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FICTION

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Chapter 6 – The Great Library Search (Dewey)

Beta-Reader: Ant0nius

One thing that a certain blue-themed duckling couldn't help but feel irritated about was when part of his plans went… well, wrong. Or at least, differently than expected. A flawless adventure, one that was cool, epic and held none of the dangers that would hurt him or anyone of his family- and yet, this situation had become a bit more serious than what it started as.

It all started with an innocent attempt at trying to find any major clues about his mother through what Webby had stored in her secret journal. The girl had studied the family for years out of boredom and curiosity, so there had been hope to find something in it. Of course, Dewey failed to realize that Webby wasn't someone he could avoid, especially when she had the opportunity of seeing him leave for her room. So he was caught… right with the glitter red paint of her journal staining his hands and proving his guilt about trying to look through her own notes on the matter. This thankfully wasn't enough to botch the whole effort, as even though it felt like a punch in the guts that not even the fellow duckling had anything about Della Duck. He had a picture of her, then he saw her again through a ruined portrait while helping fix the garage after the 'first adventure'. Uncle Donald once went on adventures with Uncle Scrooge, so what were the chances that his mother had been a part of them? In fact, looking back at the valiant smirk on her face while facing dangers compared to Donald's more nervous smile, Dewey could tell she was the one that started these adventures. It was like a feeling, an ingrained instinct that refused to have him think otherwise.

Despite the bad news from Webby, the girl had a plan. A rather odd plan that involved visiting Uncle Scrooge's workplace. It had been something that the old duck had tried the triplets to do, but Huey had been away to buy things with Uncle Donald. So it was just him, Webby, Scrooge, a reluctant Louie and… John. The last addition still felt like a surprise. He was an extra adult to get away from if they wanted to progress onwards with their research, so he knew that the plan he had plotted together with Webby was easily put in jeopardy. But that didn't seem to be the case for the other duckling, the girl actually giving him a knowing smile before doing something that should have, by all means, destroyed their combined efforts the moment they arrived at their destination.

"John, can you help us get to the bathroom?"

The human looked up from his phone, it had been a recent addition and one he had been busied with in recent days. He didn't obsess about it, but it was clear that 'his new job' and the new phone were related from the few hints he provided. His attention now on them, with his eyes briefly glancing back at Scrooge, the old duck frowning at the sudden request but quickly shrugging and giving tacit consent to allow this split up. Dewey's eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected continuation events, but then he started to realize something he had missed when he put John in the equation. The man was definitely unaware of what happened to Della Duck, so he had no reason to be told by either Uncle Donald or Uncle Scrooge to not tell or help them to find the truth. It was genial, and yet Dewey could tell Webby hadn't gone through that extensive thinking. At least, that wasn't easy to discern when she was hanging rather close to the human. Many things surprised Dewey, but for some reason he couldn't help but notice how the girl had taken a strong liking to John. One would say it was just friendship, but Webby's bubbly personality seemed to just 'normalize' around John. Not to the point of forgetting to be a little bit weird at times, but she seemed way more tame than usual around the human. And for some strange and most annoying reason, it drew a lot of his attention into it. He couldn't actually tell why it happened, but it did. It frustrated him a tiny bit.

Still, Dewey could ignore the curious development for now, knowing that there was something more important than that for now. He had to find out what happened to his mom, and now that he had the chance to do so, he wasn't going to mess things up by being distracted. It took Webby roughly… two minutes of forced calm to actually break her composure and reveal the truth.

"So you are trying to access to Scrooge's private library to try and-"

"Please John, I need to know," Dewey interjected mid-summary, with the human sparing him a surprised look. "It's been ten years- I know I'm a kid and- and I know that there is stuff we shouldn't know about. But this is mom and I want to know what happened to her."

John blinked, a perplexed look plastered on his face as he thought about what the boy said. The silence felt upsetting at best and chest-hurting at worst, but the human's smile somewhat soothed any unease.

"Okay."

…

"W-Wait really?"

"It's your right, Dewey. Yours and your brother's," The man answered kindly. "So I guess I can close an eye to your little scheme, but next time I would suggest directly asking."

...Surprise was a word that barely described what Dewey felt at that approval, but the boy didn't mutter anything as he merely nodded and-

"Still, We're here for something important, Webby. I can tell you're planning to take a few with yourself, but those books aren't going to walk away from that library."

The aforementioned duckling paused, caught off-guard by that strict reminder which left her frowning at the human. A brief staring competition, one that Webby was unable to win and thus was forced to concede as she knew the situation didn't favor her secondary plan. The girl nodded slowly, still pouting at that decision as she made plans to 'borrow' some books to read back at the manor and add more information to her growing understanding of the McDuck/Duck Family. With that out of the way, they proceeded to their real destination and arrived to find out that the library was only open to family, which was Dewey by direct tie. The two children and the escorting adult were allowed inside by the dedicated librarian which Dewey was sure was a bit crazy due to her solemn and terribly serious tones. And he got confirmation of that when she refused to provide them with direct answers to their questions.

"While family is indeed a particular part of this place, this library is primarily dedicated to Scrooge McDuck, the first of the McDucks which sailed from Scotland and reached the States. But perhaps you may find the truth by going through some tests!"

Dewey was good at puzzles, but he was not in the mood to face that kind of obstacle right now. Something that he would have answered dryly as well if not for John mumbling something that they caught with ease.

"What about Seafoam and Angus?"

"Beg your pardon?" The librarian spoke up, hardly restraining herself from narrowing her eyes at that comment.

"Well, Seafoam McDuck was a buccaneer in the late eighteenth century, while Angus McDuck was the second McDuck to make the trip across the pond. He became a steamboat captain before he retired and gave his ship to Scrooge."

Wait, my family had pirates?!

"Mr. Bukharin… right?" Ms. Quackfaster spoke up with a serious tone, appearing calmer than before about this. "I am quite sure that information shouldn't be available outside of this library."

The human didn't look too surprised at that indirect accusation. "I'm quite certain it is. I mean, Scrooge is the owner of his life and one can simply dig into what is public about the McDuck's ancestors to know that there were unique ones. Angus was the creator of the first comic stories in the US after all."

After a long stare that tried to identify if the reasoning was correct or a lie, the woman nodded and sighed. "I suppose you are aware of the fact that, as a Librarian, I have a duty to this family-"

"One that we don't wish to sully, Ms. Quackfaster, but I believe it would be nice if the kids were given a bit of a hint. And nothing cryptically difficult."

"That depends, IF YOU ARE READY FOR-!"

The woman quickly pulled a sword out of one of the shelves and looked ready to take a swing at John… only for disaster to not happen as the human merely tensed up and entered in action. The sword was stopped… as a book closed precisely to firmly stop the blade into its middle pages. All ducks stared in shock, while John glared angrily at the woman and stared at her with an irritated look.

"I can understand the need to 'test' the kids. But I believe it's common sense to stop any use of that kind of danger to 'prove their worth', Ms. Quackfaster."

…

That's so cool!

Webby looked to be on the same page as him as she squeaked in awe at that impressive block. It definitely was unexpected, especially when the man just replied so coldly that made the woman break character again from the way she looked terrified at that development and response.

"I suppose it would work, yes," The bespectacled duck nodded nervously, gulping as she started helping them around until they arrived to find a single book.

"'The life and time of Della Duck'? This is it!" Dewey could feel his heart drumming in excitement but… that wasn't a lasting feeling. Not when he opened the book and found its pages empty. "W-What? Why is it- Wait."

He stopped at a particular page with numbers. "A code?"

"It would seem so," Webby hummed, picking the book so she could check the numbers closely. "I think… yeah, we passed by a spot that had some books with that

"You spotted that while we were walking?" John inquired in surprise, being met with a little pout

"Well, since I can't take anything, I just looked around and spotted the books I want to read more about next time we visit." She replied with an annoyed tone… which barely lasted through that sentence as John merely reached out and patted her head.

"That was still impressive. Once again, we will visit once again to see if we missed anything the first time around."

The frustrated look didn't survive the head patting and Dewey almost chuckled at the sight. Still, they had a puzzle to solve and he was sure that the answer to many of his questions was just around the corner. The main task was to get all the books plus the one they used as a clue in the right spots of the nearby shelves as they had been willingly put in the wrong order to not activate a… secret door. The ground glowed as lines of blue darted from the books and trailed right at the close section of the wall which shifted to provide access to a secret room. A secret room with secrets and truths. While Webby eagerly took in all that was inside there at first glance, Dewey's gaze lifted up to greet the full portrait of his mother and… a letter that had been framed on the wall just underneath the portrait.

"'Scrooge, I've taken the Spear of Selene. I'm sorry, Della'," The boy paused before understanding what words he just uttered. "Wait, what did she take? Why is she sorry?"

No filter, he felt a bit shocked. That was definitely something written by his mother. Why was it kept here? Why is she sorry?!

"Did she… betray Scrooge McDuck?" Webby thought out loud as quietly as she could, keeping herself from being too direct about her guess as she could tell on her own this wasn't a simple topic.

"Mom was a… a thief?" Dewey remarked softly, almost failing to believe what was going on.

The words left him numb. Was that even possible? Could it be that, after so long, he found out a nasty truth about her disappearance?

The horror froze the moment he heard a single but fierce response to that question.

"No."

Dewey paused, his eyes going back at John as the man had finished re-reading the message.

"Your mother is not a thief. If she was then Scrooge wouldn't have kept this around and he wouldn't have been happy to meet you and your siblings," The human argued with a serious tone. "In fact… I guess this gives some answers, but also brings up new questions."

"What answers?"

"That she is still around and alive. Now we have to understand why she was absent for most of the time. Something had to have forced her to keep away from the family. Something that Donald and Scrooge don't want you to know."

"B-But why?"

The human shrugged. "I am only guessing at this point. But it might be tied to this Spear."

"Oh."

Yes, the Spear of Selene. Maybe if they found out what it was, then they could understand where Della Duck was gone. His trail of thought was stopped the moment he noticed John had crouched down to his level and offered him a handkerchief. Dewey blinked once, failing to initially grasp why he was offering him that, but then, as he realized how his sight had gone blurry and how he was now crying, he tried to brush it off. His response failed in its tone to prove it wasn't a lie.

"I-I'm fine."

"Nope, you're not," The man affirmed strongly, and even though he would have protested normally, the duckling didn't make a fuss as he pulled off the ground and came close to the man. "I believe we're done here for today. We've learned quite a bit already."

Nodding, Dewey unconsciously rested his chin on the human's right shoulder and… he was confused when Webby too was lifted up and comfortably set to occupy the other section of the embrace.

"It wouldn't do if Scrooge saw you being the only one carried around. We're doing this secretly after all."

Am I that transparent about my thoughts right now?

Perhaps, maybe. But Dewey also didn't feel the need to press on the matter, merely nodding it off as the trio were led back to the entrance as they looked for Scrooge. Louie had made his own adventure from what he would tell him once they were back at the manor, but Dewey's thoughts were elsewhere for most of the narration. Not only did he find himself questioning what happened to his mother now that he could tell from John's own deductions that she was alive, but he knew her departure hadn't been driven by something bad towards Scrooge or the family altogether. It was so interesting and yet it was easily clashing in importance to another thought of his. John had carried him, and it had felt incredibly… good. He was old enough to not care too much about it, but the action had put him somewhat at ease in his hold. Kind of warm, not too much to hate it, and he had put on a fragrance as he usually did. It wasn't too strong, but it definitely was different from getting hugged by someone drenched in cologne or in sweat.

Plus, it's been a while since Uncle Donald had last carried him like that and… it had been so nice to be given that treatment after so long…

AN

John is kind of a 'Papa Bear' when kids are in danger.

Also next time… John makes a friend. Or two.

REVIEW Q&A!

Valkoor123113: Enough to set up a Bank Account with a good part of it, buy a phone, and a few outfits. It's not Scrooge-kind of rich, but it's a start.

Coldblue2015:
1) None of those are his bosses, but he will clash with them more frequently due to his current situation;
2) While that sounds fun, I kind of put a foot down to replicate RL stuff of that scale. Disrupts the narration, I think;
P.S. She is shown in one of the pictures Goofy has of his son where she goes to the Prom with Max. There should be a clip or two about it if you search Ducktales Quack Pack.

Raltol Lotlar: I would say that their encounter is definitely going to be interesting due to them both sharing the same nationality, but he will have a… different teacher for some magical stuff.