A/N: Here I am again, with our next chapter.
Shadowfang14: I might. Or I mightn't. It shall actually be revealed in this chapter. But yeah, I know right?! He's such a great character that I actually had to go rewatch some clips from the series with him (and thus have ended up rewatching the entire series) just to remember his character!
Once again we're back to a usual point of view, since we needed it after that chaos in the last chapter.
Greg's POV:
"Beatrice?" He pulled on the girl's sleeve. She had been silent for a few minutes, and he didn't want to be afraid any longer of the silence that had surrounded them.
She didn't respond immediately and he took that as a sign to sit down and hold Jason Funderberker closer to him, gazing up at his brother and the others. There was wind blowing through the trees and he didn't like how cool it felt on his skin. He pulled the frog closer, trying to shelter them both from the night air. They'd all been walking for a very long time, and he wasn't sure how much of it he could do. The others might not agree to stop though, and that's why he never asked. Beatrice finally looked back down at him, and he saw she looked tired too.
"Can we sleep?" Greg asked her, looking straight into her eyes.
"I…Greg, could you hold off on the questions, please?" She sounded miserable.
Not at all willing to give up on getting to bed, he looked over at Wirt. His brother looked tired, but maybe he just always looked like that now. It seemed to be the same expression he'd had on since Greg had met him that night. Maybe being the Beast was tiring.
"Wirt, can we please sleep? Jason wants to cuddle in the dirt."
"Not right now, Greg." Wirt replied.
Why were they all sitting there silently, staring at each other? It didn't make much sense to him. And Uncle Endicott looked just as confused, along with Fred. Lorna just looked annoyed, but he had noticed the other girl was much quieter than Beatrice. Greg wondered if those two would get along at all. He was smart enough to notice Beatrice avoiding Lorna at all costs.
After a time it began to wear down on him and he stood up, looking at all of them.
"Well I'm going to go find a place to sleep in and you can stay here if you want." Stating this, he walked off a little ways and settled down with some leaves, sighing quietly to himself.
The whispers from nearby were the only things that kept him up. Maybe everyone would work together now, and maybe they could get the two newcomers to join. He wanted to have more friends, friends were good and Greg knew this. He remembered distinctly the last time he'd been here, when people weren't so friendly. Maybe they'd gotten better now.
He never did get to sleep for two minutes later, Beatrice approached him quietly, and he sat up, watching her.
"Greg, we need to keep moving. I know you're tired, but Endicott told us there was a place nearby where we could stay and figure things out. I guess he has a house in the middle of these woods. But we need to get moving if we want to get there to sleep." She was gentle. He was a little annoyed at people being so gentle with him all the time, but he said nothing of it and got up slowly.
Then they walked on, still in silence, with Endicott leading and Beatrice falling behind in the back. He was between Lorna and his brother, and he was hardly awake, but both seemed to be watching him and making sure he didn't fall behind. If he walked too fast or bumped into Lorna while nearly asleep, she would turn around for a brief moment and push him back gently. If he ran into Wirt while trailing behind, his brother was almost as gentle with pushing him ahead. This went on for a longer time than Greg had expected.
A clearing suddenly opened in front of them and they stopped abruptly, Quincy Endicott appeared to be talking to Fred. Greg swayed on his feet, with Jason Funderberker right next to him.
"Maybe we'll get to sleep now, Jason." He muttered to the frog, who croaked in reply. "And maybe they won't try to wake us up for a while, huh?"
"We're here, the building's right there." The man at the front of the line announced. There indeed was a small cottage in the clearing.
Not giving it a second thought, Greg pulled Jason behind him and followed them all very quickly into the cottage, collapsing onto the floor and humming slightly to himself before drifting into a doze. At some point after this, while in a deeper sleep, he felt his body being picked up and placed in a small bed, and woke up for a only a few minutes to make sure Jason had followed him.
It was the bright and early calling of the morning that opened his eyes, and he groaned a little, just for dramatic effect. Not one of the others were up, all appeared to be knocked out on the other bed and ground. Wirt had simply disappeared, and Greg looked over at Jason as if the frog had the answer as to where the older boy had gone.
"Did he leave during the night, Jason?" He whispered to the frog. Only a croak. "I know you can talk, Jason."
Still only a croak. Oh well, better luck next time. Sitting up he rubbed his eyes and looked around. Sure enough, Wirt definitely wasn't there. The night must've been dark enough for him to disappear into. The thought of his brother as the dangerous Beast rummaging around the forest for lost souls caused a small chuckle to emit from his mouth, not thinking of when he had fallen victim to the being, because without that memory Greg wouldn't have believed his own brother was capable of such things. The guy was a big softie, really.
Lying back down in his bed, he talked quietly to Jason until Lorna got up a little while after, and then he pulled himself out of bed to go talk to her. She wasn't really awake, but after a short time he was able to start a conversation with her.
"Do you want to be here?" He asked her, bouncing on one foot to the other while she adjusted the fire in the fireplace.
"To help your brother, Greg, I'm willing to do this." She nodded slowly, her face echoing a bit of sadness. "Auntie understands, she didn't mind. She'll take care of herself until this is all over."
"You mean the turtle lady?" Greg giggled. "I want that many turtles."
"Yes, Greg, the turtle lady." Her smile was enough to tell him that she was content with where she was, and he was glad he'd made her smile.
"Jason didn't really like her. I think she was eating his friends, that's why he wasn't happy." He held up the frog to show Lorna, who smiled still.
"She doesn't mean anything by it. You should let Jason know that."
After a little more mindless conversation with her, Greg moved away and went to look out the window, wondering if Wirt was out there waiting for them. Beatrice finally got up, and so did Quincy after a time, and soon they were seated around a table that someone had rigged up, eating what Lorna had made, which was porridge of some type.
"So, what would you propose doing at this juncture?" Endicott looked up at them, his eyes widening.
"Well I suggest we try and talk to …him." Lorna said quietly in reply, and Greg sent her a small smile. He didn't like that everyone was talking like Wirt had no feelings, but he also didn't want anyone to feel left out.
"If we do try and talk to him, I'll start it off. I have the feeling he won't be feeling like talking. But what about you?" Beatrice pointed the question at Quincy, and Greg looked to see the old man looking a little distressed.
"I-I was merely here to help and offer a house for the night, surely you don't think I could be of any service to you?" He gulped.
"You can help. Everyone can help." Holding onto a spoon tightly, he looked around at all of them with hope in his eyes. "We'll all get Wirt back. Together."
"I am only a figure in that boy's eyes who is forgotten and I'd rather get home to deliver more tea rather than be a victim of such a horrid creature as the Beast."
"Don't back out of this, Greg's right, we can all help in this. I'd ask you to help more if only you weren't such a coward." Beatrice glared at the man, her eyes blazing, which Greg thought went pretty nicely with her hair.
"Well…if you insist. But only for a little while. I don't think I should be away from my company for so long." There was uneasiness in the man's voice.
"You're right. That's why you'll go back there and return to us when you're ready. We have to trigger Wirt's memories, and you're part of them. But you're not the only one. I want you to make sure the rest of these people in this horrid place are ready to help us out."
"And how, might I ask, well, could I possibly do that?" Those eyes were even wider now, and Greg let out a giggle at the sight of them. He thought it was funny that the man was so scared, of Wirt of all people.
"You're going to deliver tea and then you're going to also deliver information. Each person needs to know they're part of this."
"But what …information?"
It was at this point that Beatrice pulled the man off his seat and over to a corner where Greg thought she might be planning with him. He was glad everyone was suddenly helping Wirt. Wirt needed it.
"I'll clean up, Greg; you don't have to do that." Lorna exclaimed when he took his dish and moved to the wash bin.
"Okay." He smiled, and then walked off to a corner.
Jason sat next to him as he thought. Things were going quite well. All they needed now was the help of old friends and Wirt would be turned back to normal. The Beast would be gone. It would be much easier with Wirt back in the real world. Greg didn't know how it exactly was going to work, but he understood that positivity was the best at times like these.
A/N: I'm cutting it a little short here but I promise you things will get a move on in the next few chapters. I think I'm going to turn evil here in a little bit and experiment with some pain. Well that was chapter 10, I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading and please, review, review, review!