did find it hard to pick up and eat that stuff with his funny-looking "bill." So, when he happened upon some fresh road kill, a deer, he didn't pay too much attention to the fact that he'd no longer be a vegetarian anymore, and started looking for a place on the carcass to start eating. He stood on the neck, where the hide was torn open, and dug into its body with his toes, which he could do because there was no webbing between them. Then he tore at the shoulder muscle with his beak, something that ducks can't do. He ripped out a chunk of flesh and ate it. "Mmmmmmm, mighty tasty!" he said to himself. "A step above corn-on-the-cob." As he continued to eat, two buzzards began to circle above him and the carcass. A short time later they landed and walked over to him as he was eating. One of them, the bigger of the two, said to him, "Say there friend, that's a mighty good find. Let me give you a hand, if you don't mind!" And with that, he budged his way onto the carcass to eat. The unlikely duckling did not like this one bit, but he was so accustomed to being henpecked and shunned that he moved out of the buzzard's way. The second buzzard, emboldened by her buddy's success, then said, "Don't get us wrong, we're really not hateful. It's society's fault that we're so ungrateful!" And she nudged the unlikely duckling out completely as she joined her buddy feasting on the carcass. And so it went for the unlikely duckling. It seemed like whenever he would find something to sustain him, someone else would come along who would steal it from him and he'd be left with only what he had in his stomach. As the days grew colder still, he felt an odd stirring in his bones. It would soon start snowing. |