When Horace returned to town, everyone was shocked. To everyone it seemeed he was gone for very long time but it was only a few years he was gone. No one thought he would return, when they asked hime where he was, he would claim he could not remember. But everyone was glad he was home, he hanged out with his friends and even made new ones. But the one thing on his mind was: where was Clarabelle? She had disappeared a couple of weeks ago the guys had mentioned. But nothing much, weeks turned into months and one day,Horace walked up to the attic in his home.
He started go through the old boxes and found an old photo book, he saw pictures of him and Clarabelle. The times they'd spent together, now they were just memories, then he remembered that day. There was an awful argument, and he left furious. Both of them didn't lookback and not one of them said they were sorry. He remembered that rainy day he drove off to clear his thoughts of the fight, soon he crashed his truck and ran out, hurt and calling for help. No one could hear him and the rest of it was all a blank. He rememberd waking in a hospital, remembering that it was thousands of miles out of town and nearly a few years had passed since he blacked out.
Horace felt strong guilt and sadness from these memories, haunted by her words of anger and hurt by the guilt that weighed him down. The doorbell rang, Horace quickly went downstairs and opened the door. Oswald and Fethry ran in holding an old map.
"You are not gonna believe what we found." Fethry shrieked with joy.
"This is an old treasure map, I found among the belongings of my great grandfather." Oswald proudly said.
"And you wanna go find the treasure?" Horace said in a depressed tone.
Both Oswald and Fethry nodded.
Horace had an idea, perhaps a little adventure would cheer him up."Well let's see if it's not a fake." He said with a smart alec grin.
The next day, they headed to the Museum to speak to an expert to examine the map. A couple of hours and numerous books later, the Expert came to a conclusion
"Gentlemen this map is real but the journey to the island you seek to go to is very dangerous and a few days journey by plane" He explained.
"We'll risk it." Said Oswald with brave look on his face.
"Yes," Horace replied in a sarcastic tone. "we live for adventure."
But suddenly the place was bombarded by Pete and a group of theives and conmen.
"Give us the map and no one gets hurt." Pete shouted
"Whoa it's only been ten minutes and someone's already trying to steal the map." Fethry said preparing to run.
"Why does this sound like those lame modern pirate movies?" Horace thought to himself.
"Ok Pete you can have the map," Oswald yelled. " over our dead bodies!"
Horace, Oswald, and Fethry ran out trying to find away of escape, the whole Museum was surrounded and they pushed,shoved and fought off anyone trying to take the map. As a last ditch effort they went down the elevator, down to the storage room. The trio made it pass the boxed items and found a trap door, all three went inside and closed the trap door tight shut. They turned discover a dimly lit tunnel, luckily Horace had a flashlight to light the way
"What is this place?" Fethry asked.
"This used to be an old tunnel built about a few hundred years ago, I think it was used for secret traveling." Horace replied.
"So where do we go?" Oswald asked.
"We'll keep going till we find an exit." Horace said as he started walking.
Back at the Museum, Pete and his crew ransacked the entire Museum and found nothing. Pete got an idea, he and his crew would catch up to the trio, take the map from them, and leave them for dead.
"Boys pack your things, we're going on a trip to an island." He laughed.
Meanwhile in the underground tunnel, time had passed and the three were still along way from seeing any sunlight. But every step they made the ground was becoming moist, soon as time went on it started to become very misty and muddy up ahead. What they didn't know was that above the tunnel, they were far from the town and into the middle of the ocean.
Fethry asked. "Does anyone get that feeling that ocean is above us?"
"That's ridiculous," Horace said." There is no way an underground tunnel from the Museum could go all the way under the sea."
"You never know." Fethry replied.
Oswald said. "Wait if this was under the ocean wouldn't this tunnel collapse and flood drowning all of us?"
" There's solid concrete on the roof of this tunnel, there is no way it could flood." Horace replied
Suddenly Horace felt a drop and looked up pointing the flashlight to the roof, the roof was dripping and then all dimly lit lanterns went out making the tunnel dark.
"At least the flashlight still works." Fethry said.
Just like that the flashlight gave out, now it was completly pitch black. Then the sounds of cracking could be heard and suddenly they felt water covering their ankles.
"Run for it!" Horace shouted.
Despite the darkness they ran like crazy, Oswald saw a bright light from a distance. They had finally reached the end of the tunnel and climbed up the rope that stood there. When they got out of the tunnel, they realized that they were far from town, in fact about a few hundred thousand miles away. Now water was spewing out of the tunnel. There was no way of going back now, so they began to wonder around the new place.
"I don't think were back in town." Oswald said looking around.
"We can't go back," Horace said. "The tunnel caved in."
"Wow this is so cool." Fethry was scared and excited at the same time.
They continued to walk around looking at this place.
"I hear the ocean." Oswald stopped.
The trio ran down to sands and found out, they were on a remote island.
"That tunnel lead us to an island." Horace said in shock.
Fethry couldn't believe his eyes. "We're so far away from that Museum."
Suddenly they heard a clicking sound of a gun and slowly turned around Pete and his crew had caught up to them.
"I'll be taking the map now!" He snacthed the map from Oswald.
"Ha!" Horace exclaimed. "I read the map long enough to know where it really is!"
Oswald whispered. "Are you trying to get us killed!"
"Trust me on this." Horace whispered.
Pete asked. "What are ya' trying to say Horsecollar!"
Horace, full of pride replied. "I'm saying let's have a race, first one there keeps all the treasure."
"Consider this a deal." Pete and Horace shook hands in agreement.
The next morning, the race had started Horace, Oswald, and Fethry were running dodging large rocks and watching for any danger. A few days later in the early evening, the trio stopped to rest. They were sore and tired, so they decided to make a campfire and rest for the night.
"Say guys I'm gonna go find us something to eat." Fethry said walking.
"Don't get lost!" Horace replied.
An hour had passed and Fethry didn't return, Horace and Oswald got up went looking for him.
"Feth, Fethry!" Oswald called out.
There was a loud sound of heavy heaving breathing.
"Fethry is this a joke?" Horace said. "It's not funny"
Suddenly Horace and Oswald were ambushed by tribal soldiers and taken to their village, The trio were tied to three different pillars ready to face the leader. But only The Captain of the guards came.
"You have trespassed on our island," He told the three. " and now will suffer the wrath of our queen."
Oswald said. "Ok look we don't mean any harm, right guys?"
"No harm." Horace quickly answered.
"We come in peace." Fethry smiled.
"SILENCE!" The captain shouted. "Bring forth our queen!"
Then a thunderous sound of drums were beating, followed by the chanting of the village.
"Terrific," Oswald said sarcastically. "captured by an island tribe and sacrificed before a pagan alter."
"How's that terrific?" Fethry asked.
Horace sighed.
Some servants were tossing flower petals down to the altar, as others carried a caravan to the alter. When the caravan was properly placed on the altar, the trio was cut loose and forced to bow down to the queen. The curtain of the caravan opened to reveal the queen. Horace looked up and made a discovery, the queen was none other than Clarabelle herself.
She was stranded on this island when Pete and his crew hijacked a cruise ship and she wasn't able to escape. So in hopes of her not living to tell the tale, Pete tossed her into the ocean with a small rubber raft, Clarabelle had made to the island within days after the incident.
Horace could not believe his eyes that it was Clarabelle.
She spoke like a royal. "Greetings I am Clarabelle, the queen of this island." She look at the trio and to her shock Horace.
She walked slowly to Horace. "Horace, is that you?"
Horace smiled happy to see her again. "It's me alright."
Right away Clarabelle remembered their argument and the aftermath of it. Furiously she slapped him clear across the face leaving a huge red mark on his face. Everyone cringed knowing how painfully it was.
Horace rubbed the mark on his face. "Okay I probably desevred that."
Clarabelle shouted. "Tie them back to the pillars!"
The guards came and tied the trio to the pillars. Horace was in deep hot water.
The next morning, Pete had beat our heroes to the burial site of the treasure, they walked inside the caverns there was a little pickett sign that read: "Treasure Buried Here!".
"Hmm, something's not right."
His crew so eager began to dig up the grounds of the cavern pushing rocks and twigs everywhere. All they found was a small box, when they opened it there was a note that read : "If you were looking for the treasure, you've come to the wrong place stupid!"
Back at the tribal village, Horace, Oswald, and Fethry were still tied to the three pillars, Horace knew he is so much trouble. He never thought he would run into Clarabelle, here on this island especially, he knew they had to face each other sooner or later so he was ready. Suddenly the captain of the guards came.
He called to the other guards. "Take this one," he pointed at Horace. "and bring him to the queen."
The guards cut Horace's ropes and took him to the throne room.
Oswald was angry. "What about us?"
The captain looked at Oswald and simply laughed at him and left. Oswald was so furious he started to kick the air, Fethry on the other hand managed to break free and untie Oswald. Oswald eventually came to his senses and got up.
"Let's go before they chase us with spears." Oswald said.
"I gonna miss all the fun." Fethry sighed.
As they left the village, Fethry had tripped over something and discovered it was a pocket radio.
"Cool I found a radio," Then it hit him, in two days was the soccer finals. "now I have something to listen to the soccer finals coming up."
Oswald humorously rolled his eyes.
Meanwhile Pete was looking over the map, as he looked at the map he discovered that someone had tore off the real location of the map and replaced it with a false one.
"Alright men," he made an evil grin. "we're gonna pay a visit to an old friend."
At the deep jungle area of the island, Oswald and Fethry were still wondering around. Fethry was still messing with his radio trying to get signal in time for the soccer game. But suddenly they were blessed with luck, there was an old army hideout near the shores.
"There's gotta be a radio in there." Oswald said.
"But we have one right here." Fethry pointed to his radio.
"I meant one of those old hamm radios. To call for help."
Soon the both entered the army hideout and began to look around.
Meanwhile in the throne room,
"Of all the uncharted islands in the world, you just had to wash up here!" Clarabelle shouted.
"What was I suppose to," Horace yelled back. "I didn't even know where I was!"
"I can't believe after all this time you were gone you expect me to believe you have no memory of where you were!"
"Look I know that all this happened but fate brought us back to try again, well that and some treasure map but-"
"Don't you even bring up treasure, after no one could find you I tried to move on and dated Goofy."
"Wait you and him?" Horace was hurt by this.
"Well it was temporary, he ended up with someone else." Clarabelle started feeling very guilty.
"That one argument ruined everything for the both of us."
"It did, didn't it?" Clarabelle was ready to shed a tear. "But why bother? we're just gonna fight like always."
"Now what is that suppose to mean!" Horace snapped.
"I mean we can't have a conversation without fightin' all the time!
"Well how can we if you're beein' so stubborn!"
"You're one to talk! If you think I'm stubborn, then why are you still talking to me!"
"If you haven't figured it out by now, maybe it's because I CARE ABOUT YOU!
"WELL WHY DON'T YOU SAY IT THEN!"
"I JUST DID!"
Both turned in different directions not even looking at each other
"WHY DO EVEN CARE ABOUT WHAT I DID!"
"WELL WHY DID YOU DO IT THEN!"
"IT was because everyone THOUGHT you were dead!"
Horace was silent. He couldn't believe everyone thought he was dead, he finally asked. "Why did they think I was dead?"
"We got suspicous the day you never came home, you never left a note or made a phone call, The police had a report of your truck found recked on a empty roadside, and for nearly two weeks there was a search but all they found was your torn up clothes and your hat destryoed. "
By now Horace silently had tears rolling down his cheeks. "So that's why they were so shocked to see me?"
Both of them got up and finally looked at each other, silent as they were. They had the same look of guilt and sadness. Finally without a care they embraced each other, finally feeling the warmth that they had lost a long time ago.
Both whispered in each other's ear. "I'm sorry."
They forgave each other and neither one knew that someone saw them, Pete was standing there watching them the whole time. He and his crew were heckling, that finally caught Horace and Clarabelle's attention.
"Good Evening Clarabelle." Pete grinned a wicked smile.
Clarabelle was uncomfortable. "Oh hello-o Pete." she said feeling uneased.
Horace realized quickly. "Wait him too!
Clarabelle was full of guilt once again. "Well..."
Horace sighed.
"Now one of you is hiding the real piece of the map, the piece that leads to the real treasure. Now hand it over."
Clarabelle held on to her necklace, she kept the real piece of the map within the locket. "There's no treasure, i-it was just a rumor."
Pete knew Clarabelle was holding onto the real piece of the map. He looked at Clarabelle's locket. "Then where did you get that pretty locket, the one made of gold coins?"
" I've had this necklace for a long time." Clarabelle lied quickly.
Pete began to laugh knowing she was lying,and his goons captured them and began to head towards the cliff edge of the island. Meanwhile Oswald and Fethry explored the old army hideout and discovered an old hamm radio. Oswald sat at the seat and tried to turn on the old machine. Fethry found a large switch and the radio turned on. Oswald moved the dial in hopes of getting reception. He finally made the call.
"Hello, hello anyone can you hear me?" Oswald kept turning the dial. "This is Lucky rabbit, come in, come in. Any answer, over."
There was a bit static but they could hear loud and clear. "Oswald is that you? Over."
"Mickey!" Oswald was shock to hear. "Listen Horace, Fethry, and I are stranded on an island, we arrived from an underground tunnel that has now collasped and there is no means of escaping. oh and we found Clarabelle as well over."
"I'll locate y'all and get there as soon as I can, over."
"We'll be waiting, over."
At the cliff edge, Pete and his goons tied Horace by his feet and hanged him over the edge. Clarabelle was scared, so many emotions were building up.
Pete was growing angrier. "For the last time where is that missing piece of the map!"
Clarabelle looked down at the ground, she was forced to chose to give the real piece of the map to Pete or let Horace take the fall and die (even though she knew she too was going to be killed as well.)
Horace shouted. "Don't tell them, they're just gonna kill you as well."
Pete pulled out a knife. "So what's your chioce?"
He drew the knife closer to the rope getting ready to cut it.
"STOP," Clarabelle shouted. "I won't let Horace take the fall for something that's my fault."
She ripped the necklace and tossed it to Pete. He quickly opened the locket and found the real missing piece.
Pete wickedly laughed circling her. "You thought you could fool me, eh?"
Clarabelle was starting to shed some tears. "I gave you the necklace," She was feeling some anger inside her. "Now let him go!"
Pete walked towards Clarabelle and gave her a forced kiss. Disgusted, Clarabelle slapped him hard across his face, she wiped her face of that disgusting unwanted kiss. Moments later Clarabelle soon joined Horace hanging over the edge of the cliff, Pete lit a small fire to slowly burn the two ropes. Clarabelle was starting weep, Horace reached his hand out to hold her hand.
Horace said calmly. "It wasn't just your fault, I admit now I'm to also blame."
"I never thought we would end up here because of one arguement."
"Well the past is behind us," Horace swallowed hard. " But our future is right below us."
" I'm glad you came, cause we finally fixed our problem."
"Clarabelle, if we don't survive the fall I want you to know I- uh..." Horace was blushing bright red. " I-I-"
"Are you alright?"
"I love you..." He was caught in another blush fit.
"I'm truly happy we were brought back together, I love you too."
They held each others hands, knowing what might come.
Meanwhile back down at the old army hideout, Oswald and Fethry were sitting on the roof looking out for any rescue ships or helicopters. Oswald made a fishing pole from some string he found inside the hideout, and a tree bark. The hook itselft was made of an old bended nail, Oswald started fishing hoping they'd find something to eat at the very least.
"Two hours and we still haven't caught a single thing." Oswald sighed.
"Not even an old boot?" Fethry was still tinkering with his radio.
"Nope."
Deep in the jungle of the island, Pete finally reached the real location of the treasure. His crew were confused, they wondered why they were circling a large tree stump.
"Did they bury it in the stump?" one of the goons asked.
Pete opened the top of the stump revealing a large tunnel. " It was made as a cover up to hide the treasure, bring the sacks."
Back at the edge, the ropes were blackend and started break. Clarabelle's rope was the first to break, Horace grabbed her before she fell. Clarabelle hanged on, refusing to let go.
Clarabelle cried. "Don't let go!"
"I'm not gonna let go, not again!" Horace shouted.
"Horace if we die I want you to know, I take back every bad thing that has happen to us. I forgive you."
"Me too and if we don't die, we could start new and get married someday."
"I would love that."
Meanwhile back at the old army hideout, Oswald stopped fishing and heard a scream. He looked up at the cliff and saw Horace and Clarabelle hanging on to dear life.
"Fethry look! It's Horace and Clarabelle!" He shouted.
Fethry looked up. "That's them alright, we should get that net in case they need a safe landing."
Oswald and Fethry found an old net and held it out in order to break the fall.
Horace's rope finally snapped and the two began to fall, but as they were falling all the memories of their past came back. Each memory was special to each other and niether one cared that death was coming for them.
At the bottom Oswald and Fethry were still holding the net, watching Horace and Clarabelle fall in the direction of the net. Finally The couple landed on the net but because the roof was old and rusty it collapsed, causing all four to fall through the roof into the inside of the old army hideout. Horace and Clarabelle looked around and realized, they didn't die after all but they landed safely on the ground.
"We're alive!" Horace smiled.
"We made it!" Clarabelle had tears of joy.
Oswald, who was under them interrupted. "Say could you save your romantic reunion for later?"
Horace and Clarabelle got up in order for Oswald and Fethry to get up.
"Pete already found the treasure, but we'll need a strategy to stop them." Said Horace.
"Fethry and I we're able to contact for help." Oswald pointed to the hamm radio.
"We've been looking out for any rescue crew." Fethry said.
"We can take em' down while we wait!" Oswald
"There's four of us and about maybe fifty of them." Horace reminded everyone.
Clarabelle had a plan.
"I have an idea but we need to go back to the village."
Oswald sighed. "If we have a death wish to go back."
Clarabelle laughed. "Don't worry I'm their queen remember, they'll listen to me."
So as fast as lightning they returned to the village, Clarabelle stood on the altar to tell the village of the plan.
Clarabelle spoke. "My fellow tribe, pirates have invaded our island and plan to destroy it for their greed! They'll persecute us and ransack the island for resources that rightfully belong to us! Will we allow it or shall we surrender and perish!"
The whole village responded with shouts of anger, knowing they must protect the village and their queen and her friends and lover. So the village soldiers gathered and marched with Clarabelle, Horace, Oswald, and Fethry to the shores where Pete and his crew were fixing to leave. Clarabelle instructed the soldiers to hide until she called for them, the four stepped on to the shore to take down the crew. Oswald called out their attention by tossing a large rock hitting one of the crew members, Pete and his crew turned around looking at the four heroes.
Pete looked at Horace and Clarabelle with shock. "Survived the great fall I see. Get THEM!"
Pete and his crew charged at them, but our four heroes had a trick up their sleeves. Fethry was tossing coconuts and rocks causing some to run or get hit, Oswald used some of his fighting skills taking down any one of Pete's crew, Horace climbed up a branch and using a vine he swung down from the tree knocking quite a few on the rocky shores of the ground, One crew member tried attacking Clarabelle but in turn she sucker punched him and ran close to were the village soldiers hid. Most of the crew surrounded Clarabelle, the plan was going well, now came the next part of the plan.
Clarabelle gave the signal for the soldiers and shouted. "Attack!"
Suddenly the soldiers charged out of the bushes and joined Horace, Oswald, Fethry in taking down his crew, Pete on the other hand went after Horace chasing him with a sword. Horace noticed a skeleton with an old sword inside it, he picked up the sword and began their swordfight lasting for what could have been half an hour. Just when Pete thought he would win this fight, Horace got the upperhand of the fight.
Horace knocked the sword out of Pete's hand. "Looks like this fight is over."
Pete looked over and saw his crew was defeated, all of his crew were either cowering in fear or unconcious. Suddenly there were sounds of motors running, Several rescue ships with national guards pulled up to the shores. Mickey stepped out of one of the ships.
Mickey smiled. "Lucky we were able to locate ya' before it was too late."
Pete and his crew were cuffed and arrested, Fethry and Oswald were aboard one of the ships ready to return home. But Clarabelle had one last thing to do before she and Horace could leave the island. She returned to the village one last time and made her announcement.
"My fellow villagers," Clarabelle spoke. "as your queen I have decided to step down."
Everyone had gasped in shock, Clarabelle took her sceptor that represented her royalty and looked at the villagers to pass it down to. She had made her final decision, she passed the sceptor to the Captain of the Guards.
Clarabelle smiled. "May you take my place as the ruler of this island."
"With honor." He replied.
The entire village hailed the captain as their new king. Then they gave Clarabelle and Horace gifts to take with them and blessed their journey home. That night on the ship ride back to town. Horace and Clarabelle sat together watching the beautiful night sky.
"I thought I would never see you again." Clarabelle said.
"I'm happy we were able to set things right. " Horace replied.
The two had finally shared a long awaited kiss under the starry sky, knowing they'll never loose each other again.
A few weeks later they returned back to their homes. Oswald noticed his mailbox was full of unread mail and began to check it.