Diamond Duck
Once upon a time, the scion of a great family of the greatest city in the world learned his fiancée was to bear his child.
Or at least, it was the decent thing for her to do. She had other ideas.
One night, he caught her buying a plane ticket to a neighboring nation, popular with young ladies with a certain sort of disposition.
“You dare!” He roared. “You have no right!”
“No rights!” She shouted back, her face awash with tears.
He dashed her computer to pieces against their white granite floor, and told her to clean up the mess.
That night, amidst a terrible storm that flooded the street with stormwater, she vanished.
Thousands of officers were diverted from their posts from within hundreds of subway stations to search for her high and low. One of them discovered the clothes she was last seen wearing near the lake in the center of the city, the fine material streaked with mud and weeds.
The scion arrived at the scene, and a bright, glittering light drew his eyes. A small female mallard duck stood by the shore, the five carat natural diamond ring he gave his betrothed was around its left ankle.
He began to walk towards it, and it quickly waddled to the water. He didn’t know how he knew, but his fiancée had become a duck, and if he wanted to recapture her, he needed a plan.
Everyday, he returned with a fresh croissant, and ripped apart the soft pastry to feed her.
“Only the best for my baby,” he cooed sweetly each time she ate, and bided his time.
One day, she stepped close enough for him to grab, and he seized her by the neck. The duck honked in a panic, and flapped her mottled wings and kicked with all her might. He shook her hard enough to break her neck, and cackled in delight when an egg fell out of her. Without releasing her, he reached for it.
Bystander accounts of what happened next differed. Some said he was swarmed by all the water fowls that lived by the lake, and was pecked to death by a pair of massive swans that hissed and bludgeoned him with their great wings while he flailed and cried for mercy. Others said there were also owls, kestrels, peregrines, and hawks as well, and they clawed his skin to bloody shreds, plucked out both his eyes, and fought over who got to devour them. Some even insist that rats streamed forth from the sewers and devoured his flesh, but that was almost certainly crazy talk.
They say that a month after the handsome young scion died his gruesome death in the lovely city park, a jogger heard a baby cry amongst the shrubbery near the lake and went forth to investigate. They found nothing, but that spring, the diamond-wearing mallard was seen leading a pair of ducklings on the surface of the water, and she seemed content amongst the mother birds with their goslings and cygnets and of course, more ducklings to keep her children company.