Somewhere, there is a story being read about a brave hero, defending the world from terrible evil with the aide of his amazing friends. Somewhere, there is a story about two destined lovers finally sharing their first kiss after overcoming so many obstacles. These stories, and so many more, are waiting to be read, and to be shared.

Too bad that wasn’t what these two were looking for.

No, right now, the only thing on their minds was getting the treasure. Settled deep in the icy tundra, a green bird merrily hopped on one foot, delighted to be in this very cold room. “This is it! This is it! Thisisitthisisitthisisit!” He continued to babble, nearly drooling from the rambling he was going through.

“This is freezing.” His partner replied, rubbing his black nose in distaste. “That’s what this is. Remind me again why we’re here?” Though he was a polar bear, he’d spent so many years traveling with his companion that he’d forgone his ability to withstand such low temperatures.

The question halted the duck’s dance, and he placed his hands on his hips, an annoyed face plastered on.  “How could you forget? There’s supposed to be treasure in here!”

“Where, exactly?” The other replied, with the same look. “Under the snow, or in the ice? ‘Cause that’s all I see here.” He waved his large arms, gesturing to the frozen walls that almost seemed to trap them, and then to the crunched white powder at their fee.  “How are we supposed to find anything in here?”

The fowl clicked his tongue, removing something from behind his back. “Why, the same way we do everything!”  In his hand was a small, round, black bomb, somehow already having its tip lit.

The bear’s eyes widened with fright, and he began to back up. “Bean!  Put that out! BEAN!”

KABOOM!

By the time the large mammal regained consciousness, he could hear his insane friend already dancing again.  Pushing back an urge to throttle him soundly, he sat up on his behind, brushing off the snow that was flaked onto his fur. He paused, however, noticing the gigantic gape in the ground directly in front of him, no doubt caused by the earlier explosion.

Inside the hole, Bean was doing his merry jig, going in a circle around what appeared to be, of all things, an actual treasure chest. The polar bear had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.  The chest remained, however. Steel was replaced with gold, and embedded with intricate jewels.  However, it was locked, not that the duck seemed to pay that hindrance any mind.

Sighing heavily, the larger of the two began to slowly climb down into the pit. “All right, so for one amazing time in your life, you may have been right. But let’s hold off the party until we see what’s inside, shall we?” With that settled, he grabbed the top of the chest with one hand, the bottom with his other, and began to try and pry the two apart.

“I’ll tell you what’s inside, Bark!” Bean replied, adding a few hip shakes to his moves, as  a loud ripping sound echoed off the walls. “Rubies! Diamonds!  Emeralds!”

“A book.”  Bark interrupted flatly.

“Books! Sapphires!” The dance halted, and the fowl turned back to him quizzically. “A book? Sheesh, Bark, you have no imagination at all!”

“I’m not imagining it.” The bear growled, digging into the chest and holding up the prize. “The only thing in here is this book.” He held it up as proof. It was thick, with hundreds and hundreds of pages kept tightly inside. It was bound with red leather, and yellow letters glittered out on the cover.

For all its beauty, Bean seemed equally disappointed. “What? Are you serious?!” He leapt to the chest in dismay, poking his head inside in case his accomplice had missed something.

While that fruitless search went on, Bark turned the book over, reading the cover. “ ‘One Thousand And One Arabian Nights.’ ” He read out loud.  He then glanced over at Bean, who was still looking around. “You know there’s nothing else in there.”

“There has to be a real treasure inside!” Green whined, not caring how ridiculous he looked with his feathered behind up in the air. “Just give me a few minutes!”

Bark rolled his eyes, and decided to make himself comfortable…it was obvious he wasn’t going anywhere for a while. He sat down in the soft snow, and decided, for the sake of passing time, to crack the book open.  “Let’s see here… ‘Once upon a time, there was once a powerful king, who had a beautiful wife. They ruled over their kingdom for many years…however, the wife fell sick, and passed away. Heartbroken over his loss, the king turned cruel. He ordered for a new wife to be found for him. However, no woman he found would please him as well as the first one had. Every woman was killed after spending one night with the king.’ ” He paused, wondering how such an evil man would be allowed to rule.

“Yeah?  Then what?”

Bark almost jumped, startled by Bean’s voice.  He blinked to see his partner leaning over towards him, eyes gleaming with curiosity.  After a small round of awkward silence, the bear continued reading. “ ‘ One day, a woman named Sche….Scheher…uh…Sherry…a woman named Sherry was summoned to be the next wife. She was very afraid, for she knew the fate of the women who had gone before her.  She plotted all day, and then night fell, and she was inside the king’s chambers. Before he could say anything, Sherry offered to tell him a story.’ ”

“A-huh, a-huh, and then what?”

“Quit interrupting and you’ll find out. As I was saying… ‘The king was intrigued. He had not been told stories since he was a young boy.  So Sherry began to speak a most wondrous tale.  She said, ‘This is the story of a pair of brothers, of magical genies, and an enchanting princess of flames…this is the tale of…’” Bean paused again, his eyes squinting.  He could have sworn the words said ‘Aladdin’ and something about a lamp, and yet, he couldn’t deny what he was seeing the letters say now…

“Tale of what, tale of what?!? “ Bean demanded, tugging on the elder’s arm in anticipation.

Bark sighed, and decided to read on, regardless of the tricks the book was playing on his eyes. “Okay, okay…

This is the tale of Silver and the Secret Ring.”

End of Prologue.