Chapter 10: Search

Around this time the events of Descendants 2 occurred.

"…After which she has not yet been sighted. Nobody got hurt as far as is known, though the royal yacht has suffered substantial water damage. Auradon officials have urged everyone to remain vigilant. The daughter of Ursula is known to be able to shift from human form to a giant squid-like form similar to that of her mother years ago. Auradon officials have expanded their search from Belle's harbor to the entirety of Auradon Bay and the Strait of Ursula. This has caused for a temporary block on all sea trade through these waters, as well as making the isle of the lost no longer accessible by water. Should you spot the daughter of Ursula, do not make any personal attempts to approach and restrain her. Instead, immediately alert Auradon officials who have enabled a temporary emergency number, which you can read at the bottom of the screen."

Solomon had seen enough. He was fuming. He had been travelling through Auradon for about two weeks now, deliberately avoiding the main roads as a means of avoiding Auradonian military forces. This did cause his journey to be extended by some time, but he took the safety of those roads over the possible chance he might lose the cauldron.

He eventually had to go to a village to steal some more food, and that's where a newscast had caught his eye. He had spent the following minutes following the story with attention and an open mouth.

His first surprise had been that Mal had apparently gone back to the isle voluntarily, something he would have not thought she'd do. He would have expected her to become some sort of pariah if she would have gone back to the isle, her punishment for betraying their kind.

His second surprise was hearing that king baby beast and Mal's fellow VK's had apparently gone to the isle to get her back, only for the king to get kidnapped by Uma. What Uma did didn't really surprise him, she was one of the only people he considered hated Mal as much as he did and taking away her boytoy must have looked quite appealing to her. Mal and her gang had managed to get him back to Auradon safely though.

The biggest surprise however was learning that Uma had managed to escape the isle, spell king baby beast and had come incredibly close to having the barrier get brought down. That's when Mal had managed to break the spell with 'true love's kiss', yuck, and Uma had been forced to flee.

Seeing footage of Uma changing into a giant octopus and Mal into a dragon, was enough to make his mouth fall open. He naturally knew that both Uma and Mal had magical abilities, both inherited from their parents, but had never seen them in action. This did give him new possibilities should he ever require more powerful magical resources though. The story ended with the message that Uma had escaped and was still at large.

At first, Solomon had been exhilarated by this news. Having Uma off the isle would make his impending takeover probably go much more smoothly. She of course was the leader of one of the three largest remaining gangs, alongside his group of thieves and Harriet Hook's misfits, now that Mal and her gang had left the isle. If she was out of the picture, there would be less resistance when we would execute his plans.

His glee had quickly turned sour when he realized what her little stunt had also done. Auradon officials were now patrolling the waters between Auradon and the isle 24/7! How was he supposed to get back?

His initial plan of simply steeling a boat was now off the table, seeing as how the security around the harbor had also been tightened. Trying to inconspicuously swim all the way with the cauldron dragging him down wasn't a very welcoming plan either, if he would get caught like that, there would be no escape.

There was the possibility of taking the Auradon bridge, but he would need a specific magic to summon it. He had seen it appear when Mal and her gang had been escorted off the isle by the Auradonian limousine, and his guess had been there was some kind of activator in the limo or at the harbor on the other side. Anyway, first trying to find out how to summon the bridge and then simply hope he could get across unnoticed also was not the most solid plan.

He again briefly considered flying, but the possible risks were simply too severe. He did not have a sufficient control over those types of magic yet, not to mention the distance between the Auradon shore and the isle was far larger than anything else he had thus far attempted. The final straw was realizing that when he would cross the barrier, the magic would quit on him and he would plummet down like a sack of bricks.

The easiest way was still through the water, maybe he could find some kind of spell that let him quickly scale the bay or let him hold his breath for an elongated period of time. The spell he had used when he jumped off the cliff proved to be quite useful, but there was no way of making it last as long as he needed it to.

When he eventually got back to his temporary hiding place, under a large tree in the woods, with some new stolen provisions, he sat down with some of his spell books and searched for effective ways to get to the isle.

He quickly realized that water type magic was an entirely different concern than any other type of magic he had thus far tried. The simple underwater breathing spell he had already used was only one of the few water-related spells in the book. He found some evaporation spells, none of which were powerful enough to drain an entire ocean, and some water summoning spells, just what he needed, more water. The book did mention that powerful water type magic could only be performed by powerful water related mages and sorcerers, like king Triton, Ursula and, he suddenly realized, Uma!

Uma was the daughter of a water sorceress, which meant that she would be able to perform powerful water related magic. She was a way for him to get back to the isle! When that realization set in though, he quickly sobered up. She was currently in hiding, looked for by Auradon officials.

Furthermore, if he would somehow actually manage to locate her, she would never help him anyway. They had known each other for years on the isle and had a strained relationship to say the least. When Mal's gang still reigned supreme on the isle, he, Uma and Harriet Hook all scrapped to be second best. They had fought each other countless times and done some horrific things in the process.

Solomon thought, "She won't help me out of free will, but maybe if I persuade her. I do now have a way of conquering Auradon, surely, she would be interested in that." He naturally couldn't make her a deciding factor in his plan since she would probably have her own plans on what do when she would conquer Auradon and he would not compromise, he would however allow his plan to be altered slightly. If Uma would be able to get him back to the isle, he could maybe use her and her pirate crew for the first stage of his plan, taking down the barrier. He furthermore realized that she possessed magic, which was possibly the missing factor for him in trying to activate the cauldron.

He suddenly realized pondering over all of this would be useless if he wouldn't even be able to find Uma, he would locate her first and then think of a more thought out strategy. He looked around him, through the trees. He was very far from an expert of the best hiding places in Auradon, though he was willing to bet his soul that Uma would not wander far from the shore.

He would have to be extremely careful though, Auradon patrols were now very common throughout the Auradon shore and he was still a wanted man. Solomon figured he would first scour near the shoreline of Auradon bay. He expected that he would be able to pick up Uma's trace using his magic tracing abilities and then precisely locate her.

He couldn't possibly know how long it would take to find Uma, but his plans would probably have to be delayed again. He had been quite lucky on his trip thus far though, with him not losing the cauldron and finding his motor cycle. And so, he started his search the next morning hopefully.

Solomon was sulking underneath a small over lurking ridge. For the first time since he had arrived in Auradon it was raining, and not a little bit. He never really thought of rain as a possibility in Auradon, where everything always seemed to be just precious, the always sunny weather included. He did realize though that the kingdom could not possibly stay green without a little water every once in a while.

It had been a month since he had set out to find Uma, a month of carefully tracking past the Auradon shoreline. He had multiple close encounters with patrolling Auradon officials and could always count the numerous security boats sailing through Auradon Bay searching for Uma as well.

Solomon had thus far not found a single trace of Uma. He had searched forests, dunes, beaches and seaside cliffs, but had always come out empty-handed. His travels had taken him almost as far as History Island, which kept moving closer as he moved on day by day.

His journey was now agonizingly slow, with his persistence of checking every nook and cranny for Uma. He had not caught a whiff of her magic through his tracking abilities. He would have given up on his mission, but he kept telling himself that he would find her the next day, or the next, or the next.

He felt like he was searching near the mountain where the cauldron had been hidden again, just wandering around aimlessly, only this time it took a lot longer. He had his motor cycle to move around a lot faster than before, but his search area had been enlarged from around one mountain to basically a kingdom's entire shoreline.

He realized that he would soon have to cross the road near the bridge to History Island. He had actively hoped to avoid that place since it was always riddled with Auradon officials. He debated to himself if it wouldn't be better to head around Tangleton to the other side of the shoreline but believed that he couldn't risk not searching the place.

A great cliff doomed up around the side of a hill he just drove by, the cliff was covered in pointy rocks, smoothed out by years and years of waves splashing against the side. Numerous oceanic birds had already made their nest among the rocks and took turns diving into the sea.

Suddenly, he felt something. It was as if someone gently blew against his neck and he quickly turned around, his heart pounding. That feeling, he knew it, there was magic around him.

He looked up and around him but saw nothing. He peered over the side of the cliff, but only saw large waves crashing against the stone wall beneath him.

Solomon raised his arm and concentrated. He created some sort of magic field in the palm of his hand and tried to make it guide him. For a second, he felt nothing, until he felt some force pull his hand down, but he managed to keep himself from falling.

"Uma is somewhere down there." He thought to himself as he stared at the waves. But surely not in the ocean. He peered at the cliffs a little closer and noticed several large cracks in the rocks, which he guessed would lead somewhere inland.

As he moved towards the nearest tree line, he thought about his approach. Of Uma was genuinely hiding herself in some half-submerged cave, he would most likely have a pretty tough time getting there. He could try swimming there, his underwater breathing spell had already proved to be quite useful, but even the large river's stream paled in comparison to the rough waves below him. Solomon eventually came to the conclusion that he would first look for an entrance by land before potentially attempting to drown himself.

He rested for one more night before meticulously hiding the cauldron and his motor cycle, he would not have anyone get on his trail again. He then set out inland in search for nearby cave entrances.

This side of the Auradon shoreline had no shortage of caves, and though most of them were more like hollowed out rooms in the hills or ground, he found a few that led deeper underground. He eventually spent the entire day simply looking for the right cave, and when he eventually discovered a relatively small opening that went deep in the direction he needed, he had put quite a distance between him and his stuff. He thus decided to spend one night on the grass underneath a nearby tree. Unluckily for him, this was another night where the rain came pouring down, which caused him to have little to no sleep.

When the next morning came, the heavy rain had made way for a slight drizzle, and he decided to go down the tunnel he had found.

The rain had once again worked against him. The passage underground went mostly down, and the outside rain had seeped through the small opening and made the rocks inside wet and slippery.

Solomon spent the first 30 minutes in a quite narrow passage that went almost straight down, tightly hanging on to rocks on the wall and trying his best not to slip and break his neck.

This steep passage led to a little larger, more even part which was however covered with loose rocks that blocked his path. He had to produce a small flame in his palm again to see more clearly where he was going, and quite swiftly made it to a narrow crack in another cave wall, through which he managed to wriggle himself.

These naturally made tunnels differed immensely from the man-made ones his father had constructed to hide the cauldron. These tunnels ranged from quite large to incredibly small and sometimes he was forced to either climb straight up or slide straight down. The tunnel also had numerous branches with different routes, at these points he would call on his magic again to point him in the right direction.

After what felt like several hours, though Solomon could not be sure since there was no sunlight coming through, he heard something.

"You, poor unfortunate soul, It's sad but true. If you want to cross the bridge, my sweet, you've got the pay the toll." A familiar voice sang menacingly.