Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

”Look, Scrooge! Look”
Scrooge McDuck heard Magica’s exited voice behind him and turned to look. Magica walked through the thick bushes and pushed aside the vines hanging from the trees. The air in the unexplored jungle was hot and moist and moving there was nearly impossible. Scrooge had to cut down the vines, branches and other giant plants that got in their way, with his jungle knife so they were advancing slowly.
    “Look what I found!” Magica said smiling wickedly. She raised her hands to show Scrooge what she had found. Now that there were no plants blocking his vision he saw, what she was holding, and his heart nearly stopped.
    “Isn’t he the cutest? I’m taking this cutie home with me”, Magica said excitedly petting the giant snake in her arms. The snake was so long she would have had trouble holding it, if the snake hadn’t wrapped itself around her arms. The snake raised its head and hissed dangerously to Scrooge. Magica didn’t seem to be bothered by the snake’s hissing. Actually, the snake wasn’t hissing at her at all. Only to Scrooge.
    “Where did you find that? Throw it a way before it bites either one of us!” Scrooge said sounding a bit more panicked than he would have wanted to.
    “But- “
    “Now!” Scrooge commanded.
    “Fine!” She said looking annoyed. She put the snake down.
    “Go on”, she said to the snake and the snake soon disappeared among the exotic plants. Scrooge sighed relieved. He was sure that, in a jungle like this one, all the snakes must be poisonous.
    “Let’s keep going”, he said, “and try not to fall behind”.
    “Whatever, you boring, old fool”, she mumbled under her breath. He heard it but didn’t mind. He turned around so that he could continue cutting down the plants on their path. When she couldn’t see his face anymore, he smiled. Magica was truly a strange woman. Strange in a good way. She was brave. Throughout the day she had been collecting animals, colorful lizards, giant spiders and now that snake. She held them in her hands without a fear and even found them adorable. She knew how to handle animals and the wild animals never showed any aggression towards her. On the contrary, the animals always seemed to like her. Scrooge wondered were all witches good with animals or did she just have a special talent. But whatever the case was he never let her keep those animals. He only let her keep the plants she collected, which she without a doubt would use to make more magic potions when she got back home.

“Okay, let’s camp here for the night”, Scrooge said and dropped his huge backpack to the ground. It was starting to get dark. The sunlight was hardly visible through the thick jungle forest. The air was also getting chillier. Not cold, but cooler than before. They were both exhausted and ready to call it a night. They had found a small clearing in the jungle that was perfect for camping.
    “Great, let’s put up the tent”, Magica said.
    “Oh, yeah, we don’t have a tent”, Scrooge said casually.
    “What?” she asked.
    “I said, we don’t have a tent”, he repeated.
    “I heard what you said. I’m just wondering WHY we don’t have a tent”, Magica said, irritated crossing her arms.
    “Because we don’t need one… and they cost a lot of money”
    “I should have taken care of the equipment”, Magica mumbled, “What if it starts raining? What will we do then, you cheap miser!”
    “I’m sure it won’t start raining. Besides, even if it does, a little rain never killed anyone”, Scrooge said positively.
    “…You better be right. Because if it does start raining-“
    “Calm down and help me make a fire”
    Without continuing the conversation they made the fire together and laid their sleeping-bags on each side of the campfire. They sat down on their own sleeping-bags, so they were facing one another. They ate canned food. Magica would have preferred something fancier, but Scrooge had refused to buy anything more expensive. They sat around the campfire in silence, enjoying the warm the fire provided for them.
    “I can take the first turn in guard. You can sleep”, Scrooge said.
    “No need for taking turns. I’ve already set a magic barrier around the camp. It prevents anyone or anything, that wants to harm us, coming to the camp”, she explained, “like a blood thirsty jaguar”. Scrooge smiled.
    “Or your probably bloodthirsty fiancée”, she added, “…sorry. Shouldn’t have said that.”
    “That’s okay”, Scrooge said, losing his smile.
    A moment later Magica laid down on her sleeping-bag, looking tired. Scrooge watched her from behind the fire. Her shorts and black t-shirt, that matched his own, were dirty after rambling the whole day in the jungle and her black hair, that was tied up in pony tail, had a leaf in it. His clothes too were covered in dirt, sweat and leaves. He didn’t mind though, he was used to it after many years of adventuring around the world. Scrooge watched the woman’s face and was surprised to see that she was looking at him. She had a strange look on her face. She looked at him with worry in her eyes. At the same time her gaze seemed gentle and caring. When Magica realized that Scrooge had spotted her staring at him, her cheeks turned read.
    “So…How does it feel?” she asked.
    “How does what feel?” he asked.
    “Adventuring with me instead of your nephews”
    “It’s a nice change. We make a really good team when we are not fighting”, he said. It was the truth and it made him smile again.
    “True”, Magica said, now smiling too. Then she closed her eyes and soon fell asleep. Scrooge laid down and looked at the branches blocking the sky above them. He sighed and wondered how he had ended up in such a strange situation. He had ran away to South America with Magica de Spell. And now he was in the middle of a jungle, when he was supposed to be in Duckburg spending his honeymoon with his fiancée.

Chapter Text

Few weeks earlier in Duckburg

In his office, Scrooge sat by his desk. He had bent over an old map that was placed on his desk. With a pondering look on his face the billionaire duck kept making marks on the map and rotating it, watching it carefully from every possible angle. Then suddenly, something unpleasant caught his eye. Scrooge saw a blond woman peeking from the door and staring at him.
    “No! Not you again”, he complained at Birgitta, “How did you even get in?”
    “Oh, I came with Daisy”, Birgitta answered cheerfully and entered the office.
    “Hi, uncle-Scrooge!” Daisy said as she too walked in to the office, “We came to see how you’re doing”
    “I was doing better before you came here to bother me”, Scrooge complained and rolled the map shut and put it in one of the desk’s drawers. He wished the women would just leave, especially Birgitta. He didn’t really mind Daisy being there. Daisy was an honest and hardworking girl and every now and then helped him around the office.
    “You know, Scrooge, it’s almost Valentine’s Day”, Birgitta said batting her eyes at frowning Scrooge.
    “What about it?” Scrooge asked annoyed, even though he knew what she was about suggest.
    “We should go on date! Just you and me and candlelight dinner and-“
    “Absolutely not!” Scrooge said. Daisy gave him an angry look that told him to be nicer. Scrooge didn’t care. There was no way he was going out with Birgitta or anyone else.
    “But Scrooge…” Birgitta wined, batting her eyes even harder.
    “…Mr. McDuck?” a quiet voice said from the door.
    “Yes, what is it Miss Quackfaster”, Scrooge asked. He started to push Daisy and Birgitta towards the door so they would leave.
    “Here’s someone who-“
    “Is it Donald? It’s about a time. I told him to come here ages ago”, Scrooge complained. Donald had promised to come to the moneybin as soon as possible, when they had talked over the phone. But still there had been no sign of that lazy duck. Scrooge thought that his nephew must a made a stop at the ice cream bar on his way over.
    “No it’s not Donald, it’s-”
    “Then send them away”
    “Are going to send me away without at least saying hi to me, Scrooge”, a familiar voice said from behind miss. Quackfaster. Scrooge froze in his tracks. The voice was soft and pleasant, just as he remembered. Scrooge opened the door and stepped to the small room, where Miss Quackfaster’s tiny office was located. There, beside his secretary’s desk, was standing none other than Goldie O’Gilt. Goldie was beautiful as ever. Even if her hair had turned gray and she now wore glasses, Scrooge though she looked stunning. She was graceful and the sunlight made her hair glimmer. She wore her long pink dress and an expensive looking diamond necklace around her neck, which too was beautiful. She had always had a thing for beautiful jewelry.
    Goldie smiled at Scrooge and he started feeling awfully shy. He was completely blown away by her beauty.
    “Hello Goldie”, he finally said. Goldie stepped closer to hug Scrooge and then kissed him on the cheek.
    “Who is she?” Scrooge heard Birgitta whisper to Daisy.
    “Goldie O’Gilt, Scrooge’s old girlfriend from Klondike”, Daisy whispered back.
    “Uncle-Scrooge, why didn’t you tell Goldie was coming?”, Daisy asked and then greeted the older woman with a warm hug. She had only met Goldie few times, but they got along perfectly. Then Daisy quickly introduced Birgitta and Goldie to each other.
    “Scrooge didn’t know I was coming. This is a surprise visit”, Goldie explained.
    “I was hoping we could talk”, she said to Scrooge. Scrooge nodded.
    “Of course. We can talk here”, he said and escorted her to his office, closing the door behind them.

“It’s so good to see you”, Goldie said. Scrooge led her to his desk and offered her a seat. Goldie sat down in Scrooge’s comfortable office chair. He stood next to her.
    “It’s good to see you too”, he said. He really was glad to see her, but also a little worried. Goldie didn’t usually just pay him random surprise visits.
    “So… What’s on your mind?” Scrooge asked her, but something else had caught her attention. She picked up a pink, heart shaped card from his desk. The card had a sweet scent of perfume on it. Arabian dream-perfum to be precise. Scrooge felt his heart skip a beat. He wished he hadn’t left the card in such a plain sight.
    “Is this a valentine’s day card?” Goldie asked and sniffed the perfume on the card. Then she curiously checked who had signed the card.
    “Who is Magica de Spell?” she asked.
    “No one. …I mean I don’t know who she is”, Scrooge lied.
    “I was about to throw that away”, he lied again. The truth was, he was planning to keep it. He always kept Magica’s cards. He just never told anyone about it. Goldie threw the card to a trashcan under his desk. Scrooge was glad she hadn’t decided to read the card. That would have been awkward, considering what kind of things Magica had written on it. Usually Magica’s cards were filled with threats, unsurprisingly, and very often with shameless flirtations. And sometimes if she was in a bad mood while writing, she might throw in a couple of nasty insults. Scrooge enjoyed reading her cards, especially the flirty parts in them, even if he didn’t want to admit it.
    “Cut to the chase, okay?” Scrooge asked.
    “Very well”, Goldie said.

“Wait. Do you mean Goldie O’Gilt as in Glittering Goldie?” Birgitta asked.
    “Yeah, that’s her”, Daisy confirmed.
    Birgitta felt worried and nervous. Donald and Daisy had told her about Glittering Goldie and that she and Scrooge had had a thing for each other back in Klondike. She had never been worried about Goldie, because the woman was nowhere around. Birgitta had never had to worry about competition until now. She was deeply in love with Scrooge, but it was clear that Scrooge still had feelings for this woman.
    Daisy knew what her friend was thinking and felt sorry for her. As amazing as Goldie was, Birgitta was her friend too and had been in love with Scrooge for a long time now.
    Daisy was curious about what Goldie and Scrooge were talking about. She set her pink purse on miss Quackfaster’s desk and walked to the door. She pressed her ear against it, Birgitta did the same. Miss Quackfaster was about return to her work, but then decided that she too wanted to know what was going on. She got up from her seat and joined Daisy and Birgitta. She knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but she couldn’t help it.

“Let’s face it, Scrooge. We are not getting any younger”, Goldie said. Scrooge didn’t answer anything but nodded.
    “I want to spend my old days with you. I want us to settle down together”, she said with a smile.
    “What do you mean by settle down?” Scrooge asked. He felt cold sweat on his forehead.
    “You’re not young anymore. The constant working and traveling must be a burden to you. It’s a high time to give them up.”
    “You mean I should leave the McDuck enterprises?” Scrooge asked, shocked, “And give up treasure hunting?”
    “Yes, I’m sure you’ll find someone good to take your place and continue your businesses. And then we could settle down in Klondike, or here in Duckburg if you want, as a husband and wife”, she said and took his hands into her own ones. Scrooge felt like someone was choking him but tried not to show it. Had he heard right? Goldie wanted them to get married.
    In the corner of his eye Scrooge saw something moving near the open window. He saw a black bird that quickly flew away. The bird left behind a few black feathers. Had it been Ratface, Magica’s raven, or some other bird? Scrooge wasn’t sure. He hadn’t seen the bird clearly enough. He sometimes put birdseeds on his windowsill, so many different birds visited his window throughout the day. It couldn’t have been Ratface, Scrooge thought. His agents hadn’t informed him that Magica was on the move. She was most likely on Mount Vesuvius in Italy.
    ”So”, Goldie continued and stood up, looking Scrooge straight into his eyes. Scrooge’s attention returned to her.
    “What do you say? Will you be my husband?” Scrooge tried to breath normally, smiled weakly and said the only thing he could: “I can’t say no to you”
    Then suddenly the door was slammed open and Daisy ran in screaming and jumping.
    “Congratulations! I’m so happy for you both!” she screamed as loud as she could. She hugged them both tightly.
“This is so wonderful”, she said, and Goldie laughed happily. Birgitta came in too and even though she clearly had tears in her eyes she too congratulated them. Miss Quackfaster came in and shook her boss’ hand and said her congratulations too. Scrooge wasn’t sure what was going on. The world around him seemed to be spinning. He tried to smile and wondered what he had said. Had his answer been understood as a yes? He hadn’t meant to say yes.

Chapter Text

The sun was starting to set, and the evening became darker. The duck family, which had gathered to grandma Duck’s farm, didn’t care about this fact. They kept celebrating Scrooge McDuck and Goldie O’Gilt’s upcoming wedding. Inside the house the whole family kept laughing, talking, eating delicious cakes and other treats which grandma Duck had prepared. Only one was missing.
    Donald grabbed a small bowl from the kitchen table, which was filled with strawberries. Then he walked through the living room, where most of his family members were. Few were sitting in the dining room. Donald tried to walk through the room unnoticed.
    “Hey, Donald! Guess what happened to me this morning?” Gladstone Gander shouted to Donald from the other side of the room. Donald stopped, already feeling irritated.
    “Geez, I don’t know. You won free trip to Hawaii?” he shouted back to his over lucky cousin.
    “To Canary Islands!” Gladstone corrected.
    “Oh, shut up!” Donald shouted.
    “Donald!” his grandma, who was standing nearby, said in an unapproving manner.
    “Sorry”, Donald mumbled and disappeared in to the hallway.
    “You’re just jealous”, Gladstone shouted from the living room. Donald felt his face turning red and his hands shaking. Of course, he was jealous. Why did lucky things always happen to his stupid cousin, while he was stuck with his incredibly bad luck.
    Donald went through the back door to the porch. He closed the door behind him and sat down on the stairs next to his uncle. Scrooge had been sitting there all alone, looking miserable.
    “Strawberries?” Donald offered. Scrooge just shook his head. After a moment of silence Donald spoke.
    “A fine mess you’ve got yourself into”
    “Isn’t it”, Scrooge said. They watched the setting sun, enjoying the sounds of birds and farm animals. From inside house they heard laughing and talking. Neither of them felt like joining the others.
    “I don’t understand how this happened. She popped the question and I said the only thing I could”, Scrooge said.
    “Which was?”
    “I said 'I can’t say no to you'”
    “Come on, uncle-Scrooge. No wonder everyone thought you said yes. Can’t say no”, Donald said while eating strawberries.
    “Don’t speak and eat at the same time”, Scrooge told him.
    “The point is, I only said it because it’s true”, he continued, “I didn’t want to say ´yes´ but I don’t know how to say ´no´ to Goldie”, Scrooge explained.
    “Well you're gonna have to figure out how to say ´no´ to her soon. The longer you let her and everyone else believe you’re marrying her, the angrier everyone will be when you tell them that’s not happening”, Donald pointed out. Scrooge felt distressed. Daisy, who had been super excited about the wedding, had made sure that everything was moving in fast pace. The date of the wedding had been already decided and thanks to Daisy the preparations were practically ready. Scrooge didn’t understand why it was so hard to tell Goldie the truth. Every time he had tried to, he had chickened out.
    “If you want, I can tell her”, Donald said.
    “No, no, no. That would be pathetic. I have to do it myself”, Scrooge said. Donald nodded.
    “But I don’t understand, if you love Goldie, would it be so bad to marry her? I mean obviously you’re not going to leave the McDuck enterprises, but you could marry her. Couldn’t you?”
    “I’m not a marrying type”, Scrooge said. Donald stood up, ready to get back inside. It was almost completely dark now.
    “Okay, but promise me you’ll tell her soon”, he asked.
    “I promise”
    Donald opened the back door to go back inside. Before going in he turned to look at his uncle. Donald felt sorry for him and also for Goldie.
    “You know, if it makes you feel any better, you have always been my favorite uncle”, he said and felt joy when he finally saw his uncle smiling.
    “I knew it”, Scrooge said.
    “Am I your favorite nephew?” Donald asked hopefully.
    “Wouldn’t you like to know that”, Scrooge laughed.

The wedding will be held next week, Scrooge thought the very same evening. He was laying in a bed in grandma Duck’s guest room. He stared at the ceiling waiting for Goldie. Finally, Goldie came from bad room, wearing her nightgown. She shut down the lights in the room, so only the moon on the night sky lighted the guest room. She climbed to the bed, under the covers and put her glasses on the night stand.
    “Where did you disappear during the party?” she asked and put her hand around Scrooge.
    “I wasn’t feeling well”, he said. Then he though, No, I must stop making excuses and tell her now.
    “Look Goldie, the thing is-“
    “Don’t worry. I know how you feel”, Goldie said.
    “You do?” Scrooge asked surprised.
    “The excitement makes me feel nauseating too”, she said smiling widely. No, that’s not what I meant, Scrooge thought.
    “I’m so happy, Scrooge. You have no idea just how happy you have made me”, she said. As she kept going about how happy she was, Scrooge realized that he had frozen again. The words didn’t come out of his mouth no matter how hard he tried. Damn it, he thought before drifting of to sleep.

Donald was laying on mattress on the floor of his old room. Daisy slept on another mattress next to him. Huey, Dewey and Louie were sharing his old bed. The triplets were snoring loudly. Donald could see his old toys under the bed. He remembered how he used to play with them, he smiled at the memories.
     Donald listened to the sound of the house. Cracking floor, wind hitting the branches against the windows and so on. He had a theory. He was sure that when uncle-Scrooge told Goldie the truth, Goldie would take out her rifle, like she had so many times before. So, if he didn’t hear the sound of a rifle being fired, it meant uncle-Scrooge had not told her the truth. The clock on the wall showed that it was nearly 1.00 am and the house was still silent.
    “Uncle-Scrooge, you poor little duck”, Donald whispered.

Chapter Text

The wedding venue had been chosen by Daisy and Goldie. They had chosen a beautiful, old mansion right outside of Duckburg, that was surrounded by woods. Behind the mansion was a lovely chapel, where the actual ceremony would take place. Now the chapel had been decorated with different kind of flowers. It was truly a breathtaking place.Unfortunately for Scrooge he had no time for admiring the place. Before Scrooge had even realized it, the wedding day had arrived. He was really starting to panic. He had screwed up, big time. Scrooge had not yet told Goldie the truth, despite his promise to Donald.
    Scrooge took a deep breath. He was sitting on chair in one of the rooms in the mansion and watching out of the window. Most of the guests had already arrived. He should have been there to greet them and welcome them to the wedding, instead he was hiding from them, waiting for the dreaded moment someone would push him to the altar.
    “Uncle-Scrooge”, Donald, his best man, said from the doorway. His look told Scrooge everything. Scrooge got up and walked past the tailcoat wearing Donald, to the hallway. He made his way downstairs and towards the room, where he knew Goldie was getting ready.
    “It’s now or never”, Scrooge told himself. It was a good thing Goldie was getting ready in the mansion. Daisy had originally insisted that she would arrive to the wedding place right before the ceremony, like brides traditionally did.
    “Curses”, Scrooge mumbled, when he saw Daisy coming toward him in the hallway. Daisy in her pink dress walked to him, looking determined.
    “Hey, stop right there! Where do you think you’re going?” she asked blocking his way. Daisy, who was Goldie’s maid of honor, took her responsibilities very seriously. She had planned nearly the whole wedding.
    “I need to talk to Goldie”, Scrooge said. He saw the door of the room, behind Daisy, where Goldie was.
    “You can’t. You aren’t allowed to see the bride before the wedding. Otherwise it would mean bad luck and you know that”, she said.
    “I don’t believe in that sort of things”, he said and tried to walk past Daisy. Daisy grabbed him by the shoulders, turned him around and pushed him to where he had come from.
    “Look, after the party she’s all yours, so try to calm down”
    “It’s really important, Daisy”, Scrooge tried, but Daisy was having none of it. She dragged him all the way back to upstairs to his room. Donald was no longer there. She took his top hat from the table and pressed it to his head. Then she helped him his tailcoat on.
    “Uncle-Scrooge?” Donald called, peeking from the doorway again.
    “Did you-“
    “Donald, come here”, Daisy ordered.
    “Uh, okay” Donald walked to Daisy and let her tie his red bowtie properly.
    “You look so handsome, sweetie”, she told him and kissed him. Then she left to go back to Goldie.
    “Donald, make sure your uncle finds his way to the chapel in a moment. He seems a bit confused today”, Daisy shouted from the stairs.
    “I will”, Donald shouted back, looking angrily to his uncle.
    “You didn’t do it”
    "No, I didn’t”, Scrooge said, “Daisy wouldn’t let me through, and she didn’t listen to me”. Scrooge went back to the window and looked to front yard. All the guests had already gone to the chapel. He saw only two reporters walking through the front where the cars had been parked. The wedding had supposed to be fairly small and private event in the beginning, but then the press had got interested. Soon it had been all over the news, that Scrooge McDuck the famous bachelor, was getting finally married. The number of the guests had grown with other celebrities of Duckburg and reporters.
    “What are you planning to do now?” Donald asked. Scrooge thought about what his future would be like. What if Goldie would actually make him give up adventuring and making more money. The idea of that made him feel sick, that was not what he wanted.
    “Give me a pen and paper”, he told Donald. Donald looked around the room and found a pencil. He kept looking for a paper, but the only thing he found was a napkin.
    “That’ll do”, Scrooge said, “You can go to the chapel now, I’ll follow in a moment”. Hesitantly Donald left the room. Scrooge wrote something on the napkin.

A female reporter hurried through the front yard, carrying her camera, afraid she was late. After she had gone, Scrooge stepped out from behind the red car where he had been hiding. He made sure there was no one in sight and ran to his own fancy car. He tried the door and noticed it was open. Normally he would have been furious if Donald had forgotten lock his car (Duckworth had been Goldie’s driver today), it was an expensive car after all. This time he was relived. He got in to the car but didn’t find the car keys anywhere. Scrooge swore. His nephew had forgotten to lock the car, but he had not had the decent sense to also forget to leave the keys in the car.   Scrooge stepped out of the car and decided that he would just have to make a run for it.
    “…must be a burden to you”, he repeated what Goldie had said to him.
    “I will not give up adventuring or my businesses. They are the tings that keep me young! And I will stay a bachelor until the day I die”, he declared and slammed the car’s door shut. Then he noticed someone standing on the other side of the yard, looking at him. It was none other than Magica de Spell herself. Ratface was sitting on her right shoulder and on her left hand Magica was holding her black handbag. Scrooge was horrified. If Magica started to throw around her foof-bombs, then everyone would hear it. If that happened, his escape would be cut short. He raised his index finger to his beak, telling her to be quiet. Magica looked at him confused as he ran to her.
    “Come on, let’s go”, he whispered to her and grabbed her by the arm. He dragged her after him to the woods. Scrooge walked as quickly as he could. When he felt they were far enough from the mansion he let go of Magica’s arm but didn’t stop walking.
    “You really couldn’t have chosen a worse day for a visit, Magica”, Scrooge told her, somewhat angry.
    “I’m not here to steal your dime, if that’s what you think”, Magica said.
    “Really?” Scrooge asked, disbelieve in his voice.
    “Really! Well, okay, originally I came here for that, but then heard something completely unbelievable”, she said.
    “You’re getting married, cra”, Ratface cawed. Magica stopped walking.
    “Hey, keep moving”, Scrooge said, but she didn’t move so he stopped too.
    “I must say, I really felt quite distressed not receiving an invitation”, Magica told him a bit too dramatically, petting her raven with her hand.
    “Don’t worry about that, there isn’t going to be any wedding”, Scrooge said. He felt anxious, he was afraid someone would soon come looking for him.
    “Oh? There isn’t?” she asked, “Are you running away from your own wedding?”
He took her hand in his.
    “Please, Magica, let’s just keep moving”, he pleaded. She looked at his hand holding hers and gave him a pleased, sly smile. They kept going. Scrooge didn’t know it, but it made Magica happy to learn that he wasn’t going to get married. She had come to the wedding venue with an idea to ruin the wedding, but it was starting to look like Scrooge had already done it for her.
    “If you want to get away from here as quickly as possible, I could give you a ride on my broomstick”, Magica offered. Scrooge was genuinely surprised by her offer to help.
    “Sorry, but that sound way too uncomfortable. And you don’t even have your broomstick with you”, he said.
    “It’s in here”, she said pointing to her handbag, “And flying a broomstick isn’t that uncomfortable, you just have to get used to it”.
    “Don’t make laugh. It doesn’t fit in there”
    “It doesn’t have to. With magic everything is possible”

After walking for a while, Scrooge started to wonder if people were already looking for him. He felt shame for what he had done, but he had solemnly decided not to go back. They arrived at a side of a rode, where they stopped. There were no cars anywhere in sight.
    “If you don’t want to fly, we can walk along this rode and hitchhike if we see a car”
    “Why are you exactly helping me? Shouldn’t you be threatening to drag me back there unless I give you my dime?”
    “Well that though did cross my mind”, Magica admitted, “But I decided to help you, since I don’t support this marriage”
    “You don’t?”
    “No. I’m afraid your wife would interfere with my dime chase”, she said. Scrooge nodded, he understood her motive. Over the years he too had learned to like their little game and wasn’t keen on the idea of mixing Goldie into it. After all, it was their game (and it did include a little bit of flirting every no and then, so having a wife might have made things harder for Scrooge).
    “Besides, if you were to be married, then what would become of us, Scroogie darling?” She said pulling him into an embrace and giving him and a sexy smile.
    “Magica, now is not a good time for this”, he said to her.
    “Ratface also told me that your wife-to-be threw away my Valentine’s day card”, she said perhaps a little bit offended.
    “So it was Ratface by my window”
    “Yeah, I’ve been in Duckburg a while now, spying on you. The usual”
    “Craa! A car! Craa!” Ratface cawed suddenly. Both Scrooge and Magica saw a black van heading for their way.
    “That’s our ride”, Magica said and raised her thumb to hitchhike. The van stopped next to them and the man sitting on the death seat opened the door. He look at the two hitchhikers and smirked.
    “No way!” he laughed.
    “Hey guys, look who we just found!” he turned to his companions, “Our favorite billionaire and his witch”. Scrooge was shocked. First Magica and now the Beagle Boys, and it wasn’t even noon yet. Unbelievable, he thought.
    “Great… it’s these morons”, Magica said to Scrooge.
    “Watch it, you witch”, the beagle boy with number 167-671, who had opened the door, told her, “What are two dorks doing here?”
All three beagle boys seemed curious.
    “Isn’t it obvious? We need a ride”, she told the brothers, “So move!” She started to climb in the car. Scrooge grabbed her by the shoulder and stopped her.
    “This is not a good idea. We shouldn’t-“
    “Don’t worry about it. Come on already”, she told him and climbed past 167-671 to the backseat of the car.
    “Oh, and name call me again and I’ll turn you into a snail, got it?” she said to 167-671 from the back seat. The beagle boys look at each other unsure, if they wanted neither of them in their car. Whatever was the case, they decided to go along with the idea. It seemed to Scrooge as if the Beagle Boys were in a hurry.
    “We don’t have time to wait around. Let’s go, Scrooge”, 167-671 said and pretty much just grabbed Scrooge with his both hands and threw him to the back seat, where Magica and Ratface had already seated to.
   “Okay, plug in your seatbelts”, said 761-176 who was driving the car. But before Scrooge had even found his seat belt, the car was already accelerating dangerously fast on the road. Scrooge felt his heart beating in his chest. Had he just been kidnapped by the Beagle Boys?

Chapter Text

Scrooge had finally become convinced, that this was not a kidnapping. No one was blackmailing money from him or threatening to blackmail money from his relatives and use him as a hostage. On the contrary, the beagle boys or Magica hardy paid any attention to him at the moment. Magica was staring out the window, Ratface was snoring on her lap and 176-167 on his other side was too focused on his sandwich to notice Scrooge. 761-176 on the driver’s seat had his attention on the road, and that was a good thing consider how fast he was driving. 167-67 on the death seat kept constantly changing the radio station.
As strange as the whole situation was, there was one thing that bothered Scrooge more than anything and it was the money. Yes, the van was filled with money. Scrooge had looked behind the back seats and had seen that the van had been stuffed with money bags. Also, the beagle brother’s pockets were filled with coins and banknotes, that kept falling to the floor. Scrooge stared at the money on the floor. It made him feel bad how the beagle boys handled the money. They showed no love or respect to coins and banknotes, instead they let the money fall on the van’s dirty floor.
   “Don’t look so surprised, Scrooge. You know we’re criminals”, 761-176 told him, after taking a look at Scrooge through the rear-view mirror. He was referring to the money, which obviously was stolen.
   “I’m not surprised, I’m just wondering were did you get this money”, Scrooge said.
   “We robbed a bank”, 176-167 on Scrooge’s left laughed.
   “Oh… Which bank exactly?” Scrooge asked concerned.
   “Don’t worry. It was Glomgold’s bank, not yours”, 761-176 said. Scrooge sighed in relieve. Although, he did not agree with stealing, he was still glad know that his banks were safe. Besides, the police would eventually catch the beagle boys as they always did. The money would sooner or later go back to their rightful owners.
   “Now the cops are going crazy”, 176-167 continued " We’re trying to avoid the down town, that’s why we’re driving through here to our new hideout. It’s on the other side of Duckburg-“
   “Hey, too much information, bro!” 167-671 raised his voice “They don’t need to know our hideout’s location”.
   “Anyway, you’re gonna have to hop off soon”, 761-176 told Scrooge and Magica. The two ducks nodded. Then there was a moment of silence.
   “So, Scrooge, what’s with the fancy get up?” 167-671 asked curiously. Scrooge was still in his tailcoat and fancier top hat.
   “It’s because of the wedding…”, Scrooge said embarrassed. He didn’t feel like talking about his wedding with the beagle boys.
   “Oh yeah! That has been all over the news. So, what’s going on now?” 167-671 continued.
   “We just left the venue. Scrooge decided not to marry after all” Magica said.
   “Okay and now you’re tagging along with him because...?”
   “Because she’s jealous and want’s Scroogie all to herself”, 176-167 sang. Magica turned immediately red. She gave the beagle boy an angry glare.
   “Shut up”, she told him..
   “Aww. Look went red, because it’s true”
   “It is not!”
  “It is”, he argued. The argument kept going on and even if the beagle boy had accused Magica of being jealous as a joke, the situation made Scrooge as embarrassed as Magica. He decided to ignore the arguing all together.

After the arguing had stopped, no one spoke. Everyone seemed to be thinking their own things. Scrooge looked through the front window to the road. He had never really thought what kind of relationship Magica and the Beagle boys had, so he had been surprised to learn that the beagle boys treated Magica like a sister. They liked annoying her, and every now and then there was both sided name calling, but they never said anything actually offensive to one another. It seemed to Scrooge as if they enjoyed each other’s company. At least on some level. They were like bickering siblings, all of them. That would explain why the beagle brothers were helping him, Scrooge though. It was because Magica was with him. If Scrooge had been alone, the beagle boys would have probably just robbed him. Afterall, they knew that Scrooge always carried his wallet with him. Even now it was in his pocket.
   “Uh oh”, the beagle boy on the driver’s seat said, he was looking through the side mirror, “It’s the cops”. Next, they heard the loud police siren. The driving beagle boy accelerated. He was now driving as fast as possible, but the police car remained right behind them.
   “Hey, Magica, help us out!”
   “Open this window”, she said. The beagle boy did as she had told him. Magica’s hair went all wild in the wind as she stuck her upper body through the open window. Ratface jumped to Scrooge’s lap and cawed.
   “Hey, be careful!”, Scrooge told Magica and grabbed her by the backside of her dress. He was afraid she would fall through the window. Magica raised her other hand in the air and snapped her fingers a couple of times. The beams of light changed their positions. Magica moved the light in the direction of the police car, so that the light blinded the driving police officer. The police officer hit the breaks immediately, fearing he would otherwise crash.
   “Go Magica!” 176-167, who had stucked his head out of the window on his side yelled. Magica got back to her seat and window was closed. She felt the adrenalin going through her body and smiled, proud of herself. After a short moment of driving as fast as possible, 761-176 suddenly hit breaks. Without his seatbelt Scrooge would have flown to the front of the van.
   “You have to get out now, before we get too close to our hideout”, 761-176 told Scrooge and Magica. The ducks opened their seatbelt and stepped out of the van. Especially Scrooge was glad to be out of the van. They watched as the van drove away and finally disappeared.

Scrooge and Magica walked along the road for a moment, Ratface sat on Magica’s head. They were well aware that by walking they would get nowhere. Also, they weren’t exactly sure where they were. They decided together that they would not hitchhike again, for there was the danger of running into another familiar face. Scrooge was afraid that it would be either Flintheart Glomgold or John D. Rockerduck.
   “Imagine if the police would have caught us. It would have been a bit awkward to explain, why I’m in the van with you and the beagle boys and the money, that was stolen from Glomgold’s bank”, Scrooge laughed.
   “In that case you could have just said you were kidnapped”, Magica pointed out.
   “Anyway, do you have any plan? Do you know where you’re going next?” she asked. Scrooge nodded.
   “Yes, I have plan. Could you help me to get to my moneybin? After that you don’t have to help me anymore”, Scrooge said.
   “I can get you to the moneybin in a moment if we fly”, she told him.
   “I know”
   “So it’s okay to you?” she asked.
   “It is, although I’m not looking forward to it”, Scrooge said.
   “Cra! Let’s fly”, Ratface said opening his wings excitedly. Magica pulled her broomstick out her handbag with a happy look on her face. It looked strange to see the broomstick come out of the bag, since it should haven been physically impossible to stuff it in the handbag in the first place.
   Ratface flew high into the air as his mistress followed. Scrooge sat behind Magica and hold on to her tightly. The rode and the trees became small as ants and soon he could see the whole Duckburg before him. He couldn’t help but feel a little scared. He also felt uncomfortable sitting on the broomstick. They flew fast and Scrooge had to hold on to his hat, so that it wouldn’t fly away with the wind. With his other hand he held on to Magica so hard, she had to ask him to loosen his grip. Scrooge was glad she couldn’t see when he closed his eyes. He only felt the wind in his face and heard Ratface’s cawing beside him. He was constantly afraid of falling off the broomstick.

Chapter Text

Scrooge noticed that Magica had not only flown to the moneybin, but she had flown in to his office, through the open window, thus setting on the witch alarm. The alarm made a loud sound. Scrooge ran to the other side of his office, where the switch to the alarm was. He quickly shut it down.
   “It would have been enough to leave me to the front door”, he said to her. Magica just shrugged her shoulders, uninterested. Ratface flew around the office. Scrooge looked at his number one dime, that laid on its usual place, under the glass bubble. A sudden worry hit him. He went to pick up his dime and put it in his pocket. Magica followed Scrooge’s movements closely and found that she was a little offended by how suspicious Scrooge was towards her. Afterall, she had just helped him. However, she didn’t say anything, instead she sat on Scrooge’s desk and crossed her legs. She kept observing Scrooge.
   “So, what’s your plan?” she asked, curious.
   “I’m going on a trip” Scrooge said. Right then the office door was slammed open. Two of the bin’s guards ran in.
   “Stop right there!” the other guard shouted to Magica. Magica was startled by their sudden entrance.
   “Oi! Leave her alone!” Scrooge shouted to the guards before they had laid their hands on her.
The guards stopped in their tracks. They hadn’t even notice their boss in the room.
   “Mr. McDuck. We heard the alarm and-“
   “She has my permission to be here, so leave her alone!” he told the guards with an irritated voice. The guards lowered their gazes. They were afraid of angering their boss, who could be very scary when angry. The guards were also confused, since they hadn't known their boss was in the money bin at all.
   “Leave now!” Scrooge said. He hated when the guards came to the top floor without permission, because that’s where his private living quarters were. Basically, they were intruding his personal space.
   “Mr. McDuck?” the other guard said before leaving the room, “We thought you were supposed to be at the-“
   “Is it none of your damn business where I’m supposed to be!” Scrooge practically roared at him. The poor guard nearly ran out of the room. Magica laughed at the two poor men Scrooge had scared.
   “Excuse me for a moment”, Scrooge said. He walked to his bedroom, which was right next to his office.
   “You know, your free to leave now”, he told her from his bedroom.
   “Hmm… I think I’ll stick around for a while”, she answered, “besides, I want to hear about your plan”. She looked around his office. Everything was neat and tidy as usual. The office was quiet, the only sound came from the clock on the wall. It was way past noon, she noticed. She looked through the papers that had been left on his desk.
   “First you tell me, what did you do to my agents. They never informed me that you left Mount Vesuvius”, he said.
   “Let’s just say that they got tied up”, Magica said with mischievous voice. She reached to open one of Scrooge’s drawers, so she was almost laying on his desk. She went through the drawer and found important looking papers and an old looking map. Scrooge frowned while changing his clothes. He knew she was not going to tell him anything.
   “I’m going on a treasure hunt in South-America, if you want to know”, Scrooge said. He didn’t see the harm telling Magica where he was going, since Magica was only interested in his dime, not in lost treasures.
   “I see. You even have a map”, she said.
   “Hey, are you going through my stuff there?” Scrooge peeked from his bedroom door. He could see she was holding his map in her hands. She wasn’t even trying to pretend she hadn’t just gone through his drawer. Scrooge came back to the office in his usual red jacket. He was carrying a huge backpack that was already packed. He threw it to the floor, next to his desk.
   “You’re going to the borders of Peru and Brazil, to the amazon region”, she said, studying the map. Scrooge had made an x with a red pen to the map written something next to it.
   “I can’t read your handwriting”, she said.
   “It says Pajaten. It’s the name of the city I’m looking for”, he said and took the map from her. He put it in his backpack. Few weeks earlier he had called Donald to his moneybin to inform him that they were leaving immediately to look for the lost city, but then Goldie had arrived and his plans had been cancelled. He wondered if the whole wedding-thing could have avoided if Donald had arrived to the bin before Goldie.
   “I think I’ve heard of that city. It’s was part of the Incan empire, very rich city I believe, right?” she said.
   “One of the richest”, Scrooge said, “Most people believe the whole city is a just rumor, since no one has found it”.
   “No wait, now I remember!” Magica exclaimed excitedly, “I’ve hear that the people in Pajaten were able to use strong magic. They used is to protect their city from invaders”.
   “You mean that the people of Pajaten were witches?” Scrooge asked.
   “That’s the interesting part. They weren’t witches so they shouldn’t have been able to use magic at all. But they did”, she explained.
   “Please, Scroogie, take me with you!” she pleaded with hopeful eyes and jumped down from the desk.
   “What?”
   “I’m only interested about this trip in a professional way. I want to know how they used magic. I won’t cause you any trouble, I promise”, she held out her hand. Scrooge thought about it. Magica always kept promises and it might not be a good idea to travel alone in to a dangerous jungle. And it wouldn't bee the first time they worked together. After a moment of hesitation, he shook her hand and gave her a smile to confirm that they were now partners.

Meanwhile Goldie didn’t know what to think. She was sitting in her wedding dress and holding the napkin in her hands, on which Scrooge had written his message. It said:

                                                                                           I’m sorry. I really am.
                                                                                                               Scrooge

Goldie was angry with Scrooge, but also with herself. Perhaps she should have known that something like was going to happen. It wasn’t like Scrooge to leave everything else behind and rush to get married. But in her blind happiness Goldie had refused to believe this might happen. She was very disappointed, but not surprised. Daisy on the other hand was furious. Goldie could hear her furious voice through the door. She was having a very a bad temper tantrum. Donald was trying to calm her down. There were others, who were still trying to find Scrooge, but it seemed like he had vanished into the air. The reporters had gone wild, because they had just got the scoop of the decade. Billionaire Scrooge McDuck disappeared on the morning of his wedding, or something like that would probably read on tomorrow's newspaper's front page.
   “Miss O’Gilt, is there anything I could do for you”, Birgitta asked entering the room. Goldie could see, that the blond woman was not bothered by Scrooge's absence in anyway. However, she was still trying to look miserable for the sake of being polite. Goldie said nothing to this.
   “No, thank you. If you don't mind I'd rather be alone now”, Goldie said and so Birgitta left her alone with her thoughts. Goldie pressed her wrists shut. The next time she saw Scrooge, she new what she would do.

Chapter Text

By the time the sun had set Donald was pretty sure he knew were his uncle had gone to. The whole day Donald had driven around Duckburg looking for Scrooge. He had not been in his mansion, but apparently had been at the moneybin earlier during the day. In the moneybin, two guards had told him that his uncle had been there with Magica de Spell. According to the guards Scrooge had for some reason allowed Magica to be in the bin. They had not fought at all and then left together. The guards also told Donald, that his uncle had been carrying his old backpack when he left. Donald knew exactly which backpack they were talking about. It was the same old, worn backpack that Scrooge carried on every treasure hunt.
   To confirm his suspicions, Donald had gone his uncle’s office. There he had failed to find the map, which Scrooge had shown him weeks ago. He had warned Donald, that as soon as he got everything planned out, they would leave for South-America, Peru for a treasure hunt. Donald had noted that his uncle kept the map save in his drawer. Unable to find this map, Donald came to the conclusion, that Scrooge had left on the treasure hunt. But what still bothered Donald, was Magica. What was she doing with Scrooge? As far as Donald knew Magica, she was not interested in lost treasures, only in the number one dime. Based on the guards’ description, Scrooge had seemed completely okay, not under any sort of spell.
   When it came obvious, that he could no longer find Scrooge in Duckburg, Donald returned home. He collapsed on the sofa in the living room. He stared at the ceiling and thought about the day’s events. The whole house was dark and silent. The triplets had gone with Daisy and were staying the night at her place. The triplets had been disappointed, when they weren’t allowed to go and look for their uncle too. Donald sent Daisy a text message to inform her that he had not found Scrooge. He didn’t mention, that he knew where Scrooge was going since, his exact location was still a mystery.
   Donald put his phone on the coffee table and thought. He had done a little more research and had found out that his uncle had some hours ago left with his private jet, that was headed to north of Peru. Donald was so worried about his uncle that forgot to be angry at him over what he had done. Donald was constantly worried that something would happen to Scrooge. What if Magica was pulling some trick on him or what if he some under some spell after all? It wasn’t completely impossible, that Scrooge and Magica were working together. They had done so before and during their teamwork Magica had always staid loyal. Still Donald couldn’t help but worry. If Magica for some reason would double cross Scrooge, then there would be no one to help that poor old duck, since he was alone with the witch. Donald was sure he would not be able to sleep tonight.

Scrooge McDuck was in his private jet, that was currently flying through the night sky. He headed back from the plane’s cockpit. He had wanted to make sure the pilots got everything under control. Under normal conditions, when traveling with his nephews, Scrooge wouldn’t have taken pilots with him. He and Donald used to fly the plane together. Unfortunately, Donald was not here and Magica had no clue how fly a plane.
Scrooge returned to the cabin where Magica was. Scrooge sat back down to his seat, opposite to Magica. Her handbag laid on the floor next to her legs and on the table in front of her she had her crystal ball. Ratface sat on her right shoulder. They both were leaned over the crystal ball with frowning expressions on their faces. Scrooge looked at the crystal ball but didn’t see anything in there. He wandered what she was looking at. Then she let out a frustrated noise.
   “That idiot!” she exclaimed. “What does he think he’s doing?”
   “What’s wrong?” Scrooge asked her.
   “Can’t you see? This is wrong!” she said gesturing towards the crystal ball. Scrooge look once more, but still couldn’t see anything.
   “No, I can’t see. I’m not a witch, remember?”
   “Aghh…sorry. I’m just so annoyed, I’m not thinking straight”, she said, and he nodded. Magica moved her open palm over the ball and then pushed it closer to Scrooge.
   “How about now?” she asked. Scrooge focused on the ball. Now he saw gray clouds that were moving slowly inside the crystal. The clouds moved aside revealing a blurry scene. First Scrooge wasn’t sure what he saw, but then he realized that he was staring Magica’s house on Mount Vesuvius. There was some movement in front of the house.
   “Still not sure what the problem is”, he said to her.
   “Look again”, she said. Scrooge had to focus even harder on the scene. Finally it became clearer and Scrooge was able to recognize the figure standing on her front porch.
   “Isn’t that Rosolio?”
   “So, you remember him. Can you see what he’s doing?” she asked. Scrooge focused his gaze on the ball again. He nearly laughed when he realized what was going on. The whole front porch was covered in red roses, her mail box, near the house, was stiffed with pink letters and now Rosolio was painting a pink heart on her front door.
   “Stop smirking”, she told him, annoyed.
   “Apparently he’s just preparing a welcome-home-gift for you”, he said. Magica frowned, “I want him out there now”. At first Scrooge thought Magica was planning to leave him before their trip had even begun. He felt a slight disappointment, although he didn’t want to admit it to himself. But then to his joy (which he would not admit either) Magica turned her determined gaze towards her loyal pet. Ratface cawed and jumped form her shoulder to the table.
   “Ratface, you go back home and make sure that Rosolio cleans up whatever mess he’s made and then leaves from Vesuvius immediately. Can you do it?”
   “Sure thing, Magica”, the raven answered.
   “Wait”, Scrooge said, “Your not expecting him to fly from here all the way to Europe?” Even though Ratface was as determined as his mistress, Scrooge knew, that kind of journey would take a long time, before the raven actually reached his goal. Rosolio would be long gone before the raven got to him.
   “Of course not”, Magica said, “I’ll send him through a portal”. She draw a circle in the air with her finger and through the circle Scrooge could the path leading to her house. She kissed her ravens head and then gestured him to go. Without objections the raven jumped through the portal. Scrooge saw him fly away right before the portal shrank and then disappeared as fast as it had appeared. Scrooge was impressed.
   “Traveling like that would save unbelievable amount of time and money. Why don’t you travel through portals more? I didn’t even know you could do that. That’s amazing”, he told her genuinely impressed.
   “Opening portals is hard and to open even a small portal takes a huge amount of energy”, she said. Scrooge noticed that all of sudden she look horribly tired and out of breath, even though she had not moved from her seat.
   “Oh, I see”, he said. “You want something to drink?”
   “Yes, please”, she said. She said please, he though amused. It was a rare word for her, and she hadn’t even noticed she had said it. Scrooge got up and walk to a glass cabinet, which he opened. From the cabinet he got two glasses and a bottle of water.
   “You’re going to offer me just water?” she asked. Scrooge turned to look at her. She was gazing something behind him, the expensive looking wine bottle. Scrooge kept one wine bottle in the jet. He would offer wine for important business men he was planning to make deals with.
   “Don’t even dream about it”, he said bluntly.
   “A glass of wine could be good for you too. You’re so tense”, she said in a serious tone. She looked at him with a steady gaze in her eyes. He hated that se was right. He was in a serious need of something relaxing. He put the water bottle back and returned to her. He poured two glasses of red wine for them.

Scrooge rarely drank alcohol at all, but made him relax so he decided to pour himself another glass. He could feel the alcohol’s effect on him. He’s body and mind relaxed and the past day seemed so strange anymore. Even the awkwardness between him and Magica faded away slowly. They started talking, which itself wasn’t strange. The strange thing was that they started talking about small things, like what they had been up to lately, what their friends and family were doing. Magica told him about her latest potion experiment that had literally exploded in her hands. He laughed a warm-hearted laugh and told her she would succeed next time. They talked and laughed together like it was the most natural thing in the world. Scrooge had to admit he was enjoying himself. He wished they would be like this more often, without rivalries caused by his dime. Her laugh was music in his ears.
   “You have a beautiful laugh”, he then said, smiling at her. She said nothing but a wide smile appeared on her face. For a moment they held eye contact and smiled at each other like two fools. Magica turned her gaze to the window to hide her blushing, which was only partly caused by the wine. He too gazed out of the window, to the dark night sky, that was filled with dark clouds.
   “You know… about Goldie”, he began. Her smile faded away. Magica couldn’t understand why on earth did he had to start talking about his ex now. He was ruining the moment they had had and she didn’t like it.
   “Back in Klondike, we might have had a future together. However, I made my choice and left. Whatever we had in past stays in the past. At least that’s what I think. It’s funny to think that if I had chosen differently, I could be married now. We might have even started a family”, he laughed.
   “In that case you might have not become the richest man in the world”, she said. Scrooge thought about it.
   “That would have sucked. I already knew I wanted to be the richest man in the world when I was a kid. Am I a horrible person, because I value money so much?”
She laughed, amused, “Darling, I’m not in a position to judge you. I’m not an angel either and you know that”. He laughed too. He watched her for a moment and then said, “If I had not become the world’s richest man, we would have never met”
   “That would have sucked”, she said and they both smiled. Then they both stayed quiet for a while. She turned her attention back to the crystal ball.
   “Have you ever thought about getting married? he asked surprising her. Magica put her crystal ball bag in her handbag.
   “You have had enough wine”, she said and reached to take his glass. He leaned back so his glass was out of her reach and took another sip.
   “Have you?”
   “I don’t need a husband”, she said and sat back down.
   “Needing and wanting are two different things” he pointed out.
   “I’m like you, Scrooge. I have dedicated my life to my work, witchcraft. I’m not planning on getting married”. He noticed that his glass was empty now. He was about pour yet another glass, but Magica decided stop him before he could.
   “Scrooge, look into my eyes”, she told him. He did as she had said and looked into her dark, beautiful eyes. She had a hypnotic gaze. Soon he started feeling awfully tired and his eyelids felt heavy. Scrooge fell a sleep in his seat and the glass in his hand fell to the floor. Magica picked the glass up from the floor and then removed Scrooges glasses from his beak. She decided to make sure that if they ever ended up drinking wine again, he wouldn’t have more than one glass.
   She leaned closer and stroke his whiskers. It was fun talking with him, but all that talk about Goldie and the questions if she herself would ever want to get married had gotten a little too strange for her. She smiled at Scrooge, he looked like a kid when he slept, probably dreamt of the lost city they was looking for. Magica thought it was a shame she and Scrooge were enemies or at least rivals. Perhaps the word ‘enemies’ didn’t describe their current relationship very well anymore. They were still rivals, but at the same time, in some strange way they were also friends. They had a strong connection between them, they had always had it. It made her wonder, if they could be something more then friends if his dime wasn’t separating them.

Chapter Text

”Look… uhm… I’m sorry if I said something stupid yesterday”, Scrooge apologized. He felt embarrassed about bringing up Goldie the night they had flown to Peru. Also, he was a little worried that he might have said something else he shouldn’t have said. He wasn’t sure, their conversation from yesterday seemed a little blurry to him. Magica stood in front of a tall mirror. She looked at Scrooge through the mirror. She had a huge sun hat on her head.
   “No need to apologize, Scrooge. I get it. You’re still feeling guilty about running away, aren’t you?” she said in a very understanding tone. Scrooge nodded.
   “I’ll give you advise”, she said. “When this trip is over, you go and apologize to her. Tell her you care about her, but not in that way. Then, if she cares enough about you, she won’t hold a grudge against you for long. So, for now just focus on this trip” She turned around to face him. Scrooge thought she was right, right now there was nothing he could do about Goldie and possibly his angry relatives.
   “You’re right”, he said. They both nodded as an agreement, whatever had happened in Duckburg was, for now, pushed aside.
   “Okay, I want this hat”, she informed him, posing for the mirror wearing the particular hat.
   Once they had arrived in the country their first task was shopping, since Magica had no proper clothes for moving around in a jungle. Also, they needed other equipment and food before entering the jungle. They had found their way in to a shop, which didn’t convince Magica. She thought the products in the shop seemed to be poor quality. But Scrooge had only noticed the cheap price tags. The shop itself was small and over stuffed with sale items. She had already found t-shirt, shorts and comfortable shoes and now she wanted a hat.
   “I’m not buying that for you. It’s not practical in a jungle, not to mention, it’s way too expensive”, he said eyeing the price tag, hanging form the hat. As much as these two had in common, shopping separated them like day and night. To Scrooge, everything that wasn’t free, was too expensive. Magica, on the other hand, hardly bothered to look at the price tags at all. If she saw something pretty, she wanted it.
   “But it looks so good on me, don’t you agree?”
   “Sure it does, but I’m not buying it for you”, he said firmly. Magica sighed in frustration. Shopping with Scrooge McDuck wasn’t an easy job, plus in the end, he was the one who decided what they would buy, since he was the one buying. Magica gave up and threw the hat to the closest shelf.
   “You’re so cheap”, she complained and followed him to the cash register. Scrooge placed their items on the counter. However, there was no one behind the counter.
   “Excuse me, can I get some service here?” he called in a demanding tone. They heard noises, like stuff falling from the shelves, in the back room, behind the counter. Then some cursing in Spanish.
   “Just a minute”, a male voice called back.
   Scrooge sighed, “Lousy service here”. They waited a moment listening the cashier, the only person working in the shop at the moment, making noises at the back of the store. Magica leaned against the counter.
   “Scrooge, I’ve been thinking. Since finding any treasures from Pajaten, isn’t my main goal here, I can settle for less.
   “What do you mean?” Scrooge asked, confused.
   “Well, since you are Scrooge McDuck and you smell gold from miles away, I think it’s safe to say we will find a some sort of treasure”
   “Right, so?”
   “I’ll settle for ten percent of the treasure, you keep the rest”, she said.
   “Who said I was gonna share the treasure?” he asked with a challenging look, “I don’t share the treasures I find, even with my nephews, what makes you think you’re in any higher position than them?” Magica had already known Scrooge would not be willing to share, but she was not about give up.
   “I’m not asking for much. Besides, I’m helping you, don’t I deserve-“
   “How about we talk about it after we find Pajaten?”
   “You’re just going to keep everything to yourself”
   “Damn right I will”, he snorted. Sometimes he made her blood boil, and very often vice versa. But it wasn’t always a bad thing. They were both hot tempered ducks and deep inside rather enjoyed annoying one another. It was a strange thing, but true.
   “I’m sorry for making you wait”, the cashier said as he finally appeared from the back room. His English seemed good, but he had a heavy Spanish accent. His name-tag said Alejandro. Alejandro was a tall, thin rat, dressed in worn clothes. He had long, sharp looking finger nails and a bad breath. His breath smelled strongly to the other side of the counter. Magica had to move a little bit back, that’s how bad it was.
   “Did you find everything you need?” Alejandro asked, looking at the two ducks. Magica didn’t like the look in his eyes. He looked cunning and just seemed unpleasant. Scrooge didn’t focus on that, because he was about to bargain. Successfully he bargained and almost ended up getting everything for free. Scrooge had surprised the cashier with his superior bargaining skill.
   “I couldn’t help overhearing you’re looking for Pajaten” Alejandro said, while packing their purchases.
   “That’s right”, Scrooge confirmed.
   “Is your expedition group big?”
   “Just the two of us”
   “Señor, that’s madness. Many have gone looking for the city and come back empty handed and some have never returned”
   “This time things will be different”, Scrooge said confidently.
   “How so?” Alejandro asked, raising his eyebrows.
   “Because I’m Scrooge McDuck and I always find what I’m looking for”, Scrooge kept going with his bragging for a while. Alejandro seemed surprised and then a slight, a bit foreshadowing smile spread across his face. Magica didn’t like it, and she liked even less about the fact that Scrooge didn’t seem to get bad vibes form this man.
   “Scrooge” she interrupted him finally, “We’re done here, we should go”.
   “Right, we still need to rent a jeep. Preferably a cheap one”, he said. They were about to leave when Alejandro stopped them.
   “Señor, my friend rents cars. He might give you discount” And like that, he had got Scrooge’s attention. Magica tried to whisper to him that they should just go, but he ignored her.
   “Fantastic! Tell me where I can find him”, Scrooge said.
   “You can find him in this address”, Alejandro said, writing something down on a piece of paper. While writing he glanced at Magica. For a moment they had eye contact and he gave her a malevolent smile, so that she could see his yellow teeth. Then he turned his gaze down to the paper. Magica was sure Scrooge had not even noticed. This Alejandro guy was surely up to something.

Early the next morning Scrooge and Magica were on their way. The sun would rise in an hour and the air was a bit chilly. They were driving on a muddy road in their rented jeep. Scrooge was the one driving and Magica sat next to him. They were both dressed in shorts and t-shirts. Their backpacks were on the back seat. Magica was still feeling troubled about the suspicious cashier form yesterday.
   “Hey, is something wrong, Magica? You look worried”, Scrooge said and looked at her briefly, then turned back to look at the road.
   “I just have this bad feeling, Scrooge”, she said while tying up her hair, so it wouldn’t get in her face.
   “That Alejandro guy seemed so suspicious. He had this malevolent look in his eyes. Didn’t you notice at all”, she asked. He made a turn and soon they were surrounded by tall trees.
   “I’m sure you got it wrong. He had a creepy smile, but that doesn’t mean his a bad man”, Scrooge said.
   “But the way he looked at me-”
   “I noticed he looked at you”, he then said.
   “Oh, you did?”
   “Just because I have glasses doesn’t mean I’m blind”, he said. “You’re an attractive woman, it’s no wonder he stared”. Scrooge hadn’t really liked how Alejandro had looked at Magica, but unknown to him, Magica was more closer to the truth them he was. Alejandro was not an honest man.
   “Thank you for your compliment, but I still think he was up to something”, Magica said stubbornly.
   “Do you honestly believe he’s going to follow us or something?” Scrooge asked. Magica didn’t know, she just had a bad feeling. Scrooge patted her back with one hand.
   “You are probably just being paranoid. Everything is going to be okay. Trust me”
   “Okay, I guess you’re right”, Magica said. At least she hoped he was right.

Chapter Text

Even though, during their first night in the jungle it had turned out they had no tent, everything else was great. Magica had to admit that. Sure, hiking in jungle was slow and hard, but there were plenty of other things she enjoyed.
    She and Scrooge were far away from Duckburg and far away from their usual bickering. Instead of fighting they were focused on working together. And they really were a good team, which made it even better. When they had left their jeep behind, for the jungle was too thick to drive through, Magica had had some doubts. It was obvious that, Scrooge would be the one leading them through the hostile looking jungle. He was experienced adventurer and had moved in various types of jungles many times before. Following Scrooge’s lead, Magica realized that there was nothing to worry about. Scrooge studied his map carefully and then lead their way with confidence. This confidence and experience, which he showed, made her feel relaxed and safe. His encouraging smile made her feel something she had not felt in a long time. Not just a physical attraction, but true, genuine affection towards him. Magica followed Scrooge’s lead. Walking behind him, she followed his movements closely with her eyes, enjoying everything she saw. At times she noticed that her daydreaming had caused her to fall slightly behind and she had to catch up with him.
    “Tell me again, what do you expect to find in Pajaten exactly?” Scrooge than asked her, waking her up from her fantasies.
    “Umm… Ancient Incan spells, I guess. You see there are rumours and a few evidence that suggest the people of Pajaten might have used powerful spells, exceptionally powerful for even the strongest witch or a wizard. You see, no witch is that powerful alone, most of us use different magical items like wands to boost our powers. But, anyway, they used their magic to protect their city and to make their fields fertile and so on. To make their city and culture bloom”
    “So, mortals or witches, it’s very likely that the Incan people in Pajaten had some sort of power source in their use, correct?”
    “Correct. When we find this lost city, perhaps we’ll find out what the power source is”, she said with a hopeful voice. Scrooge smiled to himself. She was a curious personality, hungry for knowledge just like him. And now she had got him interested too. Perhaps there would be more to Pajaten then just gold, he though.

After a few exhausting hours of trailing among the thick growth, they stopped by a small stream to rest. Scrooge bent down by the stream to refill his water bottle. She got to her knees next to him. She a strange feeling. And by a strange feeling she did not mean her constantly growing crush on Scrooge McDuck. Something was not right; she just didn’t know what.
    “Magica? Did you hear me?”
    “What?” She said. She had not heard him speaking to her. Magica had been lost deep in her own thoughts. She looked at Scrooge who looked a bit worried.
    “Are you feeling okay?” he asked gently, placing his hand on her shoulder. His touch made her blood run faster and fastened her breathing.
    “I’m fine”, she assured him.
    “I just… What did you say?” In her head she cursed. She was feeling like a teenager, who was acting awkward in front of her crush. Pathetic, she thought to herself.
    “I told you to look at that frog on the other side of the stream”, he said, removing his hand from her shoulder to point at the frog. On the other side of the stream she noticed a beautiful, blue frog sitting on a large leaf. It was peacefully staring at their way.
    “It’s beautiful”, Scrooge said. “Haven’t seen a blue frog before. Wonder if it’s poisonous?”
    “It’s called blue poison dart frog. And yes, it has a poisonous skin, so don’t touch it”, she warned him. She was very familiar with all sorts of poisonous animals. Their poisons often worked as an ingredient in her potions.
    “Well than, we should keep going. Or do you want rest longer?” he asked.
    "She shooked her head. “No, I’m ready to go”. She got up still feeling strange, but she decided to ignore the feeling.

Chapter Text

Donald Duck stepped into the tiny shop, with a poor air conditioning, looking around carefully. Around him he saw cheap merchandises, cheap enough for he’s uncle (who still would consider them expensive, Donald knew). Donald had arrived in Peru yesterday. He had felt like he had go after he’s old uncle, just in case. Donald had always held his family close to his heart. He couldn’t live with himself if something bad happened to his family member. Donald knew his uncle Scrooge to be very clever and strong, both physically and mentally, but he was still worried about Magica’s intentions. Donald had solemnly decided not to take any risks.
     Donald had arrived in the country in tourist class. The plane had landed to the same airport were Scrooge McDuck’s private jet had landed three days earlier. Donald had not had much trouble finding Scrooge’s pilots, who were on vacation (which they paid for themselves) until their boss returned. With their help Donald was soon on his uncle’s tracks. After that Donald had had a lot of help from the locals. Apparently, a stingy Scottish man and a fabulous Italian woman, who bickered loudly, had caught many people’s attention. Eventually the clues from the locals led Donald to this poor looking shop.
     A tall rat, the cashier, behind the counter greeted Donald and welcomed him to the shop. Then he returned his attention to two men standing by the counter. They talked with each other quietly, almost as if they were afraid Donald would hear them. Donald walked around the shop, waiting so that he could ask for new clues from the shop’s cashier, when he was finish with the two men. Donald walked between the shelves and put his heavy backpack on the floor. He observed the products on the shelves, not really interested in them.
    Donald had noted that the three men by the counter were having a heated conversation, even though they were clearly trying to act calm. Out of curiosity, Donald tried to peek at the men, from behind the shelf. The rat was thin, dressed in a bright red t-shirt, and had a very unpleasant look in his eyes. His yellow teeth show every time he opened his mouth. The second man was slightly shorter, but very strong built, serious looking eagle. He had several expensive looking rings on his fingers. The third man was a very thin, seemingly frustrated and nervous tiger. He kept switching his balance from one foot to the other.
    Behind the shelves Donald tried to sneak closer to hear better. The conversations was in Spanish, but that was not a problem for Donald. After his college years, before obtaining the custody of his nephews, Donald had traveled for some years around South America. With his girlfriend at the time, the Mexican duck called Donna, and two lifelong friends, Jose from Brazil and Panchito from Mexico, Donald had learned to speak fluent Spanish.
     “I told you already, Alejandro! Carlos is not coming. He’s in Europe with some young bikini model or something”, the tiger said, clearly uptight. The man called Alejandro was not pleased.
    “You did tell him that we’re talking about big money over here, right?”
    “I did, but he didn’t believe me. He said he doesn’t believe Pajaten even exists. And even if it does, he doubts that you’ll find it”, the tiger said and added nervously, “And I’m feeling doubtful too”. Alejandro laughed, irritated. When he spoke, he spit out his words like they were poison.    
    “Scrooge McDuck is here looking for Pajaten. You know who he is? No? He’s the world’s richest man and the most successful treasure hunter of all time. Wherever he goes he always finds gold, oil or something that will make him even richer. Always! All we need to do is to follow him and let him find Pajaten for us. After that we’ll get rid of him and take over his findings. Simple, isn’t it?”, Alejandro explained.
    When Donald had heard them mention the lost city of Pajaten, he had wondered if these men had any connection to his uncle. By the time Donald’s uncle had been mentioned, Donald was sure, these men were up to no good. And the fact that this Alejandro had hinted that his plan was to get rid off Scrooge, made Donald’s blood boil. The idea of someone planning to hurt his family made him want to rage. Donald felt his wrist shaking and his face becoming red with fury. However, now was not a good time to a have a temper tantrum. Clearly, these men were dangerous, so it was better to stay calm. Donald had to focus on breathing to calm himself.
    “Look, Alejandro”, the eagle said in a calm manner,“Carlos not being here is not that big of a problem. Sure, he would have been helpful-“    
    “Juan, Carlos is the only one of us that knows how to move safely in the jungle. He’s experienced”, Alejandro reminded the eagle called Juan.
    “We don’t have any more time to waste, Alejandro. We just have to go without Carlos. We must get to McDuck before he finds Pajaten and informs anyone else about it. He’s disappearance must remain a mystery for the rest of the world, if we wanna enjoy about the riches he found, without alarming the authorities”, Juan said to Alejandro, who seemed to agree, even though he wasn’t happy.
    In that moment, Donald got an idea. He picked up his backpack and moved his sailor hat, so it was party covering his eyes. It must have looked idiotic, he had to admit, but it felt like a necessary thing to do. Alejandro had apparently met Scrooge face to face, so Donald didn’t want to take any risks, that Alejandro would make a connection between him and Scrooge. After all, because of their striking resemblance in appearance (and temperament), many who didn’t know better, had assumed Donald was Scrooge’s son. And this did not happen rarely.
    Taking a deep breath and gathering his courage, Donald stepped from behind the shelves, interrupting the men’s private conversation. They all turned to look at the small, funny looking, sailor suited Duck, with murderous glares.
    “Good day, fellows!” Donald greeted them, “I couldn’t help but overhear you got a little problem at your hands and I’d be more than happy to help you with it”. Juan and the tiger quickly looked at Alejandro, which confirmed Donald’s suspicions. Alejandro was the boss of the group.    
    “Who are you, what do you want and how long have you been listening us talking?” Alejandro asked slowly, holding eye contact. Donald felt cold shivers, that’s how intense Alejandro’s gaze was.
    “The name’s Donald Duck. I’m an adventurer. I’ve been all around the world. The Himalayas, Siberia, Sahara, the Australian outback, all the extreme location you can name. I have also plenty of experience moving around jungles. I thought I might join you and help you out”, Donald said, appearing calmer and more confident than he actually was at the moment. Alejandro kept his eyes on Donald but gestured to his companions to move. The tiger walked to the door and replaced the open sign with closed sign. Juan the eagle walked around the shop to see if anyone else had been eavesdropping them. After that they moved so that they were standing on Donald’s both sides, trapping him.    
    “I’m not looking for trouble, I just wanna help you”, Donald told Alejandro, cheerfully.    
    “And what might you benefit from helping us?” Alejandro asked. He moved his hands behind the counter and then raised his right arm slightly revealing the pistol, that had a silencer attached to it, he was holding. Internally, Donald was freaking out, on the outside, he managed to seem unimpressed by the gun.
    “I’m not asking for much. I’ll settle for a small reward for helping you. I’m mostly in it for the thrill, you know”, Donald said smirking. Alejandro carefully observed Donald.
    “You do realize, that by working with us will get you mixed up in criminal activity, right?” Alejandro asked, considering his options. Donald just shook his shoulders: "Obviously”.
    “Just shoot him”, Juan told Alejandro. However, the rat did nothing. He kept looking at Donald, trying to decide, whether he was trustworthy at all. On one hand Alejandro wasn’t exited about this duck joining his gang, because he knew nothing about him, but on the other hand, if he was as capable moving in the jungle as Carlos, then he would be helpful. Finally, Alejandro made up his mind.    
    “If it turns out that you aren’t as capable as you say you are, or if you do anything funny, disobey me… then I’ll shoot you. Understood?” Donald felt relieved, he nodded. He didn’t have Alejandro’s trust, but he was now part of the expedition. Donald heard Juan murmuring something under his breath, clearly unsatisfied.
    Alejandro stepped from behind the counter and lowered his gun.   
   “Juan rented McDuck a jeep that had a tracker in. McDuck left already three days ago. We leave in four hours after him. You know McDuck, right?”   
   “I’ve heard of him”, Donald said.   
   “Good. For now, you can go with Juan and Alex”, he said gesturing towards his companions.   
   “Right” Donald followed his new colleagues out of the store. Alex seemed like a nervous type of guy. Donald did not find him a threat. However, his friend Juan was a different type of guy. Right after leaving the store Juan moved right next to Donald. He said: “I don’t like outsider interfering with our businesses. If I were you, I’d watch my back”. Donald gulped. These guys were even more dangerous than he had assumed. Well, at least this was the quickest way to get to uncle Scrooge. At least he assumed so.

Chapter Text

In a matter of hours Alejandro’s group was on the move. There were eight people in total in this group, which mission was to hunt down Scrooge McDuck and claim his findings. The group travelled in two rusty jeeps. To Donald’s relieve, he didn’t have to sit in the same jeep as Juan or Alejandro. Both of those sat in the leading jeep. Juan drove and Alejandro hold the radar in his hands. The radar would lead them to the jeep Scrooge and Magica had used. After finding their jeep, it would be Donald’s mission to prove his skills and track his uncle.
     Alejandro, Juan and the two men behind them seemed to form an inside group. Alejandro trusted this group and negotiated and made decisions aided by them. Rest of the people, who sat in the following jeep, were not as trustworthy as the rest. That’s why Donald sat in that particular jeep. With him, in the jeep were Alex, who Donald had met earlier, apparently Alex’s brother (at least they looked similar) and a young boy, perhaps 17 or 18 years of age.
Donald had felt extremely curious about the boy next to him. The boy seemed too young to be involved in this kind of business. At first the boy had only said a few words when Donald tried to speak to him. However, after a moment the boy warmed up to Donald and started talking with him quite openly.
    “So your Alejandro’s nephew?” Donald asked.
    “Yes. My mother died few years ago, so I went to live with my uncle. I’ve never met my father”, the boy answered.
    “Oh… Sorry about your mother. Are you okay being involved in this kind of… umm… business? What he is about to do isn’t legal, you know that right?” Donald lowered his voice, so the tigers on the front seat wouldn’t hear. They seemed to be fully concentrated in their own conversation, but Donald didn’t want to take any risks. He was curious and wanted to talk more with Diego.
    “I know. But he’s the only family I got left, I have to do as he says”, Diego said in a sad manner. The young rat boy reminded Donald of his good pal Mickey Mouse. Diego was nothing like Alejandro. Diego had kind eyes. He was perhaps a bit shy, but still he seemed to be kind by nature and very friendly.
    “Mainly my uncle works as a drug dealer. He does all sort of other things too. The shop he keeps is just a stage. All the real business happens behind the scenes”, Diego said looking at his feet. Donald got the impression that Diego would rather do anything else than be involved with his uncle’s illegal businesses.
    “I shouldn’t have said that”, Diego said suddenly looking very nervous, “I’m not supposed to talk about what my uncle does with… people who are not trustworthy”.
    “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just pretend you didn’t say anything”, Donald said reassuringly and smiled encouragingly at the boy. Diego nodded relieved. The boy was reserved but Donald felt like he had already won his trust.

The afternoon was hot, and the air was still. However, the trees covered the sky almost completely so the jungle was shadowy.
     “The jeep is over there!” someone shouted. Juan probably. Donald tried to see but couldn’t. He only saw green leaves and strange looking plants. It wasn’t until they had stopped and gotten out of their cars, that he finally saw the jeep. It had stood there all alone few days already. There were leaves on the seats. Among those leaves seemed to be some bugs.
     “From this point on we have to continue on foot. The jungle is too dense for driving” Alejandro said to everyone.
     “Donald!”
     “Here!”
     “You lead us through this jungle to McDuck”
     “That’s what I promised to do”, Donald said. Alejandro ordered everyone to pick up their backpacks and follow Donald. Donald could already see branches that had been cut and some footprints on the ground. At least he know which way to go… for now. He was worried that he would lose Scrooge and Magica’s tracks. Alejandro would not be happy. It was a good thing Donald roughly remembered the map his uncle had shown him. It might help him navigate to the right direction. At least he hoped so.

The very same night Scrooge and Magica were setting up a new camp for the night. They were exited, because according to Scrooge’s map they should be very close to the lost city. Everything was fine, except for one thing.
     “What do you mean you can’t use magic anymore?” Scrooge asked confused.
     “I don’t know. I just can’t. My powers aren’t working”, Magica said. Like every night before she had tried to make a fire by using her magic. However, this time it just didn’t work. Soon she had discovered that any of the spell she knew didn’t work. Something was stopping her from using her magic.
     “But that can’t be”, Scrooge said, “You can’t just lose your powers, right?” Scrooge was clearly more worried and confused over the situation than she was. Actually, she was calmer than ever. She was not worried, but she felt like she should have seen this coming. The strange feeling earlier was her magic draining away from her.
     “Well, there are some occasion, when it is perfectly possible for a witch to be unable to use their powers”, she explained.
     “What kind of situations?”
     “For example sometimes being sick can prevent one form using magic”
     “Are you sick now?” Scrooge asked concerned. Magica shook her head.
     “No”, she said, “I think the counsel might have blocked my powers” Scrooge didn’t understand.
     “The counsel?”
     “The counsel of witches, it consists of the most powerful witches and wizards in the world. Its mission is to supervise that no one abuses their magical powers. You know, like using magic to hurt others or steal from them. The counsel has prevented me from using magic before, as a punishment for causing trouble for non-magical folk”, Magica said and bent down to look for matches from Scrooge’s backpack.
     “Like causing trouble for me”, Scrooge said sitting down next to her. “So there’s no need to worry?”
     “No, the counsel can’t take away anyone’s powers permanently”, she said as she finally managed to set the fire. They sat close to the fire; their elbows were touching. Uncertainly she placed her head on his shoulder. He rested his head on hers and they both relaxed.
     “You haven’t caused any trouble lately though”, he said.
     “It might be because I blinded that police officer in Duckburg. It doesn’t take much to anger the counsel”
     “But they weren’t there. How would they know that happened?” Scrooge asked making her laugh a sweet laugh.
     “Every witch owns a crystal ball. They didn’t need to be there to know it happened”
     “Right, I forgot” Scrooge said a little embarrassed. For a moment they were still and silent. Scrooge moved slightly to fix his position, and then noticed that she had already fallen asleep. Scrooge smiled to himself. He felt quite happy at that moment.

Chapter Text

”Scroogie, you sure you haven’t read the map wrong”, Magica asked.
    “I have not red the map wrong. See?”, Scrooge showed the map to Magica, “We are supposed to go through here”. Magica rolled her eyes annoyed.    
    “Well, I don’t see how we can walk through a wall”, she said to him. Ahead of them, was indeed a dead end. A high cliff that blocked their way. The cliff was too abrupt to climb over. Scrooge had suggested that they could use the plants and small trees on the cliff to climb up, but Magica had dismissed the idea as too risky. They couldn’t see a way around the cliff either.    
    Magica sat down on a nearby rock and laid her backpack to the ground. She sighed frustrated. Negative thoughts started going through her head. Perhaps they were lost. Or what if there was no way to enter the city? What if the whole city did not even exist after all? Was this the end of their journey? Magica didn’t want it to be over yet. She didn’t want to go back home. They would just go back to their normal rivalry ruotine, which no more seemed very appealing to her.
    “Well, at least I’ll be home in time for grandma’s birthday party”
    “What are you mumbling about?”     
    “Although, that’s not really good news”
    “Stop that and help me”, he said.
    “The whole family is going to be there…unfortunately”
    “We need to come find some way- ahh!”
    “What happened? Scrooge? Scroogie, where are you?” Magica looked around but couldn’t see Scrooge anywhere. He had simply vanished.    
    “Scrooge”, she called again, “Where are you?”    
    “I’m not quite sure, it’s really dark in here”, Scrooge called back. She walked towards his voice, close to the cliff.   
    “This is probably just a cave or a pit. Be careful Magica, the entrance is hidden behind the big bush right next to the cliff”. Magica looked at the bush about a meter to her left. She walked close to it and moved aside some branches with her hand. What she saw seemed to be a dark pit.
    “Darling, I can’t see you, it’s too dark”, she called to the darkness, “didn’t we have a flashlight somewhere?” she was about to turn around to look for the flashlight from her backpack when he answered:       
    “I have it in my backpack. I dropped it when I fell. Just wait a minute, I’ll try to find it”. Magica waited patiently by the entrance as Scrooge fumbled in the dark. For a moment there were no sounds from the dark. Then she heard him again.      
    “Damnit!”      
    “Scroogie?”       
    “I hit my head on some rock. But I found my backpack”, he informed her. Soon a bright light came from the bottom of the pit and Magica could now see Scrooge sitting on the ground. He had dust on his clothes and on his face. There were blood on his forehead, but he didn’t seem to notice it.       
    “I see you”, she said.       
    “I still can’t see much. I lost my glasses”, he said.       
    “I’ll be right there, darling”, she called. She put her backpack on her back and started carefully to climb down the side of the pit. The path was slightly abrupt and went down two or three meters, but she made her way safely to him.    
    “Well, would you look at that”, she amazed when arriving at the bottom.    
    “What? I still can’t see. I have a very bad vision, you know”, Scrooge complained like a child. Magica noticed his glasses laying on the ground behind a tiny rock.
    “Here you go”, she said as she put them back on his beak. He got up wincing and mumbled something about his back.     
    “Are you hurt?” she asked.     
    “Got some bruises from the fall, but nothing serious”, he assured. Then he noticed what she had seen. A tunnel.      
    “What? A tunnel?” he said, “Where does it lead?”      
    “Perhaps to the other side of the cliff”, Magica offered and watched as a wide smile spread across his face.      
    “Stop right there!” she said firmly and grabbed him by the arm as he tried to ran past her to the dark tunnel.       
    “What, what, what?” he said confused. He was in a hurry to find the lost city and its treasures.         
    “You have blood on your face! That’s what. I’ll patch you up and then we can go”, she said feeling a bit annoyed. Scrooge was able to forget anything, even his own well-being, whenever there was a bunch of gold nearby waiting for someone to claim it.         
    “Oh, that’s not important. I’ll just-“        
    “Sit!” she told him in a commanding voice, pointing a rock behind him. He saw the determination in her eyes. She wasn’t taking no for an answer. Scrooge sat down impatiently, staring at into the tunnel as she looked for a first aid kit from her backpack. His thoughts resided completely with what was at the end of the tunnel, until he felt her hands on his face. He turned to look at her. Slight frown on her face, she cleaned the cut oh his forehead. She had a gentle touch which made him feel warm inside. Being gentle really suits her, Scrooge thought and hoped he would see more of this side of her in the future.

It was about twenty minutes of walking in the dark and cold tunnel, until they finally reached the other end. They saw the daylight, entering the dark tunnel and filling them with joy and excitement. Now they should be very close to Pajaten. Perhaps they would even be able to see it already.
    “Do you hear that?” Magica asked, listening carefully. Scrooge nodded.    
    “Sounds like a waterfall. A huge one”, he said. They stepped out of the tunnel to the bright light and were met by mist, which made the air moist. The mist came from the gigantic waterfall, that was far off to their right. Magica felt her heart skip a beat. Ahead of them the ground ended after just a few meters. They faced a wide and deep chasm. Looking over the edge she could see a wild running stream at the bottom. Through the mist she saw to the other side of the chasm. To get to the other side they would have to cross an old looking hanging bridge. The bridge swing lightly in the air and looked very dangerous in Magica’s opinion. She moved closer to Scrooge and asked:     
    “We don’t have to cross that bridge, do we Scroogie?”      
    “I’m afraid we do, darling. The lost city on the other side”, he said looking through his binoculars. He handed them to her and told her to look. As the mist faded a little she could see, in the direction he was pointing at, on a hill, partly hidden behind the trees, a tall stone wall. Some sort of gate, she concluded, after watching it for a moment.      
    “A gate to the city?” she asked.      
    “It must be. We’re so close now! Aren’t you getting exited?” he asked. No, she thought looking at the bridge.       
    “There’s no need to be afraid”, Scrooge said to her, as he noticed the worried expression on her face.       
    “What? I’m not afraid”, Magica denied, embarrassed that he had seen through her so easily. Scrooge patted her on the back.        
    “I’ll go first and make sure that it’s safe, then you’ll follow behind. Okay?” Scrooge said and handed her a walkie-talkie and keeping the other one himself.       
    “What if you fall?” Magica asked, “Let’s look for some other way-“        
    “There is no other way, Magica”, Scrooge said. She hated to admit, but he was right.
    Scrooge began to cross the bridge. He walked slowly on the wooden planks and hold tight on to the handrail made of rope with his right hand. On his left hand he held the walkie-talkie. Magica followed closely his every move, fearing he would fall through the blanks or the ropes would cut and he would fall to his death. Every time the bridge swung suddenly, or the blanks creaked under his feet, she didn’t dear to breathe. Constantly she was expecting the worst to happen. Then the mist moved again, so that she could no longer see him at all.     
    “Scrooge, you still okay?” she said to the walkie-talkie.     
    “No worries. I’m almost at the other side”, he answered. Then followed a moment of silence.     
    “I made it to the other side”, his voice said through the walkie-talkie. Magica felt relieved.     
    “The bridge will swing a little and some of the blanks make scary noises, but they hold. Just don’t make sudden moves and hold on to the hand rail”, he said.      
    “Got it”, she said. Magica stepped on the first blank. It creaked, but it didn’t break. She walked slowly as Scrooge had advised her and avoided looking down. She wasn’t afraid of highs, but stream below her and its wild flowing current made her feel uneasy. If she fell, she would drown. If only she could have turned herself into a raven and flown through the air.       
    Scrooge stood on the other side of the chasm. At the other end of the bridge he had been greeted by two, almost two meters tall, incan style stone statues. They stood nearby the bridge, almost as if they were guarding it. The statues seemed to be soldier of some sort, at least both of them were holding heavy stone spear in their hands. Scrooge was fascinated by the statues.       
    As he noticed the mist moving again, he turned his attention back to the bridge. He noticed Magica’s small figure crossing the bridge. She was still far from him but seemed to be alright. Scrooge thought that perhaps they would reach Pajaten before dark. It was certainly possible. Scrooge felt confident and eager to continue, until he heard a loud sound of breaking wood and saw Magica’s approaching figure fall through the blanks. She fell to the stream, he thought horrified and felt his whole body going cold.       
    “Scrooge! Scrooge, help!” he heard her simply terrified voice screaming. Hearing her voice made Scrooge feel at the same time both relieved and even more scared. He finally saw her. She was hanging in the air. One of the blanks had broken under her feet, letting her fall through. However, she had managed to get a grip on the next blank. Now she was kicking her legs in the air, feeling sick to her stomach and terrified. She kept screaming in panic.       
     Scrooge wasted no time. He threw his backpack aside and returned to the bridge. He wanted to run to her, but he couldn’t. Another blank might break or if he made bridge swing too much, she might lose her grip. Scrooge walked quickly, keeping his eyes on her.       
    “Hold on! I’m right there!” he yelled. He reached her quickly.       
    “Stop kinging!” he told her. In her panic state she couldn’t do that. He grabbed her arm and pulled her up. In moment she back on the bridge, but still scared out of her mind. She grabbed on to Scrooge’s arm tightly. He guided her back to where he had come from.      
     After getting of the bridge, Magica threw herself on the safe ground. She kept shaking and sobbing uncontrollably. Scrooge had never seen her like this and felt so awful. Not knowing what else to do. He sat next to her, wrapped his arms tightly around her and pressed her against himself. He stroke her hair and kept telling her:      
    “It’s okay, lassie. It’s okay now. You’re fine, see?” he was taken back by how his own voice kept shaking. He felt his heart pumping like crazy.
    They stayed like that, holding on to one another, for what seemed like hours. He kept telling her everything was okay, and she kept sobbing against his chest. She kept trying to say something, but Scrooge couldn’t exactly make out what she was saying. Something about dying. Poor thing, Scrooge thought, she thought she was going to die.        
    Scrooge held her until the sky started turning red. He helped her up. They had to look for a place, where they could set up a new camp for the night, he told he. Scrooge noticed that her backpack was missing. It must have fallen to the stream, he thought.

Chapter Text

Magica laid in her sleeping back, eyes open and observing everything she saw. The sky above her, the grass around her and the sleeping Scottish man next to her. The man in question kept snoring loudly and was still in deep sleep, even though the sun had already risen ages ago. Usually Scrooge woke up first, and way before the sunrise.
    Scrooge had his arm around her so that she was pulled close to him. She felt warm and safe in his arms, but still she was restless. She hadn’t slept much, instead she had gone through yesterday’s events again and again in her head. She had nearly died, but thanks to Scrooge, she had survived. Knowing that death hadn’t been far away, she now felt good, to her surprise. She felt good about being alive and was full of energy.
    After a moment she decided that she didn’t want to wait for Scrooge to wake up, but she didn’t want to interrupt his sleep either. She was restless and wanted to do something. She got up and stretched her hands to the air. It was hot as ever, now that the threes no longer gave them a cooling shade.
    She realized that they had been sleeping right next to the stone wall they saw yesterday. It had been built of irregularly shaped stones that fit together almost like a gigantic puzzle. Magica touched the stones, they felt smooth under her hand. Marvelous work, she admired. Then she noticed the actual gate. The gate was slightly open so that anyone could walk right through to the city.
    “Scroogie?”, she whispered, “Are you still asleep?” She got a loud snore as an answer.
    “I’m going to take a look at the city, I’ll be back before you wake up”, she informed her sleeping companion. Magica hurried excitedly to the gate. There she was met by to stone guardians with spears, just like the ones by the bridge, she remembered. She stepped through the open gates and entered the lost city.
    “What’s the idea of having a gate if they’re just going to leave it open”, Magica mused herself. Perhaps the Incan people weren’t as clever as she had though.
    In the city Magica was greeted by overwhelming silence. Only the wind hummed in her ears, other than that there was nothing. She could not hear even birds or insects. The silence made cold shivers run through her spine. But the spooky atmosphere wasn’t going to stop her. She was a witch after all. Magica kept walking forward along a stone path that led upward. She walked past tiny, rectangular houses and on her left she saw lot of plain land. Perhaps there had been fields once.
    When the land beneath her feet was flat again, she turned to look behind her. She was even higher than she had realized. The giant stone wall guarding the city was way below her and she could see the jungle on the other side of it. She even saw the misty chasm, which they had crossed the day before. In the gentle wind Magica wondered, why they hadn’t seen the city before. The city was so high on the hill they should have seen it. The clouds didn’t cover it up nor did the threes, but they had only seen the stone wall and nothing else. Magic? Very likely, Magica thought.
    Continuing her way up she finally reached the highest point of the city. She came to large square that was surrounded by important looking buildings. Temples, Incan pyramid and a large, rectangular building that Magica assumed to be some sort of palace. At every buildings entrance stood two guarding statues.
    Magica found her way to the nearest temple. It was dusty and dark inside. She had to wait so that her eyes would get used to the darkness. After a moment she ventured deeper into the temple. It was hard moving in the dark, but after a moment Magica found a huge pot. Inside it were, spiders and old paper scrolls, which were in poor condition. Magica decided to drag the whole pot outside to the daylight.

As Scrooge entered the square two hours later, he saw Magica sitting on steps of a small, but fine-looking building. The woman was too focused on her scrolls to even notice the angry Scots man coming closer. Scrooge walked towards her, trying to keep his temper under control, but he was not happy at all about Magica’s sudden disappearance. After all, yesterday he had lost her almost completely and now she had disappeared without saying a word. Oh, he was not happy at all.
    “Magica!” he said. Magica was startled by Scrooge’s sudden appearance and angry voice. She even dropped the scroll which she was holding.
    “Scrooge! You can’t scare people like that!” Magica said, annoyed. One look at his face and her attitude change to apologetic.
    “I only intended to take a quick look around the city and then return to you”, she hurried to explain. Scrooge glanced at the five pots on the steps and the huge pile of scrolls that laid by her feet.
    “Quick look, huh? Looks like a careful investigation to me”, Scrooge answered. He shot an angry glare at Magica.
    “I was worried about you, lassie, I’ve been looking for you for an hour”
    “I lost the track of time, I didn’t mean to purposefully worry you. I swear”, Magica claimed. Scrooge decided to let it go. She was fine and that was the most important thing.
    “Okay, but from now on you stay close to me”, Scrooge said. Magica nodded in agreement.
    “Sorry”, she still mumbled. Scrooge told her to forget it and sat next to her.
    “Listen Magica, I’ve got good news and bad news”, he said. Magica moved closer to him and took his hand into her own.
    “Tell the bad news first”
    “Well… your backpack well to the chasm and in your backpack were half of our food and first aid kit”
    “Oh… I didn’t even realize that”
    “So we can’t stay here for long. Day or two at most, but then we’ll have to return”, Scrooge said looking disappointed.
    “And the good news?” Magica asked hoping this would cheer Scrooge up. Scrooge did indeed smirk sheepishly.
    “Well… we’re here!” he said earning a laugh from his companion, “and I can smell gold!”
    “Of course, you do”, Magica laughed,” So there’s gold nearby”, she said excitedly.
    “Yes, we’re very close I can feel it” he said and they both laughed, exited. Then they both laughed more, in an awkward manner, after they realized just how close they were. Their beaks were practically touching.
    “So, what have you found?” Scrooge asked, gesturing to the scrolls. He noticed an odd expression on Magica’s face.
    “Mostly these scrolls speak of astronomy… and some other things”, Magica said and was silent for a moment, “I had some trouble translating them, but I think I know now how the city’s defense works”
    “What defense?” Scrooge asked confused.
    “The city’s defense mechanism. The magic that protects the city from invaders. It prevents outsider from using magic when they get close enough to the city. That’s why I can’t use my magic. And the magic prevented us from seeing the city before we entered it”, Magica explained.
     “Impressive, but still not a very good defense mechanism. I mean we literally just walked in”, Scrooge pointed out.
     “That’s because it’s not working properly. At least that’s what I think. According to the scrolls there are supposed to be some kind of unbeatable warriors guarding this city and it’s treasures, but I haven’t seen any. I suppose these warriors are magical creatures”, Magica said showing one the scrolls to Scrooge. However, Scrooge didn’t understand much of what he saw.
     “Okay. So, why isn’t the defense mechanism working then?” Scrooge asked. Magica looked at her hands and then back to Scrooge.
     “So that the magical mechanism protecting the city could work properly it needs… human sacrifices”, she said, “This city used to be protected by killing people. Blood is the fuel that makes the magic work. We witches call it blood magic. The counsel has forbidden using it. You see, blood magic is that kind of magic you can use even if you weren’t a witch. You just need the right magic words… and the sacrifice itself and then you can do pretty much anything you want”
    “I can imagine why the counsel forbid it. To think, what sort of things some people would be ready to do with that sort of magic”, Scrooge said. He felt suddenly sick when thought about it.
    “Precisely, but there hasn’t been anyone to make these sacrifices for years. And that’s why the defense is not working properly anymore, and we were able to walk in”, Magica concluded. They were both quiet for a moment, letting all the new information sink in. Then the silence was interrupted by loud growl.
    “Sorry”, Scrooge said, “That’s my stomach. I think we skipped breakfast”. Magica laughed and rose up.
    “Let’s go eat breakfast then, Scroogie darling”

Chapter Text

Donald walked around the camp they had set for the night. On this precise location there had been remains of a previous camp, that must have been left behind by Scrooge. And Magica, Donald remembered. He sometimes kept forgetting Magica was here too.
    In the dark and surprisingly chilly night, Alejandro’s men had gathered close to the campfire to keep themselves warm, eating or talking with others. Others were already sleeping in their tents. Two men, Juan and a lion by the name of Manuel, we on a guard duty. They both had old assault rifles in their hands, and they kept walking around the camp, keeping eye on the jungle that seemed disappear to the darkness.
    Alejandro was on the other side of the camp, sitting on a giant root of a tree. He kept toying with a sharp knife. He threw it in the air and caught it again and again. Clearly, he had had a lot of practice. Donald avoided making eye contact with him and walk towards Alejandro’s nephew instead, who was sitting at the very edge of the camp by some bushes.
    The boy, kneeling on the ground, was pondering about something. Donald sat next to him. Diego had a rifle on the ground, but it was is pieces. He held the pieces in his hands, unsure, what to do with them.
    “Do you know how to assemble that?” Donald asked. Diego nodded, but still looked unsure.
    “It’s my turn to be on a guard next”, he said seeming a bit nervous. Donald patted him on the back trying to be encouraging. It was a huge responsibility for a teenager. Donald himself wasn’t allowed to have a gun (for he was still not trusted), so he wouldn’t have to be on guard like others.
    Donald thought about what he should do. Alejandro had threatened his uncle’s life, so Donald wasn’t keen on leading him any closer to Scrooge. He decided, that he would just have to run away when no one is looking and find Scrooge himself. Leaving Alejandro and the rest to wonder in the jungle didn’t seem like a too cruel of an idea. After all, they had enough food and water to survive until they found their way out of the jungle. Surely they’d get back the same way they came.
    “Donald?” Diego asked, “Could you help? Do you know how to assembly a rifle?” Donald turned to face Diego and picked up the pieces and started putting them together.
    But what about Diego, Donald though. Perhaps he should take the boy with him… or leave him. He didn’t know. Taking Diego away from his own family didn’t seem right to Donald, to whom family mattered more than anything. But Alejandro was practicing illegal business and seemed like a dangerous man. However, Donald had not seen Alejandro shown any aggression towards his nephew, indifference at most. Donald frowned. He would take Diego with him if he would get the chance.
    “Wow!” Diego exclaimed as Donald showed him the assembled rifle, “How did you do it so quickly? Even Juan doesn’t do it so quickly” Donald smiled.
    “I spent some time in the army some years ago. Got practice there”, Donald explained, “I was hoping for a career in the navy”. Diego’s eyes gleamed with admiration.
    “What happened?”
    “Well, life just had different plans for me”, Donald just said. After becoming a single parent of three, the career in navy just wasn’t possible anymore. He had been disappointed when had realized it, because in truth he had done very well in the army, opposite to how he usually did in everyday life. But Donald loved his nephews more than anything, and even though his life was anything but easy, he was happier than ever.
    By the corner of his eye, Donald caught Alejandro staring at him, with his cold eyes.
    “Umm.. Maybe you should take this. I don’t think I’m allowed to hold it”, Donald said offering the rifle to Diego.
    “Diego, what are you doing?”
    “I heard something in the bushes”, Diego said. He had gone up and stood near the bushes, trying to see if there was something there.
    “I’m sure it was nothing”, Donald said. He wanted Diego to take the gun so that Alejandro would stop staring. Donald could feel him staring and it freaked him out. Donald turned to look over his shoulder. Alejandro was still staring, but not at him, Donald realized.
    “I guess you’re right”, Diego said as he failed to see anything in the bushes. He turned around to return to Donald, who turned his head to see what had caught Alejandro’s attention. Behind Diego Donald saw something shiny. A firefly? Two fireflies? No, Donald realized. Pair of eyes shone in the dark.
    “Get down, Diego!” Donald yelled as a huge jaguar leaped from the bushes high into the air and right at poor Diego, who had made himself an easy victim by turning his back on the predator.
    Without thinking, Donald raised the rifle, aimed and fired as the jaguar was still in the air. The vicious killer, just a moment before full of life and determination now landed on Diego as lifeless and limb. Diego let out a scream of surprise and horror.
    The sound of rifle being fire and the yelling woke up and alarmed everybody in the camp. Everyone grabbed their guns and ran to see what had happened.
    “Diego!” Alejandro called, a clear fear in his voice. He ran past Donald to roll the heavy cat off the boy and helped him up. Diego was terrified and shaking but seemed to be fine excluding some bruises from the fall to the ground. His clothes were red with the jaguar’s blood. Alejandro pulled his nephew into thigh hug. He too seemed to be shaking Donald noticed.
    For a moment there was a chaos around him. Men trying to move the jaguar and questioning what had happened. Donald answered their questions, but his eyes remained on the dead animal. He was in a shock. It was the first time he had killed, and he felt awful. He couldn’t keep his thoughts together and he wished more than anything that there had been a way to avoid killing this beautiful animal.
    “There could be more jaguars”
    “Jaguars hunt alone, I think”
    “We shouldn’t take any chances. Three men on guard from now on!”
    Donald turned to Alejandro and Diego. Alejandro was relieved that his nephew was alive and fine. Surprising, Donald thought. He turned to look at the jaguar once more as the men dragged it away from the camp. Maybe that jaguar had cups to feed, Donald thought, who will feed them now? Donald felt sick to his stomach.
    All the sounds and people around him seemed distant to Donald. He was only partly aware when Alejandro started raging to Juan and Manuel, who had been on guard. He blamed them for nearly causing Diego’s death. He yelled at them for doing a bad job. As guards they should have spotted the cat. Juan tried to argue, but Alejandro shut him up. Juan’s face turned red with anger.

In an hour the camp had gone quiet again. Three armed men were now walking around the camp and the rest were sleeping in the tents. Alejandro had dismissed Diego from his guarding duty and sent the boy to sleep. Alejandro sat by the campfire and Donald sat on the other side facing him.
    “I wanted to thank you, Donald Duck“, Alejandro said in calm manner, catching Donald off the guard. He had not expected this. He hadn’t known what to expect.
    “…You’re welcome?” Donald said.
    “I cannot express how much you saving Diego’s life means to me”, Alejandro said. He seemed to be talking the truth. He was talking in a low voice, so the guardsmen couldn’t hear him.
    “My sister was very dear to me”, Alejandro explained, “Now that she is dead her son is the only person who matters to me”. Donald nodded not sure what to feel. He still wanted to think Alejandro as a mad man, but it was hard to do so when it turned out that he did care for his nephew after all. Not to mention Donald couldn’t help but feel that he and Alejandro were kindred spirits. They both had a dead sister and were now caring for their children.
    “Diego doesn’t seem to be fond of this lifestyle of yours”, Donald noted carefully. He wasn’t sure if Alejandro would allow him to comment on his personal affairs.
    “Of course he isn’t. He’s to kind for this kind of life. But it’s the only one I could offer him”, Alejandro said offering Donald a cigar. Donald refused it.
    “Not that I had planned this kind of life for myself either”, Alejandro said exhaling, filling the air with smoke.
    “Really?” Donald said with slight disbelieve in his voice. Alejandro almost laughed.
    “When I was young, I dreamed of being a nature photographer”, he confessed and Donald almost laughed too.
    “What happened?” he asked, curious.
    “Life just had different plans for me”, he smirked.

Chapter Text

Donald hated to admit it, but he wasn’t sure anymore, if he was on the right tracks. He had found remains of a new camp that his uncle and Magica had used. So, he couldn’t be lost. If he remembered what the old treasure map, which Scrooge had shown him, had looked like, then they were supposed go this direction. Donald was pretty sure there was supposed to be a river or a stream ahead. But no, there was only high cliffs blocking their path. And the cliffs didn’t look climbable.
    “I’m sure there’s a way through”, he assured, trying not show his own hesitance. Alejandro looked at Donald and then the high cliffs ahead of them, pondering.
    “He’s got us lost”, Juan declared and sat on the ground. He gestured the men to have break. People started getting out their water bottles and sat or laid down on the grass. There was a strong smell of sweat hanging above the group since no of them had not showered for days. It was rather disgusting.
    “No, I don’t think so”, Alejandro disagreed. He gestured to the direction, where the remains of Scrooge’s camp were.
    “That camp is a proof we’re heading to the right direction. McDuck must have passed here”, he said. Some men mumbled in agreement. Donald found it calming to have Alejandro on his side, since he was the main boss in the group.
    After saving Diego’s life Alejandro had been much more patient and respectful towards Donald. While that a good thing, Juan seemed to get more irritated by the minute. He just couldn’t stand Donald and was openly a jerk to him. He was ready to blame Donald for any problem they came across. Juan’s attitude was clearly getting on Alejandro’s nerves and everybody could see it. So far there had not been any major conflicts between the two men, but Donald was worried. Did Juan have the guts to oppose Alejandro and if he did would he do it. Donald was worried he might end in trouble if Juan stepped out of line.
    “Perhaps McDuck got lost”, Diego suggested. Donald couldn’t help but laugh a little.
    “When there is gold to be gained, there’s no way uncl- Mr. McDuck would get lost”, Donald said to the boy.
    “They say he can smell gold”, Donald added. He heard some laughter amongst the men.
    “Everyone, get up!” Alejandro commanded suddenly, “Look for any signs of McDuck”.
    Everybody scattered around the area. Donald kept eyeing the cliffs. He still had a feeling he should go forward. However, there was no path through. At least not a visible one.
    Taking a good look around, Donald realized now was a perfect time to escape. Everyone had scattered and no one seemed to be paying attention to him. He would sneak off and continue looking for Scrooge by himself. Right now, it was looking like he would have to leave Diego behind. Well, Donald tough, Alejandro won’t let anything bad happen to Diego.
    Right when Donald was about to walk back the way they had come from and disappear to the bushes, something caught his eye. As a single parent of three identical boys, Donald had developed an eye for detail. How else could he tell the difference between his boys, but by the tiniest details?
    By the cliffs, were huge bushes and colorful flowers. Some flowers had been trampled and few branches had snapped. Curious, Donald decided to take a quick look before leaving. He went to the bushes and pushed the snapped branches aside and saw the dark cave. He sensed cold air coming up from the darkness.
    “Jackpot!” Donald cheered quietly, “There must be a tunnel to the other side”
    Donald was certain that uncle Scrooge and Magica (if she was still with him) had gone this way. If Donald got lucky, he would find them soon and everything was going to be alright. Donald felt a cold shiver across his body. If I am lucky, he thought, I’m not a very lucky person. Indeed, Donald’s good luck never last for long in the past and it was not about to change its ways now.
    Donald bend a bit too far when trying to see to through the darkness. He lost his balance and fell.
    “Quack!” Donald exclaimed.
    “Auch!” he said when he hit the ground. Slowly he got up from the ground holding his left elbow which he had hit hard. It hurt and Donald had to hold it for a moment trying not to yell out of pain. When the pain eased a little, he looked around. He saw nothing.
    “Great”, he mumbled, remembering he did not have a flashlight with him. Then he realized that he had his phone. He could use the flashlight in his phone. It was not very good, but still better than nothing. He had not used his phone in the past few days so the battery should last long enough. Getting his phone from his backpack he examined his surroundings in the fade light. He spotted footprints on the ground. Footprints of two ducks to be precise. Donald was about to follow the footprints when he heard Diego’s voice calling him.
    “Donald!” the boy called. He seemed to be near the entrance of the tunnel. Had the boy seen Donald falling to the tunnel? Donald kept quiet and hoped this was not the case.
    “Donald!” The voice was now closer, “Are you okay?” A light ray shone from above to the bottom of the pit as Diego moved aside the branches. Still everything remained relatively dark.
    “Are you okay?” Diego called again, peering down. Donald had been caught. Just my luck, Donald thought irritated. He could already hear people coming closer, asking what had happened.
    “I’m okay”, Donald called back, in a disappointed tone. He could hear everyone’s voices above the ground and then someone climbing down. Suddenly Juan jumped beside him. The eagle eyed Donald, with his sharp gaze and then lighted the cave with his bright flashlight. He noticed the footprints on the ground. Donald followed Juan’s movements feeling the anger building inside him. He was angry with himself that he had not been more careful. He was angry at these people who didn’t care about hurting others. He was shaking with anger, but in the dark nobody saw it.
    “Well?” Donald heard Alejandro’s voice.
    “They have gone through here”, Juan told him. More noises from above and then people started slowly coming down, trying to keep their balance while carrying their heavy backpacks. More people switched on their flashlights and the cave was now full of bright light. Alejandro and Diego were the last to come down. Alejandro smiled his unpleasant, foreshadowing smile at Donald and pat his back.
    “Excellent job, Donald!” he said, “Keep up the good work and you’ll soon be my new right hand man”. Alejandro laughed and gesture his men to get going. Donald noticed Juan, Alejandro’s current righthand man, give him a look that warned Donald not to step on his territory. At this point Donald did not much care about Juan’s warning, his just wanted punch someone in the face. He had screwed up and helped these men get closer to his poor old uncle Scrooge. If something would happen to him, Donald would hold himself responsible. Well, Donald said to himself, If Magica is on Scrooge’s side, she can turn these men into harmless frogs or something. With that calming though in his head Donald followed after the others.

Chapter Text

”Oh my darling, nothing shall ever become between us”, Scrooge cooed, gently moving his hand on the cold, hard surface of the golden throne.
    Scrooge and Magica had decided to begin their exploration by checking the palace. In the dark and dusty throne room, they had found the emperor’s old throne. It was huge and golden. While Magica lighted the room with her flashlight, Scrooge cuddled the impressive throne.
    “Oh, please”, Magica said trying to hide the amusement in her voice. She was trying to be annoyed with him, but it was hard when he was being so ridiculous. Scrooge McDuck declaring his love for gold was not a rare sight, but still funny.
    Magica walked around the room. Few more statues standing by the walls, impressive amount of dust and dirt and the throne. No more doorways, other than the one which they entered the room. Walking to the back of the room, something caught Magica’s eye.
   “Oh, look! Stairs”. Behind the throne were stairs leading down. Magica lighted the pitch black stair case and was about to make her way down when Scrooge suddenly exclaimed:
   “Magica, stop!”
   “What? Why?”
   Scrooge got up from the throne.
    “Just… Let me go first”, he said looking suddenly extremely worried. Magica wondered what had gotten Scrooge suddenly so worked up.
   “…Okay. You should hold the flashlight then”, she said. Scrooge took the flashlight from her and was about to go down the stairs, when he stopped as if he had just remembered something. He turned his gaze towards the throne and said with a loving tone in his voice:
   “Don’t worry, my love, I’ll be back before you even notice I was gone”.
   “Come on”, Magica laughed, “Let’s go already, you miser”
   Finally Scrooge started making his way down, seeming a bit hesitant. Magica wondered what could haven the cause behind Scrooge’s strange behavior. They walked slowly down the long stairs into the darkness. By the time they had made down, suddenly, the room was filled with light. Both ducks yelped and grabbed tightly onto one another and Scrooge dropped his flashlight.
   The room they had entered was large. The roof was high and there were five corridors leading away from the room. Two corridors the left wall and one on all the others. The one on the front wall was biggest of the corridors. In each corner of the room stood a statue, identical to the ones they had seen before, as if they were guarding the place. On the walls torches, which had flamed on fire, by themselves, lighted the place.
   “Oh, that was creepy”, Scrooge laughed, nervous, “Magic?”
   “Yes. Magic can be scary at times”, Magica replied, feeling her heart beating, “Clearly some of the magic in this place still works. We should be careful”.
    Both ducks let out an awkward laugh, and let go of each another.
   “Sorry”, Scrooge said, feeling awkward because he had freak out in front of her.
   “It’s okay”, Magica said, “Lead the way Scrooge”
   Scrooge nodded and made his way down the stairs to pick up the fallen flashlight. He walked close to the center of the room, where the floor had collapsed.
     “Don’t come too close”, he said to Magica, and gestured her to stop at the lowest stair. Frustrated but curious, Magica rose to her toes to see better, what was in the pit. She saw long pikes and some skeletons, that had been impaled by the pikes. The heads of the pikes were dark brown. Dried blood, Magica realized. She felt a wave of nausea.
   Scrooge tried reading Magica by her expressions, but the girl had a damn good poker face. He couldn’t tell at all what she was thinking. She remained quiet and just stared at the skeletons.
   “This is a pretty traditional trap, you know. I have seen many of these before”, he said. She didn’t say anything.
   “Magica, you don’t have to be here if you don’t want to. If you want to leave-“
   “Leave?” Magica laughed, up tight, “I’m not scared that easily”.
   She moved to his side.
   “Which way shall we go first?” she asked, determined. Scrooge felt uneasy.
   “That way”, he said, pointing forward, “But seriously, anytime you feel like this is too much-“
   “Scrooge, I’m not that weak!” she exclaimed, looking at him with a challenging look in her eyes.
   “I didn’t say you were”, Scrooge said, “Just… Let’s go. Stay beside me, okay?”
   “I will”, Magica said, sounding offended. Scrooge felt baffled by her sudden change of mood. It made him worry, and the more he worried the more he demanded Magica would stay close and let him proceed first.
   Scrooge led her around the hole on the floor and forward to the biggest corridor. He carefully examined the hallway with his gaze and tried pressing some stones that looked suspicious. However, nothing happened, and so they continued forward. They walked down low stairs and past a giant pile of different sized of rocks.
   “Interesting”, Scrooge mumbled, observing the rocks, “What do you think of this, Magica”. Magica looked at the rocks and just shook her head.
   “It… looks like a pile of rocks”, she said. Her gaze move to the floor, which was filled with giant holes. It looked as if something super heavy had fallen on the floor. Behind the rocks, near them was a giant gate. Right in front of it was a hole and in the hole was a skeleton had apparently been smashed by something. The skeleton was in tiny, tiny pieces. Only the legs, skull and left arm were still whole. The arm was stretched towards the gate, holding a peculiar looking stone. There were even more skeletons laying on the ground, most of them smashed in pieces.
   “We ought to careful”, Scrooge said trying to push the gate open, “Don’t wanna end up like these guys”.
   “What to you think is in there?” she asked, gesturing towards the gate. Her gaze kept wondering on the broken bones and smashed skulls that seemed to be everywhere. How the hell is this not freaking Scrooge out at all, she wondered, is he just used to seeing these sorts of things or is he just that though? Whatever was the reason, Magica solemnly decided that she would stay calm. She was at least as strong as he was.
   What was that noise?
     “This is definitely the entrance to the treasure chamber”, he said, “I can smell the gold”
   He could hardly stay still.
   “Finding the treasure chamber was easy. Clearly it’s not supposed to be hard to find”, he said.
   “Then getting the door open must be the hard part”, Magica said.
   “Exactly, look at this”, he said. On the door where five baseball sized wholes. In three of them someone had put peculiar shaped stones.
   Again Magica heard the strange noise.
   “Oh, I think this stone fits one of those holes”, she said and picked up the stone from the skeleton's hand. She felt cold shivers when she touched the bony fingers.
   “Here”, she said pressing the stone in to the other empty hole. It fit perfectly and the was a click sound.
     And again Magica could hear the noise. Where was it coming from?
   “Brilliant, lassie!” Scrooge exclaimed excited, “Now we need to find one more stone, that fits the last hole. Perhaps that’ll open the door for us”.
   “Yeah, hopefully”, Magica said, “Scrooge, do you hear that noise? Like two stones rubbing against one another?”
     ”Mmh…”, Scrooge listened. He could hear it too. It came from nearby. His eyes wandered upon the mysterious pile of rocks. Both ducks moved closer and listening carefully.
   “It’s coming from here”, Scrooge said, “Perhaps there’s some animal moving the stones. A snake perhaps”
   “Could be”, Magica agreed, “Or it could be magic based trap, in which case we should be careful”.
   Scrooge gestured Magica to take a step back, the he moved one stone, the size of gold bar, from the middle of the rock pile. As a result, the upper half of the pile collapsed. Scrooge pushed the biggest stones at the bottom a little, but could not see any animals that might have moved the rocks.
     “Well… the stones are not moving anymore”, he said.
     “Then I guess we don’t have to worry about it. But, let’s be careful anyway”, she told him.

Chapter Text

Some hours past as Scrooge and Magica explored the place to find the last stone that would open the door to the treasure chamber. The place was like a simple maze. They had already explored most of it and were able to picture the map of the place in their minds.
   Every corridor would divide to two or three new corridors and each corridor lead to varies rooms. One room had a beautiful garden with flowers and fruits. The ducks decided not to touch the fruits or the flowers after finding several skeletons lying on the ground, holding fruits on their hands. The fruits had been bitten, and even though the men had died clearly ages ago the fruits had remained fresh looking in their hands.
   Few rooms had a large pool in them with clear water. The pools seemed bottomless, and after observing the water in one room, Scrooge notice something shimmering at the bottom. He wasn’t quite sure what it was, but he almost dived in, hoping to find diamonds at the bottom. Right when Scrooge was about to dive in a giant monster fish emerged from the water. It was a lot bigger than Scrooge and had enormous teeth. It tried to snatch the Scotsman, but luckily Scrooge managed to dodge it at the very last moment.
     Each room was a trap. Each different, but all deadly. Scrooge took the responsibility of examining the room for traps. Mostly Magica just stood by the doorway, scanning the rooms with her gaze, trying to find the stone they were looking for. She felt so frustrated she could have exploded. Every time she tried entering one of the rooms, Scrooge gave her a look, that warned her not to take any steps further.
   Later, when they were exploring one new corridor, Magica finally decided she could not keep it in.
   “You keep forcing me to stay aside when you do all the work”, Magica accused, “You’re not letting me do anything”. Scrooge stopped, feeling annoyed. He turned to face to woman by his side.
   “Yes and I would prefer to continue working this way”, he answered, hoping she would just let it go.
   “But…” Magica complained frustrated, “Scrooge, I can do the same as you if you would just let me try”
   Scrooge didn’t want to argue, instead he gave Magica a stern look that said he was not about to changing his mind. Magica felt helpless before Scrooge. It was a new feeling. She felt that for some reason Scrooge had the upper hand in their argument. Perhaps it was because Magica didn’t have her magic powers anymore, which made her feel helpless in a way. She felt she got nothing she could use to make Scrooge bend to her will, instead she now had to follow his orders.
   “Look, Scrooge, I had a weak moment at the bridge but I really am stronger than that. You know it, don’t you?” she said in a weak voice.
   “What? I don’t think you’re weak”
   “You do!”
   “Why would you think I think you’re weak? Because you cried after nearly dying?” Scrooge said, angry, raising his voice. Magica looked down, feeling how her face turned red. The honest truth was that Magica was indeed ashamed that she had cried in front of Scrooge. It was the first and only time she had done so in front of anybody really. She kept her gaze down and just nodded her head. The look in Scrooge’s eyes softened.
   “Even you know how to be silly sometimes, lassie”, Scrooge chuckled, pulling Magica into a warm embrace. He held her tightly against himself. Magica wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his neck.
   “I don’t think any less of you because you cried”, Scrooge almost whispered, “I know you a strong person, so strong it sometimes scares me”. Scrooge laughed and Magica couldn’t help but laugh too, even though at the same time she felt a little sad. Scrooge stroke her head, while embracing her.
   “It’s not that I don’t believe you could do what I do, but what happened at the bridge probably scared me even more then you”, Scrooge admitted after a short silence.
   “What do you mean?” Magica asked confused, pulling away from him, so they faced each other.
   “For a moment a thought you were good as death”, Scrooge said, “Now I constantly fear something might happen to you”. Magica felt bad as he heard his voice slightly cracking. She hugged him.
   “Nothing will happen to me”, she whispered, “as long as I’m with you. After all, you are the greatest adventurer of all time”. Scrooge hesitated for a moment. Then he said:
   “I’ll let you explore rest of the rooms with me, but you have to follow my instructions carefully, okay?”
   “Okay”, she said, smiling.
   With more peaceful minds they continued their journey. This time Magica was by Scrooge’s side, not behind him. Finally, they found the room that hold the last key to the treasure chamber. The stone key was protected by very classical spikes from the ceiling – type of trap. However, with Scrooge’s experience and good advice she managed to snatch the key and get out of the room in one piece.
   “Did you see that? Did you, Scroogie?” Magica asked, rushing into his arms.
   “You did well”, Scrooge said. His heart kept bumping, but he was proud of her. He took the stone from Magica’s hand feeling its soft surface beneath his fingers.
   “And now to the chamber”, he said.

Carefully, Scrooge put the stone into the last hole. It fit perfectly and let out a click sound. They hear more slick sounds, but they weren’t sure where they came from. Then one louder click, which startled both ducks. Then the heavy doors slowly began to open. Before them they saw a wonderful sight of gold as far as the eye could see, lighted by torches. By the walls stood probably hundreds of stone warriors guarding the gold. The chamber made Scrooge’s money vault look rather pathetic.
   Scrooge stepped closer gasping. He could see gold coins, golden statues, jewels, gems and various other valuable items. He was right about to dive in as he heard something that made him stop. Once again, the sound of stones being rubbed against each other. This time the noise was multiplied. Scrooge turned around to look. Magica stared at the rocks in horror as they moved by theirselves. They seemed to be gathering all together forming a new pile. Slowly the pile started to form a figure. It was a figure made of stone, that had head, two giant arms and legs. This stone statue was three times taller than the ducks. It was large and had oddly shaped head. It had two holes as eyes and weirdly shaped stone under the eyes (probably a nose), and no mouth. The stone monster moved it’s head, almost as if it was looking at the intruders.
   “What is that?” Scrooge asked, feeling his muscles tense as the monster moved towards him. Its movements were slow and somewhat clumsy. The creature was so heavy, that every step it took made the ground tremble beneath its feet.
    “Perhaps… it’s one of those warriors the scroll talked about”, Magica said, sounding uncertain.
    “Wasn’t the scroll talking about warriors? Are there more of these?”, Scrooge said. The monster raised it’s fists into the air and smashed them down aiming at Scrooge, who dodged and moved aside.
    “It must be guarding the treasure chamber”, Magica said moving further away from the creature.
    “Okay, how do we get rid of it?” Scrooge asked, dodging another hit. The creature followed after Scrooge. It was slow, but it took huge leaps with its long legs.
    “The scroll said, that the warriors are unbeatable. Remember?” Magica said.
    “Well, that helps a lot”, Scrooge snorted.
    “I can’t use magic against it and I highly doubt using brute strength against stone would work either”, Magica said.
    “Then what do we do?”, Scrooge complained, dodging yet another devastating blow. He was out of breath. No magic and no brute strength would work, he thought, then what should we do? Without a warning the creature seemed to lost interest in Scrooge and went after Magica, who was standing near the open doors. Magica had no trouble dodging the slow moving creature, but still she found the thing terrifying
   “It’s not going to leave us alone”, Magica said. Scrooge thought.
   “Magica, come here!” he told her. She ran to him and he took her hand.
   “Let’s go!” Scrooge said and pulled her with him back towards the first room under the throne room.
   “Where not just leaving, are we?” Magica asked, confused. Scrooge laughed.
   “Of course not, darling”, he said, “I’m not leaving without that treasure”. He guided her to edge of the spike pit. Then he gestured her to stay still. They waited they as the stone monster came after them. Magica looked down at the pit and then at the giant, who was getting ready to smash them. They were trapped between two death traps.
   “Scrooge, what are we doing?” she asked nervously. He let go of her hand and put it behind her back.
   “If we can’t beat it, then we have no other choice, but to trap it”, he explained. When the creature was right in front of them it raised its fists once more into the air. At that moment, Scrooge pushed Magica forward and yelled:
   “Go!”. Magica plunged forward, right between the monster’s legs to behind its back. Scrooge follow right after her. As the creature was right at the edge and smashed its fists down it swayed as it hit nothing. Scrooge told Magica to push it. Together they pushed making the creature lose it’s balance and falling into the spike trap. The ducks cheered exited. The monster was still moving, put it was stuck in the spikes, so there seemed to be no worry about it climbing back up. Now there was nothing stopping them from entering the treasure chamber of the lost city.

Donald felt the sweat on his forehead. Looking down at the raging river and the pathetic looking bridge ahead of him made him nervous. He swiped the sweat away with his sailor hat. Diego beside him, looked even more nervous. He was trembling and his face was pale.
   “Don’t worry, Diego. Maybe we’ll find some other way around”, Donald said. The boy shook his head.
   “I don’t think so. My uncle would not waste time looking for a safer route, when there is one right in front of him. Even if it might be dangerous”, Diego said. Looking at Alejandro’s determined expression Donald concluded that Diego was right. They were going to cross the bridge.
    “I suggest Donald goes first”, Juan said suddenly. Donald turned look at the malevolent eagle grinning at him.
   “He is our guide, isn’t he? Therefore, he should lead”, Juan said smirking. Even though it was clear that Juan was hoping for Donald to fall to the river, it gave Donald an idea. If uncle Scrooge and Magica had managed crossed the bridge then surely Donald would too. After all, he didn’t weight much (or at least much less than most others in the group), the bridge would most likely manage his weight. (At this point Donald decided to ignore the fact that there was a hole in the bridge, as if someone had fallen through. He rather believed both his uncle and Magica had made it to the other side without any problems.)
     “Yeah, I’ll go first”, Donald volunteered, earning a surprised look from Juan and from everyone else. As Donald had gained Alejandro’s trust, he had been given a knife to use as self-defense against animals or for some other purpose. If Donald made it to the other side first, he could use the knife to cut down the ropes and make bridge collapse. The mist hanging above the bridge would prevent the others from seeing what he was doing (and thus protect him from the possible bullet fire that might follow if Alejandro learned about his betrayal). Then he would just continue forward and keep looking for Scrooge by himself. And like that he would stop Alejandro’s team, forcing them to turn back and return home, and safe his uncle’s life.
   Before anyone had time to say anything Donald already hurried towards the bridge.
   “Stop!” Alejandro commanded, grabbed onto Donald’s arm, which still hurt from the fall, and yanked him back.
   “No one does anything I have not order them to do”, he hissed, clearly annoyed. Donald stepped back, apologizing.
   “I want someone heavier to go first, so we can see how much weight the bridge can manage”, Alejandro said. All the tall and broad shouldered men in group started moving around nervously.
   “You’re planning to danger one of our own?” Juan questioned raising an eyebrow. Even though he too was a big fellow, he did not seem worried. Then again, he was still Alejandro’s right hand man. There was no way Alejandro would force him to test the bridge. Alejandro scanned the group with his eyes, choosing his victim.
     “I have an idea”, Juan said. He grabbed Alex, the tall thin tiger, whom Donald had met at the shop, by the shoulder and dragged him in front of Alejandro. Juan removed his huge backpack and threw it to Alex, who had his own smaller backpack on.
     “With all the equipment in the backpack, Alex now weights enough. And we won’t have to take the risk of losing any one our best men”, Juan explained. Alejandro nodded, approving the idea. Alex stood silent, terrified. He kept looking around, silently begging for help from others, but they all just looked away. Even his own brother said nothing, just looked at the ground. If it wasn’t Alex, then it would be one of them crossing the bridge.
   “Well then”, Alejandro said to Alex, “Get going!”. He gestured towards the bridge. Alex shook his head.
   “No? Oh, so I have to persuade you?” Alejandro asked, in a foreshadowing manner. Alejandro pointed his gun at Alex.
   “Cross the bridge and you might die. Stay here and you will die”, the rat stated slowly, looking Alex in the eyes. Shocked, Alex turned around and stepped on the bridge. He advanced slowly and few times stopped for moment to gather courage. Donald looked at the tiger, on the swinging bridge. He had a bad feeling.
   Then, arriving at the hole, Alex fell through, as one more blank snapped in half. Donald felt cold shivers as he heard the horrified scream, that soon faded into the waterfall’s loud noise.
   “It doesn’t hold much weight”, Alejandro said, disappointed, “We should propably leave some of our equipment here”.
   “It should be fine”, Manuel, the lion, said lowering his binoculars, “
   The plan was made, half of the equipment would be left here and the lightest men would carry the stuff that wasn’t left behind. It was as if Alex's death was already thing of the past. Something that had happened long ago and not just a minute ago. Only Alex’s brother had somewhat sad look on his face.
     Donald was in shock. Whatever sympathy he had previously felt for Alejandro, it was gone. He is a mad man, Donald thought. And he wanted to get away from him as soon as possible.
    It was decided that half of the team’s equipment would be left here to wait for their return. The lightest members were to carry the heaviest backpacks so the weight would be divided equally between the men. Only Alejandro and Diego were exceptions. They were both skinny and light, but neither of them carried hardly any extra weight with them. This was Alejandro’s order as he only seemed to care about his and his nephew’s safety.
   Donald felt the weight of his backpack on his back. He was worried, but not terrified as some might have expected. After all, these kinds of dangers were usual when he adventured with his uncle, only Scrooge looked out for everyone’s safety.
     Donald crossed the swinging and cracking bridge first, making it to the other side safely. Once again, the thought of cutting the ropes crossed his mind. Donald glanced at the knife he now hold in his hand and then at bridge partly covered in the mist. He knew there was one or two others right crossing the bridge, but the thought refused to leave him alone. If he did it two people would fall to their deaths, but uncle Scrooge’s safety would be guaranteed. And these people were bad, so would it be a big deal if two of them died? Donald’s mind kept screaming, why not cut the ropes? What’s stopping you from doing it? Donald did not move an inch, even though his mind was racing back and forth. What if I would just do it? Would I have the guts to do it? Donald wondered. He started feeling extremely anxious. It was a horrible thought, and still his mind kept asking what if he would just do it.
   Donald noticed an approaching figure ahead. It was Alejandro, Donald realized, as the figure approached. Staring at the man, Donald’s mind asked: why not? Donald got a sudden urge to do it. It was a strong urge, but it was gone as quick as it had appeared.
   Taking few steps back Donald collapsed on the ground, scared. Where had that urge suddenly appeared from? He did not want to purposefully hurt anyone. Donald felt his heart pumping in his chest and breathing became suddenly hard.
    As Alejandro made it to the other side, he noticed Donald on the ground. Alejandro raised his eyebrow.
   “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, sounding annoyed. Then he noticed the knife in Donald’s hand.
   “What were you planning to do with that?” he asked Donald.
   “Nothing”, Donald said, putting the knife away. He would have wanted to throw the damn knife down the chasm. If he hadn’t had it in the first place, he wouldn’t have gotten the idea of cutting the ropes.
   “We have arrived at the city’s gates. You have done an excellent job, Donald. I’ll reward you later”, Alejandro said, laughing. Even his laughter seemed to mock Donald.

Chapter Text

Magica laid on the gold. It was not comfortable at all. She sat up and picked up a beautiful, shining gemstone, examining it. Suddenly Scrooge burst from the gold right next to her. He had been swimming around, examining the loot, trying to estimate its value.
   Scrooge threw himself on top of her, so they were laying on the gold, he with his full weight on top of her. He looked at her eyes, exited. Magica looked at him, nervous and eager at the same time. Scrooge held a beautiful Incan necklace in his left hand. He offered it to Magica.
   “For me?” Magica asked in a teasing manner.
   “It is a reward for your help”, Scrooge said, “You better accept it before I change my mind. You know how much I hate sharing”. Scrooge smirked. Magica laughed and took the necklace from him.
   “Is this all?” Magica asked, “Don’t I deserve more?” She asked inviting him closer with her gaze.
   “Don’t worry miss De Spell. I have planned a lot more to reward you with”, Scrooge said in low voice, lowering himself closer to her. She was about to close her eyes and surrender herself to him, as something caught her attention. Something tiny and shining fell from Scrooge’s pocket. She picked it up.
   “Scrooge, you dropped your dime”, she said showing it to Scrooge. She then realized that she was actually holding the dime in her fingers. She hadn’t even known Scrooge had the dime with him. Magica stared at it and Scrooge stared at her, waiting for her reaction. He waited patiently for what she would do. She had an odd look on her face as if she wasn’t so sure what to do. Scrooge could not denied he felt a little worrie until Magica put the dime back to Scrooge’s pocket and looked at him, smiling reassuringly. He smiled back at her. She wasn’t interested in the dime.
   “Thank you, Magica”, he said, “And now about your reward”. He bend closer and kissed her fiercely, running his hand through her hair. After a long kiss they had to separate to take a breath.
   “I’m going to take you right here and right now, and there’s nothing you can do about it”, Scrooge whispered in her ear.
   “Please, do”, Magica moaned, shutting her eyes. They had had fierce make out sessions before in midst of their fights (while no one else was around of course), but they had never went further. Sometimes she would imagine during nights what it would be like to take it a step further, surrender herself to him (or alternatively make him bow to her will). Just the thought of it made her go crazy. Unknown to her the same thought drove Scrooge even crazier than her.
   Scrooge was about kiss her again.
   “Señor McDuck!”, a sly voice interrupted them, “Hope I’m not interrupting anything important”. The startled ducks turned to look at the doorway. There were Alejandro, the shop keeper and four other men.
   “Get up!” Alejandro commanded, pointing his gun at them. Scrooge and Magica got up slowly, not taking their eyes of Alejandro.
   “That’s the guy from the shop”, Magica whispered. She had nearly forgotten how disgusting the man’s yellow teeth and icy gaze were.
   “Alejandro. And that other guy is the man who rented us the jeep”, Scrooge said, “This was a trap. They must have followed us. They want the gold”. Scrooge was furious, he had once again fallen to the discount trap.
   “Shut up!” Alejandro said. He entered the chamber followed by his companions. He sat on pile of gold, making himself comfortable. He or any of the other’s never lowered their guns but kept them pointed at the ducks. Scrooge and Magica waited in silence. Alejandro did not hurry. He let his gaze wonder around the room and enjoyed of the treasures he saw. Then he looked at Magica and smirking at her, gestured her to come closer. Hesitating a bit, Magica walked to Alejandro and looked at him in the eyes, almost challenging him. Alejandro took her hand.
   “Beautiful señorita, you look very much like my favorite actress, Gina Lollobrigida. Such a beauty”, he cooed at her. Magica almost felt her breakfast coming up.
   “Yeah… I get that a lot”, she said eyeing the man suspiciously. Alejandro gestured towards Scrooge.
   “Your friend I will have killed, but for you I’m making an offer. Come with me and-“. Alejandro didn’t get chance to finish his sentence as Magica pulled her hand free and slapped Alejandro hard in the face.
   “No thanks”, she hissed. Scrooge’s every muscle tensed in fear. The hell does she think she’s doing? Scrooge though. He couldn’t believe Magica had just done something so stupid. She had provoked a man, who had his gun pointed at her. If Alejandro and his henchmen had been unarmed, Scrooge would have just punch Alejandro in the face.
   To Scrooge’s relief Alejandro just nodded his head and said.
   “Suit yourself, señorita. Manuel! Kill them both”, he said. Neither Scrooge or Magica understood Spanish, but they could guess what Alejandro had said, when the lion raised his rifle.
   “Not here!” Alejandro suddenly exclaimed, angry, “Do it somewhere else. I don’t want their blood all over my fortune”. The lion, called Manuel, lowered his rifle and let out a frustrated sigh. He moved behind the ducks and told them to move. When walking past Juan, Manuel gave him a meaningful look. Juan answered with a small, hardly noticeable nod.

Donald was restless and worried. He and Alex’s brother, Luis, had been left at the gates, in case Scrooge would try to leave the city. If that happened, Donald and Luis had been instructed to capture him and inform Alejandro via walkie-talkie.
   Donald kept pacing back and forth. Scrooge must be here somewhere, Donald thought. They had found a new camp and one backpack. Donald had recognized the old, worn backpack as Scrooge’s. Oh why, why had Alejandro ordered him to stay here. Donald felt like punching the rat in the face. His blood was boiling just at the thought of Alejandro.
   “Listen, Luis“, Donald began. He could not stay here any longer. He had to find Scrooge now. There was only one problem. If he just left, Luis might contact Alejandro about it. Luis held the walkie-talkie in his hand. Alejandro had the other one, and he had told Luis to tell him immediately if something came up.
   Donald did not want to give Alejandro any clue that something might be off.
   “What?” Luis asked, hardly paying attention to Donald. He just kept staring forward.
   “Alejandro and the rest are going to keep all the gold they find. And you and I are left with nothing! I don’t see why you would want to work for some like Alejandro”, Donald said. He was trying to reqruite Luis on his side. An ally would surely be a big help.
   “Alejandro will keep almost everything to himself… As always. The rest will have to share a small portion of the gold we find. Or if we find anything. I doubt you will get much profit out of this either, even if you did save his nephew’s life. Besides, working for Alejandro is not a matter of choice. Once you get mixed up with his businesses, you don’t get out anymore”, Luis explained, giving Donald a serious look. Donald was surprised. Somehow, he had assumed all the men (most of them anyway) were working for Alejandro voluntarily and were loyal to him. Luis did not even try to hide that he was not here from his own free will.
   Donald thought he might have a good chance to get Luis switch sides. However, Luis was scared of Alejandro, so there was a risk he might not want to oppose Alejandro in fear of his wrath. Donald was so frustatred he just blurted everything out:
   “Scrooge McDuck is my uncle, I came here to safe him from Alejandro. Help me find him and he’ll reward you. Generously, I promise”. Luis looked at him in slight shock. He raised the walkie-talkie to his mouth but didn’t say anything. He stared Donald blankly.
    “Without Alejandro your brother would be alive. Why would you want to work with him”, Donald persisted.
    “I’ve heard Scrooge McDuck is the cheapest person alive”, Luis said.
    “Even he wouldn’t left anyone who has saved his life without reward”, Donald said (although he had his doubts about what he had just claimed). Luis pondered for a moment.
    “My reward better be big”
    “I’ll make sure it is”
    “And after we get back no one goes to the police. I don’t want get mixed up with the authorities”
    “We’ll pretend well never met”, Donald assured him. Luis still seemed a little hesitant.
    “With my reward money I’ll leave to Europe”, he mumbled to himself, “I’ll get a fake identity and start all over”. Donald nodded, he was getting irritated with Luis.
    “Sounds like a good plan”, Donald said and hold out his hand, “Deal?”
    “Deal”
    “Let’s go then. Follow me!”

Scrooge and Magica walked silently out of the treasure chamber, holding their hands in the air. Both were painfully aware of the rifle pointing at their backs. They kept exchanging glances, trying to get for reassures from each other, hoping the other one would have come up with a plan. Unfortunately, each time they only saw each other’s shocked, confused faces.
   Manuel, the man with the gun, kept shouting at them. Move faster, turn right, stop. Finally, they were standing at the edge of the spike pit. The ducks stared down and saw the stone monster, which was hardly moving anymore.
    “Well then”, Manuel laughed, from behind them, “Time to say goodbye”.
    “Wait!” Magica suddenly exclaimed, in a high pitch voice. She was visibly distressed.
    “What?”
    “I get to say my final words, right?” Magica begged, turning her head slightly. Manuel looked at her uninterested.
    “Please?”
    “Fine, but only because you’re pretty. Make it quick!” Manuel told her. Magica turned her gaze to Scrooge, who looked at her with an apologetic look on his face. She had only indented to buy some time, but since neither of them had any plan to save them, she might as well say what was on her heart. It turned out to be harder than she had though. She kept staring Scrooge’s eyes and she had so many things she wanted to say, she didn’t know begin.
    “Scrooge… I want to say… well”, she began, “I think… This is… mmm…”
    “If you’re not going to say anything I’m just gonna go ahead and shoot you”, Manuel interrupted her.
    “I know what I want to say!” Magica snapped at him.
    “Then say it already!”
    “I will!” Magica snapped again. She turned her attention back to Scrooge and took his hand into her own. Before she said anything he spoke.
    “I’m sorry, Magica”, he said in sad tone. What the hell kind of last words are "I'm sorry", she thought, how about I love you or something? From the corner of her eye she saw Manuel raising his rifle again. She closed her eyes, hoping it would be over soon. Then there was loud shot.
     “Manuel, catch that brat!” Juan roared from the treasure chamber.
     “The hell?” Manuel mumbled, confused, he turned his attention in the direction of the chamber, where the shooting had happened.
   Scrooge didn’t waste time. He grabbed Magica by arm and pulled her along.
     “Run!” he shouted. They ran to the nearest corridor, which was actually the only one they had not yet explored.
    “Hey! Stop!” Manuel roared, furious. Turning his attention elsewhere had allowed the ducks to escape, although they wouldn’t be able to run far. Manuel raised his rifle and aimed at them, but missed them right as they disappeared into the corridor.
     “Damnit!” Manuel cursed and ran after them. Scrooge felt the sweat on his forehead, in the open corridor they would be easy targets. They was only one option. He pulled Magica through the first doorway into a new room.
     “Are you crazy!?” Magica exclaimed, horrified, “There could be traps in here!”
     “I’m not crazy, I’m just out of ideas!” Scrooge yelled, frustrated.
     In the middle of a room stood a tiny golden statue on top of a stone pedestal. If he moved the statue away from the pedestal, it would surely set off some trap. Scrooge had no plan and he knew very well, what he was about to do was dangerous, but he was desperate. He snatched the statue, hoping that whatever kind of trap this room behold, he would somehow be able to use it in his advantage. Another gigantic monster would be great, he thought. It could distract Manuel, allowing them to escape.
    However, no monsters appeared. Manuel appeared at doorway and aimed, missing. The bullets flew right over their heads. Then, the doorway was suddenly shut. A thick stone wall rose up from the floor, trapping the ducks inside and Manuel out. If it weren’t for the torches on the walls, the room would have been completely dark.
    The ducks heard Manuel cursing on the other side. They were relieved, for now they were safe from the bullets. Scrooge let out a nervous laugh. Magica gave him an angry glance.
    “What? I just saved us”, Scrooge said.
    “No! You just lead us from one death trap to another. We’re trapped in here! Instead of dying quickly, we’re going to slowly starve to death!” she pointed out.
    “We won’t”, Scrooge said stubbornly, “I’ll get us out. Just wait and see”. He started walking around the room, examining it with his eyes. On the back wall of the room was a huge, beautiful statue of a snake that kept staring at them. Other than that and the pedestal the room was empty, no visible ways out.
     Slowly, the snake started opening its mouth until it was wide open.
    “Great, what’s happening now”, Magica wined. Soon water started pouring out of the snake’s mouth. The floor of the room was covered with a water and more kept coming. The water level kept rising quickly.
    “We’re going to drown! Quick, Magica, look for any way out!” Scrooge told her, “Hurry!”. They both looked for any possible way to escape from the room as the water kept rising fast. Soon it was up to their knees, then at their shoulder level. Yet they still could not find a way out, because there was no way out.
    Upon fully realizing their hopeless situation, Magica gave up and half walked, half swam to Scrooge. She grabbed him by the shoulders, angry.
   “Scrooge, I hate you”, she cried, letting her tears flow free, “This is all your fault”. She kept clinging to him, not letting go, accusing everything was his fault. She kept crying, laying her head against his chest and mumbling how she hated him. Scrooge, at the edge of tears himself, kept her close and hugged her tightly. Their feet no longer touched the floor and water lever was dangerously close to the roof.
   Scrooge said, with a shaking voice: “Hate me all you want, but I still love you, Magica”. He raised her beak gently, drew his last breath and kissed her as the water rose above their heads.

Chapter Text

Alejandro relaxed, admiring his fortune, as the ducks left the treasure chamber quietly, followed by Manuel. Alejandro grinned, thinking that he would not be this rich if Scrooge McDuck had not spoken too much back at the shop.
   Juan walked around the chamber, but he didn’t seem like a he was interested in the gold least bit. Instead he kept staring at Alejandro and frowning. This did not go unnoticed by Alejandro, who found Juan’s action irritating.
     “What do you want?” Alejandro questioned, not really interested what was on Juan’s mind.
     “I want what I deserve”, Juan said, stopping right before Alejandro, “We all do”. Alejandro glanced at the two remaining men behind Juan, who nodded their heads.
   “We have been talking, and we have come to the conclusion that it’s time to pick a new leader. A new leader who will from now on share this gold and future profits fairly”, Juan declared.
   “And I assume you were picked”, Alejandro said. He felt stupid. He should have seen this coming, the betrayal of his most trusted man. It was true that Alejandro didn’t much pay rewards to others no matter how much work they did. Only Juan got a decent pay from him. It must have been fairly easy for Juan to turn everybody else against.
   “At first I was planning to offer you a chance to cooperate, but then I though why should I. I don’t need you”, Juan said smirking,. He was having fun tormenting Alejandro, before he would end his life. Perfectly hiding the worry he felt, Alejandro spoke:
     “Right now he may promise you riches, but his not going to be any different from me”. Alejandro aimed his words at the men now loyal to Juan. However, they didn’t even show that they had heard what Alejandro had said. Juan looked at Alejandro in the eye. The overwhelming feeling of victory shone in his eyes. And of course, he was amused, because he knew what Alejandro said was true. Juan was greedy by nature and clearly lying to these men. Juan loaded his pistol.
   Diego stood right beside his uncle. He had sensed the tension in the air. His heart pounded in his chest and he felt his hands shaking. He was, and had always been, afraid of Juan. Still, he had not expected anything like this to happen.
   Diego glanced quickly at his uncle, and their eyes met for a moment. Trying to read each other’s thoughts. With his eyes Diego begged his eyes for his uncle to save them both.
   Alejandro did not deny that he had unfairly collected all the money to himself over the past years. Yet never there seemed to be enough. He had hoped that one day he would have enough to start a new life, somewhere else with Diego. A new life, without crime. A better life, that his nephew deserved. Alejandro felt like as the only living relative of Diego it was his job to offer the boy the best he could. Now that he had this enormous fortune at his hands, he was going to lose everything.
   Alejandro notice that the two men behind Juan had their attention firmly on the gold at their feet. They held their guns lazily beside them. Greedy bastards, Alejandro thought. He turned his head slightly to Diego and whispered to him. Run.
     Diego was not quite sure he had heard correctly. He looked at his uncle, who whispered again. Run! With a quick move Alejandro grabbed the something ns his right hand. He had no time to see what it was. Something heavy and hard, a little bigger than a tennis ball. It was either a small statue or a giant diamond. Quickly Alejandro got up and aimed. He threw the item at Juan. Thanks to his quick reflexes and well aim the hard item hit Juan’s fingers that were holding the gun. Feeling the pain in his fingers Juan accidentally fired his gun, missing both Alejandro and Diego. Juan dropped his gun, holding his fingers and hissing in pain.
   “Run!” Alejandro exclaimed, pushing Diego before him. The two men behind Juan, were baffled by the sudden change of events as their attention had been elsewhere. Alejandro hoped that his distraction had given them enough time to escape the room. Juan’s henchmen aimed their guns hastily at them and missed them both horribly.
   Diego and Alejandro were nearly out of the door as Juan finally reclaimed his gun and shot, blinded by his anger. It was not thanks to his skills, but rather pure luck, he shot Alejandro in the back. The man collapsed to the ground right at the doorway. He had nearly gotten away.
   Juan looked at Alejandro’s shirt that was stained with red. Juan saw red in his eyes. He had almost let Alejandro outsmart him. Now there was only Diego left. He would take care of him and then Donald and he could go enjoying his fortune.
   “Manuel, catch that brat!” Juan roared. Unknowingly, by killing Alejandro, Juan had just doomed everyone still alive to a horrifying fate. It was something he was just about to find out.

Donald rushed down the stairs, Luis right behind him. They had heard shooting coming from somewhere nearby. In his mind Donald kept begging desperately that uncle was alright. There was room for nothing else in his mind right now.
   Right at the bottom of the stairs they met by hysterical Diego, who nearly bumped into them on his way up. He was pale and shaking violently. Donald had to stop him by grapping his arm.
     “Diego! What’s happening? Did you find Scrooge? Tell me!”
     “Let’s go! Quick! He’s insane! He’ll kill us!”
   “Who will? Diego, what’s going on?” Donald kept trying to get the kid to talk, but Diego was too scared. Nothing he said made any sense to Donald. Donald let go of his hand. Right now the only thing that mattered to him was to find his uncle, who hopefully was alive and well.
   “Donald! Don’t go there!” Diego screamed as Donald ran past him, towards the treasure chamber.
   Ignoring the boy’s screams of warning Donald ran forward. Through the open doorway he saw the shimmering gold. That’s where hoped to find his uncle. Running around the pit on the floor Donald was quite sure he saw something moving at the bottom, but he had no time to wonder what it was. He also noticed Manuel appearing from one of the corridors, looking confused.
   Reaching the treasure room, Donald realized, someone was lying on the ground. He was shocked to realize that it was Alejandro, laying in a puddle of his own blood, empty look in his eye, yet his left-hand fingers still kept twitching.
   Having a good look at the treasure chamber, Donald was in for an even bigger shock. The hell is going on, he thought utterly confused. Before him, he saw a gigantic stone snake swimming in the gold. It kept diving into the gold like uncle Scrooge would. Eyes wide, Donald followed as the monster emerged with fast speed from the gold, showing its sharp teeth and snapped Juan between its jaws. Disappearing once more into the gold, both the monster and Juan were gone.
   “The fuck was that?” Luis gasped. Donald had hardly notice Luis, who was standing right beside him.
   “I don’t think I wanna know”, Donald mumbled. Scrooge was not here. He would have to look for Scrooge elsewhere. (Donald ignored the possibility that Scrooge might have been caught by the same monster.)
     “There’s more”, Luis exclaimed, pointing at bunch of tall stone creatures, swinging fiercely their swords and spears. There lay two bloody corpses at the monster’s feet. Donald was pretty sure he recognized them as Alejandro’s henchmen. Then again, he wasn’t sure. The other corpse seemed to be missing a head. Donald felt his stomach turn upside down and blood escaping from his head and limbs. What on earth was happening, he though, were the statues coming alive?
     “Let’s get the hell outa here”, Luis said. He was shivering like a leave. They heard shouting from behind. Donald recognized Diego and Manuel’s voices.
   Donald and Luis backed down quietly, fearing they might be attacked by these monsters. They were surprised by the two statues standing on both sides of the open doors. The guardians of the treasure chamber moved their heads and limbs stiffly, leaving their positions. The first steps they took toward Donald and Luis were slow and clumsy, but soon they gained their balance and started moving more effortlessly.
   The creature on the left, moved its head so that it seemed to be looking at Donald. The statue’s face never changed. The statue did not blink nor move its mouth, but for a moment Donald felt like the creature was staring into his eyes. It was so creepy Donald nearly paralyzed with fear. Nearly that is. If he had, he wouldn’t have been able to dodge the deadly blow. Donald dodged the sword right in time and turned around, running as fast as he could following few steps behind Luis.
   They ran towards the stairs that would lead back to the throne room. Unfortunately, they spotted Diego running down the stairs, back to where he had come from. After him followed the stone creatures, that had been standing in guard in the throne room. The monsters came after him, their movements a bit stiff, swinging their swords dangerously.
   Manuel, who was still present fired at the hideous monster, that was currently climbing up from the pit. Donald felt cold shivers as the giant emerged. Bullets had no visible effect on it.
   “What do we do? What do we do?” Diego said in a trembling voice, reaching Donald and Luis.
   “The stairway is blocked”, Luis said, ”Maybe there’s another way out somewhere”.
   “Dodge!” Donald exclaimed as the statues emerged from behind. Everyone scattered around the room, doing the only thing they could, running and dodging. Soon Donald found himself staring at the gigantic monster, that had risen from the dark pit. For a moment, the monster seemed to observe Donald and then tried to hit Donald with its huge fists. Luckily Donald was a fast runner (he had had a lot of practice running away from debt collectors in Duckburg). Seeing no other way, he could go, he chose to run to one of the corridors.
   The monster followed him, swinging its fits, constantly missing Donald. It hit the ground and the floor and the walls, making holes in them. Finally, Donald slowed down, stopping, leaning his back against a wall. He was out of breath and he wasn’t even sure where on earth he was running to. Was there another way out? He had no clue. And even if he knew there was, how could he possibly leave without Scrooge? Was Scrooge even alive at this point?
   Donald felt tears of disappointment and failure run down his cheeks, as he looked at the monster that was now standing in front of him, its fists in the air. Donald felt his whole-body tremble and a sudden weight on his chest. A million-thought raced in his mind. Would his family ever get to know what happened to him? Who would comfort his boys, when their uncle Donald would not come back home? What had happened to Scrooge?
   Through his watery eyes, Donald stared at the stone fist that was ready to crush him. His first thought was, why bother to continue anymore, one hit, and it’ll be over. However, when the monster struck, by some miracle Donald found the strength not to give up just yet. He dodged, one more time. Instead of Donald, the monster hit the wall behind him. With enormous strength, the monster’s fist went right through the wall, that surprisingly started tripping water. Before Donald had time to realized what was happening, the wall collapsed. A sudden wave knocked down the monster and washed Donald away.  
   Donald was thrown against the wall on the other side of the corridor by the wave and someone else was thrown against him. As the wave finally died down, Donald was sitting back against the wall, confused. He had hit his head against wall, and he was coughing water. He realized he was holding someone in his arms. He gazed down, and to his shock his was holding Magica De Spell. She was trying to cough, but it seemed she hardly getting air in her lungs.
   “Are you okay, Magica?” Donald asked, patting her back hard. Finally, she seemed to be able to breathe again. She coughed hard, drawing as deep breaths as she could. Sitting up on her knees, she pushed her hair away from her face and looked at Donald. She tried to say something but, couldn’t stop coughing.
   “What is it?” Donald asked. He thought, Magica looked tired and baffled. Rising to stand, leaning on Donald, Magica pointed her finger, to show Donald what she was trying to say. Donald turned his gaze in the direction she was pointing at, and oh how his heart pounded happily as he saw his dear uncle Scrooge.
   “Uncle Scrooge! Your alive!” Donald cheered, this time feeling his eyes watering with tears of joy. He rushed to Scrooge’s side, dragging the confused sorceress along.
   Scrooge sat on the ground coughing, adjusting his glasses. Hearing the familiar voice of nephew, Scrooge turned to look at Donald. First Scrooge didn’t seem to understand what was going on as his nephew pulled him into a warm embrace, almost crying. Magica noticed that she too was stuck in Donald’s embrace (she assumed Donald had just forgotten to let go of her), but gladly embraced Scrooge too.
   “Donald, my boy!” Scrooge finally exclaimed, “What are you doing here?”. He wrapped his arms around Donald and Magica. The three kept embracing each other until they were startled by a sudden slam. The giant monster was lying on its back right next to them, trying to get up. Fortunately for the ducks, the monster’s deformed back made helpless as a tortoise on its back. The giant looked pathetic trying to get up, but not getting anywhere.
   “I’m glad I found you”, Donald said letting go of Scrooge and Magica.
   “So am I”, Scrooge said, getting up, “I don’t know what you just did, but I think you saved us. We were trapped”.
   “Yeah, I don’t know what I did either, but I’m glad I did it”, Donald laughed.
   “What made you follow me?”, Scrooge asked.
   “I was worried about you. You’re so ol- o… o… optimistic I mean!”
   “You were about to say I’m old”
   “Whaat? No, I wasn’t!” Donald defended himself, stepping behind Magica to use her as a shield. He did not like the look in his uncle’s eyes.
   “Donald”, Scrooge said in a serious tone, “When we get back to Duckburg you’re out of my will”
   “Actually, you removed me from your will last month”, Donald pointed out cautiously.
   “Oh, that’s right, I did” Scrooge realized, “Well, then I’ll… put you back in it and remove you again!”. Donald sighed, submitting to his fate.
   “We really should leave this place”, Magica interrupted them. She wasn’t exactly sure what was going on at the moment, but by the sounds of the horrified screams on the background, she concluded it was high time to leave this cursed city.
   “The statues came alive and attacked us!” Donald explained, turning to Magica, “But you can save us. Just use your magic and turn them to something harmless”. Magica shook her head.
   “Can’t do that”, she said.
   “What? Why not? What’s the good of being a witch if you’re not going to use magic?” Donald said. Scrooge gave him a stern look, warning Donald to drop the subject.
     “I’ll explain later. Now we must leave”, Scrooge said. He rushed to end of the corridor, where he could see everything that was happening.
     “All the corridors lead eventually to a dead end. The only way out is through the throne room”, Scrooge explained, “We just have to make a run for it, now that no-one is paying attention to us”. Donald followed after Scrooge, nearly slipping on the wet floor, shaking his head.
     “I’m not leaving them behind”, he said watching as Diego and Luis struggled running and dodging the heavy weapons of the attacking statues.
   “Don’t be stupid, Donald. You’re risking your own life if you try to help them. Let’s just save ourselves”, Scrooge said, frowning.
   “I’m not leaving them behind”, Donald repeated stubbornly. He looked at his uncle in the eyes. Scrooge cursed under his breath, seeing the stubborn look on his nephews face.
   “Why are you being so stubborn?” Scrooge snarled, frustrated.
 “I’m afraid it runs in the family”, Donald said. In that moment Scrooge saw not only stubbornness, but extreme determination in Donald. It was like looking in a mirror. Feeling of sudden respect made him consent.
   “That Manuel guy, he tried to shoot us”, Scrooge said, nodding in Manuel’s direction, “Are we going to help him too?”. Donald looked at Manuel, who was trapped in against a wall. Most of the statues were surrounding him, but Manuel was big in size and strong. He was able to knock down them down by lunging at them. However, there where simply too many of the statues.
   Donald hesitated, but made up his mind: “Yes. If we leave him, we won’t be better than him”.
   “Your chivalry is impressive, Donald”, Scrooge said. He frowned at his nephew’s decision but didn’t do anything to oppose it. Behind them Magica, frowned displeased as well.
   Scrooge turned to her.
   “Magica, you go ahead. We’ll be follow behind”, he said. Magica nodded.
   “Don’t get yourself hurt”, she said. Donald was surprised by the gentle and worried tone of her voice. Was this woman really Magica de Spell?
     At Scrooge’s sign, Magica ran towards the stairs and up them. Together, Donald and Scrooge lunged at a statue, that was trying to hit Diego. The statue fell on its fellow mate, making them both fall to the pit behind them. Donald told Diego to run up the stairs. Then he called to Luis:
   “The way is clear, we have to go now!”. Luis made a sly dodge, making a statue hit another one, cutting half of its arm of. As he saw his chance Luis ran as fast as he could. Manuel noticed everybody else getting away. In a sudden rage, caused by his inner need to survive, he forcefully pushed his way through the statues. He ended up getting a hit in his shoulder, but it didn’t stop him. Holding his bloodied shoulder and dropping his rifle his ran after the others.
   “Well, he didn’t need much help”, Scrooge said, “Let’s go Donald”. Scrooge and Donald sprinted up the stairs followed by Luis and Manuel and a small army of stone monsters.

The six remaining survivors ran for their lives towards the bridge, down the hill and past the gates. Once Donald stumbled and happened to look behind him. If he wasn’t afraid, he might die, he would have probably laughed at the sight of stone statues running down the hill after them. They did look clumsy and just plain weird.
     When she saw the hanging bridge again, Magica froze as she remembered the last time she crossed it.
   “No, no, no! I’m not doing this again”, she exclaimed, her voice shaking. She was about to turn around when Scrooge suddenly caught her, lifting her to his shoulder.
     “Sorry, darling. There’s no another way to go”, he said.
   “You don’t know if the bridge will hold!”, she screamed at him.
   “It has to”, he said, without stopping.
   At the bridge they were met by the two statues guarding it. Diego ran past so fast the statues had hardly time to do anything. Diego ran straight to the bridge, without worrying if it might collapse. Manuel had the unfortunate luck to run into the statues. Manuel tried to push his way through again but ended up falling on the ground with the other statue, while the other one strike its spear into Manuel’s back.
   Ignoring the painful scream Donald and Scrooge, carrying Magica, ran around the guardians. The bridge swung dangerously, and they both nearly fell over the edge. Scrooge even heard the planks snapping and his every muscle tensed. Still they both made it to the other side.
   Luis hopped over Manuel. He was right about to reach the bridge, as he suddenly crashed to the ground.
   “Let go you bastard!” Luis shouted as he saw Manuel’s hand gripped around his ankle. Manuel’s mouth was moving, but no words came out. His back was bloodied, and his limbs were shaking. The standing statue raised its spear ready to strike at Luis. In order to save himself, Luis kicked with his free foot Manuel in the jaw. Manuel let go and Luis got away just in time.
   Donald followed on the other side of the chasm as Luis ran on the bridge towards them. His lungs were burning after the running and the excitement.
   “Look! They are following him”, Diego wailed, tugging Donald’s hand. The monsters stepped on the bridge.
   “There’s no way the bridge will hold them”, Donald said calmly, “Luis just has to make to the other side before the bridge collapses”. The worn ropes finally gave in, and the bridge came crushing down, under the weight of the stone creatures. The monsters fell to the water and sank to the bottom. Luis made it to the other side and collapsed to the ground exhausted.
   They were safe.
   Scrooge concluded that when they got back to the same place where Magica had lost her powers, she would get them back and the city’s power would end there. If the remaining statues could, they would be able to follow them much further. Unfortunately for them, there was no longer a bridge they could use to cross to the other side. So, there was nothing to worry about.
   Scrooge observed the small figures of the statues that had followed them from the underground labyrinth. Since they could not follow the intruders any longer, they were just standing on the other side of the chasm. Scrooge, thought about the marvelous treasure chamber and the treasure he had lost, but strangely he didn’t feel that bad.
   “Scroogie, are you okay?” Magica whispered as she embraced him.
   No, he did not feel like he had lost anything. He smiled at Magica.
   “I’m better then ever”
   For he had gained something even more valuable than gold.

Chapter Text

“So, blood is the fuel that gives the statues power to move”, Magica explained.
   “And when Juan killed Alejandro, those statues where able to attack us”, Donald concluded, amazed.
   “You know Donald, you’re not half as stupid as you look”, Magica teased him.
   “Hey!” Donald exclaimed.
   “Knock it off you two!” Scrooge said sternly, before Donald had the chance to say anything back.
   They were sitting at round table at a local luxury hotel’s finest restaurant (the hotel itself was owned by McDuck enterprises). Donald and Magica had managed to persuade Scrooge taking the whole remaining group to stay at his hotel before they would return to home. Don’t we deserve to relax after that trip, Scroogie, she had said. He had felt completely powerless to resist her.
   Scrooge had to admit to himself it was quite nice to get to sleep in a soft bed and eat from the buffet every morning and spend the days in the spa section and dress in clean clothes.
   Donald turned to translate Magica’s explanation to Luis and Diego, who sat with them. Most of the time Luis and Diego were both quiet, thinking about their loved ones they had lost. Donald had been worried how the tiger would act around Diego, since Diego’s uncle had caused the death Of Luis’ brother. Luckily it turned out that Luis was a very understanding man. He said that even though he did not feel sorry about Alejandro’s death, he did not accuse Diego of anything. It made Donald even more relieved to hear that Luis agreed to look after Diego, as the boy had no one else to turn to.
   They had finish their meals and sat around chatting for a while until Diego decided to go to sleep. Soon after Luis excused himself too, leaving the ducks by themselves.
   Donald felt little uncomfortable as he noticed he was now a third wheel. Scrooge had his arm around Magica, and she kept whispering something into his ear that made him smile like a fool. Donald wasn’t sure he understood what was happening between Scrooge and Magica and whether it was a good or a bad thing.
   Donald was as well aware as Scrooge that Magica, in the bottom of her heart, was not a bad person (though she had fierce temper and acted often selfish). Still, Donald could not quite decide what to think about all of this. At least Scrooge looked happy, and so did she.
   Scrooge caught Donald staring at them in an awkward manner.
   “I’m gonna go now”, Donald mumbled, leaving.
   “I’m going to have to talk with that boy”, Scrooge said, following Donald with his gaze, “We should go to sleep too”.
   “Darling, don’t go yet”, Magica pleaded as Scrooge stood up.
   “We’re leaving tomorrow and you have a long flight ahead of you back to Italy. You really should get some rest”, he said embracing her and kissing her gently. They had agreed that Donald and Scrooge would return to Duckburg on Scrooge’s private airplane and Magica would travel back to Europe. Luis and Diego were to stay in Peru.
   Donald had managed to get Scrooge to pay Luis the reward that Donald had promised him. Unsurprisingly the reward turned out to be smaller than Donald had hoped for, but Luis did not complain (much).
   “Yes, we separate tomorrow and that’s why I was hoping we could spend the night together”, she said in a flirtatious manner, batting her eyelids at him. Scrooge felt his whole-body tingle at the suggestion. He smiled at her.
   “I’ll have a word with Donald and then I’ll come to your room, Okay?”
   “Okay”

Donald lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling, when he suddenly remembered he had not told the boys or Daisy or anyone that he had found Scrooge. They were all still worried. He got up and started tossing his clothes around, trying to find his phone.
   “What are you looking for?” Scrooge asked, entering their shared room. He sat down on his own bed, observing as Donald made a mess of the room.
   “My phone, gotta call home and tell everybody you’re okay”, Donald said. Scrooge nodded thoughtfully.
   “How are things at home? After I left, I mean. I can imagine everyone are quite angry with me”, Scrooge asked. Donald stopped throwing clothes around and gave a stern look to Scrooge. Disturbingly that look made Scrooge once again feel like he was staring at his own reflection.
   “They are very angry with you uncle Scrooge”, Donald said, crossing his arms, “Especially Daisy, she is furious. Granma was very disappointed in you. You should have seen the look on her face”. Scrooge felt a wave of shame washing over him and turned to look away.
   “And Goldie?”
   “Goldie? It’s hard to say. She looked so calm, but I’m sure underneath she is furious too. She returned back to Klondike. And as if you don’t have enough problems already, the press went all mad. The wedding fiasco has been all over the news”, Donald said.
   “Hmm, that won’t do any good for my businesses”, Scrooge said absent mindedly. Donald gave him and angry glare.
   “Right, sorry. Not the right thing to focus on”, Scrooge mumbled.
   “But”, Donald continued in a more gentle tone, “Huey, Dewey and Louie aren’t angry at you. They love you too much to be angry”. Scrooge couldn’t help but smile at the thought of the triplets.
   “What about you?” Scrooge asked, “Are you angry?”
   Donald stopped to think for a moment. He finally found his phone under a pile of shirts.
   “I am”, he said, “because my boys look up to you. And I don’t want them to think that what you did is okay. So, when we get back to home I want you to tell them that it was not okay”.
   “Of course”, Scrooge said. Donald was right, Scrooge had not even thought about what kind of example he was setting for the triplets.
   Donald fell on his bed, tired. Even though, Scrooge was the head of the family, Donald sometimes felt like Scrooge was the fourth little duckling he had to look after.
   “What’s going on with you and Magica? Did you leave Goldie for Magica?” Donald asked.
   “No, I didn’t. However, we… have gotten a lot closer during this trip”, Scrooge said, feeling a bit embarrassed.
   “Are you sure you’re not under a love spell this time?” Donald asked, worried. Scrooge had expected this question.
   “I promise you I’m not under any spells”, Scrooge said. He had no idea how he would prove to Donald he was not under a spell, in case Donald would not believe him. Donald pondered for a moment. He believed Scrooge, for usually when he was under a love spell, he would be jumping from floor to ceiling, screaming Magica’s name. This time it was different.
   “Okay, I trust you”, Donald said, although he was still a little suspicious. Donald closed his eyes. He was so tired he just wanted to fall asleep, but he had to make that call. He dialed Daisy’s number.
   “So, I’m going to sleep in Magica’s room tonight”, Scrooge said awkwardly and stood up.
   “ ’Kay”, Donald said. Scrooge was right about to leave the room as Donald remembered one more thing.
   “Scrooge”
   “Yes?”
     “I thought that maybe we should first go to Klondike to meet up with Goldie. And then we would go home. I think Goldie is the first person you should apologize to”
     “I think you’re right”, Scrooge agreed.
     "And I almost forgot to mention Brigitta isn't mad at you"
     "What a relief", Scrooge noted ironically.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Magica asked Scrooge as they lay together under the covers in the dark room. Scrooge held her firmly in his arms, feeling the warm of her body against him. He stroke her hair.
   “I wouldn’t want to let you go, but I have to fix the mess I caused at home. And Donald is right. I owe an apology to Goldie and I shouldn’t delay it. You see, I don’t think it’s a good idea to go see Goldie, with another woman tagging along. Don’t want to give her any more reasons to be mad at me. I am hoping she would remain my friend”, Scrooge said.
   “…Fine”, she said, disappointed. Honestly Magica wanted to argue, she wanted to him to hold her and never let go. She was ready to follow him anywhere he would go. But, she understood that what Scrooge said was reasonable.
   “We will see soon again, won’t we?” she asked, wrapping her arms around him even more tighter. Scrooge laughed at her demanding tone gently. He whispered in her ear: “I’ll come to see you as soon as possible”. He moved so that she was trapped under him and his weight. He kissed her passionately as she caressed his back with her hands.
   “I love you, darling”, she mumbled between the kisses.
   “I love you more”, he said.
   By the time the morning light replaced the night’s darkness, their clothes had been scattered around the floor and cover had fallen over the bed’s edge. They kept laying in each other’s arms and the only noise in the room was Scrooge’s snoring.

Standing at the airport, Donald felt falling asleep. He had not slept all night. He had called Daisy and after she had calmed down and stopped demanding to get to talk to Scrooge, they had talked whole night through telling how much they loved each other. Donald had not even realized how much he had missed Daisy and was more than eager to get back home to her.
   “Any time you want, Diego, you can call me. If you ever feel like it”, Donald told the boy and gave him a firm hug.
   “I will call you soon, Donald”, Diego said, tears in his eyes. He had gotten quite attached to Donald.
   Donald wished good luck to Luis and said his final goodbyes to his new friends.
   Seeing Diego and Luis disappear into the crowd of people, Donald headed back to Scrooge and Magica. As a small duck, Donald had to dodge the bigger people with their gigantic luggage as they ran past him, trying not to miss their flights. Donald checked the timetable as his walked past it and realized Magica would soon be in a hurry unless she found some way to let go of Scrooge.
   Donald found the love birds, clinging onto one another, like their lifes depended in it. She was still trying to persuade him to let her go with him.
   “Magica”, Donald said, interrupting them, “Your flight will take of soon”.
   “You really have to go now, love”, Scrooge said to her and kissed goodbye.
   “But, Scroogie”, she said, sulking.
   “Sorry, but there’s nothing you can do to change my mind. I did promise to come see you soon, didn’t I?”, Scrooge laughed at her silliness.
   “You did”, Magica said, “One more kiss, please Scroogie?”
   “Alright”, he said, more than happy to grant her wish. But to his surprise, she wasn’t about to settle for a simple, decent kiss. She wrapped her arms around him, kissing him long and with passion. She moved her hands around his body. Scrooge was lost in her arms, kissing her back as fiercely.
   “Oh boy”, Donald mumbled, embarrassed to stand so close to them.
Finally Magica let go of Scrooge, smiling brightly.
   “Arrivederci”, she said and left, seemingly happy.

Chapter Text

Scrooge sat, nervously, on the small sofa, in the simple cottage, that used to belong to him. It was the same cottage where he had resided when had been a gold miner. After leaving Klondike, Goldie had had taken over the house. And there she still lived, away from other people. To be quite honest, Scrooge felt like home in here. This place hold so many memories.
   “So, you were on a treasure hunt”, Goldie said thoughtfully, “In South-America”. She drank her tea quietly.    
   Scrooge had been genuinely surprised by how calm and welcoming she had been, when he had turned up at her door this morning. She had sat him down on the sofa and served him tea. Then she had sat next to him and asked him where he had been.
   “That right”, Scrooge said. He had just gone through the entire story, leaving out some details. He didn’t mention the beagle boys, how people had died, (he had changed the story slightly so that Goldie wouldn’t be shocked) or Magica. He had merely implied that he had been with a friend.
   Scrooge felt himself sweating, so nervous he was. He had been expecting Goldie to be openly furious to him. Instead she was like nothing had happened. Was she not mad, Scrooge wondered. She had to be.
   “I can imagine you were happy about the treasure”, Goldie said, taking a sip of her tea.
   “Well, I was. Though I don’t actually have it. I lost it”, Scrooge said with a shrug.
   “And you’re not disappointed?”, Goldie asked, surprised by Scrooge’s calm attitude about the fact that he had lost some gold.
   “Are you sick, Scrooge? Do you have fever?” she asked, feeling his forehead.
   “No, I’m not. Lots of things happened on that journey, but that’s not why I’m here”, he said looking her in the eyes. He was trying to find any sign of anger in her.
   “Right”, she said, putting her tea cup on the, small, wooden coffee table. She took, something out of her dress’ pocket and gave it to Scrooge. Scrooge realized that it was the napkin, on which he had written his apology for her.
   Perhaps she’s being purposefully this calm, because she knows how uncomfortable it makes me, Scrooge thought. He would have much rather listened her accusing him than her being so nice to him. Or, perhaps she has poisoned the tea, Scrooge though, looking down at his teacup. No, that’s just stupid, I’m just being nervous.
   “So… I’m sorry”, Scrooge began. He was not quite sure what he should say. How could he ever show her how ashamed he was for what he had done.
   “I’m not going to make excuses for actions. I panicked and made a bad choice. There would have been hundred better ways to act, I know that”, he said.
   “Was it the wedding that made you panic or…”, she asked, tense. Scrooge put down the teacup and the napkin and took Goldie’s hands into his.
   “Goldie, you’re precious to me, but I… I… there’s someone else”, Scrooge managed to say. Goldie looked at Scrooge, as if she could not believe him.
   “There is? Do I know her?” she asked, looking away from him. Were those tears in her eyes?
   Scrooge shook his head.
   “No, you haven’t met her”, he said. She was just about break in tears and Scrooge had no idea what to say next.
   “You know. What hurt me even more, than you leaving me in Duckburg at the mercy of those press vultures, was the fact that you couldn’t say you don’t want to marry me in the first place”, she said weakly.  
   Scrooge wasn’t quite sure what to do. Goldie had never before shown herself so vulnerable before him. In the back of his head Scrooge had just assumed Goldie did not posses this kind of vulnerability. At least he had not seen Goldie like this when they had been young.
   “I can not express how I regret for not been honest and running away like I did”, he said and took her hand in his. She pulled her hand away, turning her head so he could not see her face.
   “I’m glad to know that you’re okay, but I think you should leave now”, she said.
   “Right. Of course”, Scrooge mumbled, standing up. Before leaving, he still wanted to ask her something.
   “Will we still be able to be friends? Not now, but someday?”
   “I don’t know”, she said, “You just… have to wait until I had had time to think this over”
   Scrooge nodded.
   “Thanks for tea”, he said and left.
   Walking away from the cottage, Scrooge was suddenly scared by a loud bang, and his top hat flew of his head. It dropped on the ground in front of him. The hat had now a hole in it. Scrooge turned around and saw Goldie standing on the porch, holding her shotgun in her hand. She had aimed precisely and hit her target. As if she had let him leave without some showing him how she felt. She knew just how much Scrooge valued his old top hat.

“Uncle Scrooge?” Donald said.
   They were on their way back to Duckburg, sitting in the cabin of the jet. Donald kept observing Scrooge across the table.
   “Yes?” Scrooge said. He had been completely lost in his thoughts.
   “I know you’re not of the hook yet, but we are going home. You’ll get to see your moneybin again and get back to your daily routines, like counting money, making money, making more money”, Donald said, making Scrooge laugh.
   “Thanks for trying to cheer me up, but I don’t think I deserve this”, Scrooge said laughing. Donald just shrugged his shoulders.
   “Well, we had a though trip”, Donald said, “I think both of us could do with some cheering up”
   “True”
   Scrooge though that Donald was right. He had a reason to be happy. After all he, Donald and Magica had survived the jungle with only minor bruises. And even if his loved ones were angry with him, they too were safe and sound at home.
   And as Donald had pointed out, he would soon get back to his daily routines. It would help him to calm down after this adventure. It was a high time to polish his dear number one dime. The poor thing had not been properly polished for weeks and that was unacceptable.
   Scrooge put his hand in his pocket, so he could feel the dime’s sharp edges in his fingers, except he could not find it. He tried his other pocket, still not finding his dime.
   “Is something wrong?” Donald asked, watching as his uncle searched all his pockets. His face became pale and he looked horrified.
   “My dime! I can’t find my dime!” Scrooge exclaimed. He searched his pockets again.
   “I can’t have lost my dime!” he went through his pockets for the third time, looking like was right about to panic.
   “Where did you see it last?” Donald questioned worried.
   “At the airport, before we left Peru”, Scrooge said, looking for his beloved dime from the floor.
   Donald squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. He wasn’t sure if he even wanted say what he had thought of.
   “Uncle Scrooge? Are you sure she didn’t take your dime?”
   “She? Who-“ Scrooge stopped in his tracks.
   Arrivederci, the sweet voice rang in his ears. He remembered who pleased she had looked when they had departed. And he remembered the moment right before their departure. How they had kissed and embraced… and how her hands had wondered around his torso.
   Scrooge, went through all this one more time in his head.
   “She snatched my dime from my pocket… at the airport”, Scrooge said, finally. He could not believe it. She had fooled him just like that.
   “Yeah, I think that’s what happened”, Donald said, “So what do we do now?”
   Scrooge didn’t waste time.
   “Turn this plane around”, he screamed to the pilots, running toward the cockpit, “Fly to Italy immediately!”

Chapter Text

Scrooge run up the mountain, sweating under the burning sun. He saw the tiny cottage ahead of him. He was so furious with her. How dare she play him for a fool like that? How had he fallen for her trick so easily? Scrooge also felt overwhelming fear. What had become of his dime? Magica had had plenty of time to melt it. Had she done it already?
   “Magica!” he shouted, kicking her door open, ready to take back his dime from her.
   “Well, well. So, you finally decided to show up, darling”, Magica greeted him, mischievous smile on her face.
   Scrooge froze, staring at her. He was not sure what kind of game she was playing. He did not see an amulet hanging around her neck. She was sitting on dark red couch, leaning back, looking relaxed. She had crossed her legs and raised the hem of her dress just a bit too high. She looked at him, almost laughing.
   “I came to get my dime back”, Scrooge simply stated, frowning at her.
   “Of course you will get it back”, she said. She raised her hand, showing the dime she was holding. Scrooge sighed with relieve, seeing his dime in one piece.
   “You can have it back. All you have to do is just take it”, she said and put the dime under her dress, between her breasts, “But remember, we’re not in a hurry here”
   Scrooge was confused. Then he noticed the bottle of wine at the nearby table and some candles across the room. She raised her eyebrow at him, asking if he had already figured it out. At that moment he felt truly stupid. She really had played him for a fool. An embarrassed smile spread across his face.
   He closed the door and walked up to her, staring at her intensely. She had taken the dime, knowing he would run right back to her thinking she would melt it. All this because she did not want to wait for him.
   He grabbed her by waist and kissed her, knocking her over on the couch.
   Well she had got what she wanted.
   He had come to her.