Chapter Text
When the light simmered away, Donald found that he was back where Felldrake was. He had a split second to recognize that Felldrake had been hurt, a familiar golden khopesh buried in his throat with charred shards of ruby, sapphire, and emerald embedded in his purple skin, the remains of familiar magic – campfire warmth, dancing sparks, and cooling gold – drifting with the wind as he tasted the familiar strengthening magic the amulet always granted.
The amulets were no more. He could see that much. They didn’t have much they could use to fight Felldrake since there was nothing to amplify their magic anymore, but they still had their armors and weapons, and Felldrake was clearly hurt and weakened by whatever magic had been performed with the amulet as the conduit.
It had to be enough.
Gravity pulled them down and Donald took another split second to realize that he was suspended in midair, the portal dispersing behind him but not disappearing completely. With a gasp and a desperate pull, Donald willed seawater to come up and catch all three of them. Water rushed up and intercepted them, and Donald tried and failed to ignore José’s pained grunt.
Felldrake glared at them, snarling, eyes full of hate. “Must you keep getting in my way?” he asked, callous. “You would have wasted away in that place I put you in. Instead, you chose to come back and die by my hands.”
“You can try killing us,” Panchito challenged. His eyes blazed with intention and his magic soared, raucous music thrumming deep in Donald’s bones as Panchito put two fingers between his beak and let out a piercing whistle. Felldrake flinched back in response, and Panchito sagged a little, panting hard as his magic depleted. Donald and José both took their cues and moved forward, landing on Felldrake’s ridiculously rotund belly and running up, shattering crystals and leaving cuts in their wake.
Xandra joined them soon, the remnants of her stepping-stone-magic still glistening under her feet, panting slightly as she twirled her spear with curved blade. “How are you doing, boys?” she asked in feigned casualness.
“Got dragged into the shadow realm and then got dragged back up,” José answered with the same tone. He twirled his sword and took a stance. “You know. Usual Thursday stuff.”
Xandra laughed, a barked sound that grated with surprise and feral viciousness. “Let’s do this. For real, this time.”
Donald fixed his grip on his sword. “Up, then.”
The three of them ran up Felldrake’s body while nimbly dodging crystals he shot their way. Panchito caught up to them soon enough, vaulting up using his spear and viciously slashing it to smack away crystals Felldrake shot at him. “Spell!” he yelled, tongue glistening with the spark of readying magic.
Donald glanced up as he used a jutting piece of crystal that stuck out of Felldrake’s stomach to avoid being impaled by flying shards. Felldrake was lifting his arms – gross, Donald could see his armpits from where he was – and gathering the remnants of the black hole he had trapped Donald, José, and Panchito in. He gritted his teeth. He didn’t know how the others managed to pull them out of the black hole, but he wasn’t keen on getting dragged in again.
José saw the same thing and came to the same conclusion. His magic roared when he yelled, infusing a single word with his intent that Felldrake froze. “Halt!”
The darkness gathered, still, swirling around Felldrake’s fingers. José gritted his teeth in frustration – his magic was handy, but it was never the most powerful thing, and Felldrake’s magic clearly outclassed his. It was fine, though – it was enough to at least stall Felldrake, and they need all the leeway they could get. Donald let José keep his concentration on keeping Felldrake pinned in place and darted out, calling up water to his aid and hoping to disperse the gathering darkness once more. The darkness didn’t disperse when he slapped water into it, but it seemed to pause for a split second.
José clicked his tongue and opened his mouth again, his magic coating his beak, and began to speak, “Dispel the – “ when something crashed into him and sent them both smashing into Felldrake’s side, crying in pain when his back hit a crystal – not stabbed, thankfully, as Donald didn’t see any blood.
Leopold had broken free of José’s previous command and gone to José, pinning him at the crystal. “Stop bothering Daddy!” he yelled. He had a hand covering José’s mouth, effectively cutting off his voice. Panchito moved like lightning and gave a sharp whistle that had Leopold flinching, and that was enough for José to break free. He sliced the air with his sword and managed to cut a thin line at Leopold’s arm, which pushed him back further.
Just as Donald prepared himself to join the fray and quickly beat Leopold so they could focus on Felldrake, a blur of white and brown barreled into Leopold and sent him hurtling. Della turned to look at Donald, while plumes blooming around her, escaping her beak like foggy winter morning. “I’ll handle him,” she said.
“You’re no Caballero,” Donald protested.
“Neither are the boys, but they managed to drag your ass back here with the amulets’ help. Let me handle the weird chimera thing and you focus on Willy Wonka’s failed taste tester there.” She smiled and shrugged, gesturing to draw attention the fact that she was flying. “I can maneuver more easily, anyway.”
There were a lot of things that Donald wanted to ask, but this evidently wasn’t exactly the best time to do it. “Be safe,” was what he settled on.
Della nodded. “You too,” she said, before her attention snapped back to Leopold, who beat his wings furiously to get to her. She nimbly dodged his move and viciously shot to him, landing on his back and pulling at his wings with a feral yell.
Clearly, Della could handle herself. Donald looked up to Felldrake and ran ahead, zig zagging around jutting crystals, and called forth water to his aid.
Unfortunately, the blow José suffered broke his hold over the command he had given to Felldrake. He had again moved to gather darkness into his fingers, and Donald gnashed his teeth in frustration. He called forth seawater and willed it to sharpen as he threw it out like a whip to attack Felldrake. The water slapped the sorcerer on the cheek, and he grunted in pain, the spell he was casting freezing in midair.
“The khopesh,” José breathed, having joined Donald. Panchito was beside him, looking up at Felldrake with a calculating look Donald rarely saw in him.
“Do you think we can rip out his throat with that?” Donald asked.
“Only one way to find out,” Panchito said.
“You go on,” Xandra piped up. “I’ll try to distract him.” She dashed forward with that, her spear coated in her bright magic that shattered to reveal a bow. She jumped as she pulled the bowstring and loosed a flurry of arrows made of light, letting gravity took hold before she spun with the grace of a swan in midair and made stepping stones with her magic to let her get back on Felldrake’s body.
José leaned into Donald’s space. “Do you think we can sneak up there?”
“No,” Donald answered, “but we can try.”
In the end, they shouldn’t even have bothered. The moment Donald called forth water to bring them up silently, Felldrake detected it and sent crystals shooting up their way. Xandra clicked her tongue in annoyance and sent another flurry of arrows, but now that Felldrake had seen them he made a point of keeping an eye on the four of them. Still, it wasn’t for nothing; the arrows Xandra loosed collided with the crystals and saved Donald, José, and Panchito the trouble of dodging or countering the crystals somehow.
Felldrake grunted, brows furrowed in what could only be frustration at them, and gathered his magic. Faster than Donald had ever seen, his magic rose, toxic nebula spreading and expanding, phantom stars blinking in and out of sight, floating in the great expanse of nothingness that was space. It condensed into a sphere about as big as a tennis ball, then it exploded and sent out waves of darkness.
Donald cried out when it slapped him; biting cold nipping at his face and coiling around his limbs, feeling like shards of starshine stabbing him all over. The sheer power of it and the biting cold pushed him back, and he lost his grip on his magic, the water around him dropping and sloshing, letting José, Panchito, and himself fall as gravity grabbed them. Panicked, they grappled for anything to hold on to and managed to find their footing on Felldrake’s chest. When he looked up, he saw that Xandra was the only one who managed to keep herself up, having perched on Felldrake’s shoulder and finding her footing on his arm as she twirled her weapon and jumped up again.
Beside him, José swung from the crystal he was dangling from and landed on a perch atop of it, dainty as a ballerina. He twirled his sword, eyes gleaming with a calculating look. “Hey, friends?”
“Yeah?” Panchito responded. He lifted himself up and sat on the crystal he hung from, then sat on it, all too casual for what they were in the middle of.
“I think we took this a bit too seriously, earlier,” José said. “Let’s make this a game.”
Donald snorted. He clambered up the crystal with none of the grace his friends displayed and stood on it, balancing precariously while fixing his grip on his sword. “What sort of game?”
“Anyone who can get to Felldrake’s throat to, I don’t know, slit his neck or something first, wins,” José said. “But we’re not allowed to sabotage anyone. Assisting gives you extra points.”
“What do we get for winning?” Panchito asked.
Donald snorted again. “Rest,” he said offhandedly. Prizes weren’t important; Felldrake fucking off to the next dimension was more than enough of a compensation for all their troubles.
“Good enough,” José muttered, and all three of them set off.
Now that it was a competition, their mindsets had been shifted just enough to make reaching the khopesh something more like a challenge they could possibly overcome rather than a constant march without visible end. Felldrake apparently felt this shift and let his magic gather again.
“Take cover!” José yelled, infusing his magic into the command to make sure they wouldn’t be felled by the next blast. Donald let the command take hold and rolled behind a jutting wall of crystal, slamming his back into it for good measure. At Panchito’s alarmed cry, he whipped his head and reached out. Both he and José managed to catch the rooster before he was blasted off by the sheer force of the stellar winds and shards of the night sky without getting their eyes poked by his spear. When the localized storm fizzled out, they rushed ahead again.
A quick glance told Donald what Xandra was doing; being a goddess, it was apparently easy for her to jump around like a grasshopper around Felldrake’s upper body, her feet sparkling with her controlled magic that Donald had never been able to pin down. She switched weapons as easily as snapping her fingers, and while Felldrake was still able to track the Caballeros to keep them back they wouldn’t have been able to go as far as they had without her distraction. Another glance told him that Della was still dealing with Leopold – though it only seemed like she was toying with him instead of disabling him.
Someone yanked him hard, and he almost smacked into a wall of crystals. He let out an oof as black light shot overhead, right where his beak would have been.
“Pay attention,” Panchito barked, not bothering with softening the blow of his words.
“Right, of course.” He peeked out and hissed in a breath when he saw Felldrake readying another spell. It was dismaying to see him managing to weave another spell despite having Xandra flitting about him sending bouts of pure energy at him and throwing attacks with whatever weapon she happened to hold in her hands. Meanwhile, the portal grew bigger, still.
“We can’t keep this up long. We need to make sure he doesn’t open the portal,” José said in dismay.
“I guess our game just turned into a timed mission,” Donald remarked grimly.
They didn’t waste more time. Thankfully, it seemed that Felldrake was focusing more on the portal now and didn’t want to waste resources to create more blast. It didn’t mean he couldn’t shoot them crystals again or will lances out of his skin, and Donald had to do multiple graceful barrel rolls and less graceful jumping and flailing around to avoid getting stabbed from below.
“The spell’s getting stronger!” Panchito exclaimed.
“I know!” Donald yelled, clicking his teeth. They had to be quick. He barely had any magic left to use water to do anything substantial, and he wouldn’t recover more magic without resting. Coaxing seawater to bring them up again would use so much of his magic in his current state. They had to climb up faster.
Rushing ahead as fast as they could and straining their already strained muscles, they went back to trying to reach the khopesh. Donald dodged all crystals coming his way – specifically, the ones big enough to leave debilitating wounds – and ignoring the ones that only grazed and too small to really hurt him. Somewhere in the back of his mind he was aware of Della crowing as she landed a vicious kick at Leopold’s head. The winged creature that Donald was never able to properly identify dropped like stone to the sea.
Above, the portal grew bigger and stronger, and the pull of another dimension started tugging at the end of his feathers. Xandra leaped and tried to jab Felldrake’s eye out, only to be swatted away by oversized hand. She spun in midair, created glowing platform to propel herself off of, and shot back to his head, trying to dispel the portal.
Donald focused his attention to his path once more. He jumped over a whizzing spell aimed low at his feet, eyes darting about to find another foothold to propel himself up, when he noticed a large crystal coming his way. It was too fast – he could smack it away with his sword and risk the shards embedding into his flesh anyway or dodge as well as he could and risk it grazing his ribs, in the best case scenario. He was filled to the brim with adrenaline and he’d probably not feel the pain until later, so he’d take that chance.
That decision was made for him when José, in panic, called him blindly and accidentally infused his magic into his word in his alarm, “Donald!”
The lack of command in his voice and the sheer magic he infused into his voice had Donald seizing up instead of dodging like he planned. The magic let up immediately, but the split second he lost couldn’t be taken back. He watched, eyes wide in mounting horror, as he realized he wouldn’t be able to dodge in time, and that the crystal would find home right at his stomach.
Something smacked into him and screamed and pain blossomed at his side, and it took him a moment to realize it wasn’t his pain he was feeling, but the phantom echoes that reverberated through his bond with Della. It faded as he blinked away the shock from the sudden burst, just in time for him to grab a crystal to avoid falling down to the ocean and see Della fluttering down like a butterfly with torn wings.
“Della!” he barked. His voice cracked at the last syllable.
Wobbly, Della righted herself and looked at him as though she didn’t have a gaping hole at her side. “I’m fine. Do what you have to do!”
Gritting his teeth, Donald looked up. They were close – if they could just jump, leap, get up there somewhere in as little time as possible with as little disturbance from Felldrake as possible – they could get to the khopesh, to the charred gemstones embedded around his throat, end this –
The portal yawned and pulled –
His eyes fell to his blade and a desperate plan arranged itself into completion in his mind. he scrambled to stand and held it out, the flat of the sword facing the sky. He looked at José and Panchito and yelled, “Jump up! Use my sword!”
José understood it first. He ran to him, jumping and landing lightly on Donald’s sword, jumping again and shooting upward as Donald practically propelled him to the sky, helped by the portal’s pull and hoping José could fight it and reach his destination with ease. He gasped when he realized he not only had sent José right to the khophesh, but also to the path of oncoming spells, shooting through the air like vengeful black comets.
Panchito braved the spells before he could move. He screamed until he was hoarse, as loudly as he could, with as much magic as he could muster. It shaved away the dark shooting stars until they were nothing but wisps of smoke. Panchito gasped as his voice died away, falling to his knees and coughing and hacking up a storm. Donald knew immediately that he was down for the count, having used up all his magic and scrubbing his throat raw in the process.
Xandra understood the same. Her weapon changed into an obscenely long chain whip that she wrapped around Felldrake’s head. In a bout of miracle, she somehow got his hands too. She landed on his face and pulled at the whip, locking her limbs in place.
“You damned Caballeros – “ Felldrake began, but stopped when Xandra yanked the whip viciously.
“Do it now!” she yelled.
The pull in the portal grew stronger.
José slashed his own sword as he got close enough to do so, then gripped the khopesh and wrenched it out viciously, dragging it across Felldrake’s skin and leaving a deep cut behind. Then, as his eyes blazed green, he gripped both blades in his hands and held them up, blade-side down. “Cut deep,” he said to himself. He jammed the swords into Felldrake’s throat and buried them to the hilt, then, in a sudden burst of power and savagery Donald thought he would never be capable of, dragged the swords outwards and creating a long cut that he was partly sure would reach Felldrake’s bones. The sorcerer gurgled as blood poured out, spraying José with red.
The portal grew too strong to endure. It pulled indiscriminately now that there wasn’t anyone to direct its volatile magic. It hungered.
“Obrigado por nada,” José said to Felldrake, magic still coating his words and making his voice sound deep and shining, if voices could shine. He had slipped into his mother tongue and continued speaking in the same language, “Agora deixe esta dimensão e nunca mais volte.”
Xandra let go of Felldrake and the whip dissolved into light, jumping away just as the sorcerer was dragged into the portal. She summoned another whip into her hand – leather, now, though it was just as obscenely long as the chain whip before – and used it to pull José to her. She held him under one arm and used her whip again to pull Panchito and Donald to her. She let gravity consume them and dropped like stone to the water, passing Della on the way down. Donald reached out to her, just as she reached for him, but their fingers merely brushed as Donald plummeted down.
Xandra broke her fall just as they almost crashed to the water’s surface, shining white-gold and slowing, then they all plunged into the sea with barely any splash.
Above, Felldrake had writhed and turned, trying to claw away from the portal, but José’s command had buried itself deep and the portal was already out of control. Felldrake glared at them, baleful eyes burning with hatred. “Caballeros,” he spat, as he was pulled to the hip.
Donald gathered the last of his magic and slammed him with a wall of water that pushed him into the portal.
Hands flailing as the portal closed, Felldrake screamed in rage. From somewhere below them, Leopold flapped his wings and approached the portal, his course haphazard in his panic and, most likely, dizziness from being kicked in the head. He tried taking Felldrake’s hand to pull out, but Felldrake hung on to him instead and pulled him into the portal, too.
When they were in, the portal snapped shut abruptly, and for a moment everything hung in silence, awaiting what would come next. Then a blast of power, similar to the one that blasted the Caballeros out of the sky earlier, washed through them all with much more force than they could handle. It fritzed their already depleted magic, and Donald shut his eyes shut in futile attempt to block the brilliant light it produced. It whited out his vision all the same, and he cried out when he felt like his bones were breaking and his very being ripping apart at the seams.
“Hang on!” Xandra’s voice drifted to him, sounding so very far away even though he knew she was practically shouting at his ears.
Something other reverberated and shook his being. The light grew too bright, even though he kept his eyes closed. Something around him shattered and fell apart.
Then, it all stopped.
The sudden disappearance of the bright light made everything look pitch black, even though Donald had opened his eyes again. Then the world came filtering in, little by little – the towering Money Bin, the bridge connecting the mainland to the bin, the rising sun and the gradients of the sky that was swallowed away by Felldrake’s rotting nebula, earlier. He could no longer feel Felldrake’s nauseating magic, only the remnants of the portal that was already fading away.
Phantom pains shot through his side and he gasped, slapping away Xandra’s hold and looking around through his darkened, blurred vision for Della. He saw her just as she slipped to the water like a fallen leaf, nearly soundless. He paddled to her and wished he still had enough magic to move quicker, but he didn’t need to. The sea felt his plea and brought him to her all the same.
Her eyes were clouded but she smiled weakly when he arrived at her side, muffling his gasp at how the water was stained red by her blood. “Did you get him?” she asked, breathy and raspy.
“I did,” he breathed. “I did, but he – Della – “ he choked on a breath and looked around in panic, cursing his still-blurry vision. “I’m – I should have told you everything, I should have let you in, I shouldn’t have walled you away – Della – “
She coughed wetly. To his horror, blood sprayed to the air. “Don’t you talk like… like I’m about to die,” she rasped. “You were preoccupied. We talked, in the end. It’s fine.”
“It’s not! Why did you take that hit for me? You shouldn’t – “
“You would have taken it for me, if it was me.” Della grasped his hand. “So I took it for you.”
“Della – “
“Just – “ another cough, another fine mist of blood “ – promise me not to hide anything from me again?”
“Never again. Never.” A sob wrenched itself out of his throat. She couldn’t die here, not after they got Louie back and not because of him. He looked around in panic despite his still-blurry vision. “Uncle Scrooge! Uncle – please – “
A hand grasped his shoulder, familiar and comforting. “I got her, lad,” Uncle Scrooge murmured as he put an orb onto Della’s chest and let her grasp it. “I got her.”
Della breathed as the Orb of Remedies mended her body, stitching flesh back into place and creating blood for her heart to pump. The phantom pains that echoed off from Della subsided, and Donald sighed in relief, knowing he would have sagged and sank if not for the sea’s support.
Uncle Scrooge’s grip tightened for a moment, then loosened. “I got you both,” he said. “You can rest now.”
Tired, relieved tears pooled in Donald’s eyes and spilled over. He laughed wetly and let his forehead rest against Uncle Scrooge’s shoulder and, for the first time in what felt like a very long while, let the tension at his shoulders go and allowed his suppressed fear and worries pour.
Only two days after they defeated Felldrake, Xandra declared she was leaving alone. Donald, having been used to deities acting as they pleased around him and knowing she would come back whenever she wanted, shrugged and agreed easily.
“Well, I guess this is goodbye.”
Xandra scrunched her nose in distaste and glared at Donald. “Oh, come on. Don’t say it like that. It’s not like I’m going away forever.”
“You’re still going,” José pointed out. Unlike Donald, he seemed saddened by Xandra’s decision.
“I haven’t been doing much, aside from trying to track Felldrake down and making sure he’s out of the picture,” Xandra said with a shrug. “Now that he is, I can travel! Explore and have fun! And let’s be real, I haven’t really been a goddess of adventure, now have I?”
Panchito grinned at her. “Will you at least stay in touch? Finding you was super hard,” he said, voice raspy.
“And now that we don’t have the amulets anymore, we can’t really send you a signal anymore,” Donald added.
It seemed to strike a nerve in Xandra, and she grew somber. Her eyes flitted about the three of them, taking in the scrapes and cuts littering their body, and her magic poked at theirs. With his magic being practically nonexistent after using it up in the battle – just as he knew José’s and Panchito’s was – Xandra’s otherwise soft nudge made Donald feel like he’d been touched by hot poker. His magical reserves had been so depleted that he didn’t even have a buffer between himself and another’s magic, and the push-and-pull of the sea was barely felt at the back of his mind. He winced, and Xandra pulled back immediately.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’ll stay in touch, promise. I’ll drop by from time to time.”
“I’m sure we’ll meet a lot even if you don’t drop by here,” Donald assured. “After all, Uncle Scrooge has a lot of adventures. We’re bound to cross paths from time to time.”
“We can join Donald so we see you more!” Panchito offered cheerfully. His voice made Donald’s ears ring. With his magic depleted and beginning to recover once more, his control over it suffered.
Xandra laughed, unbothered by Panchito’s voice. “Sure, if you want to! Don’t worry, though. I meant it when I said I’ll drop by.”
“Where will you go?” José asked.
Xandra shrugged. “Everywhere. Nowhere. As long as there is something to explore, I’ll explore it.” She hummed in thought. “I haven’t really explored Asia and Africa. I might go there. Hopefully, I can get some more followers – a deity without believers won’t last long at all.”
José took her hands and squeezed. “Then, safe travels, my friend. I hope you have the most wonderful journey.”
Xandra smiled, extricated her hands, and pulled all three of them into an embrace. “You be safe, too,” she murmured before she let go.
“We will,” Donald promised.
Xandra gave them one last, wide grin. She turned her gaze to the sky and jumped, and she was out of sight in no time.
The hospital walls were white, and sterile, and blank, and utterly boring.
If she wasn’t out soon, Della would go absolutely crazy.
Uncle Scrooge smacked her hand lightly to stop her from fiddling with the IV chords. “Be still, lass,” he said. “And keep holding the orb. You need to heal.”
“I’m out of the critical stage! Tell Louie to take it instead,” Della protested.
“You know he won’t take it until you’re completely healed,” Uncle Scrooge said pointedly.
Della rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Stubborn brat,” she said, fondly, exasperatedly.
“Remind me again where he got it from.”
Della chuckled. That wasn’t something she could argue against. She looked out the window and watched the clouds drifting lazily. With the orb having been sitting on her chest all this time, it had plenty of time healing her. She was already itching for a flight, to feel the wind in her hair and the freedom of soaring and diving through the clouds. Though she definitely didn’t mind being stuck on the ground longer, especially since it meant she got to spend more time with Donald and Louie both.
“When are the boys and Webby coming?” she asked.
“Soon,” Uncle Scrooge soothed. “Donald and Launchpad are picking the kids up. They’ll arrive any time now.”
“Good.” She leaned back and closed her eyes and breathed. It felt wonderful, to breathe without feeling it hitch, without feeling her lungs filling up with liquid that came out of her own heart.
“Don’t worry about them,” Uncle Scrooge said. “Focus on getting better. If they get into trouble, I’ll handle them.”
Della snorted. “Sure. Thanks, Uncle Scrooge.” It won’t stop her from worrying, especially after knowing Louie’s magic was basically sought after and that Donald was a champion chosen by a goddess. That made them targets, even though they were capable of taking care of themselves.
Still, they had others to look out for them. Not to mention Mrs. Beakley, who she was pretty sure had had enough of people in the family being abducted and/or vanishing without trace and had most likely planted some sort of tracker on them. They’d be fine.
Simply to fill the silence, Della turned to Uncle Scrooge and smiled suggestively. “So. Goldie, huh.”
Uncle Scrooge’s stance grew wary instantly, and Della couldn’t help the way her smile grew bigger. “What about her?” Uncle Scrooge asked.
“Oh, you know,” Della said, shrugging, waggling her brows. “You went for her for help, you stayed with her for a long time when we were traveling, you drowned together with her…”
“Don’t make it sound like drowning is a romantic escapade, lass.”
“Uncle Scrooge! So you admit the other things are romantic escapade?”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake.”
Della laughed hard enough to make a nurse check on them. By the time Donald, Launchpad, and the children arrived, she was still grinning wide enough to make her cheeks hurt.
Louie sat at the pier overlooking the Money Bin, Huey and Dewey’s shoulders knocking against his own while Webby leaned against him, back to back, while she chattered away about metals and colors as she read a book on how to make enamel pins.
Huey leaned forward and fixed his gaze at Louie’s neck, which he had been scratching lightly. Louie sighed and pushed him away. “Stop that.”
“It still looks terrible,” Huey said. “You should stop scratching at it.
Louie scowled. He knew that. He’d seen himself in a mirror, when they got back to the manor. He was never the best when it came to selfcare, but it still gutted him to see his feathers being stained red around his neck, with his sprained wrist swollen the size of a tennis ball and palm practically naked with how he’d pulled at his feathers, and red welts marring his ankle. He balled his fists and looked away. “Ignore it. Mrs. Beakley’s already feeding me a ton of nutritious meal and forcing me to use salves and oils and whatever those are. They’ll get better in time.”
“It won’t be better if you keep scratching.”
“It’s itchy!”
“It’s itchy because you keep scratching and it keeps scabbing. I bet it’ll heal faster with the orb,” Dewey grumbled.
“Mom needs it more.”
Dewey sighed. “Yeah…”
“She’ll be fine!” Webby chirped. “Uncle Scrooge is keeping the orb with her until she’s all healed and Granny’s keeping an eye on her. You can use the orb when the doctor gives her the clear.”
“Uncle Donald should use it before me,” Louie said. “He used so much of his magic that he can’t even read the sea. He probably should replenish his magic first.”
“I won’t die just because I’m a little magic deficient, Louie.”
Louie turned around to see Uncle Donald, walking to them casually. The wounds he suffered from the battle were still there, littering his face, arms, and legs, and he wore sunglasses – his eyes had gotten sensitive to light, since the battle. He had refused to use the orb so Mom could use it, and it spoke to how badly she had gotten hurt that she didn’t try to object.
“You still shouldn’t have to be magically deficient,” Louie argued all the same.
Uncle Donald shook his head, a small smile at his beak. “Kids, can you leave us alone a bit? Launchpad is waiting so you can visit Della at the hospital.”
Huey, Dewey, and Webby looked at each other, murmured agreements, and left. Webby’s gaze lingered as she walked, and Huey gripped Louie’s shoulder before they left. Dewey let his touch linger as long as it could.
Donald sat next to Louie, taking Huey’s place. Louie stared at him expectantly. He kept his hands at his sides and fought the urge to scratch again.
“We haven’t talked since we got back,” Uncle Donald mused.
“Considering I was asleep for days and you got busy with Xandra, José, and Panchito, it’s really not that surprising.” Louie shrugged. He gazed at the horizon. He succumbed to the urge and scratched idly at his neck again.
“I guess it’s not.” Uncle Donald pulled him into a one-armed hug while he pulled Louie’s hand away, and he leaned into his side, letting Uncle Donald’s warmth envelope him and wash him over with a sense of safety.
“I’m sorry this all happened to you,” Uncle Donald said after a while.
Louie pulled away slightly so he could look at him. “What do you mean, you’re sorry?”
“One of the reasons why Felldrake went after you is because you’re my nephew,” Uncle Donald said.
“Well I can’t choose not to be your nephew, can I? And even if I can, do you think I would?” Louie retorted. He paused, then added, “I wouldn’t. Just in case you need me to tell you.”
“Still – “
“And he went after gold-touched people, anyway,” Louie pointed out. He scratched again, harder this time. “He might still come after me even if I wasn’t related to you.”
“Still, if we had sealed him properly back then, this wouldn’t have happened. And stop scratching.”
Louie huffed. “You’re being dumb. There’s no way of knowing this would have happened.” He let himself fall back into Uncle Donald’s hug and grumbled, scratching still.
Uncle Donald’s hand struck like a cobra and grabbed his hand. “Stop scratching. You’re only making it worse.”
“I don’t want to. I can’t!”
“Why?”
“Because I still feel the collar around me!” he yelled, and Uncle Donald paused. Tears gathered in his eyes and he looked away. “I know it’s not. I can tell the spell’s not here anymore. He’s gone, dangit. But I can still feel the collar pressing my skin and I’m trying to get it out.” He shook his head. “I don’t know if it’s just subconscious or whatever, it’s just. I’m dealing with it. I’m trying to stop scratching – I know I shouldn’t keep scratching. Just – you got me back. Isn’t that enough?”
Uncle Donald was silent for a moment. Then he squeezed Louie’s shoulder and planted a kiss on his crown. “I guess it is,” he murmured against Louie’s hair.
Louie let him hold him for a while there, relaxing against each other and letting their presences soothe each other. It felt freeing, to let himself be held and be surrounded by family after being kept on leash for so long. He could almost pretend the scars underneath his feathers weren’t there at all.
“Come on, then,” Uncle Donald said after what felt like too long a time and not enough at all to hug. “Your mom’s waiting at the hospital.” He helped Louie stand, and they walked the length of the pier to join their family waiting at the end of it. Louie felt Huey’s warmth and Dewey’s static welcome him back into their fold, and he relaxed into their familiar magic.
He could almost believe that the collar wasn’t there anymore. Maybe with enough time to heal and surround himself in their presence, basking in their spilling magic, he would be able to believe it for real.