Courage || Carlos De Vil (Disney's Descendants)

Chapter 40

The woods continued to be eerily silent as everyone followed Dude deeper into the thicket of trees. It was so unsettling that Meredith mentally debated with herself that Dude might have been mistaken. Perhaps he'd caught a whiff of a different scent that wasn't Ben's, just similar to it. Or, maybe he did get the right scent, but that Ben had been mauled or beaten up, and his clothes were scattered everywhere in the forest by now...

No, Audrey wouldn't do something that horrible to a boy she once loved, Meredith told herself, shaking her head to get rid off of those morbid thoughts. She might have placed a curse on Ben this time around as revenge, but maybe it wasn't that bad... right?

"You sure your mutt knows what he's doing?" Harry asked, looking skeptical.

"Of course, he's a dog — that's what they do," Carlos shot back.

"I'm just saying, 'cause I don't see any signs of His Royal Majesty anywhere," Harry jabbed.

"Let's simmer down, shall we?" Jay interjected. "Just keep calling out for Ben and follow Dude and I'm sure we'll find him."

Harry and Carlos quieted down, deciding to do as Jay said. The group resumed to calling out Ben's name, all as they trailed after the campus mutt.

"Ben!" they yelled.

"Boy, something stinks," Dude suddenly said, coming to a stop. "And it wasn't me this time!"

A low growl sounded nearby. Before any of them could even react, something jumped out from behind the trees: a hairy beast with sharp teeth, long claws, and wild eyes.

And then, it lunged at them with a roar. The group shouted as they scattered to dodge the beast.

"Don't tell me Audrey created a whole freaking beast!" Carlos said.

"With the scepter, should could probably do anything!" said Meredith.

The beast then swiped at them, causing Carlos to push Meredith and Gil back before they could get hurt.

"Stay back!" Carlos told them.

The beast moved on and made a run for Harry. The boy swung his fist and managed to knock the creature down, but only for a second.

"Watch out!" Jay warned. The beast went for Harry again when it recovered, but Jay was quick to pull him to his side, successfully saving him from any injury.

The beast climbed up a rock, but this time, it didn't look like it wanted to attack. Now that it had moved away and quieted down a bit, everyone took this chance to observe it better and realized a couple of things. For one, it looked injured. And second, it was wearing an Auradon Prep R.O.A.R. uniform, which Meredith couldn't believe she didn't notice earlier. Then again, they were all trying not to get killed.

"You sure you followed the right trail?" Harry said again, sounding less confident than ever.

"Of course! I just followed his very pungent cologne," said Dude defiantly.

"You need some serious nose adjustments."

"I'm not so sure," Carlos said slowly. At those words, it was as if a light bulb went off in Meredith's head. Dude's tracking, a beast, the school sports uniform... it all made sense now.

"Ben?" Meredith asked tentatively. The beast still looked wary and wild, but there was something in the way that its eyes shifted that showed that he at least acknowledged that name.

"Geeze," said Carlos in a low voice. "Did Audrey really do that to him?"

"Huh! I thought I recognized those pants," Jay commented.