Once upon a time, a young duckling named Diana 

hatched on a beach.  She had golden wings. She looked beautiful with golden wings, but different.

Not many creatures thought she was as beautiful 

as her mom and dad did.  However, there was one 

creature who thought her golden wings were   

beautiful. His name was E the elephant. E was 

afraid to say so, because he was way bigger than 

Diana, and he was afraid she would laugh.

   Just then, a young girl named Claire passed 

by and said, "Nice wings!"

   "Thank you!" said Diana duck. "At least 

someone likes my wings!" she thought.

   "Hi, my name is Claire. I am from the beach 

house over there," she pointed. 

   Suddenly, they heard a sound from across 

the beach. It sounded like the sky was hungry. 

They screamed, "AHHHHHHHHHH!"

   Then they heard it over and over and over 

again. They hurried across the beach. Diana's 

golden wings were very strong. She could 

carry pretty much anything.

   Claire was very tired. Diana said, "I will carry you across."

   "Thank you, Ms. Little Duck, and can I have your name, please?" 

   "Diana duck."

   "OK, Diana, let's go!" And off they went.

   "That must be the sound we heard," said Diana.

   "Yeah! Hello, Mr. Elephant. I am Claire. Who are     

you?"

   "E!" said the elephant.

   "Interesting name," said Claire. "This is Diana."

   "Cool," said E, not excited.

   "Come meet our friends Larry the Loon and Tiny the 

Turtle. They are really nice," continued Claire. 

   "No," said E, "I......"

   "Hey!" Claire interrupted. "Larry!" she yelled. 

"Over here! You too, Tiny!" 

   "No," protested E, "I don't need to meet 

anyone. I am sort of busy."

   "Well, then you can meet them tomorrow," 

said Claire.

   "OK, today for 1 minute only," said E.

   "But why only 1 minute?" asked Claire.

   "I am busy here!" E said rudely.

   "Is there something wrong, E?" " You seem 

upset," said Diana.

   "What are you talking about?" said E in a questioning voice.

   "Larry and Tiny can't come over here, because they would get stuck in the mud. You are an elephant, and you are big and strong. Diana has 

golden wings and only a back that is big enough for me. We need to go. Goodnight," said Claire.

  E went to bed, but first he promised that 

tomorrow he would go across the lake to meet 

Claire and Diana's friends. They sounded nice. 

He had no courage to cross the lake. He said 

he would try as hard as he could to do it.