The Magical Quest

Ingo was slowly flying back to Pete's castle, looking down with shame. How could he face his master now? He had failed to stop two mere peasants. What could be more embarrassing? The demon noticed an open window to the throne room and sighed, making his way towards it. He had to face the music sooner or later.

Meanwhile, Pluto was in the back room lying down, a look of sadness on his face. At this point, the dog couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever get out. Was anyone coming to rescue him? After all, they had only assumed he was Minnie's dog. For all he knew, the kingdom probably didn't care about him.

As Ingo entered, he noticed that Pete wasn't in the throne room. The demon blinked and said, "He must be in the dining hall. I guess I'll just kick back and wait for his return. No sense rushing punishment, yes?"

But as the demon held his arms up for a quick stretch, his eyes went wide as the door to the throne room opened up, Pete standing by the door. When he saw Ingo standing there, the king grinned and walked over to the demon.

"Why, welcome home, Ingo!" the man exclaimed, giving the demon a hard pat on the back, Ingo flipping forward and hitting his face against the floor, quickly returning to his feet. He was used to this kind of treatment by now.

All the while, Pluto could hear the conversation from the other room. After all, dogs had super-sensitive hearing. No wall could prevent the pet from hearing something close by.

"Sire..." Ingo said but was cut off as Pete proceeded to state, "The fact that you are here is good indeed as it can only mean one thing, that being the fact that the soldiers sent to rescue the dog have been dealt with."

Pluto's eyes went wide, the dog biting one of his ears nervously while Ingo laughed nervously, Pete turning to him with a bigger smile asking, "I mean, that is why you're here, right?"

"Actually, sir..." Ingo replied before explaining everything that had happened, Pluto listening in on the conversation, a smile forming on his face while his tail wagged. Perhaps there was hope for the canine after all.

"WHAT!" Pete retorted, his voice echoing all throughout the kingdom, "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT TWO MEASLY PEASANTS DEFEATED YOU AND MY GIANT SNAKE!"

"Uh, yes," Ingo replied, now trembling, "That's pretty much it in a nutshell."

Pete's look of anger turned to one of fear as he slumped down on his chair, eyes twitching. The king proceeded to place his hand against his head, clearly fighting a headache now, as Ingo closed his eyes, ready for whatever punishment came his way.

"You know what?" Pete asked, Ingo slowly opening one of his eyes as the king smiled and started to laugh, exclaiming, "This is perfect!"

"It... it is?" Ingo replied as the king nodded and stated, "Don't you see, Ingo? There's only two people trying to rescue this dog! They may have gotten lucky with my snake, but there's no way they can stand up to my other demons!"

Ingo couldn't argue with that as he simply joined Pete and laughed. He wasn't even going to mention a second time that they had beaten him. He was just glad that the king was happy.

However, the conversation didn't end there as Pete placed a firm grip against Ingo's head, the demon's eyes widening while the king held him up, a wide grin on his face as he said, "You're going to help again."

"But sire," Ingo replied as Pete sighed, "I know, I know, they beat you already, but what if I give you an even greater power?"

Ingo blinked and asked, "You mean you'll grant me more power?" as the king nodded and said, "I can't have them getting lucky again."

With that in mind, Pete held his hands up, a magical force coming from them and touching Ingo as his body started to transform. Ingo's wings vanished as his overalls were replaced by a male hula dress. The demon's body turned white, his nose changing from red to yellow. What's more was that now instead of a battle helmet, he instead had green hair that resembled a small bush.

After the transformation ended, Ingo blinked and stated, "I don't feel that much different," as what looked like a large vine came out of his hair in a spiral formation, latching itself to the ceiling.

Ingo's eyes went wide as he looked into a mirror, his jaw dropped as Pete laughed saying, "You can thank me later for the upgrade, Ingo, but first, you must go and stop those fools who dare oppose me!"

Ingo's eye continued to twitch as the king sighed, using his magic to warp the demon out of his throne room. What was the minion's problem?

As Ingo appeared in the forest, he placed his hands against his dress and let down tears. What kind of joke was this? It wasn't enough that Pete took his flight away, but he looked ridiculous now. How could anyone take him seriously? And that power to summon a vine from his head was even harder to take seriously. What kind of power was that? If anything, this seemed more like a downgrade. Perhaps the demon could master his new abilities in time for his next encounter.

We now return to Mickey and Donald who were simply trekking through the forest, unaware of where they were really going. Naturally, the two simply followed the path set before them. It really was their only lead. But how did they know it was leading them in the right direction? The truth was they didn't. They had gotten lucky before, but what about now?

Donald let out a sigh, looking back and forth as he noticed one of the leaves on a nearby tree move. The duck's eyes widened, as he rubbed them, looking back as the leaf was now back in its original position. He eyed it suspiciously while advancing forward, slowly turning his eyes away from it before turning around and shouting, "AHAH!" now shocked as the leaf was gone.

The duck blinked as Mickey turned to him and said, "Donald, now's not the time to mess around," the duck tugging on the back of the mouse's collar shouting, "But I just saw a leaf move!" Mickey blinking, shrugging and replying, "I didn't quite understand that, old buddy."

Thus was the disadvantage of having duck noises as one's way of speaking. The words never came out as clearly as they should have.

Donald grumbled, turning back to the tree to see a number of leaves gather together in one area, forming an evil face as the duck panicked, the leafs separating and flipping backwards to reveal that they weren't actually leaves, but rather bugs with leaf-shaped caps attached to the backs of their heads. The duck simply laughed at this, realizing how silly he was, Mickey freezing in his tracks. Donald bumped into him holding onto his beak and glaring at him only to see what had caused Mickey to stop.

Right in front of them was a river with giant fish with razor sharp teeth swimming around in it. Mickey gulped, trembling as he said, "This isn't too bad. We'll just walk around it," before noticing that any way around it had been blocked off by the trees.

"Oh no!" Donald groaned, setting himself down on his rear and placing his hand against his chin asking, "What are we gonna do?"

Mickey thought hard and let out a chuckle suggesting, "I know, I'll ride on your back and you can swim across!" Donald's eyes widening as the image of him literally being used as a raft came to mind, the duck glaring at the mouse as Mickey laughed nervously saying, "No, no, bad idea."

While the two continued to ponder this situation, Donald noticed something. There was a group of tree branches sticking out only slightly above where they were standing. Then the duck got an idea.

"I know!" Donald suggested, "We'll jump on those branches and get ourselves across!"

Mickey had a confused look, wondering where Donald was going with that and turned to direction of the water, noticing the tree branches the sailor had spoken of. Mickey laughed and patted the duck on the back saying, "That's not a bad plan at all. You're finally starting to show a little optimism, old pal."

Then with that, the two leaped atop the branches, bouncing on them as one of the fish poked its head up from out of the water, glaring at them and preparing to jump. However, just as it emerged, Donald and Mickey used the branch like a trampoline to jump onto the next one, the branch waving up and down and smacking the fish hard in the face, sending it back into the water.

While the two bounced from branch to branch, Mickey laughed and stated, "Look at this vast world that lays before us! There could be more that's yet to come! It might be troublesome or even scary, but all will fall if we ever fuss!"

Donald nodded as the two reached land, leaping gracefully upon the ground while the duck said, "The world is big, that's a well-known fact! Our destination may be far ahead!"

"Right!" Mickey replied, the two advancing forward while the leaf bugs continued to watch, Mickey performing a flip underneath a plant hanging from a tree saying, "We battled a giant snake and came out on top, he didn't stand a chance," the plant coming open as sparkles rained down on the mouse, Donald standing under one adding, "We also battled one of Pete's royal guards and came out on top with a heroic stance!" the plant coming open as sharp chest nuts fell on the duck's head much to his dismay.

The two started climbing the tree branch, the leaf bugs coming together to form living ropes while Mickey grabbed hold of one, Donald hanging onto the mouse's leg as they swung from branch to branch saying, "If we look deep down inside, we'll find the strength to win!"

Donald had a wide smile while adding, "What we lack in size outside we make up for within!"

With that, the two cleared the trees and ended up in a wide open field saying together, "Nothing will stand in our way if we look inside! As long as we just believe, fate is ours to decide! Just as long as we believe, we'll make it through and through! Nothing will ever bring us down as long as we show them what we can do!"

That said, the two laughed and headed off into the distance, the leaf bugs waving at them. Perhaps they could make it to the end.

Meanwhile, Minnie and Goofy had followed the exact path, Mickey and Donald had took, only unlike the mouse and duck duo, they had gotten a ride across the briar patch courtesy of the purple bugs that inhabited the forest.

Once the two were set down, Minnie bowed saying, "Thank you very much," as the bugs blushed and laughed in response. After all, it wasn't often that a bug would be thanked by a princess.

Goofy simply shook one's hand chuckling, "Ahyuck! You guys are alright!"

With that, the bugs took off waving at the two and wishing them the best of luck. Minnie was actually quite surprised. Not once had the two run into any real danger up to this point.

But as Minnie turned to face the path ahead, she was shocked by what she saw next. It looked like the body of a giant snake. Goofy turned around and noticed it as well, staring with shock as he slowly let out the word, "Massive..."

As the two stared at the sight, Minnie blinked and said, "Donald and Mickey must have been attacked by this creature," as Goofy nodded and said, "Looks like they beat it too."

Minnie breathed a sigh of relief at the sound of that. If the two could beat something this big, perhaps things weren't going so poorly for them. Perhaps they were still safe. However, one thing confused Minnie; how had the two gotten up the cliff-side before them? Goofy then noticed a pair of leaves attached to a big red object, curiosity getting the better of him as he flicked one of the leaves, both spinning around as the red object came out of the ground, taking to the skies.

"Goofy, you're a genius!" Minnie exclaimed as the jester blinked and asked, "I am?" the mouse noticing two others and activating the leaves of one, the seed rising up from the ground as the princess grabbed hold of it saying, "Goofy, you can use the other one to get up to the top of this cliff."

The dog chuckled and replied, "Imagine that," slapping his hand against one of the leaves on the other seed, both spinning around briefly, petering out seconds later. Goofy scowled at the sight of this, slapping the leaf again, both spinning for a few seconds before failing once more. The dog grimaced and kicked the leaf this time, the leaves finally started up for good, Goofy smiling at his handiwork before realizing the seed was rising without him. With that, the dog quickly grabbed onto it just in time to join Minnie at the top moments later.

With that, the two walked down the path once more while Minnie sighed, "I hope we find Mickey and Donald soon. What if they've gone really far ahead of us already? I really wish we'd known about this sooner."

"Aw, cheer up, Princess," Goofy replied, chuckling before adding, "I'm sure we'll find them."

Somehow, Minnie had a feeling Goofy might be right. Perhaps this wouldn't be as difficult as they thought it would be. After all, it seemed as if the mouse and duck duo had taken care of any obstacles that could have prevented Minnie and Goofy from moving forward. It looked like smooth sailing for them. One thing was for sure though: they had to find Mickey and Donald before things got really difficult for them.