One day, a girl named June walked by with a broken compass. She sat on a rock, looking lost.

But Quackprep kept telling his stories. He told of a heron who taught mathematics, a turtle who built a raft, and a storm that spelled words in the wind. The stories grew longer, stranger, more precise.

He swam to the center of the pond, dipped his beak, and from that day on, he quacked like any other duck. But the ripples he left behind always seemed to form words.

June stood up, thanked the duck, and walked away. Three days later, she came back with a notebook full of her own stories.