As she packed her things, Luxa thought. She thought about all she had been through, and all she had yet to face. She thought about weather or not this was a good decision, and if it wasn't , would she still be a good queen when the ceremony came time? Or would she be a complete and utter failure at being the queen?

Luxa gave a hard shove to the clothing that she was stuffing into her bag. She hated times like these, when she couldn't even trust herself! It wasn't like her to doubt anything that she had decided upon, she usually just took to the action, but recently she had started wondering weather or not she was doing the right thing, or the wrong thing. Weather to have one piece of fish or two, should she help the village people to gather the rich, large harvest? Or should she let them do it themselves and watch from a distance, flying on Aurora's back a pretending to be on the lookout for anyone who might want to steal their grains?

She had been so much better at making decisions on the spot! Now she never new what to do, and this started to make her worry weather or not she would be a great queen, or a horrible one, who got all of her people killed, because she couldn't decided on when to defend her city or when she should just hold tight.

Luxa sighed and flopped down on her bed so that she was staring at the ceiling. A piece of hair fell across her face, and she huffed it off. It had just landed on the bed beside her when a servant came in.

"Your majesty," the young woman, who had to have been around Luxa's own age, curtsied deeply, "A flier has sent a message for you and is waiting in the High Hall!" she panted it out, and by the pink tinge to her normally pale face, you could tell that she had run all the way to Luxa.

The young, almost, queen nodded at the girl, dismissing her, and started to make her way up stair ways, and around bends in the long stone halls. Racing up the last flight of stairs, Luxa pushed through the doors, and knocked straight into Howard.

"Oh!" she gave a huff of surprise as her face bounced off his hard, straight back. She was about to pester him about how he should mind where he stood when she caught sight of the bat standing in the middle of the High Hall.

"Queen Athena!" Luxa breathed, and the bat queen hopped over and hung her head low to speak in a purr in Luxa's ear. "We have news of a new Overlander."

Luxa's hearts seemingly missed a beat. She couldn't help but wonder if maybe Gregor had come back to New York City after going to live in that oddly named place, Virginia. But, no, after a moment's thought, she replayed what Athena had said, "We have news of a new Overlander." She shook herself mentally, "Don't be a fool Luxa," she told herself, "as he said himself, he was only a visitor here," she felt a bit disappointed, but, he was something of the past, now was the present, when she found the Overlander and claimed to be a great queen, defending them, and not letting the rats get to it.

"Yes, yes," she whispered, "where was this information spotted," she looked up into the beautiful bat's face.

"The Overlander was supposed to be spotted at the entrance to the Firelands." she looked at Luxa too now as she started to speak again. "Queen, he said to much like the humans in characteristics," she breathed, "he is said, to have pale hair, and eyes, not the same of those here, but different in almost the same ways..." she trailed off into her own thoughts, as did Luxa. What was the queen saying? A new human who was also very pale. She suddenly had an image of Gregor, his dark trusses turned into a light golden color, his eyes the same shade as her own. It wasn't really the same, though, not the same friend that had gone so long ago.

She shook her head for real this time, trying to shake Gregor from her mind, he wasn't supposed to be in there, why was she so interested in him now?

"We will start our journey at once, Howard, please tell Vikus that our trip to the Crawlers' land will have to be postponed," he nodded, not speaking, a few years living with his cousin had taught him when she was being rational, and when she wasn't.

Luxa spun to the door, and proceeded to walk back to her room and pack her bag furiously, no longer caring if the clothing was folded neatly, not caring to take out the fancy dresses she had been packing before, for the meeting with the Crawlers. SHe just packed her normal practice wear, and light battle armor, just incase it was needed. She smiled thinking of all the times that she had snuck out with Henry, Ares, Aurora,... Gregor.

"Argh!" Luxa screamed and smushed her face into a couch pillow. Hazard came in just then with Ithaca, a girl from the city's school. He had been attending it and tutoring for the past three years, Luxa had not liked the idea, but Vikus, had expressed his feeling that Hazard might want a connection to other kids his age.

"Luxa?" he asked, his face was twisted in concern for his sister, as she slowly lifted her head from the pillow to look at him, she looked at Ithaca who was blushing madly, at seeing the future queen this way, then smashed her head back down on the pillow. She felt Hazard sit beside her and remembered of when he was still only seven, now he was taller, his hair was longer, and his eyes were still the ever lasting lime green.

"Yes, Haz?" she replied. She looked up at him again.

"I just heard you scream and I wanted to know if you were Ok," he said, frowning.

"Yes, I am fine, thanks," she turned to Ithaca, "if you would like to stay the night you can sleep in my room, I'm going to on a..." Luxa looked at Hazard, "On a.. Trip tomorrow," she finished. He frowned, while the pretty girl beside him nodded gratefully, "Thank you so much, Que- I am sorry, I mean, Luxa!" she said brightly, she always seemed to forget that Luxa had told her it was Ok to not call her Queen now that she knew her and was friends with Hazard.

Hazard whispered something in Ithaca's ear, and she nodded, leaving to go into his room. He turned back to Luxa on the couch, now looking up at the ceiling, her long, silvery hair falling across her face. It wasn't nearly as long as it had been before... the prophecies, but it had been growing for a while now, it was just about down to the bottom of her shoulder blades.

"What is going on?" he asked her urgently in a hushed tone, "Why are you so distressed? You're just going to visit the Crawlers!" he stood up and started to pace the room.

"No, Hazard, I am not," she said with a sigh, "there is news of a new Overlander," Hazard's face filled with shock,and then with awe and wonder.

"What do you do when there's a new Overlander? Can I meet him? Where is he?" He asked her in an excited rush.

"That," Luxa sighed, "would be the problem Hazard, we do not know where he is," she shook her head,"But he is still a human, and we must find him before another creature does." The boy in front of her nodded, his black curls bouncing into his face, she had never been able to tame them, so many years in the jungle had kept the wild, even in Regalia. He had grown up so fast, it seemed only last summer that he had been following her around like a puppy. It wasn't fair she thought, everything here reminded her of something she couldn't have! With that she stuffed her face back into the pillow. Hazard left a little while later.

A while later she awoke to the sound of nails scratching up the floors-again-quietly, trying to sneak in. Luxa lifted her head, "Ripred, from where do you come?"

She asked, not even bothering to turn her head, he was her bond, yes, but he would likely do the same for her.

"Oh," Ripred sighed, "I was out getting a midnight snack, you know your Highness, I thought I might go and get one of your nibbler friends, but I figured it might upset you, so," he was now lounging on the plush couch opposite to her, "I settled for my favorite," he belched and the pungent smell of shrimp in cream sauce wafted over to Luxa.

"Lovely, Ripred, lovely," She groaned, pulling herself up to sit properly on the couch, "Now, where were you for the rest of your time out in the dark?" she asked the giant rat.

"Well," he said shifting on the couch as if to get in a more comfortable position to tell a long story, "I decided, after hearing of the new Overlander,-news travels fast here you know-that I would try and help you find the boy, now, I wasn't sure it was a boy at first, but there was this one sniff in the general direction of the land between the Firelands and the Jungle, so, I figured, why not take a look?" he leaned back into the couch, while Luxa waited for more eagerly.

"And Ripred? What did you find?" she asked, thinking that if he had already found the boy then it would be incredibly easy to greet him and then pack up and go to the Crawlers.

"Uh, uh, uh" Ripred said shaking his head, "What do we say when we ask for more from a nice rat like Ripred?"

Luxa gritted her teeth, "Tell me now, Ripred,"

"I don't think sooo!" He taunted, "You have to say !" He grinned a sharp, pointy toothed grin and closed his eyes leisurely.

"Please tell me what you have found, Ripred." Luxa huffed moodily.

"Well, as I started toward the smell, another small, but very warm breeze, courtesy of the Jungle, blew my way, and I could smell the wonderful aroma of Overland bakeries." He sighed laying back down onto the couch and took a deep sniff, as if hoping that he would be able to smell the bakeries again.

"An Overland bakery?" Asked Luxa, who had never smelled, or in fact seen the Overland. Ever.

"Maybe I'll send one of the Over Rats to pick up one of their buns for you," he said as a way of reply, but Luxa mad a face, she had absolutely no intention of eating something brought to her by a rat, it was insanitary.

"See," said Ripred, opening his eyes and looking back over at the teen, "that is quite offensive, we rats do clean ourselves you do know. You reek of disgust, but if you insist, I'll eat the bun," he put his head back down and started to fall asleep, but as an after thought he added, "Start packing your majesty," I think you and I should go on a little picnic tomorrow." And the rat fell asleep again.

Luxa sighed and once again, resumed the task of packing her things, not bothering to take out what had already been packed. She put in more suitable clothing for traveling though this time.

Later, the next morning, Luxa woke in her own, warm bed, and then proceeded to roll over and burry herself back into the sheets and pillows, trying to get back to sleep. "I know you're awake!" Called Ripred from the main room, "Don't think that I don't know you're awake!" Luxa gave as a reply an unhappy groan.

The big rat sauntered into the room, appearing quiet awake, "We start our little picnic in five hours, after you have that council meeting with the 'United Creatures of Hope' and say bye to Hazard." Ripred spat out, he was still in denial about not being chosen for the, "United Creatures of Hope," which was what he called them, "so get off your lazy behind and get ready for a full day!" The rat said changing his tone to extreme cheeriness.

Luxa just groaned and flopped back over in bed, she had never really been a morning person anyway.

I found when I looked back over it, this chapter didn't actually need altering, because I already put in what I had needed to. So that made me happy, and because I am lazy and don't feel like extending it, I will leave this chapter to just stay the way it is and start on the next chapter! (;

Later,

Luxa