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A Link to the Heart Ch. 7

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Literature Text

Story by Aqua-Melody101 
Written by: 09alih (for all future chapters)



“All right now,” Oswald said, testing his foot under Ortensia’s watchful eye, “What’re we looking for next?”

Gus opened the book and scanned the page.

“My shape is familiar, though my form is not. Seek me in the gardens of a global monument.”

The toons thought for a moment, then Oswald grinned slightly.

“Well, I’m pretty sure we’re already at th’ world monument. So now all we gotta do now s’ figure out what we’re lookin’ for.”

Gus rubbed his chin.

“Well… we may as well try looking around the Earth Pavilion. I know there are gardens there. Maybe we’ll know what we’re looking for when we see it.”

Aware of Ortensia’s anxious looks, Oswald made sure to step carefully as they followed Gus. As they reached the pavilion, they came across more unsettling signs of abandonment. Gardening tools were left scattered, unfinished plantings half trampled. Oswald felt his stomach twist with worry for the gremlins; he hoped they were hiding somewhere.

“Okay, anyone see something familiar?” he asked. The group dispersed and looked around the garden. Oswald wandered slowly, carefully scanning the vegetation; he still wasn’t sure what they were looking for but since it was a garden he assumed they were looking for some kind of plant.

After a while, as he pushed aside some bushes, a flash of golden orange among some vines caught his eye. He walked over to find a patch of pumpkins, and a smirk involuntarily came to his face when he saw that they were in a shape he’d know anywhere; the Mouse ears.

Suddenly something clicked in Oswald’s head.

My shape is familiar… but my form isn’t…

“Hey! Over here!” he yelled. “I think I found it!”

Ortensia and Gus immediately ran over to look.

“I think you’re right,” Gus said, nodding. Ortensia smiled and took off her backpack as Oswald carefully broke one of the small fruits from its stem.

“You sure y’ can carry this?” he asked as she opened her bag. Ortensia looked up and raised an eyebrow.

“I’ve had 420 kids. I think I can manage.”

Oswald blushed and placed it in the backpack without another word. Ortensia giggled and gently tapped his nose with her finger.

“Well, we better keep moving,” she said. As she and Gus headed off, Oswald hung back. He slowly reached out and laid a hand on one of the pumpkins.

“Don’t worry, Mick…” he said softly, “We’ll be there t’ help ya soon.”

He turned to follow the others, but all of a sudden a sting of pain ran through his hurt foot and he let out a groan as he fell. Turning, he realized a vine had wrapped around his leg.

“Well, look at what the pumpkin dragged in!”

Oswald’s head shot up; sure enough, there stood Shadow Mickey, grinning maliciously. Gritting his teeth, Oswald reached for the brush but the vine twisted even tighter, making him yelp in pain.

“Oswald!”

Before he could even turn his head, Ortensia leaped over a clutch of plants with a shovel in her grip.

“Ortensia, don’t!” he yelled, but she ran in front of him and braced her feet.

“You leave my hunny bunny alone!” she shrieked.

Shadow Mickey grinned even wider and burst out laughing, but it was quickly cut off when Ortensia swung the shovel against his head with a loud CLANG! The shadowy figure flew across the garden and smashed into a pillar. After hanging there for a moment, he slowly slid down and flopped face first to the ground.

Oswald felt his jaw drop open as he stared. Ortensia quickly hurried to his side and cut the vine before kneeling to check his foot.

“Are you all right?” she asked frantically. “Can you walk?”

Shaking his head to clear it, Oswald took a deep breath and nodded. He tried not to groan as he stood, but a stab of pain still betrayed him. Ortensia gasped as he stumbled and grabbed his arm, slipping it around her shoulders.

“We’ve gotta get back to OsTown,” she said. Oswald grunted as he put more weight on his wounded foot.

“But…”

“No arguing, mister!” Ortensia interrupted. “We need to get you fixed up if you want to be any help.”

Gus poked out of the backpack with the book open, flipping through the pages.

“It looks like there’s nothing else to be found here anyway and it’s getting late. We may as well regroup before we look for the next ingredient.”

Oswald sighed and nodded.

“Okay.”

Ortensia smiled and squeezed his hand.

“Don’t worry,” she said gently. “We’ll get them in time.”

Oswald gazed ahead blankly for a moment, then gave her a weak smile.

“I sure hope so.”





Meanwhile, at Mickey’s house, all the bunny kids were snuggled in blankets and sleeping bags on the couch, easy chairs and every available space on the living room floor, some snoring softly as others sucked their thumb. In the kitchen, Animatronic Donald was grumbling to himself as Daisy worked at reattaching his arm.

“Don’t believe it… darn kids… always messing with my parts…”    

“Now, Donald,” Daisy said gently, “You know they don’t mean any harm. And if you want my opinion, I think they’re trying to distract you. They know you’re worried.”

Donald instantly opened his beak, sat there for a moment, then huffed and went back to muttering. Daisy smiled and finished tightening the last screw.

“There we go! How’s that?”

Donald carefully rotated his arm both ways, then tested the joints. He smiled.

“Thanks, Daisy,” he said. Daisy smiled and gave his cheek a little kiss.

“My pleasure.”

Donald grinned widely and chuckled happily. Daisy giggled before glancing back at the living room.

“Y’ know, maybe when this is over we should start babysitting a little more often.”

“What!” Donald screeched, then clamped his beak firmly shut as Daisy glared at him, then hurried to the doorway to check on the bunny children. Each one was sleeping like a rock; they might make a fuss about going to bed, but once they were down an earthquake wouldn’t wake them up.

“Come on, Donald… is it really that bad?”

The look he gave her was enough of an answer. Daisy rolled her eyes, smiling slightly.

“Men. Why don’t you make sure Goofy doesn’t need any help.”

Donald immediately started to protest, but was stopped by Daisy narrowing her eyes. He sighed and got up; Goofy was better than the bunny kids any day.

“Okay, okay…”

After trudging up the stairs, Donald opened the door to Mickey’s room and froze.

“Goofy, what are you doing?” he squawked.

Inside, Animatronic Goofy was balancing on a chair while holding an upside down bucket in his one hand, as if trying to position it on the ceiling. At Donald’s voice, he yelped and almost fell.

“Mick’s leakin’ a lot,” he said, gesturing.

Donald looked over at Mickey and his annoyance quickly disappeared. Sure enough, the amount of ink dripping from him had increased. The size of the drops seemed a little bigger too.  

“It’s not leaks, ya big palooka,” he said, trying to disguise his unease. “Forget it.”

Goofy shrugged and clumsily got down from the chair. Both animatronics looked more closely at Mickey; his breathing was more ragged, and he winced slightly every so often. Donald let out a heavy sigh and glanced at Goofy. Both knew all too well the pain their friend was suffering, and what its ultimate result would be.

“Gawrsh…” Goofy said quietly, “He’s not lookin’ too good.”

Donald looked at him, then smiled slightly and patted his back.

“Aw, don’t worry, pal. It’ll be okay.”

Suddenly Mickey inhaled sharply, making them both look to see him tense, breathing even more heavily.

“No…” he moaned weakly. “… d-don’t… leave me…”

His voice trailed off, and after a few moments his body relaxed again. Donald smiled slightly in relief and headed back downstairs as Goofy gathered up the other containers scattered in the room. Neither noticed the tear trickling from Mickey’s closed eyes, or the faint whisper that escaped him.

“…Walt…”





“Are you sure you feel up to this?”

Oswald smiled at Ortensia’s anxious words and took her hand, squeezing it gently.

“You kiddin’? I feel great! Whatever ya did sure worked wonders!”

Ortensia smiled and kissed his cheek. Oswald blushed slightly and chuckled before looking back at the book.

“That which you seek fell from the night sky, though light reveals its inner beauty.”

He sighed heavily and thumped the book closed.

“Well, that was very un- obvious,” he said, then placed his chin in his hand as he ran the words through his head. All kinds of stuff fell on Mickeyjunk Mountain, but as far as he knew there wasn’t anything that reacted to light in a special way. As he recited the riddle to himself again, something suddenly popped into his head.

“Wait…” he said. “Laralee was talking the other day about some new thing she got for the museum… n’ I heard her say somethin’ about a meteor shower…”

Ortensia gasped and thumped her hand on the table.

“Of course! The moonstone! She told me about it too!”

Her face fell a little.

“I just hope she’s not too upset… she’s very proud of it.”

The others frowned slightly; they knew Laralee would help them, but she hated losing exhibits. Suddenly a knock came on the door, making all three look up.

“I wonder who that is?” Ortensia said as she stood. Oswald followed as she walked to the door and opened it.

“Rem!” he exclaimed when he saw the gremlin. “What’re you doing here?”

Rem was one of the gremlins who had moved into the World Center. He smiled at Gus and saluted the three toons.

“Well, since the World Center started acting up, we’ve been hiding out in the Gag Factory till it blows over. Since you stopped by it’s been pretty quiet, so we think we can head back now. I wanted to pass on everyone’s thanks!”

Oswald smiled and sighed with relief.

“I’m just glad everyone’s okay,” he said. Rem smiled back, then started digging through his pockets and pulled out a slip of paper.

“Oh yes, I almost forgot! We found this while we were cleaning up… don’t have much use for it, but we think the museum could use it. Well, so long!”

He saluted again and teleported away. Ortensia handed the paper to Oswald. He examined it for a moment, then his face lit up.

“Well, I think we just got a solution to our problem.”





Laralee sighed heavily as she took the moonstone from its case. She’d been perfectly willing to give it to them after hearing of the situation, but couldn’t quite disguise her disappointment.

“Well, here you are. I really hope Mickey turns out okay.”

“Thanks a lot,” Oswald said, then grinned and held out the paper Rem gave him. “By the way, maybe you can use this instead.”

Laralee squinted, then her jaw dropped. She snatched the paper away and began examining it from every angle.

“The… the first ticket from Disneyland’s opening?” she gasped. “Why, why I… how did… do you know how rare any of these are? And the very first… oooh, thank you, thank you so much!”

Smiling, Oswald, Ortensia and Gus left the museum to her continuing overjoyed rambling. Out on the street, Oswald hesitated and raised the moonstone up to his eye level.

“Hmm… I hope this is the right thing,” he murmured. “Doesn’t look like much.”

Almost right after he spoke, a ray of the rising sun hit the stone. It lit up and began glow in a rainbow of colors, seeming to emanate from the very center. As he stared at it, awestruck, he heard Ortensia gasp softly.

“Oh…”

Oswald smiled and put an arm around her.

“I think we found it.”

Ortensia smiled back and kissed his cheek.

“And only three more to go.”
Well, here's the next chapter, written again by the awesome ~09alih! Enjoy~! :heart:

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silverheartlugia2000's avatar
XD dont piss off the kitty!