Chapter 38: Look for Trouble, And It Shall Find You
Chapter 38
Look For Trouble, And It Shall Find You
The streets of the outpost town bustled with life. All about, the creatures of the kingdom ran their errands, ran their business, and finished their chores.
Scrooge McDuck pushed his way past the crowd, desperately trying to find out who the owner of the railway was. More importantly, the identity of the owner of the massive money bin in the sky.
He stopped to inquire a camel, who was carrying an urn of water on each of his two humps.
<”Excuse me. Could I take a moment of your time to ask who owns the railways?”> the tycoon asked.
<”I know nothing of the railways. Apart from that they now surround my house with their rattling lumber and metal,”> the camel answered.
<”Fair enough, I suppose. Sorry to waste your time,”> Uncle Scrooge said.
<”Peace to you, duck,”> the camel said, before carefully going along his way.
As Uncle Scrooge walked off to ask the next creature what they knew, his nephew was following closely behind.
“Uncle Scrooge! Wait up!” Donald called, before he bumped into the camel who was carrying the water urns.
The two urns atop the camel’s humps started to wobble.
“WAK!!” Donald shouted, before he tried to steady them.
One urn was saved, while the other fell right on top of him, splashing him with its contents and covering him down to his knees.
“Hey! What’s the big idea!? Who turned out the lights!?” the duck squawked loudly, his voice echoing inside of the urn.
He tripped over his own feet, and went rolling down the street. It seemed to be no hindrance to the creatures in the market, who simply moved out of his way like a school of fish.
Uncle Scrooge was still searching for any clue to the identity of the railway boss, and stopped at a stall where there were bins full of salted nuts and sugared fruits.
The winged creature running the stall barely had room to move with the massive rail post smack in the middle of his shop. His back was pressed against the post, as he cracked nuts on his stall’s front counter.
<”Hello. And peace to ye on this day,”> Uncle Scrooge said, having picked up on the local greeting, <”Tell me, would a...creature such as yourself know anything about the railroad boss. Ye bein’ so close to it, an’ all.”>
<”No. But, if I ever see the lousy dog face to face, it will be his head under my mallet!!”> the creature said, as he violently cracked another nut.
Uncle Scrooge winced slightly at the sight, and decided he had better be going.
<”Just don’t do anything drastic, until I ask him how he built that bin o’ his,”> the tycoon said.
<”I can make no promises,”> the creature said. He picked up a bunch of sugared grapes and gently tossed them to his elderly customer. <”Here. Peace be.”>
<”An’ to ye too,”> Uncle Scrooge said, before he walked off to continue his search.
As the tycoon was enjoying his free sample of sweets, Donald came rolling up to the stall where his uncle just was, still trapped in his urn.
“Let me outta here! Let me outta here! WAK!!” the duck shouted.
Unknown to Donald, while he was throwing his tantrum the creature at the stall leaned as far over as he could, mallet in hand. With one powerful smash, the urn rang and rattled like a bell, as long cracks started forming all over its surface.
Piece by piece, the urn fell apart. In seconds, Donald was free, shaking like a plucked harp string. Putting his shaking hands on his head, the duck steadied himself from the top down, as his body rippled from his neck down to his toes, until he stopped shaking altogether.
“Thanks for the help, pal,” Donald said to the shopkeeper.
He did not hear the response, as he was already looking for his uncle. He easily spotted the distinctive red coat and top hat among the crowd, and started running after it.
Once more, Uncle Scrooge stopped to talk with some of the creatures in town. His next stop took him to a public water pump, where several ladies were washing baskets of linens.
<”Hello, an’ peace to ye. Pardon me for interruptin’, but who’s in charge of the railway around here?”> Uncle Scrooge asked.
Every creature at the open air laundromat looked warily at the duck, before the camel at the pump answered him.
<”I’m sorry, but we can’t be sure. I personally stay as far from this dreadful railway business as I can,”> the camel said.
<”I couldn’t agree more. If you were smart, you wouldn’t get involved,”> answered a winged creature, who was rinsing her load of linens.
<”I see. Good day to ye, ladies,”> the tycoon bade them.
<”Peace on this day to you,”> another camel responded.
It was becoming frustrating for Uncle Scrooge, who had not picked up a single clue to the identity or whereabouts of the one person in the world who was richer than he was. For once, he wished for the presence of Glomgold and Rockerduck, just for the sake of having someone on his side to team up and take on the magnate.
“Wait! Uncle Scrooge! Hold up!” the tycoon heard a voice call.
Turning around, Uncle Scrooge saw his hapless nephew rushing toward him.
It was Donald’s haste that made him trip once more, into the laundry pool with all the linens.
One of the winged creatures took the duck by his back, and started unknowingly scrubbing him against the ridged, corrugated bottom of the pool with the rest of her laundry.
Donald’s bill only rose above the surface long enough for him to sputter a single syllable at a time.
“Get--Me--Out--Ta--Here!!!” he said.
Uncle Scrooge reached in with his cane, and hooked the back of his nephew’s shirt. Once Donald was properly snagged, the tycoon fished him out of the pool and placed him onto the ground.
“Honestly, nephew! Rootin’ around a lady’s underthings as such! I raised ye better than that, lad!” Uncle Scrooge admonished.
“Ya let the house staff raise me,” Donald grumbled, as he wrung out his hat. “Now, listen up, unc. We got us a job to do. So, you can’t just go pussyfootin’ all over this town just to make a buck.”
“Really? It just so happens that the person I’m lookin’ for is the richest transportation magnate in the world. Don’t ye think someone like that could expedite yer endeavors?”
Donald had to admit that the aspect of getting help from somebody who could get them anywhere anytime was intriguing. But, knowing his uncle, the duck knew that he would try to extend their stay to the point that they would end up going into business together.
He noted the way Uncle Scrooge glanced upward toward the flying castle, knowing he was eager to see the money bin more than anything else.
“Alright. But, don’t try doin’ anything...capitalist,” Donald said, after taking a moment to think of the proper word.
“Ye’ll never get much farther than ye are in life now with that attitude. Me, I’m the enterprising sort. All I need is just one of these townsfolk to give me a clue to where to find the railway’s owner,” Uncle Scrooge answered, before going back to scanning the crowd for someone else to interrogate. And he found them.
There was a winged creature who stood out greatly from the crowd. Her turquoise robes shimmered with the immaculate sheen of silk, which perfectly complemented her sea green wings. From head to toe, from her turban to her shoes, she was adorned with jewelry.
Uncle Scrooge knew he had found his path to the boss. Anyone as rich as the lady he saw was surely in league with him.
“That’s the one there,” the tycoon said, pointing his cane at the ornate creature. He took Donald by the arm. “Come along, nephew. There’s work yet to be done.”
Donald almost started after his uncle, when he noticed one of the women at the laundry pool glaring at him.
The winged creature held up a pair of undergarments, which were peppered with white waterfowl feathers.
Donald grinned sheepishly, as the creature glared at him.
“Heh-heh...heh...Uh...Sorry to be an inconvenience, ma’am,” Donald said, before quickly bolting after his uncle.
Uncle Scrooge was already upon the opulent creature when Donald caught him up.
<”Peace on this day to ye, good lady. I was wonderin’ if--”> Uncle Scrooge began.
<”YOU!!”> the creature shouted, as she pointed a clawed finger into the tycoon’s bill, <”You are the ones who took my husband from me!!”>
Donald wasn’t sure what the creature was saying, but he could tell that she was definitely accusing them of something.
“I think that’s our cue to leave, unc,” Donald said.
<”Wait! I think ye might have me confused with someone else! Ye see, I--”> Uncle Scrooge tried to explain to the creature.
<”I’ve seen plenty already!”> the creature shouted, as she imposingly stepped forth.
The ducks both backed away.
“Ya better say somethin’ nice!” Donald said.
<”Now, see here, madam. I--”> Uncle Scrooge began.
<”First the bugs, and now the birds! Ever since you--things--have come to Kamelut, it’s been one tragedy after the next!”> the lady continued.
“Tragedies?” Uncle Scrooge said in a language his nephew understood. <”But, we don’t know anything about these tragedies!”>
His words seemed to spike the anger of the creature, who was joined by more of the others in the crowd in harassing the ducks.
Donald tripped and went stumbling backwards.
A camel in the crowd bumped the duck back into his uncle.
“Oof!” Uncle Scrooge said, when he was impacted from behind.
“What’d ya do? Tell her to build a bridge and get over it!? Bit of a sore subject for them, don’t ya think!?” Donald said, indicating the railway above.
Uncle Scrooge hooked his cane around Donald’s bill.
“Shut yer noise, lad! We might be onto somethin’ here!” he said, before addressing the creature again. <”Tell me, what have I got to do with your husband?”>
<”Ever since your kind came here, you’ve been corrupting the minds of good hearted camels and zahaks alike with your foul promises of wealth!”> one of the camels said.
<”My brother was an honest, generous zahak, before your boss and his blood money twisted his heart to greed!”> one of the winged creatures shouted.
<”And when my husband refused to intrude upon the lives of his friends and neighbors any further, you took him to the desert, from where he’ll never return!!!”> the rich zahak shouted.
<”Wait just a goldurn moment! I don’t know anything about this ralway business! And I certainly know nothin’ about yer husband! Why, my nephew an’ I rolled into town literally minutes ago!”> Uncle Scrooge said.
<”Then, you are potentially trouble,”> an elderly camel said. <”I can see by looking at you that you two are the types easily swayed by the promises of wealth. It will only be a matter of time before you too are taken into his evil business.”>
It was a shock to Uncle Scrooge to hear such a thing. He knew only too well the power that money had to make men do evil. Having once succumbed to it himself, he thought himself lucky to have learned his lesson and claw his way back to honest, legitimate business. Perhaps if he could share such a lesson with the railway boss, he could find a new business partner and expand his own money bin, while at the same time make life better for the citizens of the kingdom of Kamelut.
<”Then, my nephew and I will have a word with this degenerate, an’ set him straight!”> the tycoon declared, as he emphatically struck his cane to the ground. Unknown to him, he struck it right on top of Donald’s foot.
“WAK!!” Donald shouted, as he started hopping up and down, holding his sore flipper.
The sight before them all made the crowd collectively lose what little faith they would almost have had in the plan.
<”Do as you see fit. Myself? I’m taking my daughter and grandchildren to the next kingdom. We can only hope that the railways have not reached there yet,” the elderly camel said, before plodding along his way.
“Razzum-frazzum son of a wak-wak-wak-wak!!” Donald said, as he rubbed his sore flipper.
Uncle Scrooge hooked his cane around his nephew’s neck, and yanked him closer.
“Enough jibbering, lad. We got business to do,” the tycoon said, before addressing the crowd one last time. <”I doubt anyone here knows where the boss is, but I was told that his assistant was in town. Does anyone know where I can find him?”>
The camels and zahaks in the crowd all gasped sharply, and took a step backwards.
“What did I say? Was my dialect somehow offensive?” Uncle Scrooge wondered, as he scratched his head.
Fluttershy was the first to hide inside one of the nearby metal tubes outside the shop, followed by Applejack who jumped into the neighboring tube.
Inside the shop, the struggle continued. It sounded as if shelves were being knocked over and things were being thrown, between the blows landing.
One last blow was heard, and Zeke Midas Wolf went flying out of the shop, a cleaver held in each clawed hand and no hat on his head.
The wolf furiously stood up and shouted one last threat to the inside of the shop.
“The boss is gonna hear about this! You can count on that! And gimme back my hat!” Big Bad shouted into the shop.
His request was obliged, when his hat flew out and hit him in the face like a ton of bricks.
The wolf was knocked into the sand again, picked up his ratty old top hat, and dumped out a small engine from within. With a guttural growl, the glutton turned around and went on his way.
Fluttershy trembled at the sight of the wolf. After their encounter in Santillama, she had hoped he would only be a memory. Now, the Big Bad Wolf was back in her life, vicious as ever.
Big Bad stopped and sniffed the air.
Fluttershy trembled. Was the wolf sniffing for her? Could he smell her where she was? Whatever he was doing, he stopped sniffing, looked one direction, and rubbed his hands together.
“Skedaddle!” Applejack whispered, just loud enough for Fluttershy to hear through the next tube.
Both mares started shimmying backwards through their pipes, as the wolf stepped closer to them. Fluttershy shivered intensely when she saw the blades of Big Bad’s cleavers glint in the sun.
Behind her, the beetle that had hitched a ride on her tail took hold of her hairs and started pulling as hard as it could.
Soon, Fluttershy’s tail dropped out of the tube, and the beetle hung suspended in the air. Its tiny feet touched down to the sand, as the pegasus crawled out to safety.
Big Bad poked his head into the tube Fluttershy had previously occupied, and sniffed deeply.
Behind the tubes, Fluttershy and Applejack both crouched low, just out of the wolf’s sight, and quietly crawled away.
Through the openings of each tube, the mares saw Big Bad’s clawed feet walking in the same direction as themselves.
They were too far along to one side to run safely around the opposite corner. And it would be too easy for the wolf to reach in after them if they ran inside the tubes.
It was Applejack who discovered the escape. The farmpony began climbing straight up the sides of the stack of tubes.
Fluttershy hesitated a moment, but the sounds of Big Bad’s approaching steps spurred her to action. Quickly, she followed after Applejack, and reached the top, just as the wolf rounded the corner.
Big Bad continued to sniff the air, searching for the source of the scent.
Slowly, the mares backed away from the edge of the stack. Applejack kept a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulders to keep her from trembling.
The pegasus’s hoof missed a step, and rattled the metal tubes against each other.
The wolf’s attention was drawn upward, and the mares crouched low to keep out of sight.
Big Bad sniffed the air again, lowered himself to all fours, and silently walked through the length of one tube to stealthily move to a different vantage point.
Applejack dared to look around. She raised her head slightly, and scoped her surroundings. But, she could find no sight of the wolf.
Down below, Big Bad was growing closer to the other end of the tube.
Not seeing any sight of their opponent was more terrifying than otherwise to Fluttershy. For all she knew, the wolf was already right upon them both.
The beetle decided that then was a good time to bail out on the suspense. It let go of Fluttershy’s tail, and started creeping toward the edge of the stack.
Just as Big Bad emerged from the tube below, he slowly turned his gaze upward.
The beetle reached the edge of the stack, and began climbing its way down. Unfortunately, its extra weight was just enough to send the teetering tube at the top of the stack tumbling down.
Big Bad’s eyes snapped to the source of the disturbance, and the wolf rushed to its direction.
“Got ya!!” he shouted.
The mares at the top of the stack both ran away to the opposite direction they heard the wolf’s voice, pushing the large metal tubes to their opponent’s direction.
Big Bad yelped, as the stack came crashing down on him. In seconds, he was buried beneath a mass of metal.
In a moment, the wolf popped up from beneath the pile, one of the smaller tubes stuck firmly on his snout. At the end of the tube, the beetle hung helplessly.
As Big Bad tried removing the tube from his face, he wondered if the trouble was worth it to find the source of the curious scent. Until he noticed it more strongly.
Turning his head toward town, he inhaled deeply, using the tube as an amplifier to catch more of the scent.
That was it. He finally found what he was looking for.
“Kofta!” the glutton declared, before he started trying to pry off the tube.
With another deep inhale, Big Bad’s whole body inflated. With a massive exhale, he blew the tube off of his face and sent it flying into the wall of the nearby shop.
The beetle held tightly to the tube, and crawled inside, before the tube impacted.
The tube flipped into the air, landed, and the beetle dizzily crawled out the top. It fell, and landed on the awning over the shop.
Now free, the Big Bad Wolf ran off in the direction of the food he had smelled, ready to devour it all.
With the coast clear, the mares crawled out from hiding. Fluttershy and Applejack both peered out from opposite sides of a single large tube they had both crawled into, and back into the sandy ground
“You alright, sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
Fluttershy shuddered and nodded her head.
“Don’t worry. We’ll just have to keep duckin’ him while we’re here. But, I promise the second I get my magic back, I’m fixin’ him like the bad dog he is,” the farmpony promised.
Given her profession with animals, Fluttershy thought Applejack may have meant something different from ‘repair’ when she said ‘fix.’ Typically, such a thought would make her wince. But, for the first time, she found herself feeling indifferent to any harm that would come to the gluttonous wolf.
“We better get inside there,” Applejack said, indicating the shop.
“But…” Fluttershy tried to protest.
“It’s okay. He’s gone now. An’ if he was just in there, you can bet that there’s somethin’ we should try gettin’ to first.”
Fluttershy knew there was sound logic in her friend’s words, and hesitantly agreed to go inside. Her nerves steaded when she saw two familiar faces in the crowd on the street.
“Oh! Donald! Mr. McDuck!” she called to them.
The ducks heard her, and trotted to greet them.
“So, this is where you got off to,” Donald said.
“And how fortuitous it is. It just so happens that this is where I was told I could find the rail boss’s assistant,” Uncle Scrooge said, before hastily walking into the shop.
A terrible thought occurred to Fluttershy. The only creature she had seen in the shop was the scariest, nastiest one she had ever known. And now, her friends were looking for him.
“Wait,” Fluttershy quietly called.
It was too late. The tycoon had already disappeared into the shop.
“Don, we got bad news. That wolf yer uncle bucked at Paya’s house? He was in there!” Applejack said.
“Wak! Just now?” Donald exclaimed.
“Just now. He left, right before ya came here. Y’all were lucky ya didn’t run into him on the streets!”
“Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy,” Donald groaned.
“And Applejack thinks that there was something inside that he wanted,” Fluttershy added.
“The bad news just keeps on coming, doesn’t it?” Donald said. “Well, we better get a look in there. See what this fuss was all about.”
The mares and duck walked into the shop. Fluttershy hesitantly so, remembering the brawl that took place when she and Applejack arrived.
On the awning above, the beetle tried to climb down, only to slip, fall, and land on top of Donald’s hat.
Inside the shop, there was almost nothing of note to see, other than the incredible mess from the previous brawl that took place inside. Besides that, it seemed just an ordinary scrap shop.
Bins full of nuts, bolts, hinges, nails, springs and washers were against the walls, with their contents spilled across the floor. Cubbies full of rods, shafts, rings, spikes and other parts reached from ceiling to floor, some of them toppled over. Tables were laid out with scraps of metal and mechanical parts that looked as if they had come from many disparate machines, which once upon a time were grand constructs. After nearly stepping on a nail, Fluttershy began cleaning up the floor.
Applejack found a desk that was laid out with many papers, written in an alphabet that she could not read.
At the same counter, Donald discovered somebody’s lunch that had been left out, partly scattered by the apparent struggle that had taken place before they arrived.
Atop his hat, the beetle noticed the food, and made its way toward it. It jumped down to Donald’s shoulder, then to the table, where it started examining the scattered food. It found an overturned plate of seasoned barley and began eating heartily.
“It’s a right sorry state, this shop,” Uncle Scrooge muttered to himself. “An’ not a sign of a single soul.”
“Maybe they went out back?” Fluttershy suggested, as she carefully picked up the mess on the floor.
Uncle Scrooge looked to where the pegasus indicated, and saw an open door that led to what looked like a large scrapyard. A vast expanse of broken, jagged metal in all shapes and sizes was seen, scattered about in massive piles that left narrow paths between them. In the middle of it all was a single, straight, very wide path that stretched far into the distance.
Seeing the door, the tycoon decided that it was as good a place as any to check for anyone in charge. He walked toward the door with a spring in his step, knowing he was close to his end goal. Until he was stopped completely.
A zahak, far taller than any other they had yet encountered, blocked the doorway. And he glared at Uncle Scrooge with a vicious contempt that nearly pierced a hole through the tycoon’s top hat. Though he was elderly, fairly skinny, and dressed in tattered robes, the zahak seemed every bit as intimidating as any business rival Scrooge had encountered.
“Anypony find anything?” Applejack said, before she turned her attention to the door. One look at the unfriendly stranger, and she knew trouble was imminent.
Fluttershy and Donald too noticed the newcomer. Fluttershy slowly hid behind the duck, hoping that the zahak would not attack them quite as viciously as he did the Big Bad Wolf.
Stats
Page generated in 0.036 seconds
Total duration
1,008 users online
48,707 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Wow, that chapter came fast! It's a good one too. I read your comment on how you formed the teams and I must say it was a good reasoning. But do you plan to do a shuffle at some point because we know how the dinamic of Mickey, Donald and Goofy is good but what would happen if you were to rotate some of the characters? I kind of want to see that at one point because since they all learned to work with their respective new commers, they did not really pass a long time with the others so there could be frictions.
And ther is one thing that I find strange. I didn't knew what a zahak was so I did a quick google search but every description I find is a man or creature with two snakes comming out of their shouldersa and you describe them with wings. Is there a reason for this?
9462111
No. The teams will stay mostly together for the remainder of the story. I say mostly, because we already know what happened with Twilight. But, you may be in for a surprise or two down the line.
As for the zahak, they are only named for the creatures that you discovered. I explained in the last chapter that they were an mix of mummies, ghouls and Zoroastrian demons. The demons are where the wings come from.
A mob hit and a slasher stalk in an E-rated story!? Holy shit! This is like Batman: TAS territory!