The Adventures of a Lost Duckling

This is an original, free short story written and illustrated by Alex Inglewood,
with help from GPT-3 and Stable Diffusion

For ages 2-5

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The Duckling’s Family

a mother duck and her ducklings — The duckling is with its family in the lake

The duckling was playing with its brothers and sisters near the edge of the pond when it saw something shiny on the ground. It waddled over to investigate and fell through a metal grating that had been covered by leaves.

The Duckling is Lost

a duckling standing on a grate — The duckling walks across a draining grating

The current carried it away from the safety of the pond and its family. As it struggled to swim back, it could see its mother frantically calling for it, but she soon disappeared from view.

a duckling being swept away through a drainage pipe — The duckling is swept away

The Duckling is Found

Exhausted, the duckling surrendered to fate and floated downstream until it was rescued by a kind-hearted woman who took care of lost animals.

an old woman holding a duckling — The duckling is found by an old woman

The duckling was sad at first, but it quickly realized that it needed to find its way back to the pond. It couldn’t just give up and leave its family behind. So, one night when the woman was asleep, the duckling snuck out of her house.

The Duckling’s Adventures

The duckling eventually found its way to a city park where there was a large fountain. It jumped in and started swimming around, feeling right at home. People began to notice the cute little duckling and started feeding it breadcrumbs and other bits of food.

a duckling in a park fountain — The duckling swims around a park fountain

The duckling continued to swim around the fountain in the park, but it couldn’t shake the feeling that it needed to find its family. So, one day it set out on a journey across the city. It waddled through backyards and alleyways until it finally arrived at a swimming pool complex.

a duckling in an alleyway — The duckling wanders the city

There were so many ducks swimming around that the duckling thought for sure it must have found its way home. But when it called out for its mother, none of them responded. All the ducks were made of rubber!

a duckling looking at rubber duckies in a pool — The duckling finds a pool of rubber duckies

The Duckling is Trapped

The duckling was starting to lose hope of ever finding its family. It had been swimming in the pool complex for days, but there were no real ducks to be found anywhere. On the verge of giving up, the duckling wandered into a secluded part of the complex and fell down a well.

a duckling stuck at the bottom of a well — The duckling falls in a well

It landed with a splash in a dark underground cavern. The only light came from tiny glowing mushrooms that lined the walls of the cave. The duckling paddled around in circles, wondering what it was going to do now.

The duckling swam aimlessly around the dark cave for days, until it finally heard the sound of voices coming from above. It looked up and saw a bucket lowering down into the well. When it was close enough, the duckling hopped onto the bucket and was pulled back up to ground level.

a duckling in a bucket next to a well — The duckling is rescued from the well

It turned out that a group of kids had been playing in the park and heard the duckling’s cries for help. They lowered the bucket into the well and raised it up again, rescuing the poor duckling from its watery prison.

The Duckling Goes Home

The kids took the duckling back to their house and showed it to their mom. She immediately called animal control, who came and picked up the duckling. They brought it back to the lake where its family was staying and released it into the water.

a duckling being reunited with the mother duck and other ducklings — The duckling

At first, the duckling’s parents were worried that their lost child would never come home again. But when they saw it swimming towards them, they knew everything was going to be alright. The family reunion was a happy one, and everyone lived happily ever after!