Author's note: Peeps, serious request: Please, review! I get it, people check out the first chapter just to see if they actually want to read the story, but if you've made it this far, just drop me a line and let me know what you think!
Thanks to Ghastly Eternity for the beta-work!
3
The farm was right next to the forest Sam and Gabriel lived in, so it didn't take the small drake long to get there. He was in high spirits and completely convinced that it couldn't be that hard to get some milk for his adopted son from some willing animal. He was a natural charmer, after all!
"Hello, beautiful!" he approached the first animal he knew gave milk he came across. The goat completely ignored him, however.
Gabriel remembered that Sammy had ignored the same greeting when they had first met as well, so he did the same he had back then… with little changes to accommodate the different species.
"You sure are one pretty lady," he stated in the duck-equivalent of a completely charming tone, "And what big teats you have!"
That got him the attention of the goat who was looking at him bewildered and then tapped her hoof against his beak none too gently when he winked at her. The goat probably never meant to really hurt him, but she was big and he was small, even for a duck.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Gabriel wailed and ran in circles for a few moments before he dropped onto the straw, rubbing his wounded beak against his feathers, "Why did you do that?"
The goat looked at the drake as if he had gone completely insane. She had to admit that she was a tiny little bit intrigued by the animal, however. It wasn't every day that a honey-colored duck just walked up to her casually and started to hit on her. Well, it was the first time that any duck had hit on her, period.
"You were hitting on me first," the goat commented and stared at the small duck some more. Not only had the duck hit on her, he had also been very rude about it! She might be a goat, but she had her standards!
"I wasn't hitting on you! I have my half-goose boyfriend and our adopted kitten waiting for me at home!" Gabriel protested vehemently. He didn't quite understand why the goat burst into laughter at that, though.
"My, my. You really are something," the goat bleated before she calmed down a little, "Let's talk seriously. My name is Ellen, who are you? And what do you want?"
The honey-colored duck nodded once seriously.
"My name is Gabriel and I very recently adopted a kitten called Jesse," he told the goat with pride swelled breast, "But you see, Jesse needs milk and both I and my goose-y boyfriend don't have the means to produce it for him since we're not mammals and I can't go buy some in a shop, because I lack the money."
That was a pretty good summary on the dilemma he was in.
"Money is not the only thing you are lacking," Ellen said with an amused snort.
"The money and the ability to make humans understand what I'm saying," the duck admitted after a short moment of consideration. Hey, if humans had been able to understand him he was quite sure he could have made lots of money in Hollywood. Too bad that humans were too stupid!
"I was talking about brains, but your version is good, too," the goat commented. She felt a little sorry for the small, crazy duck, though. "You can have some milk, but how did you think you would get it?"
Gabriel did not quite understand what the problem with that should be. "You are a goat. Goats give milk. So, give me the milk!"
"Did you just try to tell me how goats work?" Ellen asked disbelievingly, "Listen, shorty, you'd have to milk me, but you don't have fingers and that beak of yours is not getting anywhere near me!"
At that Gabriel let his body drop back to the straw, looking utterly wretched.
"But we need the milk! Kittens need milk and… Good Goose! He's going to die!" the drake quacked miserably, working himself up even more as he continued to contemplate the situation.
"Shut up!" the goat snapped after a few seconds and then gave him another, lighter, tap on the beak when he wouldn't stop panicking. "Okay, here's what we'll do. The human will come and milk me soon. You go and find something you can transport the milk with and I'll distract him for a while so you can steal some from the bucket!"
Gabriel nodded very seriously and went to put the plan into motion. Oh, how he loved plans! Too bad that this one didn't include any camouflage or explosives... but Sam didn't have to know that when he was going to tell him the story later on!
