In the beginning, Uncle Scrooge had been more than a little bit against their idea.
"What do ye mean ye want to go off galavantin around the worlds? Its dangerous" he stressed. "You're only three wee lads, there're things out there that would gobble you up in a heartbeat."
"But Unca Scrooge, we've been practicing" Huey said, brandishing his weapon, a small hammer just the right size for a young duck.
"Yeah" Dewey said, following his brothers example "Plus Unca Donald's been teachin me magic, watch this, FIRE!" Dewey raised a small stave with an anchor at the top, and a small orb of flame shot from the tip. "Its also extendable" he added, before swinging the stave. Low and behold, the anchor on top popped off, swinging through the air connected to a chain that in no way could have fit inside of the staves body without magical craftsmanship.
Scrooge turned to Louie finally, and raised an expectant eyebrow "Well, what have you got Louie?"
"Oh uh, not much actually, Unca Goofy gave me this little shield though." The green capped duck raised a small silver shield outlined in green, with the kings seal stamped on the front.
"Can you even use that thing?" Scrooge questioned.
"Ehehe, well, not exactly . . ." Louie trailed off.
"But he'll learn!" Huey said.
"Yeah, and we'll cover for him till he does, or else gets a weapon he can use!" Dewey followed.
Scrooge smiled "Oh, well in that case" the trio looked up at their great uncle hopefully.
"The answer's still no! Its far too dangerous, you three are going to stay here, at the castle, until this whole business with the darkness is over with."
"Aw, but that could take forever." Huey complained before pausing "Wait, what darkness?"
"Yeah" Dewey followed "We haven't heard about any darkness."
"What're ya talking about Unca Scrooge?" Louie finished.
"Ach, I shouldn't have said anythin, forget you heard me say that."
The three exchanged a glance "We don't think so, spill it."
"Ach fine, I don't want anyone to find out anything about it though, so keep yer yaps shut. The King has confided in me that he's been worried lately about the darkness, its beginning to seep into the worlds, this world however, is safe."
What's darkness?" Huey asked "Cause I don't think you mean the kind that's under the bed."
"Yer right laddie, this isn't like that kind of darkness at all, this is a different kinda darkness, we're not sure where it comes from, or even what exactly it is, but whatever it is, it reaches into peoples hearts, and when its done, they . . ." Scrooge trailed off again.
"They what Unca Scrooge?" Louie asked.
"They aren't people anymore." Scrooge finished "They become something, something else entirely."
Dewey appeared contemplative for a moment before he asked a question "Unca Scrooge, what do you mean this world is safe?"
"Ach, never you mind what I mean, its somethin that you three" he waved his cane "don't need to go pokin yer beaks in, heaven knows what you'd do if you found it" he added absentmindedly "You might break it."
"Break wha-" Louie began, but he was quickly silenced by twin hands placed over his mouth.
"So" Huey began, as he kept one hand over the struggling Louie's mouth.
"You're saying that we have to wait for this darkness or whatever to go away before we can go adventuring." Dewey continued, struggling against his brother.
"Uh boys, I think Louie there might need to breathe."
"What?" Huey asked before looking at Louie who was rapidly becoming Dewey's favorite color.
"Oh, sorry Louie" The two said to their brother, who stumbled away and didn't reply in favor of sucking in great amounts of air. After recovering, he gave his brothers a glare, before retaking his position in such a manner that caused him to stamp on their feet.
"Ow" Huey and Dewey said in unison rubbing their injured feet, giving their brother glares of their own.
After a few seconds they stopped rubbing their feet and looked back to Scrooge. "So Unca Scrooge, are you sure we can't go to other worlds until its over?" The trio asked, giving their Uncle their best group pout.
"You might as well give up laddies, there's no way yer gonna get me to agree to let you go to another world, and without my approval, there's no way you're getting a ship.
"Aww" Huey complained "But that's."
"Gonna take." Dewey continued.
"Forever" Louie finished.
Scrooge grinned at his nephew's again "Ach, I wouldna worry about that, barring any unexpected delays, the darkness shouldn't be too much of a problem for much longer, after all, the King himself is on the case."
"He is?" They asked in unison.
"Of course" Scrooge said simply "I told you that he's the one that told me about the darkness, does the King seem like the type that wouldn't investigate something like that?"
"He's gotta point" Huey admitted.
"Besides, if the King's on the case, there's no way it's gonna take long." Dewey followed.
"Yeah, nothing can stand against the King and his Keyblade." Louie finished.
"Good" Scrooge chuckled "Now that we've got that settled, I assume that there'll be no more talk of traveling the worlds until the King says its safe, right?"
"Yes Unca Scrooge." They chorused.
"Great, now then, I have a bit of time before my meeting with the King, who want's to go into town for ice cream eh? My treat."
"We do!" They said excitedly.
"Alrighty boys, follow me." The three made to follow their great uncle but were stopped by his next words "But ah, put the weapons back in yer room first."
After they had returned their various weapons, the trio of ducklings made their way back to their waiting uncle. "Ready boys?"
"Ready Unca Scrooge." They said, voices overlapping.
KH
After their treat in town, the group made their way back to the castle, as the ever bright sun overhead began to sink beyond the horizon. As their great uncle turned to leave the trio to go to his meeting he stopped and turned partly. "Ach yes, that's another reason why you wouldn't be able to travel the worlds at the moment."
"Why's that Unca Scrooge? Dewey asked.
"Why, you haven't got any munny."
As their Uncle left the trio fell deep into thought on his words.
Well as deep into thought as they were capable after a large amount of ice cream.
KH
It was three months later when their patience ran out. Three long months during which they managed to temper their desire to ask their uncle to see other worlds.
During that time, Huey managed to glean a few tips on the more physical aspects of combat magic from a book that, strictly speaking, he shouldn't have exactly been anywhere near.
Dewey continued his all too short lessons on magic with his Uncle Donald, and managed to get the other two basic spells blizzard and thunder down, and one day, when he bumped quite literally into the Queen after a day of hard training, she taught him cure.
Louie on the other hand, was still having difficultly learning to use the shield he had been given. While he liked the defensive power the shield gave him, he didn't have the arm reach or the physical stamina to use it in the effective way that his Uncle Goofy did. Eventually he managed to work up the courage to ask the captain of the royal guard for help, and while the pointers were useful, they didn't change the fact that currently, and quite possibly forever, Louie didn't have the reach necessary to use the shield combatively.
During this time, aside from training, the trio had taken their Uncle Scrooges words to heart, and had gotten jobs, as well as started to save up every bit of munny they had.
After a quick calculation, courtesy of Dewey, it was discovered that they had 4372 munny in total.
After the precise amount of munny had been noted, they huddled together.
"So, is it enough?" Huey asked.
"It's a lot." Louie added.
"But its still not enough, not to travel to all the worlds we want to see."
"So what're we gonna do?" Huey lamented.
"I don't know" Dewey admitted.
The trio sighed, melancholy stealing over their features. That afternoon, in a rare splurge, they went down to town and bought ice cream.
"Well fellas, it looks like we still have a lot of work to do." Huey said, licking his lemon-cherry ice cream.
"Its gonna take us ages to get all the money we need." Dewey complained, licking up the blue dribbles that made their way down the cone of his cake flavored treat.
Louie didn't say anything, face caught between sadness and happiness as he devoured his oddly tasty treat. He had been intrigued by the strange name of the flavor, and when the owner said that they were almost out and that they probably wouldn't get any more, he had decided to risk it. As it turned out, Louie loved the flavor of sea-salt ice cream.
As they sat in silence, Louie looked around the brightly lit plaza where they were, and caught sight of a small trolley loaded up with supplies outside of a store. The longer he looked at that trolley, the more an idea began to take shape, and when he was finished with his ice cream, he looked up at his brothers and grinned "fellas" he announced, causing his brothers to look up "I have a plan."
KH
After everything had been explained, and they double checked to make sure that Louie hadn't been replaced with some kind of robot, they all agreed that the plan was the best shot they had, it was a way of getting munny, and also a way of traveling to another world.
Several more weeks were passed, during which Dewey was assigned the task of looking through the world records housed in the great library, which unlike the library near the throne room, was filled with books that anyone could look at, whereas the that library was only open to a select few due to the sensitive information it contained. Dewey had been busted every time he had tried to sneak in. This time however, he didn't have to sneak anywhere, and so the only delay was in finding a world suitable for their needs.
Eventually he found one. "Its this one right here fellas" He said, pointing at the detailed illustration of the outside of the world. "Its pretty safe, so Unca Scrooge won't be able to complain when he finds out, but at the same time it gets plenty of new arrivals, so we'll have a good customer base. It's also outa the way, so they won't be able to just leave and go someplace else for a cheaper deal."
"Perfect" Huey said.
"Woohoo, this is gonna be awesome." Louie said, rubbing his hands together.
"Uh, just one problem" Dewey added. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't have a gummi ship lying around anywhere, do you?"
"Oh" Huey said, crestfallen "I guess you're right, it doesn't matter how good the plan is if we don't have a way to get there.
"Don't worry" Louie said "I thought of that too!"
"That's great" Huey and Dewey said "But are you sure you're not a robot?"
"I'm serious, I thought of it back when I got the idea, I've been looking around the workshop, and it looks like Chip and Dale have been working on an automated ship."
"An automated ship?" Dewey asked.
"Yeah, all you have to do is punch in the coordinates and it'll take you where you want to go."
"It's perfect" Huey said.
"And I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we borrowed it" Dewey added.
"So are we all set?" Huey asked.
"I've got the coordinates." Dewey said
"I've got the ship."
"And I've got the supplies, and we still have 1000 munny."
"So tonight?" Dewey asked.
"Tonight" Huey affirmed.
"Tonight" Louie agreed.
KH
It was rather anticlimactic. They had thought that there would've been alarms, and slowly descending doors, and the entirety of the castle guards swooping down to try to stop them, but there weren't.
The trio managed to silently creep out of their room, weapons in hand, and a note on the table explaining their disappearance. They avoided all the broomsticks and the castle guard, crept past a sleeping Chip and Dales quarters, and loaded up the ship. The coordinates were punched in, the gateway opened, and thanks to the new prototype engine, they shot off into the dark with nary a sound.
KH
When they arrived at their destination after several hours of travel, they beamed down to the planet, items in tow.
"Alright fellas, we've got our stuff, now we just need a place to set up shop." Huey said.
"I don't suppose you thought of that too, didja?" Dewey asked Louie.
"Eheh, nope" he said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
"Well until we find a place to set up, we'll just have to stay on the ship." Huey said
"Oh yeah" Louie said, before his eye's widened. "Wait, fellas I just remembered, did either of you flick the parking switch?!"
"I didn't" Dewey said.
"I didn't" Huey followed.
"And I know I didn't." Louie finished "Uh oh. Dewey quick signal the ship."
"I thought you had the signal." The blue duck cried.
"Hurry, if we don't signal the ship then-" Overhead, the bright light that the ship had become as part of camouflage against the night sky suddenly moved. As they watched, the faux star turned around and once more without sound shot away into the night like a shooting star.
"-Its gunna leave." Louie finished lamely.
"Wait, so your sayin-"
"We're stuck here." Louie confirmed.
The trio looked around at the new sights which the hadn't been able to take in just yet, mostly because they couldn't see anything besides a great wooden gate.
"Come on fellas" Huey said, pushing on the crate that held their wares "We can't get down on ourselves right now, we need to get inside."
"Right" Dewey and Louie chorused. Slowly they pushed the trolley they had, like the ship, borrowed, for carting their supplies around and made their way towards the great gate. When they arrived, the trio heaved with all their might against it, and slowly it opened.
"That was exhausting" Huey said after they had managed to get their supplies inside.
"Let's not do that again." Dewey added.
"Agreed" Louie thirded.
As they took stock of their surroundings, even the fact that they were stranded here couldn't dampen their spirits. True, the area wasn't all that exciting, but it was different, and the lamp light that filled the area they found themselves in gave it a homey feel.
There was another gate to the right of them, but they didn't even think about trying to go through there. What looked to be a café or an outdoor restaurant was to their left. A small set of stone stairs led up to a shop, and behind that they could see buildings. Behind the café, they saw the entrance to what looked like an alley of some sort. A few people milled about, but not many, and after they were done analyzing their surroundings, the trio began to push their trolley forward. There was a bit of an issue when they made it to the steps, however. No matter how they tried to maneuver it, the cart simply didn't want to go up them. Eventually they settled on having Dewey watch the cart, parking it beside a rather bizarre looking mailbox, while Huey and Louie went to look for someone who could tell them where they might find a place to set up shop.
"Wanna try the shop?" Huey asked, jerking a thumb in the direction of the store directly in front of the steps.
"Sure" Louie said.
The duo walked through the doors of the store. Behind the counter was a man with bright yellow hair that spiked upwards in defiance of gravity. "Hey there" The man greeted. Scratching his cheek he appraised the ducks "I've never seen you two around before, you must be travelers, am I right?"
"Yeah, got it in one." Huey said.
"How'd ya guess?" Louie asked.
The man chuckled "Well you could say a little birdie told me, two actually."
The door opened behind them and Dewey walked in "Fellas, I don't think I need to watch the cart anymore, there's no one outside right now."
The man behind the counter raised an eyebrow "Make that three little birdies. I'm guessing you just got here?"
"A few minutes ago, yeah" Huey said "I'm Huey."
"I'm Dewey."
"And I'm Louie."
The man chuckled "Well then, seeing as how you just got here, let me be the first to greet you. Huey, Dewey, Louie-" The man coughed.
"Sorry, where was I?"
"You just said our names." Dewey said. The man nodded.
"Right, I'm Cid the owner of this little shop. Anyways, as I was saying, welcome to Traverse Town."
KH
A/N: And I'm gonna stop this chapter here. I recently really started to think about HDL's backgrounds after playing the game again. I'm actually really surprised that no ones thought of this before, at least as far as I can tell, so I decided to do my own little story on how they came to be in Traverse Town. With luck, this story will cover that, what they did during the plot of the game, and how they made it to Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden, and finally their own adventures. That however is very far away, and if I'm being honest, might not happen, since I'm bad enough about updating my fully plotted fics, and this is written as I think of it, soooooo yeah. I would not look at this as a fic that'll be updated often, but you never know, I go where my muse/writing bug takes me, and of course there's every chance of guilting me into updating this with reviews, wink wink nudge nudge. Until I update, whenever that will be, later.