Legacy - A Ducktales Fanfic.

24. Tricks and Trap-Doors.

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   Behind the large wood door was a long corridor that led into an extravagant dining room.

The room was dominated by a long and grand dining table, built of marble and inlayed with intricate engravings made of pure gold. Surrounding it were matching chairs, with numbers chiselled into the marble headrests. The lowest of the numbers was one and the highest was forty.

Despite its magnificence, the table hadn't been used in quite some time, as both it and its chairs had been weathered to time. With cracked marble, dulling gold and a covering consisting of dust and moss.

On the centre of the table, below a gold three-headed candelabra, which was also rusted, was another note.

Plucking it off the table, Louie saw that it was another rhyming riddle.

"You've bested trial one, congrats you survived the pit. You must be feeling tired, so go ahead, sit. But beware the seat you choose, you must be brave. For if you pick wrong, it may become your grave." - He read it aloud like the first message and scoffed. - "It's somehow worse than the first riddle."

As he walked around the room, Louie tried to figure out which seat he was supposed to sit in. There seemed to be no obvious way to guess correctly. It was complete one in forty chance.

Then he noticed the paintings.

Around there room there were forty frames. Inside, portraits of people, painted throughout Human civilisation. Built into the bottom of each frame, was a golden plate, on which was engraved a number, a name and a date. The paintings while covered in dust, were luckily in a better condition than the table.

A smirk graced Louie's beak. - 'Forty paintings, forty thieves... What are the chances?' - He thought.

Examining them closely, Louie found it difficult to locate a significant difference in any art in the room.

They were all quite typical portraits, all the same size and all seemingly painted by the same person, which Louie based on the exact same style throughout all forty. While strange, an immortal painter who worked for a mysterious thieves guild which spanned time, definitely wasn't the strangest thing, Louie had ever encountered.

The painting's frames were the same, all made of black painted wood, with no hidden mechanisms or buttons that Louie could find.

As he pondered whether or not it was worth taking the risk and choosing a chair randomly. He decided to take one more look at the paintings.

Starting at the painting which was marked by the number one, he examined it for a full minute and when he could not notice anything notable, he moved on to number two.

Making it all the way to painting twenty-one, Louie finally noticed something different, compared to the others. In the background of the portrait, which like all the others were completely black, there was a glint of something shiny, like glitter throughout it.

The painting was of a fox, with a dark twirled moustache and goatee, wearing 13th century era huntsmen clothing, and a bow strapped to his back. His name was Robert Fitzooth the Tenth. Or as it was in roman numerals was Robert Fitzooth X.

"Let's hope X marks the spot." - He muttered, as he crossed the room and sat in the corresponding seat.

As he settled into the chair, he had no idea what was supposed to happen. 

He waited for a moment, but nothing happened. Before beginning to feel around the chair and the table. Finding a button on the underside of the table in front of him. Louie pushed the button, but it was stuck. After a bit more pressure, it finally sunk into the table.