Dad hadn’t been around town in a while, and The Duckling was starting to get worried. He’d go off for days at a time without a word, and come back pretending nothing happened, covered in pieces of stone and dirt, but it’d been weeks at this point.
Maybe it was because of the war. It had left its impact on all of them. The Duckling flinched as she remembered The General’s sword cutting through their people, right before cutting down their sacred tree. How hazy it felt as she had seen the soldiers slowly fall as the Army came upon them. The fires, the death and the destruction, everything… It had been so much.
She remembered how betrayed Dad had looked. How he barely had time to scream before The General hacked away at his head without mercy as he screamed. How The Duckling had just… done nothing. She had just… froze.
Oh. He was dead. That’s why. That’s why he didn’t come back. He couldn’t come back. Why couldn’t The Duckling accept it?
Then she’d been mad. She’d been really really mad. Mad because maybe if Dad had let her fight back, she could’ve protected him. If he has let her train, let her hold a sword and fire a crossbow, maybe she could’ve stopped it. Maybe he’d be alive. Maybe their sacred home would be free
Maybe Dad would be home soon.
Why couldn’t she accept it?