Episode 13

'Swiftwing, come quickly,' said another duck who was flying by. Sunwing is back from his mission.'

Emily and Swiftwing followed the other duck downstream and into a clearing in the middle of an island. Thirty or forty other ducks were gathered in a circle aorund a muscular young duck who was out of breath from his arduous flight into the upper reaches of the sky. 'I looked in vain for our Winter home,' he told the others. 'Something has eaten it.'

'Can we winter in a different place then?' asked a young mallard.

'I flew as high as I could,' Sunwing said, 'and the higher I went the bigger the canyon around us grew. North, South, East, and West, everything is gone: mountains, plains, rivers. The only place that is left is the marsh where we are now. This will have to be our Winter home.'

Some of the other ducks seemed to have questions to ask, but the whole flock suddenly scattered as a dog dashed into view and swam across to the island. A hunter who was waiting on the bank shot a couple of ducks as they flew away.

Emily stood her ground and glared at the dog. She picked up a pebble in her bill and spat it at him as he approached. Suddenly she realized that the dog was Spot. And the hunter was: Irving Sprilznick. This made Emily even more furious than she had been before, but she had no chance to act on her fury, because a searing pain suddenly shot through her body. She blacked out.

Paulh

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