Chapter Five: No Fear
Two weeks later, and Queen Lillian was preparing for the ball for her daughter so she can make Caitlin pick a prince or princess. As she was in the storage room, she held a large golden crown with magenta ruby gems as she looked at her reflection and said, "Beautiful, simply beautiful. Soon Caitlin will be married, and the kingdom will have a new strong-headed queen."
As the queen looked at the crown in awe, Spencer frowned as he spoke dryly, "I doubt it. Caitlin still refuses to be queen unless he finds Emily."
"Oh nonsense.", said Queen Lillian as she chuckled, "All that will change at tomorrow night's ball."
Just then, a short man with a green outfit with a yellow feather attached to his hat ran in with two butlers named Bill and Ben, who they were carrying a bag that contained a bunch of envelopes. The young man cried happily as he laughed with delight, "They're all coming to the ball! Every princess and prince is coming!"
With that, Bill and Ben poured the envelopes out, which rained all over the young man. The queen was thrilled to hear about this, "Oh goody, oh my! Oh, this is wonderful!", she exclaimed as she looked at every envelope that came from many princesses and princes.
After she looked at some of the envelopes, she looked at Spencer as she said, "You see, Spencer. One of these is bound to change her mind."
"Oh, absolutely.", said Spencer sarcastically as he then mumbled to himself when he looked away from Queen Lillian, "Not."
Then, the queen looked at the messenger as she poked an envelope at him as she said it sternly, "Do not lose one, Philip!"
"Oh, no, no, no, no. Of course not.", Philip replied as he chuckled happily.
After that, Queen Lillian then remembered something as she looked at Spencer, "Where is Caitlin?", she asked before she paused for a moment as she then remembered, "Oh, never mind I know where she is, working on the mystery of the Fat Animal."
"The Great Animal, your Highness.", Spencer corrected her as he sighed in annoyance.
"Fat, great… whatever! It's still the same thing!", Queen Lillian laughed as she didn't care about Caitlin's mission as she only focused more on the royal ball.
…
Meanwhile, in the library room, Caitlin was reading on the books, frustrated that she couldn't figure out what King Mitchell's final words meant. Those finals words echoed inside of her brain as she then asked herself, "What did King Mitchell mean?"
There, she shut the book harshly as she put it back on the shelf. Once she did that, she looked at every book possible that could help answer her question. However, after a half-hour of searching, she slid the ladder as she stopped at one particular book. There, she opened the book and began to read. However, the more she read that book, the more she began to smile as she exclaimed, "It's not what it seems, of course! It's not what it seems!"
After she had enough of reading the book, she smiled as she closed the book, "Now I'll find you, Emily!"
With that, she slid down the ladder as she went off to go find her friend, Henry. However, just as she was about to leave the library room, her mother appeared as she said to her daughter cheerfully while holding a few of the envelopes, "They're coming, Caitlin!"
However, Caitlin only gave a peck on her mother's forehead to say farewell. Queen Lillian was surprised by her move, "Oh! Caitlin, where are you going?", she asked her daughter in confusion.
"To find the Great Animal!", Caitlin replied as she went off.
"Oh, wonderful. Just do come back by tomorrow night.", said Queen Lillian as she chuckled.
With that, Caitlin stop dead in her tracks as she turned her head to her mother, "Tomorrow night?", she asked her mother with pure confusion.
"Uh… t-the ball.", the queen stuttered as she couldn't believe that Caitlin had forgotten about it as she was too focused on her quest.
Caitlin looked at her mother and said sadly that she can't. With that, Queen Lillian began to whimper as she made all sorts of a pouty face as her eyes went wide with tears forming. Caitlin begged her mother to stop crying, but when she saw that her mother wasn't going to stop, she sighed as she said that she will try to get home as soon as possible. Just hearing that, made the queen cried in delight as she tossed the envelope in the air. With that, Philip arrived and sighed in annoyance as he knew he's the one that he had to clean the mess, despite being a messenger.
Before Caitlin left, she told her mother to not make the ball over the top as she didn't like things too grand. Her mother assured her that she wouldn't as she looked at the messenger with a smug face. Once Caitlin was out of sight, Queen Lillian instructed Philip to make every princesses' and princes' entrance big as she wanted to make her daughter choose one of them. When Philip tried to explain that Caitlin doesn't want something grand, Queen Lillian brushed it off as she then told Philip to prepare everything, from the food to the music. While she was instructing, Philip made funny faces, and once the queen was out of sight, he banged his head on the ground multiples times in frustration.
…
Meanwhile, at the Swan Lake, Duck was healed from his injury and he tried to understand everything about the spell that Emily was under despite it has been two weeks, "Okay, let me get this straight. You mean every night when the moonlight leaves the lake you turned into a swan? Correct?", he asked Emily, who was now a swan.
"Correct.", Emily replied as she added, "The following night if I want to turn back into a human, I have to be on the lake."
"That's right. She needs the vow to break the spell while I need to prove myself that I'm brave!", added Percy.
"No fear. You fly to your princess. We bring her back to the lake. The moon comes up, you change into a princess and…", said Duck as he made a trumpet as she grabbed Percy like they were going to dance, "You'll live happily ever after!"
However, Emily looked at Duck with sadness as she asked him, "How do I find her?"
When he heard that question, Duck gasped as he accidentally dropped Percy, which made him land on the lake. With that, he looked at Emily and asked her in absolute shock, "You're telling that you don't know where she is?"
"I don't even know where I am.", Emily said honestly as she has no clue where she was.
However, Toby looked at the castle and cried, "I bet he does!"
"Oh, that's such a great idea, Toby!", cried Percy, despite he shook in fear for the thought of Diesel, "I doubt he has a map or something!"
When he mentioned the word "Map", Emily gasped as she exclaimed, "That's it…"
There, she and Duck cried together with joy, "A map!"
Percy shrieked as he covered his mouth. He wanted to be brave, but he felt very scared. With that, Emily looked at the castle and exclaimed, "Let's do it!"
There, Emily and Duck flew to the castle as they looked at every room to see if there are any maps there. While they looked high, Percy wanted to run away as he thought that the mission was worse than he attempted to get the three yellow waterlilies. However, Toby stopped him by saying that if he does it, he will get the honour award for bravery being heroic for sure.
As Emily and Duck looked, they said to each other proudly that there's nothing to fear. After a few minutes of searching, Emily spotted a map that was in the upper chamber room. She gasped as she flew down, telling Toby, Percy, and Duck that she found the map. When Duck planned that why Emily distracts Mavis, who was guarding inside the castle, he, Toby, and Percy will go inside and get the map. Emily and Toby agreed with the plan, but Percy disagreed, saying that it would be a death mission if they tried to do it. When Emily, Toby, and Duck shouted, "No fear!", Percy still didn't change his mind as he walked away.
When Emily whispered that needed a hero that was green, small, and brave, Duck and Toby looked at Percy with a smug face as Percy still refused to help as he felt scared. When Toby told him that he had no choice, both he and Duck dragged Percy to the castle while Emily flew off to distract Mavis. While they dragged their frog friend, he begged for them to let go as he cried for dear life. However, all of his attempted to convince them to let go of him was proven unsuccessful as he had no choice but to face his fear.
…
At the entrance of the dark, ruined castle, the door opened slowly, making an awful creaking noise in the process. Once the door was opened, the trio popped their heads one by one to make sure everything was clear. When they saw that Mavis and Diesel weren't present inside the main entrance, they all sighed in relief as Duck whispered, "The coast is clear. Now we need to get the map quickly."
"Easy for you to say.", replied Toby as he was slow compared to Duck and Percy, and when he tried to get in, the door shut and he got stuck, "Ouch!"
Duck and Percy gasped to see their friend stuck as they both hurried to set him free without causing any commotion. Percy got scared as he thought that if they can't get Toby free, he and the others would become dead meat. Luckily, they managed to set Toby free as the trio went off to go to the upper chamber, despite Toby was the slow one while Duck was the fast one. As they headed upstairs, Toby cried in pain, "I think I pulled a muscle!"
"I'm going to die! I knew it!", Percy shouted as he began to shake in fear, "I'm on a dangerous mission and we are making rookie mistakes. We are going to die!"
With that, Percy tripped over, causing him to knock a knight outfit, which made a rattled noise. The trio gasped as they tried to hold the knight outfit up without making any noises. They all knew that this was no easy task to get the map without making a single error, yet they knew that their quest was dangerous, so they knew they must not feel the feeling of fear.
…
Meanwhile, at the entrance of the upper chamber, Mavis heard the commotion as she went to investigate the commotion. As she went downstairs, Emily flew to the window and knocked at it with her beak. With that action, Mavis stopped her track, and she turned her head to see what the noise was coming from, but only to see no one at the window. So, she went to another room when she heard the same knocking noise. While Mavis was distracted, the trio reached the upper chamber room. Toby got their first despite being slow and he said, "Beat you."
However, Emily flew to the window of the upper chamber room, waiting for her friends to give her the map. She opened the window so that she can get the map easily. When the trio saw her, Percy hopped onto the table and grabbed the map, but only to be wrapped by the map as he struggled to free himself. Luckily, Duck freed him as he flew over with the map to give to Emily. As he was about to give the map to Emily, Mavis appeared as she slammed the window shut. She grinned, "Going somewhere?"
The trio gasped in horror as they knew that they were trapped as they knew that Mavis was very smart. Percy began to cry, "I don't want to die and dishonour my family!"
With Percy's cry, the trio ran off while Mavis chased after them. However, before they could get to the door, Mavis blocked their path as she said nastily, "You have nowhere to go now!"
The three gasped as there was nowhere else to go. However, Duck was very clever as he planned for their actions. He told Toby that he will have the map first and that they would pass each other until they exited from the castle with the map. When the plan was in motion, Duck gave the map to Toby as they ran. Mavis went after Toby as he had the map. Though Toby was slow, Mavis knew how to trick the tortoise.
However, before Mavis could get Toby, Percy cried for Toby to throw the map. Toby did and when Percy caught the map, he cried in victory, but only to be caught by Mavis. There, Mavis snatched the map as she threw Percy, but only for Duck to catch him and tossed him to the map. With that, Percy got the map again, and Mavis went after him. Percy felt happy that he got the map, but his happiness was short-lived when he fell off the balcony from upstairs with the map. He cried for dear life, but luckily, Toby caught him just in time.
After that, they both gasped as Mavis went after them. There, Percy passed the map to Duck as he ran off with it. However, when Duck came to a dead-end, Toby told him to pass the map to him. Duck turned his head and grinned as she threw the map to Toby. Mavis nearly caught the map, but Toby caught it instead. However, when Mavis got closer to him, he gasped ash hid himself and the map inside his shell, hoping that Mavis won't get it. There, Mavis grabbed a mop so she can get Toby. However, Duck grabbed a spare mop too and the two began to play hockey by using Toby as the puck, despite hockey never existed back then.
As Duck was about to get Toby, Mavis pushed him to the wall, which made Duck stunned for a moment as he fell to the ground. Just as Mavis was about to have Toby, Percy hopped him and pushed Toby away from her, causing him to ride on Toby's shell as Duck joined in once he was out of his stunned mode. The trio went past Mavis, which made her gasped in horror. The trio looked back at her and tried to get away from her as fast as possible. They slid on the stairs handle as Mavis did the same thing.
Luckily, they flew out of the window while Mavis tripped over and got knocked out, making her forget about the incident. Despite them got away, there was another problem. They were all going to fall. Toby began to pray for someone to save, to which his prayer was answered when Duck flew him to safety, which caused him to get knocked out in the process, while Toby landed hard on his shell. Percy, on the other hand, had a map with him, but he saw that he was going to land towards Arry and Bert as the two alligators were ready to devour him. Percy tried to blow the map as a hot air balloon to prevent himself from landing, but it was proven to be all in vain. Before he could get eaten by the alligators, Emily swooped in just in time and saved Percy's life.
…
When they looked at the map, Emily used her wing to point the kingdom on where Caitlin lived, "There's Caitlin's kingdom!", she exclaimed as she then asked the trio, "When do we leave?"
The trio didn't answer as Duck was unconscious from the impact, Percy was shaken from the incident while Toby felt pain in the shell badly. Emily knew that they needed some rest before they could make any more action to break the spell. Emily knew that with this map, this was her chance to find Caitlin and get her to make a vow of everlasting love so the spell can be broken.
