The Missing Boy

The Palace.

"Put the light out!!!"

Vulcan's voice, no matter how loudly he had yelled and called, seemed lower than his growing confusion. His eyes keen on the group of guards pouring out water on the blazing fire eating into the fort in the palace square.

The side of his face suddenly caught a figure walking out of the palace. He turned quickly in that direction, as Athena walked briskly towards him.

"Where have you been?"

He looked away from her to the guards who kept running about. Trying their best to fix the scar the monster had left on the palace.

"Tending to some business."

"Business quite intense than being around your Lord at this critical moment?"

His ogle was tamed but the tempo of his voice was unbridled and couldn't hide the swelling rage.

"It's something I had to do, my Lord."

"Without my consent? I bet you just do whatever you think best for you without consulting any other person. Or have you forgotten that you're not the only ruler? I'm the king and you're the queen, you should share whatever you have with me. We should be here discussing how to take down the creature and all you do is attend to some irrelevant private matter."

She reached out her hand to touch him but he barked,

"Don't even dare."

He stomped off her presence towards the door of the palace. She turned sharply and watched his lanky frame gobbled up by the height of the palace hallway.

"I'd love to see more of that."

She nodded and looked at the guards who had almost succeeded in putting out the fire. She ignored and walked towards the palace. As soon as she entered through, she saw Vulcan pacing the front of the throne, rumpling his hair in seeming frustration.

"My Lord."

She called hurrying to him. Taking a peek at her, he stopped pacing and went to sit on the throne. He settled in.

She got to the throne and assumed the position next to him. She reached her hand across the arm of her own throne to his and touched the back of his hand. He didn't resist.

She flipped the hand over and tucked her fingers into his.

"I'm sorry."

He muttered. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand gently.

"I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know what got into me. I wasn't thinking. Of all people, why should I be mad at you? I'm sorry."

His gaze softened, eyes weary cum curious.

"No, don't be. You have every right to be. All bulges down to me. If I wasn't here, no complications would had been enthroned. If I hadn't gone to meet Poseidon, the rift wouldn't had been created and no magical creature who had haunted the land."

He turned to her and put his other hand on the back of hers. He shook his head gently, his eyes tender,

"Don't say that. It was all thanks to you, Athena. If it weren't for you, I'd probably be dead by now or worse, running about the woods, hiding, instead of sitting on a throne. If it weren't for you, who knows what Poseidon would had made of this land already?"

He paused,

"So, never cast the blame upon yourself. And I bet with you that no other person would had thought to act any differently from all you do. Because I'm sure that if we did have other choices, that's with less or no complications, you wouldn't had held it back."

"Thank you."

Her eyelashes flapping at rhythmic and thoughtful intervals.

"I should say that."

"Are you no longer mad at me?"

She quizzed, keeping that cute round face cum inviting eyes glued on him.

"Why would I? You should be mad at me."

"Kiss me."

The words were familiar to him. He felt a sudden current pace his inner self in a crazed velocity. As though every sense of being in him were set in motion. Like a wave of passion was rumbling within him.

He scoffed and leaned towards her. She met him halfways and locked lips. Dopamine released both in their heads.

"I love you so much Athena. So much that my heart quakes. The fear of losing you makes me lose it sometimes. I'm really sorry, my queen."

He kissed her again, sucking her tongue this time. They smacked lips and he let go.

"I feel horny."

She breathed into his face.

"But now isn't the right time."

She corrected. His face was contoured, as his boner low-key poked at his inner garment.

"I don't mind."

He gave up, but she wasn't buying it,

"I could make your manhood disappear, my Lord, if you push any further."

He chuckled,

"Threatening your Lord and husband eh?"

She kissed him again and leaned back into the throne. Yet her left hand tucked in his right on the arm of her throne.

"Tell me about this Kaldue."

He dismissed and leaned back too, facing the door several metres away, but occasionally looking at her.

"Kludde."

She corrected and continued,

"It's a shapeshifting spectral that can take different forms. It haunts desolate roads, and the only warning of its presence is the rattling sound of the chains that cover it. It preys upon nocturnal travelers by jumping on their backs and weighing them down,growing heavier and heavier with each step. No one can ever hope to outrun or escape it, for the faster one walks, the faster it follows, often slipping through the trees like a giant snake."

He obviously was engrossed,

"Sometimes it appears as a monstrous black dog walking on its hind legs, but it can also appear as a horse, a giant, hairy black cat, a frog, a bat, or a horrible black bird. In any shape, however, it is identified by the blue flame flickering about its head."

"But what we saw outside there has no blue flames on its head."

Vulcan had argued.

"Which only means one thing."

She paused for no reason and his quirky eyes nudged her. She got the idea,

"It's under the spell of a humanoid monster. Either a Nymph, Satyr, Imp or any other creature of such qualities. And don't be surprised if it doesn't reappear as the beast we saw today but come in --"

"My Lord, my queen!"

Came a weeping and breaking voice from the entrance of the palace. Running towards the throne was a lady with torn gown, smeared all over. Her face dusty and eyes swollen.

She crashed before the both of them, sobbing,

"My Lord. My Queen. It has taken my only son. I don't know to where. It has. Get my son back, my Lord."

She began to wail as Vulcan stepped off the throne and got to her, reaching to help her up,

"Be calm, lady. Tell us what happened. We would find your son."

The lady tried to catch her breath,

"It came at first like a bunny from the woods with blue band on its head. My son was fond of bunnies and as he went closer to the bunny, as every bunny would do, it hopped away. But my son kept following it into the woods. Coming out of the hut, I couldn't find my son outside, so I traced his footprints into the woods and point in time, my son had just gotten to the bunny which was still. He stooped to pick it up, then suddenly, there was strong sandstorm at that spot, and before I could figure a thing out, I saw that same large monster we all saw earlier. My son was in its claws as it flew off. The bunny nowhere to be found. Please find my son!!!"

She began to wail again.

"We'll go find your son now!"

He promised as he turned to Athena who stepped off the throne and muttered,

"Disguise."

Finishing up the statement she couldn't before the intrusion.

Vulcan nodded at her. And out of the palace, they all went, to gather enough force and manpower.