Back at the fields of the sunflowers Shrek and Donkey had made their departure from Duloc and were now on their way to the Dragon's Castle, they stood happily in the sun and basked in the warm rays of the sun as that happiness was soon halted from being bent over to make room for a smelly 'ol ogre and an animal who did not seem to learn how to shut up. Shrek had picked up a few snacks from the farm they were walking through which included a onion and some cornstalks
"Ok let me get this straight: you're gonna go fight a Dragon and rescue a Princess just so Farquaad will give you back a swamp which you only don't have because he filled it full of freaks in the first place, is that about right?" Donkey recapped what happened so far as Shrek breathed out and turned to face him
"You know, maybe there's a good reason Donkeys shouldn't talk" He's got a point there y'know, whatever the reason may be; it will be one lesson that will help them sneak in since they're not really going to slay the Dragon, they're just going to silently take her away and it'll never know they were here. Unfortunately though, fate is never too kind to what happens when they reach and enter the place; since Donkey can't keep his mouth from blabbering all about. Shrek threw a cornstalk back and continued walking through the field of squashes, which he happened to crush one with his brown crocodile leather shoe while Donkey followed behind
"I don't get it Shrek, why don't you just pull some of that ogre stuff on him: throttle him, lay siege to his fortress, grind his bones to make your bread, the whole ogre trick?" Donkey shook his head and listed some suggestions to get his swamp back, all of them involving hurting Lord Farquaad; Shrek was munching on a onion and then perked up with a idea
"Oh I know what. Maybe I could have decapitated an entire village and put their heads on a pike, gotten a knife, cut open their spleen and drink their fluids. Does that sound good to you?" Shrek slowly stopped as he mocked him on what he should've done before moving again, asking him at the end
"Uh, no.. not really, no" Donkey felt ill by the idea and such sight, he may have seen him roar but to drink one's fluids were to suffer blood poisoning; unless in fact, Shrek was a Vampogre from the beginning!
"For your information there's a lot to ogres than people think" Shrek stated as they now passed over into a cabbage field, thank god they're not on Mildew's cabbage field seen on Berk because he'll be really angry as he's got enough on his hands with them damn Dragons; now he's got to deal with a ogre like him. But then again, Shrek will not only make a suit from his freshly peeled skin but also shave his liver for the dragons to enjoy; before he finally ends it all by squeezing the jelly from his eyes onto his toast, since they are good according to him. At least that will teach him for attempting to exile Toothless who was not the cause of the storms on Berk and for betraying Hiccup and the Dragon Riders, two times in a row one Viking might say
"Example?" Donkey asked
"Example? Okay um... ogres are like onions" Shrek held out his onion as Donkey took a good whiff of it but immediately retracted
"They stink?" Donkey asked upon wriggling that little snout of his
"Yes... NO!" Shrek dropped the rest of his snacks onto the ground as he caught on, they may stink but that was not the example he meant; sometimes due to his lack of communication with other people as they always judge him before getting to know him better, he's just not that very good at making analogies
"They make you cry!" Donkey guessed
"No!" Shrek has never heard of a ogre making someone cry
"Oh you leave 'em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin' little white hairs" Donkey took another guess once again since he did see it turn brown, but Shrek has finally lost his cool
"NO, layers!" Shrek ripped his onion in half to show it's layers. "Onions have layers. Ogres have layers, onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers!" Shrek threw the onion onto the ground before marching off, breathing out as Donkey bent over to sniff the onion
"Oh, you both have layers.. oh" Donkey shook his head upon retracting at the smell. "You know, not everybody likes onions. CAKE! Everybody loves cakes, cakes have layers" Donkey galloped after Shrek as he made the comparison between him and cakes
"I don't CARE... what everyone likes, ogres are not like cakes" Shrek softly told him before moving on, he was beginning to reach his boiling point; Donkey better stop while he still has the chance
"You know what else everybody likes? Parfaits (tall glass dessert consisting of layers made of ice cream, fruit and what not) Have you ever met a person, you say 'Let's get some parfait' they say 'Hell no, I don't like no parfait'? Parfaits are delicious" Donkey galloped in front of him as he continued to make Shrek run out of his cool tolerance before he finally broke the meter at the end
(A/N: I had no idea that Donkey said "Hell no" in the film, I never had the subtitles on when I had the DVD once and the VHS doesn't allow me to enable them sadly; I may have watched the film enough times to know what happens but it's a classic fairytale that's as twisted as Disney's A Twisted Tale book series that revolve around what might've been had the villain emerged victorious over the heroes)
"NO! You dense, irritating, miniature beast of burden! Ogres are like onions, end of story; bye-bye, see ya' later..." He whispered at the end as Shrek left the area that was full of sheaves of wheat, if one was to look carefully then the stalks were cut and not pulled up; where exactly where they cut from? There is only bare earth all around them after all. Donkey stood there for a moment and did not have a look of indifference on him, before he continued to follow him through the fields of corn
"Parfaits may be the most delicious thing on the whole damn planet" Donkey declared
"You know, I think I preferred your humming" Shrek stated in his irritated tone, although he was finished with his outburst
"Do you have a tissue or something? I'm making a mess, just the word parfait makes me start slobbering" Donkey asked and explained his predicament
Throughout their journey on their way to the Dragon's Castle they passed through the trees and saw a windmill in the distance, they both knew that they would come back here when the time to return Princess Fiona comes; passing on by and climbing up the hill throughout their mission at hand. Just as the sun was setting they had to stop in order for Donkey drain himself since it appeared that he had a little too much to drink back at the Duloc arena, that root beer was quite the damn good taste he's talking about; once he was done from behind the large tree, they continued forward from down the hill
Night fell upon Shrek and Donkey as they walked throughout the trail of green clovers and purple flowers, with tall and towering monoliths that were spread about throughout their trail; with the moon bathing them and casting shadows upon the land, while the clouds in the sky were swirling around to blanket the stars that twinkled. Once they found a meadow of a field they eventually decided to stop just outside of a forest when it got too dark for them to continue any further. Sleeping by a fire place for warmth as Shrek tossed over to the other side
The next morning the fire pit burned out but there were still some flames sprouting and Shrek tried putting it out with his shoe, which got really hot and made him hold his foot in burning pain and shake it off as he was having a bit of a issue in doing so; Donkey thankfully put the fire out the old fashioned away by taking a piss on it, getting a disgruntled look from him in return but that was not to say he was unappreciative to say the least. Nevertheless, they moved on throughout the meadow fields and when they found rock formations that pointed to their destination; they stopped underneath the shadows while Shrek had his hands on his waist, looks like they've reached their destination and there was just a few more steps to go. It was a massive and tall volcano of a mountain up ahead with swirling clouds that stood above while it was red in the center
They made their way up the volcano of a mountain with sharp jagged stones pointed to what was awaiting inside for them and backwards on the dried ground that was filled to the very brim with ashes of what dried up in this canyon of sorts with dead trees still standing to this day. There was some smoke that came out and the sky had become splintered with dark indigo clouds against the stone and slate blue background, just then as they passed by the stone formations; a foul smell had filled the snout of Donkey and as he reared back in a sudden move
"Ohh! Shrek did you do that? Man you gotta warn somebody before you just crack one off, my mouth was open and everything" Donkey complained as he went to side of Shrek to avoid the smell with the ogre grinning and turning to face him
"Believe me, Donkey; if it was me... you'd be dead!" Shrek got up to close to him before pausing to get himself a sniff of the rocky and steamy canyon like environment's air. Once he confirmed that their destination lied beyond this wall for them to climb, he went ahead and described the scent of what smelled like smoldering ashes and of course: "It's brimstone, we must be getting close" Shrek stated as he came up against the wall that was supposed to house Princess Fiona, taking a secure grip as he climbed upward as it was too tall to see from a standing position
"Yeah right, brimstone. Don't be talking about it's the brimstone, I know what I smell and it wasn't no brimstone. It didn't come off no stone neither" Donkey continued complaining as he followed Shrek up the wall. A crack of lightning struck as Shrek hung his hands over the edge followed by Donkey with his hooves, reaching up before stopping dead in their tracks to look at the location before them:
Below them was a pillar with two of them next to each other on the left with a wall on the back that was short, what lied before them was a rope bridge that has stood for all who have sent themselves to meet their doom as it acted like the entrance to the monolith of what was known as the place where all Knights who have attempted to save the princess have never returned back alive. The aged and half stable bridge was made of wood planks which were a 8" wide and thick at 5/4, being at normal to slightly long length as they were slightly thinner and slanted to the edges due to the rope bindings also being found at the bottom. The bottom of the planks that were sitting atop the bottom rope bindings were lashed in a narrow x-cross formation with five planks in between the bindings and two for in between the parallel and diagonal pattern of the ropes on the sides, it swayed slowly to the sides as from below; a sea of boiling lava that was a very deep and bright salamander and soundcloud orange with slurring patterns of pineapple and bumblebee yellow shades that acted like the seafoam of the fires below them, sprouting upwards like embers that combusted into flares. But it was the main attraction of the Dragon's Castle that acted as the total eye candy for all adventurers who abandon their hope, for who may enter within
The front of the entrance featured two ruined statues of knights who had their swords that rests in front of them, although the left had most of it's left leg split and the right lost it's left arm; both of whom lost their upper bodies with four ropes attached to the bridge that admits the failed saviors of the princess to the other side. The main building's left side had a broken wall that was once a tower before being smashed while the right had a tower kept intact but even then was not safe from the damage. The far left tower had a damaged cone on top while the two in front were both missing their front walls as it looked like it's ribcage was exposed, the one on right was missing a left chunk of the wall while the far right was hidden behind the other ruined parts of the structure. The large tower in the middle featured holes all around on it's cone and the tallest tower where a window that gave off a bright sun yellow light as a beacon to where Princess Fiona was locked away, no one has made it up to her room as of now; but that was all about to change as the building stood atop the massive pinnacle that held the fate of the Knights who seek to prove themselves worthy to earn her hand for glory and to find someone whom they have fallen in love with, not to mention this was the least damaged tower of them all and still looked very well constructed up to this day. But not for long when the shenanigans inside are bound to follow. Finally, the Dragon's Castle was entirely in a dark spruce and denim blue to eggplant purple undertone; with the lava further lighting the derelict and ruined stronghold in a glow of scarlet, maroon, firebrick and carmine red
"Sure it's big enough, but look at the location!" Shrek laughed heartily as he climbed over the wall and walked towards the bridge, to Donkey however this looked horrifying; and decided to talk to him
"Uh Shrek, uh remember when you said that uh that, that that.. that ogres have layers?" Donkey climbed down and followed him
"Oh, aye?" Shrek replied
"Well I have a bit of confession to make" Donkey was spooked by the skeleton of a horse that too suffered the same fate of the Knights who did not return alive from inside. "Donkey's don't have layers, we wear our fear right out there on our sleeves" He came to where Shrek was, who stood next to the bridge
"Wait a second, donkeys don't have sleeves!" Shrek told him in a lighthearted tone
"You know what I mean" He stated
"Well you can't tell me you're afraid of heights" Shrek showed him the bridge with his arm as he claimed, that was very last thing he would rather hear should they perish and fall into the bowels of the underworld as lightning cracked again
"No, I'm just a little uncomfortable about being a on a rickety bridge over a boiling lake of lava!" Donkey bellowed out at the end as he looked down, the lava sprouts upward like a waterspout albeit in a very chunky and liquid like fashion, the sound of infernos bursting into flames was heard
"Come on Donkey I'm right here beside you, okay? For emotional support, we'll just tackle this thing together one little baby step at a time" Shrek tapped him from behind onto the bridge in front of him while he was behind
"Really?" Donkey's fear was starting to fade
"Really, really" Shrek assured as they began moving
"Okay, that makes me feel so much better" Donkey replied as they began to move across
"Just keep moving, and don't look down" Shrek told him as they continued to walk for the first and second half of the bridge
"Okay, don't look down. Don't look down, don't look down; keep on moving, don't look down" Donkey repeated to himself as Shrek shook his head and breathed one out, well he supposed that this is excusable as some people repeat their lessons to themselves; so he can't blame him if he really is afraid of heights
However it was then that they were halfway across the bridge when Donkey had stepped on a rotting board that was ready to break, with it's left end still standing while the plank fell to the lava; followed by the end that still stood afterwards. "Shrek, I'm looking down!" He turned to him. "Oh god I can't do this, just left me off please!" He begged him out of fear
"But you're already halfway" Shrek told him as they were in the middle of the bridge
"But I know that half is safe!" Donkey pointed his hoof back to the other side
"Okay fine, I don't have time for this; you go back" Shrek urged forwards as Donkey wouldn't go anywhere near beyond the missing plank in the bridge
"Shrek, no wait!" Donkey yelled
"Just, Donkey- oh let's have a dance then shall we?" Shrek tried to get past him
"Come on, no Shrek just wait!" Donkey struggled to get past him
"Donkey, come on!" Shrek stomped as the bridge bounced and swayed, sending him into a panic and having him go over to the other side where the missing plank once was
"OOH, don't do that!" Donkey just wanted to reach over to safety as Shrek mockingly apologized to him
"Oh I'm sorry, do what?" Shrek thought for a moment before realizing: "Oh, this?" He bounced and swayed the bridge again
"Yes, that!" Donkey responded
"Yes? Yes, do it; okay!" Shrek teased him and continued to bounce the bridge as he backed Donkey across, his ears perked up when he decided to do it
"AAAAHH! No, Shrek! No! Stop it!" He cried out as the bridge bounced and swayed across from the sides
"You said do it, I'm doin' it!" Shrek reminded him what he wanted him to do
"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die; Shrek, I'm gonna die" Donkey stepped onto solid ground as he could feel his whole skeleton shivering in the chilling cold that was fear itself until he opened his eye and realized he made it across: "Oh!"
"That'll do, Donkey. That'll do" Shrek stepped off and petted him on the sides like Babe the Pig before moving on towards the Dragon's Castle in front of him. "Cool" Donkey followed as he then asked him
"So where is this fire-breathing pain in the neck anyway?" Donkey asked as he hopped over a broken ridge in between the almost demolished real bridge
"Inside, waiting for us to rescue her" Shrek replied as he passed through some fallen bricks and stones, chuckling as he entered in first
"I was talkin' about the Dragon, Shrek" Donkey responded quickly
The front entrance featured two broken top towers with the doors opened widely for them, and as Shrek and Donkey entered within; they knew that from this point onward that they would either rescue Princess Fiona from within the fiery keep, or parish inside of this castle's cursed walls to never return from wherever the Dragon has decided that will be their final resting place. But Shrek had no intentions of resting just yet, not until he's got his swamp back from Lord Farquaad; because he's got a plan that does not involve slaying the guardian of this castle, he intends of taking Princess Fiona out of the tallest tower without letting it know they were here as mentioned before. The Dragon would be asleep most of the time, so that right there is the perfect opportunity...