All exasperated ducks in Stone Nest tell the tale of the Bill Snatcher, a crookedly long-beaked durulz with a malevolent air, who creeps around the nests, searching for the noisiest and most ill-behaved ducklings. He is drawn to the sound of their quackings, and lures the little beggars with grubs to his ornately decorated boat, where he locks them up and whips off their bills.
The poor captives are taken to his master, Delecti. There the mute bill-less ducklings are made into zombie slaves, while their incessantly chattering bills are animated by foul magics, so that they continue snapping in horrid abandon in the mists of the Marsh, chasing after those who wander too far from the nest. All ducklings fear the Bill Snatcher, and its continuous use as a ploy to quieten little ones has lost none of its power over the generations.
[Oh heck, Gert Froebe as Delecti is an image that is proving hard to remove.]
(Originally posted on ImmoderateGloranthaQuest--or whatever it was then--, 17 May 2004.)
