Ducktales: Your Own Path

Decisions

Louie thought it would be a lot less dangerous to go on adventurers, or at least, he thought he'd still be able to handle it. But for whatever reason, the older he got, the more life-threatening they'd become. He really didn't know why that was; maybe it had something to do with Chloe moving out of the manor. That was his best guess.

The most recent adventure he'd been on with his family included multiple rivals trying to claim it first, trap and puzzle after trap and puzzle, and a skeleton army, curtesy of Dewey stupidly running into the cave as fast as he could despite literally everyone telling him not to. Huey didn't make it much better, simply barking instructions from his guidebook, expecting them to be followed without question without trying to actually do it himself.

But there was a small bright side to everything that had gone on.

Scrooge has a rule to adventuring wherein any and all treasure found, regardless by whom, goes directly to the Money Bin as soon as they returned to Duckburg. But Louie managed to find a completely separate treasure all on his own, and he'd smuggled it home without anyone noticing.

So that's where he was, in his room, or more specifically, Chloe's old room, going through what he found. His big sister told him there were no shortcuts to life, but she never said anything about alternate routes.

Among his exclusive treasure were at least five hundred dollars worth of gold coins, a few diamond necklaces, and a gold ring with a bright and seemingly polished emerald. After examining it and determining the emerald was real, Louie slipped the ring onto his finger and admired it. His reflection shown clearly in it, like a newly purchased mirror. It fit perfectly onto his finger as well, so he had no trouble removing it.

For the time being, he simply put the ring in his hoodie pocket and his the rest in a secret compartment he'd made since Chloe left.

Not two seconds later, Scrooge came barreling in. "Dinner, Louis!"

Louie groaned. It was to no one's surprise that Scrooge's age was finally getting to him, or at least his brain. He was still pretty physically fit, but he began to forget things easier and ramble on about stuff that would have nothing to do with the current situation.

All Louie could do was put up with it. "Sure thing, Uncle Scrooge."

Louie walked behind his uncle to the dining room. The manor seemed... empty the last few months. He'd been so close to Chloe for so long, he wasn't used to her not being around. They got along like, well, brother and sister. She taught him a few of her combat techniques, and he'd help teach her about modern technology, which she surprisingly wasn't very keen with.

Then, just a month after she turned eighteen... Cody What's-his-name entered the picture. He was, by all means, a nice guy, and he treated Chloe with care and respect. But he always treated Louie like he was five, simply because 'he was her baby brother'. Louie hated it. But he put up with it in return for Chloe putting up with Della for a few months.

Scrooge, however, did not put up with it. He told her repeatedly that Cody wasn't suitable to be with a McDuck, especially one of her talent. And then they both said some things that absolutely no one expected.

"Well maybe I wanna be more than a McDuck!"

"Fine! You're nothing but trouble anyway!"

A few weeks later, Chloe moved out and went to Dawson to live with Cody.

Everyone had seemed to make peace with Chloe's absence, but Louie still couldn't help but feel lonely.

He was drawn out of his thoughts when he suddenly tripped over something. He looked back and saw Huey had left his Junior Woodchuck Guidebook one the ground, and Louie had caused a few of the pages to fall out when he slipped on it.