Ruby slowly made her way to her room, thankful it was on the ground floor. She ignored the salamander that was sitting on her beak and letting her know exactly what he thought about the whole Forest Lord experience. He might not be able to form words yet, but he was plenty able to get his feelings across.
After fumbling around in her bag to get the key out, she opened the door and managed to get in without falling flat on her beak. She put the Do Not Disturb sign on the outside handle and then made sure the door was completely closed. She dropped her bag on the bed as she staggered into the bathroom and turned on the light. She gasped so hard it hurt.
She was a mess. Her hair was filled with leaves, twigs, pine needles and dirt and looked like it had been through a wind tunnel. Her feathers weren't in much better condition.
Her shirt was ruined. She wondered if she was going to have to cannibalize her dress to make herself some fire proof tops. Too bad she had lost her cloak since it was a heavier weave of spider silk. At least her bra was ok since she hadn't changed that when she got out of the dress. With great dread, she took the shirt off and tossed it in the trash.
She had grown since last Ruby looked. She had been warned that would happen the more she used the fire within her. When she had joined with this being, the figure on her chest was no bigger than the palm of her hand, now this Elemental was as large as her entire hand.
The salamander crawled down her front to investigate. The figure suddenly moved and snapped at him and he quickly retreated to the safety of her shoulder. He then turned and hissed at the trapped figure.
She took a good long look at her prisoner. A stylized bird with a long neck, a wicked looking beak, her wings stretched to the sky as she emerged from the flames all a golden red against her dark red feathers. Here was her prisoner and her executioner: The Phoenix.
With a tired sigh, she plucked the salamander off of her shoulder and put him in the sink. He wasn't particularly enamored with the idea if the sparks coming out of the basin were any indication. She ignored him as she started to pluck the twigs, leaves and pine needles out of her hair and then dropped them into the sink. He settled down when he realized he was getting food.
Once the detritus was out her tresses, the mage stripped and showered. She felt only slightly better when she was done. After drying off, she checked on her little charge and found him hiding under a dead leaf. He wasn't happy about all the moisture in the air.
The salamander hissed at her and she couldn't help but smile at him. He had spunk. He also had the ability to burn holes in the furniture.
Ruby went back out to the bedroom. She found her dress and then moved the bags off of the bed. She pulled back the covers and spread the dress out on half the bed.
She retrieved the salamander who had just managed to get to the top of the sink. She put him and the left over leaf litter on the dress and made it clear he had to stay on the dress. He seemed a bit put out by it, but he did stay put. She turned out the lights and crawled into the bed next to the dress. She got comfortable and then did one last check on her little charge.
The baby Elemental was pacing along the edge of the dress closest to her. Ruby put her hand down next to him and he immediately scampered up her arm. She smiled as he crawled onto her cheek and then curled up. With one last tired sigh, she closed her eyes and gladly gave into sleep.
The pressing need of her bladder and her grumbling belly were what finally woke Ruby. It had nothing to do with the salamander dancing on her head. She took a clumsy swat at the little pest before she rolled out of bed.
She hurt. Everything hurt. Even her feathers hurt.
With a groan, Ruby staggered off to the bathroom. When she stumbled back into the bedroom a while later, the salamander was sitting on her dress glaring at her. She stood there, looking back at him in confusion. Something was off about the little critter. It finally dawned on her that the salamander had grown during the night.
She put her hand out to him and he just glanced at it before glaring at her again. After a minute it became apparent he was not going to cooperate. She considered just grabbing the little beast. But common sense made an appearance and reminded her that despite his size, he was still an Elemental.
Deciding it wasn't worth finding out how fire proof she really was, she went through her bags to find some clothes. She only had a couple outfits that were clean, so she went with the mini dress. She was going to have to go shopping again.
She still had a lot of money, but she knew it wouldn't last forever. She was either going to have to sell more of her belt or get a job. She was most certainly going to have to find a better place to live.
Those were going to have to wait. Right at that moment Ruby had more immediate concerns. The most important was what to do with the salamander. She worried about leaving him alone for fear that he would get bored or hungry and start damaging things. However, taking him with her was going to be a problem too.
When she had gone shopping-had it really only been yesterday?-she had seen plenty of people with dogs, a couple ferrets and one cat, but no one was walking around with a flaming amphibian. Bringing him was going to cause more problems than she cared to think about, but leaving him wasn't an option either.
"I need food," she muttered as she rubbed her face, trying to wake up a bit more.
That got his attention. So that was why he was so cranky. He was hungry. However, she wasn't sure what to do.
She picked up the messenger bag and pulled out The Mask, the map and the money. She didn't want to spend the time and energy to unweave part of her dress, but she really had no choice.
By the time Ruby was done, she was ready to start chewing on the furniture. Her dress was now a bit shorter and the bag had a nice fire proof lining in it. There was also a pocket between the lining and the bag for her to put her things in
After combing her hair out and brushing her teeth, she put The Mask in one of the dresser drawers and magically sealed it. She put her things in the pocket and then turned to the salamander. It took some convincing, but she finally got him in there. If women could walk around with those barking puff balls in their purses, why couldn't she walk around with a magical creature in hers? With that conviction, she stepped into the late afternoon sunshine and went in search of food.
Well, that had been a learning experience. With a great deal of care, Ruby put the bag down on top of her dress. She would have rather have flung it into the ocean, but she doubted the Forest Lord would have been too happy with her.
She had worked in a duckling care facility. She had been studying to become a teacher. She had seen and read about almost every misbehavior known to duck kind in the two years of working and studying.
Today, she had seen them all displayed plus a few more within a few hours thanks to an impatient little beast who hadn't wanted to stay in the bag. Ruby had perfected her concealment and retrieval spells every time the little bugger had managed to escape. She was going to have to replace her maps. Lesson learned: Feed the Elemental before feeding herself.
Fortunately, slightly singed money spent just as well as whole. She pulled the remaining paper money out of her bra before sitting down at the desk. Her food was a bit cold, but it was still edible.
Ruby dug into her dinner with gusto. She was starved and filling the empty hole in her middle became her sole focus. She was so intent on her food that she didn't notice movement on the bed.
She nearly jumped out of her feathers as she let out a startled yelp when something crawled up her leg. It took a second for her to realize the salamander wanted in her lap. After Ruby convinced her heart and lungs to work properly again, she looked over at the bed and floor, checking for fire damage. She didn't see any scorch marks, which was a relief.
Ruby carefully picked up the Salamander. She couldn't help but be amazed that something that had been just slightly larger than her thumb the night before was now longer than her hand.
How fast would he grow? How big would he get? The Forest Lord said he was the smallest of the fire Elementals, but that didn't tell her anything.
While she tried to figure out where to put him, he ran up her arm and curled along the back of her neck. Ruby immediately reached for him, afraid that he would damage her new dress. She was fond of this dress. It was the one that left had Wildwing speechless.
He scooted up under the hairline and settled down. She stopped and waited. When it appeared that he was going to stay put, she slowly lowered her arm. She went back to eating, though without the mindless ferocity of before.
As the warmth from the small fire Elemental started to soak into her tight muscles, she started to get drowsy. She slowly finished her dinner. When she was done, she decided that there was no point to fighting the fatigue. Ruby barely managed to get her clothes off and nicely hung before crawling back into bed. Sleep claimed her in moments.
Short of the Raptor landing in the middle of the rink, Wildwing didn't think practice could have gone any worse. They were all off their game. In under 48 hours they had had their tails handed to them multiple times, by a single duck no less.
Dragaunus had never managed to do in a year what she had done in less than two days. How could this one duck have done it? Ok, granted, Dragaunus's goons weren't the brightest bulbs in the box.
But how did that pretty slip of a female manage to keep one step ahead of them? Pretty? Did he just think she was pretty?
NO! Absolutely not!
With a frown on his face, the team captain wandered into the rec room. Duke and Mallory were off to one side playing checkers while Grin and Nosedive were watching cartoons. Tanya was in the corner working on something that gave him hope.
"How's it going, Tanya?" Wildwing asked as he stepped up to his tech.
"Ok, I guess," she replied with a shrug. "I've made the casing and got the wiring and circuitry in place."
"That's great!" he exclaimed. "What's left to be done?"
"The power source," she answered, disheartened. "I can't figure out how to power it. This thing takes, you know, a lot of energy."
"How was the original mask powered?" he questioned.
"I don't know," she admitted. "I was never able to figure that out."
"HEY!" Nosedive yelled. "I was watching that!"
Wildwing could see that the TV was now on an all news station and Mallory was holding the remote.
"No, you were killing your braincells," she retorted. "You don't have enough to spare."
"That stuff'll rot your brains," Duke agreed as the news came back from a commercial break.
"Welcome back! We all know and love our Mighty Ducks," the news caster started and the ducks all perked up a bit at those words, "but it seems there's a new duck in town..."
A picture of Ruby wearing her long dress, shopping bags in hand appeared on the screen.
"...and apparently, she's here to go shopping."
The next shot left the males with their jaws hanging open and the females rolling their eyes. She was wearing a mini dress and heels. Her black hair was loose and flowed down to her waist. Her legs seemed to go on for miles.
"We don't know who she is yet or if she'll be joining our team to play hockey. Calls to the Mighty Ducks home office have not been returned. We'll keep you updated as soon as we learn more. In other news..."
The screen went blank and the males still didn't move.
"BLINK!" Mallory shouted, snapping them out of their stupors.
"That was a nice dress she was wearing," Duke managed to say, his voice only slightly cracking.
"You'd think you'd never seen legs before," Mallory grumbled. "Her fashion sense is terrible. Her bag didn't match her shoes."
"Wasn't that the bag she had last night?" Nosedive finally managed to ask. "You know, the one she put the mask in?"
"Now that you mention it, yeah, it was," Duke confirmed.
"Tanya, see if you can get hold of that picture," Wildwing instructed. "Maybe we can get some clues from the background. It might tell us where she is."
"I'm on it," Tanya replied.
She got up and headed over to a nearby computer terminal. The others crowded behind her as she worked. In about a minute, Tanya had the picture.
Wildwing tried not to look at the duck in the picture. He really did. Did she really have to have legs like that?
"Mother of ducks, she looks good," Duke mumbled.
"Who cares what her bag looks like," Nosedive mutters.
"Do you two mind?" Mallory growled.
"Well, that didn't take long," Tanya stated.
"What did you find?" Wildwing asked, eager for a distraction from those legs.
"This," Tanya answered as she enlarged a section of the photo.
"Hey! That's Captain Comics!" Nosedive exclaimed when he recognized the back of the giant animated figure of his favorite shop.
"So, we know she's still in the area," Wildwing said.
"But the question is where," Mallory pointed out. "She can't be living at the mall. So where is she staying?"
"What about a hotel?" Duke suggested.
"There's only about a million hotel rooms in Anaheim," Mallory stated. "Want to try knocking on all of them? Klegghorn would love that."
"Becket Construction," Wildwing suddenly blurted out and everyone turned to stare at him.
"Come again?" Duke asked several seconds later.
"Bro, do you think she's going to build a house?" Nosedive questioned.
"Raleigh Becket was one of the humans who found Ruby at the side of the river," Wildwing explained. "He was the one who was following us around at the mall. He gave her his card before he left. Maybe she's staying with him and his family."
"Give me a minute," Tanya said as she started typing again. "Ok, I've got it. I don't think she's, you know, staying with them though."
"Why not?" Wildwing inquired.
"Because they live in Long Beach," Tanya answered. "It's not too far away, but it's not that close to the Anaheim Mall."
"She is weary," Grin suddenly stated.
"How do you figure that?" Duke asked.
"Her eyes," Grin answered. "She's tired."
The others turned their attention back to the computer screen. Tanya enlarged the image of her face. Sure enough, they could see the exhaustion there. Wildwing frowned.
Why did he just feel a pang of sympathy for her?
Canard woke slowly. It felt like his brain was trying to swim through ice water. When he finally managed to drag his eyes open despite the lids feeling like they were lined with lead, he could see a ball of dim light floating on the other side of the room. That's when he groaned. He was still at Twin Beaks.
"Oh! You're awake!" a young female voice chirped in surprise. "I'll be right back."
He wanted to tell her not to bother coming back, but she was gone and his beak felt like it had been packed with cotton. He tried to sit up or move or something, but he couldn't. It felt like he had a million pound blanket covering him.
"It's about time you woke up," an older female voice harrumphed. "I have better things to do than wait for you to get your act in gear."
He tried to glare at the middle aged duck that was built like a tank. Even without the blue beak she wasn't a good looking lady. Intimidating, yes, but pretty? Not even in her younger days.
"Don't give me that look, boy," she snapped as her eyes started to glow.
He clenched his beak shut, waiting for her attack. Suddenly, the feeling of being held down was gone. He sat up and nearly fell out of the bed. She caught him and pushed him back. He tried to move away from her, but the bed wasn't very big and it was against the wall.
"Settle down," she grumbled as she took a seat next to his bed. "I need to check to make sure that nothing more serious than you being knocked for a loop happened."
She asked him a series of questions about his name and hatching day and other trivial things. While she did that, she ran her hands over his wings, legs, torso and head, not quite touching him in the process. When she was done with her exam she nodded and headed for the exit.
"You should rest until morning and then you can get up," she told him. "If I find out that you're wandering around before then, I'll bind you to that bed again. The girl will be back with your food shortly."
With that, the older duck left before he could ask her any questions. He stared at the stone walls and ceiling. He tried to think back to the last thing he could remember.
They had opened the portal and Ruby had gone through. She had been gone a couple minutes when everything went blank. Why couldn't he remember?
"Dinner was a couple hours ago, so I brought you what I could find in the kitchen," the young female stated as she came back in the room.
She was a pretty little thing with big blue eyes and reddish blond hair. There was a spattering of small dark feathers across her creamy face. Except for the blue beak, she was very pretty.
"I don't remember seeing you before," he croaked and then he tried to moisten his mouth.
"Here," she offered as she shyly held out a cup to him. "I'm usually in the library."
He carefully took it from her, making sure not to touch her. Ruby had assured him that merely touching a mage wouldn't turn him into one, but old fears died the hardest. She put the plate on the table next to the bed, picked up the chair and took it across the room. He could see he had hurt her feelings and he felt kind of bad about that.
"You got a name?" he asked gruffly after he had drained the cup.
"Emily," she said softly.
"What happened?" he asked as he picked up the plate. "Where's Ruby?"
"If she's alive, she's wherever the portal went to," she answered quietly.
"What do you mean, 'if she's alive'?" he demanded as he took a bite of fruit.
"Those who could see through the portal, saw her heading back," she told him, her voice still just barely above a whisper. "You're team was chasing after her, but then one of them threw something through the portal and it exploded. The backlash hit you the hardest and you've been out for a couple days now."
"How come I got it the worst?" he questioned heatedly and she seemed to shrink down. "I was the farthest away."
"The magic protects us," she said so softly that he almost didn't hear her.
He worked on eating his food since talking to her only seemed to frighten her. It was their usual fair. Mostly veggies, fruit and some goat cheese, no flat bread though. There was also no meat either, but meat was a rare treat. Chances were that if there had been any at dinner, it was all eaten by the time dinner was over.
"When can I leave?" he finally asked.
Now that he had had something to eat, he wasn't feeling like he wanted to rip someone's head off. Though he still wasn't happy.
"Elder Blanche said you can get out of bed tomorrow," she answered, still not looking at him.
"Yeah, I know," he replied, trying not to growl. "When can I go home? When can I leave Twin Beaks?"
He didn't think it was possible for her to get any smaller, but she did. He frowned at her. She was a mage, someone who could use unimaginable powers and she was acting like a scared little mouse.
"You can't, Canard," she barely whispered. "Because you broke your promise, until The Mask is returned, you are bound to the Tomb of Drake DuCaine."