NegaTales || Season 1 ||

THotUG Pt 3

Dewey bit his lip after Gladdy didn't say anything. Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh. The blue triplet started to wonder if maybe he should've kept his mouth shut. His stomach churned. He just asked one of the questions he wasn't supposed to. Once, when Huey and Louie weren't around, he had asked Donald when he was younger. Not only did his question not get answered, he also got in huge trouble. Who knew what would happen now! Do you know what happened to Della?! Who asks that! Dewey began spiraling. Gladdy would tell Feathry, and then he would have to explain to Webby, a bajillion things would go wrong, why did he think this was a good idea, and-

"Uh..." Gladdy broke the silence, looking around nervously. He started laughing awkwardly, his arms stiffly stuck to his sides. It was strangely comforting for Dewey that he was the only one scared of this question. Gladdy laughed so awkwardly, he ended up just coughing into his fist.

Dewey raised an eyebrow. "Gladstone?"

Gladdy cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, it's just, I wasn't expecting that question today. Or ever really."

"Well?" Dewey forced himself to keep going. If he was ever going to know the truth, he would have to be brave.

"I, uh...-" Gladdy bit down on his knuckle, "-do not. Sorta. It's- it's..." He sighed, forcing himself to look at Dewey. "As I'm sure you know, it's complicated."

Dewey fidgeted, glancing at the floor. "Yeah. B-but... I need to know."

After a moment, Gladstone scrunched his beak and gave in. He flashed a warm smile. "Alright, how about I will answer 3 questions, and no more. No less." He shrugged, questioning Dewey with his eyes.

Dewey frowned. It wasn't exactly what he was hoping for, but it was a nice compromise. He would have to choose his questions wisely. "Fine." After thinking it over, he decided to start out with the mystery of where Gladdy disappeared to in all their family history, never mention by anyone. "If our mom trusted you enough to let you see us as eggs, and Feathry says you're so great, and all that other stuff, how come no one ever talks about you? You're not even in the picture."

"Picture? What picture?"

Dewey pulled a small polaroid photo he had taken of the painting he had found in the garage. He had mentally labeled it as evidence in the search for his mother. He carried it around with him, for mystery purposes, definitely not comfort purposes. He held it up to Gladdy. "This."

Gladdy took the photo and examined it. "Oh, yeah, I remember this. I am in this picture!" He lowered it for Dewey to see.

The boy in blue squinted at it. "Where?"

"Right there. I tripped right before the picture was taken." Gladdy pointed to a green smudge in the background.

Dewey wasn't entirely convinced, but eh, it was good enough. "That still doesn't answer the rest of my question."

"Well, I guess no one ever talks about 'cause Murphy's Law or something. I don't know." Gladdy rubbed the back of his neck. "The rules of the curse aren't one hundred percent clear, but it's not exactly unlucky to be popular."

"Okay, next question. Do you know what the Spear is? Della mentions it in a letter." Maybe Dewey and Webby would finally have a lead that could actually take them somewhere.

"Selene's Spear? Oh yeah." Gladdy hesitated a moment, like he was thinking something over. Dewey wondered what. "Selene's Spear is a... motel. And a really garbage one too." He smirked. "I rarely talk bad about anything, but like, that place is really unkempt." Gladdy stuck out his tongue, to punctuate his point.