I don't own the Mighty Ducks

Left in Limbo

Mallory was watching the ground far below her as the winged beast carried her across the sky. She couldn't see Canard anywhere. "Great, naked, weaponless, and kidnapped by a monster that's probably going to eat me. Good day." She muttered looking up ahead of them. They were approaching a mountain with a cave carved out of the side of it. It was large and dark, she didn't want to know what fate awaited her in that cave but before it could be contemplated, they arrived. It dropped Mallory unceremoniously on the hard ground. "Ouch!" It didn't bother to check on her as it walked further back. Mallory peered over her arms at it from her spot on the ground, not sure why it hadn't turned on her to try and eat her yet, not that she was complaining. Getting up she dusted herself off as best she could. "And I just had a bath." She thought to herself. Backing up and glancing out of the cave to find there was no way to get out or down without some kind of rope to help her. Turning back, she saw the creature was just watching her, as if waiting for her to realize that escape from here would be a fruitless attempt. This thing was way too smart and she was way too naked. She was too vulnerable like this to fight.

She covered herself as best she could with her hands, trying to stay as far from it as possible but it rolled its eyes and wrapped its long tail around her waist, pulling her closer. Mallory dug her feet into the cold stone of the cave floor, scratching her heels up even though she knew it was useless. When it finally had her beside itself, the beast nodded it head towards the right corridor of the cave. Not sure she was seeing this right, the naked red head continued to stare at it until it grew impatient and nudged her forward with its tail. Turning her eyes to it again, Mallory was surprised to see it nodded its head for her to move in that direction. "Wait! Look your smart and you seem to understand me right?" It watched her for a moment then slowly nodded. "What do you want? Why are you after Canard? And why take me?" Again it nudged her towards the corridor. Mallory glanced at the it then back down the hall. Sighing she moved forward, hoping this thing wouldn't eat her. When she arrived at the room, she couldn't see a thing, until fire shot out from next to her, making her jump in surprise. The creature could breathe fire! Did that make it a type of dragon? Searching the room, she saw it was rounded and in the center was what could only be described as a fire place. The wood in the fire cracked and snapped as it burned, the flame's light danced over the wall, making patterns. Around the fire place were three small mounds of grass and leaves. On the opposite side of the room was one large mound. The creature, now known as a dragon, walked onto the mound and laid down. It stared at Mallory waiting for her to come to the realization of what of going on here.

Sure enough, Mallory realized what she was trying to say. This was a female dragon but not only a female, a mother. Where were her children? "Where are your kids?" It glared, narrowing it eyes at her. Mallory stepped back and held her hands out as a sign of surrender. "Wow! Don't look at me like that. I didn't do anything." It still glared at her. "Is that why you took me because you think Canard took them?" It nodded its head. Mallory sighed. "Canard didn't take your children. Why would he?" It smacked something over in her direction, the metal clicked along the floor, stopping at her feet. It was a gun, not just any gun, it was one of their guns. The white with a grey handle and green markings were easily identifiable. Canard either had been here at some point or someone who took his gun had been. "Yes this is Canard's gun but he has been missing this for a while. It's possible that someone took this from him and used it." The creature seemed unconvinced. "There is another Puckworldian here. Her name is Lucretia DeCoy. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the one who took them but why would she take them?" Mallory asked herself quietly, the Dragon watched her with a curious tilt of her head.

For what felt like hours but was really only one, Mallory curled up in the corner, not able to do much else. Could this get any worse? She was board and the dragon wasn't the best conversationalist. At least it wasn't going to try and eat her anytime soon. She would fight it but she was naked and very vulnerable to fire right now. Her feathers would go up like one of those dry Christmas trees from the human's holidays on Earth. Her species did well with water and ice but heat was something completely different. They had a weakness to that, which is why their suits were flame resistant. If she had her suit right now things would have gone down differently but she didn't so she had to be careful. The strange thing about it was that in a way she was glad she didn't. She could admit that she tended to be more brash and strong headed when it came to certain things. It could be considered a fault that she would shoot first and ask questions later. Having her suit now would have led to her taking different actions and she would have never found out why this creature really attacked Canard. Honestly, it didn't seem that bad. It just wanted its kids back. What mother wouldn't? Moments like these gave her time to reflect better on her actions. She sometimes came off a little harsh. Perhaps questioning it and making friends would be the best course of action here?

"What's your name?" The Dragon looked at her and blinked. "This is probably a stupid question since you can't talk but I need to call you something." It roared out what sounded like a song. Mallory didn't know if this was an actual answer but she assumed it was. "Well I can't pronounce that so I'm gonna call you…. Glenda?" It scrunched up its snot at her in displeasure. "Okay not that… then what about…", she looked around the room, trying to find something that the dragon liked. Her eyes landed on what looked like a torn up bee's nest. "Honey?" It blinked at her and then shook its head. "Picky." Mallory stared into the fire and smirk. "How about Ember?" It looked to be in thought but then shrugged. "Alright, Ember it is." The dragon sighed and laid its head down, going back to moping. It looked at the empty mound of leaves and let out what sounded like a sad moan.

Her chest constricted a little at the quiet cry. Mallory took a step closer to it only for it to lift its head and growled at her. She took two steps back giving it even more space and it stopped growling. "I thought we were cool. You let me figure out a name to call you. Look I seriously don't know what happened to your kids and I highly doubt Canard knows anything about it either but maybe we can help find them?" Mallory didn't want to be eaten or burned alive by this thing so she kept her distance. Ember sneered at her, laid its head back down and closed her eyes. "That didn't go like I hoped it would." She sighed and sat back down. "Can't say I didn't try. Well whatever happens if this thing tries to eat me, then I will kill it, sad mom or not."

After twenty minutes Mallory softly walked to the hall trying not to wake Ember. She slipped out of the room and made her way to the front, not realizing that Ember wasn't actually sleeping. Getting to the entrance Mallory looked out over the landscape, wondering where Canard was. "Hopefully he's okay." She said to herself and sat down, wrapping her arms around herself to stay covered. "I wish I had something to wear."

…..

Canard growled as he continued to run across the spars forest. "That's it! I've had it with that thing! This time I'll finish it for good. I just hope Mallory's okay." He thought as he ran, panting from the exertion. He wished he had never come across that cave. Ever since he went it looking for some kind of shelter that thing has been after him, he could only assume it was a territorial thing. He had invaded its home and it was pissed. That's all there was to it but the way this thing came after him was like it had a serious vendetta against him. "And now it's taken Mallory. Big mistake."

If it wanted to make this personal, fine. He didn't start this fight but he would finish it. Looking at his tracker he found the creature wasn't that much further, it had stopped and he recognized the area. It had taken Mallory back to its cave. "Back to where this all started." The mountain and cave came into view as he left the trees. "Not much further now. Hang in there Mallory. I'm coming." He pulled out his gun, ready to start climbing.

…..

Mallory was sitting close to the mouth of the cave, her legs curled next to her as she leaned on one arm, the other was draped over her hip. She wasn't right at the front of the cave because she was naked and didn't want to be attracting unwanted attention whether it came from odd creatures or possibly other beings here. Not to mention she didn't want her naked ass to be the first thing Canard sees when he got here. Tempted to check and see if he was coming but figuring it was pointless to do so, she stayed right where she was. That is until she heard a noise outside the cave. Glancing in Ember's direction and then back to the entrance, she decided to check it out. Risking it she glanced over the side and found Canard climbing up, not even ten feet from her. Damn he was fast.

"Canard." She whispered to him. He looked up and a look of relief covered his face. Increasing his rate of climb and he reached out for her, Mallory stretched her arm as far as it would go to him. They're fingers just grazed each other, so close to getting out of there until a shadow was cast over her. Looking above herself she saw Ember glaring down at Canard. Canard grabbed his gun but Ember moved fast and wrapped her tail around Mallory's waist, dragging her back in the cave.

"Mallory!" Canard called, climbing the rest of the way up and in. Once he had his feet on solid ground he pulled his gun out. Ready to save Mallory. He walked carefully into the cave until he heard Mallory's yelp. There was not time for caution, he rushed in to save her.

Mallory in the meantime was trying to talk some sense into Ember. "Please just let me talk to him, we'll get this sorted out. I'm telling you he didn't do it!" Ember still wasn't listening and Mallory was getting angry. "Wouldn't you rather you actually find the ones responsible for taking your children and get them back or take it out on an innocent person and never find them again! If it was me, I would do whatever it took to get my kids back!" She yelled at the stubborn dragon who gave pause to what she was doing. She glared at Mallory, realizing the duck she was holding upside-down may have had a point. Mallory had her hands on her hips, glaring right back at the dragon unblinkingly. Seeing that Mallory's logic was sound, she dropped her, making the duck yelped when she hit the ground. "You could learn to be a little nicer." Mallory hissed at Ember, who just ignored her. This was how Canard found them.

"Get away from Mallory!" Ember growled at Canard, seeing the same kind of gun the kidnapper used.

"Canard wait!" Mallory jumped up and stood in front of his gun.

"Mallory move!" He was confused by her defending the monster that took her, not to mention had been hunting him for what seems like forever. Moving forward fast Canard grabbed Mallory and pulled her to him, ready to make a run for it out of the cave until Mallory pushed off of him and went to stand in front of the dragon again.

"Stop and listen."

Then he got a good look at her and realized she was still naked. His eyes traveled down her body. "Uhhhh…" Not sure what to say but suddenly very distracted. Realizing that Canard was staring at her outright naked body Mallory covered herself with her hands the best she could.

"Look this is a big misunderstanding. Canard did you take Ember's children?" Mallory got right down to business.

Looking up at her confused, Canard raised an eyebrow at Mallory. "What? Who?" Mallory just pointed to the dragon behind her who was still growling at him, smoke curled up and out of her nostrils. "You named it? It had children?"

"Ember is a she and would you please just answer the question."

He lowered his gun, truly confused. What happened? He was supposed to be rescuing Mallory. "Look I don't know what's going on here but this thing, has been hunting and torturing me for what seems like months now. I stumbled onto its territory, trying to find shelter and it came back and attacked me. I ran and that's it. There wasn't anything here when I came in." He glared at the dragon behind Mallory. The creature had stopped growling, it just stared at Canard, blinking and sniffing. Suddenly it sat back, at a loss on what to do.

Mallory turned back to it. "See. I told you Canard didn't take them." The dragon turned to look at the beds on the floor, it got up and walked to them, laying down on them with its back turned, moaning sadly to itself.

This sucked, He was supposed to be the hero here and now he was more confused than ever but before anything else could happen, he cleared his throat and held Mallory clothes out to her. "Uh here. You might want to get dressed." Taking her clothes Mallory dressed quickly, while he gave her privacy and watch the beast bemoan what he now knew was the loss of her children. He felt bad for her but this thing had done nothing but cause him trouble. "Now that this is all cleared up she'll stop hunting me?" He pointed to Ember who had her back to them.

"Yeah I'm pretty sure." Mallory stood next to Canard, now dressed.

"Good then let's get out of here." He grabbed her hand and started pulling her to the exit but she ripped her arm away.

"Come on Canard. We can't just leave her."

"I'm sorry, what do you expect me to do about it? It's not my fault someone took her kids." He crossed his arms, unhappy with the greeting he had received. "You'd think she would be happy that I came to save her from a monster."

"Look if we help her then maybe she can help us." Both Canard and Ember turned to look at Mallory.

"How?" Canard asked, knowing he was probably going to regret this.

"We'll help her get her kids back and she can help us get to the Brawns faster." Ember was suddenly standing beside them, wanting to know what the outcome of this would be.

Canard jumped at Ember's sudden appearance next to them, she looked at him hopefully. He didn't realize this thing could be hopeful. Glancing at the dragon and then back at Mallory with his arms crossed, he contemplated whether this was worth it. Both were looking at him expectantly. "No." This was the end of this argument.

Mallory and Ember looked at each other and then glared back at Canard,

…..

He had said no, that was the final word right? Wrong! "Should have known I wasn't going to win that argument with two stubborn females." Flying on Ember's back wasn't so bad, if you weren't the one in front. Canard felt like he was getting wind burned from how fast they were going. "How are we even supposed to find her children?" He asked Mallory over his shoulder, his eyes sore and burning from the wind flying at them. Her arms were wrapped around his waist and her face was buried in his back, hiding from the harsh winds.

"Remember how you lost most of your gear when you fell here?" She yelled up.

"Yeah?"

"Well, whoever took them used your equipment to do it. All of our equipment has something on it to help keep track of it. So when you're close to a lost piece your com should let you know. I'm hoping they still have some of it."

"Whoever it was could be anywhere by now."

"Maybe but I'm guessing that traveling with three strong young dragons wouldn't be easy. It would take a lot of time to go from place to place."

Canard looked ahead, seeing that Ember was listening in on their conversation with a tilted head. He still didn't like this dragon. The day continued on like this, searching for hours. "We need to stop for the night and rest."

"Yeah your probably right." Mallory said, a yawn escaping her mouth. She was having a hard time staying awake at this point.

"Yo dragon take us down. We need to rest." Ember glared over at Canard but landed anyway. Once on the ground she laid on her belly to let both ducks off. Canard slid off first, landing on his feet with ease. Mallory slipped down and Canard grabbed her waist to make sure she landed softly.

"You don't have to worry. My leg is fine Canard." Mallory said thinking he was worried about her injured leg. It honestly hadn't bothered her at all.

"Better to be safe and be gentle with you then let you get hurt again and slow our progress." He still held onto her waist as he gazed down at her. Mallory's hands rested on his arms as she looked up at him and nodded.

Ember raised a brow at the scene. When Mallory walked away, Canard watched her go, his eyes traveling her form as she went. Seeing him blatantly staring at the red head, Ember used her tail to whip at Canard's feet, knocking them out from under him. He landed on his back with the wind knocked out of him. "What's your problem?" He yelled at the dragon, who was no longer in the same spot. He looked around in confusion and found Ember laying down next to Mallory. The dragon tilted her head in fake confusion and Mallory looked back at him when she heard him yell.

"You okay Canard?"

"No. That thing tripped me." He pointed accusingly to Ember who looked offended.

"Canard she's all the way over here, she can't reach you over there." Mallory looked at him like he had three heads. Ember had the nerve to shake her head at him, as is disapprovingly. That bitch.

"That's what she wants you to think." He said getting up and dusting himself off. Mallory ignored him and sat down next to Ember. The dragon wrapped her tail around Mallory and pulled her close, keeping her warm. Mallory seemed surprised but smiled up at Ember and leaned into her to rest against. Canard went to join them but Ember turn her head and glared at Canard. He realized that he was not invited to sleep next to Mallory. "What? I was with her first!" Ember only glared at Canard he looked to Mallory hoping to get some help but she was already asleep. He sighed. "I knew I was going to regret this."

…..

The next day they continued their search. It was that morning that Mallory asked Canard if he had her communicator. He realized he had left it in a hurry to get to Mallory when she had been taken. Of course Ember shook her head at him again while Mallory seemed to be in thought. "It doesn't matter. We'll either find it later or just leave it." Once they were ready, Canard went to grab a drink of water from the stream. They didn't need to eat or drink in limbo but some water sounded nice. Ember thought it would be funny to follow and knock him into the stream, clothes and all. When he came back up for air the dragon was smirking at him. He threw water at her but she jumped away and went back to join Mallory. This thing was just outright mean. He grumbled angrily, drying himself and his clothes the best that he could, then walked back to Mallory. His shoes slushed as he walked, the water logged soles squishing water between his toes with every step. His right eyebrow ticked in annoyance. "Stupid Dragon."

They were back in the air searching for Ember's children. Hopefully they would find them soon because he really hated this dragon. He was still drying. Mallory was seating in front of him this time and the dragon was flying at a more leisurely pace, so Mallory wasn't getting wind whipped as they flew. Another thing that annoyed Canard, Ember was so gentle and sweet with Mallory but with him, she beat him up, threw him into rivers and gave him wind burn on purpose. Then when they were on the ground, she was always occupying Mallory's time. He disliked Ember more and more. Not to mention he was freeze flying around up high in the sky, being in damp clothes. Unfortunately, he didn't have anything to change into, so here he was, clinging to Mallory and shivering.

Feeling him shaking Mallory glanced over her shoulder at him. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Nothing I can't handle." He said. Ember huffed, in response Canard glare at the back of her scaly head. Mallory smirked, seeing that Ember was picking on poor Canard. She moved her arm behind her head and slipped her hand onto the back of his neck. Canard watched her, unsure of what she was doing until she pulled him closer, leaning back into him, Mallory pressed her head into the side of his neck and pressed her back into his front. His surprise quickly wore off and he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist, keeping her as close as possible. She spread her thighs a little more, making sure his inner thighs were pressed into her outer thighs, trying to keep as much of him pressed against her. "Better?" She asked, smirking at him.

"Oh yeah." He was looking into her eyes. They were so green, like sparking emeralds. He leaned in, bringing his beak closer to hers. Mallory had yet to move her hand from the back of his neck as she brought her mouth up to his. They were a whisper away from kissing when Ember suddenly shifted, acting like the air current was giving her a hard time. Mallory let go of Canard and grabbed onto Ember, not wanting to fall off from this high. Canard held tightly onto Mallory. He gave Ember a dirty look and the dragon smirked back at him. He took it back, Ember wasn't mean, she was pure evil.

Hours later they hadn't found anything until Canard's com suddenly beeped. Ember and Mallory waited for his instructions on where to go. He opened it and found a signal not far off. "That way." He pointed to the west, Ember followed his finger picking up speed. The com's beeps became more frequent until it was a high pitched sound. "We're right over it." He said, Mallory prepared her gun as they landed. Searching the area, Ember sniffed around while Mallory followed Canard and his com. "According to this, it's not far ahead." He kept walking, moving a bush aside he found a piece of his equipment. Kneeling down he picked it up. It was an ammo bag. Searching through it he discovered a lot of ammo had been used. "We'll we're going in the right direction now."

"How do you know?"

"Because this is my ammo bag and a bunch of ammo has been used but only stuff used to capture, not kill. Most of the lethal ammunition is still here." He hooked the ammo bag to his belt, walking back to Ember with Mallory following him. Seeing her sniffing around, he walked up to her. "Dragon. Smell this, does it have any familiar scents on it." Ember brought her snot down to sniff it, reacting to it like she had just been sprayed in the face. She snorted and growled at the bag. "You recognized the scent I take it?" She nodded and laid on her belly, indicating them to get on. Canard hopped up first and helped Mallory up after. Ember didn't wait, she took to the skies and headed west.

…..

An hour later there was another beep on Canard's com. He opened it and pointed in the direction of the beeping. Ember followed. The beeping grew more frequent, until it was almost a high pitched ring. They were almost on top of it when they were fired on. A puck grenade was shot from the trees below going off right next to Ember. She was thrown sideways.

Mallory and Canard fell off her back, plummeting towards the ground below for what would be a fatal fall. Canard reached for Mallory mid fall, she reached back for him. They're fingers touched but they couldn't get a hold of each other. Then vanished through the tree's canopy and lost sight of each other. Mallory used her gun to shoot out a grapple hook and stop her decent. Canard did the same, only stopping a little closer to the ground. He released his wire and put his gun away. "Mallory where are you? Are you ok-" He didn't get to finish his sentence as someone clocked him in the back of the head, knocking him out. The last thing Canard saw before his vision faded was two very large feet.

…..