A visiting lone duck had recently dropped by the pond the Mallard family called home, and naturally, everyone in the family eagerly clamored around them wanting to hear all about their travels and what their life on the outside was like, since they rarely (if ever) ventured beyond their pond.

Well, almost everyone. Mack, the overly cautious patriarch, watched this little display from the shore with a narrow-eyed leer and a skeptical grimace that pulled across his beak. His wife, Pam, and their two kids, Dax and Gwen, were laughing and chatting with this new duck, who regaled them with all kinds of stories from the outside that fueled their enthusiasm, but only served to make Mack feel that much more suspicious of their intentions with his family. His home. He slapped another glob of mud onto the tree that housed them with a huff.

And their uncle Dan too, who was... somewhere.

A few minutes later, after Gwen began to tease Dax and the two siblings began to chase each other across the pond, Pam, with a smile that Mack loved to see (even though he was still grumpy), swam off to make sure they didn't cause too much mischief, leaving the playing field open for Mack to indignantly stamp his webbed feet into the water and paddle over to their 'guest' so that he could have a word with them. One-on-one.

Before they could even greet him, Mack was already letting loose.

"I know what you're trying to do. And guess what: I'm not falling for it." he hissed, poking their chest feathers with the tip of his wing. "This pond has been our home for a long, long time - you can make it sound as 'picturesque' as you want to them, but the world out there? It's full of danger, and I don't want my family getting involved in it. We have everything we need right here, and we don't need some... some stranger trying to sell us a vacation I - we don't want."

After a pause, Mack shook his head with a bitter sigh, then turned to head back, glaring over his shoulder.

"We're not interested, okay? Just... just drop it."