"All right, we should be safe in here," Scrooge said, his words echoing on the stone walls.
"But what about Uncle Donald?" Dewey said.
"We'll just have to hope for the best," Scrooge said.
"How-what do you think his chances are?" Louie asked, tears staining the feathers on his face.
Scrooge was quiet for a moment. "I don't know."
"As long as he can keep warm, he should be ok," Huey said. "Like if he finds another cave, or burrows himself in the snow."
"Maybe-maybe his temper will keep him warm," Dewey said. "You know how his face always gets all red, maybe that can help."
"It doesn't work like that," Huey said.
"I don't know, lad," Scrooge said thoughtfully. "Expending energy creates heat, and your Uncle Donald certainly expends a lot of it when he gets angry."
"But Uncle Donald has to lose his temper for it to work," Louie said. "What's he going to get angry at, the snow?"
"Yes," Dewey said.
"He's gotten angry at less," Huey said.
"Either way, the important thing is that we're safe in here," Scrooge said. "This cave will provide adequate shelter until the storm blows over and we can get back to town."
"Until the storm blows over and we can find Uncle Donald, you mean," Louie said.
"Possibly. More likely, we'll have to put together a search party," Scrooge said. "We don't quite have the supplies or the manpower for that."
"So we're not going to continue looking for the lost city?" Huey asked.
"Of course not! I'm not stupid. It's much too dangerous to continue on. We'll have to wait until spring," Scrooge said.
"Why didn't we wait until spring to begin with?" Louie said, a tiny sniffle escaping from his bill.
"Hubris," Scrooge said. "I also didn't realize that winter was going to come so early here this year. I came here about a month hence the last time I tried to find it, and the leaves were still busy changing color."
"Global warming," Huey said, beginning to shiver.
"Probably," said Scrooge. "Come closer, kids. We've got to share body heat to keep from getting hypothermia."
"Are we going to have to take off all our clothes and get into a sleeping bag together?" Dewey said. "Because we saw a movie about that in health class last year, and it was weird."
"What? No. That's only if someone gets hypothermia," Scrooge said. "We're looking to prevent that."
"Hey, be quiet a second," Louie said. "I think I hear something."
"That's just the wind whistling against the opening of the cave," Huey said.
"Sh!" Louie said.
The quartet was quiet for a minute.
"Wait, I think I hear it, too," Dewey said, standing up and moving toward the opening of the cave.
"Get back here!" Scrooge said. "There's nothing to be gained by-"
"Wait, is that-" Huey began.
"It sounds like Uncle Donald!" Louie said, running to the mouth of the cave and peering out into the blizzard.
"You can't-"
"Uncle Donald!" Louie yelled out into the snow as his brothers joined him at the mouth of the cave to yell his name.
"Boys! Get back inside! Donald will kill me if you get the slightest bit of frostbite!"
The boys ignored him and kept yelling for their uncle.
"Wait a second," Scrooge said, tilting his head to one side so he could listen better. "I think I hear him, too."
Donald's distinctive angry quacking slowly became louder underneath the howling of the wind as a dark shape became visible in the swirling snow. Scrooge joined in with his great-nephews.
The four ducks moved out of the way as Donald stomped into the cave, hands clenched into fists at his sides, water dripping off and onto the floor.
"There you are," he said, anger coloring his words. "I've been looking everywhere for you. If it hadn't been for that miserable snow-" and here Donald's words dissolved into indecipherable quacks as he turned to wave his fist at the weather.
"Come back here, lad," Scrooge said, taking Donald by the arm and leading him farther inside the cave, their three nephews following closely behind. "We'll have you warmed up in a minute."
"What? I'm fine," Donald said, his anger finally beginning to dissipate. Sure enough, heat was rolling off of Donald in waves. The boys huddled closely around him, grateful for both the warmth and their Uncle Donald.
"Are you boys ok?" Donald asked.
"Yes, Uncle Donald," the boys chorused.
"Good," he said. "It's a good thing you found shelter."
"And it's an even better thing that you did, too," said Louie.
Donald chuckled. "Well, I wouldn't say it's necessarily better," he said, putting his arms around his nephews. "But I'm certainly glad I did."