The Love and Treachery of Scrooge McDuck!

Rainbow Conection!

1886

*DING!!*

*DONG!*

*Ding!*

*Dong*

Ringing filled his ears. That mean a city was near. He was tired and it had been days since he had set off into the mountains looking for a claim. He had been told they were all empty but he didn't believe them. Now he was out of food and supplies; the air was frosty; his feet were wet; and he could use somewhere nice to start a fire. He hugged the cliff's face as he edged around. The bell had just stopped when he heard a noise. He hadn't noticed the cave to his right, but it was warm, so he stepped in despite the potential danger.

"Hello?" he called. The word echoed off the stone and deep into the side of the mountain. He stepped in. "Hallo."

The only response was his own echo. He turned to leave. There was no point in wasting sunlight. Just as he hadn't seen the cave entrance, he hadn't seen the girl. The snow around her was melted and she lay face down in the slush. He recognized what she was despite her tattered dress and burned face. A human girl surrounded by chucks of stranging-looking gold. The chunks were thin and flat and burned.

"Las," he kneeled too shake her shoulder.

She lay all but dead. He could barely make out the small labored breaths she was managing. He didn't have the materials or know how to patch her wounds. Though he knew he could find her help in town. He packed up the gold and as gently as he could drape her across his back.

The sun stayed up longer than it should and the girl was lighter than his pack. He reached the edge of the town and decided it would be safer to keep her there. He pitched a tent, and laid her on his cot. He packed some snow into an old towel.

"Are you making a snowpack?" an old lady asked. She was out enjoying a sunset stroll.

"Aye, and I cannea for the life of me figure it out."

"My husband used these every winter." She sat beside him. Taking the cloth and folding it. "He was worked to the bone, but we never went hungry. Here you are."

"Thank ya. Ya wouldn't happen to know where I could get something to eat?"

"My son owns the tavern. You should stop by to warm yourself up."

He was hesitant to leave the human, but he know he wouldn't be long. The lady showed him the tavern. It was just past the strangest statue he had ever seen. A man with two faces, one young man and on the back where his hair should've been, was an old man's face.

"The young man points east, representing a fresh outlook on each day," the lady explained. "The only man points west, representing the end of a hard day's work. Then it starts over the next."

She smiled at it, then pulled him away before he could inspect any farther. The tavern was decently priced, and he got a weeks' supplies. He even snagged an extra pair of clothes for the human he was now in charge of. He spent the next few days putting snow on her burns and blankets on everywhere else. He wrote down words she mumbled under her breath but couldn't make a sentence. He took notes on everything about her, from her burns to her hair.