Chapter 6, Why The Long Nose?

The sixth chapter of "Wilde Horses Couldn't Stop Me!"

XIII

Kida groggily opened her eyes and stretched.

“Mmmm…  Did you sleep well, Milo?”

She reached to her right to stroke Milo’s soft hair and give him a good morning kiss, but all she could feel was an unoccupied pillow.

“Milo?”

She sat up and looked around.  

“Up early, I guess.”

Usually Milo waited for her to wake up when he got up earlier.  He liked to watch her sleep.  It was so cute and charming.

Then she remembered their fight yesterday and her anger came back.   

“How could Milo have been so thoughtless?!”

She got dressed and then opened her bedroom door, saying “I’m still angry at you and I expect an apology today!”

But Milo did not respond because he was not there.  This was quite strange.

“Maybe he had some business to attend to right away.  That’s it!  I’ll check the throne room.”

She tried to walk, but ended up almost running.  Her anger was quickly becoming worry.  What if he had been kidnapped?  What if he had gone out to explore Atlantis, becoming lost?  

When she reached the Throne Room, the morning candles hadn’t even been lit and the room was nearly empty.

“This is very unusual,” it was an effort for Kida to keep her voice from shaking.  

“That girl’s room!” she thought, “He does go there a lot.”

As she made her way to the unknown girl’s room, she saw a guard doing the morning rounds.

“Have you seen Milo?”

“No, I haven’t, your majesty.  Would you like me to form a search party?”

Kida almost exploded at the guard, “No!  We do not need a search party!  I will find him!”

The guard seemed frightened, but he bowed and continued his rounds.  Kida immediately regretted her outburst but the guard was already out of view.

“Sorry…” she sighed.

The queen tried to open the door to the unconscious girl’s room, but it was locked.  She banged and yelled, “Milo?  Are you in there?”

She could faintly hear a voice saying, “Hello?”

It was not Milo.  Did this mean that the girl was finally awake?

Beatrice heard Kida yelling, “Is Milo there with you?”

“Oh no.  I wasn’t supposed to be awake yet.  But I’ll answer her question,” the young woman thought to herself.

“No, he isn’t.”

Kida left without saying anything.  She was too sick with worry to be polite, especially to the girl who had caused the fight between her and Milo.

But then she saw him walking towards her down the corridor.  She felt so happy and angry at the same time.  It was painful, like touching something hot and something cold at the same time.  

“Milo!” She hugged him violently, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine!”

“Then you should be ashamed!” she punched him in the gut.  Milo grunted and nursed his stomach.

“I thought I would die, I was so worried!  And I was already mad at you!  Where did you go?” Kida exclaimed.

“Oh, you know, I went for a morning walk,” he winced.

“You treat this like a joke!  Next time, tell me where you’re going, or at least leave a note!”

“Okay, okay,” Milo laughed.

“I do have some news for you, though,” Kida was slowly going back to normal.

Milo looked at her attentively, “Yes?”

“I’m not sure, because the door was locked, but I think that girl is finally awake!”

Milo’s face fell.  His mind was racing, “Oh my god.  Kida must have talked to her through the door.  Beatrice forgot what I told her!  What did she say?  Or worse, what will she say to Kida?  No, I’m fine.  I’ll just try to do most of the talking for her.  It’ll be fine.”

Milo tried to smile, “Oh, really?”

“Yes!  Is something wrong, Milo?”

“No.  No!  Nothing’s wrong!  Why would anything be wrong?” he was not hiding his feelings very well, “Let’s go talk to her.”

“Yes.  I am very curious about her.  I honestly thought she would never wake up.”

Beatrice heard footsteps outside the door.  It had been a few hours now.  She was getting hungry.  Perhaps she was now allowed to be awake.  She had spent the time exploring the room she was in, inspecting the strange symbols that seemed to be on most of the objects.  She had never seen that script before, although it reminded her of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

“Maybe this is Atlantis!  Oh, how exciting!”

Soon bored, she tried to translate some of the strange script, but she was not doing well.

She paused and wondered what she would say if they asked her how she got there.  She couldn’t tell Milo it was all for him.  In tribute.  Out of love.  She had to make something up.  But what?