And here's mine.
The tale of the ugly duckling goes two ways. The way it was depicted: a shabby duck who failed to fit in was deserted and yet grew into a pair of beautiful wings; a majestic creature that was shunned yet stunned. But no one knew who the ugly duckling was; they only remembered his evolution. Once bitten, twice shy. But not for this duck, he stood tall alone and when no one remembered, he made them. But what people really don't know about are the other ugly ducklings; the once mentioned passingly, the once no one recalled from this remarkable tale.
The others.
The ducks who shunned and the ducks who gathered. Because in every community, we take turns. Call it vicious or virtuous, the fortunes soar and fall as they please and soon enough, the ugly duckling has outgrown its shell and morphed into a majestic bird. And when everyone has shed its pelted inferiority, there will be one left. Left as a normal duck, but he is now the ugly duckling. And even the most majestic of the pack, the finest and fastest to transform will age the quickest, and soon enough it will be his misfortune once more.
And the same ugly duckling who took the spotlight in his only recorded chapter has no degraded. He has gone old and no one wants him. A foreign bird recently set his sights on this bunch of birds but he would not entertain old chaps like the once-ugly duckling. And so he weaved a plan, to feast as a team but without this old chap. He would lure the rest unknowingly into a feast fit for a king and tempt them. They would booze and they would laugh; and when the moment is ripe, they will all share their deepest secret, to keep their lips sealed;
To blacklist their lives forever.
And when the ugly duckling returns, yearning for respect and acceptance, he is welcomed back into his ugly past; the same ugly truth and the same ugly mirror image. That new species flaunts its beauty but truly, it would never value the swans as the ugly duckling had. He compared their beauty to his lack thereof, and they were magnificent and stunning. But to the intruder, they were pawns whom he would breed to become his new alliance.
But the ugly duckling tried and persevered, but he fell down time and again. He could no longer regrow his wings, he could no longer regain his youth, he could no longer receive the love.
It was stolen in front of his eyes; it was taken behind his back. The contradictory conflict that he would never comprehend because it was too late.
He was once the ugly duckling, then the once-ugly duckling but now he has renewed his covenant and resigned to fate; the new-ugly duckling wades in the pool. But he is no longer a duckling, and yet he is pummeled by his name.
And he never had a name. Or at least he had. But all that was valued was his miraculous step into beauty and afterwards, his name was forgotten.
He too had forgotten its worth.
And so his heart detested this new intruder.
Yet he couldn't bring himself to intervene. Because he remembers.
He values the friendship that once existed; existed in that clan and existed with him.
The truths that were once bonds to a friendship now found stabbed in his back. A threat hanging on a line.
Because the foreign parasite that relinquished his place in the pond was one of them; he was one of them; but they weren't one of them.
They were smitten by the ugly duckling when he was beautiful but still he was one of them; and this betrayer was one of them. The resemblance was uncanny but the other birds were smitten again. They only saw that same beauty, the moment of transformation into the purest creature; they remembered not the name, face or identity. He was beauty, he was theirs.
But they were part of them.
They were part of the once-ugly ducklings.
They grew up separately but one matured faster.
They were both privileged to enter adulthood wearing beauty as a crown.
But some were dethroned earlier. And some took the chance to extend their royalty.
And so the once-ugly duckling stood helpless, clutched by his conscience, persuaded by his temper.
And he remembered that everyone will be an ugly duckling; the enemy will meets its befall soon; glee.
then he thought: Why am I ugly twice?
Egad.