The Antelope's Journey

28. An imposter in the palace!

Francina was very curious as to what exactly they were doing in that cave. She wanted to know what her mother had been actually after in that cave. Apparently, her mother would go to the cave more often over the years. Francina and Kali followed closely behind Mrs. Peterson’s steps. Monkey had been crying and grovelling to be brought along before they left the palace but Mrs. Peterson advised that they live her behind. She mentioned that things would turn out very bad and complicated. To keep Monkey safe, it was best to keep her there. They were in the forest where the cave was. Kali had to think back on how happy Monkey would have been to get to climb trees again and be in nature after such a long time. However, they kept moving in the cave. They were all curious about what they would find in the cave.

The cave was an old ordinary cave from where they were standing—it had soil, dust and rocks. Not much was promising. In fact, Kali and Francina were almost fooled. They could almost doubt that there was anything at all in there. However, after a long quiet walk, they started seeing light balls on the roof of the cave. Mrs. Peterson had warned them to be even quieter now.

Now, things seemed intense and suspenseful. Infront of some built-in door was a guard. He had his guard down—her sat himself down on the soiled ground. They were not allowed to rest nor let their guard down at all until their shift was over. Hence, there was no chair to sit on. In fact, him sitting down like that was sneaky behaviour.

Mrs. Peterson already knew one was missing. Usually, there would be 2 guards at a time. Over the past decade, she always saw 2 by the door. “Where’s the other one?” She whispered to herself, “There’s supposed to be 2 of them—”

A deep voice came up, “You, again.” This was shocking as they did not expect this. The three turned and saw the second guard standing there. He was calm enough, almost as though very detached from his work. “I knew I wasn’t crazy. I knew I’d catch you some day.” He had pointed his machine at Mrs. Peterson’s forehead showing a red dot on there. “So, today you brought your little friends over…”

Mrs. Peterson did not know what to do in that instant. She contemplated on how to handle the dull man. Should she attack him and run the risk of causing an alarm ring or should she—

“Oh, my…” she sighed, she had her charming smile on and a look of a ‘Confused Daisy’. “I must have gotten lost again, ha.”

The man did not entertain her at all. Mrs. Paterson thought she should try again, “You know, I am looking for the best fortune teller in the village, I heard he is somewhere out here.”

“You are outside of the village, ma’am. There’s no-one out here.”

There was that odd silence. In that silent, each of them only stared in the other’s eye. It was unclear were else to take the conversation, since the man did not bite to her claims. Even Kali and Francina stood mum in that moment. None of them were quick witted enough for that conversation. A bad move could simply result capture and detention. That meant—being captured for eternity. They had to move along wisely.

“Yo, man! Where are you?” the other guard started calling. “I thought heard your foot-steps coming on. You should be done pissing by now.” The voice sounded as though it was approaching. “I should also relieve myself,” he seemed to have been mummering to himself by now, “and also wash the sleep off my face. I’m dosing over here.”

When he approached the passage, there was no-one. He was sure that there was someone there. At one point he thought he had seen his colleague’s shadow figure walking up. This was confusing to him. “Oh,” he was very worried, “not another one.”

He started chasing to go look outside. He was sure that if he looked in the bush where they usually pissed, he would find him. But this was not the first time a guard went missing and has not come back ever since. Hence, the past occurrences did shake off his confidence in the outcomes. He had to be hopeful that his colleague was still around but his rationality had him expect the worst.

“Come on, you guys pull!” Mrs. Peterson had been encouraging her youngsters to keep pulling the unconscious man who they were dragging on the ground. Everything happened so fast. One time, they were staring at the guard and the next, they were interrupted by a calling voice. Amid the interruption, Mrs. Peterson took her chance—she sent out a silent punch that took the man out. He fell and passed out.

“But why did we not just leave him there?” Kali asked. He hated that he was physically straining himself like that.

“No, every one of them has a piece of information for us. Now, shut it and keep pulling!”

……….

The colleague had been turning left and right. He circulated the bush. “Oh, this is bad. We lost another one. I am in trouble!” He was losing his mind to the point of turning stones and shaking trees, maybe his colleague might jump out of any of those. He knew that he could not leave his station unattended. He rushed back in. He rung an emergency alarm that went wailing in the entire cave.

……….

“Oomf!” the weight of the unconscious man was becoming heavy even for Mrs. Peterson. “Gosh, what is inside of this man?!”

Now they were now in the village. It would not look good dragging a fainted man like that. It would raise attention and concern. Mrs. Peterson had to think of something. She already had her own secret way into the palace but she first had to pass through the people.

Mrs. Peterson started realizing something odd in the area. The people were more restless than usual. The land was a lot busier than usual. She could hear an unusual commotion from a close distance.

“FREE OUR KING! FREE OUR QUEEN!”

Mrs. Peterson stepped aside and further into a circling mob. In the middle of the circle, she saw a bunch of angry men and women with all sorts of terrifying weapons. These were the real bandits. They called themselves the ‘REBELS’. They were entertaining the gullible crowd. It was a ploy to gather alleys and sway public perception.

“YOU THINK OUR KING IS INSIDE THAT PALACE? NO! THERE’S AN IMPOSTER IN THAT PALACE!”

Hhhh?!