A Journey through Kingdoms

CHAPTER 12- HAUNTED HOUSE

Cobwebs adorned every corner, the creaky floorboards that feel like they're about to break in with every step-an eerie feeling which tingles down the back of your spine. Tetsuga and Derrick entered old man Solomon's former home, walking along its corridors as they searched for the lost duck. "By Cerion's grace, this place looks so creepy, even on the inside!" Tetsuga notes as his eyes darts around, paranoid. "don't worry, Mr. Tetsuga! I'm sure there's nothing in here besides us and the lost duck." Derrick tries to reassure him as he casually walks along. "I'm not worried about that! In fact, I'm not worried at all!" he states, lifting his bravado up to hide the fact that he was indeed worried about that. Suddenly, they hear the sounds of skittering within the hollow walls as Tetsuga jumps back in fright. "wah! what the heck was that just now!" He yells as he takes a fighting stance. Ready to knock some skulls in. "Hmm... well, it sure didn't sound like a duck's footsteps. It was most likely a rat," Derrick summarizes, easing Tetsuga's anxiety as he sighs in relief. "Phew. it scared me for a second-I mean, no, it didn't!" Tetsuga quickly corrects himself, trying poorly to hide the fact that he could not handle scary things well, even though he has gone through worse things in the past.

"Anyway, Mr. Tetsuga, we should split up to find this duck! it won't stand a chance with us on its feathery tail!" Derrick shouts with enthusiasm as he quickly leaves Tetsuga by himself to start looking. "Get it together, Tetsuga! you can handle this! Just gotta find that duck." Tetsuga hypes himself up as he walks up the stairs to start searching. Now with the two split up, both were now walking through the house alone, flipping over anything they could to see if the duck was hiding. "Oh, Mr. Duck, where are you?" Derrick tries calling out to it as he looks behind the old, decrepit couch to see nothing. "Hmm... what did Mr. Tetsuga say its name was?" He asks as he rubs his chin, trying to remember it. Speaking of Tetsuga, the man was upstairs searching the hallway, which was adorned with many doors lined up across from each other. Every step he took might as well have been a coin flip between falling or not. The wood was so old that it felt like it couldn't support anyone's weight anymore, but luckily Tetsuga wasn't too worried about it since his mind was mainly occupied with thoughts of paranoia.

"Man up, Tetsuga. You got a beard and everything." He tries to reassure himself. Then a bang could be heard from below, making him jolt up in fear. "Ah!" he yells, taking multiple martial arts stances to prepare for an incoming attack. "Sorry, sorry! I dropped something!" Derrick says from downstairs, making Tetsuga take another sigh of relief. "Jeez kid, you're going to give me a heart attack," he expresses as he holds his chest to calm his still-beaten heart. While doing so, he goes to grab a doorknob to open as his hand slowly turns it. "Alright. What's in?" but before his words could be finished, a sight before him left him surprised, as in front of him was a feathery white goose with a tiny little headband wrapped around its head. "There you are, Gerald." Tetsuga spoke, but soon got attacked by the duck as it lunged at him with a feral quack. "Argh!" The duck went directly on to Tetsuga's face and maneuvered over him as it booked it towards the stairs. "Duck!!" Tetsuga shouts to warn Derrick as his butt hits the ground. From downstairs, Derrick peeks his head out from behind a table as he hears the call. "Ha! Ha! It was here!" He says before quickly heading over to the stairs.

He reaches the stairs and sees Gerald, the duck, trying to get down the stairs. But due to Derrick's appearance, it halts and tries to go back up to prevent itself from being captured. But as it tries to get back up the stairs by flying, Tetsuga slides into view. "Come here, you little fowl!" He shouts before trying to snatch the bird out of the air. Luckily for the duck, it managed to let out a quack and fly way over Tetsuga's head, avoiding his grab. Unfortunately for the guy, he didn't expect the dodge, so now he finds himself about to fall over the stairs. "Mr. Tetsuga!" Derrick shouts as he sees Tetsuga about to come in hot from the top. "Whoa!!" Thinking quickly, he turns around midair and uses his magic to latch onto the ceiling with his feet at the edge of one of the steps, preventing him from falling. "Phew, that was a close one." He was relieved but then wasn't as the duck came back in with a vengeance and charged straight at him again. "Aahh!!" The duck starts to attack him in the face; this then causes him to let go of the ceiling to try and fend off the duck. "Uh oh," Derrick spoke since Tetsuga had let go of the ceiling, which means he was back into free fall. "Oof!!" Both men collide into each other as they both fall to the ground. "This is why I hate animals!" Tetsuga remarks as the duck jumps off of his face to flee. "It's heading for the exit!" Derrick points as both turn over to see Gerald hightail for the front door.

Tetsuga looks around the area and sees an old vase. Having no choice, he uses his magic to latch onto the vase and fling it towards the door, causing it to close from the impact. "Get that duck!" He yells as both he and Derrick get up from the ground and try to apprehend the duck all at once. The duck lets out a quack and quickly dodges and weaves through them with expert precision. First, it slips through Tetsuga's legs. "It's too quick!" then it jumps over Derrick, who tries to dive in to grab it. "And agile!" The boy says as he gets back up to try again. "How is catching a duck harder than fighting bandits!?" Tetsuga says as he runs for the duck. "Come here, you freaking," but due to his blind frustration, he fails to anticipate the duck running to the side as he smashes face first into a wall. "Ough!!" Tetsuga falls backward as he tries to regain his bearings. Derrick then notices the duck heading towards the living room of the place before quickly shouting it to Tetsuga. "It's headed to the living room! There's only one way in and out! We can corner it!" Derrick suggests as Tetsuga slowly gets up. "Go get him! I'll block the way!" He says as they both head to the living room.

"Come on, Mr. Duck. We just want to return you to your owner. Please behave." Derrick tries to reason with it as he enters the room to see the duck in the middle of the room. The duck lets out a quack before slipping through Derrick's legs. It bolts towards the entrance to the living room but gets denied by Tetsuga, who blocks it. "No where to run!" he says as the duck turns a 180 and starts running around the room while Derrick struggles to catch it. "He's very lively! I don't think I can-woah!" The duck jumps up to Derrick as the boy tries to reel back to avoid, only to slip on the rug and fall onto his back as his Vials spill onto the floor, luckily enough, unbroken. "Give it up, duck! It's just you and me now!" Tetsuga yells as he gives the duck a mean glare, to which the duck did the same as it stood still in its spot. Ready for a standoff while Derrick looks on from the floor. "Raaaaahhhh!!!" Tetsuga screams a battle cry while the duck quacks rapidly, both rushing towards each other. Their commotion was so loud, however, that bystanders from outside wondered what was even going on inside. "What do you think is going on inside?" One of the bystanders asks as the other with him answers. "... a ghost, probably."

"Raaahhhh!!!" The two meet in the middle as the duck once again tries to fly over Tetsuga's head, but this time. He was ready for it as he leaned back while the duck flew overhead before turning around and grabbing its feet as he prevented it from getting away. "Ha ha ha!! I got you! Now stop!... squirming!" He says as he reels the duck in and holds it in his arms while it tries to flee from his grasp. "You did it, Mr. Tetsuga! You got Gerald!" Derrick pops up from the ground and congratulates him with a smile as he walks over to his side. "Alright, now that we have this little troublemaker, let's go take it back to the tavern and get ourselves pai-" though, things would not seem to go their way just yet. Before Tetsuga could let out a word, the sounds of creaking and cracking were heard from below them. "What was that?" Tetsuga asks, as everyone and the duck stand still for a moment. "I believe that was the floor," Derrick assessed as he looked down to their feet. seconds later, the floor begins to cave into itself before breaking. Sending the three to fall into the hole. "Aahh!!" They both screamed as they fell and hit the ground that was below the house floor. They both land on the floor with an echoey thud as dust kicks up into the air from their landing.

"Augh, are you okay, kid?" Tetsuga asks as he gets up from the floor, all dusty. "I'm okay! Just a little dusty!" Derrick replies as he gets up as well. "Uuuuhhhh..." they then hear someone else aside from them, which causes the two to look over to see a bunch of people all around them. "Well, this is a problem," Derrick says as the people quickly become hostile as they all individually pull out their weapons and point them towards the two. "At least they're not ghosts," Tetsuga says as he quickly passes the duck in his arms over to Derrick as he steps forward, taking a fighting stance. "Alright. Which one of you butt snacks wants a taste of my fist?" and for another time today, he gets interrupted as a vial from Derrick's side pouch that had spilled out onto the floor rolled over to the hole and fell. Directly onto Tetsuga's head as it shatters upon impact. "Augh! Son of a-what was that!?" Tetsuga yells as he clutches his head in pain. "It looked to be one of my vials. Though, I don't know which one." Derrick informs before quickly finding out which one it was as Tetsuga slowly leans forward, then faceplants onto the floor, asleep. "Ah! It was the insomnia relief!" Derrick says with a smile as he sees his concoction still doing its magic. He then later realizes that it was only him and the duck left as he looked up.

"... uh oh."