Original plan for chapter three went blocked so I saved what I had and decided to start over.
So this time we're not staying in Duckburg while I work out some kinks and instead we're diving into one of my favorite subjects: myths and folklore! And since this is Halloween (as of this writing), I'm going to celebrate that by bringing in some… fairy tales. But know this much—I know some dark stories. As such the story that the treasure comes from is pretty grim (not from the Brothers Grimm, mind you) and I'll tell the basics of it without mentioning too much detail because it's actually pretty gory. Whatever. Let's go.
Daisy fidgeted nervously as the Cloudslayer was packed up.
She'd finally relented to letting her nieces go on an adventure with Scrooge and the others. Della was the one flying and Donald was going along, too. Those had been the conditions that she'd laid down to allow the girls to go, along with making Scrooge promise to keep the girls safe at any cost. He'd agreed begrudgingly when June had begged him to let them come. Keeping seven kids in line was not what he'd wanted to do but April and May were fairly obedient kids. June was the wild card.
"Don't worry, Aunt Daisy," the youngest of the sisters assured her aunt. "We'll be safe with Mr. McDuck."
"I hope so. I love you girls." The trio hugged her before getting onto the plane and she grabbed Donald by the shirt as he passed her. "Donald, if anything happens to them—"
"Nothing's gonna happen, I promise. I've been on hundreds of adventures with Uncle Scrooge and he won't let them get hurt."
"Okay. I'm a little protective…"
"Protective is good." They hugged and she kissed him on the cheek. He stumbled onto the plane while the kids snickered and Della started the engine.
"So, where are we going?" Huey asked Scrooge as they lifted into the air.
"Denmark. We're going to find a special item called the Princess's Chest. It'll be a fairly tame adventure for a first time out."
"What's special about it?" May inquired.
"Well, I'm afraid I don't know much, lass. Supposedly it was haunted long ago by a curse, but the curse was broken and now it's a normal chest."
April raised an eyebrow; clearly she didn't believe him.
"Della, ya have our course?"
"Yep! Everyone get settled!"
June hopped onto the seat next to Louie and his face turned slightly pink as she smiled at him. Huey, Dewey, and Webby glanced at each other with mischievous grins. Webby had been told about Louie's crush the morning after that sleepover and she'd been glad to be invited in on the teasing. The only limitation she'd been given by Huey and Dewey was that she couldn't try to get them together because they were too young for dating, which she'd agreed to. Now was a chance to go full-force on the teasing.
"So, uh," Louie started, "how are your skates?"
"Oh, good. I'm trying to figure out a way to make them more aerodynamic and less clunky."
"I thought they were pretty good already."
"Well, yeah. They helped save us a little back at the fair." She took off one of her shoes and hit the button. The skates were different, but not by much. The wheels were slightly thinner now.
"Maybe you could make me a pair once you figure it out. I think they'd be a good product for Louie, Inc."
"What's Louie, Inc.?"
"It's my company. I wanna be rich like Scrooge one day and I need to figure out a way to start."
"You're gonna have to help me fund the skates, then. These weren't cheap to make."
"Hm. True." He tapped his chin and Dewey slid into view.
"Cool skates, June!"
"Thanks. I made them myself."
"Can I try them?"
"In a moving plane. In the air."
"Yeah!"
"No. I'm still working out some kinks, like the trigger mechanism. It can be a bit fiddly."
"Let me take a look!" Huey begged. He took the seat to her other side and she handed him the skate/shoe.
"I've been working on them for a while."
"I'd say you have. They look kinda worn out in the shoe part." Dewey rolled his eyes. "You have a way for me to take them apart?"
"In my backpack. I carry a small repair kit but any big changes have to be made back home."
"Ah. Smart."
April sighed and went over to Dewey, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the others.
"You picked up on your brother's crush on my sister, didn't you."
"Yep. You figured it out."
"Between me, May, and June, I'm the most emotionally mature and the best at reading people. Louie's pretty good at hiding it, though."
"We're just teasing him."
"Yes. I can see that." She crossed her arms. "Just… don't embarrass my baby sister, okay?"
"Okay. We're only planning to embarrass Louie."
"Good. And I'll help."
Webby, meanwhile, had noticed that May was reading a book titled Green Fairy Book with a furrowed brow. She hopped up next to her.
"What's up, May?"
"Hi, Webby." She held up the book. "I thought the story sounded familiar, so I decided to dig into a few of my fairy books."
"And…?"
"Nothing yet. There's twelve volumes of them in just the color books alone. Not to mention the thirteen others. And I only have the twelve color books."
"Huh. Mind if I look with you? I've never seen these."
"They're fascinating. Andrew Swan did research on folktales and myths and stories from all over the world and collected them alongside his wife."
"Cool!" Webby took the one called Red Fairy Book and began to thumb through it.
Hours passed on the plane until they finally touched down in Denmark. Upon disembarking it was a bit of a drive out to the ruins. Thankfully it was a fairly smooth drive and they soon found themselves standing among the stone columns and broken-down buildings. April and Louie both appeared rather uninterested as May kept her nose in her copy of Blue Fairy Book.
"This is it," Scrooge sighed, looking at one of the larger buildings. "This is the old palace. Attached to it is the chapel where we'll find the chest. Are ya ready?"
The kids cheered and Scrooge opened the doors to reveal another place that seemed just on the verge of collapsing. They spread out to get a better look around as May sat down on one of the crumbling pews to read from another book. June and Louie together approached a large white box that sat in the middle of everything.
"Ew, maybe it's a coffin," giggled June.
"Maybe. Dunno why it's white."
"Well, coffins of children during medieval times were white when they could be afforded," Huey pointed out.
"I'm gonna open it!" Dewey yelled. He reached for the lid and pried it open to find… nothing. Not even bones. He pouted in disappointment.
"This thing's a bust," Louie grumbled.
"Yeah, this whole trip's a bust," April sighed, leaning against the altar nearby. It crumbled behind her back and she yelped, standing upright as it revealed a hidden tunnel.
"Good job, April!" Scrooge complimented, coming up behind her. "Let's see what's down here. Tunnel's bound to lead somewhere."
"Great…" She dusted off her yellow blouse and skirt and followed the others down the tunnel. Except May and Donald, both of whom stayed behind. May hadn't noticed thanks to being engrossed in her book and Donald was staying to keep an eye on her. Scrooge could handle the other kids.
Webby fumbled in the dark and pulled out her phone, turning on the flashlight and shining it around. The tunnel was long and winding, centuries old. Perfect for hiding treasure. They walked along, looking around for anything of note. She could tell Dewey was getting bored with all the walking in the seemingly normal tunnel.
Seemingly.
April stubbed her toe as they went and she let out a yelp.
"Stupid rock!" she snapped.
"You okay?" Louie inquired.
"No, I'm not okay! I just stubbed my toe on a stupid rock." June reached down and picked up the rock and her eyes went wide.
"Webby, shine your light over here!" Webby did and they could see that it wasn't a rock at all.
It was a skull.
"GROSS! GROSS GROSS GROSS!" wailed April.
"Calm down, it's just a skull," Dewey scoffed. "It's not like it's a fresh corpse."
"It used to be a fresh corpse!" Scrooge took the skull and nodded.
"It's old enough. We must be gettin' close. There was an awful lot of death surroundin' the chest."
"On second thought, I don't think I want to be on this adventure anymore!" squeaked April. "Next time you can count me out!"
On the last word she stamped her foot and hit an unseen trigger. The floor opened up beneath her and June grabbed for her sister's hand on instinct. Louie rushed to help her but all three fell down the newly-opened pit that closed behind them.
"NO!" yelled Scrooge and the other three kids.
"Find the mechanism!" he instructed them. "We have to follow them!"
"Ugh…"
It was completely dark. Louie couldn't even see his hand in front of his face. He could, however, feel someone on top of him. They were fairly light but it was still a lot of weight. Carefully he pushed them off and he heard June groan.
"I am definitely never going on one of these trips again," April said somewhere nearby. "This is so gross."
"Hey, you're the one who triggered the pit trap!" Louie spat back at her. "June, you okay?"
"I'm fine," his fellow youngest triplet replied. "Does anyone have a light?"
"I figured you'd have something in that big backpack of yours," April mumbled.
"Oh, right." June began digging around in the dark and she let out a triumphant, "YES!"
She turned on a flashlight and began shining it around them.
The walls were packed with skeletons. April gagged and covered her mouth with her hand while scooching closer to her little sister. Louie felt the same discomfort; this was a lot of remains, even for someone who'd faced down Toth-Ra. Death was an uncomfortable subject. June didn't seem afraid, though, and she shone it to reveal even more of a tunnel that was also lined with skeletons. She staggered to her feet.
"Let's go," she told the others. "There's got to be a way out up ahead."
"This is beyond disgusting. You know that?"
"Yes, April. I know you hate creepy things. Why do you think I never do movie marathons on Halloween like I want?"
Louie's eyes drifted to one of the skulls and he noticed that it had a number and an arrow carved in its forehead right before June took the light off it.
"Wait. Go back," he told her. She obeyed and he checked it. It was a three and an arrow pointing left. "Can I borrow the flashlight?"
Shining it around the room proved that more skulls held more numbers. June pulled out a notebook from her bag and began writing them down in order from one to seven.
"What does it mean?" she asked.
"I think it's a clue as to how we get out of here. The numbers are the order and the arrows are directions. See?"
"Which means the tunnel that we were in before is a dead end," April finished, staggering to her feet. "This tunnel has an exit."
"Aw, man, Uncle Scrooge is gonna be so mad…"
"Forget your uncle. Let's get out of here and get back to the chapel."
The trio began to follow the directions down the rock-and-bone passageway.
Back in the chapel, May had finally found what she was looking for.
"Oh, no," she whispered.
"What's 'oh, no'?" Donald asked worriedly.
"The Princess's Chest isn't a chest at all. It's a coffin. And dwelling inside is the princess herself, rising from it at night to kill those who watch over her tomb!"
"But that's not true anymore, right?"
"I don't know! I didn't think this story was true!"
"We have to tell the others!" She nodded and they started down the passageway, running to try and make it before night fell. It was getting close.
Finally they ran into Scrooge and the kids… minus April, June, and Louie.
"Donald, May!" Scrooge gasped. "What are ya doin'?"
"We need to get out of here," May explained. "The Chest is a coffin and we aren't safe as long as we're in the chapel. The princess who was kept inside rose from it at night to kill her guards and their bodies were never found."
Webby's eyes went to a skull that sat on the floor.
"Uh-oh," May whispered.
Down below, the three who were separated from the others found themselves in a large room that was still made of rock and bone. In the middle sat a large coffin, made of fine white marble with torches burning on either side. June shut off her flashlight as she and Louie approached it. April hung back, then her eyes went to paintings on large flat stones on the wall. One depicted a man and a woman on a pair of thrones with an empty one between them. Then there was a picture of the woman sobbing. Next was an old woman talking to the young one and the young one eating something. More pictures—the younger woman blindfolded, a beautiful little girl running around a garden while the man and woman stood on the other side of a wall, the man bursting into the girl's room, the girl… lying in a white marble coffin.
And, most chillingly of all, a monster with thick black fur, wide horns, and sharp claws and teeth, standing over mountains of bones and facing down a young man with a terrified expression.
This must be where all the bones came from!
"I think we should leave this alone," she stated, backing towards June and Louie. "I don't think it wants to be disturbed."
Louie's eyes scanned the room until he spotted a small passageway. He nodded; this was a tomb and it shouldn't be disturbed. Together they made their way down to where there was a hidden ladder. It was dark, and June had her flashlight, but it began to flicker as a horrible screeching came from the chamber they had just left. They climbed faster and heard something coming as they emerged. It was the same tunnel they'd fallen through. June and Louie grabbed the stone they'd moved to get up and threw themselves onto it, holding it down just as the beast hit the seal.
"HOW DARE YOU?!" it shrieked in a female-sounding voice.
"Sorry!" April yelled. "It was an accident!"
They could hear rapid footsteps coming from down the hall. Around a bend came Scrooge and the others. Huey and Dewey wasted no time in joining Louie and June on top of the stone.
"What is that thing?!" May screamed.
"A monster!" June yelped as the impact of the monster against the seal caused her to fly up a little.
"We need to seal it off somehow!" Webby insisted, digging into her own backpack.
"I say we all lay on top of it until morning instead of messing with magic!" Dewey suggested. "That'll get rid of it, right?"
"Temporarily," May squeaked. "Only until tomorrow night. But we'll be gone by then."
"Please, oh great and merciful powers that be, please let us live and banish this thing!" April whispered.
Unbeknownst to her, a magic rune glowed on the other side of the rock and as soon as the beast made contact, it recoiled. The magic grabbed ahold and pulled it back towards its resting place.
The screeching and thumping died away and they were able to get off the stone.
"What happened?" Huey inquired, confused.
"I don't know," April replied.
"Whatever happened, we'd best get out of here before it comes back," Scrooge warned. "Come on!"
They ran out of the tunnel and back out to where the car was still parked. Della had volunteered to stay back with the plane, so Scrooge hopped into the driver's seat as the kids filed in.
While everyone else celebrated their victory, April stared at her hands. Nothing had stopped the beast until she herself had spoken it into banishment. Was… was she magical? Like Lena? Or was this just a lucky coincidence?
She had no idea.
Some light teasing, fun action, and an adventure based on the story of "The Princess in the Chest" from Andrew Lang's "Pink Fairy Book". Look it up because I can't do it justice in my own summary.
I hope you enjoyed your Halloween treat!
So long and thanks for all the fish!