Gregor and Legend of Blade

Chapter eleven

On the Road Again

A/n: Hey guys, I'm back! Here's chapter 11. The quest starts! Whoohoo!

Disclaimer. The Underland Chronicles is (are?) not mine. They never have been, nor will they ever be.

Gregor POV

The next morning we all met for breakfast in the high hall. I sat between Boots and Luxa and started to eat. Michelle was laughing and talking to everyone and pointedly ignoring Howard, besides sending him the occasional death glare. He was ignoring her too. Great. Just great. I looked around. Ripred and Vikus were talking as Ripred stuffed his face with shrimp, no surprises there, Boots and Temp were clicking in Crawler, and Lizzie was whispering with Hazard. Hmm… I have to ask her about that later. The bats were sitting with their bonds eating too, and Michelle seemed to be telling Orion a story about something he found funny.

Suddenly there was a sound of glass shattering. We all looked up. A small black rat with a white paw was edging slowly away from a broken vase. Ripred got up and groaned.

"Shadowsnout, I told you wait at the edge of the city. Why don't you ever listen?"

"Maybe I don't wanna." The rat seemed to be a girl.

"Well too bad. I'm in charge and you'll do as I say or I'm sending you home."

"Yeah, right."

"Watch it, pup, and don't test my patience." He growled and slinked back to his seat. While his back was turned, Shadowsnout stuck her tongue out at him and made Michelle laugh. But when Ripred turned back she was gone. Huh? I looked around. The rat was asleep in a corner at the other end of the room.

"She's an expert on camouflage, just incredibly impertinent." Ripred answered my look. He rolled his eyes at Shadowsnout

"Oh." I finished my food and went with Luxa to get our bags. We each grabbed a sword and headed for where we would meet the others.

"Are you ready Luxa?"

"As ready as can be expected. I only hope Michelle and Howard can resolve things quickly; I hoped to be able to tease my cousin about his infatuation with her at some point." We laughed.

"Well, lets go before they come looking for us." I said softly. We subconsciously leaned in closer-

"GREGOR, LUXA, COME ON, WE'RE LEAVING!" Michelle yelled. Dang, she's loud. We grabbed our stuff and ran down the hall. I accidentally knocked a servant over but I honestly didn't mean to.

We finally got to the others. Michelle was by Orion, laughing and talking. She had a bright red duffel bag by her feet. Howard Lizzie Temp and Boots were with Nike, and Electra was looking around as if she'd lost something.

"Probably Shadowsnout." I muttered.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing, sorry." She chuckled and led me over to Aurora and helped me on. Ripred and Vikus walked in discussing something.

"Ah, I see you have all arrived."

"Yeppers! Now let's get this show on the road!"

Ripred rolled his eyes.

"Alright, we're going to head for the border first. We should get there within a day or two. Then send scout along until we find the way we're supposed to go."

"That's it?" Michelle said, skeptically.

"You're telling me." Muttered Shadowsnout.

"Hey, watch it, the two of you. I like to hear your plans then." They stayed quiet.

"I thought so. Now lets go, or we'll die of old age first." I rolled my eyes and we took off. Great. The start of another quest.

Michelle POV

Argh! How Howard pisses me off… stupid over-pompous self-centered-

"Michelle?"

"Huh?" what did I do this time?

"You were muttering strange things under your breath." Oh.

"Woops, sorry dude."

"What happened between you and Howard?"

"It's a long story."

"We have quite a while."

"Well, you know how Howard disapproves of Gregor and Luxa being together?"

"Yes, I was aware of that."

"Well, I just figured it out, and I tried to talk him out of it. He tried to tell me what to do." I still can't believe it…

"Is that bad?"

"Dude, only people who get away with that are my aunt Renee (hint, hint!), my uncle Joey and my grandma, and they're all older than and related to me." Barely. I remember the time when Uncle Joey tried to get me to get chummy with his boss's daughters. They were complete bi-witches.

"Ah I see. But it was nice of you to stand up for Gregor and Luxa like that."

"Thanks." We sat in silence for what seemed like a few hours but when I checked my watch it had only been twenty minutes.

"Argh! So bored." If there was a convenient wall/ rock/ tree, it would be rudely introduced to my forehead. Have I ever mentioned that I get bored easily? I mean very easily? I looked around. Maybe I could piss Howard off… or Ripred its win-win either way.

"Are we there yet?"

"No," Howard said.

"How about now?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No"

"Are we there yet?"

"No"

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No," he was getting annoyed. Yay! This is fun!

"Now?"

"Not yet." I waited five minutes and he relaxed.

"Are we there yet?" the others were enjoying it too.

"Not yet."

"Are we-"

"No, Michelle! We are not 'there yet'! Does it look like we have arrived? Now stop acting like a small child and be patient like the rest of us!" Well someone's in a bad mood. Excellent. After a few more minutes of basking in my glory I got bored again.

"Hey, Orion?"

"Yes Michelle?"

"Whatcha doin'?" he looked at me like I was crazy.

"This is called flying, Michelle."

"Oh, I know, I'm just bored… again."

"What do Overlanders do to pass the time on long trips?"

"Well, um… we could play a game?"

"Oh, alright. What kind of game?" Eh, works for me.

"How about... a tongue twister!"

"Pardon?"

"You've never heard of a tongue twister before? Le gasp!" oh wow these guys must be really bored. I picked this because I thought he might know some.

"Never. What is it?"

"It's a sentence or a group of them and it's really hard to say. Each has different rules. Repeat after me: New York is unique."

"New York is unique."

"Unique is New York."

"Unique is New York." Dang, he's good at this…

"I like unique New York

"I like newnique unork- oh!" he got flustered. Poor guy.

"Ha-ha! That's what makes it fun dude!" he laughed along with me.

"What are you doing?" Electra and Shadowsnout flew over.

"Tongue twisters." I said.

"Oh those are for pups! You wanna hear a riddle?" she scoffed, sitting up.

"Oh, sure, why not?"

"Okay. Alive without breath, as cold as death; never thirsty, ever drinking, all in mail never clinking." huh?

"Um..." I had absolutely no idea.

"Oh, that is the oldest one, it is a fish!" Orion said. Now it makes sense.

"You've got it! here's another one- it cannot be seen it cannot be smelt, it cannot be heard it cannot be smelt it lies behind stars and under hills, and all the empty holes it fills, it comes first and follows after; ends life, kills laughter." Wow. These are hard.

"Ooh… I do not know."

"Neither do I." we turned to Shadowsnout.

"Beats me. I heard it from a spinner a while back but never got the answer."

"Hey, Electra do you know it?"

"No, I have never heard it before." We spent the next hour solving riddles and puzzles. Lizzie came over and joined us- she sat on Orion wit me because, well, me and Howard were… you know… Anyway, it was two AM in the Overland when we finally landed and the little people were asleep. Heck, I was tired too.

"Where are we?"

"Boy, through that tunnel is the uncharted lands."

"So why don't we just do there?"

"That's not the best place to set up camp, if you know what I mean."

"Oh." Everyone unrolled these sleeping mats and Luxa passed out sandwiches.

"I will take the first watch." Howard said. I rolled my eyes as he set a lantern thing in the middle of our circle. I put my mat by Orion and the other bats and sat down.

"Looks like Fluffy the over sarcastic rat doesn't know what's through the tunnel."

I whispered to Orion.

"Fluffy?"

"She means my uncle." I looked up. Shadowsnout was sitting next to us scratching at a scar on her nose.

"Wait, Ripred's your uncle?"
"Yep, sadly. I'm only here because he's technically in charge of me and he thinks I need to learn some 'responsibility'. Yeah. Like that's gonna happen." She flopped down next to us and began to flick pebbles with her tail. They hit the far wall with a bunch of different clicks.

"Can you stop that? Some of us are trying to sleep here!"

"Yeah yeah, don't start shedding over it."

"What's that pup?" he growled.

"Ripred, Shadowsnout, can you guys please save this for tomorrow?" Gregor's voice came from the other side of the cavern.

"Yes, please wait until everyone is awake to resume your pointless arguing. Elsewise you will awaken Lizzie, Hazard and Boots." Luxa said sounding annoyed. She sounded like she was sitting near Gregor, and Bye the look Howard was shooting her I had a feeling I was right. I mean you'd think the whole monster truck thing would've shown him but no.

"Fine." Both rats grumbled at once. Now I can see the shared bloodlines- sarcasm. But somehow, Shadowsnout's easier to get along with. Oh well.

"G'night Orion; Shadowsnout."

"goodnight.

"Night." I rolled over and started to fall asleep.

S

A/n: hey, here it is. tell me how you like/ disliked it. happy Easter/ Passover/ Spring etc.

EB

Ps.... hey peoples, its Michelle, im a good fiend of Eb's... i come in peace... that is all.