Lena knew it was a mistake to stay at the mansion while her dads took Violet and Huey to a Woodchuck event out of town, but Webby had offered and now she had nowhere to turn.
"To adventure!" Dewey shouted excitedly as he ran down the stairs, tripping over Louie's bags at the bottom and sending their contents - two dozen cans of pep - rolling on the floor.
Lena groaned and closed her eyes. She could have been stuck in a car with her family, had a nice relaxing weekend in a hotel while they waited for Violet, but no she was staying with the one family that rushed headfirst into danger.
"You ready, Lena?" Louie asked, picking up his cans after checking that his brother was still alive.
"Yep, didn't even have time to unpack."
Apparently they were going somewhere to look for something, yada yada, and she knew if she asked to stay home alone Webby would feel bad about having to stay behind with her. So she'd agreed that whatever they were looking for sounded wonderful and of course she'd love to come.
Some people just didn't understand sarcasm.
She wandered out to the plane, Webby was gathering last-minute weapons and there was nothing for her to do. Della and Donald were arguing near it though, so she went back inside - just in time to see Webby sliding down the bannister and finishing the journey with a somersault.
"What happened to the extra weapons?" Lena asked her.
"Granny said Scrooge has packed everything we'll need. There won't be any of the usual treasure hunt danger because we're just looking for a stolen artefact and not going into any ancient tombs. Don't tell her, but I'd already packed my throwing stars and a dart gun because we might catch the thief and then we'll need them."
"You wouldn't need them to stop a thief," Lena assured her. "I'm pretty sure the cops handle it without them. Wait, we're not going treasure hunting?"
"Oh Lena, weren't you listening?" Webby seemed amused, "Scrooge got offered a ton of money to help track down an artefact that was stolen. Apparently it was holding back a curse that had been placed on a family but when it was stolen they started getting ill. So they called for help."
"Huh, so less danger than usual. That's good."
"Unless the ancient evil that cursed them rises up and tries to devour us!" Dewey told her.
Lena rolled her eyes, "maybe I can stay with the plane, protect it from the evil."
"No you've got to come, we'll be like the great Duck Detectives in the mystery novels Violet lent me - best friends solving crime!" Webby implored her.
"Fine, but I'm not wearing a silly detective hat," Lena said, wincing at Webby brought one out of her bag to wear.
"Oh, you think they're silly?" the younger duck looked away.
Not wanting to hurt her friends feelings, Lena shook her head, "nah, it looks cute on you. Not sure the boys could pull it off though."
Dewey made a noise to show he was deeply offended, but Webby perked up which was Lena's plan.
"Let's go grab seats near the front, so we can watch Della," Webby suggested.
"Are you hoping she'll let you fly the plane? You'll have to wait a few more years for that," Lena laughed.
"Mom let me fly it once," Dewey piped up.
Lena stared at him, "that sounds super responsible."
"We crashed," he added.
"Uh huh," Lena was surprised he had survived all of the adventuring so far - she'd seen from Webby's shadow how often he rushed towards danger.
"But you should ask her Webs, if Scrooge doesn't want you flying this time she might take you out another day."
"Kids, time to go," Scrooge called out, heading to the front door without paying any attention to them as he was busy checking over a map.
Lena watched as Webby offered to help carry Louie's bag to the plane and held the front door open for her. When the green kid wasn't looking she'd grab a couple of cans and hide them to share with Webby later.
The landed safely at the edge of a peaceful looking village, miles and miles of green fields and trees surrounding it. Webby stuck close to Lena as they left the plane, while Dewey hung around his mother and Louie watched Scrooge.
"Sorry our sleepover got interrupted," Webby apologised. "I know you don't like this sort of thing."
"Hey I could have stayed home with your grandma but I like spending time with you," Lena reassured her. "So what's the plan here? Do we start looking for clues on our own or will Scrooge tell us what to do?"
Webby grinned, "he's going to speak to the client then try to figure out how the thief stole the artefact, then hopefully they'll be some way to trace it."
"If it's magical we might be able to help with that," Lena reminded her.
"Friendship magic to the rescue!"
"I hope Violet won't mind if we use magic without her."
"I'll be sure to thoroughly document it for her."
Lena smiled, she was friends with two nerds.
They were all exhausted. The journey from Duckburg to Ireland took nearly nine hours. Della fell asleep in the taxi as they left the private airport and Scrooge woke her as they reached their hotel. They'd left Duckburg early in the morning but due to the time different they were now in a country where it was late at night, but should have been late afternoon to them. The taxi driver stopped at a fast food drive-thru, and for some extra money let them eat in the back of his car as they drove to the hotel.
"We're all going to go in quietly, because the other guests might be sleeping," Scrooge told them. "Get an early night, we'll be up and out in 10 hours."
The hotel had family rooms which were large enough for two adults and three children, so Scrooge had arranged for one room for Della and the children and one for himself. If anyone complained that there were four children in her room he'd share his room with one of the triplets - Louie seemed to be the quieter out of the two who'd come with them.
Scrooge woke up early, used to jetlag after travelling the world. He headed down to breakfast, pleased to see Della and the other children weren't far behind them. Once they were all ready, they headed out on foot, their destination nearby.
Following the instructions from the client, Scrooge led them away from the village towards a long, single-story cottage. It had a thatched roof, white walls, three windows and a red door. A gate off to one side lead to a wild garden, looking like it wouldn't have been out of place a hundred years earlier. There were no other houses nearby and as they approached the house the front door opened. A tall, thin male with a mixture of black and white feathers and a sharp pointed beak stepped outside.
"Corwin," Scrooge greeted him, "how's he doing?"
"Hanging in there, but still weak," Corwin shook Scrooge's hand. "I see you've brought a large team with you."
"Corwin, this is my family. Everyone this is Dr Corwin Leigh, the best physician if you ever need to be treated for magical maladies. I can't tell you the number of times he's stitched me up or remedied my injuries from run-ins with monsters."
Corwin laughed, "you certainly kept me in business once I'd graduated. My student loans were paid off faster than anyone else in my class."
"Corwin, you remember my niece Della? These are two of her three children Dewey and Louie. My informally-adopted niece Webby and her friend Lena."
"Of course I remember Della. A broken arm the first time and several stitches on your neck the time after that? Your brother seemed to need me a little more frequently, and with the more unusual problems," Corwin smiled at her, then nodded to the children, "nice to meet you."
He took them inside the cottage, leading Scrooge off to meet his client and leaving the rest of them in a little old-fashioned sitting room. Webby wandered over the bookcases, while Della watched over Dewey who wanted to start looking for clues. Lena hung back by the door, surprised when Louie stayed with her.
"I didn't think you liked adventures when there's no chance of a treasure," Lena looked over at the green triplet as she spoke.
"Huey made me promise to keep an eye on Mom and Dewey while he's away, and Mom's worried about Huey so she needs me here."
She smiled at him, "aw, how sweet."
"You tell anyone and I will reveal your most embarrassing secrets."
"What secrets? You guys know everything about me now."
Louie dropped his voice to a whisper, "Webby doesn't know how much you didn't want to come."
Lena grabbed his beak, forcing it closed, "and you'd better not tell her."
Wide-eyed with panic, Louie shook his head until she released his beak, "of course not, I promise."
Lena frowned at him, "it'd hurt her to find out."
"I swear I won't tell her. I was just teasing you."
"Good." She grinned at him, "so what are the odds on Dewey getting hurt before we even set out?"
Louie studied the room, calculating the number of sharp objects, "I'd say 3 to 1, but mom's hovering close enough to stop him so I'd say even odds - though this is Dewey and mom's still learning."
"Hey guys," Webby came over, peering at them through a magnifying glass.
"Find any clues yet?" Lena asked her.
"No, but they've got a lot of books on mythological creatures and curses on the bookcase."
Scrooge appeared, alone, and began rounding up Della and Dewey, "time to head out."
"Do you have a lead?"
"Just the location where the item was stolen from, we'll check it out and see if our thief left a trail for us to follow."
Webby linked her arm with Lena's, and they followed Scrooge out of the house.