I would like to thank the following people for their reviews, The Toast Ninja, Colin, Regina, ironicbear32, and Guest. I would like to give a special thanks to illusion95, this review helped me to improve my writing. Please enjoy this chapter.
As it turned out, only six other people besides himself and Ripred were willing to join the quest. Both Enos and Jupiter said that they wanted to accompany us immediately. Luxa volunteered along with her bond Aurora, shortly after followed by Howard and Nike. Gregor could tell that the only reason Howard wanted to come, was to keep an eye on him and Luxa. He thought about queen Wevox, and how his rager side allowed him to torture her without any hesitation. He shuttered at the thought, he lifted his head to see Jupiter flirting with Aurora. He was telling a bad joke "What did one flier say to another?".
Aurora answered in an annoyed voice "I don't know, what did one flier say to another".
"Let's 'hang' around together!" Jupiter began laughing at his own joke, while Aurora just shook her head. That joke was really bad, and plus where is Enos right now. He scanned the room and found him, his eyes locked on Jupiter. To the normal eye, it would have looked like he was nonchalantly observing the scene. Since Gregor knew Enos's feelings for Aurora he could see that he was not only worried, but barely keeping himself from strangling Jupiter. Gregor felt sorry for the bat, but he did not understand why he did not want their love to be public.
Gregor scanned the room for Luxa, she was laughing, and speaking with Mareth. He walked over, but before he could reach him, Mareth was gone. Man he needed to speak with him about the condition of his armor, because all of it was at least dented, some of it had gaping holes in vital places. He sidled up next to Luxa, he grabbed her hand and thought about her coming on the quest. "I don't want you to get hurt Luxa, maybe you should stay here with Mareth, and help in the war effort" Gregor finished, scanning her face far a sign of a reaction.
She answered "And who else would you take? My swordplay skills are far above that of any other regalian, you will need my help to successfully complete this mission". Gregor realized there was no denying her the right to come. Howard came up beside them before Gregor could respond to Luxa's remark.
"Could we talk" he said motioning to a small room off to their right.
"Sure" Gregor said, letting go of one of Luxa's hands. She kissed him on the cheek to say good luck, then she let her touch linger, until they were both at arms length, then she released her hold. She walked off in the direction of her bond and Gregor turned to see that Howard had already made his way to the small room. He swallowed, and prepared himself for the interrogation. He made his way to the room, and no sooner did he cross the threshold, than the door was closed by Howard. Gregor looked around the room, it looked like a small storage closet. The stone walls were chipping slightly, and there was a small window towards the back. The only lighting in the room came from the window, so it was difficult to see. Howard seemed to be figuring out how to ask his question without sounding offensive.
Then he stated "Where were you last night, I could not find you anywhere" Howard waited patiently for his answer. Gregor thought through his planned response, he was not sure he could bring himself to lie to Howard's face. He had trusted him with Luxa, and he had in a way broken his promise. He hoped he looked a lot more confident than he felt. He took a deep breath, and in a steady voice said "I had to go speak with someone at the fount, so Enos flew me there. He can back my story if you need more proof".Gregor watched Howard's resolve melt away, and relief come over his features.
He patted Gregor on the back, in a brotherly way and said "I knew I could trust you". He opened the door and left without another word, he seemed to believe him completely. Gregor could not believe he had just done that, it made him feel worse than if Howard had actually figured out the truth. He exited the room to find an empty hall, everyone must of gone to lunch. If he was right Ripred probably had already packed for the trip. He slowly walked towards the dining hall, deep in thought on what he should take on the trip, and if he should tell Howard the truth. As luck would have it he ran into Mareth again.
"Overlander" he said, brandishing a wight canvas sack with the symbol of the fount on it "I made some adjustments to your armor".
Gregor smiled and responded "I was just coming to talk to you about that" you know after lunch, but it was better to get this out of the way now. Mareth set the sac on the ground and rummaged through it until he found a piece of shin armor. On the front was a design that appeared to be a dagger that was cut in half, from one side of the hand guard to the other. The blade of the design was more of a gunmetal, than the jet black metal the rest of the armor was made from.
"Watch this" Mareth said excitedly, he pressed a raised part on the hilt of the dagger. There was a mechanical sound, like gears turning and the blade popped out of the front of the plate. He offered Gregor the hilt, and he grabbed it. It was perfectly balanced, he took a few swipes with it. "There is another one hidden the same way in the other shin plate, if you happen to lose your sword in battle".
"This is amazing Mareth, thank you" Gregor looked over the weapon one more time, he could see no imperfections in the blade. He slid the dagger back into place and pushed it down, there was the same mechanical sound and the button popped back up. The dagger being profile kept it from cutting anything while put away.
Mareth was blushing at his compliment "It was nothing really, I wish I could have joined your quest, but sadly they need me here if the stingers decide to attack. Fly you high Gregor the overlander".
"Fly you high Mareth" Gregor responded. With that Mareth handed him the bag of armor and moved down the hall and around the corner. He resumed his journey to the dining hall, thinking of how much of an advantage these weapons would give him. When he reached his destination, only Luxa was still there. He walked over to the cabinets, overflowing with every type of food you could imagine. He grabbed some meat that resembled both ham in shape, and jerky in color. He grabbed a few fresh vegetables, and placed them in a bowl to make a salad. He walked over and took a seat next to Luxa. He was eager to start up a conversation "so, you never got to tell me what you did while I was in the overland".
Luxa looked thoughtfully at him "to tell the truth I thought you were going to attempt to convince me to not go on the journey. I haven't really done a lot.". She told him about how Hazard was doing. she told him about the hundreds of meetings she had had, and how the council refused to cooperate with her. She talked about how Ripred was the only person she really felt confident about confiding in. She told him about how much she had missed him. Although her story was not as long it was filled with equal feeling. When she finished, he grabbed her hands and pulled her in far a kiss.
"Well there you are lovebirds" Ripred snickered. The pulled apart, both their cheeks glowing bright red. "We will need to depart soon" he continued in a more serious tone.
"I should probably go and pack" Luxa said giving him one more kiss and exiting the room.
"Ripred" Gregor whined "do you always have to do that?".
Ripred raised his hands in mock defense "I state the facts, and you draw the conclusions". With that the rat left the room, leaving Gregor completely alone. Gregor ate his food quickly, and followed it with a glass of water. He got up and cleared the table of both his and Luxa's dishes. Then he made his way to the room they had given him upon his arrival to the underland. He opened the door, walked in, shut it, and went to sit on the couch. He began to form a mental list of what he would need. He had his armor, he would need a few pairs of clothing, and he would need his bed roll. He got up and walked into the private bathroom, on the shelves there were many pairs of the type and size of clothing he was wearing. He grabbed five pairs and went back to the couch. He set them on the table, and leaned down to empty his armour out of the canvas bag. He put it on, starting with his feet, and working his way up to his helmet saving his gauntlets till he had finished his other armor. He could not help but think why am I fighting, why did he enter war after war, just for another one to start. Gregor heard a knock on the door, he decided he would finish that thought later. He quickly finished clamping on his gauntlet and said "come in".
Enos pushed open the door "greetings Gregor are you ready to go?". Gregor took one more look around the room, making sure he had all of his supplies.
He picked up the bag at his feet and shouldered it, it was somewhat like a backpack with only one compartment "let's go". Enos rotated clockwise, until his wing was almost at ground level. They flew out through the huge walk out balcony. They headed towards the great hall where they would depart. Gregor stared down at the bustle in the streets below, he did not know how they could be so oblivious to the danger at hand. Then he realized, this is why he went to war, to protect these families from the fury of battle and violence.
As they neared the great hall, Enos remembered something "oh, I forgot to tell you that there was too much food for us to carry, so one more flier will be accompanying us to carry the supplies. Her name is Luna, she is a good friend of Jupiter". They touched down and Gregor could not take his eyes off the bat waiting there. She had beautiful, shiny, and intelligent jet black eyes. The fur on her back was a silvery-blue that gleamed in the torchlight, like sunlight refracts off of mist. On her right wing there was a white mark that loosely resembled a crescent moon. The hair covering her stomach was a pure white, and her muscles were lean enough that you would not think she was very strong.
"Wow" said Gregor, they were definantly strange colors for an underland bat.
She seemed to be absorbed in thought, and had not noticed them land. Enos whispered in his ear "she thinks that she is irresistible, but there is something not right with her. Whenever I am around her I feel like there is some secret she is keeping". Gregor looked at her eyes another time, this time he looked past the skin deep beauty. There was a gleam in her eye, as though she knew something that no one else did, there was something else also an evil glint that was barely visible. When she finally saw him joy replaced the previous emotions in her eyes.
"Overlander" she said in a high, squeaky voice, it was the type of voice that grated on your nerves. "I am excited to work with you, I am like the fastest flier in the underland". Gregor barely kept himself from blurting out that there was no way she was faster with Enos.
Instead he said "I look forward to working with you as well". The remaining group members flew up to the platform.
Ripred climbed on to Jupiter's back and said "let's move out". And with those words the journey began.
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