The next second, Zaak tumbles on the floor. “Fuck!” Another rumbling shakes the room, knocking pottery down from the walls. He tries hard to keep balance, finally managing to put Bonita gently on the floor. “Let’s go.” He holds her hand.
A huge earthquake is turning the palace into a sinking boat in the stormy ocean…
Chapter Six
Dusts fall down. The walls are peeling off. THUMP. A big piece of ceiling drops right at Bonita’s feet, sending her to high-pitch screaming.
“No panic, Bonita.” Zaak holds her body tight and walks fast. The moment they rush to the porch, the huge chandelier in the middle of the hall drops to the floor.
They run out and drop to ground, gasping. “You okay?” Zaak asks.
“Yeah, I, um, guess so.” Bonita still has a hard time to breathe. Then she looks at Zaak and whispers, “Zaak, thank you for saving my life.”
Zaak looks at her. Suddenly, he holds her tight and kisses her hard. “Tell me you don’t have a husband, Bonita.”
“I…” Bonita almost cries. “Zaak, come back to me, please…”
The rescue goes on through the whole night. Luckily, the casualty is not too heavy. By the morning, Zaak and Bonita are so exhausted. They walk to the beach, holding hands.
“See, a new island. Oh my, see there, and there, too.” Soon, Bonita sees at least five or six small islands. Hot lava is still spilling out from the new islands, turning the sizzling seawater into steams. Only one island has no fire. Instead, mud shoots into the sky.
“The volcanoes are more active than those on Le Jura.” Zaak murmurs.
“Zaak, oh, Zaak, now you remember.” Bonita holds his hand.
“Remember… what?” Zaak is so puzzled.
“Le Jura. You said ‘Le Jura’, right? Did you remember what happened there? Zaak…?”
Zaak’s empty look frightens Bonita. She stares at him, speechless.
“You want me to remember Le Jura?” He murmurs.
“Y-e-s... What’s… wrong?” Bonita steps back.
“You want to tell me that you have a husband there, right?”
“God!” Bonita drops to the ground, holding her head with both hands.
“I’m sorry, Bonita.” Zaak kisses the back of her neck lightly. “I know it’s silly for a warrior to be jealous. But you’re driving me crazy, you know that?”
Bonita raises her head. Her pretty face is covered with tears. “Zaak, you’re driving me crazy every moment.”
“Really? Then why don’t you divorce your husband? Can you, please, Bonita?”
“Oh, God!” Bonita stands up and runs.
“Bonita, oh, please wait for me…”
The meeting with the King has been going on for over an hour.
“So, General Aja. You’re sure that the fire and ground rumbling is not the punishment from Goddess Athena?”
“One hundred percent.”
“Then why did it happen?” The King looks at him, waiting for an answer.
Zaak knows that there is no use in telling them about the concept of the volcanic activity. They won’t believe anyway. He looks at Bonita.
Bonita smiles and then says, “Your Majesty, it’s a message from the Goddess.”
The King raises his eyebrow, but for only a tiny moment.
“Father, Bonita can talk to the gods.” The princess pipes up.
“Yes, we saw that.” The leading warriors confirm. What they didn’t mention was that Bonita actually moved the spaceship up to render the attack from the gods powerless—with their weapons of lightening and thunders.
The King nods slightly. He has been impressed by the reports on the power of this unbelievable assistant, who has disguised herself as a humble servant. “Understand. We received the message already. What should we do next, Bonita?”
“I will need to find out from the Goddess.”
“Any assistance you need?”
“Yes, I will need to work with the oracles in the Royal Temple.”
“Arabella, can you please make sure that Bonita has everything she needs by tomorrow morning?”
“Yes, Father. May I be excused then?” The princess smiles at the King.
The King nods slightly.
“Bonita, what the fuck were you talking about?” Zaak stares at her. He knows Bonita can do a lot of things. But being able to talk to the gods? Nope.
“Zaak, you saw what was going on, right? They don’t believe in science.”
“So what are you going to do? Lie to King? The penalty is death, you know that, Bonita.”
“It’s the same information, but from the Goddess, okay? See, like we discussed…”
“Holy fuck, Bonita, your husband was so fucking lucky to marry you.”
“Go wash your mouth, General.” Bonita’s tiny fist lands on Zaak’s iron hard chest.
“Ouch!” Zaak howls.
All the high ranking offers line up in front of the Royal Temple, with princess Arabella representing the royal family.
The head oracle steps out from the temple, singing his songs of worship to the gods.
Bonita follows the droning oracle back to the temple, a line of eight other temple oracles walking behind her.
They step into the dark crystal outer chamber, but do not stop. Where are we going? Bonita is a bit nervous. They walk around the altar, and then enter a stone chamber.
Bonita almost coughs. She smells something… strong. She sees fire too. The leading oracle sits down on one side of the fire and shows her to sit down on the other side. She sits down. It’s now so hard to breathe. Her throat is itchy, and her eyes stream from the smoke. She breathes harder for fresh air. This makes her situation worse.
The fire is small. It comes from a tiny crack at the bottom of the stone chamber. The dim orange flame dances, moving up and down.
Bonita feels like she’s about to pass out. She hates the smell. But it’s so familiar. Where did I smell it before? I’m sure I did. She thinks hard… Then she realizes it: That’s the smell of sulphur from the volcano. She smelled it at the hot springs on Le Jura, and then at the beach of Atlantis.
Oh my, the oracles are using the fire from the volcano for their communications with the gods.
At the moment, they are all mumbling something Bonita can’t understand—and she doesn’t want to. All she wants is to leave. She needs some fresh air. And quick. Otherwise anything can happen.
She steadies herself, concentrating at the task on hand. The oracles are waiting for her to talk to Goddess Athena. She has to get in touch with her and pass her message back to the oracles.
Boy, I’m going to black out!
Chapter Seven
Bonita tries small, shorter breaths, letting the tears stream down her soot-lined face now. She tells the oracles that the Goddess wants them to leave Atlantis as soon as they can and move to the lands of Europe and Africa. She also tells them that there is another huge piece of land waiting for them. It’s on the west of Atlantis, the continent of America; the great land that has not been discovered by civilization just yet.
She begins to talk quickly. Her voice is weak, her face pale. But her words are crystal clear. They fly out from her lips one by one and land on the sheepskin via the leading oracle’s feather pen.
It takes only a short while for Bonita to ‘pass’ the message. It felt like forever. By the time she finishes with the word America, she can no longer see anything. Her lungs are full of sulphur. She is blacking out. “Leave, LEAVE!” She drops to the ground, motionless. These two words are added to the sheepskin immediately with three exclamations at the end.
The leading oracle stands up and steps out of the stone chamber. The other oracles follow, carrying Bonita between them. They stand in front of the altar, singing and praying. Then they walk out of the temple.
The hill is full of people, stretching all the way down to the coast. Almost everyone in the capital city is here, waiting for the fatal message from Goddess Athena.
The le
ading oracle’s eyes scan throw the crowd slowly. Then he opens his mouth. “The message has arrived. We have the mercy of Goddess Athena.” He waits until the applause dies down. “But we have to leave. To live under her protection.”
Bonita feels as if she is in a dream. The crowd sounds from far away. Then everything goes quiet.
When she opens her eyes again, her wondering look meets the gaze of Zaak. “How are you, Bonita?”
“Water,” She croaks.
Zaak helps her to sit up, leaning on a pillow.
The cold water seeps into her body like the first spring rain going down a land in drought. She gulps until she finishes the whole pot.
“Take it easy, okay?” Zaak takes the vessel away. Moments later, he digs a spoon into a huge bowl and scoops up a full spoonful of food. “Eat.” He smiles.
Bonita opens her mouth but can only take a small piece from the huge spoon. That’s her favorite: a mix of rice, beans, and meat. She eats and drinks until she is satisfied, Zaak watching over her like a mother bear over her cub.
“So?” She asks finally, sipping a sweet tea.
“The oracle passed the message to the King.”
“He believed it?” She leans forward but drops back to the pillow with a tiny “Ouch”, holding her temples with both hands. A slow grinding headache is building at the base of her skull.
“You okay?” Without waiting for her answer, Zaak begins to rub her temples.
Bonita closes her eyes to enjoy the massage. After a while she opens her eyes and whispers. “I’m okay now, Zaak. Thank you so much. Tell me what happened.”
Zaak smiles, “You know what?”
“What?”
“Everything went well. But when the King heard the word America, his eyes turned this big.” Zaak’s eyes pop out like golden fish.
“Zaak, you’re so funny.”
Zaak’s gaze turns soft. He looks at Bonita and murmurs, “You’re so beautiful.”
“Thank you, Zaak, kiss me.” She looks right into her husband’s eyes.
Zaak leans over. Their lips meet. For a long, long time…
The ground keeps rumbling.
Not every day. But it causes chaos throughout the entire Empire. The King has sent out the government officers to the continents of Europe and Africa. He wants to find a great new land for his subjects. Also, he wants to find somewhere that has not been occupied by local tribes yet.
The Empire is one of the most developed civilizations in the world. They have been trading with the world for centuries. Their sailing ships are the best. Therefore things are going well.
Good news keeps coming back. Many of the lands remain unexplored. The peninsulas along the European continent have some large tribes and towns. Rome and Athens are the largest.
Zaak is trying to convince the King that they should send the army to the west to find the American Continent. And the King totally agrees because this is the message from Athena.
“The land is full of gold.” Zaak uses his imagination to its extreme. He hasn’t been in America himself. But he believes everything Bonita told him. Rich land, great people (oh, well, by this time, not quite anyway.)
Obviously, the King’s eyes are now shining. The word gold did its magic.
“They mix ruby and silver to build walls. Not for the palace, of course.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh. Bonita saw it.” Zaak’s voice is full of authority.
“Oh, my…” The King falls into deep thinking. He loves gold, silver, and ruby. Building the wall? What a waste. Even for my palace. Oh boy… He almost sees new walls for his palace with a mix of gold, silver, and ruby. Maybe diamonds, too. Only the small ones, of course.
“So… Do I have your permission?” Zaak knows what’s in the King’s mind.
The King looks at him for a long time. Finally his mind drifts back to the cruel reality. Boy, those big whales.
There are prevailing legends. One says that those whales carry huge islands on their backs. When the whale is having too much fun, the land tumbles. Is Atlantis on the back of a huge whale? The King is too frightened to think further. “Oh, no.” He murmurs.
Then the other legend says that whales don’t carry lands. Whales hate carrying things, right? They swallow ships! The Empire has lost a few battle ships patrolling the western water. Did they sink in huge storms or, as rumor has it, disappear in the mouths of huge whales? No one knows.
Nevertheless, going west is not a great idea, gold or not. Everyone knows that the land is a huge dish flowing on the ocean. You don’t want to go over the edge and fall, right? The King now sees water dropping into the darkness of infinity, carried a few tiny royal ships. “Oh, no.” He growls again, his well-cared face turns all pale.
Zaak walks back to his palace. He was not surprised. As Bonita said, it takes time. This pretty woman, she knows everything. She can even read the King’s mind. Then why the heck she made such a stupid decision to marry a dude on that Le Jura? Did she mention that it’s a land full of large cannibals? Something like dinosaurs? Right. Dinosaurs. What the heck they are. I don’t fucking care.
Then is her husband one of those dinosaurs?
His mind turns to the erotic. Oh, wow, a huge cannibal is fucking a pretty woman. Does this ‘husband’ have a cock as long and rough as mine? He is so amazed by the fact that his eighteen and a half inch cock is now showing its full power under his tailor-made army uniform.
Maybe I should go fuck this man’s wife? Yeah, it’s immoral but my moral standard is not that high anyway. Yes…he loves his bold thought.
Now he remembers that she once told him that the Le Jura dinosaurs wanted to eat him alive.
Eating me alive? He looks at his big fist and chuckles. Heck, I’m going to fuck his wife and then punch his teeth out.
Chapter Eight
“Zaak, why are you looking at me like that?” Bonita blushes all over. Zaak’s eyes are full of hunger. The bulge on his pants is unbelievably high.
“I want to…” He stops mid-sentence and then chuckles.
“Yeah, tell me what you want.” Bonita’s eyes sparkle with hope.
“Um… take you on a vacation.” He mumbles. Fuck! Why did I say that?
“Really? When? Where?”
“Um…” Zaak’s chiseled face turns rosy and then crimson. All he was thinking about on his way home was how he will strip and fuck this wonderful woman. Finally he gives up. “Where would you like to go?”
“You mean… anywhere?”
“Yup. Anywhere.”
“How about…” Bonita thinks hard. Then she smiles, “Let’s go to Athens.”
“Yes, let’s.” Zaak beams, holding Bonita’s hand tight.
“Ouch. That hurts.”
Zaak lets go of her hand and then holds it lightly. “Sorry, Bonita.” He rubs her hand a few times with great care.
“You don’t know how to love your wife.” Bonita complains. Her mind is full of joy.
“My wife? You want to be my wife? Are you serious, Bonita?”
Bonita smiles with tears.
“I don’t mind sharing you with that fucking Le Jura… Oops, sorry.” He stops mid-sentence, scratching his head. “Um, let’s go on vacation, okay?”
Bonita nods. Then she shakes her head. “We can’t, Zaak.”
“Why not? You changed your mind, Bonita? You worry that your husband may find out? I can talk to him. Yeah, I can be nice to him. He can take all the girls I have, I mean all my servants. Not you of course. Bonita, is that okay? He’s going to be happy, right? Say yes, Bonita.”
“The Empire needs you badly. They won’t let you go on a leave, Zaak.”
“Oh, shit! Fuck!” Zaak paces back and forth. Then he sits down again. “They no longer need me.”
“Why?”
“Because the war is no longer looming.”
“Right, you’re right, Zaak.”
The King is not happy to learn that Zaak wants a month-long leave. But when he h
ears the word ‘Athens’, he changes his mind. “Present our worship and sacrifices to the Temple of Goddess Athena, please.”
Bonita and Zaak land their spaceship in a valley near the town of Athens. Looking around, Bonita sees shadows of bushes and trees under the silver moonlight. “They shouldn’t find our ship.”
“I don’t think they will.” Zaak grins.
At the temple, Bonita touches the foot of Athena’s statue with reverence. “I’m glad that the Atlantis people are now under the protection of the great Goddess.”
“They deserve it. They’re good people.” Zaak smiles. Then he blinks his eyes a few times. “Hmmm, I am the Army General, aren’t I? This is my country, isn’t it? Then why…” He shakes his head. Why does he feel that Atlantis a country of someone else’s? Weird.
Bonita can read Zaak’s mind. My husband is coming back! “Let’s go to the market and have some fun.” She holds his hand.
The breeze from the Aegean Sea is so pleasant. Everyone on the market is smiling. Women wear loose undergarment and a cloak. The movement of their body is so elegant and graceful that every their step turns into pleasant dance.
“Oh my, I was saving money for a Mediterranean cruise vacation for so long. I didn’t realize that people have been enjoying their dream life since this early.”
Bonita is puzzled when Zaak gives her a stern stare.
He is jealous at the moment because he is picturing Bonita having fun with her fucking Le Jura husband. A cannibal trying to save money with his wife for a vacation here? Heck, what kind of fun are they going to have in this peaceful town? Make a feast of a couple women on the market?
Then he turns to Bonita and grins. “Sorry, Bonita.”
Bonita gives Zaak a tiny smile without knowing what the heck is going on on his mind.
A small group of soldiers marches by. Their helmet and heavy armor shine under the sunshine. Each soldier carries a shield and a spear. A short sword is attached to their belt.
ROMANCE: The Alien Tyrant's Prey - Lost in Atlantis: Science Fiction Romance - A Sci-fi Alien Invasion Romance Thriller HEA Story Book (Bonita and Zaak's Sci Fi Romance Adventure 3) Page 3
