I'm back! This is the sequel, baby! I am so excited about this! Once again thank you to every reader an reviewer for the last story! This story is dedicated to you guys!

-O-

It had been seventeen years. Seventeen years since the horrific disaster in the Stone Castle, seventeen years since Ayla, the Trickster, a fourteen year old girl had sacrificed herself for the good of the Underlanders. Her bonds, Zeva the Spotted, and Jinx the Smokey had died along with her, turning into statues. No doubt Ayla's prized weapon, an old dirk she had gotten at a yard sale for five dollars, was still buried in the amethyst floor.

Gregor sighed. Silkfur had been heartbroken, he had been very fond of Zeva, even Ripred had shown a little grief, "I have no one to fight over food, then blame them when I lose, ach, I'm getting too soft!" he had muttered to himself at dinner once.

Now Gregor and Luxa were wed, and had a lively eleven year old daughter to care for.

Said daughter, Lilliana Ayla, was off riding a young bat, Kaj, full sister to Jinx the Smokey. Gregor shook his head, it was spooky how much Lilliana resembled Ayla, her eyes had turned from lime green one day to pink, it was odd, she was just as sarcastic, if that was even possible. She had gotten her mother's grace, the kid walked like a cat.

A rustle of wings interupted his thoughts.

"Hey, Daddy! I'm home!" she said, jumping off a small blue bat.

"How was your ride?" he asked.

"Welllllll, it was fine, 'til miss butter back over there dropped me," she said.

"Ach, can it! You were the one standing on my back! I just had to turn, there was a stalactite!" the young bat said defiantly.

"Wha-? You're the one who dared me to stand!"

"As I said, stalactite!"

"I will not stand here and be blamed!"

"Then stand over there, and I'll blame you there!"

"I will!"

"Nice arguing with you,"

"It was a pleasure my friend!" the two laughed,

"C'mon! Let's go! Ripred's waiting for us!" Kaj said.

"What're you guys up to?" Gregor asked.

Lilliana put a hand to the side of her mouth, speaking in a dramatic whisper, "We're raiding the pantry! Shhh! Don't tell!" she said, scampering off to terrorize the kitchen in their daily pantry raid.

-In the kitchen-

"Got the rope?" Ripred asked.

"Right here," Lilliana said.

"Good, Ayla, good," the greying rat called her by her middle name, Ayla.

They were in an air duct above the kitchen, Ripred and Lilly would preform the raid, and Kaj would get them out.

Lilly gave the rope to Ripred, who tied it to a suport beam, when all was clear, Lilly went down and dove behind a wall of flour sacks, and waited, she gave Ripred the clear, and the rat jumped out of the hole and sat next to her.

"Go, look for the good goodies!" Ripred nudged her, and she went off to find the best treats. She returned soon, "Status report!" he said.

"They have the honey cakes under lock-down!" she said urgently.

"You don't say? Well, lets go rescue them! Lead the way!" he said. Lilly ran out of their hiding place, waited, and waved Ripred over to the cabinet.

"See? They locked it! And I forgot my lock-pick!" she said, Ripred rolled his eyes and sagged his shoulders a little, then scoped out the room.

"There! The keys are over there I think!" he said, Lilly ran to a hook in the wall, looked around, stole them, and ran to the cabinet.

"Here!" she handed them to the rat.

"What? No you do it! I don't have thumbs!" he hissed, Lilly rolled her eyes and slid the key in, the doors swung out, reviling several glistening loaves of bread sticky with honey.

"We hit the jackpot!" Lilly whispered, Ripred smirked as she put several in a sheet of waxed paper and into their sack. The sound of footsteps alarmed them.

"Erg! I hope the girl and that rat have left the pantry alone today! If I catch them I swear- Hey!" the cook rounded the corner as Ripred disappeared into the hole, closing the air duct tight.

"Move, pup! We need to get out before the cook kills us!" Ripred barly stifled a giggle. Lilly crawled quickly until they reached their hideout in the Palace. It was a main air duct, all the other duct branching off from it, the main duct was huge, around the size of Ares's cave. Nests of blankets and pillows they had stolen littered the room, as did many books and other random things. Lilly plopped down on a nest and gave Ripred a loaf of honey bread.

"Haha! That was a good raid!" she laughed.

"Huh, we got our prize, that's all that matters," Ripred scoffed, stuffing the whole loaf in his mouth, smearing honey all over his muzzle.

"You, ah, got a little somethin' right here," Lilly said, waving her hand around her mouth.

"Thank you so very much, Captain Obvious," the rat said, swiping his mouth with his tongue.

"Hey," Lilly said.

"What?" Ripred asked. Lilly put her fist up in answer, "Oh ho, you're on!" he said, putting his own fist out.

"Paper, rock, scissors, shoot!" Ripred had scissors, Lilly had paper. "Shit," she muttered.

"Watch your mouth," he quipped.

"Pft, what about you, mister sailor mouth? Paper, rock, scissors, shoot!" Lilly had rock, Ripred scissors, "Sucker!"

"Paper, rock, scissors, shoot!" Ripred had rock, Lilly with paper.

"Ha! Haha! In yo face!" she laughed.

"Bah, humbug, give me another loaf," he pouted.

"Rematch?"

"Hmph, why not," he held up a fist again.

-Kitchen-

"Yes, I will find her and make sure she knows what she did," Luxa said, scowling at the fact her daughter had raided the pantry like this, "Ripred..." she thought, when she got her hands on that rat...

Luxa exited the kitchen and went strait to the maintenance ladder leading to her daughter's hideout.

-Hideout-

"I won! Sucker times two! I beat your ass!" Lilly laughed.

"Only because you cheated, little sailor mouth," the rat said in a brooding tone, "Uh, oh, here comes your maker!" Ripred said, Lilly's eyes grew wide and she took off for her escape rout. Ripred lounged against the wall, munching on another honey loaf.

"Ripred, have you seen Lilliana? Oh wait, yes you have, you conniving rat! Where is my daughter now?" Luxa asked, crossing her arms and looking a little scary.

"Her? She took off the moment she heard you coming!" he laughed.

Luxa rolled her eyes and sighed, "I will not go looking for her in these filthy ducts, you hear me Lilly? I am getting out of this place," she hussered, going through the exit tunnel, muttering about how her daughter would be in for a big spoon visit.

"You can come out, pup," he drawled, sticking more bread into his mouth.

"You glutton! Did you eat all the bread?" her voice echoed as she came out of a random duct. Ripred looked into the sack, one left.

"Surely not all the loaves," he sniggered, pawing the bag over to her.

"Ach! You pig, you ate all but one!" she said, swinging the sack at him playfully.

-The Stone Castle-

"Look at them, Zeva! I wish I could go raid a pantry!" Ayla said in a little bit of a whiney voice, looking up from a pool of water.

"Huh, remember the first time you and I raided it?" the rat asked, poking her friend with the the end of her tail.

"Now that was a disaster! Now lessee here... aha!" Ayla shouted.

"Aha what?" Zeva asked.

"I found a new book! Well, new to me... I'm not sure if I like it, look at that!" she said, pushing a black book over to Zeva.

"Well, shit, that looks bad, hey Jinx! Get over here!" she yelled. Said bat flew over the many rows of high shelves and came to land next to the rat.

"What do you need?" she purred.

"Take a gander of this!" Ayla shoved the book to the bat.

"Definatly not good, nope, uh uh," she shook her head.

"Pft, only time will tell that," Ayla said, going back to the pool of water.

Scrawled on two pages of the book was a drawing of a silver cat in green armor, a wicked sneer showing two glistening white fangs. On the top was a name; Rithiahs