HOOKED ↝ DESCENDANTS

[10]

"Lonnie!" Krissy exclaimed as the daughter of Mulan followed Rosalie and Ansel back out into the garden, where the rest of the group was waiting to depart. Krissy raced forward, throwing her arms around her best friend in a tight hug. "We were so worried, how did you wake up?"

"Yeah," Mal spoke up, surprised, suspicion lacing her tone. "How did you wake up?"

Lonnie shrugged. "I don't know, exactly." she said simply, not letting the rest of the group in on her and Ansel's little secret. "One moment I was with Doug sorting fabrics, and the next I was waking up on the floor of Evie's sewing room, and Doug was nowhere to be found. A few minutes after I woke up, Rosie and Ansel found me and explained what happened. Maybe Audrey's spell wears off over time."

"But the curse of the scepter doesn't-" Mal began, but Ansel spoke up instead, cutting off her words.

"The castle's all clear, though." he announced to the group. "We should get moving if we want to make it to Fairy Cottage before dark."

"Ansel's right." Ben said, clapping his friend on the back before turning to Doug. "Doug, you go with Jane. We need to find Fairy Godmother."

"Hold on," Lonnie interjected, her eyes landing on Uma, Harry, and Gil. "What are they doing here?"

"It's a bit of a long story." Jay explained. "But they're on our side, this time."

"As long as it's convenient for them." she hissed, narrowing her eyes at the three Pirates. "I'll let it go for now, for the sake of Auradon, but let the record show, I don't trust any of you as far as I can throw you."

"Noted, Princess." Uma said before turning back to Ben and gesturing to Doug and Jane. "They might need some muscle."

"Hey!" Doug protested.

"Well, I'll go." Gil offered.

"Yeah, actually, I would feel better." Carlos spoke up, surprising Rosalie and the others with how much he'd begun to trust Gil in the past few hours, given the history the VKs and Pirates had growing up on the Isle.

"Yeah, actually, I'd feel better too." Evie added.

"Same," said Mal.

Doug sighed in the silence that followed. "Actually, I would too." he finally said.

Gil broke out in a large grin, clapping Doug on the shoulder.

"Alright, man!" Gil cheered. "Let's do it."

"I'll go too." Lonnie offered. "I might not trust this one," she said, looking back at Gil once more, "but you might need some help."

Jane, Doug, Gil, and Lonnie bid the others goodbye, the two groups wishing each other luck as they disappeared around the side of Evie's cottage, back on the path towards Auradon City. As soon as they were gone, Mal turned back to the rest of them, watching them expectantly.

"Well," she said. "Shall we?"

The group retreated back into the woods as Ben led the way, Mal and Evie not far behind him and Ansel, Carlos, and Jay bringing up the rear of the group. Near the middle, Rosalie walked with Krissy while Harry and Uma were a short distance away, the former taking a few steps closer until he was only a couple paces behind her.

"So," Harry spoke up. "Your skills in tracking Ben back there. Where'd a princess like you learn how to track like that?"

"My dad," Rosalie said simply, stepping closer towards Krissy to widen the gap between her and Harry, not wanting to get too close to the Pirate.

"Ah yes, the legendary Flynn Rider." Harry said.

"He goes by Eugene these days, actually." she pointed out.

"Lucky he had your mum to save him from the clutches of the Isle of the Lost when the time came." he said. "I've met the Stabbington brothers down by the docks a couple of times. They've sure had quite a few nasty things to say about him."

Rosalie kept quiet at his words, continuing to walk and not letting the name of the two redheaded thieves scare her, like they had when she was a child, and had heard her parents' story for the first time. As a royal child growing up in Auradon, the Stabbington brothers had been a ghost story for her, a way to make her behave, along with the woman who kept her mother captive for the first eighteen years of her life, Mother Gothel. She knew none of them had ever forgiven Rosalie's parents for the events that had transpired, no matter how many years had passed, and, though trapped on the Isle of the Lost, she'd never quite managed to shake her fear of them over the years.

"And that's why they'll stay there where they belong." Krissy said. "And once we get this whole Audrey thing taken care of, then everybody can be back where they belong."

"Don't worry about Krissy." Jay spoke up assuredly to Harry and Uma, the former of the two having grown silent, though the sinister smirk he always wore still had yet to fade. "She may act tough and like she hates us all and wants nothing to do with us, but secretly she's been after me for a year now. She likes bad boys, right Bjorgman?"

Jay began to laugh as the know-it-all smile on Krissy's face changed into a scowl, the princess of Arendelle rolling her eyes in response as her twin brother joined in, laughing at her expense. 

"You wish, Vizier," she sighed, even Rosalie unable to keep the smile off her face as their laughter began to ease the tension that had befallen the group.

It wasn't hard to see how Jay enjoyed the chase when it came to Krissy, one of the few girls at Auradon Prep who wasn't constantly pining over him, though to her, she'd always been less than amused at the prospect of him. Maybe it was that she still had yet to completely forgive the VKs for all of the trouble they'd caused the year before at Ben's coronation, but Krissy simply had yet to see the fuss that was to be made over the four of them, Jay in particular.

As they walked further through the woods in pursuit of Fairy Cottage, it began to grow dark, causing Rosalie to worry. With all of the havoc Audrey had wreaked during the day, there was no telling what horrors she might unleash once the night had fallen. At last, they climbed over the last hill, the small cottage finally coming into view a short distance ahead.

"There it is," Ben announced to the others, slightly winded from the trek up the hill. "Fairy Cottage. Let's go find Audrey."