Hey! I'm back, sorry for the delay, RL and all. So thank you to Steampunk Wilson + KaliAnn for reviewing the last chapter, and I hope you enjoy this one.

See chapter one for the disclaimer and let's crack on.

So we set off down the absolutely FREEZING tunnel, Huey in front having the time of his life with the guidebook. "C'mon guys it's this way!" as we went down literally the longest tunnel ever.

The whole 'walking forever' thing was NOT helped by Max who seemed intent on walking at least twenty feet behind us at all times. After about ten minutes off this I dropped back and said.

"Max is there a REASON you're acting like a tortoise?"

He blinked, laughed goofily and said. "Sorry Miss Duck-"

"Oh for – call me Della-"

"-Della. It's just…still reeling you know? From dad and mum and all that stuff. Dad never TALKS about mum, ya know? Like, ever. It's just…yeah. Yeah."

There was a bit of silence. An Awquad silence. Then I patted him on the back and made 'soothing noises' which I thought were appropriate. He smiled at me so I think they were alright. Unless he was just pitying me, which is entirely possible.

"FOUND IT!" Huey literally screamed at the top of his lungs, so hard that the icicles above us shook alarmingly. I leapt forwards and shoved my wing round his mouth and we all looked at the ceiling in terror.

Thankfully after a very scary 30 seconds the whole thing calmed down and we all breathed out a sigh of relief. I let my son go and patted him on the shoulder while saying. "Maybe…don't do that again, huh, Huey? I mean, I'll admit, I have dreamed about dying in MANY thrilling ways – but being impaled by an icicle is NOWHERE on the list, now - what have you found?"

"The room!" Huey said proudly indicating.

So what he meant by 'the room' was NOT, as I first thought, the room where the sword of Archilles was hidden away, but the room where we had to find a loose icicle. Now, I'm not being funny there must have been roughly…a million icicles in this thing. Big ones, small ones, medium ones. And we had to walk round and find the one that would wobble and reveal a room.

I re-capped this to Huey and Max and we started. It was a very long tedious process that quickly lost excitement after about the first five minutes. We didn't do the whole thing in silence though, Max kept us entertained with stories of his school and more importantly the kids within the school. I thought I was bad while I was at school. I don't know how Max gets through a day there.

Eventually he mentioned something off interest. He, a guy called 'Peej' and a guy called 'Bobby', are in a band.

"Ooh a band!" I said. "Donald was in a band with Jose and Panchito."

Max frowned. "Names sound familiar…" He said as he, with brilliant precision, leaned forwards to reach an icicle that was on the wall. "Think dad's mentioned them a COUPLE of times but not a lot…"

"Yeah well, they weren't really your dad's friends. They were more mine and Donald's. Well. Donald's to be honest."

"What, they weren't yours?" Huey said, mid-tap.

"Well, YES, they WERE. But they made friends with Donald first and THEN were introduced to me a couple of months later-"

"-Why months?"

"BECAUSE Donald was going through a phrase were he wanted us to be less…twinsie. Therefore when he made friends who A} didn't KNOW about me and B} seemed too like him for him he leapt at the opportunity. Of course I found out about it. He kept sneaking out to meet him and I thought he was either meeting up with a girl OR up to something SERIOUSLY dodgy, so out of sisterly-concern for his well being [and the opportunity to make fun of him for being in love] I followed him. And, whaddya know, instead of meeting a girl he was meeting two guys instead. Well." I shrugged. "It takes all sorts…"

After about a further three hours [not kidding, it literally took that long] Huey sighed and said. "I don't think it's here, mom."

I also sighed and stood up, hands on hips. "No you're right. C'mon let's go try the left tunnel…"

"WHAT?" Max said, in disbelief. "We've got to do another one?" I threw my hands in the air.

"That's what Scrooge said! And anyway, if we take the left tunnel you'll get to meet up with your dad, so…?"

So we left the tunnel. On the way up [cos it took a age. An ice age, actually. Hah!] Huey asked. "Mom…"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"What were Uncle Gladstone and Cousin Feathery like when they were younger?"

I thought about it, then said slowly. "Feathry was pretty much the same as he is now, to be honest. Slightly scatter-brained, keen thirst for knowledge and an un-dying loyalty to the Junior Woodchucks. Believe it or not he's got slightly MORE sensible as he's gotten older. Gladstone…" I trailed off, un-sure of how to put it.

Huey, seeing I was stuck, said sympathetically. "Was he a pain?"

"Wha-no! Well, yes. At times. In the same way everyone ELSE in the family was a pain at some point. The thing with Gladstone." I said, realising the Huey's perception of his uncle Gladstone had probably been coulered by my dear twin going 'He's The Worst!' at every opportunity, "is that believe it or not he used to be quite nice. Quite sweet and slightly shy. Especially after his parents died and he went to Scotland-"

"-Yeah! He's talked about that. He lived with Uncle Ludwig and Auntie Matilda didn't he?"

I nodded, being suddenly unable to speak as a small lump came into my throat. It was the mention of Ludwig that did it. I still can't believe he's dead. And I didn't even get to say goodbye to him and it's ALL MY FAULT.

However, I didn't want to break down in front of Huey because, what sort of mother does that? My own mother never did. So I powered through it and said, as levelly as I could. "He did. For…three years I think? The he came back here and…he was quite loud and talkative. Always had to be the centre of attention. And of course, his lucky streak was well developed by then so he won at EVERYTHING, much to everyone's frustration. So, yeah, no one really wanted to be friends with him…"

I trailed off because I suddenly realised, I might be giving away a little to much. After all, Gladstone regards weakness as some kind of mortal enemy. I'm sure he wouldn't be happy in the slightest with me telling Huey no one wanted to be friends with him. Though it's true of course. People would literally cross the street to get away from him. And the more he tried to be friends by either being loud and friendly or by winning them stuff, it never worked out very well.

Thankfully, well, not really thankfully but kinda thankfully - basically the ceiling started shaking at the point. The icicles wobbled dangerously, and I was suddenly struck by, what I like to call my 'danger sense' going off and I literally grabbed Huey and bolted towards the exit while screaming at Max to hurry up.

He did and we made it out just as the shaking stopped.

"Della!? Huey!? Where's Max?" I turned to see Scrooge standing there, panting and out of breath as Louie and Webby did great impressions of dying fish behind him.

"Max is- Here." I said as Max skidded into view.

"I…" He panted. "Have…never run….that fast…in my…life, whew." He stood fully up and got his breathing under control, then looked around, worry dawning in his eyes. "Where's Dad?"

Me and Scrooge looked at each other, then looked at the left tunnel.