A small duck, floating around a pond, looked up to the sky,  a sky so blue that the small duck believed that it was another pond, a pond too great and too far for it to reach. The small duck believed that one day it would be able to approach and float in the large pond. During the day, it gazed up and dreamed, at night the small duck grieved, thinking that the pond got swallowed up by the great dark. The small duck refused to look up at night, gazing straight ahead, in fear of what looking anywhere else would reveal. The small duck stayed in this constant, for years, until it finally grew from being a small duck to being a large duck. Though, no matter how long it had been and no matter how large the duck grew, it never stopped believing the sky to be a pond and the night to be a creature that devoured the duck’s only solace. One day, something unexpected happened to the duck. A swan, a small one at that, formed in the same pond as the duck. The duck, curious about this new creature, swam next to it, the duck pecked and prodded at the little swan, wondering what it would do. The little swan moved back, trying to avoid the duck until it got too annoyed. The little swan pecked back at the duck, hitting the duck with its wings and splashing water in the duck’s face. Both the duck and swan started to get exhausted, deciding to avoid each other to prevent any further disturbances. The duck looked up to the sky, embracing the beauty of the believed large pond, the swan looked down, into the pond it started to revere and love, much like the duck had done with the sky. Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours, both awkward with each other, both residing in the beauty of their worlds, both in their own solace, though, soon enough, the duck started to become fearful, after all it’s most favourite thing started to disappear once more,  even though the duck knew the large pond would return, the fear still remained. The duck, in an attempt to gain some kind of comfort for the first time in its life, swam closer to the swan who was still staring at the water beneath them. The duck, in a terrible way to be subtle, tried to press itself against the little swan, thinking the little swan was too distracted to realise. However the little swan noticed. For the first time since its emergence, the little duck pulled its eyes from the pond, and for the first time the large duck heard a voice. “Why?”

“Why?” The little swan repeated, waiting for a reply. The large duck was confused, it had never heard a sound like that before, after all it was only acquainted with the sound of running water, wind, rain and any sound it produced. The large duck tried to imitate the noise, but rather than the clean pronunciation that came out from the little swan, the large duck produced a noise that… was not the most pleasant. The little swan once again asked “why?” The large duck once again tried to make the noise the little swan made, but once again failed. Noticing the futility of it all, the little swan returned to staring at the pond, however the large duck kept trying and trying, until it eventually managed to make the same sound. All of the sudden that was all the large duck would do over and over and over and over again. Before the sky turned to darkness, the little swan spoke up. “So, why?” Finally figuring out how to use its voice, the large duck spoke. “Pond. Big.” The little swan looked at the large duck. “big pond? Our pond is here.” The large duck looked up to the sky. “Pond. Big. Dark. Come.” The little duck, for the first time, looked up to the sky. “That’s a pond?” The large duck gave a nod. “Soon. Dark. Me. Scared. Never. See. Pond.” The little swan continued to look at the sky. “The pond is beautiful and big, why does it turn dark?” The large duck gave a shrug. “Pond. Goes. Dark. Come. Pond. Never. Back.” The little swan looked down to the pond and back up to the sky. “It’s becoming dark, it’s also beautiful, have you looked up when it’s dark?” The little duck shook its head. “Scary.” The little swan sighed and looked down to the pond. “Have you ever looked down?” The large duck once again shook its head. Once again the little swan asked “Why?” The large duck stopped for a few seconds, not knowing what to say, it simply never did, it never occurred to the duck. The swan looked to the large duck. “Look down. The large pond is dark, look down.” The duck unwillingly looked down and peered into the water below. The water reflected the sky, the sky that was so dark and speckled with white and yellow spots. The sky had a large white circle bearing over the darkness, clouds occasionally passing by the specks. “Beautiful.” The little swan swan towards the large duck, snuggling under its wing, not saying a word. The large duck remained entranced in the pond below, much like the little swan. They remained for hours until the darkness had passed, the large duck looked up to the sky, looking to the beautiful blue that cascaded across the sky, the little duck joined in watching the sky. “Look down once more.” The little swan said, the large duck complied, looking down to the pond, the sky, no, large pond, was beneath them, the colours the pranced around above them, also danced below. The large duck was ecstatic, it was in the large pond it had always dreamed to be in. Once again night came, this time the little swan convinced the large duck to look down to the pond and then confront its fears and look up to the sky. The view that the large duck saw below was beautiful and gorgeous, the large duck didn’t love it as much as the bright blue, but the black and specks of colours made the large duck fall in love with the dark, the large duck then forced itself to look up, closing its eyes tightly before slowly opening them. What the large duck saw blew it away, the large duck was astonished, it loved the view, it looked up and down multiple times seeing the same sight no matter which way it looked. It was enamoured. For the first time the large duck wasn’t afraid of the darkness, but was enchanted by it instead. Now filled with comfort the large duck and little swan spent their days looking to the sky and down to the pond, gratefully watching the sky change and evolve, becoming more and more beautiful every time.