Creeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaakkk! Karen eased the old door to the abandoned house open and looked around, the light of the full moon helping the fourteen-year-old see the dark hallways ahead. She peered into the shadowy foyer, her bright emerald eyes darting around, searching for signs of movement. A shaft of bright moonlight blazed through the single visible, shattered window. She couldn't even believe that she had agreed to do this. ~ "If it's not haunted," they'd said, "then you'll be happy to explore it with us, right? I mean, it is on your property, isn't it? Oh yeah, yeah we'll be there. Don't you worry! Just be there at midnight on Thursday." Pfftt. Midnight. Total cliche. Why had she even wanted to make them look stupid in the first place?~ She thought, batting cobwebs from her goldish-brown hair. ~Oh, yeah. Darren.~ Before she could get all creepy-crushy-oozy all over the door about the pale, dark-haired boy, she felt a sharp shove from behind.
"Oof!" She grunted as the floor met her stomach and knocked the air from her lungs. Karen picked herself up and looked around behind her.
"Honestly! Did you have to just stand there for five minutes leaving us out in the cold?" It was her older sister, Ara, short, red-blonde tipped hair flying close about her head, and she was yelling at Karen, violet eyes blazing; with Xav, the eldest and only boy in the trio, struggling to get the ancient, rusty-hinged door closed aginst the harsh wind and cursing and yelling all the while.
"Why the heck are you two here?!?" Karen found her voice getting shrill. "And anyways, it's not cold out! It's the middle of freaking JULY!"
Ara sighed. "It's a figure of speech, Kare. And you're horrible at sneaking out, by the way. First," she said, counting rules off on her fingers, "If the window has stuff like wind chimes and suction-cup bird feeders on it, it's probably better to use the front door." Karen blushed as she remembered the ruckus she'd made trying to open the bedroom window, hoping she hadn't woken her sister up.
"Second," Ara grumped, "Don't turn the flashlight on INSIDE the house. You're bound to wake SOMEBODY up. Which leads me to Third. If you DO wake someone up, don't try to convince them that they're dreaming, and you're not sneaking out, because it won't work. Especially if they never even thought you were sneaking out in the first place." The elder sister smiled and giggled at the memory, losing her grumpiness, "I only played along because I thought it was funny. You woke me up, I went and got Xavier," she waved vaugely at their usually-quiet older brother. (who was being very not-quiet at the moment.) "And we came after you. Simple as that. What are you even doing sneaking out in the first place anyway?" the redhead scolded, as if remembering her tone should be irate.
Karen huffed (a habit her sixteen-year-old sister hated) and waited for the ranting to end before she began to explain herself. "Alright, I guess I have no choice but to tell you," all in all, being way too melodramatic, "It all started just a few days ago. It was Monday, I think. Gloomy, a bit drizzily, but then, all Mondays are, in their own way, are they not -"
"Get to the point already, would you?!?" Xav yelled, clearly having won the struggle with the wind and door, and, even more clearly, having used up all his patience.
"Oh, fine!" Karen sulked, "I was just trying to make it seem interesting, though. Okay, Kirsti and Jodi, you know, the leaders of the middle school cheer squad, said that this place was haunted,
I said they were goofy, we had a GIANT argument. Somehow or another I ended up agreeing to taking them around here, and they didn't show. But, just in case I was wrong, which almost never happens," she said, retrieving and opening her backpack as she spoke, which had flown into the shadows when Ara shoved her, "I brought the machete." And sure enough, there was a steel blade as long as her arm wedged dangerously into the main compartment of the backpack. "Relax," Karen sighed, seeing the horror on the faces of her siblings. " I wasn't going to kill them! I'm a main character! I'm obviously good!"
"Oh, come on, sis!" Ara groaned "This isn't a book or anything! Jeez." "Zekk was evil, for awhile." Xavier, always having to be right, as usual, for reasons unknown.
"Not completely" Karen argued. "Anyways - What was that?!?"
"What?" asked Ara, getting a little nervous, Karen wasn't the type to pretend to hear or see something just to screw with someone.
Then they all heard it. An odd noise, it was, like a great wind beating hard aginst a door. Which would have been perfectly normal, except that it was coming from down the hallway.
"Okay," Xavier whispered, "I'll go investigate, you two go home and sleep."
"No way!" Karen cried, indignant. "We're coming with you, and you can't stop us! Besides," the youngest grinned, "I have the machete!" And with that, she snatched up the pack, and ran off into the shadows.
Ara cursed and quickly followed her sister, darting away out of sight.
"Karenai! Arachne! Stop!" Xavier cried, running after the two teenage girls and disappearing into the inky blackness himself.
~*~
Karenai stood at the top of the rickety wooden staircase, a luminous white mist creeping out from under the basement door, providing an eerie, glowing white light that just barely illuminated the top of the stairs. Terrified, but at the same time feeling an urgent need to descend, she put one foot forward, about to place it on the second step, when Ara came bursting out of the shadows, bowling her over and sending the both of them tumbling down the stairway. Just then Xavier dashed in, and upon seeing his sisters crumpled in a heap on the floor, he bolted down the stairs and checked both for pulses. Or, rather, tried to check for pulses. When his fingers came in contact with Karen's neck, her eyes snapped open and she snatched his wrist in both hands, her mouth open, ready to bite. (It was only past expeience that kept her from sinking her teeth into her brother's flesh.) It was a habit she'd had from a very young age, biting. It was almost reflexive to what she felt was a physical attack. Where she had learned it, she couldn't quite remember, it was just too long ago. A similar action came about when Xavier tried Arachne's wrist. (After his almost being attacked by Karen, he decided it was safer to try the wrist on her much feircer and deadlier older sister.) When Xavier grabbed her wrist, she leaped up, planted one knee in the still-crouched Xav's stomach, and vaulted over him, twisting around so that her ankle would catch him in the throat. Xavier, however, was expectng this, and surged upwards, throwing Arachne off balance, and sending her tumbling through the mists into the basement door.
"Owwwwww...." Ara moaned, rubbing her head where it had just met the door, hard, when a small, folded peice of - parchment? floated down and landed on Arachne's head, right in the path of her hand. Karen, sensing the importance of this object, snached it off her sister's head, before it could be knocked off, and lost in the mists forever.
"Ow! what was that for?" Ara growled at the loss of the few hairs that had insisted on coming with the paper, obviously not having seen or felt the note.
Karen ignored her sister and read aloud:
"Well, young ones, I suppose this was inevitable. You would need to return someday. I can only hope that it is not under unfortunate circumstances. You seek answers, don't you? Well, sorry if this sounds too old-wise-woman, but destiny lies beyond this door.
Love,
Aunt Lara"
"Aunt Lara? Return? Destiny?" Arachne - now standing - asked, giving voice to the thoughts the three siblings all shared. "First of all, Who the heck is 'Aunt Lara' and why have we never heard of her? Where would we be 'returning' to, and what's all this about destiny and answers?"
"Well" Karen laughed, "there's only one way to find out!" and with that, she leapt past her sister, threw the door open, and dashed into the basement.
Xav and Ara chased their sister, who had discovered the souce of the mysterious white mist. It was coming from under a huge trapdoor, with a large carving of a bat in the surface, rattling loudly with the force of the wind, or whatever it was, beating aginst it. This was the source of the noise, and Karen was already leaning down to lift the heavy steel latch. Ara reached her first and yanked her little sister backwards, yelling 'idiot' in her ear. But it was too late, the wind blew the trapdoor open, and right at that moment, the wind decided to change direction, sucking all three down the mist-shrouded hole, the trapdoor slamming shut behind them.
CHAPTER 2
Gregor and Luxa laughed as they slammed the door to the prophecy room shut and locked it. It had only been a few weeks since Gregor returned, just two months after the Bane's defeat. But between Gregor's family having got there just a week ago (his dad would be there with his recovered Grandma when she got a bit stronger.) and the invading cutters, the two had never had much of a chance to be alone together. Gregor smiled at his love, and she at him, the two simply reveling in the aloneness. Gregor sighed contentedly and, leaning aginst the wall, began to tell Luxa about how he had escaped his apartment, and returned to the place where he truly belonged.
"Well, it was pretty simple, really. I'd grown too far apart from my freinds, and I just couldn't forget, like Mom wanted me to. So I wrote a note, reading
Mom, Dad, everybody, I just can't stay. I just can't forget. I don't belong here. I belong there, in the Underland. With Luxa, and Ripred, and everyone else. I miss them beyond words. Luxa ecspecialy. I can't stand to stay here while my friends fight a war to protect that world beneath our feet I have grown to love. I'm leaving, and you can't stop me. Follow me if you want, but I'm staying there permanently this time. I hope you can understand.
Goodbye, I love you all, Gregor"
I snuck out that night, tearing down the barricade that Mom put up in front of and behind the vent. I leaped and came here. That's about it."
"Wow." Luxa breathed. "I... Wow." Then she raised an eyebrow. "How did you become so good at speeches? You could almost be in politics!"
Gregor laughed, sliding to the floor, with his head bowed forward. When he pulled his head upright, thunking it aginst the wall, his mouth open, about to say something to Luxa, a rather largish chunk of wall, roughly half the size of his head fell out, and - backwards? He let out a squeak of surprise, leaping up and spinning aroung to see.
"What in Sandwich's name...?" Luxa whispered, awed. The awe didn't last long, however. "What the heck did you do, Gregor?!?" she yelled. "You broke the freaking wall!"
"I have absolutely no idea, whatsoever," Gregor whispered, pushing his hand through the round, dark hole, "but look..." he twisted his hand around, and, with a faint click, an entire section of the wall swung outwards, revealing a tunnel just large enough to crawl through. (oddly enough, the prophecy he knocked a hole in said something about a door.)
The two entered, fading into the dark.
~*~
They emerged a short while later to a mind-blowing find.
There was an entire other prophecy room here.
But even more epic, was the ancient skeleton, bones greyed with age, one hand reaching, pointing towards the far wall; once splendorous robes now in tatters, hanging off the remains. The only complete piece of apparel was a swordbelt of beaten gold chain, inlaid with jewels, that still hung 'round the waist of the dead man who was once a noble.
Gregor and Luxa's stomachs twisted as they realized who it was.
Sandwich.
~*~
"Gregor? Are you in there? Heloooo?" Lizzie called, banging on the heavy iron door that closed off the prophcy room. "Come on! I saw you go in there! Let me in! You need to practice your echolocation! I know you don't think you'll need it, but it might come in handy! Please let me in!" Lizzie sighed. Clearly he didn't want to be found, and was hiding. Lizzie frowned, thinking. Then she had an idea. She pulled out a hairpin from her pocket - since she figured out how to pick locks, she always kept one handy in case of similar situations - and began fiddling with the lock. After a moment she heard a click and smiled as the great door swung wide, revealing an empty stone room, with a dark hole in the wall.
~*~
Gregor closed his eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. Clearly Sandwich, in his last moments, wrote these prophecies and pointed whoever would find him towards a certain one. Gregor took a deeper, calmer breath, and stepped towards the far wall.
"Gregor! Here you are!" The voice sounded remarkably like Lizzie's.
Gregor sighed and turned around. It was Lizzie.
"Lizzie! Go away! This isn't a place for children!"
"Gregor, you are not that much older than her, yourself, you know." Luxa smiled.
Gregor glared at Luxa and frowned. "Fine, she can stay." ~ But she totaly ruined the dramatic moment ~ Gregor thought.
Gregor advanced towards the far wall. This is what he saw, etched into the stone:
Though the Warrior is now gone Broken Blade must be passed on.
Bathed within the Queen's bright light This is how shall come the Knight.
Children of Stone, yet Children of Sun,
For answers questing have they come,
Splattered with the blood of foes By these signs, we shall know
The noble Knight, the one who saves The Underland from danger grave.
Some call them friend, some call them foe Back from whence they came, they go
To fight an evil most severe If only those long dead were here!
Dark of fur, eyes of red,
Many by his claw are dead,
A betrayal from within Goodbye to a dear friend.
Luxa and Lizzie now stood on either side of the Warrior, reading. Luxa's mouth was gaping in wonder and shock at all that she had seen in the past five minutes, it was almost too much for her to handle. Lizzie, however, wore a puzzled expression on her face, as if trying to decipher the odd poem already.
They soon found she was.
"Okay, some of it's pretty clear." Lizzie said. " Someone is going to folow in your footsteps, Gregor, and save the Underland. But then the line 'Children of Stone, yet Children of Sun' confuses me. Perhaps this Knight and their freinds are Halflanders, like Hazard? 'A beytrayal from within,' well, that's pretty clear, someone, maybe this Knight, maybe not, is gong to be betrayed. 'Some call them freind, some call them foe, back from whence they came they go,' that has to refer to the knight and the others, right?"
Luxa looked grim. " Perhaps. But only if your Halflander theory is correct." The older girl sighed.
" What's wrong, Luxa?" Lizzie asked, worried at the expression on her freind's face and the aura she put out.
"Oh, nothing." luxa forced a smile, despite the thoughts that chased eachother around in her head like stupid puppies after their own tails. "I'm just remembering an old legend I was told as a child."
"Legend? Oh, can we hear it? Can we, can we?" Lizzie asked, clearly exited.
"I don't know, Lizzie," Gregor said, nervous. "This doesn't really strike me as the best place for storytelling." Gregor gestured towards the skeleton lying close by.
"Actualy," Luxa's laugh held no mirth. "This place is perfect."
The three sat in a circle in the flckering glow of the single torch planted near the ceiling in the corner. Luxa quickly began her tale...
"Once, long, long ago, before the cutters had first revealed themselves, and only the humans, gnawers, nibblers, fliers, and crawlers were known, --
"What about the hissers? And the stingers? Oh, and what about the diggers?" Lizzie was adapting to Underland life well; she was already using the Underland names for -- animals or people? -- without thinking about it, and she no longer minded flying, she just couldn't do it by herself, yet.
"Lizzie! Shush. Luxa's trying to tell the story you asked to hear."
Lizzie apologized, and the story was resumed.
"As I was saying, when only these races were known, there was one other."
The listeners leaned forward with intrest.
"Screechers. What you would call owls in the Overland."
"Then why have we never heard of them?" This time it was Gregor who interupted.
"Gregor!" Lizzie laughed. "Your not setting a very good example for me, are you?"
Gregor apologized, blushing, and, once again, the story resumed.
"A patrol was sent out, one from each race, to find new lands to live upon. During the journey, a quarrel arose between the nibbler and the screecher, and they almost came to blows. The reasons are forgotten now, lost to the winds and shadows of time. Thanks to the peacemaking skills of the flier, as well as the ability of the human and gnawer to restrain the two, the fight was put aside for the journey. Soon after, the group set out. They found territory; good, farmable soil, beautiful mountian peaks, streams full of fish, all in all, a wonderful place to live. The band decided to camp here, and set out in the morning. When the travelers awoke, they were horrified. No one is quite sure how it happened, but sometime in the night, the disputants seem to have woken, and-"
Here Luxa began to sound quite shaken, even terrified, horrorstruck. Evidently she had quite an imagination, and it was being put to use here.