Okay, I'm really sorry it took so long; I was away for a week. Here's chap12!

Chapter 12

"Right away? Why?" Gregor asked, surprised.

"Luxa and Apollo are finally well enough to travel, and you must leave, for we fear another attack may come, perhaps even on someone as essential to the quest as you. Be in the High Hall in fifteen minutes."Vikus replied grimly.

"Okay." Gregor answered, and walked away.

He first stopped at the armory to get a sword. No sword had felt as right as the one he had inherited from Sandwich, but as he couldn't have that one, he had to settle for different.

He then went to the museum to get his basic trip supplies. He had brought a backpack with him, not wanting to use the drawstring pink one he had had to last time.

He chose a bunch of flashlights and batteries as well. He grabbed a roll of duct tape and stuffed it in the backpack along with a pair of binoculars he just thought as a good thing to bring. He also grabbed a pair of Hard Hats he found.

But the best thing he found came after he moved aside a bicycle wheel and a baseball cap in the back of the museum. A magnificent sword, with emeralds gleaming in the hilt, was lying inside an opened, long, thin box.

"Whoa!" Gregor exclaimed. He picked up the sword. It felt good to hold, almost as good as Sandwich's had. But where had it come from?

Gregor had no time to dwell on this thought, for his fifteen minutes was up. He put down the other sword and picked up the emerald one and stuck it in his belt. He rushed to the High Hall and found the whole group, Hera, Luxa, Howard, Aurora, Nike, Apollo, Hazard, Temp, Boots, Ripred, Nyx, Clipclaw, Kendra, and Leda, already there. Luxa rushed up to him.

"Gregor! There you are! We must—what is that?" Luxa gaped at the sword in his belt.

"I don't know, I found it." Gregor shrugged. He looked closer at Luxa. Her face was terribly pale, and her hair was sweaty and stringy. Gregor always thought she looked pretty, but he hated seeing her sick like this.

Luxa still stared, open mouthed, at the magnificent sword until Vikus ushered her onto Aurora.

"You must be getting along." He said.

The seating arrangements were pretty simple. Gregor was on Hera with Boots and Temp, Luxa was on Aurora with Hazard, Howard was on Nike, Kendra was on Leda, and, to Gregor's surprise, Ripred was on Apollo and Clipclaw on Nyx. The rats usually ran, why were they flying now? Gregor asked Ripred about it.

"We managed to convince Vikus that it was for Clipclaw, because she's still young, but you know she could easily keep up, she's fast. But the real reason is the path of Hephaestus, I assume my royal bond told you?" he answered in a hush. Luxa and Ripred had bonded during the war of Time, first ever human/rat bond.

"Oh, yeah." Gregor nodded. He jumped onto Hera and pulled Boots up onto her neck in front of him. Temp scurried on behind them, as he always did.

"This is just like old times." Gregor thought to himself, but then with a jolt he remembered that he was sitting on Hera, not Ares.

As soon as every one was on, Vikus waved them off with his good hand.

Hera flew along with Aurora, so Hazard and Boots could play and talk. They sang the ABC song, Row Row Row Your Boat, Patty Cake, Bat, Bat, and a bunch of other songs until Ripred told them to shut up.

"Can you keep those pups down? Some of us are resting for the trip we have ahead!" he snapped. Boots gave a little cry and buried her face in Gregor's lap. Gregor scowled at Ripred.

"They have to do something to entertain themselves!" he told the rat.

"I don't care. Do something else, then!" Ripred snapped back.

But it turns out, they didn't need to. In a few minutes, Boots and Hazard were both asleep in Gregor and Luxa's laps.

The whole group was flying together, with the exception of Kendra and Leda, who were flying ahead and doing complicated flips, spins, and stuff. Leda was a very acrobatic flier.

"What did I tell you?" Hera muttered to him. Gregor nodded.

They flew down one of the tunnels leaving Regalia, but turned a different way. It became too small for the bats to fly alongside each other, so they had to go single file. Luxa wanted to fly at the front of the line, and naturally, so did Kendra.

"Get out of the way, Luxa! We are here!" Kendra snapped as Luxa and Aurora tried to cut in front of her and Leda.

"I am queen; I get to fly—first!" Luxa finished with an almighty shove, and Kendra and Leda spun off-course and Luxa and Aurora took the lead.

In about five hours, the tunnel widened into a cavern large enough to sleep in, and the bats were pretty tired. They stopped to sleep for a few hours. Howard volunteered to watch, and so did Clipclaw, so everyone else got to sleep.

Gregor and Luxa pulled four blankets out of their packs and made up beds off to the side for themselves, Boots, and Hazard. Hera and Aurora settled themselves near their bonds. Kendra and Leda settled themselves as far as possible away. Gregor meant to talk to Luxa, but he fell asleep right away.

Gregor awoke unpleasantly to a large slapping against his back.

"Ouch, who's doing that?" he muttered, lifting his head up. Ripred had been slapping his tail on Gregor's back.

"We tried to wake you gently, but you stayed asleep, so this is the consequence!" Ripred snapped, slapping his tail on the cave floor for emphasis.

"Okay, Okay, I'm up, I'm up!" Gregor said.

Howard was rummaging in the food baskets on Nike's back. He pulled out a loaf of bread, some cheese, and a cake. Everyone ate heartily. They got water from a nearby stream(they were saving the water bags on Nyx's back for when they couldn't find streams) and were off again.

This time, after only an hour, they stopped. There was a tunnel leading off of a cavern. It was pretty wide. It had some stones littered on the ground, and looked very unstable. As they stood there, a few stones fell from the ceiling.

"Well, here it is." Luxa said.

"The path of Hephaestus." Howard said.

"One very unstable." Nike gulped.

"We must take it." Aurora shivered.

"Well, let us go." Hera said.

Gregor did not like Vikus at that moment. This path looked horrible, why had he chosen it?

Then he remembered the Hard hats in his backpack. He quickly took them out and put one on Boots.

"Gregor, I look funny!" she giggled. Gregor gave the other one to Luxa, to put on Hazard.

"It'll protect him from those falling pebbles." He told her. She nodded and fastened it on Hazard's head.

Gregor looked at the path again. He gripped the hilt of the emerald sword in his belt, out of instinct, because he knew it couldn't help him much in here.

Ripred ushered them all forwards and they set off down the path.