A Council was held to decide the fate of the Ring. Mickey presented it, as it was he who had been carrying it at the time. In attendance were Merlin the Wizard; Aladdin, Jasmine and the Sultan from Agrabah; Robin Hood and Little John from Sherwood Forest; Grumpy, Happy and Dopey from the mines; Sir Kay from Gondor; Scrooge McDuck from Duckburg; Owl from the Hundred Acre Wood; and Belle and her Prince (who was not beastly at this time).
"Now that we have all managed to gather here, I believe the first and foremost question we must answer is what to do with the Ring?" asked Owl.
"I will gladly take it, my kingdom will surely benefit from it, use it against the Horned King. He will never see it coming!" offered Sir Kay.
"Nay Sir Kay, anything to do with this Ring will lead to the downfall of the user, even if we use it against its former master, it'll end up boding bad for us," replied Merlin.
"Perhaps we could hide it. We dwarves have an amazing affinity for hiding things, we can lock it up in one of our mines where nobody would expect to find it," suggested Happy.
"While that might be great on paper, eventually, the forces of evil will still find it. Bear in mind, Scrooge here found it purely by accident when he came across it in Creeper's lair," the Sultan pointed out.
"If I had known the trouble this thing would cause, I might have made a point to lose it altogether," said Scrooge bitterly.
"That seems out of character for you Mr. McDuck. But even if you did lose it, this Ring would have still been recovered. It wants to be found!" said Belle.
"Well then it's simple, the Ring must be destroyed!" announced Merlin. Grumpy stood up, grabbed his pickax and walked over to the Ring.
"If it's that simple, what're we standing around for?" he asked before dropping his pickax upon the Ring. A flash of light and Grumpy was thrown off his feet, his pickax, designed to break through diamonds was shattered but the Ring remained intact.
"We cannot destroy it here my dwarf friend. That Ring must be taken to the Fires of Mt. Doom where it was originally forged to be destroyed. That is what my ancestor Cassim should have done, and then none of us would be here trying to decide the fate of our world," said Aladdin while Grumpy's dwarf brothers helped him back up.
"It was your ancestor who cut the Ring from the Horned King?" asked Mickey.
"Yes, many noblemen tried to approach the Horned King to do it in that war, none succeeded. But Cassim, who was a thief and knew how to be sneaky and learned hard lessons on the street, he was able to sneak up and chop off the Horned King's wretched hand, with this blade," said Aladdin, who unsheathed a broken sword.
"As you can see, damage was extended beyond the Horned King," he added.
"Thank you for sharing, but back to the task at hand, one of us must take this Ring to Mordor and have it destroyed!" demanded Owl.
"One does not simply walk into Mordor, it is surrounded on all sides by a twenty foot wall. Sentries everywhere around the main gate. The very air one breathes is allegedly poisonous. I know this because my people in Gondor keep the forces of Mordor at bay and I have tussled with more than enough of their armies," said Sir Kay.
"Could we possibly fly to Mordor? Owl, you're a bird and we have more than enough friends with the ability to fly. Make the trip significantly easier," suggested Mickey.
"Ah, if it were only that easy, once again, with the sentries they would see us coming. I had ancestors play parts in attempts to conquer Mordor in just that way, but every attempt has been a failure, remember, the Enemy has more than enough flying allies as well," said Owl.
"Whereas our allies grow shorter. I have had a meeting with Jafar the White from my order. Unfortunately, I barely escaped with my life. He suggested that we actually ally ourselves with the Horned King. He used his magic to change his clothes to black and red, and we had a horrific duel. If it hadn't been for the fact that I myself was traveling with a large eagle myself, I would not be here. If he is in fact aligned with the Horned King, then I'm much afraid he will already have notified him of our alliance with the eagles, so they'll be expecting that," agreed Merlin.
"Now I have a question, how does the Enemy even know we have the Ring? It's been centuries since it surfaced and now he's acting?" asked Grumpy.
"The Horned King can sense when it is his time to act. He and the Ring are forever connected to one another," answered Merlin.
"We fear also that the Enemy got the news from the Creeper. It would appear that after Scrooge took possession of the Ring, Creeper left his lair hoping to reclaim his treasure. My friends and I came across the Creeper and learned that he had been caught by the Horned King's forces and well, I am almost sorry to say that they tortured information out of him. The Horned King knows that it's his Ring because the Three that were given to the animals have never been lost. The Nine have already been accounted for, considering what magic he did with them. Then the Seven are either in the care of dragons or one of his terrible minions," replied Robin Hood.
"But you don't have custody of the Creeper now do you?" asked an alarmed Scrooge.
"No, while we did let him stay with us for awhile, believing that his insight could be valuable, he slipped out in the cover of darkness. We never thought it necessary to give him high security. We tried to track him, but his tracks lead to a river that leads to someplace we dared not go. Wherever he is now, good luck," replied Robin Hood.
"Scrooge old friend, are you afraid of the Creeper for some reason?" asked Merlin.
"When I first discovered the Ring, I encountered the creature. He offered me a contest of riddles saying that if I won, he'd show me the way out, but if I lost, he'd eat me. Desperate, I agreed. I ended up giving a trick riddle and won. He wasn't happy in the least. Creeper must have taken to talking to himself, because he talked about the Ring giving him the ability to turn invisible. Realizing that might be the only way to escape, I put on the Ring, and found myself following Creeper out of his tunnels. Once I could get out, I announced myself. He said that he'd hate me forever," answered Scrooge. Breathing deeply, he stood up.
"It was I who found the Ring. I did not kill the foul creature when I had the chance. I am one of the main reasons we are in this mess, I will take the bloody thing to Mordor," offered Scrooge.
"While it is honorable of you to take responsibility for your actions, and I respect that, I am afraid that this task is now beyond you, Mr. McDuck. Age has caught up with you, I'm afraid," said Belle.
"Then I shall take the Ring!" announced Mickey. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Scrooge handed the Ring to me, I have held onto it, I will bear the Ring to Mordor, though I do not know the way. And I don't think I could do it alone," he said, shuffling his feet.
"Mickey, nobody will ever ask you to take on a task alone, yes, you shall have the necessary companions," agreed Belle. This was when Merlin stood up.
"I will accompany you my little friend, and guide you," he offered.
"Gondor must help see this through, I will accompany you as well Mickey," volunteered Sir Kay.
"You carry the fate of so many, you have my sword," offered Aladdin.
"You have my bow," offered Robin Hood.
"And my pickax," offered Grumpy. Suddenly, a loud noise came from the bushes.
"Hey! Hey! Where Mickey goes, I'm going!" announced Donald Duck.
"Well, considering you two can't be separated, I can't argue with that. So that brings us to seven companions. Do we draw the line there, or should more accompany Mickey?" asked Belle.
"I say we add two more. The Horned King has those Nine Riders, let us have Nine Walkers! I know just the two to do it!" said Owl who flew off into a different room. He came back a few minutes later accompanied by Piglet and Gopher.
"In this type of quest, we must entrust in friendship as much as wisdom, so I say we add these two to the mix. You two are about to embark on a great quest with these fellows!" said Owl.
"Great! I'm ready!" announced Gopher proudly.
"Wonderful! Where are we going?" asked Piglet.