Misunderstandings

Chapter Three

When Jedediah came too the first thing he noticed was that he'd been moved out of the throne room. The second thing he noticed was that he was, once again, inside a cage.

"Hey you!" He called out to the Egyptian standing guard at the doorway to the room, "Lemme out of here!"

Without looking back at him the guard replied with only two words, "Be quiet."

"Go tell Kahmunrah to get his ass down here and face me like a man. Hiding behind his soldier boys and cagin' me up like this ain't right!"

"I hardly think you're in the position to be making demands." Came the unmistakable, lispy voice of Kahmunrah as he stepped into the room.

"Open this cage and let's see how well you do without your army standin' in front of ya."

"I don't think so." The Pharaoh smiled mockingly as he approached the caged cowboy, "Your threats have about as much effect on me now as they did when you were tiny."

Suddenly a couple of the soldiers burst into the room, "We have news of the Roman General."

"Stay away from Octavius!" Jedediah shouted.

"You can't make me cowboy," Kahmunrah turned to face the newcomers, "What have you found out?"

"With all due respect my Pharaoh, should we be discussing this in front of the prisoner?"

"It's fine, he's powerless to stop my plans now. Now tell me what you know."

"He left his world as soon as the sun went down. According to his men he said he was going to meet Jedediah to discuss something important and personal and was not to be interrupted for any reason."

Kahmunrah pondered what he'd been told for a second, "Now I see why you're so eagar to escape! Have I inadvertantly gotten in the way of a romantic tryst?"

Jedediah once again fell silent, glaring at his captor.

"Pharaoh?" The soldier said, regaining his king's attention, "We expressed your interest to meet the general once he returned. His men said they would pass the message on and that, as their leader, he would most likely come here to introduce himself on behalf of his society."

"Very good. When he arrives bring him down here and lock him in with the cowboy."

And with that Kahmunrah swept out of the room, his soldiers following him and the door slamming shut behind them, plunging the room into darkness.

***

Octavius struggled to maintain his dignified demeanor, even as his heart was breaking into a thousand razor-edged pieces. He had waited patiently until midnight, and even a couple of hours past that, before heading back to the hall of miniatures to seek out Jedediah. When he got there he was told that Jed had left, almost as soon as the sun had set, to go meet him. But then why had he never shown up, what reason did he have to lie to his own people about his whereabouts? When he voiced these questions they also said that the Pharaoh of the new Egyptian diorama had wanted to meet Jed. Perhaps Jedediah had gone to the Egyptian world and been delayed somehow? Octavius didn't know what could have stopped Jed from making such an important meeting, unless it wasn't that important to the other man at all.

'I will not seek Jedediah out tonight,' He thought to himself, 'I said if he did not meet me as arranged that I would get the message and it would be dishonourable to go back on my word by attempting to talk to him. Hopefully by tomorrow night he has returned to his own land and I can start trying to figure out where we stand.'