Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Panchito bumps shoulders with his brother Morales they make it into the small town near their ranch to negotiate for supplies. It is his third day home from school. When the rooster had first arrived home for the summer, he had shown off some of his new skills to his family. He had changed the dirt in one of the grazing fields and the grass was growing better than it had in years. The rooster feels fairly proud of himself for being able to help out his family. He glances around the town, half interested in his surroundings. His eyes catch on a well that he had seen a hundred times, but this time he notes the writing a little more closely. 

“To draw water from this well will unseal the spirts locked here by the Tres Amici.”

His mind flashes back to Attor and the rooster silently wonders how many places those three heroes had frozen things as a solution. It seems almost lazy to Panchito, but he supposes that he was not there, so he can not really say much. Morales bumps him, bringing him back from his thoughts. He flashes a smile and they make their way into the store. He quietly pays attention to what Morales is saying and doing to negotiate, making mental notes to the future. They return home successful and Panchito goes into the yard to go start working on the barn. He finds the hard work to be soothing despite the little ache in his right wrist. During the school year, it had been nice to work on the set pieces and use his hands to create something useful. He hopes that he will be able to do so in the upcoming semester. The rooster gets lost in his work, not noticing his hands softly glowing red. 

Dirt has swirled over his shoulder, forming into Sierra. Absently he pats the lion as it bumps his cheek.  He blinks at this and laughs at the sudden realization that he had formed his companion. The lion bumps him once more before leaping away to dash about the yard. Panchito shakes his head, going back to finish his job. 

That night he calls his friends through the bowl. It was the first Friday since he had gotten home, and so it was their first group call since they had all agreed to meet on Fridays. Donald appears first giving a sad little smile that lets Panchito somehow knows immediately that his friend’s family was no there when he got home. The rooster sighs sympathetically. José joins the call and seems to immediately understand the situation. Instead of saying anything directly about it, the parrot starts talking about a song he had heard on the radio that he thought the three of them might enjoy learning. Donald pulls out his guitar and they start working together to figure out the best way to arrange the chords. Panchito works on memorizing the lyrics and strumming his own guitar. The time passes calmly but quickly as they continue to keep each other’s spirits high.

----------------------------

Donald chuckles as Tempest chews on jello. It had been a week since the first call with his friends. Since then his family had returned and they had gone on three adventures. He is enjoying some of the first downtime following him seeing his family. His door is locked and his hands are softly glowing. Donald glances at his friends, who are chatting about the value of rocking chairs. Tempest gurgles at him, causing the duck to lift another spoon full of jello to the tiny dragon. He laughs at a statement that Panchito makes about the superiority of rocking chairs. Then his door slams open. Donald flails in surprise, crashing to the floor with the bowl landing on his face. Water splashes all over and Tempest dissolves. Donald can see a lock pick hanging from her hand.

“DONALD! You were using magic!!!”

“You just pick locked my door!!”

“That’s beside the point!”

Donald curls his hands into fists, anger filling his stomach.  

“It’s not! Get out Della! You can’t just break into other people’s rooms!!”

“Laddie, I heard yelling about yew usin magic?”

Scrooge joins Della in Donald’s doorway. 

“His hands were glowing!”

“Are you not going to address how Della just broke into my locked room?”

“Laddie, yew know that magic corrupts, how could ye do somethin so reckless?”

Donald growls with irritation.  He decides to attempt an explanation, knowing that they would probably not accept it but wanting to try anyway.

“Fine. I’ll give you an explanation. Don’t interrupt. While at college I and the rest of the Three Caballeros found out that the founders of Flighton university had some secrets. Which included magic amulets. You guys did not notice the amulet when I came home for break or the physical changes that came with it. I’ve had this water amulet for over half a year and neither of you noticed until Della here violated my privacy. That should prove that magic is not corrupting. Those who are evil and happen to use magic arent evil because of it. I have never used the magic around you two except once to save us from that storm. I’m not giving it over Uncle Scrooge and you can’t take something you can’t see.”

His family stares at him as he glares at them, ready for a fight.

“You adventured without me?”

“Yes. And you have done the same Dells. I’m not sorry.”

“I won’t accept magic in mah house! Things with dark power belong in the bin for everyone’s safety.”

“Then it’s good that this thing has no dark power. Look, I’m going for a walk, figure out whether or not you’re kicking me out of the house on your own. I’ll be back eventually.”

With that Donald grabs a bag pushes both of the other ducks out of the way and makes his way out of the house.  The two are frozen in shock, allowing Donald a clean breakaway. Just one more thing to divide him from his family he thinks to himself. First, a wariness of danger, then his bad memories from the navy, and now magic. He makes his way to the ocean, deciding to go swimming.

Chapter Text

The parrot blinks at the sudden disappearance of his duck friend and he can see that Panchito is also confused. The two look to each other and blink. 

“I guess he got swept into an adventure? I guess I should also go…”

Panchito says confusedly. José nods in agreement. He had some reading that he would like to do.

“I will talk to you and Donal’ later. Goodbye!”

“Adios!”

José thumbs though a few books for a few hours trying to find any reference to the golden book that rests at the bottom of his bookbag. He had asked his Papai if he had ever encountered anything like it. The older parrot had a few ideas about old enchanted books and had requested books on the subject from the group he was in. He puffs out a breath of air, curling a little tighter in the pool of moonlight streaming in through his window. His eyes trail down the page, absorbing information about different texts that were from the ancient past that had been lost then found. He sees a spell for identifying if there are any spells on the book and what it might be about. The parrot wonders if this would go against the agreement he had made with his friends. Deciding that he can not wait, José pulls out his bowl and call back up his friends. Panchito responds fairly quickly, yawning and blinking. 

“Hey, José. what’s up?”

The parrot is interrupted from answering by Donal appearing with an oddly watery background.

“Where are you Pato?”

José asks, looking on with confusion, mind temporarily away from his own questions.

“In the ocean. Under the ocean? I’m in a bubble. What’s up Joe?”

“Okay? I’m sure you have your reasons.”

José says confusedly. He sees Panchito’s eyes narrow.

“Esos idiotas malvados! Your familia has done something to you.”

Panchito states, voice bordering on a growl. Donald scratches the back of his kneck.

“Yeah, they kinda found out about the magic and don’t super love it. They only found out because Della pick locked my door. I don’t want to talk about it.  So Joe, why are we here?”

The parrot gives the duck a sympathetic look, before explaining his call.

“I wanted to ask to see if using some spells I found would go against our agreement about messing with the book.”

“That should be fine as long as you don’t open the book itself.”

Donald says as Panchito nods. 

“Let us know what you find out!”

The rooster says and José nods. Panchito then yawns and lays down with his bowl. The trio chats a little longer, neither José nor Panchito wanting to leave Donald on his own when he was upset over his family, even if he is not crying outright. Donald falls asleep and Panchito follows very soon after. José yawns, rubbing his eye and moves to his own bed to fall asleep. He feels excitement over getting to try out new spells the next day tampered only by his worry over his duck friend who is sleeping underneath the waves.

--------------------------------- 

Panchito ducks beneath Sierra who is attempting to pounce on him. He twists and blocks the small mountain lion. He tosses himself to the side as his older brother attempts to grab him. The small lion and Morales had been working together to try and pin him down. It served as a great distraction from thinking about his friends. There is nothing he can do at this point except be there for the duck if he called. Plus it helped to train for future battles that he might encounter in the future. The rooster lets out a yell has his brother grabs ahold of him and starts to give him a fearsome head noogie. Panchito laughs, the sound echoing around the yard and is soon matched by his brother. 

That night Panchito is cleaning the kitchen with his mother. He thinks back to the well he had seen and hist interactions with Attor and decides to ask.

“Have you ever heard of the Tres Amici?”

“Ah yes. From the well? There is a whole poem about that battle.”

Panchito bounces on his feet. His mother looks at him as he shakes with excitement. 

“Do you know the poem?”

She nods and a look of deep thought crossing her face

“Goulish ghosts traipsing across on haunted streets,

Keeping fair people indoors at late hour. 

Oh, the town despaired for nightly repeats,

Causing all moods around to be quite dour.

But then they came the three from oh so far

Bringing hope to all who saw their fierce arms. 

They fought in the light of evening star

Not falling to the dark fiends’ wily charms.

Night shifts to dawn with the battle ending

The Tres Amici standing before the seal.

Their foes for now no longer impending 

Having been locked away through their bright steel.

A fool may release the ghosts from this well

By pulling water from where they all dwell.”

Panchito slowly claps as his mother finishes reciting the poem. She laughs and pats him on the back. 

“It is an old tale, but don’t drink the water from that well.”

“Not to worry, I don’t plan on it Mamá.”

He smiles at her as he dries a dish with a rag. Panchito puts it away in the cabinet and reaches for the next plate. His mother begins to hum and they start singing together, filling the kitchen with music. As he finishes the kitchen he hugs his mother goodnight and moves into his room. He pulls out a notebook and jots the poem down to talk to his friends about it, finding it interesting that the group mentioned by a dragon had fame in the area near him. The incidents were so distant from each other, with hundreds of kilometers between the two. It is odd and Panchito wonders what it means. He moves around his room, mind-shifting to another topic, his friends. The rooster had not heard back from Donald since he had seen the duck in a bubble. He hopes that the smaller bird is okay.

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.”

Chapter Text

Panchito bounces in place excitedly.

“Really?! Truly?!” 

The rooster crows, joy bubbling out through his voice. They had yet to do a real show together, and he desperately wanted to do so. They had made their own songs and new several already existing ones. His mind is already running through them, organizing which they should play and what order.

“Sim. Yes, Panchito! We have an interview next week.”

“Awesome!”

Donald gleefully shouts. The trio talks a little longer before separating to put their stuff away. Panchito places the last of his clothes in his dresser, shivering slightly. The temperature had dropped rather suddenly and he pulls on a university hoodie. He makes his way into the common area. Donald is already in the kitchen wearing a sweater of his own while cooking.

“Hey. Is butter noodles okay for dinner? I’m making enough for all three of us.”

The duck says as he places the lid over the pot of boiling water and pasta. Panchito smiles and leans against the wall.

“Yes. Thanks. You didn’t need to cook us dinner.”

The duck shrugs.

“I wanted to. We don’t really have a dining room, so we have to eat in the living room.” 

José enters wearing Donald’s stolen jacket and stands beside Panchito. They chat as the water boils and the pasta slowly cooks. Once the meal is ready they move as a group to the living room. The evening is spent pleasantly together as the group enjoys being reunited and ready themselves for the upcoming semester of classes. 

Panchito wakes in the middle of the nights to the sound of creaking floorboards. He figures it must be one of his friends heading to the bathroom and rolls over in his bed. His eyes grow heavy as he slips back into sleep. The creaking follows him into his dreams. When the rooster wakes early the next morning, he finds himself feeling unsettled. Puffing out a breath, Panchito tries to dislodge the feeling by sorting a few of his things and setting up his bag for the first day of classes tomorrow. He winces as he tilts his right hand back, triggering an ache in his wrist. He should probably look into what could be causing this pain, as it had steadily become more and more common. Poking his wrist, Panchito hums with thought before forming a fist and rolling it around, testing where exactly it began to hurt at. He is interrupted by a knock, and José cracks the door.

“I made some breakfast since Donald made food last night. By the way thanks for cleaning the dishes, it was nice to wake up and immediately start on cooking.”

The parrot moves away and back to the kitchen before the rooster could respond. The dishes? He does not recall doing them last night. Maybe he had and simply was so tired he forgot. A strong possibility with the long train ride that had brought him from Mexico. He moves to go join his friends in the kitchen.

——————-

Donald gasps for breath as he plops down in his third class of the day, having almost been made late when he had been hit by a bicyclist. He rubs his sore bill while pulling out a notebook and pen. The professor glances around the room then at the clock and then nods, starting the class. Donald slowly relaxes into his chair, still a little frazzled despite the full week of classes under his belt. He had encountered many different obstacles in his daily attempts to get to class on time; including but not limited to deep puddles, a pack of dogs, and a bus almost running him down. Donald really looks forward to the interview this evening and then moving on to the weekend and some freedom. 

He meets up with his two friends outside of the pub and they all take deep breaths before entering. Donald takes a quick glance around the small but warm place before they are approached by a bright pink flamingo who’s bright jewelry made it hard to look at her. Her eyes are narrowed at them, specifically Panchito’s sombrero, and suddenly Donald is worried about how this interview is going to go down. José steps forward.

“So you’re the band?”

The flamingo says before José can begin to speak. Her voice is dry and unimpressed. The parrot speaks.

“Yes. We are the Three Caballeros! At your service Senhora.”

Her eyes scrunch at this.

“Right. Come on then, I have a few questions to see if you’re the right fit for our establishment.”

Donald feels his left hand begin to shake and he rubs it with his right. This was not good. They sit at an open table with her, going through several questions. Donald feels like each answer is somehow worse than the one before it. At the end of twenty questions, the flamingo is shaking her head with a nasty smile on her face.

“Sorry. You just don’t seem to fit. Maybe consider dropping the lame name and the use of so much Spanish. It doesn’t seem like a bright idea if you’re trying to be successful in the industry. Better luck elsewhere.”

Her voice sounds unapologetic and each word is razor-sharp. Donald feels anger bubbling up but a hand on his shoulder keeps him from moving. José gives her a bright smile which causes confusion to flash through her eyes.

“Okay. Thank you for your time Senhora. Come on amigos, we’ve got work waiting for us.”

Donald stands and they move as a unit out of the building. There is a quick pattern of feet and Donald feels an unfamiliar hand on his shoulder. Turning his head he spots a kind looking female Husky. 

“Oh, sorry. I couldn’t just let you guys disappear after that. I was in there eating lunch and happened to overhear. She was way too harsh to you three. And you were nothing but polite, which is truly commendable. I know you three said you were busy, but I would be honored if you came and played at my coffee shop tonight. Paid of course.”

The three look to each other and smile in agreement,

“The honor would be ours Senhora. Give us the time and address and we will be there!”

Chapter Text

José adjusts his flute, a drop of nervousness swimming through his veins. He sucks in a deep breath and releases it. Tonight, the group had decided that he would take point as lead singer tonight. Donald and Panchito had guitars and were planning to be back up vocals when needed. The venue is a nice coffee shop, named the Wicked Java Factory, set up next to the donut place they so often frequented. The owner, a nice female husky named Betty, had look through the list of songs and their order and had approved all of them. José goes to recheck everything for the umpteenth time when Panchito stops him by giving him a tight side hug. 

“Calm mi hermanito. We’ve got this. You’ve been on stage before far larger crowds.”

“But what if something goes wrong?”

“Then we’ll fix it together brother.”

Donald says, coming to hug the parrot’s other side. José takes these words of comfort and nods, breathing calmly. He then holds his hands out, arms crossed and his friends grab on to shake.

“Squawk!”

“Crow!”

“Quack!”

“I’ve got you’re back!”

They move as one onto the small stage, standing in front of microphones. The owner shoots them a thumbs up as she pauses between creating drinks. José looks out over the crowd, heart steady and minds clear.

“Olá everyone! How are we tonight?”

He gets positive shouts back. He smiles broadly.

“I’m José, this is Donald and Panchito. Together we are the Three Caballeros!”

The crowd responds with cheers and José counts the band down into their first song. They make their way through several songs, with a good reaction from the crowd to each. José can feel himself growing bolder, his friends at his back, and success washing over him. They stop for their scheduled break, sitting together on the edge of one side of the stage, sipping water, and happily talking to each other. 

José swings his legs, leaning against his rooster brother as Donald talks through the next couple of songs. The duck happily taps a rhythm on his knee and the parrot smiles at the lack of any tremors in his friend’s hand. They stand back up and play through the rest of their songs. It all seems to be going well. That is until Donald stumbles on and trips, beginning to fall off the stage. José and Panchito react immediately, surging forward and grabbing for him. Panchito is able to grasp Donald’s right arm while José gets a hold on his left and they pull him back onto the stage. José can see the worry in the duck’s eyes and flashes him a bright smile. There is a moment of silence in the shop. Then someone starts clapping.

“Nice save!” 

Is shouted out from somewhere in the crowd. Donald lets out a nervous laugh. Panchito pats him on the back sharing a reassuring smile. Then they bow to the crowd and return to the set, José giving a small spoken segway back into the music. The crowd stays positive throughout the night and Donald seems to fully recover from the slip-up. 

————————————

Panchito feels pleasant contentment filling his veins as the trio walks home from their first successful gig. They had been paid $500 for the four hours plus some tips and a job offer for the Friday. José had divided it evenly among them and they made their way home, merry and proud. Panchito cannot contain himself and leaps forward, twisting himself through the air and throwing his arms up. He then turns back and snatches up his duck friend and Donald moves up to his shoulder. José, seeming to anticipate his next move, throws his arms up which made picking him up much easier. He twirls with his friends crowing and babbling in his excitement. Donald is holding on, laughing heartily, as José tightens his own grip while chuckling. 

A light rain begins to fall and Panchito breaks into a run. He can feel Donald’s magic at work, deflecting the water away from the three of them. They arrive at the house and he puts his friends down so that they can enter. When they do, they are met with the same blast of cold air that they had come to expect. Panchito shivers as he goes to grab his hoodie. Changing the thermostat had done nothing to fix the icy cold that sometimes seemed to fill every crevice of the house. 

The trio gathers back in the living room, ready to spend the rest of the night hanging out on the couch, as had been their established new habit the previous weekend. Each has their own activity, with Donald reviewing notes for a class, José reading through a book, and Panchito doodling and studying notes intermittently. The atmosphere is pleasant and tired after a long day of ups and downs.

Panchito feels his feathers on his neck stand on end when there is a solid thump down the hall. The two other birds on the couch also tense.

“I’m going to check it out.”

Donald calmly whispers before standing and moving towards the hall. Panchito jumps up and follows him, closely tailed by the parrot. The three looks in each person's room finding nothing amiss. They then check the fourth room, where they had set up a small box of dirt in which Panchito grew plants with his soil manipulation and José and Donald helped with their own powers. The window in this room is blocked up so no one sees them using their powers if they happen to pass by. Except for the piece of cardboard they had been using till they could afford some proper curtains had fallen to the ground. Panchito pauses mentally as he enters. Fallen is not quite the right word, as the cardboard is perfectly set against the wall beside the window. He shakes his head as he helps Donald put it back. It was nothing, it had simply tipped over, off the window seal and he was tiredly trying to make it more than it should be. They return to the living room to spend the rest of the night relaxing.

Chapter Text

Donald walks out of his room distancing himself from his notes that are messily strewn about. He wanders into the kitchen, where José hands him a cup of coffee. He rubs his forehead and draws his hands into his sweater, the cold irritating his fingers. The parrot sips his own cup, waving an envelope through the air.

“We have a letter from Attor.”

“Really?”

“Sim. I’m going to go get Panchito and then we’ll open it together.”

“Sounds good.”

Donald runs a hand through his head feathers mind slipping back to think over his class materials. When his friends return they all huddle together over the letter. José opens it and three postcards tumble to along with a note. Donald catches the postcards as José grasps the note. He begins to read it aloud as the two others look at the postcards. Each has a different photo of the town, with Attor featured in the sky or on the ground in the background of each.

“Dear Callaberos,

Things have gone exceedingly well here since you have left. Tourism has boomed and I get along with the townsfolk well. I cannot thank the three of you enough. Your names shall be written in the town’s official tomb of history. I hope good fortune tails you were ever you wander and that your kindness continues to save others and lift them up as it did for me. Truer heroes I have yet to meet.

Tschüss, 

Attor”

“That’s really nice.”

Panchito comments, as he hands the postcards to José. Donald nods to this.

“We should write back. I have some spare envelopes and stamps if you guys would like to send them individually or we can put our responses together.”

Donald muses, already thinking about what he wants to send in reply. The others hum in response.

“Let’s try to send them all together.”

José says and the trio split up back to their rooms. Donald spots that his desk has been organized, the sheets of notes neatly stacked. His left-hand trembles as his stomach twist violently. This is far too many occurrences matching up for him to ignore. He carefully backs out of his room and goes to Panchito’s room. The rooster looks up from his note, concern flashing across his features as he stands at the sight of the duck. Donald just motions to the front door before going into José’s room. The parrot also reacts with concern, moving to follow the duck who is remaining silent as he exits the house. Donald is wildly glancing around as the exit and move to the sidewalk bordering the street.

“Donal’?”

Panchito whispers. The duck sucks in a breath.

“Okay. I need you guys to trust me and not just call me crazy.”

His friends exchange a look.

“We would never. We always trust and follow you Pato.”

José says.

Donald feels himself calm a little. His brothers were the best. The absolute best. He sucks in a breath to steady himself a little more, eyeing the house critically as he drags his thoughts together.

———————

“Our house is haunted. It might not be an aggressive spirit. In fact, now that I think about it, it seems to be a helpful one. But definitely a ghost.”

José blinks. This is not what he had been expecting. But, thinking back on their experiences in the house with it being so cold, and things being moved and organized. Panchito looks pale. The rooster is rocking on his feet, hands twisting anxiously together. 

“Un fantasma? Eso no es bueno.”

José fiddles with his amulet, rubbing it through his shirt as Donald pats the fearful rooster. 

“What do we do? Call an, um, Sacerdote? Priest?”

Donald rubs the back of his head as the rooster seems to lose himself in his mind. 

“I’m not sure? As I said, its actions haven’t been malicious. I don’t have much experience with friendly ghosts?”

José rubs his beak. 

“I need my notebook. I think I have some research in there from my stint with being obsessed with hauntings as a kid.”

“How are you still writing in a notebook from childhood? It should be full by now?”

Panchito comes out of his blank pale stare to ask this. José pats his arm with a small laugh.

“Magic. Are you going to be okay? You look a touch, pálido meu amigo. ”

“Sí. Fantasmas are not seen as a good thing back home. Likely to have connections to el diablo…”

 “I don’t think this one has connections to the devil, Chito.”

Donald says with a small smile as the trio looks to the house.

“I guess it has not possessed any us…”

“We can all stick together when we go back in.”

José comforts the still somewhat concerned rooster. Panchito sucks in a deep breath. The parrot watches as Donald moves to the other side of the rooster and lets the taller bird take his hand. José offers his own and Panchito takes his as well. They face the house. The parrot begins to hum the chorus of a song hoping to bolster his friends and himself. Donald picks up the tune and begins to sing with Panchito.

“Lean on me when you're not strong, and I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on. For it won't be long, 'til I'm gonna need somebody to lean on.”

They move forward into the house, staying connected and together. They go into the parrot’s room where he pulls out his notebook. He hands them sheets of paper so they can continue to work on their letters while he looks through his old notes. They all sit close together, Panchito and Donald sitting on the floor near José’s chair using pads provided to steady their paper. All are keeping an eye out for anything strange happening. While all are wary the atmosphere still manages to friendly and warm between them. José hums and uses his left hand to smooth Panchito’s head feathers. He had noticed that the rooster was still much more nervous than Donald. Panchito sighs in response and they continue their individual tasks. 

Chapter Text

Panchito startles when José removes his hand and taps his finger against the page. After a soft apology, the parrot starts explaining himself.

“I found something that will allow the fantasma to become … solid? Yeah, solid is the word. So we can ask what it wants and discern if it desires to find a way to pass on.”

Panchito shivers, the cold and fear swirling together. He notices that  Donald’s left hand trembling slightly. The rooster sucks in a breath.

“Will it be dangerous Zé?”

Panchito asks, patting his brothers shaking hand. Donald shoots him a smile. The parrot clicks his tongue in thought.

“No, not any more than living with a ghost.”

“What do we need?”

The duck gets straight to the point. Once more José clicks his tongue. 

“Candles? And very strong-smelling flowers. Also, toast with honey on it.”

Panchito blinks, bewilderment filling him, despite his fear. José snorts.

“I know that it sounds weird.”

“Not any weirder than having magical amulets.”

Donald chimes in. Panchito nods. The parrot releases another snort and pops in a piece of gum. The rooster stands, steeling his nerves. 

“Let’s do this.”

He grabs ahold of both of his friends and hauls them up and towards the door. They let him and he flashes a smile. The rooster knows that if he knew what the ghost wants he would feel a lot safer within the house. Briefly, his mind flashes back to the well at home, where spirits are sealed away. As his mind begins to pick up this train of thought the trio enters the spare room with the box of dirt. Burying his hands in it to start growing flowers, Panchito continues to think as the other two stand silent, presumably lost within their own heads. He does not want to be like the Tres Amici, locking away sentient creatures like Attor, due to a misunderstanding. Were those in the well truly deserving? Panchito does not know and finds himself almost burning up with a desire to truly know. What he is sure of is that the Three Caballeros will be better. They would talk to this spirit and try to help if they can, not just lock it away with a warning to all that come after them. This bolsters his courage and he is able to produce a thick clump of heavenly smelling flowers that are fueled by his sympathies for Attor and this ghost. He looks to his friends and smiles, standing straight and steady on his feet.

 José carefully takes the flowers and they move to the kitchen. Donald puts the bread into the toaster as the rooster pulls out the honey. José winds the flowers together as they wait. Soon they have honeyed toast and reenter the parrot’s room where he keeps all of his candles. Panchito takes the flowers back, and José begins setting up a small circle on the ground. The parrot takes the toast from Donald, laying it in the center. Then he lays the flowers carefully onto the toast. He flicks his lighter and sets fire to the wicks of the twelve candles. The air fills with a mixture of smells from each scented candle.

-----------------------------------------------

Donald sucks in a breath as José begins to hum out words to a spell. He can feel the air becoming heavier with magic. He bites his tongue as the urge to sing along with his friend; to sing a tune he had never heard before. A quick glance shows that Panchito seems to be having the same struggle, face full of confusion, and a small bit of longing. He reaches for the rooster and they link hands. José takes note and takes up Donald’s free hand. He gives an encouraging nod and Donald lets go of his tongue. The duck can feel his hidden amulet humming and his magic swirling out to match his brother’s. He is vocalizing the tune, not true words coming from him. Panchito joins him, both becoming vocal back up for José’s spell. Magic thickly coils in the air and Donald fills something click. 

His eyes open, catching him by surprise as he had not realized they had slipped closed.  Floating in the center of the circle is a robin that is see-through, nibbling on the toast and gently sniffing the flowers. Her long hair floats gently in the air around her. Donald finds himself standing in stunned silence. José speaks first.

“Hello. I am José Carioca. May I ask for your name?”

“Sophia.”

She replies with a soft hum. Donald swallows his fears and squeezes his hands. His brothers squeeze back. José speaks up once more.

“Hello, Senhorita Sophia. These are my brothers, Donald and Panchito.”

Donald nods, as his two hands are not free. Panchito waves with his free hand. She looks at the three with some interest. José speaks up again, the room growing calm.

“Senhorita, if it is not too rude to ask, why are you still here as a ghost? Do you have unfinished business?”

Her eyes brighten and she whispers, tucking a large flower behind her ear. 

“I don’t remember. I’m not even sure how I died or my last name.”

“Do you remember anything at all? We’d like to help if we can.”

Donald pipes in, the desire to help destroys the last of his nervousness and fear. She looks into his eyes and runs a transparent finger across the hem of her shirt. Her face scrunches.

“I always wanted to be a teacher. I know that’s what I was in school for. And I like things to be neat… Beyond that, I’m lost. I have not spoken to anyone in years…”

Her voice grows agitated. Panchito speaks up, bringing his calming voice and words with him.

“It’s going to be okay señorita Sophia. We are here to help you. We are the Three Caballeros, its what we do.”

Donald nods in agreement. The ghost takes another nibble out of the toast, twisting the remaining flowers in her hand. He can see the words impacting her positively, bringing about a kind of confidence. 

“The Three Caballeros? That’s a name. I’m not sure there is much you can do for me.”

Chapter Text

José clicks his tongue and speaks up.

“What we can do depends on what you want. We can look into university records to find information about you. We can try to help you move on. We can try to make the house more to you liking.”

Her eyes close in thought.

“I don’t want to move on yet. I don’t mind the house and your actions so far. It makes me feel quite happy to do small things like straightening and cleaning. I can sort of remember that being nice while alive.”

A small pause, and then she speaks up again, eyes fluttering open.

“I do have a request. Or three.”

The three brothers nod. She smiles gently and runs her fingers through her floating hair, having finished her toast.

“I’d like for you to take care of the outside of the house. I can’t leave, but it has become very dirty, and needs a good washing now and sweeping every once in a while. Next, I’d like to be able to appear like this again; it’s nice to be corporal enough to touch my own hair and talk to people. Um, and third, er….”

She hesitates, fingers winding within her hair, nerves overcoming her voice. The Caballeros wait quietly. She huffs, spitting out her words in a worried tone.

“I like it when you three sing and use magic. I know this is really weird to ask, but it does make the house lighter when you three are being so happy. I’m sorry if I’m asking too much with these three requests.”

José looks at his brothers who are looking to him. He gives the ghost a bright smile.

“None of that sounds like too much! I think I have a way to let you choose to be solid. It won’t be always. Also, we can take care of the outside today! Using more magic and singing more often is also very easy for us.”

Panchito and Donald nod along with his last two points. She smiles pleasantly at the trio. José then holds a hand out to the ghost.

“May I have a flower?”

She hands one over and he leans down, bending the flame of one of the candles away. Quickly he swabs up some of the melted wax with a finger and rubs it into the petals of the flower, whispering a song into his cupped hands. He straightens and hands it back. 

“Keep this in a pocket. It collects energy that emulates from you and the rest of the world. It should charge enough for you to become solid at least once every few days. Maybe more, really depends on what happens and if you chose to use it as soon as it is full. Donald, grab the bucket in the hall closet, Panchito grabs the rags, we can get to cleaning now and be done by nightfall.”

Donald throws him a salute and the two head out into the hall. José glances back at the specter who tucks the waxed flower into her pocket. She places the other flowers in a separate pocket. 

“If you go to the living room, you can listen to us sing and work, and talk to us while we work.”

He says before blowing out the candles and moving to go and open the front door. She seems a little startled by the invitation. 

------------------------------------------------------

It is two days after they had cleaned the front of the house, sweeping and scrubbing till it looked much better. Sophia had faded from sight after spending the night hanging out with them and chatting as best she could as someone who could not remember themself and had not spoken to anyone in a long time. They had finished and sent their letters to Attor the next day. Panchito stares out the window of the bus tapping his leg. They are on the way to the New Quackmore Institute, taking their full Saturday to do research on the book they had found last semester. They had played their second gig the night before and his right wrist is aching still. He yawns while rubbing it, weariness from the late night and early morning dampening his normally high energy personality. Donald glances at him and looks down at his wrist. José is asleep on the duck’s opposite side. The duck holds out a hand and Panchito silently gives him his right wrist. Donald bends it slightly forwards, forming a right angle. Panchito hisses, fighting back the urge to yank his hand back. Donald sucks in a breath.

“You have a bump, here. Beneath the feathers and skin.”

He very gently tapped it. This time the rooster did pull his arm away, gritting his teeth and inhales sharply. Panchito had not noticed the bump before and now he wonders how he had not seen. He pokes it, despite the piercing pain, finding it to be solid, feeling like bone. Panchito worriedly looks to Donald and whispers, still conscious of their sleeping friend.

“Have you ever seen anything like this?”

“My grandma had a recurring bump on her left wrist, exactly like yours. It made it hard to do work. She called it, a, oh what was it?”

The duck closes his eyes while continuing his whispers. 

“A bible bump. Not an official medical term. She never went to the doctor about it.”

“What did she do?”

Panchito asks, rubbing his wrist, now super aware of the oddity. Donald puts his hand onto Panchito’s forcing the taller to stop.

“She had someone whack it with the thickest book in the house.”

Panchito freezes, his breath is gone. Donald pats him gently.

“I am very very sure there are far better ways to take care of it ‘Chito. It’ll be okay. Let’s ask José when he is awake.”

Panchito nods, still frightened by the image brought to mind by Donald’s words. Donald raises his arm, a now-familiar invitation that Panichto accepted, leaning against his friend a mirror to José. He puffs out air slowly, relaxing and going back to staring out the window. His mind slowly muddles, not following any particular line of thought and everything seems to haze together in the gentle rocking of the bus. He hears Donald humming lazily and feels hands preening his head feathers. Panchito knows that he is safe and that the duck will wake both José and him when they get to the rival college. Sighing, Panchito sinks a little deeper into his seat, sleep closing up around him. 

Chapter Text

Donald looks around the entrance of the library, listening in to José asking for help to find the correct section where books holding useful information. He is given a list of shelves to investigate and a floor number. They move as a group to the stairs and begin to climb. Donald scans the shelves as they enter the correct floor. José guides them to the correct place and they begin to scan through the book. Donald picks up a particularly thick and old tomb, flipping through to see if it held any relevance. He puts it down, finding the information to be inconsequential. Donald tugs another book free of the shelf and begins another scan of it. His friends are doing the same with Panchito standing, shifting side to side as he read, and José sits in the aisle of the shelves, chewing on a piece of gum. Donald goes back to reading, silently learning about the founding of the New Quackmore Institute. 

Still nothing about the golden book. He knew that the book came from early in this university’s history, as Flighton had stolen it away while their founders had still been alive. He sighs, eyes closing. José makes an excited noise, that is soon followed by a groan. Donald glances down where the parrot is slumping against the bookshelf looking thoroughly disappointed.

“Got something?”

“A little bit. It acknowledges the existence of the book, but apparently it came pre locked absent of a key. From a long family tradition of passing it down till it was given to the school as a gift for opening. Very frustrating.”

“Yikes.”

Panchito responds to José leaning down a bit to pat the green parrots head. Donald watches as José swats at the hand above him while Panchito stifles a chuckle.

“So this book hasn’t been open in centuries? Have people even tried?”

José nods pointing at a list on the page of the old book.

“There were many tries before the book went missing. Lock picks, axes, even an old-style drill.”

There is an air of hopeless filling the space between the three. Panchito breaks this silence.

“Well, now we know what not to try. So that’s worth something.”

Donald finds himself nodding along to Panchito’s encouraging words. José smiles brightly in response. The parrot rises carefully putting the book back where he had found it. Donald and Panchito copy this action. They move together to leave the library moving to the bus stop to wait for the bus. When they get back home and are walking up to their door, a bright red car flies past, eggs fly out of the window, thrown by a seagull. They splatter onto their shared house. Donald feels rage overcome him and his feet begin to slap against the sidewalk. He is yelling, mindlessly mad at the vandalism splashed all over their house. His foot slides against the ground, losing traction. He feels himself go flying, face skidding across the ground. The laughter from the car rings out as they speed away. 

--------------------------

José rushes to the side of his duck friend as Donald lays groaning on the ground. There are scapes across his bill. Panchito is right on his heels, eyes full of fire. Donald sighs as José helps him sit up. 

“I guess we got to clean up the house again.”

José says as he and Panchito help Donald up. The duck laughs and the fire in Panchito’s eyes dulls to the flicker of a candle. They move to the house, José quickly checking over Donald. Inside, the curtains over the front windows shake, and they know that Sophia is upset.

“Hey Sophia, we’ll get to cleaning the house in a minute. José just needs to fix up Donald first.”

Panchito says to the room. The curtains settle, and the house returns to its normal state of chilly and still. José gets a wet rag and cleans off the wound, treating it and gently bandaging it. Meanwhile, Panchito grabs buckets, water, soap, and brushes so that they can clean the outside of the house. They leave the door open as they move into the front yard and start cleaning. José feels irritation bubbling in his stomach at the vandals. It is a shame he had not managed to get a good look at the license plate. Panchito starts scrubbing the house and he and Donald follow suite. The rooster seems to remember something. 

“I forgot to talk to you José about something that recently has started being a problem.”

“Oh?”

José asks, startled out of thoughts of revenge, and egging the seagull’s house. 

“I have a weird bump on my wrist. Apparently Donald’s grandmother got something similar?”

José holds out his hand and Panchito gives him his right hand, and he very gently bends it, taking note of the bump and the hiss of his friend. He releases it, giving a worried smile. 

“Was there anything she could do about it?”

He asks Donald who is standing on the tips of his webbed feet to scrub the wall. 

“She would have someone slap it really hard with the thickest book in the house.”

José winces.

“Yikes. We can go to student health on Monday after class and see if we cannot find a better solution.”

He pats the paled rooster’s shoulder. Panchito flashes him a wavering smile and they get back to cleaning up the outside of the house. The building soon has no traces of egg gunk or shells. They walk inside, shutting the door and pulling the curtains closed. Donald pulls water from the air, José takes the light from a lamp, and Panchito pulls out his small pouch of extra dirt, each forming their companions. Sierra leaps to tackle Panchito and the two begin to wrestle on the floor of the living room. Donald moves the coffee table to the side as Tempest curls contently around his neck. José collapses onto the couch with a yawn, Aurora contently needing the couch behind his head. Donald exits to head down the hall asking if anyone wants anything from their room. José requests a book and Panchito asks for nothing. Donald returns, handing José a book he immediately starts scanning for spells to open the lock. The time passes pleasantly together. 

Chapter Text

The next morning Panchito rouses his friends. 

“Come on Donal’, we said we’d search our library today for information about Sophia.”

Donald yawns, pulling himself out of his hammock. Panchito moves to José’s room and opens the door after knocking.

“Wake up! We got to go to the library.”

He gets a huff in return as the parrot sits up and begins to rub his face. The trio meets in the living room and then head out to the library. Panchito glances at the back of the first floor with a small smile. They move to the third floor where the yearbooks for the school are. José yawns and then rubs his eyes.

“Okay. So Sophia’s clothes indicate her being from the 1960’s onwards. We’ve got to get to the education portion of each book. Let’s go.”

José says before picking up a book. Panchito notices that each of the yearbooks has the year published written on the spine. He lifts the one that was released right after the one in José’s hands.  Donald copies this action. The rooster flips through to the education degree section, scanning the faces and names, which span a few pages. Once the search turns up empty, he moves to the next available book, leaving the searched one on the pile created by José. They could sort and put them back in order after they had gone through the shelf. It takes a solid hour to get into the second decade, with a brief pause to clean up. Donald is the one that finds her picture in the yearbook from 1974. He alerts his friends and Panchito leans against his shoulder to look at the page. Clear as day in the black and white photo is Sophia, in a group of freshmen, smiling brightly. 

“She looks just about the same now. Can you find her name?”

José asks. Donald nods, running his blue dusted index finger down the page of the book following the list of names. Panchito follows it.with his eyes, scanning the page with his friends. Donald pauses. 

“Sophia Johnson.”

Panchito whispers, hesitant to speak the true name of their resident ghost. José hums as Donald sucks in a breath. 

“So we know her name and what year she was a freshman. Perhaps we can find something in other documents?”

José murmurs.

“Do you think she might have gotten any awards? Those might be in this book or in any of the other years that she went to college .”

Donald suggests. Panchito nods along with this idea. He leans down and reorganizes the yearbooks that they had gone through. José pulls out the rest that are within the time frame typical for someone going through college. The group scans through these books, looking for any more clues about their ghost friend. They find that she was only in two of the books, presumably having died in the time between the end of her second year and the end of the third year. 

-------------

Donald laughs at a joke made by Panchito, doubling over and pausing on the sidewalk that runs by their house. They were just coming back from their research in the library. José lets out a warning yell. The duck only has a brief second to glimpse an egg flying through the air. Panchito is knocked off his feet. Donald reacts quickly, moving to catch his friend by bobbing down behind him and holding his arms out. José runs after the red car. Donald hauls Panchito back up and they move to follow their friend. The car zooms away, violating several traffic laws. The parrot huffs out air as they all slow as he slows to a stop. 

“I got the license plate. Luckily the driver’s an idiot; it’s a vanity plate. So easy to remember. ‘IAMKING’ Come on Panchito lets get that gunk out of your feathers.”

José says. Donald and Panchito nod and they begin to walk once more towards their house.

“That’s a pretty bold statement to put on your license plate.”

Panchito laughs at the tail end of his statement, causing his friends to giggle along with him. The clicking of heels against concrete causes the trio to pause as someone calls out.

“Hey! Hey! Wait!”

Donald turns as Panchito wipes at his face where the egg had started to slide down into his eyes. A female pale white, fantail pigeon is racing towards them, tall shoes clicking against the sidewalk.

“Yes?”

  José asks, clearly looking impatient, likely because he wants to take of Panchito. The pidge draws in a deep breath as she reaches them, the group now standing right at the door of their house. 

“I am Margaret. I am friends with your cousin. Um, José right? I saw the whole egging incident on my way to come and talk to the three of you.”

Donald suddenly remembers the incident with the flamingo that had seemed to have been very against Panchito’s existence. He narrows his eyes not wanting to deal with that memory right this moment.

“Ah good, you can be an extra witness. I’m going to call this incident in while my irmãozão gets his face clean. Come in. Donal’, you help Panchito.”

The trio enters the house, followed by the pigeon. She stands in the living room as José moves to the phone in the kitchen. Donald helps Panchito down the hall and into the bathroom. The rooster raises a rag to his face and Donald helps his brother get it away from his eyes. When they finish the two move back to the living room. José has finished calling. 

“They’re going to send someone to take our statements in a bit. So, you know me Senhora?”

José turns and pointedly asks the pigeon. She seems almost irritated with his sharpness.

“Yes. I came to check on you. You were a no show no call at the appointment to interview to play as a band at my bar. I was wondering what happened there? Your cousin said that you had been excited by the opportunity.”

Chapter Text

José narrows his eyes but Panchito is the first to speak.

“Genial, el flamenco mintió sobre nosotros.”

The parrot understands the rooster nodding along to the clear irritation in his friend’s voice. The pigeon looks confused and Donald is muttering darkly to himself.

“What my friend means is that we came to your establishment at the right time and date and were told that we were not the “right fit” and should consider “using less Spanish” by your manager, a pink flamingo. We found a steady gig elsewhere, Senhora, so we did not see a reason to try and reach out again. Especially in a place where we were clearly not welcome.”

The pigeon looks alarmed by his sharp tone and words. Good. Let her know exactly how he felt about her establishment. She stammers, clearly not having expected this kind of response.

“I...I… That’s not what Shelly told me.”

“Are you saying he’s lying?”

Donald asks, and José feels a small smile tugging at the corner of his beak at his friend’s defense of him. 

“Nooo…”

She seems hesitant. The room grows colder and José knows that Sophia has taken an interest in the conversation. The trio ignores the growing cold, having grown used to it. The pigeon shivers from the cold and their stares. 

“All I can tell you, Senhora, is that if your manager is turning away potential partners, and then lies to you about it implies that you are not keeping a close enough eye on things. I advise that you watch her closely. Would not want another bridge burned.”

A quick glance around shows that there is agreement amongst them. They would not be working at that bar, ever. Silence fills the air, palpable and thick. Margaret swallows and looks at her hands.

“I know it does not make up for it and I know you won’t want to work for me, but I do offer my apologies. I had full intentions to hire you three as a band. All Shelly was supposed to do was approve the song list and order.”

“And I believe that. I am sorry that your manager has been working opposite to your intentions. But, we are quite happy working for Betty at The Wicked Java Factory.”

Margaret nods, slumping into herself as the silence wraps back around the group. A knock at the door. The university security has arrived. José stands and answers the door. He quickly explains what had happened. The security officer takes down the different accounts and details each person is able to provide. Then she leaves to file a report. The pigeon stands at the door after the officer had left. Hesitation fills her movements.

“I just wanted to say sorry again…”

José simply nods at her and she exits silently. The parrot sighs and rubs his face. 

“That was fun.”

Donald bursts into a fit of laughter at the parrot’s quiet statement. Panchito and José join in, tension evaporating from the home now that all the strangers are gone. The parrot collapses onto the couch and his brothers plop down beside him. They slowly relax into normal conversation.

-----------------------------

Panchito nervously swings his legs, waiting silently for his friends. Donald and José were supposed to meet him outside of student health today. José would be walking over after his class wrapped up and Donald would be here soon after finishing his weekly Monday attempt to call his sister. Panchito feels his fists form. That family did not deserve his brother. Some days he wonders if it would be better to steal Donald away, keep him away from the duck’s who seemed to know the best ways to tear him down. There had been a period of time the rooster had been almost hopeful for the ducks’ relationship as a family, but then the magic reveal had happened. His mind freezes as he sees Donald who seems to be holding back tears. He stands and runs to his friend, pulling the smaller bird into a tight hug, ignoring the slight pain in his wrist. The duck whimpers.

“I.. I’m sorry Panchito. I’m here to support you…”

“Shhh. You can support me when we get to the scary part of the doctor actually seeing me. Let’s take care of you first mi hermanito. What happened Donal’?”

The duck lets out a few tears while curling tightly in the rooster’s arms. 

“Scrooge gave me an ultimatum. I can’t come home with the amulet. Not for the break. Not for Christmas. Not ever. He wants me to hand it over and Della… She didn’t even try to fight him. She wouldn’t fight for me to be part of the family.”

Panchito can see that this last part bothers Donald the most. He gently rocks the duck. 

“You know me and José would never let you be alone, right? Nothing you could choose or do or have could make us push you away.”

Donald starts crying harder. Panchito continues to babble, hoping his words are a comfort.

“It’s okay to want. It’s okay to wish that you could go back to your family or that they would let you make the decision to have magic without constantly telling you that it is wrong. What I’m trying to say, in a bad way,” Panchito laughs at his own tripping tongue while rocking Donald, “is that you have us. And it’s okay to want more than that, and it doesn’t offend me that you would want more. But you do have us. No matter what happens.”

Donald continues to cling to him, breathing evening out, but his face is still hidden against Panchito’s hoodie. The taller bird starts humming, still pacing and rocking. Donald relaxes and lets out a soft sigh.

“Thank you. I feel kinda greedy wanting them and you and José”

“Do not feel that way. It is reasonable for you to have that desire. Would you call me greedy for wanting you and José  as my brothers, despite me having my own family?” 

Donald shakes his head, moving his hands to wipe up his tears. 

“Well, the situation is slightly different for you, but the rules are the same. You’re not greedy for desiring to be wanted, especially when it comes to family.”

Donald nods. Panchito hugs him more tightly.

“You are loved hermanito. Okay? Say it back to me.”

Donald lets out a soft laugh.

“I am loved.”

“Again with feeling!”

“I AM LOVED!!”

“That’s the spirit Donal’! Now smile brother, I’m going to need your support when I face the doctors.”

Chapter Text

Donald bursts into laughter and his brother gently places him down. He feels far better than he had earlier. Panchito ruffles his head feathers and he smiles. The two of them hear a yell from behind and turn to spot the parrot. Donald’s face must have shown signs of crying as José wastes no time in pulling him into a tight hug. He hugs back happily and gives a broad grin upon his release. He sees Panchito and José share a look and wonders what they are thinking. Then the parrot speaks up.

“Ready Panchito?”

“No.”

The sharp quick answer startles a laugh from the group. The two smaller birds each take one of the rooster’s hands and comfortingly lead him into the office. A kind lady at the entrance desk gives them forms to fill out as they wait for a doctor to become available. Panchito’s knee begins to move up and down rapidly. Donald gently pats his shoulder and gives him a reassuring smile. José loosely throws his arm around him. Panchito closes his eyes and relaxes marginally. The duck feels bad for the rooster. It was never pleasant trying to find out what was wrong with you. He rubs his left hand ruefully.

“Panchito Pistoles?”

The name is announced to the lobby.

“Si?”

“The doctor is ready to see you now.”

“Can mis hermanos vienen conmigo?”

Donald can see that the nerves have taken away his mind’s English translations. José takes over with a hand on his brother’s elbow.

“He is a little nervous. Can we follow him to the back? To help him feel calm.”

The nurse nods understandingly and the group walks into the back. Panchito settles onto a chair and his friends stay right at his side. Donald hums lowly as José begins to preen the rooster’s head feathers with his hands. When the doctor walks in and the two stay near, but stop their actions. The border collie looks at them and gives Panchito a small reassuring smile.

“So you wrote your form that your wrist has been bothering you Mr. Pistoles.”

The rooster nods. Donald holds out his hand and Panchito takes it. This seems to loosen the tongue of the taller brother.

 “There is a bump. On the left.”

The doctor holds out his hand patently and Panchito hesitantly gives him it. The rooster is still clinging to Donald’s hand with his right. The taller bird hisses as the dog bends the wrist back and forth and pokes the bump.

“Okay. This is clearly a Ganglion Cyst. It's a build-up fluid in a sack beneath the skin. It often appears on joints like the one you have.”

Panchito nods in understanding. His legs swing beneath him and Donald notes that his nerves are taking him over again. He gives his hand squeeze.

“Is there anything you can do about it?”

José asks while he pats Panchito’s back. The doctor nods with a reassuring smile.

“We have a couple of different options. I could give you a brace and slowly force it down over a couple of months. Or we could drain it with a needle today. Both of these options will get rid of the cyst, but hold some risk of it returning. The last option is surgery, where we remove the sack from beneath your skin and feathers with a knife.” 

Panchito puffs out a small breath. The doctor patiently waits. 

“Can… can you drain it?”

The rooster hesitantly says. 

----------------------------

José squeezes Panchito’s shoulder as they wait for the doctor to return with the needle. The rooster looks distinctively pale.

“It’s going to be okay. You have no reason to fear irmãozão.”

“I know that. It’s just a little worrying to have a needle jabbing into me and pulling out something that should not be where it is.”

“That’s understandable. But you know what always helped when I had to have needles used on me?”

Donald says and Panchito looks to him hopefully.

“Distraction. We can talk or sing, or whatever you want to take your mind off of the process.”

José nods along, happy to do whatever it took to keep his friend calm and happy. The doctor walks back in with supplies. Panchito holds out his left arm on the small table in the room and turns his body away from it. The doctor pushes the feathers on his wrist aside and begins to wipe a numbing agent over the bump. José hears Panchito begin to hum and picks up the tune to help fill his brother’s mind with song rather than worry. Donald immediately jumps in. 

“You got to know When to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away, Know when to run.”

 The parrot grips Panchito’s shoulder tightly as the needle slides in. Donald squeezes his right hand. The group keeps singing, focusing on the song, each other, the tightness of their hands, anything other than the needle slowly drawing out fluid from the rooster.

“You never count your money, When you're sittin' at the table. There'll be time enough for countin' When the dealin's done.”

Panchito lets out a gasp and clenches his eyes shut. The doctor softly apologizes.

“The secret to survivin', Is knowin' what to throw away And knowin' what to keep'. Cause every hand's a winner And every hand's a loser And the best that you can hope for Is to die in your sleep.”

José slowly runs his hands through his brother’s head feathers, a comforting preening motion. Panchito relaxes, eyes still closed, and voice still singing. 

“And when he finished speakin', He turned back toward the window, Crushed out his cigarette And faded off to sleep. And somewhere in the darkness, the gambler - he broke even. And in his final words, I found An ace that I could keep.”

The group sings through the chorus again, calmer and fuller than before. The doctor hums lightly along as he finishes draining the cyst. They finish the song and sit together in a warm silence. This is ended when the doctor announces that he is finished.

“You did very good Mr. Pistoles. And your group sings very well, have you considered forming a band?”

“Oh yes sir, we are the Three Caballeros and we play every Friday night at  The Wicked Java Factory.”

José says with a smile as the doctor puts a bandage over Panchito’s wrist. The taller bird takes his arm back and rolls his hand with a smile. 

“I’ll come and check you three out sometime.”

The border collie says as he leads them to the desk at the front of the office.

Chapter Text

Panchito watches as José walks around their house in the moonlight, gently placing stones under the ground in holes that he asks the rooster to make. Apparently the parrot had gotten sick of cleaning up eggs from the two occasions. He was warding the house against outside attack, with ward stones and a little bit of magic. Donald is inside studying for a test that he has on Thursday. Panchito speaks low to José, wanting to discuss something with his smaller brother that he had not had the chance to address since Monday without the duck being there. 

“Donald’s family says he can't go home without turning over his amulet.”

“That's not good.”

José responds in a sharp whisper, dropping another stone with painted runes down into a hole that Panchito fills in.

“I know. He knows that our homes are open to him, but his promise, you remember the one from last year he talked about?”

José nods.

“He still has that weighing on him. He moved heaven and earth to keep it for so many years and he worries about how he is going to manage this Christmas.”

José pokes the ground and Panchito creates another hole.

“From how he tells it, he does all the work of sticking together. Perhaps, she should have to put in some effort. He calls her like clockwork, but she never makes sure she’s around or bothers being the one to reach out. I don’t think, for his own health we should let him be alone with the enemy during the holidays or let him keep reaching out when they treat that as an invitation to attack.”

José says with a dark look filling his eyes as he fills in the last hole with a stone and a kick of his foot. Panchito nods relieved that he and José have been on the same page since the beginning.

“Donald’s probably not going to love us telling him to stop reaching out.”

Panchito grumbles, rubbing his face. José pats his arm. 

“I’ll do the talking. Let’s do it tonight so he has time to consider it before Monday next week.”

Panchito sighs as they walk back into the house. They move down the hall to Donald’s room and knock. He tells them to enter.

“Donald. I’m sorry to bring this up, but I,” Panchito nudges him, not wanting José to be alone in this dangerous territory, “uh, we, think that you should stop calling Della every Monday. Just for a while. And maybe have Christmas with one of us.”

Donald leans back in his desk chair and studies the two as Tempest curls around his neck. 

“Why?”

There are tears in his eyes, but the duck looks open to hearing them out.

“We don’t want them to hurt you anymore… They gave an ultimatum that you cant follow and that hurts you. And we’ve seen how often Della forgets to pick up. Give her the chance to chase after you for a change?”

Donald slumps in his seat and the two rush to his side. Panchito gently begins to preen his head feathers with his hands.

-----------------------

“You guys are right. I hate to admit it, but I’m not sure they are great for my health… But I promised…”

Donald mumbles.

“She should have to make the effort at some point. You did all the work while you were in the navy to see her at Christmas. If she can’t put in equal investment, then I think that promise looks an awful lot entrapment tool rather than an honorable thing that you have done for her.”

The duck feels his heartbreak. Oh. She really had not tried over the years and now he could see it. He can feel his magic folding in on himself. Every call, she had focused on getting him to go on an adventure or talk about her last experience, never asking about his personal life. When was the last time she had shown interest in what he wanted out of life? His heart shatters further. The air becomes dry and Donald is vaguely aware that his magic is swirling violently as he begins to sob freely. His brothers close in around him, hugging him tightly as the room temperature cools and the air becomes even dryer. There a sudden gasp from one of his siblings causes them to start moving.

 He buries his face into Panchito’s shoulder as the rooster hoists him up and carries him down the hall. The sound of footsteps lets him know that José is close behind. Something drips from his bill. His hands clench tightly to the soft fabric of Panchito’s hoodie. He hears rushing water and his feet feel wet. He can feel José hugging him again. Both of his brothers whisper reassurances. Leaning back slightly and dragging in a deep breath, Donald sees that they have moved to the bathroom and the three of them are standing in the tub. Tempest is wrapped around the entire group, the length of a small car. He can feel the magic from his amulet crackling through the air. Donald presses his face back against Panchito. Humming fills the air. No longer is he pulling water from the air. It now is swirling up from the tub; less and less as he calms down. The tight hugs ground him and the comforting tune brings him down to a more peaceful state.

“Donal’?”

Panchito asks, worry clear in his voice. The duck sucks in air, feeling a sharp sting in his nostrils.

“I’m okay. I’m okay. I just realized how much she’s drifted away. And it all hit very suddenly.”

He wipes his face, hand coming away with blood from his nostrils. He looks at his brothers who are also bleeding from their beaks. Donald blinks in surprise. José shoots him a soft smile.

“You dried up the air pretty fast. Kinda made all our noses bleed.”

“Ohh, sorry.”

Donald brokenly laughs, tears still dripping down his face. He bends his magic, using it to wipe away the blood from all their faces. He takes another deep breath and lets Tempest dissolve. José turns off the faucet and they all step out of the tub to let the water drain. 

Chapter Text

They spend that night and the ones following sleeping on the floor of the living room together. On Thursday night, Sophia forms and José happily supplies her with the information they had found out in the library about her last name. 

“You are Sophia Johnson, an elementary education major who was a freshman in 1974.”

The ghost’s eyes widen as she floats in front of the couch where the three are all sitting. She freezes up, hair swirling about her head. 

“I remember… going to classes. I got really sick in the middle of the day and had to come back here. And I really liked the color purple?”

José nods encouragingly as he fiddles with the golden book, a consistent problem that he spent a bit of time each night trying to solve. Donald is tiredly slumping against his side, mentally worn from his exam. Panchito is on the duck’s other side, letting Donald prop his feet up across the rooster’s legs while reading an assigned book. Sophia closes her eyes in thought.

“I can recall a friend, her name started with A? She was my best friend? We took so many classes together.”

“I’m sure you’ll remember everything with time, okay? We will do some more research and you keep trying to bring up memories.”

José says hoping to be of some comfort to their resident ghost. She nods and the room fills with a comfortable silence.  Then her eyes light up and she floats higher off the ground and starts spinning about in excitement.

“Her name was Aggy!! I don’t know her last name. But she was in my year.”

Donald smiles at the ghost. 

“We’ll try to find her the next time we look through the yearbooks.”

Sophia nods, satisfied. They all settle back into a relaxed atmosphere with Donald talking to Sophia, Panchito reading and José testing out new spells on the book’s lock. José tries yet another spell and then pushes the book away with some frustration. Sophia glances at him with a look of sympathy.

“You’ve tried a lot of things on that lock.”

The parrot nods at her statement running a hand through his head feathers. 

“Sim.”

He says with a sigh. Her eyes narrow with thought.

“Have you considered putting water into the lock and then freezing it, to break the lock by over expanding it?”

Donald sits up.

“OHH. That’s an idea! We could put in the freezer overnight and see if it opens when we come back from our show tomorrow.”

Panchito glances up from the book with some interest. José hums in thought.

“It’s worth a shot.”

He looks to Donald who nods and begins to pool water into his hand. José holds out the book steady, with the lock facing the ceiling. Donald twists the water into the lock, careful not to get any of it on to the pages. José then stands and walks it over to the freezer, gently putting the book.

“We will see how this goes.”

--------

Panchito bows to the loud cheers coming from the crowd. He had seen the doctor from earlier that week in the crowd. He gets off the stage with his friends, and Betty comes over to them. She is holding out three drinks and Panchito happily places his guitar down and accepts his from her. The husky had found out their favorite drinks last Friday and had decided to add the drinks onto their payment and tip.  Panchito happily drinks the iced concoction as his brothers accept their cups. They put away the stage and then head out after being paid. Donald begins to chatter about a song he had heard on the radio recently. The rooster babbles back, glad to see Donald in high spirits.

They walk back into their shared home, curtains stirring as a welcome home from Sophia. The three greet her as Panchito and Donald move into the living room while José goes to collect the book from the freezer. He returns to his friends and he hands the book to Donald. Donald pulls at the lock and it pops off of the book, as it had been twisted violently out of its original shape. The book pops open with a blinding flash and the Three Caballeros move together, facing the now open book. Panchito bites down a scream at the figure who is now standing before them. She, or at least he thinks it is a she, is fleshy with no fur or feathers and long black hair. She has golden armor and is holding a bow with arrows pointed straight at them. He had never seen anything like her. A letter flutters down between her and the group of brothers.

“You are NOT the Tres Amici!!! Where are they?! TELL ME!”

She draws her string further back. The curtains shake violently in response to her threats. 

“No, we are not. Your book has been locked for thousands of years if Attor’s story of the Tres Amici is correct and the records at the New Quackmore Institute are true.”

José says in a calming tone, appearing to attempt to soothe her.

“You’re in league with the vile dragon?! He’s no longer safely put away!?!!”

Fear seems to take over her eyes, erasing all else and she fires. Panchito yanks José to the floor and Donald piles down on top of them. There is a violent shriek and the crackling of power through the air. Panchito glances out and sees shimmering dome, protecting them. The woman seems confused and fearful. Sophia’s voice swirls about them, a long wail, as the curtains shake aggressively. José pushes his way upwards.

“Okay, let’s just calm down everyone. Breath.”

José attempts to calm them all down again. His hands are open, showing their emptiness. Panchito can see her shaking. She still has her bow up, a new arrow notched. 

“Hello. I am José, these are my brothers, Donald and Panchito. We are the Three Caballeros. We found your book hidden beneath our school but we have reason to believe it has been shut far longer than it was hidden.”

Chapter Text

Donald slowly rises back up and steps backward a movement copied by his brothers. This causes the strange-looking woman to calm. The curtains stop shaking but the shield remains. The duck watches as the woman continues to stare them down.

“I’m Xandra, goddess of adventure.”

José nods and gives her a smile.

“Hello, Senhora Xandra. Welcome to our home.”

“Don’t try being friendly with me, your working with Felldrake, aren’t you! Or at least for Attor!”

Donald raises an eyebrow as he leans back against a wall. 

“We have never heard of this Felldrake. We’ve barely heard of the Tres Amici, given that they were around thousands of years ago. And we don’t work for Attor. He’s a friend, sure but he has his own life, helping the townspeople with tourism.”

José nods at Donald’s words.

“We’re not here to hurt you or to attack. We opened your book without knowing you were inside. I’m very sorry if you feel threatened and I’m sorry that you were locked away while the world has so vastly changed.”

“So they’re gone? My best friends?”

Panchito steps forwards, through the barrier with his arms wide open.

“I’m very sorry señora. This all must be very shocking and scary.”

Donald watches as she crumbles into tears and lets the rooster hug her. Donald moves to the kitchen and pulls out mugs, boiling water, and grabs hot chocolate packets. He takes the finished concoction, walking to the living room where Xandra is sitting on the couch, hands clenched. Panchito is gently patting her back. She is blankly staring at the wall. She still looked rather odd to Donald, unlike any god or goddess he had ever encountered while roaming with Scrooge and Della. He felt bad for her. She seemed to be in a position not dissimilar to Attor’s.

“It’s going to be okay Senhora. We’re here to help.”

José says. Donald hands mugs to everyone in the room. Xandra accepts the warm mug from Donald, sipping it. Her eyes blink rapidly.

“What is this?”

Donald plops himself down on the floor as there is no more room on the couch. José comes over to join him. 

“Hot chocolate.” 

He says with a smile, letting José lean up against his side. Xandra breaths in.

“Oh. It’s good, um…”

“Donald.”

The rooster supplies for his brother. Xandra nods, sipping on the cup eyes slowly fading back to blankness. Donald knows that would end up being worse for her if they let her start disassociating out of grief for what was lost from his own experience. While not his skill, he would attempt talking.

“So I’m Donald. I like the color blue and really enjoy the ocean. What’s your favorite color?”

A simple question, but sometimes those are the best for calming people down. She clenches the mug and looks at him with piercing eyes.

“Yellow.”

“Oh! That’s a lovely color. Do you like dancing? I really like to dance.”

“Yes.”

She responds softly, confusion fluttering across her face. Better than complete blankness. 

---------------------------

José listens to the careful words and questions that Donald is directing to the strange goddess who seems to be calming down. Panchito is still comfortingly patting her back. José then notes the letter on the floor and reaches for it. He tucks it into the borrowed jacket’s pocket, to be read later. Xandra seems to be slowly warming to them. The parrot joins the questions and answers lead by Donald. Not too long after Panchito begins to also speak. Xandra's answers slowly grow longer than single words. She eventually poses her own question.

"What came of my friends? The last thing I remember was a big battle where I got locked away…"

The three friends look at each other. José speaks first.

"As we said, we don't know. We could try and do some research for you, but we, as a group, have only come across brief mentions of them. We didn't even know your book was associated with them before we opened it."

Her eyes widen as she seems to remember something.

"Wait! There was something that maniac said before I was locked away, what was it!?"

Her eyes scrunch close and the group gives her a minute to think. worry fills her features and José tenses.

"There was a curse put on my atlas. The curse makes it so whenever I was freed, he would be altered or, more likely at this point, his descendant. Which would bring about the return of the world's greatest foe, Felldrake."

José glances at Donald who's face is scrunched up. He then takes up and then speaks.

"Is there anything we can do Senhora? My brothers and I have experience fighting, and have some magical proficiency."

“Magic?”

Her eyes light with hesitant hope. But there is still wariness that she holds for them, but José can understand. He still feels caution in over-sharing to this violent warrior. But, she had already seen the magic shield, created by Sophia drawing on the power of the house wards, so sharing some about their power does not seem dangerous.

“Sim. I’m not sure how often you would see displays of magic in your day, but it is not very common to come across magic users nowadays. Id likes to think the three of us are fairly strong. We have also used our power to fight before. We can help, if you’ll have us.”

He lets his hands glow softly green, letting Aurora form from the lighter’s flame that he flicks on. The peacock-fox prances about before settling in his lap. Xandra had tensed at the first sign of magic but relaxes slowly as nothing happens. 

“How can I be sure you aren’t in league with my enemy. You have already have admitted friendship with a dragon.”

Donald sighs at this scrubbing his face tiredly. The duck then speaks. 

“Attor is a decent fellow, prone to having misunderstandings, yes, but he’s currently helping out an entire town. I’m not sure how to prove that we have no interest in standing against you? I mean if we were working with this Felldrake, why would we have forced your book open? You can see that the lock was twisted violently out of shape and is now on the floor.”

Chapter Text

Panchito slumps against the back of the couch. He fights down a yawn as Donald lays out a clear argument in their defense of not being the villains. His words seem to appease Xandra a little.

“That is true.”

She whispers. Donald rubs his face again and Panchito notices just how tired all of them look. He huffs, wishing that they could go to bed soon. With this in mind, the rooster speaks up.

“Is there something we can do? To show you that we are trustworthy and that you know you can rely on our help.”

She glances at him and the rooster offers up a smile. Xandra seems to consider him.

“Swear it. Swear that you are not trying to destroy me and not working for Felldrake. On your honor.”

Panchito places a right hand over his heart. 

“I swear.”

His brothers copy his actions and she seems to fully relax for the first time. A sudden yawn from her own mouth seems to surprise the goddess. Donald stands and moves down the hall. He returns with blankets and a smile. 

“It’s been a long night for all of us. Let’s get some sleep, and figure out more tomorrow, okay?”

Xandra accepts the blankets and the three move to their own rooms, assuring her that is she needed anything in the night, she could come and get any of them. Panchito lays in his bed, staring up at his ceiling, mind tired, but still busy with thought. He lets it wander, hoping that he will eventually drift off to sleep. Xandra seemed nice enough, despite threatening them. Had he been in the same situation, he is unsure if he would have reacted differently, so she gets a pass in his mind. He settles further into his bed, eyes heavy and closing.

He wakes early the next morning and wanders down the hall. Donald is already up and bustling around the kitchen. Panchito offers his assistance, and the two work together in the small space to make a breakfast of french toast. Donald’s shoulders slump a little as he tiredly stares at the wall above the stove. Panchito is struck by the idea that the duck may not have slept much the night previous. 

“Are you okay?”

He gently asks his smaller brother, throwing an arm across the duck’s shoulder. 

“Yeah. A little stressed about the idea of an ancient wizard coming back to destroy the world.”

“It’ll be okay. You got us with you to face whatever may come.”

The two turn at José’s soft whisper. Panchito nods along to the sentiment. The group stays quietly in the kitchen, finishing making breakfast before they move as one with the food, plates, and silverware into the livingroom. Xandra is already awake, fiddling with her book and an ornate bookmark. She looks up at them as they put the items down on the table. 

“We made breakfast.”

“Thank you.”

They eat in silence, with Xandra seeming to be mesmerized by the taste of the food probably very foreign to her. The rooster happily eats the meal, having always enjoyed Donald’s cooking. 

-------------------------------

Donald thanks Sophia as the plates begin to move through the air. Xandra startles and moves to try to get into a fighting stance. José puts his arms out.

“Hey, it’s okay. That’s just Sophia. She is our resident ghost. Very kind and likes to clean, despite us offering to do it.”

“Oh. Okay. Thanks… um… Sophia.”

The curtains gently stir as the rest of the plates move away into the kitchen. Xandra relaxes. Once the table is cleared Xandra takes a deep breath and leans forwards. 

“You all already swore that you are not against me. And you offered your help. I thought it over last night. I want to accept that offer. I’m going to take you to our base so I can better explain what I know.”

The trio looks to each other, reading the looks on each other’s faces. Donald nods mirrored by Panchito. José speaks.

“Okay. We are on board. How do we get there?”

Xandra pulls out of her book opening it.

“I can teleport us using this book.”

Suddenly a look crosses José’s face. 

“This place we are transporting to is warded against anyone else being there yes?”

“Yes? Does that matter?”

“This is going to come off as rude, but if we don’t want to be noticed; if this Felldrake starts building a network; then when we are out and about, we are going to have to get a disguise for you. There are not may goddess’s walking around. Again, apologies if this comes off as rude, but you will stick out in like a sore thumb.”

“That was true when I roamed with the Tres Amici. I can see your point though. It wouldn’t do to attract attention from the wrong sorts. We can try to figure something out later after I take you to the base.”

“Okay. That’s fair.”

Donald responds for the parrot who hums in agreement.

“Shall we go now?”

Questions the goddess. The three nod and stand as she holds out her open book. She flips a few pages and then points at the page. The room fills with light and Donald closes his eyes. In the next instance, he can hear the crashing of waves and the scent of the sea. He breaths in deeply, feeling a longing deep in his chest and gently pushes it down. Opening his eyes he can see that they are on an island standing before a greek styled temple building. Xandra leads the trio inside, taking them into the main room where a large mural decorates the walls, only broken up by doorways leading to long halls that seem to have other rooms off shooting from them. The mural is detailed and seems to focus on three main armored figures. Xandra waves her hand through the air, causing the walls to glow and the images to spring from the walls to float about the group in a golden glow. Xandra begins to speak softly, a fondness filling her features at the sight of the three main figures. 

Chapter Text

José watches and listens quietly as Xandra explains the history of the Tres Amici, assisted by the moving images.

“The Tres Amici was a group of three friends who found each other while on their individual journeys to fix the world which was filled with monsters. Each had their own tragedy pulling them to the adventurous life. Blandinus Proeliator Cassian, a seagull who came from the outer edges of the known world and whose home village had been dropped into the earth by an earth-shaking titan. Decima Fabianus, a freedwoman flamingo, who had been building her life when a jackal demon ate her husband. She picked up her sword to avenge him. Archippos Leontios, a black feathered crow whos young siblings were slaughtered and he found no help from the army. These three found each other on the fields of battle and journey around, seeking out those in need. They called out for help when they came across a foe too great and I joined them.”

The three figures are joined by a version of Xandra, all facing several tall stone monsters, which violently clash. 

“From then on I joined them, using my book to move us around the world to wherever souls were calling for help against the monsters of the world. And then…”

After flashes of different fights and a cloaked figure appears before the group of four. 

“We met our match. A dark powerful sorcerer. He trapped me in my book and started using my powers to travel about the world, locking and cursing the book after each use. And I… Well, they were never able to get me out. I know they locked him away, somehow, cause I could feel the shift in the magic holding me shifting to focus more on the curse that would call out to his descendant I was freed. I guess that was one of his final acts.”

She sinks to the floor, the images sliding back to the walls. José takes a deep breath as Panchito moves forward to put a hand on the slightly shaking warrior. Then Donald moves to kneel beside her and José joins him. Donald whispers.

“It’s okay to cry if you need to. It doesn’t make you any weaker. You’ve been through so much.”

There is a small sob, and the goddess breaks down again. The trio settles around her, Panchito gently patting her back and Donald and José sitting near her. The parrot begins to softly sing a lullaby from his youth that he hoped could be of some comfort. 

“Se essa rua, Se essa rua fosse minha. Eu mandava, Eu mandava ladrilhar. Com pedrinhas, Com pedrinhas de brilhante. Para o meu. Para o meu amor passar.”

Xandra closes her weeping eyes and begins to rock with the tune.

“Nessa rua, Nessa rua tem um bosque. Que se chama,Que se chama solidão. Dentro dele, Dentro dele mora um anjo. Que roubou, Que roubou meu coração.”

The tears are still falling but the goddess seems to be steadying. José sings the final stanza softly.

“Se eu roubei, Se eu roubei teu coração. Tu roubaste, Tu roubaste o meu também. Se eu roubei, Se eu roubei teu coração. É porque, É porque te quero bem.”

---------------------------

Panchito moves his hand away as Xandra breaths deeply and stands. It had been a solid amount of time between the end of her story and the goddess rising to her feet. José had repeated the song several times, soft but strong. Xandra seems stronger from the ability to take a second and grieve her friends fully. 

“Okay. Okay. I’m good.”

“Are you sure?”

Panchito asks as the trio rises to stand alongside the goddess. She wipes her face.

“Yes.”

“Okay. What’s next and how can we help?”

Donald responds, firm and kind. Xandra sucks in a breath.

“After we got separated by a lesser warlocks spell, we had four stones created that let us track each other down, one specifically for each of us. They should be in the room beside the armory.”

Xandra leads them down one of the side halls and enters into another finely decorated room. She lifts three of the stones, black, purple, and orange, and holds them out. Each is a different color and has softly glowing small arrows on them. 

“These each point to a different descendant. Orange for Decima, black for Blandinus, purple for Archippos, and the yellow I left on the shelf is for me. They seem to still be working.”

“Who should we start with?”

Panchito asks, staring at the stones with admiration and interest. Xandra pockets the black and orange stones, holding onto the purple one. The trio nods. The goddess then opens her books and tells them that she is going to take them back to their home. After the group nods there is a bright flash of light. Panchito chuckles as he feels a cold spiral of air that acts as a hug as soon as they arrive in the living room.

“Hey, Sophia.”

José then turns to Xandra as Panchito greets the ghost. 

“We need to get you a disguise. I can bend light, but it helps to have a structure and have me having to do the least amount of magic possible. Which will mean you having to wear long sleeves and pants.”

Panchito looks up at her.

“She’s taller than any of us, none of our clothes are going to work.”

He says to the parrot. Xandra rubs the back of her kneck. Donald pipes up.

“We can use some of the spare clean sheets to create a drapey skirt and a capelet/shaw thing to cover her arms. That should cover her limbs and just leave her hands, feet, and head.”

Panchito nods and adds his ideas.

“Would constructing a beak help? I have come cardboard from boxes that I don’t need.”

“Yes, that would really help. Is it okay if I use your shoes as a binding place for the light bending? I have some keyrings that will work for your hands by fitting on your thumbs but nothing for your feet.”

José asks the woman. She nods.

“As long as there is some way that I can drop the illusion.”

“Of course. I’ve done something like this before on a smaller scale.”

Panchito moves down the hallway to grab the cardboard and some string as Donald moves to grab the sheets and pins to hold them together.  

Chapter Text

Donald admires their handy work as Xandra sits, allowing Panchito to fasten the beak. Her hands and feet had already been changed to look feathered and clawed respectively. Once the fake beak in secured, and Xandra is still able to breathe and speak clearly, José bends the light around her head and kneck, tying the magic to the beak. Feathers cover her features and the goddess now looks like a crane. The trio leads her to the bathroom where she is able to look at herself in the mirror.

“Wow. You are really skilled José.”

“I told you that we are pretty good at magic.”

She smiles at them, and Donald is impressed to see that her beak moves both when she speaks and captures her emoting. 

“Let’s do this!”

She pumps an arm into the air and the trio cheers in response. She pulls back out the stone and gently taps it. Closing her eye she seems to be receiving some sort of information from it. 

“They’re within this town.” 

She then leads them out of the house and they begin to follow the direction of the arrow through the streets and many twists and turns. They help Xandra obey the different pedestrian rules, stopping her from getting hit by cars a couple of times. They end up in front of a gas station store. The automatic doors slide open and Donald feels his stomach drop. Crowford stands behind the counter, eyes distant and blank. His feathers look worse for wear; unpreened and disheveled. The rest of the group halts with mixed reactions. Panchito immediately wraps an arm around Donald’s shoulder while José simply scowls. Xandra looks on with confusion at why they had halted. Donald pushes down bile, grabbing José’s offered hand for comfort. The goddess moves forwards into the store and the trio silently follows her, tense and ready for a fight. The crow’s eyes slide into focus as they approach and a scowl takes over his beak.

“Oh. It’s you three losers. Come to ruin my life again?”

His voice is sharp but holds a deep note of exhaustion. José is about to speak when Xandra speaks up. 

“You are the descendant of Archippos Leontios, one of the Tres Amici. You have the ability to wield great power and are needed to save the world.”

The crow leans back, still scowling.

“Lady, I don’t know what these three did to have you pull this prank on me but it’s not working. That’s such an idiotic story. Did you honestly think I would play along, you dimwits?”

The question is aimed at the Three Caballeros. José speaks, hands on the small counter.

“Look. We didn’t know that you were related to one of the Tres Amici. This stone, says that you are, and there’s nothing we can do about it. There is a dark sorcerer, more powerful than me and my friends can handle it. You are needed to keep the world safe.”

“Right. Like I’d believe that. One, magic isn’t real, as nice as that would be. Two, you have already ruined my life, why would you ever think some stupid story, where I would be the main character could trick me into making a fool of my self?”

This is all is said with a scoff.  

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José huffs. Then he cups his hands, drawing in some of the light from the cheap bulbs in the store’s ceiling. He bends it into a flower and then leaves the solid item on the counter. The crow’s eyes widen in shock.

“Believe me, none of us want to be interacting with you. But we need you because you happen to be related to a hero of the ancient past. Personally, if it was up to me, I wouldn’t be here talking to you. But, Xandra here, who is a literal goddess, says that this stone is pointing to the only person who can fill the shoes of one of the Tres Amici. And its pointing at you.”

José grabs the stone and places it on the counter beside the flower, showing off the glowing arrow. The crow seems stuck in a state of being stunned. He feels a hand on his shoulder and moves to let Donald move forward.

“Look, believe us, or don’t. You know that we don’t like you and we know you despise us. Why would José show that magic is real if we didn’t need you?”

The duck then pulls out a slip of paper and places it on the counter he then picks up the stone and then turns away, pulling his friends with him. Donald calls back over his shoulder as the group exit.

“That’s our address, come after your shift if you don’t want us coming back and bothering you. Or don’t. We have nothing better to do than to bug you at your place of work, according to your perception of this conversation.”

Xandra seems confused as they march away from the store. 

“What was that?”

She asks innocently.

“We have a history with him. Not the nicest person. Why don’t we see if we cant find one of the others?”

José answers, taking in a deep breath to steady his nerves. He can hear his brothers doing the same thing. Xandra still looks puzzled pulling out the black stone while putting the purple back beneath her draperies. 

“What did he do?”

“He kinda attacked me. We got him expelled from school. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Donald says, running a hand across his face. Panchito pats his shoulder and the duck shoots him a smile. Xandra drops the subject for now and starts leading them to where the stone is pointing. Luckily for them, it seems that this descendant is also within the city. They begin walking back through the streets, moving towards their house. But then they turn down a street just a few before their own. As the parrot looks at the houses, he releases that they have arrived at the Greek Life side of housing near campus. They arrive at a house that has a fairly messy lawn and an all too familiar car parked outside. José bites down a groan as a seagull comes into sight while cleaning the car. He glances at the goddess and she is looking to the seagull with determination, causing the parrot to sigh as his brothers seem to be catching on. Welp, time to run through the whole spiel again.

Chapter Text

Panchito feels himself tensing as they approach the seagull that he recognizes from both of the eggings of their house. Xandra takes point once more, something that the rooster is thankful for. 

“You are the descendant of Blandinus Proeliator Cassian, one of the Tres Amici. You have the ability to wield great power and are needed to save the world.”

The seagull blinks at her and Panchito realizes that the bird is taller than him, now that he is standing straight and they are on an even surface. Irritation comes over the taller bird’s face.

“Really? Another trial. Fine. What else do I need to do for the fraternity?”

There is the slightest hint of tiredness echoing in his words as he speaks.

“We arent with your fraternity. We need you because no one else can fill the role.”

José says, crossing his arms and standing straight-backed, using the full extent of his small height.

“Right. What do I need to do? Wash another member’s car? I haven’t quite finished. This one.”

Panchito can tell that the guy still did not believe them. And honestly, if he had not experienced all that he had in his first semester, he might be slightly doubting too. José seems to register that they are not going to get through any time soon. 

“Donal’, do you have more paper?”

“Sure.”

Donald pulls out another slip of paper and scribbles down their address. José accepts it and in turn, hands it over to the seagull. 

“When you’re done here, come to this address and knock on the door.”

The seagull accepts the paper with an air of slight resignedness. 

“Right. I should have known they were lying when the said the car wash was the last piece of hazing for the day.”

Donald winces at this statement. The group begins to walk away, leaving the seagull to go back to scrubbing. Panchito is the first to speak when they are far out of earshot.

“Do you guys think….?”

“The hazing may have lead to the egging of our house? I mean I have heard of similar cases before.”

Donald responds.

“So he targeted us while trying to get into a frat.”

José sighs, rubbing his face. Xandra looks amongst them.

“He has wronged you as well?”

“Yeah. But it wasn’t a personal attack like with Crowford. He threw eggs at us and our house, but never knew us.”

Panchito replies hands clenching and unclenching to help him get rid of some of his tension. José then speaks again.

“Let’s track down our third and head home. We can wait there to see if Crowford or the seagull comes.”

Xandra nods, a look of loss on her features after their explanation of their connection to the seagull. The rooster feels bad that both of the descendants so far had been a negative impact on their lives. He pats her back sympathetically. She looks at him with a little confusion as she pulls out the orange stone. They begin following its lead. 

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They have been walking down the street for a little while, with Xandra, constantly changing directions. Apparently, the third member is also within the area but is moving around. Donald stretches his arms as they walk, somewhat worried about how this particular venture is going. Two of the people they had found had a negative history with them. Who is to say the third and final would be any different. A sudden yell interrupts the parrot’s distracted thoughts. 

“HEY! YOU! ”

Surely, that could not be Shelly, the rude flamingo’s voice. Could fate be so cruel?

“YEAH, YOU THREE DUNCES!”

The duck winces as he catches sight of Shelly. A quick glance at Xandra reveals his deepest fear as the goddess looks back and forth between the stone and the flamingo. Really? The third is her? Must be his bad luck acting up again. The flamingo marches up to them.

“You three cost me my job!”

Panchito responds out of surprise.

“You were fired?”

Her face twists violently. 

“You three didn’t know? Wasn’t that your grand plan?”
The parrot takes over while confusion is echoing on all of their faces.

“No? We never knew you got fired or tried to make that happen. When the owner of the bar came to our house, we answered her questions, but nothing more than that. We were rejected and we found a different gig. That’s something that happens to bands”

Xandra is still looking between the stone and the flamingo. The pink bird is staring at her hands, seeming to be in a state of shock. All that rage that she had held against them had evaporated into the air, and she seems to be lost. Donald still feels some irritation with how they had been treated, but, the group having spilled their feelings before to the owner, he feels comfortable moving on. And he knows his brothers feel similarly when he glances at them. The flamingo starts fiddling with her hands.

“Oh...Oh.”

She takes a deep breath and straightens up.

“Whatever. I still got fired. You guys got jobs at a place you fitted better. I got better things to do than to mess around with a bunch of members of a Spanish garage band.”

“Wait.”

Xandra speaks up, standing tall, and uses a commanding voice. The flamingo looks to her for the first time. 

“You are the descendant of Decima Fabianus, one of the Tres Amici. You have the ability to wield great power and are needed to save the world.”

“That’s rich. You don’t need to lie to me to make me think I’m important. I’m not falling for that hoax.”

Donald sighs. 

“Ma’am. This is not a hoax. Just come with us. We can prove it to you. The other two descendants will be meeting up at our house. If we turn out to be liars you won’t have lost much. If we are, then you’ve lost a half an hour at most.”

She seems to think this over, eyes sharply analyzing the group before her. The duck knows that they must look tired, having walked many blocks to find all three members. She nods and he lets out a sigh of relief that he will not have to argue further.

Chapter Text

José raises an eyebrow at the sight of the crow tiredly leaning against their door frame and the seagull pacing the front lawn as they approach the house. He had not been sure that they would actually come. He unlocks the door and all seven people crowd into the small home. A familiar cold breeze greets him and his brothers and the parrot subtly gives a small wave to the house ghost. He then shuts the door behind the group.

“So what’s going on losers?”

Crowford asks, arms crossed, and eyeing the couch. Xandra decides this is the moment to fling off her disguise. José catches the bedsheets while Panchito manages to nab the keyrings and cardboard beak. Two taps of her feet against the ground to finish the transformation. The descendants are all gaping as the three Caballeros move to put the items in the spare room they return to hear Xandra telling the story of the ancestors again, her book open and images leaping out. The group still seems to be in a state of shock. José speaks up.

“Xandra, excuse me, but I think you may have surprised them too much. All of them walked into this assuming we were liers and your transformation is very striking. Give them a second to breathe and think.”

He felt a small amount of sympathy for them. Magic can be a bit of a shock. Xandra nods, and the group watches the descendants blink and absorb the sight of a literal goddess. Crowford recovers, eyes lighting up with energy for the first time since they had seen him at the convenience store.

“You mean we’re actually related to ancient heroes, like Hercules? We get to become super powerful!?”

“Your ancestors had the power to help others and fought monsters to keep the world safe.”

“Just like some of the greatest plays!”

Crowford looks so genuinely excited by the prospect, José wonders if he would have gotten along with the guy before he had become a total blockhead. 

“We could become powerful?”

The seagull, who the parrot realizes that they have never gotten a name for says. Shelly whispers.

“We could gain fame.”

All lovely ambitions. José just hopes they were willing to put the work in, because the sorcerer, Felldrake did not sound like a pushover. He speaks up once more.

“Hey. Those are all good aspects. But you need to hear Xandra out because one of the reasons you are being gathered now is because of a huge danger looming over the earth.”

Xandra nods and since they have all recovered from shock begins her explanation again, detailing out the battle with Felldrake, her eventual capture, and her recognition of Felldrakes on capture. Shelly interrupts at the end.

“Are you expecting us to go after the sorcerer as we are?”

“No. First, you must earn the power of the Tres Amici. Then we shall train till we can figure out where Felldrake and his descendant are.”

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Panchito bounces on his feet as José speaks up.

“That’s where we will come in. my brothers and I have some experience fighting magical constructs and using magic, so we can offer up any help.”

This gets him narrowed eyes from Shelly and Crowford, but then the seagull speaks up.

“Hey, how do we earn the “power”? Also whats everyone’s names? I’m Huxtyn.”

Panchito would almost say the bird sounded like a decent person if he did not have the memory of being pegged in the face to fall back on. This guy followed orders, even negative ones, so that was something to keep an eye out for. After a round of names, Xandra opens her book. 

“The way you get the powers is to complete a trial. I’ll take us there.”

That is all the warning she gives before a bright burst of light comes out of her book and surrounds all seven of them. Panchito blinks his eyes and looks around the new island that they are on. This one is not the island that held the headquarters of the Tres Amici. Instead, they are standing in front of a highly decorated entrance to a cave. 

“I and the Three Caballeros are not going to go beyond this point. Good luck.”

The three decedents shrug and enter into the cave structure. Xandra leads the remaining birds to the top of the island where there is a pool that reflects what is going on within the maze that the descendants had been sent into. They watch as they manage to anger a minotaur that begins to chase them down. Panchito feels growing alarm. Sure these birds might not be his favorite, but this seemed a little extreme. They had not even gotten to know each other and now they had to work as a team or fail. And they certainly were not working as a team. Donald’s right hand is shaking and his eyes are wide as the group divides and seems to be screaming at each other. Then Shelly gets stuck beneath a pile of rubble and Panchito cannot take it anymore. He turns and begins running to the entrance. His brothers are on his heels. They begin talking back and forth as they reach the entrance.

“Panchito, you get Shelly out of the rubble. If the minotaur comes after you, use your magic to create sinkholes or something. I and José will gather up the other two and try to counter the beast. José, be ready to expand your light and blind it. I’m going to start pulling water so I can use that to trip it and tie it up.”

“Sounds like a plan Donal’.”

Panchito replies as José flicks his lighter and pulls the light into a floating ball that floats beside him. They dash through the maze with Panchito breaking off to go towards Shelly the other two move together. He jogs down the twisting path and slides to a stop at the rock pile.

“Are you able to breathe?”

Shelly looks up to him with hope as the rubble pins her down.

“A little.”

“Good. Now, just focus on staying still and breathing calmly. I’m going to shift this stuff.”

Shelly closes her eyes tightly and Panchito lets his magic start to flow over the rubble causing it to shift off of the flamingo, he pulls her out. He then forms Sierra from the pile of loose stone and dirt and pulls himself and Shelly onto the mountain lion’s back, charging to go and find his brothers and the other two descendants.

Chapter Text

Donald keeps drawing water from the air as he runs, letting it wrap about his neck and shoulders like an oddly see-through scarf. José lets out a yell and the duck catches sight of Crowford screaming as he runs from the minotaur. 

“Now!”

Donald yells, clenching his eyes closed while slinging his water forward. It wraps around Crowford and pulls the crow to his side. Then Donald opens his eye to see the minotaur violently shaking his head and mooing. He coils his water once more and throws it to surround the minotaur. The creature struggles against the bonds. Donald turns to Crowford who is gasping for air.

“Where is Huxtyn? Those bonds ain’t gonna hold the big guy forever.”

The crow wheezes while pointing diagonally to the way he had come.

“He… tripped…:”

Each word is separated by a gasp of air. The crow looks ready to faint away. José comes to Donald’s side. 

“We gotta move and get everyone out of here soon.”

“I know. Huxtyn is that way according to Crowford. Let’s get him and you send up a flare for Panchito. I’ll carry Crowford, he looks out of it.”

He gets a nod in return and hoists the crow on his back. They begin running through the maze, going as fast as they can as the roar of the creature echos off of the wall. Crowford clutches tightly to his shoulders, gasping for breath. The duck pulls more water from the air, this time using it to bind Crowford to his back more securely. They find Huxtyn at the base of a long set of janky stairs. The seagull is rubbing his beak, which has a large bruise, with a stunned look in his eyes. José kneels down, checking over the injury. 

“He’s going to need ice, but he doesn’t seem to be concussed.”

“Good. Send up that flare, but be ready. If Panchito can see it, that means the minotaur can as well.”

“Sim.”

José then tosses his ball of light into the air and lets it shine brighter. He leaves it there. They hear the clatter of heavy footsteps against the ground from overhead. The whole maze shakes as Sierra leaps down from the top of the stairs they were standing by. Donald leaps with Crowford onto the lion’s back to join his brother and Shelly. José follows soon after with Huxtyn. Panchito instructs his animal companion to race away to the entrance of the maze. The minotaur starts chasing them. Donald tightly holds tightly to the back of José’s shirt, keeping the parrot from flying off as Sierra takes a sharp turn. The lion bounds out of the cave and at Panchito’s urging, races to the location that Xandra is standing. The six birds all slide off of the lion, who dissolves back into the ground. 

“Why did you do that?”

The goddess asks, clearly confused. Donald glances at the descendants. Crowford seems to have finally gotten enough air into his system, Huxtyn seems to have come out of his daze, and Shelly is shaking dust and dirt from her feathers. José speaks up.

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“Xandra, I know you wanted them to be able to immediately fill the shoes of their ancestors and be able to work as a team right off the bat in a surprise situation. But that’s not fair to them. They barely know each other, and I don’t think any of them have a lot of experience with high-risk scenarios like me and my brothers. You are asking too much right at the beginning. I’m sorry but, they are not the Tres Amici you once knew.”

The goddess nods with understanding, but a deep sadness and some fear fill her eyes.

“What else was I supposed to do? They have to be able to work together and respond to danger. “

José gently places his hands over her trembling ones. Panchito pipes up.

“How about we focus on building teamwork?”

The rooster turns to the three descendants.

“The first mistake you made was abandoning each other. You have to have each other’s backs.”

“Thanks for the lecture, extra, but I think we could have figured that out on our own.”

Crowford says with an irritated scowl. José huffs, with an eye roll. Shelly responds to the crow.

“Like I would ever trust two idiots who left me to die under a pile of rubble.”

“That wasn’t our fault!”

Huxtyn pipes up clearly distressed by the flamingo’s words. José snaps at all of them.

“Hey! That is enough. There is a threat coming our way that’s bigger than all of us. Fighting each other is going to make it far, far easier for Felldrake to destroy everything you ever might have cared about. Now I know throwing you into that maze was too much all at once. And I know you three don’t care about each other, but that doesn’t give you the right to tear into each other at every opportunity. For now, we have time. Felldrake has yet to find his own descendant. So we have to focus on building you three as a team.”

The three are silently looking at him, no longer focused on each other.

“How?”

Shelly asks, destress still coloring her voice. Donald speaks up, hand awkwardly rubbing his neck feathers.

“So, when I was in the navy, we did mock battles to train up our reliance on each other. I know there’s a laser tag place near campus. It’s not the same thing, but I think it would be a good way for you guys to start working together.”

José nods in agreement with this idea.

“I think that could work. We can do that today and figure out something else for teambuilding tomorrow. We can have us three against you three. Xandra, can you take us back to our house?”

José gets a nod from the goddess. He smiles as the bright light surrounds the group and drops them back into the house. He gives the goddess a minute to get ready while he checks back over the descendants for any serious injuries. Finding none, he then exits the building, letting Donald take the lead once they are outside. They move down the street as a large group, oddly silent.

Chapter Text

Panchito excitedly grips his plastic gun bouncing up and down. They had managed to rent out one of the rooms for a couple of hours. The Caballeros had already won the first match and are currently waiting for the bell signaling the start of the second. The rooster had seen the frustration on the descendant’s faces at their first loss. He feels a private vindictive satisfaction, having been wronged by each one of the three in a different fashion. This false battle is slowly cooling his irritation towards the three. Not that he would let these feelings influence his ability to help them with facing the dark sorcerer. But the feelings exist and Panchito privately acknowledges them. 

The bell rings out and he looks to Donald, their team’s strategist. The duck silently signals to the other two birds and they begin to move around the indoor course, carefully getting to the second floor. At each corner, Panchito takes point, quickly and quietly turning it and aiming. They proceed till they arrive at an overhang where they can see and aim at the room below. There! Panchito aims and shoots at Shelly who appears to have chosen to proceed alone. He hits her vest, one of three lives. The flamingo bolts away with a yell and his team move to hide, in case any of the descendants had spotted them. The three Caballeros move as a unit, seeking out and shooting the other team. They cover each other’s backs. They end up winning the round with only one hit on José’s vest. 

The two teams move out into the scoring area where Xandra is, to regroup and take a breather. Panchito watches as Crowford marches up to the taller flamingo and begins to yell. Before he can move, Donald rushes forward and pulls the crow away by the elbow. The duck begins to speak calmly with the crow as the blackbird looks like he is on the edge of breaking into a fight. Panchito keeps a subtle eye on them while interacting with the other two, who are getting advice from José. Panchito listens as Donald speaks softly.

“Hey, you cant just assault teammates like that. I know how it feels to lose. It sucks. But yelling at them is not going to help. I learned that the hard way in the navy, with a lot of cleaning duty.”

“But it’s her fault! If she had just listened to me!!”

“She didn’t listen to you because you haven’t shown her that you are worth listening to. Look, Shelly puts value on people at a glance, whether that’s right or wrong, and her current value of you is very low. I know how angry that made me when it happened to my friends and me, so I get how you feel. But you were in the theatre. Use your words to convince her that you’re worth listening too, not just the loudness of them. Come on Crowford. I believe in you.”

The crow looks a little stunned as Donald gives him a half-smile and points back to the group. Panchito gives a little smile of his own, proud of his brother’s words. 

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Donald smiles as Crowford takes a deep breath and begins to talk to the other two on his team. José and Panchito step back from the other team and begin talking with Donald about the next round. Hopefully, the descendants would do better this time. They enter the arena, plastic guns clasped tightly in their hands.  Silently they move after the bell rings out. The duck spots the other team, who seem to be working more as a unit this time. He points them out to the rest of his team, just as they get noticed. Both groups fire and dodges each other’s light beams. The round moves quickly from there, with the Caballeros winning once more but with a smaller margin than the last two rounds. After a couple more games, the descendants finally win and the six birds decide to call it a day and head out to eat. Xandra, who had been reading her book while they “trained” looks excited by the prospect of trying some more food from this time period. They all agree to meet the next day at the Caballeros house to do another team building activity. 

Donald searches through his stuff to find a game early in the morning. The meal last night had been more pleasant than he had expected, given the company. He pulls out the box of the game when he finds it smiling. He then moves to the living room to wait for the descendants to show up. Xandra is reading a history textbook that José had left from last semester. The duck settles next to her with a textbook of his own. There is a knock at the door and Panchito exits the kitchen to go and open it. Crawford walks in with Huxtyn. The seagull looks exhausted and Donald stands so that the larger bird can sit on the couch. José comes to join the group, a bag slung over his shoulders. Another knock and Shelly is let into the house. Xandra then transports the entire group to the island she had first taken the Three Caballeros. The goddess leads the descendants around the house while the three Caballeros settle in a room with a low table.

Donald sets up the game as his brothers move to sit in the corner of the room to study. They would not be playing. When the descendants enter the room with Xandra, Donald begins to explain the game to them. They sit down, choosing their colors as Donald speaks.

“So this is Mysterium. You are going to have to work together to solve the mystery, that I, the ghost, try to clue you into using only dream cards. I can’t speak. Each of you will have a different killer, location, and weapon. You start with the killer, and once you guess that correctly, I’ll start giving you clues to find out the location. This game is a team game. You have to work together to interpret the dream cards that I pass out. There are a limited number of rounds, signified by this clock that I will be ticking down.”

The group nods in understanding as the duck sits down behind his screen and the games begin. Donald looks at the seven cards in his hands, checking the images against the pictures he is trying to get the descendants and Xandra to guess. He passes out cards carefully and then sits back to listen to the four talk over the different clues.

Chapter Text

 José listens with interest as the descendants and Xandra talk about the game. It was an interesting choice of game made by Donald that would, as the duck explained, better reveal how the group communicates. He sees Huxtyn try to make a point and then fall silent as Shelly speaks over him pointing out the colors of the dream card rather than the physical items in the picture. The parrot narrows his eyes in thought. Huxtyn seems like a follower, to an extreme fault. Maybe that’s how he got into the fraternity and certainly would help to explain his calm attitude towards going along with whatever older frat. members told him to do, including, egging houses. 

He also notes that Shelly seems to be very assertive and will talk over the others. Xandra seems to have the flamingo’s respect, but the crow and seagull were still being dismissed. Oddly enough, Crowford seems to be attempting politeness and appears to be trying to listen to the suggestions of everyone at the table while providing his own in a respectful way. Had Donald’s little lecture actually made a difference? Perhaps he could do the same for Huxtyn. 

Shelly announces her need to use the restroom and José senses an opportunity. The parrot stands and moves to the table as Xandra stands to lead the flamingo away. 

“Huxtyn, might I have a word with you?”

“Huh? Oh, sure.”

They exit the room to go stand outside. The parrot takes a deep breath and stares up at the taller seagull.

“Huxtyn. I'm not trying to insult you but, have you ever noticed that you are an extreme follower? Like when we first talked to you, you barely questioned our instructions to come to our house. Then I noticed that you went along with whatever Crowford or Shelly would tell you in the maze and in laser tag. And now, today, you aren’t speaking up, and whatever suggestions they make you are taking, despite it causing you to guess wrong. Huxtyn. You need to be able to make decisions and communicate them.”

“Well, they already have great ideas, I don’t think my inputs are really going to help? And I have to do whatever older members of the fraternity say, or else I’ll be kicked out.”

José frowns as the taller bird looks away and down, clearly uncomfortable.

“You have a voice. One that you need to use. What is the last choice you made for yourself?  Did you even choose to be in that fraternity?”

Huxtyn fiddles with his hands and José rocks back, seeing that the problem was deeper than he had first thought. 

“Huxtyn?”

“I don’t know. Okay? It’s just easier to do what others say.”

“Yes, easier for you right now. But that leads you to do things that hurt others. Do you remember egging those houses?” 

Huxytn nods.

“Well one of them was my brothers and I’s house. And not only did the house have to be cleaned, but you also injured them both.”

The seagull’s eyes snap back to José.  

“I know that you probably don’t really get it. But if you don’t start speaking for yourself in the small situations, you’ll get into bigger and bigger circumstances and then you’ll get people hurt. I don’t want that for you, and I’m sure if you look inside of yourself, you don’t want that for yourself.”

The seagull shakes slightly and then wipes at his face.

“I-i don’t want to hurt people. I want to be strong, and be able to help… Will you help me?”

“Of course. And I’m sure my brothers will be happy to help too. Just remember that everyone is valuable and has something to add to the world.”

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Panchito glances up as José reenters with Huxtyn. The parrot walks back over to him and then begins to whisper.

“We need to help Huxtyn to become more assertive. Can you aid me in helping him? I was thinking we can do things like prompting him for his opinions when choices for the group come up and things like that.”

“Si, I would be happy to. Also, have you noticed that Crowford is being nicer? He and Donald have been talking about old plays they both have seen. There hasn’t been an argument yet.”

“That’s good to hear. I was worried when we first collected the group, but they seem willing to change.”

Panchito nods in agreement glancing back at the group. They continued to play and Panchito goes back to working through problems. He keeps a vague awareness of what the players are doing. An hour passes. The rooster glances up tiredly when Donald pokes his cheek. 

“We are done.”

“Hmm. Home time?”

“Yep. Next weekend Xandra wants to start physical training with fake weapons. That’ll be fun to do some outside stuff.”

The rooster nods while he yawns. Standing, he stretches his arms upwards. Donald pokes him in the side, startling him into laughter. 

“Hey!”

Donald dodges as the rooster yells and dies for him.

“Let your guard down. Not my fault I took the opportunity bro.”

“You are evil Pato!”

He leaps after the duck again and manages to scoop the traitorous bird up. He swings around in a circle a few times till Donald is begging him to stop. As he gently puts down the giggling duck, he sees an odd look plastered onto Crowford’s face. It disappears soon after. Sheely also has a sharp look on her face that stays longer than Crowford’s, allowing Panchito to recognize it as jealousy. He shrugs off his observation.  Xandra stands and transports them all back to the Three Caballeros’ home. The three descendants leave and José pulls the two other brothers into his room, leaving Xandra to settle onto the couch with a different book. Panchito blinks tiredly at his smaller green brother, some confusion present in his stare.

“What do you need Zé?”

“Well, I haven’t really been able to talk with you two privately since the opening of the book. This letter fell out and I was waiting to talk to you two before opening it.”

The parrot holds out an envelope and Panchito tilts his head.

“Is that?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s from Flighton.”

“Let’s see what the secretary has to say this time.”

Donald murmurs, eyes on the envelope. José nods and carefully opens it. 

“Thou hast been successful once more. Truly thou deserves the power of the founders far more than they ever did. I hast enclosed a key to my personal chamber, enshielfed beneath a less remarkable landmark than those you have encountered before. The seal of the school. I trust that you three will be able to enter successfully. I am very proud to give over all my secrets to worthy champions. Take the knowledge I can share and use it as is fit for the world, whatever it may look like in the future. Sincerely, a very proud Flighton.”

José reads and Panchito smiles. He rocks back on his feet, a happy feeling fluttering about his stomach. Donald has a small smile on his face.

“At least someone is proud of me.”

“Oh, Donal’...”

Panchito pulls the duck into a tight hug that José quickly joins. The duck struggles a bit with a smile.

“Come on guys.”

“Shhhh. Accept the love, brother.”

José says a teasing grin spread wide upon his beak.

Chapter Text

Donald accepts the hug for a few minutes. Then he gently pushes his brothers away. They back off, but the warmth of the gesture remains. 

“We should sit on this for a while. At least until we feel like the descendants can handle themselves.”

“So not soon.”

Panchito responds to the duck with a laugh filling his statement. Donald chuckles.

“Yeah. But hey, they seem to be trying? So it might actually work out between them.”

He gets positive responses back from his brothers. They then all split off to go back to their rooms, leaving José with the thin disk that had come out of the letter. The week passes almost normally with classes. Xandra spends a lot of the day at home reading through all of the books that they could provide her with. The goddess wanted to have the best possible handle on the modern world that she could. That Saturday, bright and early, the three descendants arrive. Xandra transports the group to the island they had been on the previous Sunday. They walk into the armory and Xandra begins to hand out practice weapons to each descendant. Shelly is handed a wooden sword, Crowford a shield and thick darts and Huxtyn a wooden ax. She then gives duplicates of these items to the Three Caballeros, pairing Panchito and Shelly, Donald and Crowford, and José and Huxtyn. She names them as they are handed out.

“These swords are called gladius, the throwing mini spears are plumbata, and that is a battle-ax. There is a throwing range outside and test dummies. I’ll show you proper ways to hold the weapons, but none of these are my specialty.”

Xandra takes them outside and shows how to use each weapon briefly then she sends those who have the same off together to practice. Donald and Crowford move over to the target range, practicing throwing the thick darts while holding onto the shield. They work in silence for a while until Crowford begins talking. 

“Hey, I’ve had lot of time to think about things since you talked to me last week. I tried using my words more, taking on the role of a friendly authority when at work. And it helped. A lot. To use the skills I developed in theatre of emoting and applying words made it easier to communicate and handle others. And reading through all my plays to figure out how to better accomplish that while reflecting on my self made me realize… That I was acting like an antagonist in a play. Towards you and your friends. But especially you. I’m still a pretty bad person,” Crawford throws a plumbata hard, hitting the center of the most distant target, “But I was hoping you’d give me a chance to redeem myself.”

The crow has not looked at the duck once through this whole speech. Donald puts a hand on his shoulder and Crowford looks at him.

“How about we wipe the board? Grudges cut and fester the longer they are left to rot. If your willing to try, I’m happy to assist in your redemption arc.”

Donald has found using story and play-based language helped him communicate and understand the crow. Crowford nods slowly. 

“Good. I would like, when and if you feel comfortable, to talk about what caused you to be so angry when we first met. We don’t have to do it now. But I think that reflection would help us both to better understand how to rise above a dark origin story.”

Crowford gives a small laugh, agreeing. Then the crow points out how Donald could better throw the plumbata to hit the targets, of which he had been missing most of the bullseyes. The words he uses are far kinder and gentle than Donald had heard from the darker bird before.

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José swings the dull ax against the dummy and then drops it when the weapon sends vibrations up his arms. He flexes his hands to try to get them to feel normal again. Huxtyn picks up the parrot’s practice ax. The seagull looks like he has something to say as he holds out the ax to José.

“Got any advice Huxtyn?”

“Uh. Yeah. If you hold it a little differently and hit the dummy, here and here. Which, would be more impactful in a fight anyway.”

He points at different parts of the dummy. The parrot nods to show that he is paying attention. He gently takes his practice ax back and then requests that the larger bird show him the different holding position. The seagull gently readjusts his hands and steps back as José prepares to swing. The parrot does so, and then the seagull gives some more suggestions for stance and grip. José swings again and is able to do so without causing himself pain. 

“Thanks, Huxtyn. That really helped. You have a lot of experience with battle axes?”

“Uh, yeah… I was obsessed with Dnd and trying to be super realistic for a very short period. Dad didn’t super love that. Plus, I have a lot of experience with hitting things with bats, this is just slightly different.”

José hums at the answer, noting the part about the father without asking about it.

“Let’s ask Xandra if we can get some protective gear and then practice fighting each other a bit? I think I have the swinging part down.”

Huxtyn seems relieved that the conversation is moving on. As they walk over to Xandra, who is herself practicing the bow, José glances around. Donald and Crowford seem to be getting along well, throwing at targets several yards away. Panchito and Shelly are dueling, wooden swords clacking together. The seagull pauses for a second as the pass the duelists. 

“Shelly, you might want to try widening your stance.”

The seagull calls out and then drops a hand over his beak, fear sliding over his eyes. Shelly yells an insult back before Panchito manages to twist her sword away, knocking it from her hand. José puts a hand onto the seagull’s elbow. 

“It’s alright, she doesn’t really listen to anyone. It was nice of you to try to help despite that Huxtyn.”

His words seem to soothe the seagull into looking less fretful. They then talk to Xandra who gives them protection similar to what Shelley and Panchito are wearing. They then return to the area they had been in and begin to practice blocking. José can feel himself tiring but continues on, encouraging Huxtyn to give him advice by asking how he could improve. The parrot readily admitted to not being knowledgeable in draw out person to person fights, especially with such a large weapon. If he could have chosen, the green bird would have selected something smaller or something long-range as his weapon of choice. Despite his own difficulties, Huxtyn seems to have taken to the ax like a fish to water. Which José considers to be a very good thing, as that would be his weapon moving forward. 

Chapter Text

Panchito feels a growl slip from his throat as Shelly throughs an insult back as a response to Huxtyn’s attempt to help her.

“Why would you be so rude? He was trying to help.”

“He was butting in where he doesn’t belong.”

Shelly emphasizes her words with a hard swing downwards. Panchito moves out of the way as the movement is far too slow.

“What you think you’re better than him? He clearly has some experience.”

“Of course I’m better. He’s just some frat boy poking his beak in where it doesn’t belong.”

“Right. Look Senorita, you got a real problem.”

Panchito twirls away as the flamingo scowls and swings wildly.

“You have no right to be telling me I have a problem, you country bumpkin.”

Panchito feels the fire in his gut start to expand, warming his words with anger.

“Right. Why is it that you think you’re better than everyone? When we first met, you were insulting to the band and me personally. And now you insult those who are looking to help, like Huxtyn.”

“I am better than everyone else.”

She says this with pride in her voice, but Panchito can sense something off. If he had been José he might be able to get a better read. Lacking the parrot, Panchito continues to dig at the other bird, searching for answers as he blocks and parries.

“Not really. You lost your job because you were mismanaging a bar. Then you got stuck under rubble in a maze where I had to save you and get you out with little issue. And now, I am beating you at swordplay, despite you being the one who is the chosen descendant. Pretty good for a “bumpkin”, as you said.”

He dodges around her as she screams in frustration at him. But there is something new in her eyes. Fear. Of what, the rooster is unsure. Her last swing carries her forward, causing her to crash into the ground. Panchito watches as she does not rise. The flamingo tilts her head forward, burying it against the loose dirt. Another few seconds pass and there is a muffled sob. Panchito feels some alarm. His intention was to help her see that they were not unequal in standing, not to make her cry. He moves to crouch in front of her. 

“Senorita? Shelly?”

She keeps her head down. A tiny voice slides out.

“If I’m not the best, what am I?”

“A person, who has good and bad qualities like the rest of us. I did not say all of that to make myself seem better. I will easily admit to my own flaws and I’ve had my share of failure.”

Panchito quietly responds. She twists her head to look at him, half of her face still in the dirt.

“I’m not allowed to fail.”

Panchito gently puts a hand to her shoulder, trying to be of some comfort to what seems to be an internal crisis. 

“Everyones allowed to fail. Failure is what makes up life. Its what you do after you get knocked down is what is important, not the fall itself. And you don’t need to push others down to keep yourself successful. Helping each other is the only way to make it through life with any form of happiness and success. At least, that’s what my mamá says.”

“But if I let people be better than me, then they will walk over me and see that I’m useless.”

“I won’t. I’m here to help. And you are not useless. No one is. You’re pretty smart. Allowing yourself to see and acknowledge the strength in others will make you more strong. A great example, taking fighting advice.”

Shelly looks into his eye, with a small amount of hope. Panchito wonders what had led her to such a poisonous mindset. Had she tried to put him down, because others had done the same? He holds out a hand and after a second she takes it.

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Donald tiredly puts away the training equipment with the rest of the group, ready to go home and relax a little. He and the rest of the Caballeros were going to have a small meeting with Xandra once they got home to talk about best methods for moving forward with the group. After everyone has put away their gear, Xandra teleports them all back home. Donald rubs at his face after they had waved goodbye to all of the descendants. 

“So Huxtyn is doing better, he's starting to speak up which is nice.”

José states with a soft smile.

“Crowford actually apologized to me. He wants to start on a redemption arc. So that’s also getting better.”

Donald says with a hum.

“Shelly needs to feel that failure is safe. I’m to help her be able to see that it’s okay to fail and rely on the strengths of others.” 

Panchito says while running a hand through his head feathers. Xandra sighs to herself.

“It looks like we have a lot of work in front of us.”

“Yep. But everyone seems to be on board with growing and changing so that makes things easier.”

Donald says, stretching his arms. With that, the meeting dissolves, and the four separate out into their different rooms. For the next month, the group meets up to train and build team bonding with various activities on the weekends when all can make time. Donald had not called his sister and had received no calls in return. Donald lets the training and new allies distract him. The Three Caballeros had returned to the library during the week when they could to try and find out more for Sophia but they had been unsuccessful.