If only the muse had a solid neck, she'd wring it.
Deona glared at the amorphous creature, who was laughing at an excellent prank. They had crossed through countries in Africa and had not found any trace of the Lair. Now, they found themselves in the United Arab Emirates.
"You knew it wasn't in Africa, didn't you?" she asked.
The muse nodded and snickered.
"Ohhh! I don't believe this. You were never this mean before you took that trip. Is this Lair even real, or another of your pranks?"
The muse changed into the silver boy and made motions that it was real. Whenever he didn't want to talk, he used signs. It tended to irritate her a bit in the best of moods, and she was far from that. "You better not be lying."
He blinked at her innocently, then looked around before jumping a bit and pointing off to the east.
"What's up?" she asked, then looked in that direction with the binoculars. What the young woman saw made her breath catch in her throat.
In the distance was a young man that was about her height, maybe a bit taller. He had sandy blond hair with long bangs that almost got into his soft blue-green eyes. He wore a light brown pair of pants, a pink shirt that was almost white, and a gray vest. What's more, he was walking towards them.
The muse was laughing and making mocking noises at her reaction.
"Oh shut up!" she snapped, turning red. This guy always had that affect on her, and the muse knew it, "You know he's half my age!"
The muse laughed louder at this and she nearly went for his neck, amorphous or not.
The young man saw and laughed, amused. He then said, "I don't think you want to do that."
She turned to him and blinked, surprised.
"Q-Quatre..."
"I told you before, no need to be so flustered. It's been a while, Deona."
She chuckled nervously and said after a minute, "Yeah, it has. What're you doing here?"
"I was about to ask you the same thing. Something tells me you don't live around here."
"Yeah, I don't. This nutcase here told me about some place and I'm trying to find it. Hey Quatre, have you ever heard of Moonbeam?"
"I don't think you're talking about the kind that comes from the moon. I don't think I've heard of someone called that."
She nodded and muttered, "Another dead end. I'm gonna try to go somewhere a lot cooler, recover and then search again. Maybe somewhere like Italy."
His eyes widened in surprise and he replied, "What a coincidence. I'll be leaving this area in a couple of hours, heading for Venice. How about you go with me? I don't like you being out in this heat more than you should."
"That actually sounds good. That reminds me, any of your friends with you?"
"No, not the ones you mean. Duo's on vacation in New York, Trowa's over in Portugal, Wufei's in China and Heero, well...he and Relena are probably somewhere and not telling anyone about it."
She chuckled, "I half expected him to be saying omae o korosu and going after her in that sense."
"The Maguanacs, or Rashid, rather, is in Italy. I'm meeting up with him there before I take a vacation of my own. Why don't we get inside where it's cooler?"
"Sounds good," she replied.
As the two walked into the town, she heard the same mocking sounds from the muse. She shot a venomous glare at him.
~*~*~*~*~*~ After a few hours in the private plane, Quatre and Deona were in Venice. She had never been in the city, much less the country before. She had to admit, some of the things she had heard about it weren't true, but a lot was right on target. The city itself was very beautiful...but with only one problem. The city did stink! It looked like what she had heard about the canals being open sewers were real.
After a boat ride to the hotel, Quatre had managed to secure two separate rooms, one for him and one for her. Now she was upstairs, resting and drinking plenty of chilled water. She was planning on some food like chicken alfredo, maybe lasagna later for dinner. She always did like Italian food.
The muse had gone with her and had been quiet about the mocking when Quatre had left for his room, making sure that she call him if anything was wrong.
Now, he made "psst-psst" noises at her.
"What is it?" she asked.
He started whispering about the Lair again.
"Look, if you're not going to tell me where it is, do you have any bright ideas as to who might know?"
He thought for a minute, then began to change his shape. After a moment, there was a silver Trans-am, with something pulsing in the front.
She peered at it for a moment, thinking about it. There were two cars like this that she remembered.
"You're saying Kitt knows?"
There was an affirmative noise.
She then scrambled about in her travel pack and produced a satellite phone. She knew Kitt's personal number, as well as the one to the Foundation. She thought about it and dialed the first number as she lay down on the bed.
"Hello? This is Kitt speaking."
The woman grinned as she heard the familiar voice."Hey Kitt! It's me, Deona."
"Deona! It's been some time. How have you been?"
"Oh, been real busy. I ran into Marissa while you guys were in Africa."
"So I heard. What in heaven's name were you doing halfway across the world alone?"
"Remember that nutcase muse of mine?"
"All too well. At times, I wish I could forget."
"Tell me about it. He went AWOL on me and visited Moonbeam. When he came back, he let it slip about some place, called simply the Secret Lair. I'm starting to think he made it up."
"The muse stuck out a tongue at her and sniffed haughtily.
"I assure you, the Lair is quite real. I've been there a few times."
"What?! So you know where it is? I've been looking for that place for some time."
"I heard that from Rissie, too. I do know where it is, but if your muse refused to give the actual location, he must have had a reason."
She sighed angrily, then asked, "Can I talk to Michael or Devon?"
"Devon I don't think would know, and I'm not as gullible as you and Knightshade think."
"K-Knightshade! You've talked to her?"
"Yes. She located a muse that had been stolen and tried to get me to come back over to Africa just to get her."
"So that was a stolen muse I came across! In the night while I was in a jungle, I stumbled on a muse in a net and someone hauling it around. He ran off, missing a few shots."
"I believe it. Now when I was there, it was on Foundation business, but this was something else altogether."
She nodded and said, "Can't you even give me a little clue about the Lair? So that I can at least narrow the search some?"
There was a long pause before he said, "I cannot tell you the actual location, but I suppose a clue wouldn't hurt. The Lair is in a mountainous region."
She nodded, then remembered that he couldn't see it over the phone and said, "That does help a bit. Thanks lots, Kitt."
"You're welcome. Oh, I have a message for you from Devon."
She blinked, surprised. "From Devon? What's the message?"
"He says, and I quote, 'Please be careful. Whatever it is you're searching for, I don't want anything untoward to happen to you.'"
She smiled. Deona was touched that Devon worried about her. She knew how the older man was about Michael, who the Englishman saw as his son.
She chuckled into the phone, "That's so sweet of him. Please tell him that I think Michael is gonna need a vacation. I know how Africa can affect folks. Heck, I was worried Garthe would come out at times."
"Garthe Knight! I thought we saw the last of him and that banana-headed bovine!"
She outright laughed at that. "I heard that he was in the area. Hopefully rumors, but I wouldn't want him to go after you or Devon."
"I'll pass on the information. Take care, Deona."
He hung up at that.
She turned to the muse and said simply, "Looks like the place does exist after all. The tip he gave will really help narrow down the spots." As she got up from the bed, she put the phone back into her bag and decided on a nice, cool shower before going downstairs for that dinner. Chicken alfredo sounded good, real good about now, right along with bread.
~*~*~*~*~*~ "So you've found a clue as to this place?" Quatre asked her.
"Yeah. A mountainous region, I was told. I'm going to find a world map after dinner and locate all the mountains on it."
"Not tonight or tomorrow, I hope."
She blinked, surprised. "Quatre?"
"You've been looking hard for this place for a while, right? Why not take a small vacation from it, for a couple of days? You look like you're about to pass out."
Deona smiled and replied, "I have been going pretty hard, haven't I?"
"That's an understatement. In the meantime, I''ll see if I can find any Internet writers in the area. If I find any, I'll let you know."
She nodded and kissed his cheek, then turned red slightly as she said, "Thanks, I really appreciate it."
He blushed a bit and said, "Anything to help a friend."
~*~*~*~*~*~