Sailor With a Heart of Fire || A DuckTales Story

Snakes of Sand

Elliot woke the next morning very peacefully. Having had a good night's rest, he felt ready for what the day had in store for him and his sisters. He turned around and lay on his stomach, looking out the window as the sun began to rise. Yet another sunrise his family was without him — and May and June for that matter, but they were doing the right thing, and would be back sometime soon. That's all that mattered. Elliot smiled, the sun looked beautiful, rising over the peaks that created the protective barrier around Titasal. Then Elliot heard gentle rustling, and turned back around sitting up, to see May and June slowly rise out of bed with similar smiles.

"Morning girls," he said delightedly.

"Hey Elliot," May replied, sleepy, but happy all the same.

"Morning," said June in the same manner.

Then two quick and gentle knocks came to the door, and it opened revealing a morning ready Ariana. She seemed quite happy to see the kids again as she put on her tiara.

"Hey sleepyheads," she said jokingly.

The kids laughed a bit at that, definitely a bit more awake.

"Come on down," Ariana continued. "Breakfast is ready, and we're getting you guys ready to sail through the Cracking Pass today!"

Now the kids were completely wide awake, focused on the Forge and the fiery stones again. They quickly got dressed and ran back down the stairs of the tower, where Ariana was waiting for them, and she led them to the dining hall once more. Waiting for them there was King Hawkins at the head of the table, and four plates stacked with big fluffy pancakes awaited the kids. King Hawkins smiled upon seeing them.

"Good morning all of you," he said kindly. "Come and eat, and then we will prepare you three for the Cracking Pass."

Elliot, May and June nodded, knowing very well that they needed to get past it to get to the Forge. This part of the trip had already distracted them long enough, and they needed to get back on task. After they ate, Ariana and King Hawkins led them out behind the castle, and through a couple of the mountains behind the kingdom. They reached the backshore and saw the ring of dirt red mountains that Elliot had seen in the book last night. The mist from the ocean and the distance between the pass and the island gave a bit of a white overlay, slightly clouding the image of the pass, but it was distinct.

"There it is!" Elliot said, pointing it out.

"Indeed," King Hawkins replied. "Also, we recovered this from the front shore whilst the Snakes of sand weren't out."

He gestured to behind him, and the kids turned around and saw Ariana and Mortimer dragging their small rowboat, through the trees and to the shore.

"You'll probably need it," said Ariana, patting it with a grin. "It's a good boat!"

"Hey, thanks!" Elliot said, running up to it and finding everyone's backpacks still there.

Ariana laughed a bit.

"No problem," she said. "Oh, and take this," she added, pulling out a sheathed sword from behind her back and handing it to Elliot. "It might be useful."

"Wow!" Elliot gasped, taking the sword. "Thanks a lot!"

Then they all moved the boat to the edge of the shore, and waited for the pass to open. King Hawkins took out a small, golden pocket watch.

"Any minute now," he said with a grin, reading the time to be close to noon.

As if right on time, they all heard what sounded like a large BOOM! They turned to see the two oddly shaped rocks that made the gate to the Forge open like one, slowly and releasing mist and foam from the bottom.