Chapter 22

The bat wasn't looking at them, so Gregor didn't scream. He just went and woke Hera up.

"Hera!" He whispered loudly in her giant ear. She stirred.

"Gregor, what is wrong?" Hera asked, seeing his nervous look. Gregor led her over out of their little cave and pointed. The bat had found a ledge to hang on, and it was hanging, with its eyes open. Hera looked puzzled.

"Have you ever seen that bat before?" Gregor asked her.

"No, I have not. But we'd best go and wake the others before…" Hera was interrupted when the bat looked their way. He bared his teeth and took flight.

"Uh oh," Gregor moaned.

"Quick!" Hera screeched. Her shriek woke everyone else up, and in a second they had all mounted their bats, well, not Ripred, who was standing his ground. Lizzie had her face buried in Daedalus's creamy white fur, and was holding on tight.

"Daedalus! Take Lizzie and fly above us!" Gregor cried to the bat. Daedalus flew above the rest of the party, protecting Lizzie. Gregor and Hera got into position alongside Aurora, Nike, Luxa, and Howard, swords out.

The bat was coming towards them, but there was something wrong. He didn't look like he was ready to fight. Luxa was prepared to fight, though. She whispered something into Aurora's ear, and they sped toward the bat.

"Stop, Luxa! Don't attack!" Gregor cried.

"Gregor, he is in league with Thor!" Luxa cried back, not stopping.

"How do you know that? Have you seen him before?" Gregor asked. That stopped them. Luxa looked back at him.

"Was it not you who woke us because you believed him as a threat?" She asked, quizzically.

"Yeah, but look." Gregor pointed to the bat, who was very confused indeed. "Hera, ask him who he is." Gregor said to his bat. Hera, supposedly, let out a series of high-pitched squeaks to the bat, who looked like he responded.

"He says he is Apollo, and Queen Athena sent him to find us." Hera reported. Nike flew closer, and talked in human this time.

"Why has my mother sent you, Apollo?" she purred.

"Oh, you are Princess Nike. Yes, Queen Athena sent me to locate you and your party, because Astraea had heard you have found Nyx. Astraea begged Queen Athena to find Nyx and bring her back, because she misses her. She's really turned around. Queen Athena consulted this with Vikus, and he told her about your party going to find them, and she suggested this was the best place to join." Apollo said. He had a deep purr, neither happy like Hera, nor depressed like Ares. He was somewhere in between.

Luxa and Aurora flew closer. "Why have I never seen you before? I am Queen Luxa of Regalia, and I have met most fliers, or at least heard of them." Luxa said. "And it looks like none of our fliers here have been acquainted with you." She was right. Hera, Aurora, Nike, and Daedalus all showed no signs of knowing this strange bat.

Apollo sighed. "Most do not know me. I was banished for reasons I have sworn to tell no one, and finally Queen Athena lifted my banishment, after learning I was still alive. That was only recently, and she said if I complete my mission of finding Nyx, I will gain trust again." He replied.

"Well, Apollo, you may travel with us, but we do not have enough food to accommodate everyone." Luxa said.

"That is fine; I can fish for my food." Apollo agreed.

"Okay, Okay, wonderful. Now we'd better be off, since none of us are going back to dreamland." Ripred said. Everyone followed him down the tunnels. Apollo flew beside Gregor and Hera, off to the side. Hera tried to engage in conversation with him.

"So, how did you come to get that scar?" she asked. Gregor didn't think this was the best thing to ask him, but Apollo seemed okay with it.

"I was clawed by a gnawer some months back, during my banishment." Apollo answered.

"Oh." Hera said. "Do you have any family?"

"My mother perished while I was banished, during the war a little over a year back." Apollo answered. Gregor recalled this as the war that took place during his first visit to the Underland. "My father was killed some time before that, by a gnawer attack. I never had any siblings."

"Oh." Hera said again. She stopped asking questions, because all of the answers she was getting were depressing. Gregor stifled the impulse to laugh, not at Apollo's depressing past, but at Hera's obvious discomfort at his answers.

They flew on for another six hours before Ripred stopped them. They were nearly at the plain of Tartarus, but Gregor didn't think Henry was there. They stopped in a medium sized cavern. Luxa took watch alone.

Even though Gregor was supposed to be sleeping, he couldn't. All he could think about was little Boots. What if it was too late for her? What if Henry planned on killing her? He remembered the past time he thought Boots was lost, or was going to be. When she was badly fevered during his first visit, when she vanished in the Labyrinth with Luxa, when she was surrounded by poison dart frogs in the jungle and when she was dying of hunger there, when she was lost in the flood in Hades Hall, and when she and Lizzie were trapped in a tunnel, with only Nike for protection, and Nike couldn't even take flight. He always felt like his heart dropped when she was in danger. There was something about little kids, maybe how vulnerable they were or how easy it is for something to happen to them or how they love everybody, which made you love them in a special way. He knew Luxa felt the same way about Hazard. When he seemed lost because of a horrible head injury, she screamed like the world was ending. Boots was only three, almost four, and she barely knew how to count! Gregor could only imagine what she was feeling right now. She was probably scared, Henry was probably torturing her, and she was probably calling for Gregor or their mom, and neither of them were coming. If he was so worried about her, why wasn't he moving? Why was he just sitting there while she was being tortured? He should just go wake Hera right now and fly ahead of everybody else, to save boots! So why wasn't he?

Gregor pondered on this thought for a while, until finally he fell asleep. He only slept for an hour, and when he woke his stomach was growling. He got up, clicked on his flashlight, and went over to the food basket to make himself a sandwich. Echolocation was nice, but sometimes he did like just using light.

"Hello, Gregor." He had forgotten Luxa was on watch.

"Hey, Luxa. Want a sandwich?" he asked her.

"Yes, thank you." Gregor made two sandwiches for them, and they sat against a stone wall. "You have been thinking about Boots, have you not?" Luxa asked him.

"Yeah." Gregor sighed.

"Do not fear, I do not believe Henry would kill her, I think he is only using her to get to you. He has no intention of killing her…yet." said Luxa.

"Oh, that really makes me feel better." Gregor said sarcastically. Luxa smiled.

"We should be able to stop that from happening, though. Do not worry." She said.

"Okay, I'll try." Gregor said. Luxa grasped his hand, and they just sat like that until the others woke up.

As Gregor mounted Hera, he was still thinking about Boots.

Man, he missed that little girl.