The Magical Quest
As the four entered the dark cave, Mickey's eyes darted back and forth. On one hand, it was nice to be away from all the lava and fire. On the other hand, they were in a dark, cold cave where anything could potentially harm them.
The group carried on for a few seconds until Mickey came to completely stop, Donald walking face-first into his back, Mickey turning to him and shushing him. Donald glared, ready to throw a fit when the mouse pointed up towards his reason for stopping.
There was an entire flock of bats hanging upside down from the roof. Luckily, they were asleep, but one could only imagine what would happen if they were to wake up.
Minnie's eyes went wide, the princess trembling while Goofy was about to chuckle, everyone quickly covering his mouth. Minnie then shushed all of them and started to move forward slowly on her tip toes. Mickey nodded and turned to the others, shushing them as he followed close behind, Donald doing the same to Goofy. Goofy then turned around to shush someone but realized no one was there, shrugging and following the others.
However, it seemed being as quiet as possible hadn't quite helped as one of the bats opened its eyes, stretching before noticing the others, its eyes going wide. It then turned to the other bats and screeched at them, pointing its right wing at the four. The other bats soon awoke, glaring at the peasants, jester and princess.
"Uh oh," Donald groaned, turning to notice the bats with their eyes open, Mickey turning around and whispering, "Donald, hurry up," then noticing what the duck was staring at, a look of fear in his eyes.
With that, the bats lashed out their fangs, their entire bodies soon covered in flames as they flew towards the group, the four panicking before running in the opposite direction. They could have barely taken that army had it not had the power of fire at its disposal. This just complicated things.
While the two ran down the hall, Mickey shook the ring up and down grumbling, "Why won't this stupid thing work?" while Minnie shrugged and replied, "Maybe the rings have minds of their own."
Nevertheless, this was inconvenient as they could really use the power of the rings right now. But on the plus side, they were at least outrunning the bats, but how long could they keep it up?
After another minute of running, something strange happened. The bats just... stopped. The four heroes also stopped to catch their breath, realizing they weren't being followed anymore and stared at the bats.
"Now why do you suppose they've stopped?" Goofy asked as Donald shrugged and remarked, "Who cares? We're safe now," and proceeded to spit raspberries at the creatures.
However, their confidence soon left them when Mickey pointed upward, the others looking up as well, their eyes going wide. The ceiling above them had spikes coming from it and, to make matters worse, it was lowering towards them.
After a few seconds of staring, all four started to panic as they took off once more. They couldn't turn back, after all. The bats would have most likely attacked them again.
The four ran for more than a minute, the spikes getting closer and closer. Luckily, it seemed that they were close to where the spikes would end. Unfortunately, the spikes were too close to the ground. Could they possibly make it?
"We're not gonna make it!" Minnie shouted as suddenly, Donald's ring started to glow as he was now wearing his barrel and cooking pot, the duck narrowing his eyelids while stating, "Not if I have anything to say to that!"
With that, the duck tucked himself inside the barrel, rolling forward and pulling the others with him. He was now moving at twice his original speed. But would this be enough?
The spikes were only seconds away as Donald pulling the others into the safe clearing, sighing with relief as the ceiling crashed down against the ground, Mickey breathing heavily while saying, "That could have been us."
As Donald emerged from the barrel, Minnie breathed a sigh of relief saying, "Well, that's that. We still have a long way to go."
While the group carried on, Donald had a look of disappointment on his face, grumbling mild curses under his breath. Where was his congratulatory pat on the shoulder? Goofy had gotten one for warding off a tribe with dumb luck. Donald had saved them from a much bigger threat.
As if things couldn't get any more complicated, Minnie started to breathe heavily after only taking two steps forward, slumping down on her knees. Everyone stopped as Mickey asked, "What's wrong?" Minnie letting out a sigh before replying, "My feet are tired."
"How can feet get tired?" Goofy asked as Mickey planted his palm against his face before explaining, "It's a figure of speech. On that note, I could use a rest too."
Donald, who had just returned to normal, sat down and joined them, stretching his arms out and yawning. Goofy shrugged, figuring he could use a great two and thus both he and the duck fell asleep right then and there.
"I have to say, it's amazing that we've made it this far," Minnie commented as Mickey laughed and nodded in response. Soon his smile turned a look of concern as he sighed, Minnie putting on a worried expression.
"Don't worry, Mickey," the princess said, patting him on the shoulder, "We'll rescue Pluto. I'm sure of it."
Meanwhile, back at Pete's castle, the king was in the dining hall enjoying a nice fancy dinner. As usual, all of the guards were also assembled simply to watch him eat his gourmet delicacies while they had small sandwiches. After all, King Pete always believed that his appetite was more important than theirs.
After stuffing down a chicken leg, the cat burped while one of the guards reached out for a wing, the guard next to him slapping his hand and shaking his head as if to say it wasn't worth it. After a few seconds, Pete noticed something wrong.
"Say," the king said, stroking his chin while the guards all looked at him, Pete asking, "Where is Ingo? I did specifically state that everyone in the kingdom assemble together for dinner as long as they're not out of the castle on business, right?"
The guards looked at each other and whistled innocently, Pete clapping his hands as one guard brought the king his cauldron, another bringing his book of spells. Pete flipped through the pages until he found one particular spell and chanted the words, shooting magic into the cauldron as Ingo appeared before him, but something was different.
Not only was Ingo red and dressed differently than before, but he looked as if he was inside a volcano. The king's eyes widened, but soon narrowed as he grunted. The other guards trembled in fear and watched while Pete stood up from his seat.
Pete took a deep breath and coughed before bellowing, "INGO DEFIED MY ORDERS!"
His voice boomed all throughout the kingdom, the guards all trembling as Pete calmed himself down. He couldn't believe that his most trusted minion would do such a thing. On the other hand, it wasn't as if Ingo was revolting against him. In fact, the imp was simply trying to defeat the princess and her allies. When Pete thought about it, maybe this wouldn't be so bad.
After a short nap, Donald woke up, stretching out his arms and felt something touch up against his hand. He slowly turned his eyes around and noticed it was Goofy's long snout, the dog still asleep next to him. The duck's eyes widened as he yelped, forcing Goofy away from him as the dog fell on his side, slowly waking up before saying, "Ahyuck, good morning, Donald."
Donald glared before throwing a tantrum, flailing his arms around as Mickey and Minnie awoke, rubbing their eyes and watching Donald trying to pummel Goofy while the jester held him back. Minnie chuckled and asked, "Are they always like this?" Mickey replying, "You have no idea."
After things had finally settled down, the four returned to their journey. After a few minutes of walking, the four found themselves in a room with openings on the floor, lava surrounding them. To make things stranger, the ceiling had fire spewing out of it. That was a very strange sight indeed. At the very least, they had a straight path ahead of them.
However, things didn't look up for very long as a familiar demon leaped from the ceiling in front of the group with a wicked grin on his face. The demon let loose smoke from his nostrils before exclaiming, "I finally got you right where I want you! You won't beat me this time!"
Mickey and Donald looked at one-another and shrugged while Minnie asked, "Um... who are you?" Goofy with another dumb-founded look on.
The imp groaned, turned his gaze to the readers and sighed, "I know my appearance has changed, but my face and voice are still the same. Isn't that enough?"
The others looked where the creature was facing as Mickey asked, "Who's he talking to?" while the others shrugged.
The imp slapped his forehead saying, "Surely you four must remember me," then seeing more clueless expressions sighed, "I'm Ingo," still receiving blank faces before adding, "King Pete's second-in-command."
"Oh, yeah, right, that guy," the four replied, nodding their heads while Ingo gritted his teeth. He couldn't help feeling insulted.
"Wait a minute," Goofy stated, stroking his chin, "If you're Ingo, then why are you red? I may not be all that smart, but I do remember you being green."
"Green?" Mickey retorted, tilting his head to the side, "He was flesh-coloured when we met him," Donald nodding and looking suspiciously at the demon saying, "Yeah."
"If you must know," the imp stated, "King Pete used his magic to transform me when I failed to stop you. However, that plant demon form wasn't for me. The problem with my first form was that I was fast but too weak. The problem with my second form was that I was strong but too slow. Thus I whipped up this new form for myself, one that's both fast and strong. You won't stand a chance this time."
"Oh yeah?" Mickey remarked, holding up his fists, "We beat you when it was just two of us! You may have received an upgrade, but we have an upgrade too!"
With that, the mouse showed the demon his ring as Ingo's eyes went wide, the demon shouting, "OH NO! YOU HAVE A MAGIC RING TOO!" Donald nodding and saying, "So do I!" showing off his own ring.
"Ahyuck, shiny," Goofy quipped as Ingo snarled and spat, "IT DOESN'T MATTER! I'LL GET MY REVENGE EITHER WAY!"
"Gee, what's gotten into you?" Minnie remarked, Mickey adding, "Sure, it's painful to lose, but you're acting a bit childish about it, don't you think?"
Ingo gritted his teeth and held up his hammer, slamming it hard against the ground as a chunk of rock was pushed up by lava from under Mickey, the mouse quickly leaping off of it before it reached the flaming roof. Clearly, Ingo was much more threatening now, and it didn't end there. The demon proceeded to shoot fireballs from his mouth, the group narrowly dodging except for Donald, whose tail was hit by one of them, the duck running around in panic, sticking his tail in the lava, breathing a sigh of relief only to realize the lava made the flame bigger, panicking even more.
"You'll pay for having me demoted!" the imp snapped, Mickey's eyes widening while the mouse replied, "You were demoted?"
"Yes!" Ingo remarked, a tear going down his face, "You have no idea how much my position meant to me!"
With that, the demon continued to shoot fireballs from his mouth toward the group, the four barely dodging while he continued to use his hammer to rise up pieces of the ground. He remembered how he'd grown up in a poor family. He remembered how he gave up his freedom so they would have a place to stay in the castle while he performed hard labour for Pete.
Ingo remembered how much it hurt getting all the way up to general status, and how his parents died from a deadly illness the day before his promotion. Naturally, being second-in-command meant a lot to the demon and he wasn't going to let a few peasants, a jester and a princess take that from him and get away with it.