Chapter Text
The adventure had been going fine. Better than fine even. Huey’s checklist had gone exactly according to plan. No unexpected twists or turns, just straightforward and to the point. It was a miracle. Or at least it would have been, if the plane hadn’t caught on fire mid-air.
He really should have expected this, or at the very least been prepared for something to go wrong. But his hopes climbed too high with the completion of his checklist, and now he was forced to evacuate the plane unprepared.
Normally, something like this would be fine. Practically a walk in the park. But this wasn’t normally. Normally he would have already had his perfectly-organized hopes crushed and he would be in the mindset for more things to go wrong. Normally he would have the rush of mid-adventure adrenaline to fuel him. But he had neither of those things now.
The adventure was supposed to be over. His hopes had come true, only to be stolen away again when he was least expecting. The adrenaline was gone, and now all that was left was pure, unbridled terror.
There were voices somewhere around him, slowly fading until there was just one. He couldn’t understand what it was saying.
Everything was so much. The heat of the growing flames danced across his feathers making sweat drip down his forehead and arms, sticking to him, god why was it sticky? His vision was blurred as he stared out at the ground below him. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t do this. A flash of red, black, and white found it’s way into his line of sight. Flame, ash, white-hot.
It reached for him, and Huey fell back. More of what he had seen came into view, and he could no longer see the door of the plane. Just his uncle scrooge. Scrooge was the voice.
“Huey, Huey, we’ve got to go! The plane is going to go down!”
“I-I can’t! I can’t do it! I can’t jump!”
“You’ve done it before, c’mon lad!” Scrooge reached out for him, but Huey flinched away.
“Huey?” His tone was softer now, something more concerned. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t do it Uncle Scrooge! Everything was going perfect and I though we were done and it was over and now everything’s going wrong and I just! Can’t! Handle it!” There were tears streaming down his face now, adding to that horrible, sticky feeling of sweat.
Scrooge nodded, before slowly getting up. Huey’s breath picked up. Was he leaving him? God he was going to die here wasn’t he? Consumed by flames, all alone, scared, weak-
“Alright lad, c’mere.”
Scrooge was back.
He hadn’t left him.
He was holding out his arms, and invitation that Huey was cautious to accept.
“Don’t worry. I promise everything will be okay.” Something in his tone, something about his ever-confident smile, made Huey trust him. He shuffled to his feet, closing the gap between him and his Uncle.
“Now close yer eyes tight as you can, and just hold on.” Huey did as he was told, shutting his eyes and gripping onto Scrooge’s jacket for dear life. He felt a strap being pulled around him and across his back.
“Now, I want you to just focus on my jacket.” Again, Huey complied, directing his thoughts to the feeling of the fabric beneath his fingers.
He felt Scrooge move, the heat of the flames getting further and the sound of wind whipping getting closer. Huey didn’t open his eyes.
Suddenly, there was no more ground beneath him. Only air rushing past his ears. He just kept focusing. He could feel each individual thread intertwined into the fabric of his Uncle’s jacket.
There was a tug against his body and the whoosh of a parachute opening. Focus on the fabric.
Time seemed to slip away from him, and just as suddenly as he was out of the plane, he was on the ground, still strapped to his Uncle.
“You can open your eyes now, lad.”
“Don’ wanna.”
Scrooge just chuckled.
“Well alright then. Let’s get going back home.”