Chapter Text
Donald walks back up the house, having stayed away for a few days. He feels a bone-deep calm from spending so long in the ocean. He enters the house and ambles through to find his family. He finds Della in Scrooge’s office with the old duck. They look up as he enters, relief coloring both of their faces.
“Hey. You’ve had some time to think about it.”
“Donald, we were so worried! Don’t scare us like that!”
“Like you always scare me? I’m not really here to argue about that. So magic.
I have it.”
They seem to be put off by his deep calm. He rests his shoulder against the wall, phantom feelings of waves rolling across his feathers soothing any anger that might have reared its head.
“I… Laddie, magic isn’t somethin’ worth messing in.”
“Welp. I’m in it. It’s not dangerous by the way. I can show you.”
Della tentatively nods, looking at his relaxed and open posture.
“Great. Unca Scrooge, I’m going to be using that glass of water beside you.”
The duck warns before letting his hand glow. He pulls the water out and to himself, forming Tempest as he goes. This is a much smaller version of the dragon he has been spending the days with, far smaller than the length of a ship that had wrapped his bubble at night.
“This is Tempest, my companion. He’s sweet.”
The dragon coos as it wraps around his arm. Della tentatively touches him. Scrooge stays back, wary. Donald rolls his eyes but the calm is still warm around his thoughts so he says nothing.
“I’m not going to suddenly change into Magica. I didn’t think it would go well to announce my sudden acquisition of magic. It’s not my fault the two of you failed to notice my hand feathers being stained blue.”
With that Donald walks to his room. Throughout the rest of the summer break, his family continues to try to persuade him to hand over his amulet and wary looks when they are not talking about it. Donald, for his part, keeps magic out of sight, confined to his room and the ocean. He makes trips to the salty waves as often as he can between adventures while still keeping time for his friends. Despite the tension at home, Donald feels more relaxed than he had in a long time. He reasons it’s due to the sheer amount of time he is spending in the water. He had always been drawn to the sea, as evidenced by his career decision to join the navy after Highschool.
Before the duck boards the bus to head back to the university, Donald takes a moment to talk to his sister. She had been less skittish about the magic than Scrooge.
“Dells, I just want to clear the air between us before I leave. You know I still love you? Nothing can stop that. Not magic “infecting” me, not us disagreeing on me keeping my amulet. Okay?”
She nods and Donald can feel some of the built-up tension fade. They hug each other and he heads out. As he leaves he throws out an invitation to visit so that she knows that she is still welcome. Maybe she will come around with Scrooge one day, or at least shift to trusting him to make his own decisions and mistakes. He’s certainly had to do that himself with some of the riskier adventures.
———––
José places several candles on his new desk in a large mess. His books are scattered across his bed, ready to be carefully put away. He hears the front door open and pokes his head out to spot his duck friend.
“Donal’! Good to see you meu amigo!”
“Hey, Joe! Mind helping me with my door? I don’t want to put my bag down again.”
The parrot nods and opens the door next to his. Donald hefts his bag onto the desk and then turns and hugs the other bird.
“It’s nice to see a friendly face in person.”
José pats his back sympathetically.
“That bad with the Family?”
“As you say. Sim.”
The parrot lets out a soft chuckle at this use of Portuguese with such a hard negative tone. Donald shoots him a smile as he breaks away to start pulling things from his own bag.
“I take it that Panchito has not arrived.”
“Nope. I got here first Pato.”
The duck sighs. The two are then interrupted by the front door swinging open violently sending a shudder through the house. They hear the rooster’s distinctive cry and give each other grins before rushing out to see the third member of their trio.
“Ah, mis amigos! So good to see the two of you!”
“Chito! How’ve you been?”
Donald asks.
“Very good!”
They help Panchito haul his bag into his room chatting amicably. Once that is done Panchito turns to José.
“Do you think you can give a refresher on what you learned about our mystery book? I have kinda forgotten some of it.”
The parrot nods and moves to his room. He pulls his notebook from the bookcase where all of his books are neatly arranged. He rushes back to his friends and flips it open to the relevant notes.
“So the spells I used told me that this is an encyclopedia of sorts that was cursed into its locked state. Meaning that there is probably not a key. It supposedly holds a ton of information though.”
Donald nods along with this information.
“Do you think there is a spell to remove or undo the lock?”
The duck asks. José shrugs and taps his leg in thought.
“I did not find anything while doing my research at home. I doubt there are any books in our school that’ll help.”
“What about at the New Quackmore Institute?”
Panchito questions eye narrowed in thought. The parrot’s own eyes widen.
“They might actually have something! We definitely need to take a day and look at their archives if we can. On another note, how would you guys feel about playing a gig.”
José watches as both of his friends blink at him and the sudden change of topic.
“Do you mean what I think you mean?”
Donald says. Panchito’s eyes glitter.
“Sim. My Papai has a brother who has a daughter whose best friend owns a pub near here and over the summer I’ve been sending letters back and forth. We got an interview with the manager next week.”