Sailor With a Heart of Fire || A DuckTales Story

Courage

The boat slowly sailed through the water in the middle of the mountains. Mist hung low to the surface, slightly clouding the area, but the natural sunlight provided enough of a source. The kids sat up in the boat, looking at the inside of the barrier that held the fortress, home of the Forge of Hephaestus. The mountains were just as dirt red as they were depicted in the book Ariana had shown Elliot, but now they looked a bit more intimidating as they had now surrounded the kids.

"Must be some kind of a secret bay or something," Elliot said aloud.

"So, where's the fortress that holds the Forge?" June wondered aloud, but seconds later, she saw it. "Oh."

"There it is," Elliot confirmed, turning to the front of the boat.

There indeed, sitting high on top of a cliff made by the mountains, was a structure that looked like a castle, made of the same dirt red rock. Perched on top of it was some sort of chimney, smoke and mostly steam emitted from it. It did look a bit scary, and definitely like the home of advanced merfolk guarding a Greek god's magical stones.

"What if they see us coming?" May asked nervously.

"We're in a small boat," Elliot pointed out. "We should be fine."

The boat continued to sail through the heavy mist, and around what was a bit of a wall as it made its way to the fortress. The whole place gave a bit of an eerie feeling, but the sunlight stopped it from feeling too eerie. As the boat and the kids approached the side of the fortress, they came to a small port at the bottom. It looked like a cave connected to the fortress, made mainly for merfolk and boats as it didn't have a bottom side.

"Hey look!" June pointed out, seeing it. "We've got a port!"

"Well, that makes it easy," said May.

Elliot, however, was a little suspicious.

"Too easy," he said aloud. "It's not guarded, even with a gate."

"It doesn't need to be guarded, nobody can find this place," May pointed out.

But Elliot's suspicions seemed to instill a bit of a suspicion in June, and it made her slightly anxious. The boat slowly continued to sail into the cave, but as it did, June heard bubbling noises. She looked over the edge of the boat and saw several bubbles forming and popping just as quickly. She thought that could mean there was a living creature under the water.

"Guys," she stammered, turning to them. "There's —"

But before she could finish, there was a huge upward splash that came from the water, shaking the boat. May and Elliot screamed out in fear, and June wondered what had happened. She turned around and looked up, seeing the leather-like skin and tube shaped body of a metalically dragon-faced sea serpent, with two jaws holding razor sharp fangs at their edges. It looked like it was just about ready to eat the kids alive!

June screamed out as well. She and her siblings were terrified of this creature, and it was going to stop them from fulfilling their mission completely by eating them! The creature roared terrible roars at the kids, and looked from May and Elliot to June, as if deciding which to eat first. It ended up choosing May and Elliot at the back of the boat, and reared on them, bearing its horrible fangs. May and Elliot trembled even more furiously than they had been, hugging each other out of fear of being eaten. June stayed at the front of the boat, too scared to stop the serpent...or was she? Seeing her siblings in danger, she felt an urge to act upon her fear, and stop it from devouring them whole. She stopped shaking, and stood up, puffing out her chest. Then she looked down into the boat, and saw the sword that Ariana had given them just in case. She picked it up and slipped the belt around her shoulder, then she pulled the sword out of its sheath and pointed it threateningly at the metallic dragon face.