The Ugly Black Swan

Posted: June 30th, 2010 | Filed under: All Submitted Stories, Animals

By Sue D. and Sheila H.

The warm sunny days of spring had come to the Australian river bank. The river was slow and smooth as it meandered like a snake towards the woodland forest. If you listened carefully, you could hear the water gently lapping against the rocks and the lighthearted, peaceful sound of birds chirping.

Hidden in the long tall grass of the marshy bank was a solitary nest. Leaves, sticks, and weeds were piled into a tall mound. Resting on this nest was a beautiful bird. Her body was covered with black shiny feathers which led up to her long elegant neck. She was known as Chloe. Her white-tipped red bill opened and closed quickly as she boasted to her husband, Sebastian, about the contents of her nest.

“Mate, look at my lovely batch of eggs! Have you ever seen so many? The record for this river bank is seven, but I have eight!”

“Well, you do have eight, but what is wrong with that one? It’s so small and leathery, not at all like the other hard pale green ones,” the majestic Sebastian replied, as he nudged the egg with his bill.

“OOOO! It’s even squishy. Maybe it’s rotten. Throw it in the river before it smells up the whole nest.”

“Oh, just let it be,” snapped the beautiful Chloe.

For the next 40 days and nights Chloe and Sebastian took turns sitting on the nest patiently waiting the arrival of their cygnets.

The moment had come at last, one of the eggs began to shake underneath

Chloe. Her heart started to race as she turned her long neck around and

peeked into the nest. To her amazement, coming out of the small and leathery egg was a wide black bill, similar to a duck’s bill. The next thing she saw was a pair of sharp clawed, webbed feet crawling out of the shell. Chloe almost fainted when she saw the brown furry body.

Then she saw the beaver-like tail and two more webbed feet. Chloe stared in wonder at her first little baby, but couldn’t believe her eyes! He looked odd with a face only a mother could love. “I think I will call him Ozzie.”

Before she had a chance to question it further, the other eggs began to hatch.

“Oh, no! What will come out of the rest of my eggs?” she nervously muttered.

One hatched then two, then three, four, five, six, and seven. Out of the other pale green eggs emerged seven tiny, gray, downy cygnets. They were the most gorgeous little cygnets on the river bank. Each one had a narrow black bill and two small webbed feet.

With her head held high, Chloe began to strut around her new cygnets admiring their beauty. As the proud mother paraded her brood around, Sebastian said, “Why they all look so handsome except for that ugly one! Look at those four webbed clod hoppers! Look at that beaver tail! His bill looks like a duck’s! Are you sure he’s a swan?”

“Of course he’s a swan! He came from my nest, didn’t he?” she huffed. “Why look at those webbed feet. I’ll prove he’s mine, Sebastian. Let’s go down to the river and see how he can swim.”

Chloe, Sebastian and their brood waddled down to the river. All the while Chloe hoped she was right. The littlest cygnet was ugly. He was odd looking with all that brown fur and four webbed feet. When they got to the river bank, Chloe lined up her new cygnets and said, “It’s time for a swim!”

Chloe glided effortlessly onto the water. “Honk, honk,” she called.

SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLAT!

Chloe looked back and quickly did a head count. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven cygnets were paddling gracefully. “H-u-u-h!” Chloe gasped. “One of my babies is missing! Oh where, can he be?”

Just then out of the corner of her eye she saw bubbles rising to the surface of the water. Chloe stopped to take a closer look. There, coming out of the middle of the bubbles was Ozzie with a minnow hanging out of the side of his large bill!

“He’s a swan all right. Look at that minnow. I didn’t even have to teach him how to fish.” Chloe bragged to Sebastian.

While Chloe and Sebastian swam ahead, the rest of the cygnets encircled Ozzie and began to tease him

“Just because you caught a minnow doesn’t mean you’re one of us.”

“You’re too ugly.”

“Why don’t you swim with your head up like the rest of us?”

The little cygnets began to laugh and giggle at their ugly brother. Ozzie looked into the water and the face he saw staring back at him did not look anything like his brothers or sisters.

“Come along, children. That’s enough swimming for today,” Chloe called. As they swam down the river towards home all the birds stopped chirping and stared.

The taunting began. “What is that?” one screeched out.

“Have you ever seen such an ugly swan?” another cackled.

“I thought swans were supposed to be beautiful!”

Before long, all the residents of the river bank lined up to gawk at the absurd looking creature.

By the time the swan family had waddled back to their nest, Ozzie lagged way behind the others. His head drooped and his eyes were focused on the ground. Poor Ozzie dragged his four feet as he crawled back into the nest and settled down as far from his brothers and sisters as he could get.

Chloe and Sebastian tucked the cygnets in and they soon fell fast asleep, all except for Ozzie. He tossed and turned worrying about not fitting in. In the distance, he overheard his parents whispering.

“I will not be the laughingstock of the river bank! You must get rid of him,” demanded Sebastian.

“I won’t give up my baby. Didn’t you see the way Ozzie caught that minnow? Please Sebastian, just give him a chance,” begged Chloe.

Sebastian and Chloe continued to argue long into the night. When the first rays of sunshine crept over the horizon, the exhausted mother swan peeked in on her adorable family. The sleeping cygnets were all cuddled together, so it took Chloe a while to check on each and everyone.

Suddenly, Chloe realized that Ozzie was missing. She jumped to her feet and began honking frantically for help. All this commotion woke up the entire river bank.

“What’s going on here?” asked Sebastian.

“It’s all your fault!” cried Chloe. “Ozzie must have heard you talking last night and now he’s gone.”

“Good! I don’t know why you are so worried; we have seven beautiful cygnets still here. That other one was too ugly anyway,” replied Sebastian.

Chloe did not stay around to listen; she began searching for her runaway baby.

Meanwhile, Ozzie sadly trudged away from the river bank and into the woods. “Nobody loves me. Nobody cares. I’m so ugly,” he mumbled to himself.

After walking for a long time, he came to a clearing at the edge of the woods. As he peered into the distance, he saw a red barn. Tired and hungry he decided to head in that direction.

When he reached the barnyard, he met a curly little lamb named Cade.

“What are you?” asked the lamb in a kind voice.

“I’m a swan. An ugly, black swan,” sighed Ozzie.

Looking hard at the swan, Cade said, “You’re not so ugly. You have very nice feet. Would you like to be my friend?”

“Oh, I’d love to be your friend. I’ve never had a friend before!” exclaimed Ozzie in disbelief.

“It looks like you’re beat. Come on in the barn and we’ll get you something to eat,” urged Cade.

Together they went into the barn. The sweet smell of hay was inviting. Lambs and sheep were lazily dozing in the warm cozy straw. Some sheep were eating. Some were playfully romping with their friends.

The instant Ozzie entered, the barn became still. All heads turned to stare at him. The oldest and wisest sheep trotted slowly over to investigate the newcomer.

“What did you drag in this time, Cade? Look out! He looks like a bunyip from the outback and smells like rotten fish. Get him out of here. He’s bloody ugly!” demanded the old sheep.

The barn became noisy with nervous giggling. “He does look like a bunyip!”

“What’s a bunyip?” Ozzie asked Cade.

“Oh, mate, it’s a dangerous mythical creature from the outback. But you don’t have a dog’s face or a horse’s tail. And you seem way to kind to be a man killer,” replied Cade.

All the sheep banded together and glared at Ozzie. His bill began to tremble. Without saying good-bye to his only friend, Ozzie backed out of the barn. Out on his own, again.

Dusk was quickly approaching. The lonely, lost swan stumbled towards the edge of the forest.

Thump-boing! Thump-boing!

“What’s that noise?” Ozzie whispered to himself.

Thump-boing! Thump-boing!

The hair on the back of his neck stood up.

Thump-boing! Thump-boing!

Ozzie’s heart beat wildly when he found himself face to face with a giant red-necked wallaby.

“G-day mate. What kind of animal are you? You’re too ugly to be a wallaby, but you do have a fine looking fat tail. Maybe you can balance on it to box with me,” the wallaby spurted out as he began to jab and punch with his front paws.

The frightened little swan didn’t even have a chance to catch his breath before the wallaby leaned back on his tail and led with a good swift kick. Poor Ozzie flew into the air, landed with a thud and toppled down a hill.

Feeling stunned and confused he got back on his feet and stumbled into the forest. As he ran he faintly heard, “You’re not only ugly, you can’t box either…”

Ozzie continued to run until his legs would carry him no further. Out of breath and very tired he nestled under a bush and fell fast asleep.

At dawn, Ozzie woke to the screeching and chattering of rainbow lorikeets. As he peeked out from under a bush, Ozzie’s senses were overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the rainforest.

There were beautiful colors everywhere – reds, yellows, blues, and every shade of green imaginable. When Ozzie crawled out further from the bush, he felt a gentle tickling all over his body. The rain was refreshing and gave him new energy. The ugly little swan set out to explore his new unfamiliar surroundings.

Ozzie ducked as a splash of color flew right before his eyes. Three clownish lorikeets landed on a branch just above his head.

“I don’t know what that is! Have you ever seen anything so ugly?” screeched one fast talking bird to the others.

“I don’t know either, but it sure is hard on my eyes. Let’s ask what it is,” another hyper lorikeet chattered.

“Hey, you down there, what kind of creature are you?” the lorikeets called out in unison.

“I’m a black swan, “Ozzie sputtered.

The lorikeets burst out laughing. “You’re too ugly to be a swan.” The lorikeets shouted out to their forest friends, “Get a load of this guy, he thinks he’s a swan!”

Fanning himself nearby was a flying fox who yelled, “What kind of swan has four webbed feet?”

A sleepy night glider hanging from a tree opened one eye and replied,” A really ugly one.”

The animals of the rainforest continued to badger and poke fun at Ozzie as he made his way slowly out of the forest. At the edge of the trees, a know-it-all koala named Braydon, stopped munching a eucalyptus leaf and looked down at Ozzie.

“My name is Braydon and I know all the animals that live in the forest, but I have never seen anything like you.”

Ozzie looked down and replied, “I’m a black swan. “

“Well,” Braydon retorted, “You certainly don’t belong here! Take your webbed feet and skedaddle on back down to the river!”

With nowhere else to turn, Ozzie headed back toward the river. He walked for several miles before he came to the tall marshy grass along the river bank. Achy and bushed he dragged his body to the edge of the river and plopped onto his stomach. Ozzie gazed into the river and saw his reflection in the water. With tears in his eyes he cried, “What am I?”

Confused, Ozzie slid into the cool water. He felt right at home and began swimming around. The water was refreshing and Ozzie felt better. Without knowing where he was headed, Ozzie started swimming upstream.

Suddenly, while diving under the water, Ozzie found himself bill to bill with a dead ringer of himself. Shocked, Ozzie jumped to the surface of the water and gasped for breath.

“WHAT WAS THAT?” he cried excitedly. “It looked just like me!”

At that moment another wide-billed head popped out of the water, followed by two others. Ozzie blinked in disbelief.

“Is this where all the ugly swans live?” Ozzie asked.

“We’re not swans. We’re platypuses!” The young platypuses jumped and swam in circles around Ozzie. He was dizzy from turning around to get a good look at all of them.

“They call me Wally,” said the first little platypus. “What’s your name?”

“My name is Ozzie.”

“Where did you come from?” asked Wally.

“I ran away from my mum’s nest. I just didn’t fit in. I’m sure my dad was happy as a pig in mud when I left. He thought I was a disgrace to the family.”

Wally giggled. “Hey mate! That’s because you’re not a swan. You’re a platypus just like me.”

The other little platypuses shouted,” Mum! Come see what we found.”

A larger platypus with soft, caring, black eyes appeared in the water near the three little platypuses. “Let me ‘ave a gander at you. – Why, you are my little lost baby!” shouted the mother platypus. “One of my eggs was missing from my nest and I thought it was gone forever.”

The whole family gathered around Ozzie and smothered him with hugs and kisses. His heart began to swell and he was so happy he thought he might burst. Ozzie finally found where he belonged.