Survivor

Part 3

Written by Zelda

 

                Was this really a deserted island out by the west coast of Mexico? Coulda fooled him. Nosedive could be in the Alaska right now, and he wouldn’t know the difference. He was freezing, wet, tired, and hungry. And he couldn’t see a foot in front of his face, in the darkness. This was sure some storm, and these palm trees were lousy for shelter. Thank goodness Zelda was here with him, her wings were like natural umbrellas. No wonder these guys were able to live through the comet that killed the dinosaurs, they were built like living survival kits. But under these circumstances, even she was really beginning to feel the effects of what the two of them had been through. He could tell that she was tired, he was too! They had stopped walking back to the beach, pausing with the shore within sight, in order to find some sort of shelter. No way did they want to be caught out in the cold rain that was drumming down from the sky. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much shelter to be had in the palm forest either. The trees swayed easily, opening up holes in the canopy that let the sky pour down on them. They were both shivering at this point. Nosedive had crunched himself up under one of Zelda’s wings that she was holding over him. The other was wrapped around him, both of them huddling close in an attempt to stay warm through the rain and the wind. It wasn’t working well. Sneezing loudly, Zelda snuggled closer to Dive, and he put an arm around her neck. Neither of them spoke, they didn’t really need to. Each knew the other was growing weaker with the conditions. Nosedive had caused them both to stop at the edge of the forest, having to sit because he was starting to feel faint again. White stars still periodically danced at the corners of his eyes, and the light-headedness was making him sleepy. He yawned, breathing in the crisp air, and shook out his wet hair. Zelda was shivering worse, and it made sense to him. She was smaller, it would be easier for her to get cold. But she stood with her back to the wind, trying to protect Nosedive from the driving rain. She was soaked to the bone, just like him, neither of them able to succeed any longer in shutting out the cold or the wet. He couldn’t help yawning again.

                “Get some sleep kid…” Zelda whispered, her voice shaking a little.

                “Huh?” Nosedive was shocked at how tired his own voice sounded. Like he had been playing his videogames for too long.

                “Rest up…” she nodded to him. “One of us should. This rain’ll stop soon…”

                “What… about you?” Nosedive was slightly aware that his beak was chattering.

                “I’m the umbrella, remember?” she smirked faintly, and snuggled further against him. “You focus on sleep… I’ll focus on keeping us dry…”

                Nosedive forced a smile back to her, and hugged her tighter in reply. The two of them could keep each other moderately warm, if they stayed close enough. Zelda had already failed at keeping them dry, but he’d be a lot worse off if she weren’t here, and he knew it. No way in his right mind did Nosedive want to turn down sleep at the moment, and the Duck tucked his head down between his chest armor and the soggy scales of Zelda’s flank, closing his eyes.

                The dragon blinked softly, watching him for a moment before turning her eyes back to the sky, looking at the clouds and wondering if this rain was really ever going to stop. All she knew now was that she had to try and stop shivering, so that she wouldn’t wake poor Nosedive up again.

 

                “This is odd.” Wildwing nodded in agreement to Grin, watching the sky with a slight frown.

                “We are rowing farther away, the storm is no longer following us.” the big Duck noted.

                “Maybe it wasn’t following us in the first place, you know?” Duke suggested.

                “But why not? Dragaunus probably knows we’re still out here.” Mallory asked.

                Wildwing narrowed his eyes at the horizon, seeing dawn creep over the skies to the east. Now that the clouds had cleared and he could at least see the sun, they could get some sense of direction. The east was to his left, which meant that as he was staring out of the back of the Foil, he was facing south. North, and home, was behind him, and the empty Pacific ocean lay on his right. They must have been rowing generally north all  night, but he couldn’t  be sure how far east or west they had gone, since he couldn’t see land. “You know.” he began quietly, still musing as he spoke. “There are two targets out here.”

                Mallory turned to look at him. “You mean you think they could be going after Dive and Zelda?”

                “Assuming they’re even together.” Wildwing nodded slightly. “They’d still be separated from us, no weapons or anything…”

                “So you’re tellin’ me we spent the whole miserable night out here rowing in the wrong direction?!” Duke kicked his paddle on the floor.

                “Well, we were heading away from danger, which we did.” Wildwing turned around and stood. “But the Saurians might be taking advantage of the fact that we don’t know where we’re going, trying to drive us further apart.”

                “Hang on a sec.” Mallory looked at Grin. “Can you find Zelda with your mind and stuff, like she can?”

                “I do not have that ability.” Grin shook his head sadly. “I’ve told all of you before, you think that our minds are alike. She’s as different from me as I am from any one of you.”

                “Okay, okay, so you can’t, lay offa me.” Mallory growled, and looked away. “So what’s our plan? I mean you said it yourself Wing, we don’t know where we’re going, or where the others are. So what if we row all the way back there and get caught in that storm! We may never find them.”

                “Well we certainly know that they’re not here.” Wildwing folded his arms. “And that means we’re starting back.”

                “Starting back?” Duke sighed. “After we came all this way?”

                “We have no choice.” Wildwing answered. “We left two behind, we’ve got to go back.”

                “You know, at this rate, we could just keep rowing until we hit Anaheim.” Mallory grumbled.

                “We have no idea of how far north we’ve come.” Wildwing stated, trying to remain patient with the rising tension in the small Foil. “We can’t do that.”

                “Well, I think we have either option at our disposal now.” Tanya turned back to the group from her place at the helm. She snapped a control panel closed and grinned from ear to ear.

                “What are you talking about?” Duke asked.

                With a simple turn of the ignition key, Tanya answered by making the Foil’s engine sputter to life once again.

                “Hey, you got it started again!” Mallory celebrated. “Thank goodness!”

                “How did you manage that, Tanya?” Wildwing asked, smiling at her.

                “Well, I couldn’t drain the engine back into the water, so I just drained it into something else. Don’t go using the windshield wiper fluid for a while though, gotta warn ya.”

                “Duly noted.” Wildwing nodded, standing and giving her a pat on the shoulder. “Thanks to you, we can all give our arms a rest.” He grabbed the steering wheel and gently brought the Foil about, pointing the bow south again.

                “So I take it we’re going back?” Grin asked.

                “You bet your beak we are.” Wildwing frowned. “And it’s probably going to be a bumpy ride. But we’re getting Dive and Zel back with us. If we stay separated like this out in the middle of nowhere, there’s a good chance that one group won’t make it.”

 

                Now this was definitely not normal. Under no circumstances, not since the Ice Age, had it ever snowed this close to the equator at so low an elevation.

                “I c—cc---can’t believe this…” Nosedive chattered, hissing through his teeth.

                And neither could she. The rain was bad enough, chilling them to the bone and drenching them too, but only shortly after she had managed to fall asleep, it had started to sleet and snow! Her plummeting body temperature had alerted her to the danger, and now the two had left what little protection they had, stumbling through the whiteout conditions.

                “W---where d—did you say…. we--- were going ag—gain?” Dive stammered.

                She felt terrible for the kid. Eons of evolution in his species had let him adapt to such cold climates, but now that he had been soaked beforehand, hypothermia was quickly setting in. She wasn’t faring much better herself. “To the water, Dive---“ she answered, trying to keep her voice steady herself. She knew that he thought the idea was crazy, but the water had to be a lot warmer than the air here was now. They couldn’t stay unsheltered like this any longer. And in the back of her mind, behind all of instincts pulling her to survive through this, Zelda was puzzling over just why this was happening. No way did it snow here. What on earth was making it do so? She was clear on one thing, and that was that this whole deal reeked of something bad. Maybe Saurians, maybe not, but someone that was definitely not benevolent. “Here, Dive!” she called back to him, squinting in the wind as her feet stumbled in the sand. She could hear the waves lapping, the sound almost gentle compared to the pattering sleet around them. So both of them tripped down the incline of the shore, until Zelda could feel the water lap up around her ankles, and she turned and pushed Dive onward.

                “W—what’s the big rush?” he stammered, and then “H—hey, that’s w-w-warm!”

                Following him closely, the dragon pushed into the waves behind him, nearly having a breaker topple her over as it caught her by surprise. “Keep a hold of my t—tail! Let’s not lose each ot-ther!” Nosedive found it in the water, and Zelda started swimming, forcing her already sore limbs to paddle again, moving past the point where the waves formed, so they could float freely.

                “M---much better…” Dive breathed in relief. “Good idea…”

                “Yup.” She took a moment to dunk her head under and have the warmth wrap around her skull. “Just let… yourself warm up again… try not to move…”

“No problem…” he chuckled slightly. “Fine with m—me...”

                Zelda was yearning to discuss the cause of this weather with Dive, but her brain was moving too fast for her body now. They both desperately needed rest. She just prayed that the sea would stay calm enough. If an undertow developed and pulled them away from the island, neither of them would have the strength to swim back.

 

                There was a distant noise, like a buzzing in his head, and the water splashed up across his bill. Nosedive sneezed involuntarily, tickled by the warm water. He blinked his eyes slightly, his vision fuzzy. But there was a blinding white light shining on him, making him squint. And it really felt hot. Wasn’t he just freezing cold? Curiosity overcoming his exhaustion, he opened his eyes again, and found himself floating on his back in the water. Slowly, the events of merely hours before filtered back to him, and he pieced together just why he was here. But where was ‘here’, anyway? Nosedive tried to lift his head and right his body, only to find an incredible backwash of dizziness and sore muscles greeting him instead. Coughing slightly, he did manage to crook his head slightly, and was surprised to find no land whatsoever around him.

                “What the---?” he croaked, his voice cracking. And where was Zelda? A glance in the opposite direction saw her drifting about a dozen feet away, floating in an odd pose halfway between lying on her back and on her side. Nosedive blinked, and then tried calling to her. “Zel?--- Wake up!”

                It took a few tries from the worn out vocal cords of the Duck to bring the dragon fully back to reality. There was warmth all around her, it felt far too good for her to open her eyes. She took in a deep breath, only to find herself gagging on seawater, and that brought her around violently. The dragon bucked and righted herself, panicking. Where was the island? Where was Nosedive?!

                “Whoa!” Dive called over to her, trying vainly to roll over in the water and start swimming.

                Zelda looked over and spotted him just before a wave of exhaustion hit her as well. She floundered in the water, struggling to stay at the surface, trying to get her wings to help move her back towards him. Slowly, slowly, she gained control, and paddled her way over. “You okay—?” she choked, her voice salted through.

                “Think so…” Dive finally flipped himself over. “What happened?”

                “We--- must have fallen asleep---“ Zelda marveled at her own laziness in that desperate of a situation. “Maybe--- collapsed, is a better word…”

                “But, what was that noise?” Nosedive asked.

                “Noise…?” Zelda cocked her head and listened. Over the rippling of the waves, there was something, a kind of whirring or buzzing sound….

                “Like a motor….” Nosedive voiced the thought before she could finish it.

                “You’re right..” she blinked, thinking for a few moments. She had to draw the attention of whoever’s boat that was! So she drew in a heavy breath and let out a very dry-sounding roar, flapping her wings in the water, hoping they were reaching high enough for someone to see over the waves. Whatever that noise was coming from, Zelda was praying that Dragaunus didn’t have a boat.

 

                “Hey, did you hear something?” Duke asked, leaning over slightly.

                “Like what?” Mallory asked. “How can you hear anything over this motor?” Mallory looked back at him.

                Duke shrugged. “I dunno.”

                Grin blinked at him. “From over there?” he pointed.

                “Yeah…” Duke nodded slowly. “You heard it too?”

                “No.” Grin shook his head, standing up and putting a hand to his forehead, shading his eyes.

                Frowning, Tanya stood as well, putting a pair of binoculars up to her eyes. “Hard to see anything over these waves.” she muttered. “They’re a little choppy…” But she trailed off, leaning a bit farther.

                “What is it?” Wildwing turned, watching her.

                “I thought I saw something.” she answered. “Can’t tell from this distance.” She pointed in the same direction that Grin had.

                “Well we’re checking it out.” Wildwing revved the engine, causing Tanya and Grin to sit again. “Keep your eyes open.” The Foil plowed out faster, heading into the water, still with no land in sight. It was terrible trying to see through the glare that the waves reflected. The sun was roasting hot, but they had the canopy up to provide them a little bit of shade.

Tanya sat still, only her head turning slightly to scan the surface of the water. Suddenly, she dropped the binoculars and pointed emphatically. “There! That’s them!”

“We’re on it.” Wildwing gunned the motor and sped along even faster.

“I saw Zelda’s wing, I’m sure of it!” Tanya nodded, not taking her eyes off of the ocean.

“Yeesh, you think they’ve been drifting all of this time?!” Duke asked, not really expecting a reply. He didn’t get one either, as everyone was too busy looking over the tops of the waves.

“Yeah, there!” Mallory pointed. Coming over the top of the wave, the Foil wasn’t more than forty feet from them both as they floated. Zelda had seen them, she pitched her wings up again and let out a ragged cry. It was only a matter of moments before the Foil was beside them, engine shuddering as they had to slow to a stop. Grin and Duke reached down into the water, scooping Zelda and Nosedive up by their shoulders, hauling them aboard. The team stood and crowded around the two as they flopped back onto the deck like dead fish, Zelda gasping for air from all of her struggling.

“By DuCaine…” Duke breathed. “You guys look awful.”

“Thanks---“ Nosedive coughed, offering a sarcastic scowl despite all.

Zelda curled up slightly on the deck, sneezing. “Was beginning to think--- I was going nuts--- thought we heard something.”

“Good ears, both of you.” Wildwing couldn’t help but let out a light smile. Seeing them both alive and not in a pool of blood was a massive relief. But they looked to be in rough shape. Tanya was already pulling out blankets to help dry them off with.

“What happened to you guys?” Mallory asked, taking a towel and draping it around Nosedive’s shoulders.

“Washed up, on an island---“ Zelda answered. “Started to snow… hadda swim for it…”

“You two just relax.” Tanya ordered softly. “Go right to sleep if you want to, you’re fine now.”

“Snow?” Duke asked. “What on Puckworld?”

“Are they gonna be okay Tanya?” Wildwing was stooped by his younger brother.

“I think so, no physical injury as far as I can tell…” she was helping to towel off a still-curled Zelda. “But if it really did snow, they must have gone through some serious temperature extremes. They’ll need some real downtime.”

“They’ll get it.” Wildwing nodded, standing again. “We’re going home, and the rest of us are getting to the bottom of this.”

               

 

End of Part Three

 

Mighty Ducks-The Animated Series, including all logos and characters (except mine) are copyright and property of Disney. You may copy, print, or whatever with this document, so long as it is not altered and I (Zelda) am credited. Thanks!