The Tale of Tara and Emiko

XVIII. Tara

"Wait, what? Isn't that identity theft?"

Eon was confused. Of course she was.

"Wouldn't it be fun? You'd have the entire Underground to yourself to do whatever you want for a full day, without any time constraints or anything. I'd get to experience the life of royalty, and since your dad's off on a business trip we won't have any meetings or stuff to worry about. Plus, I've always wanted to meet your brothers." I shrugged. "We're both good at disguise."

"They'll know you're not me," Emiko countered.

"They don't have to. I could be another one of your princess friends, hanging out with them for the day."

It was tempting. I could tell she wanted to say yes. I was her friend! Why wouldn't she trust me, after all?

"One day. No more, no less," Emiko declared. "But yeah, I agree."

"Yesssss!!!" I shouted excitedly.

About an hour later, I stood outside the back entrance to the castle. I was in an elegant navy blue dress, thankfully not too poofy. The two-inch heels had been discarded for some simple flats, though. Eon stood beside me, in her black hunter's outfit, my badge pinned to the inside of her jacket. "Keep that safe for me," I said, smiling.

"Yeah. You ready?"

"Yep." Eon slipped away into the shadows, and I pushed open the door.

I wandered the halls for a moment. Emiko's place was huge, a world in itself you could get lost in for months all too easily.

A kid, maybe 13 or 14, ran up to me. He looked surprised and confused.

"You're not Emiko," he pointed out. "Where is she? How did you get in here?"

"I'm her friend. She let me in to keep you guys company while she goes and does some interviews," I replied, smoothly. "Are you Kyle or Milo?"

"Kyle. Milo's eavesdropping."

"Kyle! Really?" Milo sighed, annoyed. He slid down the banister from his vantage point at the top of the staircase, landing almost silently beside Kyle.

"You didn't have a good hiding spot," Kyle noted.

"Oh my gosh, wow, brilliant, Holmes," Milo retorted.

"I can taste the sarcasm."

"Thought you'd still taste your wounded ego. You know I won in Scrabble, even though you cheated."

"I'd rather have a wounded ego than an oversized one. And 'quixotry' is not a real word, I swear you made it up!"

"Can we stop the fighting?" I interjected. "Let's have a rematch. To settle the score?" I would've added that yes, quixotry is a real word, but that would've kept their argument going, which isn't really what I wanted. No matter how funny it was to watch.

"Huh. Sure, but not with Scrabble. Milo knows too many words, that is if he really isn't making them up," Kyle said. "How about hide-and-seek?"

"Hide-and-seek is for babies. Let's play chess," Milo argued.

"Chess requires too much brain power, you'd beat me every time."

"Hide-and-seek is boring."

"So is chess!"

"Oh my god, will you two STOP FRICKING FIGHTING?!?" I shouted. The brothers stared at me in awe.

"She does the curse-without-cursing thing!" Kyle noted.

"Just like Emiko, only Emiko actually curses. Cool," Milo said. "So you really are her friend."

"Of course I am! You think I'd lie to you? Anyway, which game are we playing?" I asked.

"How about a scavenger hunt? I've got a bunch of leftover sheets," Kyle suggested.

"Sure," I said. Milo nodded in agreement as Kyle passed out the paper.

"First one to find all 20 items wins!" Kyle shouted, running off. I squinted at my sheet. The first item was a pinecone. Great.

The three of us split up, determination crackling in the air. After the pinecone was a copper coin, then a piece of gold jewelry (I supplied that one myself, no hunt necessary!), then a flower that was both pink and purple.

The sun was setting faster than I expected. The last item on my list was a shiny silver something. After searching for a bit, I found a glint in the grass. I picked it up. It was the badge of that one hunter group that hates me! Well, I hated them first, since they kinda stole a hard drive with info on it that totally was mine, but I blew up their base as payback. Score! I pocketed the badge to keep, I could use it later, after this little game was over.

Wait-that's the badge of the hunter group that hates me because I blew up their base after they stole information from me!

And where was Milo? Kyle was in the castle searching, I knew that, but Milo made a whole fuss about how most of his items had to be found outside.

He wasn't outside.

I looked everywhere. Once, twice, three times. Kyle ran into me, asking what was wrong and why I looked so distressed. I assured him it was nothing to worry about, I just couldn't seem to find my last item.

I couldn't find Milo.

"Shiitake mushrooms," I muttered.