Who will end up with whom?
Gregor looked out at the crowd before him. All the Underland was gathered in the arena that day. As massive as the arena was, it was filled to the point that he could see trails of people that filled the streets in the distance. Gregor never recalled ever seeing so many people before, not even in the Overland, which is saying something having of grown up in New York City. But at the same time, he didn't expect anything less for a day like this. It was his wedding day.
Luxa sat beside him in a flowing white dress. Gregor wanted to take a picture of her then and there: small silvery braids bordering her flowing hair, purple irises shining with dreams and laughs, and a smile you couldn't take away even if you fought her for it. Too bad the camera sat back at the museum. Gregor swore that he could smell the beauty coming off of his bride, and took a deep breath of her for encouragement before he stood up before the crowds.
"Underlanders!" Gregor bellowed as the laughs and jests slowly dimmed to silent. "I'd like to thank you all."
If a year ago you asked Gregor to stand before so many people and speak, especially about himself, he would've said 'not happening'. But something empowered him today. It made him throw his voice over the people, his people, like a king.
"I'd like to thank you all for being here today, even in spite of the distance some of you have had to travel." That went out to all the gnawers who sat at one table. Ripred sat at the head of that table and was easy to pick out by the white snout covered in shrimp cream sauce.
"I'd like to thank all of Regalia for being our hosts tonight." Cheers went up throughout the crowd but the message was special for Vikus. The old man sat a short ways down the table from Gregor. The last year had been especially rough on the master, but a new light has been gifted to him ever since Gregor proposed to Luxa. A new light that would see him through his grand daughters wedding and hopefully many years after.
"But lastly, Id like the thank our fantastic chefs for being out entertainment for the next few hours. And now I order you all to eat!" Cheers went up as Gregor sat down. The laughs and jests resumed and the dining commenced.
Lizzie insisted on sitting at the gnawer table. From her seat next to Ripred, she could occasionally catch the looks of disgust and worry from her mother a few tables away. Lizzie would be disgusted and worried for herself if she not had Ripred by her side, and that was all that mattered.
But something had her attention, and it surely wasn't the five gnawers before her viciously tearing at a garlic roasted hog. It was a boy. He sat at the table just across from where she sat. He laughed with his company which included as many crawlers and spinners as Underlanders. But those green eyes. . . Lizzie noticed it like a quarter in a handfull of pennies. All the Underlanders around him had shining purple eyes. But his were green.
He had curly hair that had refused to be combed; jutting out in every-which direction, but in the cute way. His jaw was sharp and handsome, as were the rest of his facial features. And when he smiled, she couldn't help but to admire his pearly white teeth.
"Hazard." Ripred said to Lizzie, wiping off his shrimp cream sauce beard with a leg of turkey. He laughed after seeing her face tighten in concentration. Lizzie thought of it as a puzzle and was working to make words out of H-A-Z-A-R-D, but could find none.
"No no, Hazard is his name. You know, the boy you've been drooling over for the past hour."
"I haven't been drooling" Lizzie said matter-of-factly. But she still felt the corners of her mouth just to make sure.
"Interesting isn't he. A Halflander - his father an Underlander and his mother from Over. He is probably the only of his species whi-"
"which explains his green eyes." Lizzie finished the sentence for Ripred. Ripred smiled one of his satisfied smiles.
"So would a Halflander and an Overlander make a Quarterlander child?" Ripred said. Lizzie stomped hard on his paw under the table but hurt her heel more than she hurt his paw. To this, Ripred let out a hoot of laughter, only to be silenced by a mouthful of his meat again.
Lizzie just sighed as she went back to gazing at her mystery boy. Hazard the Halflander whose life was a puzzle she was determined to solve. Wait, was he just clicking like a crawler?
Hazard loved living in Regalia. It was a sort of Capital of the Underland where he was capable of practicing his lynguistics with every species represented. Luxa had even gifted him with a job in the code room. Since there were no real codes out there that needed to be cracked, it had been changed into a diplomacy room after the war. Many troubled creatures have come to him asking for help and it was up to him to relay the message to the Regalian Guard.
His work also had him out in the city. On weekend's he taught the ancient language of pi to baby nibblers in the nursery. He had picked up a few words from the late Cartesian while working in the Code Room, and was now working to keep the language alive.
On occasion he would even be hired out by spinner traders to peddle goods at the bazaar. That really required skill since he had to communicate with all creatures wishing to purchase the illusive spinner cloth.
From all of his work, Hazard claimed to have of seen every creature of the Underland, yet there was one who he has never seen before who sat so obviously at the table behind him. Hazard would've been sure had he of seen her before, for she was the prettiest thing he had ever seen.
Her wavy brown hair flowed freely over her shoulders and down her back. She looked around with hungry eyes and stared at Underlanders like she had never seen a flier before. But then again, she sat at the Overlander table with Gregor's family where most people kept quiet and watched.
What had Hazard entranced though were those green eyes. Never before had he seen someone other than himself with green eyes. Well, maybe one other person had green eyes but she had not been in Hazard's life for a long time. But now they were back, and Hazard wanted them to stay for good this time.
"Lin" Hazard said to the slightly drunken crawler across the table from him. "Do you know who the Underlander girl is sitting at the table behind me?" Never once looking behind him in fear of being discovered.
Lin looked around him, and just shook his head. "Sorry Hazard." He said in his broken english. "But boy beside her. His name Larry. Met him earlier. Both from Overland."
Hazard looked over his shoulder to see for himself. There was a boy sitting beside her he never even noticed.
"My friend Hazard." Lin continued. "I will send little Lin with your greetings." Lin leaned over to his side while holding the table with his alcohol impaired crawler legs, all 6 of them. He whispered into the baby crawler by his side, and the youngster went scooting off. Hazard watched little Lin go shooting around the table, fueled by a belly full of mashed potatoes, and crawl up right behind Grace. The surprised woman gave off quite the scream when the little guy crawled into her lap.
"No no!" Hazard whispered back to Lin across the table while trying to maintain his outburst of laughter. "Not Gregor's mother! The girl sitting next to Larry!"
Angelina pinched herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming because that would've been the most sane explanation of her last 48 hours. First, a mystery appearance by Gregor after having of disappeared for four years. He came to her dorm room door at night - 2 am to be precise. His excuse was that 'it's difficult to keep track of time in the Underland', but then she saw that he already had a groggy Larry in tow so she had to go.
Then Gregor took the two, in the night, in the rain, in the dark, to Central Park. The same spot where her second grade class had their picnic, claiming that it was the entrance to the Waterway. Gregor pried up a large rock with a crowbar stashed in the bushes and hopped in an exposed hole. Larry went after him and Angelina would've been all alone, in Central park, in the dark, in the rain, in the night, had she of not followed. In the hole were two large bats. Gregor leaped onto the back of the first one calling it 'Aurora' and motioned at the other two for them. Larry got onto his, and Angelina was 99% sure she was vividly dreaming so she got onto the back of the third bat expecting to wake up in her room any time.
What really confirmed Angelina's dream was when Gregor told them that he was getting married the next day, to a queen nonetheless.
But here she was still 48 hours later at Gregor's wedding, a world record breaking dream surely. Their table at the wedding was mostly Gregor's family which made Angelina a little more comfortable. She tried to start a conversation with Grace a few times, but none of them seemed to want to talk much. A few 'Underlanders' as they were called, sat at the end of their table, but they stayed to themselves. That was until He showed up.
"Hey, I'm Howard. You all must be Gregor's family." He introduced himself as he sat down across from Angelina and Larry. It was Larry who came with the courage to fill the silence after his introduction.
"Were not family," Larry said pointing to Angelina and him. "Were just friends of Gregor's from school."
"School?"
Larry and Howard went droning on, but Angelina couldn't bring herself past the beautiful man who sat before her. They say you cant create faces in your memory that you haven't seen before in life. That was how Angelina surely knew she was not dreaming. She had never seen such a beautiful face before.
He had straight, but clean cut, brown hair and those signature purple eyes. His facial features were soft and rounded, like his hands which he keeps cleaning with incessant soap use. Even though he was young, his face was the product of long nights at the infirmary. He looked as though he had been to hell and back, but such was the ways of being a doctor in a time of war. It made him look wise. At the conversation though, he already seemed to be lifting his spirits and perking up to meeting new people.
Angelina just listened and watched.
Howard had to escape. Ever since Gregor proposed to his cousin Luxa, York, Howards father, has been constantly pestering Howard to search for companionship as well. He had several Regalian women take him out to dinner and write him love poetry since he announced his availability for marriage. Women even came from the Fount to try their luck with the cousin to the Queen, but Howard wanted none of them. He had his heart set already.
At the wedding it was at its worst. Women inspired by the love of the Luxa and Gregor swooned to Howard. When Howard went to sit at a table alone, it would fill up with eligible brides minutes later offering Howard cherries and meat along with their love. Howard excused himself from the table, and found a place they would never venture.
He sat with the Overlanders - people who stared at everyone and had nothing interesting to talk about. "Hey." he said as he sat down. He acutally found the conversation surprisingly light and interesting besides its awkwardness and all, a pleasant change.
But while Howard's mouth talked at this table, his eyes and heart were spying upon another. At the military table sat Perdita. She has been the acting head of the Regalian army ever since Solovet's death, and has been doing a fantastic job at keeping Howard busy in the Infirmary.
Howard tried fancying the idea with his father once, but he would not have it. "Too political." He said. "You need not your work in the Hospital to be cluttered with talk of battle tactics and maneuvers. Better to find a girl who nods and smiles." But Howard didn't want that. He wanted Perdita.
Gregor sat alone at a table now. He watched as only a handful of people remained dancing on the floor, even when the musicians had left an hour before. Only a hundred or so people sat scattered at the tables throughout the arena that had seated thousands hours earlier. The Palace staff was just beginning to take down the event by stacking tables and chairs and wheeling them away.
Gregor didnt want the event to end. A few moment ago Luxa claimed that she was heading for her chamber and granted Gregor one of those sweet kisses farewell. But there would be plenty more of those this morning and for now, Gregor wanted to take in the waning moments of what would be his greatest day ever.
He took time to finish his last goblet of wine, but alas it was empty. As Gregor left his table, he had to step over a sleeping gnawer who wasn't able to quite make it to the door. He wreaked of fermented berries as well. But before Gregor could even make it to the door, he stopped to admire one sight he had missed.
Sitting at a table was Lizzie, Hazard, Angelina, Howard, and Perdita, all of whom equally didn't want this night to end. Gregor laughed at the sight of such a strange group of people, but couldn't help but to wish them a happy evening, (morning).
"What a party-hardy bunch we have here!" Gregor said as he approached the table. He noticed Perdita immediately stiffen her posture and adorn a more pleasant smile when he seated himself next to her. "What a night."
"It has been quite the evening." Howard said, lightly sipping on his goblet of wine.
"Yeah, and I've met so many new people. I wish we can have an event like this every night." Hazard said. It was odd though, cause Gregor noticed he said that while only looking at Angelina.
"And did you meet any one new Lizzie?" Gregor said.
"No, not really." Lizzie said in her shy tone. "But I wasn't really trying either."
The table was silent for a moment after that. Gregor noticed something strange about the air around the table, the only reason why this particular group had come together. Everybody was tense and shy, almost as if they were waiting for somebody else to say something.
A thought crossed Gregor's mind, a thought so crazy that brought a sly smile across his face. Gregor thought, 'Why should this night of love only be reserved for me and Luxa?' So then he went to work.
"Howard." Gregor said, drawing the young man's attention. "I've been thinking that you could benefit from some Overland medical practices. If only we can figure out a way to maybe bring some materials down to the Underland."
Howard nodded to the idea. "Well, our leading cause of deaths is head trauma. If I could learn some techniques from the Overland though, we could potentially save hundreds of lives." Howard was hooked on the topic now, just where Gregor wanted him.
"Perhaps some literature is in order. I'll have Lizzie try and find some books for you when she goes home. Although, the public library doesn't always hold what we need. . ."
"I have some medical practice books." Angelina spoke up. Gregor's plan was unfolding.
"That's right," Gregor provoked her on. "Aren't you studying to be a neurologist?"
"Yeah, I even have some special practice books back at my dorm that I can bring you." Now Angelina was talking directly to Howard.
"I'd love to read some. Maybe we can talk some more in the morning."
"Why wait for the morning?" Gregor interrupted, trying to keep the sprouting relationship alive. "I mean, whats wrong with now?"
The two thought about the idea, but agreed that it was a good idea. Get Angelina and Howard talking about medicine and you could have a multi-day conversation Gregor thought.
"Lets go to the infirmary and I can show you what we use now. You could probably give us an idea on how to improve as well."
Angelina agreed with a smile, and let her mystery man lead her away leaving the two alone to 'talk' in the infirmary. Gregor felt that warm euphoria of accomplishment in his head, and let that fuel his next couple on his agenda.
"Hazard." Gregor said gaining the boy's attention. "Have you ever played chess?"
"Chess?" Hazard said.
"Yeah, chess. It is a game of strategy and tactics." Gregor said while using a knife to thatch the table in front of him, roughly resembling a checkered chess board. "You see, each piece on a board has an individual move." Gregor placed grapes as pawns on his rough checker board, and an assortment of meats and cheeses as castles, nights, rooks, queens and kings. "Now, the goal of the game is to find a fluidity among the pieces in order to take out the other team."
Hazard's eyes were plastered to the chess board before him. His eyes traced the moves of many pieces of the board, envisioning routes and strategies. Gregor imagined that he would've spent the rest of the day there had he not of interrupted his deep thought.
"You know, Lizzie was the Chatham Middle School Chess Champion."
Hazard turned to admire Lizzie with those sharp green eyes. Gregor laughed a little when his sister turned a bright red and used her kind of shy boasting.
"It was an easy year that year. I only had to beat 5 other kids for the title."
"And the principle of the school who was the previous reigning champion." Gregor threw in. This really had Hazard entranced now.
"Hey Lizzie, why don't you show Hazard the in's and out's of the game?"
"Well, I dunno... I'm not very good." Hazard stammered.
"I'd love to!" Lizzie said. In a second she was already sitting by Gregor and across from Hazard as she began explaining individual moves of knights and queens. "I like to think of each piece like a word. You never say just one word when you're trying to make a point. So when making a move, you have to think many moves in advance, like how many words make a sentence."
"And with that we can make poetry." Hazard said. The two laughed at that.
Gregor stood up from the table proud of his subtlety in matchmaking. As he was making his way out of the arena, the long night and early morning hit him like a wave, and he was stumbling on his feet in an intoxicated, drowsy stupor.
"Warrior!" a voice called from behind him. He recognized it as Perdita as she assisted him by his side. "May I talk to you about some real strategy and tactics. The cutters have been advancing for sometime across the wastelands. Maybe we can talk alone in my chamber?" Gregor was so tired he couldn't really formulate any response, even in lieu of a correct response. But another voice had his back.
"General. Maybe another time. The king is tired, but perhaps we should visit the armory and asses our stock of weapons and the potential need for more arms." Mareth stood by Gregor's other side. Perdita seemed to agree with the man, and the two left Gregor to make his way back to his chamber. They left just as Lizzie and Hazard, and Howard and Angelina had.
Love strikes again.
When Gregor made it back to his sleeping chamber, his wife lied across the top of the sheets draped in the lightest of spinner weave. Gregor lied beside her hearing mumbles coming from the sleeping beauty.
"What a lovely night." Luxa murmured in her sleep.
"No my love." Gregor said, brushing her hair back as lightly as a warrior could. "Love is in the night."
I am not so much of a love sucker as I am for a tragedy hog, but this one seemed ironic and right. Comment with your favorite pairing and possibly and additional chapter of their adventures will come about.
-skiaholic
