Chapter 9
Hey guys, I'm back! I didn't know if I would be posting today, but I can! This is the 1,000 view celebration, so it will have a lot more stuff in the author's note. So, the question is going to be at the bottom this time. Tytonic came the closest with two of his guesses. I would count the last one as a perfect, but that's a well known fact. Your fourth one was kinda close, but it didn't quite cut it. So, I decided to give some tips that I found in the book, and put in two or three of the stories. The first tip is about the names. If you look really close, some of the names of the Underlanders are words that are mixed up and letters are switched out and/or removed. Take Vikus and Luxa for example. If you type Vikus in to the Microsoft Word, then it will give you other words that sound almost the same. I personally think that Luxa is Luna but with an x instead of an n. To make the names, just choose a word and play around with it until it sounds half-decent. Rat names are just two words put together that can be related to rats. I don't know about Mange or Shed, but the rest have that sort of name. Crawlers are just simple words that usually only have four letters. Bat names are Greek or Roman myth names, Aurora is the name of the Roman goddess of dawn by the way, so that's how it's Roman. I don't know about the nibblers, so don't expect advice on that. If you guys want more advice on the author's note, just tell me in the reviews and I'll set something up. On to the short stories. The first one is while we were going to church. We were walking to the church doors when we passed a Honda Accord. I thought it said acorn, so we now call them Honda Acorns. We were out fixing my pig pen today, and so we were having to all this crazy stuff. I fell into a large water tub that still had water in it, my mom fell over trying to pick up something in the mud and my dad, and well this time he had the most common since of us all. The person that was supposed to help us brought out a chair and an eighteen pack of beers to watch us. On with the story!
The boulder was almost grazing the ceiling, missing it by centimeters. Gregor's crazy idea was going to be a little hard. He threw his sword up, lodging it between the boulder and the ceiling. It slowed the boulder down, but not by much. Gregor had a lot of strength flowing through him, so the boulder and he were about equal in power now. If he wanted to live, and he intended to, he would have to tip the balancing weight over to his favor. He let his emotions fill him, every single one that he had ever felt. Love, hate, anger, betrayed, happiness, confusion, and revenge flowed through him like a very quick river. Gregor had tipped the balance, making the odds ever in his favor. [Sorry, I had to do that.] The hollow shell that had encased him before that had been falling apart during the quest was broken into pieces, and a new shell seemed to emerge, this one filled full of emotions and any other good thing that could fill him.
The boulder was slowing down, and would for sure break when Gregor collided with it. There was a loud crash as the teen rager and the gigantic boulder both disappear in a large cloud of dust. For a moment everything was still and silent, then it all broke by the large pile of rubble falling on top of him. Every highlight of his life flashed before his eyes. Being born, losing his dad, finding the Underland, rescuing his dad, bonding with Ares, falling in love with Luxa, kissing Luxa, losing Ares, getting dragged out of the Underland, and embarking on the mission to save Luxa. All this passed a crossed his eyes in the half second it took the rubble to envelop him, and the warrior went under the rubble.
Krios' POV
"Tell Luxa I'm sorry."
The words still rang through my head as we desperately searched for Gregor in the pile of rubble. He was literally buried under a pile of rubble so high that I couldn't fly between it and the ceiling. His sword was gone to, probably about half way into the rubble pile. If Gregor had survived, we had to move very quickly. We all moved the rubble into another pile as we desperately searched for him. When all the rubble was in an entire other pile, all we had was his pure black sword. We all passed out from exhaustion.
When I came to, the rest of the group was quickly eating sandwiches, something that Hazard had learned to make from Luxa, who had learned to make them from Gregor. I was on the verge of going insane, I knew that if he would have stayed in Regalia, we had a good chance at being bonded. It was all gone, the only thing I had of him was a couple of memories, all of his armor but the secret swords, winch he had had on him, and his sword. Before we left, we stuck his sword deep in the ground to remind us all of what said event had happened here. We all flew towards Regalia, not talking from pure sadness.
Gregor's POV
He saw the rubble coming down on him and dove into the nearest cave, letting him give into the pain and black out. The rubble completely covered the entrance, not even leaving a crack. There the warrior slept; there the warrior was while his group searched for him outside. There he was until he awoke.
He woke up later, full of energy again. He didn't know how much time had passed, just that lots had passed. Gregor struck the closed out entrance and it broke open, all the rubble spilled out onto the clear way. All the rubble was moved to one side, and his pure black sword was dug deep into the ground. The group was gone, so that meant that they had moved the rubble. The deep sound of marching was in the direction of Rockshard, but it was still a ways off, and they would have to dig through the rubble to get through. He took a step forward and winced at the pain that shot through him. He looked down to find that his ankle was bent in an odd position, defiantly broken. He sat down where he was and fixed it, popping it back in the right position. This time, there was no pain, just a dull throbbing.
He pulled his sword out of the ground and stumbled off down the tunnel, heading to the certain danger that awaited him.
Krios' POV
It took about two days to get back to Regalia. Luxa kept getting worse and worse, and we all got sadder. It was strange, flying without someone on my back again, but I had to get used to it. I could tell that everyone now had a hole in their heart, one that someone should have filled, but he was gone. There is no way to describe how sad we were, we killed rats more ferociously, they deserved to die, but Gregor didn't. We got back to Regalia just in time, Luxa was really close to dying, but the doctors helped her and got her back to normal health. I knew that I couldn't tell Luxa about what Gregor had said, I barely knew her. So I told my mom, Aurora, and she told Luxa when she awakened.
Luxa's POV
I awoke in a hospital room. My vision was a little blurry, so all I knew was that a bat was by my side and a doctor was on the other side. They noticed me immediately and grimaced. My vision cleared up and I realized that the bat was Aurora, and the doctor was Howard. They told me why I was in the hospital and the quest it took to save me. When I asked where Gregor was, they both tensed. Aurora told me where he was, and how he had gotten there. And for the first time since my parents had died, two silent tears glided down my cheek. It was the first tears for a long time, and the last ones forever.
That wraps it up! The question is: what dangers await Gregor? See ya next time!
-The Firelands
