Adventure
Prompt: Outnumbered
Ahhh, the smell of adventure! There was nothing quite like it. Some people preferred warm beds, clean clothes, a solid roof over their head, but Scrooge McDuck? Give him a sleeping bag, week-old garb, and a tent under the stars any day. Well, as long as there was some sort of treasure or discovery at the end of it.
And he was with the best two adventurers he'd ever met, his niece and nephew. Della, who was daring, courageous, sharp, and clever, and Donald, who was daring, courageous, infelicitous, and had a temper to rival any he'd ever encountered (which was really saying something, considering where the lad came from). Well, sometimes. But probably most of the time.
Today, they were exploring the jungles of South America in the hopes of finding the lost Treasure of Lima. A real pirate treasure with a real treasure map-well, part of a real treasure map. But that was just fine! It just made it an even bigger adventure!
Scrooge and Della poured over the partial map, comparing it with a current map to try to fill in the gaps.
"Maybe if we go north…"
"No, no. The path picks up again over here. We have to go east."
"But there's a mountain to the east. We have to go around it."
"Bah! We can climb over the mountain."
"That'll take too long, and we don't have the right supplies."
"Uh, guys?"
"But if we go around the mountain, we have to pay a toll-"
"Guys?"
"Well, we could try flying over the mountain, but I don't know if there's any place to land that way-"
"Guys!"
"-and we'd have to go back to the airport-"
"Della and Uncle Scrooge!" Donald shouted.
"What?" his sister and uncle said at the same time.
Donald wordlessly pointed. Della and Scrooge followed his finger and found that they were completely surrounded by dozens of locals.
Della and Scrooge exchanged a grin and shifted into a fighting stance, back to back. Donald joined their formation, though he was fighting the urge to duck and cover.
"They must be from that village on the map," Della said as they began to rotate around in concert, she and Scrooge daring their adversaries to attack.
"Maybe we missed a toll somewhere back there," Donald said.
"Nonsense! I mapped out all the tolls in this country before we came," Scrooge said.
"Tell them that."
One of the men said something in Spanish, and they drew their weapons.
"Maybe if we just-"
But Donald was cut off by the sound of a war cry, and suddenly everybody was fighting around them.
Scrooge expertly used his cane to fend off their attackers. He glanced over and saw Della holding her own with naught but her fists. And Donald...Donald was standing around, getting poked and prodded and clubbed when he wasn't looking, which was only serving to make him madder and madder until he finally lost his temper and started yelling and swinging. He attacked their assailants left and right with a fervor that, not for the first time, made Scrooge glad that his nephew was on his side.
But no matter how many of the locals they took down, there were always more. Scrooge could feel the energy around them change, and not in a good way.
"Uncle Scrooge, I think it's time for a tactical retreat!" Della said.
"I think you may be right!" Scrooge said. "Do ye still have those smoke bombs?"
"Yeah."
"On three," Scrooge said.
Della pulled a smoke bomb from her pocket, and Scrooge covered her as she lit it.
"One, two, three!"
Della threw the bomb as hard as she could, creating what looked like a forest fire in the making in the trees.
"Time to go, Donnie!" Della said, pulling him by the collar.
"Wak!"
The three sprinted in the other direction, ducking into the forest and quickly losing their attackers.
"Maybe-" Donald panted. "Maybe we should give up on the treasure."
"Give up?" Della said. "Why would we ever do that?"
"The natives here clearly don't want us around!" Donald said.
"When has that ever stopped us before?" Scrooge said.
"Maybe it should," Donald said, glaring at them. "They are people too, you know, and they have a greater claim to that treasure than we do."
"Yer not wrong," Scrooge said. "At the very least, we should probably head back to town and regroup."
"All right," said Della. She and Scrooge consulted the map once again, this time to retrace their steps instead of hunt for treasure.
"This way," Della said, pointing, and off they went, staying in the woods to avoid running into any more angry locals.