“Those are only beggars….”

 

The words of the swan hurt the duckling accidentally.

 

The duckling could have never known, this words were so powerful and could bring her from heaven to hell all in a sudden. "Wow, am I not a beggar?" And she had hugged her a moment ago. "Can a beggar accompany you to search for a prince?"

 

When the ugly duckling was sunk into her thoughts, she did not notice the swan had stood up and spread her wings. She was on air.

 

Misery and despair was like a cloud in her head. "I never was a beggar and never will be." She murmured to herself and she saw the beautiful swan was already on top of her and was trying to address something to her. It seemed the swan was saying goodbye.

 

She flapped her wings to chase the swan and found they were too short to fly.  She could only stumble a few steps and felt. The swan tried to come down again.

 

The duckling heard the noise of a string. A little boat had been closing in and a man was on the boat. He was aiming the swan with an arrow.

 

"Oh no, no." The duckling tried to warn the swan. But the swan did not see the boat. She only saw the duckling and was spiraling lower. The bow was on its full strength now and was about to shoot to the swan. The duckling jumped and made a loud noise to splash the water. The arrow missed the swan. The man turned his head and saw the duckling. He put on another arrow and this time, he aimed at the duckling and shot a second arrow. The duckling ducked down and was just in time to sink deeper to avoid the arrow. The arrow hit the grass and produced a loud noise.

The duckling swam deep and hid behind a group of weeds.

 

She saw the boat was not coming near and was going to another direction and she was almost collapsed as she had used up all her strength.

 

She found a piece of dry land and felt into a sleep. As she was opening her eyes again, she heard the swan was next to her. "Oh, I thought you were dead, you have been sleeping for a long time."

 

"It was not so easy to die for me." The duckling was happy again.

 

"Thanks for saving my life." And it was the first time, the swan looked deeply into the eyes of the duckling.

 

"Aren't you going to search the prince?

 

"Oh no, never. I had found one. "

 

"What!"

 

"You are the prince. You are so beautiful. "

 

The duckling was shocked to hear that. Never in her life had she heard someone commented at her in such a way.

 

"Am I a prince? Not a beggar? You must be joking. "

 

"Yes, you are a prince, and there must be a lot of your kind in this world."

 

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