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Porky, Sylvester, and Wile E. were busy unloading the company van; mostly laptop cases and a couple of duffle bags containing various Acme products that would invariably have undesired results. Several feet away, Daffy Duck stared at the gates to the Disney studios with an unyielding sense of trepidation. Speedy Gonzales suddenly appeared down by his webbed feet but he either didn't notice, or paid the mouse no mind.
"Señor?" said Speedy, "Why are you so nervous? You've been here dozens of times."
"Murphy's law," grumbled Daffy.
"And this 'Murphy?' His jurisdiction extends to other studios?"
Daffy sighed. "You wouldn't understand, Speedy. You've never been accident prone."
"So what? You never worry about consequences before."
"It's just a gut feeling."
"Señor Duck, you know better than to listen to your inner voice."
"Thank you," Daffy sneered, "that's very encouraging."
Sylvester slammed the trunk of the van shut. "Tho what do you guyth think?" his trademark lisp more pronounced off camera than Daffy's, "Brown Derby?"
Porky pressed the lock button on the keychain. "What's breah-b-b-breah-b-Brown Derby?"
"It's a really nithe rethtaurant. They have a great lunch menu!"
Daffy shot them a look. "You're already thinking about food?"
Sylvester and Porky exchanged a glance, debating the best way to respond, but fortunately Wile E. nodded his head for all of them.
"I don't usually say this," Daffy huffed, "but can we try to focus? Whatever's going on in there, the rabbit's in over his pointy ears. It would behoove us to avoid litigation with Disney's paralegals." Porky flinched and Wile E. gave a sheepish shrug. Sylvester seemed a little dumbfounded. "Porky, translate for the cat."
"He muh-means try not to de-du-de-destroy anything."
Daffy rolled his eyes. "This has all the makings of a morning talk show panel. Come on, let's get this clip show started. Who's got the security passes?"
Porky pointed to Wile E., who pointed to Sylvester, who reminded Daffy "You thaid to leave 'em in your mailbox."
Daffy gave himself a face palm. "Speedy?" The mouse gave a mock salute and vanished in a trail of dust. "All right let's move out. He should be back by the time we get to the gate."
It was a short walk to the security booth which turned into a long ordeal by the untimely arrival of the Roadrunner, who took more than a passing interest in antagonizing Wile E. The mere presence of the bird was enough cause for the Coyote to drop his equipment and start closing in. It took the combined efforts of Sylvester and Daffy to get Wile E.'s focus back on the current project.
"Take it eathy, buddy," said the cat, a sympathetic paw on the canine's shoulder, "Deep breathth."
"Beat it Harpo!" Daffy snapped. The Roadrunner cocked his head, feigning innocence before bouncing up and disappearing through the parking lot entrance. Daffy rolled his eyes.
"He'th heading right into oncoming traffic," Sylvester pointed out.
"One can hope. You guys get reorganized while I see if the security guard has a dolly or a wheelbarrow or something."
Daffy approached the booth, where a large mustachioed man with red hair and a cowboy hat eyed him suspiciously.
"Morning," the duck propped himself up against the desk. "Daffy Duck-global superstar-you may have heard of me-your crickets here."
The guard scowled at him and donned a pair of eyeglasses as slowly as possible. He took up his clipboard, which may or may not have had actual names on it, and ran his finger from the top to the bottom while his mouth winced from side to side as if he was really reading it. Daffy wondered where Speedy was; it never took the mouse this long to sprint across town twice.
The guard's mustache continued to tick side to side with each fake name he was pretending to examine. Daffy found it annoying at first, then strangely hypnotic. "You know," he said, "you look really familiar."
The mustache stopped moving and the guard's eyes locked onto Daffy like crosshairs. On reflex, the duck braced himself for a karate chop to the throat. Instead he was greeted by a huge belly laugh. "You saw my movie!"
Daffy found his right hand engulfed in the guard's violent handshake. "Alameda Slim! Screen star, cattle rustler, and yodeling virtuoso!" Without the slightest provocation, Slim proceeded to regale the WB crew with multiple anecdotes about the film's production and the music that never made it to the studio. The guy could talk, and he did, all the way up until the moment that Speedy arrived with the all important security passes.
"It'th about time," Sylvester muttered.
"Señor Duck's mailbox is on the top row," explained Speedy.
One quick dissertation about the current state of hand-drawn animation later and the team was loading their equipment into a yellow rolling bin. Slim gave them a warm welcome to the studio, gently slapping Daffy so hard on the shoulder that his beak popped off, and they were headed into the maze of studio streets. They waited until they were out of Slim's earshot before anyone offered up a reaction to the encounter.
Wile E. nudged Porky and gestured to a hand sign he was holding that read 'Is that where film stars go?'
"To a p-p-p-punch clock j-j-job? It's a lee-li-luh-living."
Sylvester humphed. "Thome living."
"Was it just me," said Daffy, "or did that guy look really familiar?"
"Thome people jutht have that look."
Jasmine was the last one to crawl out of the ocean. Steam filled her lungs and she coughed uncontrollably. The salt in the air brought tears to her eyes. She could barely make out the shapes of Frollo and Kronk further down the beach; the former angrily pushing away the helpfulness of the latter. Everything between the sand and the mountain had burned to the ground in one straight line, while the foliage to the side was untouched. It was almost as if whatever caused the magma flow had somehow targeted them; like someone powerful was behind it all.
The princess wringed out her clothes to the best of her ability if only to drop the extra weight of the seawater, her dress was undoubtedly ruined. Close by, a very irritated panther fared much better in shaking off the ocean's residue.
"Is everybody okay?" she called down the beach, receiving an immediate duet of 'We're good' and 'No! I'm not all right!' from Kronk and Frollo respectively. She gave Bagheera a forlorn sigh. "Let's try this again."
Bagheera watched her take a few steps towards the mountain before he realized what she was doing. "You're not going back, are you?"
"Elsa and Tarzan are still out there."
The large cat took a few strides to cut Jasmine off. "Whatever that was, it destroyed everything. I'm sorry, but your friends are gone."
"Our friends," said Jasmine. "And what if they're not? They were inside the cave when that eruption happened. They could be safe. They could be trapped."
"They're likely dead."
"Likely isn't good enough. I have to know for sure."
Bagheera grumbled. "This isn't one of your man-settlements where you have the luxury of your own rules, Jasmine. This is the jungle. You don't argue with the storm clouds about what is and isn't fair. You run from them, hide, take shelter, survive."
"That's not what we do."
"Really?" The panther made a nodding gesture in the direction of Frollo's tantrum. "I'm not sure every one of your kind would agree with you."
"I'd go if it was you out there."
"That would be foolish. If I fell to the wilderness, what chance would you have against it?"
Jasmine stopped in her tracks. "Bagheera, I understand what you're saying. And all things being equal, you're probably right. But I don't care. I'm doing this. You can come with me, you can stay here, you can go wherever makes the most sense to you. But you're not going to talk me out of doing what I know is right." And with her peace said, she turned back to the mountain and restarted her march, stumbling repeatedly over the soggy dress.
Bagheera's eyes followed her first steps before glancing back at Frollo and Kronk, then to the unblemished foliage. He shook his head as his conscience got the better of him and sprang after her again.
"I'll go," he said.
"Thank you. I could use the company."
"No. I'll go instead." Jasmine was about to protest, but the panther cut her off. "You're in no condition to travel right now. I'm better suited for this, and you have something more immediate to handle."
She gave him a puzzled look, and he nodded towards the men on the beach. "We're carrying dead weight. You need to decide what to do about it."
Jasmine scratched behind Bagheera's ear. "Promise you'll be careful."
"If it's an option," he said, before scurrying out of sight.
There was a wrecked vessel further up the coast; a large wooden ship, beached among the rocks. From this distance it looked like the wood was rotting beyond use and a gaping hole in the side about the size of a rhinoceros exposed the collection of barnacles that had taken residence inside. Its discovery sent Kronk into a rush of glee. "Hey Jasmine!" he called. "Come see what we found!"
Frollo huffed, "I don't know what you're so excited about. That boat isn't going anywhere."
"Yeah, but it could have food. Supplies. Maybe one of those rolled up maps with the dotted line and the big 'X' that leads you to a cave with sliding block puzzles and an even more complicated map!"
Jasmine reached the spot where they stood and appraised this new revelation. "Someone has clearly been here before us."
Kronk slumped down to where his eyes met Jasmine's and hopped up and down like a child. "Can I check it out?"
She smiled at him. "Just be safe about it."
"Oh boy! This is gonna be great!" Kronk practically skipped across the sand in the direction of the wreckage.
"I don't know what he's so happy about," sneered Frollo.
"He has hope," said Jasmine. She let a few moments go by in case Frollo had a response that he wanted to share. She continued when none came. "We need to talk."
"I'm sure her highness is used to getting whatever she wishes."
"I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm trying to save your life."
"Did I ask for your charity?"
"Charity? You mean basic human compassion? No, you didn't ask for it, in fact you seem to resent it."
"I was fine until any of you showed up. Since you arrived I've had demons coming out of the woods and down from the mountains-"
"Yes. And this island is dangerous whether you're with us, or alone. Which one of those do you want? Because so far, you've done nothing to convince me that it makes a difference."
Frollo just glared silently at Jasmine, but the princess refused to flinch. She may have even been able to stare him down were it not for the abrupt sound of an explosion coming from the wrecked vessel.
"Kronk!" she shouted, breaking into a sprint, and not bothering to check whether Frollo was coming or staying.
Continue to Chapter Sixteen
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