UNDERGROUND LIBRARY

                Chapter Ten

After their conversation last night, Miya did not expect Kiko to be the first person she woke up to see. She expected to see Flynn, as his incessant chattering woke her up. But she did expect to see Kiko, with a girl.

She rubbed her eyes vigorously, thinking it was because she just woke up or another of her hallucinations. But the girl was still there, and this time, she and Kiko were locked in a tight embrace.

     "What the.....?!"her inner voice screamed, but she chose to remain calm. She pretended not to see them and set off to look for some berries to eat.

     "I missed you so much.", she heard a female e voice squeal in excitement.

     "Me too."

She 'forgot' the voices and kept walking. That was when Leo called her.

     "Umm..... Miya? Where are you going?"

She turned.

     "I'm going to look for food. Did everyone forget to eat today?" She shouted, stressing on the word 'everyone'.

Maybe she made a wrong choice by talking in that tone, because Leo simply frowned and walked away. Before that he said flatly, "Well, have fun looking for food alone in the forest."

That was when she realized she was moving back towards the forest. She just needed to be away from them.

Them, meaning Kiko and the new girl, not the boys.

     "Who was she?" she thought as her feet dragged her into the forest, further away from her group.

                    ********
The cave he had entered was nothing like the ancient caves. It was a fully furnished, royal bedroom. But still dark.

He lit up the torches attached to the walls and the beauty of the room came to life. Everywhere he looked, he saw the Matanceros insignia - it covered practically the whole cave wall and even the ceiling. There was an element of gold on almost everything in the cave, giving it a glow that Pierre liked.

He had never seen a royal bedroom before. He looked and touched almost everything - the bed, the side table, the walls, etc. There was a painting on one side of the wall. It showed two people, a man and a woman. The man he quickly recognized as Matano because he was wearing the crown, the one he was soon to possess. But the woman he could not recognize though she looked familiar.

He had touched everything except the closet. After looking around the room some more, a thought struck him and he stood up to open the closet.

A staircase run all the way down to a place he did not know. Curiosity and fear battled in his mind and the former defeated the latter. He began to descend the stairs carefully, one step at a time, the lantern in one hand and the stick in the other.

      
                 *********
Miya returned to the river bank after the forest told her it was no place to find food. She wasn't even hungry anymore. Bending down to wash her face, she felt someone's shadow over her. She quickly turned and was face to face with the new girl.

She had thick black hair, like hers, and icy blue eyes, like Kiko's. Her lips looked rosy and her face, smooth. From her height and looks, she was the same age as Miya, nineteen years or even more.

She flashed her a smile to reveal a set of even, white teeth. Her smile made her even more beautiful.

Before either of them could utter a word, Kiko came running, bubbling with excitement.

     "Oh, Hazel, I see you've met Miya already. Miya, this is Hazel."

She wanted to ask, "Who is she to you?" but she remained silent. Looking from Kiko to Hazel and back she stammered, "Oh, uh, yeah, it's nice to meet you." and hesitantly stretched out a hand which she willingly took.

She wanted to know where she was from, why she had suddenly appeared and how Kiko knew her.

As if Hazel had read her mind, she stated, "I'm her to join the Rebel Gang on this mission. Kiko needed me."

     "Oh, uh, yeah, thanks."

She probably looked like an idiot, stammering like that. Hazel smiled at her again.

Soon the Rebel Gang - now six - had arrived at the first of Matanceros' enchanted caves.

Matanceros had these caves to prevent any enemy - human or kingdom - from penetrating, and even now, they still existed.

She heard giggling behind her and turned to see Hazel trying to stifle a laugh and Kiko's arm draped on her shoulder.

Her eyes doubled in size but, out of shock, she could do nothing. She could do nothing because she knew nothing. Kiko and this Hazel of a girl definitely had something up, but she knew nothing about it.

She laughed, louder this time, and Kiko joined joined her. Soon the rest of the group were looking at them, but the boys seemed to have no problem with it.

Miya counted the seconds to when this scene was going to end, but they were laughing forever, taking no notice of their 'audience'.
Then she cleared her throat loudly, catching everyone's attention.

In a clear sarcastic tone, she drawled, "Hey everyone, I just realised we are at the entrance of a cave, what do we do next?"

She shot Hazel a glare, who always seemed to be looking at Kiko.

     "Hell why did she have to be so beautiful?" she thought.

At that moment, Kiko grabbed ahold of Hazel's hand and dragged her past Miya, towards the cave. As they passed, her eyes met his but he immediately looked away, before she could even blink.

Before they could step into the cave, the unexpected occurred, and everyone autonomously took a step back.

__________________________________

Hey guys....it's me again.

I just introduced a new character, how do you see her? (Honest opinions)

TIP: I am Hazel😉.

I don't have much to say now, but dear readers, if you have any suggestions or ideas on my book, they are welcome. I really want to hear them.

Please keep reading, voting and commenting.

Thanks.

Merci.

Gracias.

Salamat.
        
                                       -R.A.S