Working through a burning fever was not a pleasant experience. The rise in his body temperature made Louie feel sluggish and the sweat dripping down his face kept getting into his eyes, making it hard to see, and the green triplet was forced to constantly wipe his face with the sleeves of his hoodie. To make matters worse, Huey decided to recite the symptoms of the poison to him – he did it so many times that the youngest triplet now knew them by heart. Louie was ready to take the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook and shove it down his brother's throat.
"First there's a fever, then chills, headaches, dizziness, drowsiness, sapping of strength, loss of consciousness…" Huey was saying, counting the symptoms on his fingers.
Unable to take any more, Louie rounded on Huey.
"Will you give it a rest?" he snapped. "You've said all of these already and repeating them over and over again won't help anything!"
"You need to know what's coming and I wouldn't have to repeat it if you would just acknowledge what I'm telling you instead of pretending not to hear me!" Huey exclaimed. "And facts soothe me when I'm nervous!"
"And those same facts are freaking me out! I hear what you're saying, okay? Now will you leave me alone before I acknowledge you with my fist?"
"Why don't we all take a deep breath and try our best to remain calm?" Webby suggested as Huey opened his mouth, appearing by the red triplet's side along with Dewey. "You heard what Uncle Scrooge said: this is no time for arguing. This is already a stressful situation without the creation of unnecessary tensions."
"Seriously, Huey, lay off the nerd stuff. I think Louie knows that he's facing certain death," Dewey said.
"Not helping," Louie deadpanned. "Can we just focus on finding that antidote instead of what will happen to me if we don't?"
Dewey threw an arm around Louie's neck. "Will do, little bro. Don't you worry about a thing: we're the Duck family and we can get through anything!" the blue triplet exclaimed.
Louie stepped away. "While I appreciate the enthusiasm, can you please not come near me? I'm boiling over here and don't need the extra heat," he said, flapping the hem of his sweatshirt. "I never thought I'd say this, but I'm regretting my choice of clothing today."
"Oh, you'll need that thing later. You'll be freezing in a few hours after the fever," Huey reminded him. Louie brandished a fist in his face.
"I've never heard of a poison that causes a fever and chills. What kind of poison is it?" Webby asked curiously.
"According to the JWG," Huey said, opening the book once more, "it's a special blend created by the ancient society that built this temple. It was designed to mimic some sort of mild jungle illness to make it appear less serious than it actually was. Since there seemed to be no immediate cause for worry, nothing would be done and the victim would only realise they'd been poisoned after the more severe symptoms kicked in and thus leave them with less time to find the antidote."
"That's quite an elaborate scheme to protect some treasure," Dewey noted.
"I think it's genius. But thanks to the Guidebook, we already know about the poison and can prevent Louie from suffering the same fate of hundreds before him," Huey said.
An arrow came from the opposite direction, narrowly missing Louie and Dewey as it flew between them and hit the wall with a sharp sound. Wide-eyed, all four children turned to see what had shot the arrow. There was an opening in the wall next to Donald, who was looking sheepish while Della had her head in her hands.
"Sorry…" Donald said.
"You know, when I deciphered that the runes with a blue star on them were the triggers for the traps, I wasn't implying that we test one of them out," Della said, sighing heavily. "But good to know that they still work properly."
The kids looked back at each other.
"Prevent me from suffering the same fate, eh? Only if Uncle Donald doesn't accidentally kill me first," Louie said, warily eyeing the arrow in the wall. Knowing their clumsy uncle, that was a very real possibility.
"Runes that have a blue star on them trigger the traps? Better encircle that in the book," Huey said, taking a pencil out from beneath his hat. "That's something we definitely don't want to forget."
"Do we have a description of how the antidote looks like, Huey? There might be some decoys in here that could aggravate Louie's condition if drunk," Webby said, peering over Huey's shoulder to take a look at the Guidebook.
"There might be. Hang on," Huey replied. He flipped through the pages, his eyes scanning them at lightning speed. He stopped halfway through the book and pointed at a spot on the page. "Here we are. We should be looking for a yellow mixture that is contained in a round vial. Anything else is either a placebo or, as Webby said, something to make the victim's condition worse or speed up the process."
"Good call, Webby," Dewey said, amicably nudging their friend. "How do we know which rune points to a fake antidote and which points to the real one?"
"I've actually found something in accordance to that while going around the chamber. The runes for the antidotes are designed to look identical at first glance. But they each have one detail that separates them from each other," Huey explained. "The detail is small so you have to keep an eye out for it."
"Got it. So what detail represents the real antidote?" Louie asked.
Huey turned the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook so the others could see. "We're looking for a rune that kind of looks like an M that finishes off with a backwards check mark. Very easy to miss if you look at it too quickly."
"So all the runes that point to a fake antidote look like an M as well?" Webby said.
"That's right. As you can see here, some of them have the hook inverted; some are on the other side of the M going in either direction as well."
"Right," Dewey said, "now that we know exactly what we're looking for, this should make things a little easier –"
"What are you kids doing?"
Startled, the children looked up. Scrooge, Donald, and Della were watching them, the twins with their hands on their hips while the magnate had an annoyed expression that bordered on curiosity. Louie glanced at his brothers and Webby.
"We were –" he began but he was interrupted by Donald.
"Why are you all huddled in that corner? We can't translate these runes by ourselves!" his uncle exclaimed.
"We were doing just that! Huey was explaining to us what to look out for," Webby said.
"And you couldn't have started with that? It would have been a huge time-saver," Scrooge asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I've only just discovered it myself when I came across that rune over there," Huey explained, pointing at a rune that was located a few feet away. "I wish I had found it sooner."
"What does the Guidebook say about it?" Della said, coming closer with Scrooge and Donald in tow.
"It says that we need to search for a rune that looks like this," Huey said, showing them the image in the book. "But there is a catch."
"Hey! I saw that rune earlier!" Donald yelled triumphantly, making them all jump. "And I remember where it is!"
"No, Uncle Donald, wait!" Huey cried.
Donald was already on the other side of the chamber and he slammed a hand on the rune in question. A whirring sound was produced followed by a compartment that opened by Scrooge's elbow. Inside was a square vial filled with a red liquid. They all gazed at it, none of them making a move.
"Well, Louie? Drink it," Della said, giving her son an encouraging smile.
Louie stared at her in horror. Didn't Huey say they were searching for a yellow antidote in a round vial? He was not drinking whatever concoction that was.
"I-I don't think that's a good idea…" Louie said feebly.
"Louie's right, Mom. It's not the right –" Dewey began to say but he was cut off by Donald.
"Louie, drink it now!" their uncle exclaimed frantically.
"But –"
The rest of Louie's objection was lost when Donald barrelled across the chamber. Scrooge pulled Dewey and Webby out of the way as Donald shot past them, grabbed the vial, and struggled to open it, Huey's protests falling on deaf ears. When he finally unstopped it, Donald shoved the vial at Louie.
"Drink it," he ordered.
"No way!" Louie said, looking at his brothers and Webby in panic.
"You'll die if you don't, lad," Scrooge said. Della nodded, gazing at her youngest son with pleading eyes.
"Uncle Scrooge, there's something you need to know about the antidote," Webby said, tugging on the magnate's sleeve. He turned his attention to her.
"What is it?" Scrooge asked, frowning.
Before Webby could answer, Donald rushed to Louie and pressed the vial to his lips. Louie fought against his uncle, trying to push the fake antidote away.
"Louie! What are you doing? Take the antidote!" Della cried.
"No! Don't drink it, Louie! Will anyone listen to what we've got to say about this thing? It's important!" Huey said loudly, watching the struggle between Donald and Louie with wide eyes.
"Bless me bagpipes, just come out with it already!" Scrooge told him.
As the magnate said those words, Donald overpowered Louie. The vial was pushed past his lips and Louie felt the red liquid fill his mouth. He tried not to swallow it but his head was tilted back and the mixture made its way down his throat. Louie coughed and spluttered, shocked by his uncle's actions. Donald was prone to panicking, yes, but he never resorted to extreme actions such as this. Apprehension seized the green triplet: what was going to happen now?
Huey gripped his hat. "Why would you do that, Uncle Donald?" he wailed.
"It's the cure!" Donald replied matter-of-factly.
"No, it's not! That was a fake antidote and the room is full of them!"
"What?" the adults chorused.
"That's what we were trying to tell you!" Webby said. "The people who built this temple created false antidotes and they can either worsen the victim's condition or speed up the process. There are some placebos hidden as well but they're most likely fewer than the potions."
"And on top of that," Dewey continued, "those phony cures have a rune that's almost the same as the real thing. There's only a tiny detail that tells us which is which. And, FYI, the real antidote is yellow, not red!"
Scrooge, Donald, and Della stared at Dewey and Webby with their mouths hanging open. They then looked at Huey, who gave them a nod, before turning to Louie. The youngest brother was wiping his mouth on his sleeve, barely able to contain his tremors as he tried to quell the rising panic within.
"Curse me kilts…" Scrooge said softly. "Do we know what kind of mixture was given to him?"
"No. The Junior Woodchuck Guidebook just says that the fake stuff is red in square vials. I imagine the effect is immediate if the liquid is not a placebo," Huey said.
"How are you feeling, honey?" Della asked Louie. He met his mother's eyes and could see the underlying fear in them.
"Still hot," Louie replied, tugging at his collar.
"You're not feeling worse? No new symptom?"
"I… don't think so."
Della turned around and punched Donald in the arm with considerable strength. "Do you see what could have happened? The next time someone tells you not to do something, listen to them!" she yelled at him.
"I… I'm sorry…" Donald said, hunching his shoulders.
Scrooge was bent over the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, his eyes scanning the page.
"So that's what we're looking for, eh? Everybody, memorise every detail of that rune so we don't make the same mistake twice. We got lucky this time but the next error could be costly," the magnate declared.
As everyone gathered around Huey, Louie felt a shift in his system. The heat of the fever suddenly left him and he was given a brief moment of respite before it was replaced with chills unlike any he had ever felt. He crossed his arms, pulling his sweatshirt closer to his body as he began to shiver.
Oh no…
It looked like that red mixture had not been a placebo after all.