"So where can we go to make a good distraction?" Hilda asks me.

"The room with the paintings," I reply after a moment's thought. "That way, we can go into one of them and lose the bad guys if need be, and it's far enough away from where Larry's going."

Hilda hesitates. "That's quite close to my exhibit, though…"

I gently pick her up between my thumb and forefinger and place her on the palm of my other hand. Then I hold my hand up close to my face. "Hilda. Please trust me. I will never let anything happen to you, okay?"

She still looks uncertain. "Why would you do that for a stranger?"

"Because we're not strangers anymore," I reply softly. "You're my friend. And I will protect you with my life."

She stares at me in shock. "What?!"

"Believe me, I will not let anything happen to you. I would rather die than see that happen."

My friend's eyes fill with tears. She covers them quickly with her hands, but I can tell she's crying.

"I-I've never had friends," she croaks. "Just my b-brother."

"For as long as you want me, I will be with you, Hilda. I promise."

"And I promise that I will stay with you, Flo." She places her tiny hand on the bridge of my nose. "Is this weird?"

I smile. "No, Hilda. Now come on; let's create that distraction."

We head back to the painting room. Immediately, I see that the black and white war painting is facing the wall. Clearly Larry and Amelia trapped the Egyptian warriors in there.

"See anything?" I ask, my eyes darting round the room.

"There's a painting with an elephant in it," Hilda says, pointing.

I follow her finger and see a painting with a weird, warped kind of elephant in it. I can almost hear the sound of the lightbulb going off over both of our heads. We smirk at each other at the same time.

"This is gonna be epic," Hilda states.

"Yes, yes it will."

Approximately a minute later, we burst out of the painting on the back of the pink elephant. Riding it like a horse, we gallop through the halls, hitting into many exhibits along the way. I do feel bad about that, as I swore an oath to do no harm, but I'm able to take comfort in the knowledge that these exhibits will not be alive much longer. Although that is a sad thought as well.

Hilda is whooping and cheering loudly, so I do the same. I'm a little embarrassed by the way I'm acting—after all, I would never DARE act that way normally—but hopefully I will never see any of these exhibits again, so that lessens my humiliation a little. I've never liked being the centre of attention, but at least this is helping Larry and Amelia.

"We got company!" Hilda yells, pointing behind us.

I turn and see several men chasing us. They look like they are from an army like Napoleon's. Is Napoleon here? I wouldn't count that possibility out. The point is that we have caught the enemy's attention.

"They got guns!" Hilda yells a minute or so later.

Before I can turn again and look, I hear the loud bang of a gun.

"Are the guns real?" I ask Hilda nervously.

"You'd think not," Hilda replies just as nervously. "But it looks like they're doing some real damage."

Another gunshot sounds, and this time, I see the wood in the doorframe was are just passing under splinter and crack. Hilda lets out a screech. "REALREALREALREALREALREALREAL!"

This is bad. They are real. Somehow, the guns are real. If any of those bullets hit us…

I hit the elephant's left flank, causing it to turn sharply to the right, through another doorway. I gasp and my hands flies to my shoulder. I'm just in time to catch Hilda as she loses her grip. I keep her in my hand and lean forwards, knowing we can't keep this up much longer.

The third bullet succeeds. Right after the gunshot, we hear the elephant let out a scream of pain. Hilda also screams. I'm about a second away from screaming as well, but I keep it together in order to protect Hilda. I close my hand around her, and then whirl the elephant round in a U turn. In a panic, it continues to run as fast as it can. It barrels into the group of soldiers and sends them flying. I hear Hilda let out a cheer, but that is when our luck runs out.

The fourth bullet also hits the elephant, the poor creature. And this time, I know it's over.

Curling my hands around Hilda to protect her, I jump from the elephant's back. As I fall, the elephant goes off into a spin and hits me hard in the back with its head. I feel something inside me crack as we fall to the floor.

My shoulder hits the ground first. I feel my grip get wrenched open as pain shoots up my arm and into my head. I try to yell Hilda's name, but my voice won't work. Wincing, I struggle onto my elbows and begin crawling, trying desperately to find my miniature friend.

I can see a soldier coming towards me. I speed up as much as I can, but he reaches me before I can find Hilda.

The last thing I see is the butt of his gun coming towards me very quickly.