Chapter 2-Tension

Dewey looked around, examining his blue armor and their surroundings. Behind them was a castle, there seemed to be some sort of body of water to one side, a stone structure straight ahead, and a dark forest on the other side. They stood in a meadow, filled with wildflowers and grass that was growing out of control. Had it been growing since the last time someone had played it? He looked around and assumed a position of leadership.

"Louie, give me the snake," He ordered, impulsively reaching for the serpent. Dice hissed and bit Dewey, slithering around Louie, snuggling up to him.

"He probably just wants to be friends, Dewey." Louie retorted with a smirk, petting the snake now.

"Okay, so I guess he stays with you." Webby was pretty busy examining her fun new weapon, and Huey was reading his spellbook and fiddling with his red cape, so only Dewey noticed the youngest Duck brother walking towards the castle.

"Where are you going?" Dewey asked.

"There might be people in there who can get us back to the people up there." He needed to talk his way out of this problem. Somehow.

"Please, no one up there is going to notice we're gone for a while. Uncle Donald's manning the boat, and Uncle Scrooge and Launchpad got stuck at the money bin before the storm started." Huey had taken notice and came over, grabbing Louie by the shoulder, causing Louie to scowl. Why did they keep doing this? Grabbing him like he was nothing.

"Louie, the snake was taking us in the other direction." Louie shook off his brother's hand.

"His name is Dice, and that could've been a fluke, you know more about random chance than I do." That actually probably wasn't true, since Louie liked knowing his odds in games of chance. Nonetheless, Louie soldiered on, the others trailing behind.

"Besides, Webby's a Princess, maybe the castle is where we're supposed to be." Then Dice's eyes flashed and sent them backward. Louie struggled with the serpent for a while, walking forward and being flung back, until finally dropping to his knees and wailing, "I just want to go home!" Dice flicked his tongue at him sadly and nuzzled into his neck.

"I think the only way to get home is to win," Huey said.

"And how do you suppose we're going to do that?" Louie asked as Dewey studied his map shield.

"I think we need to get to the X." He pointed it out to his brothers and Webby.

"Can I see the map?" Louie asked, and Dewey handed it over. The map was overlayed by a grid, which started up the gears in Louie's brain. He got it. He saw the angles.

"1, 2, 3- Huey how many grids between where we are and the X?" Huey glanced at the map shield for a few seconds.

"Two sixty-four," Huey said instantly.

"How many perfect 12s is that?"

"24." Huey was like a machine when it came to math. He was secure in this.

"Okay Dice, get us home. Perfect 12." Dice moved them a perfect 3 feet. Louie sighed tiredly.

"Okay, that's it, I'm just gonna walk." Louie decided, huffing off.

"Wrong direction!" Dewey called, studying his map shield.

"I knew this game would be stupid," Louie grumbled, Dice continuing to nuzzle into them. They began moving as a unit, Dice going quiet and not teleporting them, almost like he'd fallen asleep in Louie's tunic hood. So the party trudged on.

"Huey, does your book have anything that'll get us there any faster?" Dewey asked, trying to keep the family together, albeit not succeeding very well. Webby was super distracted and Louie was super discouraged and bad things were bound to happen. He had to admit that he was a little bit scared. It probably wasn't an actual concern, Duck's don't back down, after all. This was just another game that they were going to win. That they had to win.

"Ah, there are a couple of spells that might do something, but I'm still learning them." Dewey let out a frustrated sigh and turned to his younger brother.

"Okay, Louie, that snake of yours going to do anything?" Dewey asked the elf, who had disregarded his previous disregard for the creature and now held a bit of a bond with the snake.

"His name is Dice, and I can't force him to teleport us."

"Well, can you ask him?" Dewey asked, a little exasperated by Louie's flippant attitude.

"Fine. You want to help us out, Dice?" They lurched nine feet forward, the snake seeming pleased with himself.

"Thanks, little guy," Louie muttered, "you're the only sane one here." The snake hissed in agreement.

"I heard that!" Dewey snapped, still a little annoyed with his brother.

"Yeah, and you're the one who thinks this game is cool, so I stand by my statement."

"Actually, I'm the one who is absolutely terrified, Llewelyn, so don't tell me how I feel." Huey let out a low whistle as Louie and Dewey glared at each other. Then they glared at him.

"Shut up Huey!" They snapped in unison.

"Just wanted to tell you we reached something. No need to bite my head off." They stood in front of the stone structure, but neither Louie or Dewey had noticed because they were too busy quietly loathing each other. It had been a long time since the two of them had fought like this.

"Yeah, do we need to talk this out?" Webby offered, trying to stop her friends from fighting. She had never seen it this bad. Huey was used to the occasional outburst, but his brothers were really pulling out all the stops.

"No!" They said, glaring at each other before Louie turned and tried to walk away. Dice looked back at Dewey, calculating feet, pulling Louie back with magic, forcing Louie to fall into Dewey.

"Hey, watch out!" Dewey snapped, pushing Louie away.

"I never wanted to play this game!" Louie shouted, falling onto stone, the stone beginning to lower. The four looked around at each other as they began to separate, each launched into a different part of what turned out to be a twisting, turning maze.

"Louie!" Dewey screamed into the darkness.

"Huey, Webby, where are you?" But it had fallen silent. They were all alone.