*Neil's POV*

This is so not happening. Damn, it's raining. Freaking June. Our game is spoiled. I am on a branch of a tree, hiding from the denner. Maya and Vivian are nearby and I could hear footsteps coming nearer and nearer.

"Neil! Neil!" Vivian's voice echoes, followed by Maya's.

"Come out dude, let's get back to our spot." Maya calls. I descend from the tree looking for them. I track their voice and see them running towards our spot.

"On my way!" I cry. They reach there in minutes and open a gigantic umbrella and shelter themselves.

"Come fast!" They both motion to me. Ultimately I reach under the umbrella.

"When did you get this?" I interrogate.

"As it is June, I thought that...I'll get one, for something like this." Vivian replies.

Maya kisses his cheek,"My responsible Viv!" She cheers. A bark of laughter leaves my mouth and the couple gives me an angry look.

"What?" I giggle again,"That was so cheesy."

"Okay whatever, we all are safe here. How about going back and getting out of here?"

"Ritz!" Maya and I say in unison.

"Oh my God!"

"Where could she have gone?" Maya whispers. Vivian keeps a hand around her shoulder and tugs her close.

"Don't worry. She must be somewhere here. We'll find her." Vivian assures her. It seems as if Maya is going to break down or it is probably the rain.

"I think we should spread out and look for her. That will be better, we'll find her quicker." I advise.

"That's good! Let's go, don't wait now!" Maya hurries but Vivian stops her.

"No! This is a big place, we may get lost too. And it's already raining, so it will make things worse." Vivian shows a sign of intelligence.

"There is network in this forest. So we can call her and inform her to come here." Vivian is saying as if he's planning a mission.

"Sure! What are we waiting for?!" Maya takes out her phone and dials Ritz's number. Her hands are trembling. Maybe because of the rain or maybe she's afraid.

"Keep it on speaker!" I order.

"The number you are trying to call is out of coverage. Jis number ko-"

Vivian ends the call,"Oh freak!" he pauses,"It's out of coverage. That means she has crossed the boundary of this forest area." Vivian alerts. Maya is astonished, her nose turns red and she is about to cry.

"She will be fine! Vivian and I will do something. She surely couldn't have gone too far." I try to calm her down.

"I don't want her to get in any trouble. She is new here. Totally new. And this forest is quite dense. She could get kidnapped or eaten by an animal or something. A snake bite-" Maya stops to take some air. She is totally devastated.

"Breathe. Think positive, maybe she is just standing under some tree waiting for the rain to stop and come back to us." I am trying to cheer her up. Making her believe in good things.

"Maya. . ." Vivian hugs her and taps her back. "Don't be upset, Ritz is brave, right? Have faith in her." They both pull away.

Maya began,"But she is my little sister. I'm worried." Vivian kisses her forehead and hugs her.

Such a sweet couple. I wish I find someone to be with, like them. Where are you my girl?

Ritz?

Hey! What? I was thinking about where she could have gone. Not about her being my dreamgirl. Ritz can never be. . . .you know. But it felt uncomfortable to complete my previous sentence. Neil! Be Neil. My mind alarms me. But why am I suddenly interested in this love stuff? Arh! Now I am talking to myself. Moments ago I was talking about how boring and cliche Maya and Vivian were behaving. Then-

"Neil. Let's go! Luckily I got three raincoats. You take one and Maya you stay here under the umbrella and look around. Ask the people passing by for Ritz. Be hopeful!" Vivian cut in my thoughts. And then I and him are all set for the mission 'Find Ritz'.

"You go this way I'll go there. Okay! If you get any sign of her then just text or call me." Vivian indicates.

"Yes Sir!" I salute him.

"Yeah! Now go!"

I set my feet and head on my way.

How philosophical.

*Ritz's POV*

"Hello! Is someone here? Hey! Excuse me?" No one. I lose my hope to find someone here. I've been shouting since the last ten minutes but there's been no reply.

I hear something fall down somewhere and I freeze. Is someone here? I wanted somebody in here but suddenly I feel that I don't. My eyes exercise by observing the place. I am frightened. But then my gaze falls upon a fallen vase which I guess was placed on the small table next to me.

I made it fall. Officially, there is no one here (except me). I sigh in relief.

But, wow!

This place is so enormous! I stroll through the doors reaching the next room with a different theme. The infrastructure is colossal. The corridor is wide enough for ten people in a row. It surely is a King's palace. An ancient king.

I have been awaiting for such a situation all my life. Me stuck in a historical place with the smell of the olden times. I am scouting, taking a lot of interest in the the gigantic monument .

I feel like the princess of the palace as I walk with pride and with my chest inflated. A strong urge strikes me that I am somehow related to this place. But unfortunately I am not. It is getting darker and the rain has not stopped yet. It is about to be 7:00, I am a bit scared. First, I don't know where I am. Second, Maya, Vivian and Neil must be searching for me everywhere.

So I decide to call them. At least they can be relieved to know that I'm okay. I slide my phone open.

No!

NO SIGNAL!

"This is not FAIR!" I cry out very loudly and it echoes even louder,"I WANT IT..." I start running to get any place with network. After 5-10 minutes I realise that this is stupid. I should be practical rather than mad.

I make my way through many parts of the palace but there is no network anywhere. "Ugh...this palace is so big but the architect never thought about the simplest necessity, JUST A NETWORK COVERAGE." I sound very guttural and it echoes in the huge place. I might not have covered half of the place and it is frustrating enough.

I check almost everywhere. (It's not that easy to find something in this giant palace.) But it is nowhere. The place keeps getting humid, curse you rain. I keep my palm on my forehead and run a hand through my hair.

My hair clutcher? Where is it? It's so hot here, I want to tie my hair and, agh, it is wet. Wet hair being my pet peeve I groan in aggression.

I wanna go home. But I guess it's just drizzling now. I am standing on the second floor of this dignitary palace just passing away my time. Thinking about my network problem, I sigh and turn around. Behind me I see a closed door which I hadn't seen earlier or probably missed it. My patience is running out so I rush in its direction.

Slowly, I open the door to reveal a colossal room with the smell of wet wood. It seems that it hasn't been opened for ages. It is 8:00 pm and it is dull all around. Nothing is visible. I turn on my cellphone light to see what is in here.

A Library!

Good! This is nice! Now it feels like I am going to open a mystery. But I am actually happy because now I can find something about this palace.

I nick towards those long, tooth book shelves. I can sense that I am surrounded by these musty old books. Examining through them I spot a big, fat book which looks very aged. Without bothering much I directly pull it out. It is covered with spider nets and some feathers.

I take my handkerchief out of my sack(which was luckily with me) and dust the book to a reading condition. There is no heading or a picture on the coverpage of the book. I turn the book open and swap pages. Everything is quite visible thanks to my phone.

There is something written in some ancient language (I think so) which I can not understand. I need someone to translate this for me. But who?

I can manage that later. I steer through the pages and see a big picture of two glamorous girls- or I guess they are ladies.

They were attired with a long gown and one was seated on a chair and other stood behind her. They look royal. I stare at the picture for good two minutes and guess that they might be Queens of the palace. They must be royal, stunning, arrogant and obviously extreme beauties. Unfortunately a picture cannot tell me everything.

I flap to the next page and find a page full of information in the strange language. The next page has the picture of an old man in jewelry with two women on his sides who are equally groomed. Probably the King and the Queens. But then who are the ladies on the previous pages?

I go back to the first picture of the book again and check whether they are the same who are next to the King. But they are not. They are different and they look younger. Surely they are the princesses.

This is definitely an amazing story. But the picture of the princesses is before than that of the King? I know that there is no any other person more significant than the King of a place.

"Hmm...this palace has a unique story. I can sense the treasure hidden in this history. I'm going to enjoy this!" I say gleefully.

My stomach is about to explode due to the excitement filled in it. I flap more pages and find so many more pictures and writings. Though the writing is out of my understanding I try to decode the pictures.

My phone vibrates.

I am so engrossed in the book that I forgot why I came here in the first place. Signal! Which my phone finally has received. My excitement about it had died the minute I touched the book.

My phone keeps vibrating until I see the caller ID is Neil and pick up the call.

"Hello..."

"Ritz...Are you okay? You-u...f-fine...right?"

"Yeah I'm...I'm...where are you?"

"Hoof! We are at our spot, come fast. Please, Maya is crying."

"Oh shit! I'm rushing. Bye!"

I hang up on the call. Push the book down my bag(it isn't fitting in it properly). Though I don't want to but I run out of this place. One day the story of this palace will be known by me.

What is could it be?