The Day of the Race

It was the day of the big race and every duck, big and small, from all across the hillsides were flapping their wings in excitement.

They gathered atop the hill at Farmer Ducks farm, and what a sight to behold they were, as they all made their way down to the start!

The race was to be held in Gnome Valley, where 2 bands of gnomes lived happily together, the Giants and the Littles.

The gnomes were also very excited, as all the humans had left the valley to go into town for the day, apart from the Mayor human who was going to be at the finish, so they were looking forward to joining in the fun with all the ducks.

One family of Giants was having a barbeque at the waters edge, some of the Littles were practicing their watersports, the babies were playing in the sand and there was even a fancy dress contest going on between the Littles and the ducks, everybody was having a good time.

The superhero ducks, Wonder, Hulk and Spider were busy organising the business ducks into their brightly coloured teams and Gerry the Ginormous duck was on the river bank ready to start the cheering with all her supporters.

But Farmer Duck noticed that something wasn’t right as they all gathered together…someone was missing…

He asked his trusty pheasant Phil to count all the ducks again, and he was right!

The missing duck was little Peter.

Farmer Duck knew that this was Peter’s first year in the duck race, and it would be ever so sad if he missed it.

Farmer Duck called to all those assembled, “We need a volunteer to help find Peter!”.

And to his delight, one of the bigger ducks, Lizzie the Lifeguard stepped forward. She said, “He’s probably taken a wrong turn on the path, but I’ll find him” and off she waddled into the woods.

Now Peter had taken a wrong turn, and instead of going down to the river, he went up into the woods, where he heard some singing coming from a ledge, underneath some big rocks, surrounded by giant shiny red toadstools.

“I wonder who that is thought Peter to himself”, and although he was a little frightened he went to investigate and found some gnomes drinking and singing at the tops of their voices.

I wonder if this is a drunken gnome party, thought Peter, and decided not to ask their names.

“Excuse me” he whispered nervously to them, “Can you tell me the way to the Duck Race.”

The gnomes all laughed and the tall one holding a beer, said, “Carry on along this path, but watch out for Ollie Owl, if he’s hungry he’ll have you for breakfast.”

Peter waddled away quickly, he was a little scared by what had been said, but he so wanted to get to the race he wasn’t going to stop for anything.

He then turned a corner in the path and stopped dead in his tracks. Up in a big hole in the rocks he saw an enormous owl, glaring down at him, “Towit towoo and who are you” – hooted the owl at the top of his voice.

The owl had hooted so loudly, that suddenly there was a lot of scrabbling noises and up popped 2 little faces next to him in the hole.

They belonged to 2 elf owls, Sally and Harry. “Yes, who are you” they hooted in unison, in their squeaky voices.

More scrabbling noises and then appeared Dino the Dinosaur, rising from his egg, the 2 Gonks Sam and Lewis and even Stan the Stoneage Gnome.

“What’s all the noise and who are you’, they screeched, bellowed and boomed together.

Peter just looked up at them all with his little knees knocking, not knowing quite what to say.

He decided the best thing to do was to hide his fear and waddle quickly away from them until he was out of sight - which is exactly what he did.

All the while he could hear the sound of Ollie hooting after him, “Towit towoo and who are you”,

By this time Peter was really deep in the woods and completely lost.

Suddenly he heard the noise of some hammering and sawing, and waddling cautiously round the corner, he met 6 woodsmen busily working away.

Ian, the twins David & Mike, Stuart, John and Richard all formally introduced themselves and Ian the leader said, “You look lost little duck, where are you going?”

Peter liked the look of these men and wasn’t frightened any more, “To the Duck Race, he said, but I don’t know the way”.

“It’s easy little duck” said Ian, “Go straight down the hill, past the Giant Christmas Wedding, right at the Family tree and Granny the Gardener and then you’ll see Little Christmas Beach, you’ll be able to join the race there”.

“You were very lucky to escape from Ollie Owl”, continued Ian, “But don’t worry, everybody you’ll meet from now on is very nice, you don’t have to be frightened any more”,

“Thank you so much, said Peter” and off he waddled down the path.

Sure enough before long he saw a beautiful bride called Connie in her fairy castle, along with her Mother and Father Christmas and her brother Sparkle.

Connie called out to him, “You haven’t seen a bridegroom anywhere have you?,” she said, “He was having a last drink before the wedding, but he hasn’t turned up,”

Peter thought carefully, he’d seen the gnomes drinking by the rocks but was one of them the bridegroom?

He decided he didn’t want to get anybody into trouble, so he just said, “I’m sorry I’m late for the race,” and quickly waddled away.

Next he came across the Friendly Family, standing proudly by their Tree House. Fred and Freda, with their 3 children, Frank, Francis and Francine.

“Is this the right way to the river and the Duck Race” he said, “Yes said Fred, I’ll give a shout to Granny, who lives just round the corner, she’ll put you on the right path”,

Peter waddled round the corner and sure enough, there was Granny the Gardener tending her flowers.

“Don’t tell me, you’re lost and looking for the river to join the Duck Race.” said Granny.

“How did you know that,” said Peter. “Grannies know everything,’ she said.

“You’re nearly there, just go along that path until you get to Little Christmas Beach and you’ll be able to join the race there.”

“Thank you so much” said Peter, “And I think your flowers look wonderful,” because he was a very polite little duck, and off he went down the path towards the river.

In the distance he could see a lot of little gnomes in deckchairs, sitting at the waters edge, but before he could reach them, a voice cried out behind him, “Peter, I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

He turned round and there was Lizzie the Lifeguard, waddling along the path towards him.

“I’m so glad you’re safe” she said. “I know you’ve had some adventures because I’ve been following you all the way, - the singing men, the noisy owl, the nice woodcutters, the wedding, - do you think one of those noisy men – oh never mind - the Friendly Family and then Granny the Gardener, she was the one who said that I’d only just missed you by a couple of minutes.”

Peter replied, “I have been a little scared but I so wanted to be in the race, I just kept going’

“Come on then” Lizzie said, “Let’s go up here to Little Christmas Beach and see if we’re in time.”

And on they went together. At the beach they saw Little Father Christmas and his 7 children, all funnily enough called Little Father Christmas as well.

When they weren’t working, they always came to this beach on holiday and to recharge their batteries to be ready for winter time, when all the children were very busy helping their Father.

Lizzie called out to them, “Has the race gone past yet”. “Yes” they all said together,

“First the yellow ones, then the red, green and blue ones, but if you jump in now you should be able to catch them up”

Without any hesitation, Peter said, “Thanks for helping me Lizzie, but I’ve got to do this” and in he jumped and quickly paddled off downstream.

Lizzie shouted after him, “I’ll meet you at the finish.”

The water was very cold but that didn’t worry Peter, he was just so pleased to be in the race, even though he was the last.

He paddled and he paddled and he paddled and then he suddenly saw a dark opening coming towards him, “It looks like a tunnel” he thought.

The water was swirling and churning in the dark gloom that was appearing before him.

This was definitely scary, but he knew he had to keep going at all costs to try and catch the others.

So he paddled and he paddled and he paddled with all his strength, and then suddenly he saw light coming towards him.

Peter came whooshing out of the tunnel and bounded down the river; he felt like he was a superhero just like Spider, Hulk and Wonder!

He paddled his legs, flapped his wings and swam as fast as he could through the bellowing current. But Peter could feel himself begin to slow down…even though he’d been extremely brave all day until Lizzie had found him and taken him down to the river to join the race. He was very tired and worried that he did not have enough energy to swim to the finish line.

Then Peter heard something in the distance…“Peter, Peter, Peter”…could it be…Yes!

It was Farmer Duck and all his duck relatives standing on the riverbank chanting his name! “Peter, Peter, Peter”

He used all his strength to paddle his feet and swim down the river to the finish line, where he was met with an enormous cheer! Hurrah!

Peter was so happy they were all there to greet him, even though he was the last duck across the line! He’d even finished after all the brightly coloured ducks.

Farmer Duck and Lizzie dashed up to him as he got to the bank and shouted, “Quickly Peter, someone special wants to meet you!”.

And before his very eyes there was the Queen Gnome herself. Peter was shocked; “why would a little duck like him get to meet the Queen Gnome? He didn’t even win the race”!

But the Queen awarded him with something even better…”Your very own medal of honour for being one brave little duck indeed” said the Queen.

The End or is it?