Stranded
Written by Zelda

	The Ducks had been resting after winning a game, and Nosedive was glancing at the TV, to see a live report of two unidentified, lizard-like creatures that had broken into a bank. 
	"But that's wierd... why would Dragaunus want a bank?" asked Mallory. 
	"Weirder still, why would he want one that's on the other side of the Rocky Mountains!?" asked Tanya. 	"Smells like one big trap-ola to me." snarled Nosedive. 
	"But we still gotta go. Come on!" said Wildwing, and the team loaded up into the Aerowing. 

	It was a usual flight, high up in the air, and the Ducks remained silent, save for navigation codes and equipment checks. Zelda quietly turned away from the cockpit, and trotted towards the back of the ship. Suddenly, the Ducks heard a high pitched roar from the middle of the plane. It was Zelda's patented distress cry. Turning on their heels, they faced a huge amount of green shadows, from which Zelda was backing away. As the shadows dissolved, five hunter drones took their place. They raised their arms and readied their lasers with the common pneumonic clicks and pings. 
	"Get away from the control panels!" cried Wildwing, and the group split in two, flying off to the sides. 
	"Man! I knew this was a trap! But nooo, we had to go cross the Rocky Mountains to save a bank from that big walking snake!" retorted Nosedive. The drones turned to face them in the small space. Tanya reached for a side panel, and opened the ship's bay doors. 
	"Let's toss out the trash!" laughed Mallory, leaping forth to push a drone towards the hatch. Zelda did the same, but instead of firing, the drone grabbed her and threw her out towards the hatch. Yelping, Zelda caught the drone by the ankle, and dragged it down with her. Zelda clung to the edges of the ship as well as she could, with the drone digging its claws into her hide. She whined and cried in fear as her claws started to slip. 
	"Hang on!" cried Duke. He parted through two drones, and leapt out to catch Zelda just before she fell. Nosedive checked a drone, and sent it flying towards the hatch opening, bumping Duke over the edge. He fell, grappling for what he could, until Tanya's feathered hand caught his. Tanya was desperately trying to hold up a chain of four, two being hostile. 
	"Don't let go!" grunted Tanya, as she shoved backwards with all her might. Suddenly, she cried out in pain. A drone had begun firing on her, and she was slowly losing her grip. She could only watch in fear as Duke slipped from her hands, and fell down into the great spanse of white and gray snow and rock beyond.

	Zelda plummeted into the snow with a crash. She had let go of the drone in hopes of flight, but was unable to catch the windy gusts, and had fallen haphazardly. Struggling slowly up, she saw Duke lying face-down in the snow near her. 
	"Duke!" she whined. She staggered through the deep snow to him and helped him up. They looked about at the two heaps of twisted, smoldering metal that used to be hunter drones. 
	"You okay?" asked Duke, concerned. 
	"For the most part." replied Zelda distantly. Duke raised his wrist, and tried to contact the others. 	"Terrific." he muttered. "It's broken." 
	"Stay here! I'm gonna fly up and see if I can see the ship." With a powerful blast from her wings, Zelda flew strait up into the graying skies.

	Zelda looked about in fear, scanning the horizon for any signs of her comrades. Suddenly, a blast of cold wind whipped her off the left, swirling her powerfully about. 
	"Oh great." she snorted. Zelda regained herself and flew downward. She knew what it meant. Duke looked at her expectantly as she landed. 
	"Well?" he asked. Zelda sighed. 
	"We have three priorities. First is shelter, then food, then firewood." Duke leaned back. The rest were gone. "When I was up there, I saw a cave not too far up the mountain. We can stay there. But we have to hurry, we only have about an hour." 
	"An hour? Why?" asked Duke, slightly alarmed. 	"There's a blizzard coming from the west. If we don't hurry, everything we need'll be buried." Zelda kicked her feet up, and started plowing through the snow, uphill. They trekked through the snowy drifts for about 15 minutes, and finally came upon a dark, but dry, cave. "Good! It's out of the direction of the wind." smiled Zelda. Slowly, she entered the murky darkness, with Duke close behind her. 
	"You sure nothing's living in here?" he asked. Zelda sniffed about slowly. 
	"Nope, nothing was here for months." She turned to face him. "Okay, I'm gonna go out and get any food and dry wood I can find. Do you think you can devise some sort of signal to the others?" 
	"Yeah! I can use the metal from the drones!" replied Duke. 
	"Okay, remember, we only have an hour. Please don't stray too far. I don't wanna tell you the number of people who get blindly lost in blizzards." 
	"Okay Zelda." assured Duke, and they both headed out, Zelda veering off to the left, Duke heading back towards the drones. As he walked, Duke started to think of his comrades. What had happened? Were they okay? Had they crashed, and were now seeking help from them? Slowly, he came upon the clearing where the two drones lay, as the cold winds started to swirl and rip about him.

	Zelda trotted proudly back to the cave. She had managed to find a good amount of groundcreepers and moss, as well as a handful of berries, and a mouthful of pine branches. Along with this, she had gotten a small amount of wood. She entered the cave and laid her bundles down, and then realized that Duke had not returned. Running back outside, the snow swirled about her. The blizzard was starting! She had to find Duke! Charging out of the cave, Zelda tumbled down the mountain side to try and find him.

	Duke finished laying out the last piece of metal. 
	"There! Done." he coughed. The snow was really starting to fall now, pushed and spun by the bitter wind. He cupped his freezing and numb fingers and blew on them. Now he could get back. Turning, he tried to find his footprints that would indicate the way back, but they had been covered by the snow! Quickly, he tramped through the deepening snow, towards where he thought the cave was. In less than a few minutes, he had lost all sense of direction. "Great." he thought. He started calling out to Zelda, but the only sound to return was the howling of the wind through the trees. Nervous and absolutely freezing, he pressed onward.

	The wind stung Zelda's eyes, and froze her wings. She though she had heard Duke off to the right, and started to run. Unfortunately, she found nothing but thick piles of freshly fallen snow. Standing high atop a rock, she roared loudly. After a few seconds, a call came in reply. He was just a little further on! 
	"Hang on Duke!" she yelled, and leapt forward. 

	Through the blowing trees, Duke had heard Zelda. Now, he stood where he was, scanning the massive drifts of white. Finally, he saw her, coming through off to the left. She came galloping up to him, and yelped. 
	"Come on! We have to get outta here!" she yelled. 
	"Which way?" asked Duke in reply. 
	"Up!" cried Zelda, and they both stumbled blindly up the snowy slopes. Finally, after it seemed they were going around in circles, they finally saw a black dot in the snow: the cave.

	Stumbling in, the cave wasn't exactly warm, but it was out of the bitter winds. 
	"Whoa, that was some storm. You weren't kidding Zelda." said Duke. 
	"You finished the beacon?" she asked. 
	"Yeah." grinned Duke. "Can't miss it." 	"Excellent." smiled Zelda. Duke bent over, coughing suddenly. "Poor Duke, you should have never stayed out in that storm so long." whined Zelda, circling him. "Here, sit down, and I'll see what I can do about a fire." Zelda slowly picked out a few pieces of wood, and arranged them in a tent-shape on the stone floor against the cave wall. 
	"Now for the starter?" grinned Duke. 
	"Of course." laughed Zelda in reply. She stood back, took in a deep breath, and a great plume of fire exploded from her jaws, that set the damp wood ablaze. "How was that?" she asked, wheezing a little. 
	"Ha!" laughed Duke. "All we need now is a stick and some hot dogs!" 
	"Well..." hesitated Zelda. "We don't exactly have hot dogs." She handed Duke a small groundcreeper. 	"Hey! What's this?" he asked. 
	"They're groundcreepers. Better like them, cause there aren't many things that you can eat up here." He cautiously plucked a few of the tough, small leaves off, and chewed them slowly. 
	"Kinda minty." he remarked, and ate some more. Zelda smiled, and set to knawing on a pine branch.

	Night fell swiftly upon the mountain, and as it did, the two stretched and yawned. 
	"Okay Duke, when you go to sleep, just a tip. Curl up and tilt your face down. Believe me, you stay warmer that way." 
	"Okay Zelda." yawned Duke. "Whatever you say." He sneezed, and lay down near the fire. Zelda was exhausted, but stayed up a little later. Now, instead of the cave being a black spot in the world of white outside, it glowed orange in the black space. Trotting to the edge of the cave and feeling the snow fall on her face, Zelda sighed and wondered where her comrades were a this moment.

	Grin sighed and rubbed his shoulder. It had been a tiring and depressing day. Ever since the battle, the Ducks seemed to be in a frozen and lazy state. It had taken quite a while to push all the drones out of the hatch, and the ship had received a moderate amount of damage, but when it was all over, Tanya had been able to gasp out the bad news. Since the ship was in such bad shape, and there were injured, including himself, Wildwing had decided to return to the Pond. Though exhausted, Tanya and Nosedive immediately went to work to fix the ship. It would only take a few hours to get up and running again, and then they could go out and look for the others. The rest had sat nervously in the Ready Room, watching all the weather reports and mountainside patrols that Drake One could cover. Even with all this information, it would still take them days to cover the area of mountain where Tanya thought they had fallen. And now with the blizzard...

	Grin leaned back and sighed as Nosedive entered the Ready Room. 
	"How's the work coming?" asked Wildwing, standing slowly. 
	"Sit down big Bro., gonna be at least another hour yet." replied Nosedive. Phil was busy yapping into his phone, threatening someone or other about the consequences of losing the two. Mallory glanced around. It was already 11:30. They were all tired. Finally, Wildwing stood up again. 
	"Nosedive, you and Tanya take a break. I think we all need some rest despite the situation. We're gonna have to look for them in the morning." The Ducks slowly rose, and trudged off towards their sleeping quarters.

	Zelda awoke, shivering, with a snort. She slowly raised her head and yawned into the cold. Glancing around, she saw the fire was dying down. Quietly, she rose and put a few more pieces of wood on, fanning them until they caught. Looking over, she saw Duke shivering as well. She furrowed her brows. She would have to find some way to make a blanket for him. Stretching, she walked to the edge of the cave again and looked out on the still swirling, gray world of snow. She and Duke would have to go out again, to find more food, wood, and uncover the beacon, which had most likely been masked with snow. In the dim light provided by the slowly rising sun, she could see the snow still falling rather heavily. She turned back into the cave as Duke began to wake up as well. She paced up to him as he uncoiled and opened his eyes. 
	"Hey, how ya feeling?" she asked. Duke sneezed loudly. 
	"Uhhn...not so good." he replied slowly. Zelda laid her thick tail over his forehead. 
	"Duke! Your burning up!" she whined. He slowly propped himself up on one elbow and coughed. "Look Duke, your going to have to stay in and rest today. I'll go and dig out the beacon." She plodded over to the pile of food, noting how she didn't feel so great herself, but it was nothing. She got a dozen red berries and handed them to Duke. "Here, eat these gradually, they'll help bring the fever down. But there aren't many of them, so use them carefully." 
	"Thanks." he sniffed. "Look Zelda, I'm not that sick or anything. I can come out and help you in you want..." 
	"No Duke, you stay in here. I'll only be gone about an hour." With this, she walked out of the cave and into the cold snow.

	Tanya kneaded her head slowly. She had had no sleep last night, despite the chance she had been given. Now, at about 7:00 in the morning, she was back at work on the ship, aided by her Omnitool. The Ducks had to postpone a game they had with the Icers because of the situation. All over Anaheim, the news of the lost team members was broadcast on TV, and printed in the papers. Indeed, it was disheartening to everyone, especially the Ducks. Wildwing had made contact with Silver, Diamond, and Northstar, and they would be flying out to help them in another day. Until then, the Ducks could only wait.

	Finally, Zelda was done uncovering the beacon. Wings numb from the freezing cold, the snow clod in icy lumps about her claws, she shivered and snorted. Her eyes burned from the glare of the white snow, and her nose was stuffy and sore. She picked up her various bunches of food and fuel, and shook the snow off of her snout. Quietly, she turned back, raised her wings, and flew off for the cave. She landed, and went up to Duke. He lay curled on the floor, near the fire. But he was not asleep. 
	"Hey Duke." she coughed as she entered. Duke raised his head slowly. 
	"Oh, hi." he replied distantly. Zelda lay down her supplies and felt his forehead. Alarmed, she realized he was getting worse. Even further distressing, she knew she was too. 

	Night fell on the mountain once again. By now, Zelda had been reduced to thinking about making a break for it, and taking Duke down the mountain. But Duke was still getting worse, and it would take days to reach the bottom. No, it was better to stay put, with good shelter and a mostly reliable food supply. She had also considered flying off to get help, but now she knew it was more important to stay until Duke recovered. She herself knew she was getting sick as well. Her muscles ached, her head ached, her eyes burned constantly, and she felt downright exhausted. This situation was getting worse fast, and she hoped that the Ducks would come soon. Suddenly, there came a deep rumbling noise from high up the mountain. Duke sat up, alarmed. 
	"What's that?" he asked. Zelda darted out of the cave, and came running quickly back in, eyes wide with fear. 
	"It's an avalanche! Stay inside!" she yelled, and dragged Duke to the center of the room. They both huddled together, watching the entrance to the cave. Like a flood of white, the snow suddenly hurtled over the opening, sealing them inside with a great moving wall. The earth thundered and roared with the moving snow. By now, the earth was shaking so hard that rocks were falling from the ceiling of the cave. Zelda darted off to the side, hoping to escape the falling rocks. Looking up, she was horrified to see one falling strait for Duke. She leapt into the center of the room, snatching Duke by the collar, and pulling him away just as the boulder landed and splintered on the floor. Zelda let go, and dodged another falling rock. She landed on her back heavily, and slid to a stop on the stone floor of the cave. Suddenly, a few small pebbles bounced off her snout. Looking up, Zelda was powerless to stop a large rock from falling strait down toward her. The earth strained and roared, and then suddenly died down, as
 the avalanche passed, and a sheet of snow was left behind. As the dust cleared, Duke slowly sat up. 
	"Zelda? You okay?" he asked into the blank darkness. 
	"Duke! Come and help get this rock off my wing." she whined. Zelda lay on her back, with a huge rock crushing her outstretched left wing. 
	"Aww Zelda..." began Duke. He kneeled down beside her, and rolled the rock off  her wing, while Zelda winced and yelped. Slowly, she stood up and stretched her wing. 
	"Great...I'm busted. There goes the option of me flying to get help." she winced, dragging her injured wing as she walked away. "Now we have to dig ourselves out." She and Duke slowly went to the wall of snow, and began to scratch away at it. Duke took the Duck Saber off of his shoulder, and slashed a great circle, pushing the snow away to reveal the black night beyond. It was late before the two had relighted the fire, and ate mechanically. The two went to sleep that night in a drowsy state of exhaustion and fever. 

	It was also late that same night when the Ducks sat once again in the Ready Room, reviewing materials recovered by Drake One. Suddenly, a news report came in. 	"Hey guys, take a look at this!" said Mallory. A helicopter view showed a picture of the mountains at night. 
	"This evening, just about half an hour ago, authorities in a patrol helicopter reported a massive avalanche. There were no reported injuries, and no hikers or skiers on the mountain at the time." reported a newscaster. 
	"Just another dead end." snorted Nosedive. 	"Maybe not!" said Wildwing. The group leaned in closer. "Drake One, rewind transmission." ordered Wildwing. The group watched carefully as the news broadcast was played over again. "Freeze!" ordered Wildwing. They stared at the screen blankly. 
	"So?" asked Tanya. 
	"What does this look like?" he replied, pointing to a small patch of red at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. There, set in red metal, just about to be swept away by the coming avalanche, were 
	"Two crossed hockey sticks and a puck!" cried Mallory happily. They had found Duke's beacon! 
	"Tanya, is the Aerowing ready yet?" asked Wildwing. 
	"Ready as ever!" replied Tanya. Wildwing turned to the rest of the team. 
	"Let's go."

	Zelda awoke feverishly. She staggered up onto her forepaws, but could go no further. Her whole body seemed to be cramped up into a stiff little ball, and it hurt to move. She finally heaved herself up and plodded over to Duke. She felt his forehead and whined slowly. Duke had gone into a delirium last night, and had still not recovered. He didn't talk feverishly of death, or mutter nonsense like many who went into delerious trances, but he just lay there like one dead, and it scared Zelda. Zelda whimpered, and walked back to the patch of rock she had been sleeping on. She felt she had done everything she could for him. She had made him lie on a mat of shredded pine bark dangerously close to the fire, and had given him all the berries she could find, but he was still getting worse and worse. Zelda sneezed raggedly. She herself was in a bad state as well. The cold stung her eyes, and the snow blinded them. She sank with a groan back to the floor and curled up like one dead. Suddenly, she heard something overhea
d. She lifted her snout to sniff the air, but sank back down again. There...she heard it yet again. Did her ringing ears deceive her, or was that...? She staggered up, and dragged herself to the cave entrance. Looking out, she heard the loud hissing of the ship's braking thrusters! She threw herself out into the driving snow. The Ducks had come for them at last! Staggering through the stinging cold, she could hear Mallory and Nosedive calling for her and Duke. She roared weakly in response, as the snow blew around her. She headed downward, in the direction of the beacon. Finally, Zelda made out the forms of the team running towards her. Wildwing crouched beside her and rubbed her snout. 
	"Zelda! We thought we had lost you for good!" laughed Nosedive. 
	"Zelda! You look pretty bad, kiddo." said Mallory. "Where's Duke?" 
	"Back in the cave!" Zelda sobbed feverishly. "He's worse off than I, come on!" 

	Zelda used all of her strength to climb back up the mountain, leading the team to the cave. Finally, she staggered in and nuzzled Duke on the shoulder. 
	"The poor guy's delirious." she explained as Wildwing hoisted him up on his shoulder, and Grin scooped Zelda up gently. 
	"Come on guys." said Wildwing. "Let's go home."

	The trip back to the Pond was all a blur to Zelda, and she was just happy to see her comrades again. That night, the only thing that kept her from falling fast asleep was Duke's condition. Indeed, he was getting better quickly, but both he and Zelda had suffered minor frostbite, dehydration, minor hypothermia, and slight starvation. It took another day for Duke to bring himself up to the state where he could sit up and talk with the others, while Zelda was able to walk freely once more. As expected, Zelda had her bouts of distracting guilt for not trying to help Duke more on the mountain, but Duke himself quickly dismissed any doubt. 
	"Zelda, I'll give ya this." smiled Duke, as he sat in the infermary. "If I was ever trapped in a cave on a mountain, I think you'd be the one I'd be most happy to be trapped with. And you've proved it to me." 	"And to all of us." agreed Grin. Zelda smiled. Her comrades were some of the most forgiving she had, and would, ever know.

			The End

Mighty Ducks-The Animated Series, including all logos and characters (except me) 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!