Woot woot! Over 1,200 hits to this story! Thank you everyone!! As promised here is another chapter, and the wait wasn't super long this time!

I do not own the Underland Chronicles or any of its characters. I own the plot in my story, and Eric.

Oh and thank you Alice! (ILikeAres) Your like the most awesomest beta ever!! You always help me so much in my chapters. YOU ROCK!

Chapter Ten

Howard turned around after watching Luxa leave and faced Gregor with an icy stare that chilled him to the bone.

"Listen, Overlander, this was completely unacceptable, I wi—," Howard started, but was cut off by Gregor's scared yet defensive voice.

"Howard, listen to me! Nothing happened; we were just talking last night and we both accidentally fell asleep!"

Howard gave Gregor a look that silenced him. "Do not interrupt me, Overlander! I believe that you and Luxa did not partake in any…actions. Mostly because I know that she would never do such a thing, but it is not acceptable for the warrior and the queen to fraternize that way. Whenever I turn my back, it seems that you two are engaging in some sort of act of affection and it must stop!"

"But Howard," Gregor interrupted again, a little more aggressively this time, "Luxa and I love each other and you can't keep us apart!"

Howard sighed and put his hand on his forehead, "Gregor, listen to me. You may love each other, but it could never work out. It would destroy our monarchy if you came in. The royal blood would be carried on through Halflanders, and most of our people would not agree to be led by them."

Gregor blushed when Howard talked about Halflanders. He knew he was in love with Luxa, but he never even thought about…kids. He was just twelve…no, thirteen years old now. It was way too soon to be thinking about kids. Although he didn't know about what age Underlanders thought was okay to have kids; in fact, he didn't even know what age Underlanders would consider too early to marry.

"Also," Howard continued, "the council would go insane, I'm afraid that if Regalia was led by Halflanders, a rebellion would soon come. The council, and the people of Regalia want the blood line to stay pure. I'm sorry, Gregor, but you see, it would never work." Howard said, starting to change his look from an icy glare to more of a worried and stressed look.

"Howard, Luxa and I don't care what the council thinks, or what other people think! We love each other and we aren't going to let a bunch people stop us just because they don't want an Overlander and Underlander together!" Gregor retorted.

"Gregor! Do you not understand?! If you and Luxa were to be together, our monarchy, our royal bloodline, would fall apart!" Howard said, somewhat harshly. "From now on, I will have someone supervising you and Luxa at all times. I do not want any more fraternization between you two!" Howard finished. "Now it is time for breakfast; I suggest you hurry down and eat, you have training with Ripred right after it."

"But Howard," Gregor began, throwing his hands up.

"I will not have it, Gregor," Howard cut him off. "Now you must go and eat breakfast."

"Howard—," Gregor tried again, but the seventeen-year-old Underlander waved a warning hand to cut him off, then pointed at the curtained doorway, sending him off to breakfast.

- - -

At breakfast, Howard had made Gregor sit a few seats away from Luxa, and they all began eating. Gregor, who was used to cold cereal, was surprised at the surplus of fresh baked foods they had on the table. He realized though that they probably had no idea what cereal was since they had cooks ready to make fresh meals every day. There was fish, the usual meat they had, some special doughy pastries, similar to biscuits only much sweeter; they also had bread rolls and some sort of gravy to dip them in, and yet again, some milk from some sort of giant underground animal. The food was good though, and Gregor ate a lot, knowing he was going to need the energy for training with Ripred.

After Gregor was finished eating, he pushed back from the table and wiped his mouth with a white napkin. He announced he was going to train with Ripred and was responded to with a chorus of good-byes.

Gregor made his way down an empty hallway, admiring larger-than-life sized paintings of who he assumed were the previous kings and queens of Regalia. A woman with long, wavy silver hair and a bejeweled gold crown sat on a velvety-looking red throne in one painting; in another Gregor could see a man with a long mustache and droopy, almost blue eyes. Maybe he had been an earlier king since his eyes were hardly violet. Other pictures of the like hung large and proud on the stone walls. Gregor smiled, thinking soon enough a painting of Luxa would be up there, following the trend.

Gregor was interrupted by the sound of flapping and wind. He looked around and nearly bumped into Eric. Gregor wanted to make a good first impression, so he grinned broadly, leaned a hand against the wall, and said, "Hey, man, how's it going?" in the most cheerful voice he could manage.

"Oh, hello there, Gregor! It goes well for me. Poseidon and I were just going down to the arena to train a little bit for the journey ahead of us."

"Poseidon?" Gregor asked.

"Oh, how rude of me. My apologies. Poseidon is my bond here."

"Greetings," said the bat with a small nod. Poseidon was a fairly short bat, but he was husky, strongly built for his height. He looked strong, but not very agile to Gregor. He was a pure black so deep that you could get lost just staring at his fur. Gregor figured he didn't talk much since that was all he had said the whole time that they were standing there. It made Gregor cringe a bit, though, because he was a lot like Ares. Both the way he looked, except smaller, and the way he probably didn't talk much.

"So, how long have you and Poseidon known each other?" Gregor asked.

"We have known each other since early childhood, probably about fourteen years or so. We became bonds four years, three months and twenty-one days ago," Eric replied without even thinking.

"Wow! That's incredible!" Gregor exclaimed. "How do you remember that so well?"

"Bonding is one of the most important days in an Underlander's life, after all," Eric explained. Eric and Poseidon smiled at each other.

Gregor cringed a bit again, thinking of Ares and himself. "It was really nice to talk to you, but I gotta go down to train with Ripred or else I'll be late, and he doesn't like it when I'm late. I'll see you around," Gregor said as he started to continue on his way.

"Yes, good-bye Gregor," Eric replied back as they continued on their way also. Gregor finally arrived at the giant stone door that led down to the room where he and Ripred trained.

He pushed aside the bars that locked to door and opened it. He started to ascended the cold stone steps. He had to switch to echolocation after going down about fifteen feet of the spiral stair case, because there were no torches. As he finished climbed down the stairs, he walked into the large circular room. "Ripred? You here?" Gregor asked loudly, wondering where the rat was. There was no answer. Gregor saw something moving quickly behind him with his echolocation, he quickly whirled around, but not quick enough, the thing leaped on him and pinned him to the ground.

"You've been losing your touch," Ripred snarled into Gregor's face. Gregor winced and gagged at Ripred's breath, which smelled like extremely old shrimp. He got off of Gregor and let him stand up. "Listen, pup, you have a lot of training to do, and you have to always be vigilant. We don't want to be ambushed by any enemies while we are out there."

"Okay, okay, I know," Gregor said, annoyed at Ripred's ambush and then his chiding. He felt like it was adding insult to injury, but he decided to let it go.

Both of them trained for hours in that room, working on echolocation, sword techniques, dodging, and defending. As usual, Gregor was weak on his left side, so Ripred decided to try something new. "Gregor, have you ever used a shield?" he asked. "I know you never got used to the dagger, but you need some way of protecting your left side, and I think a shield would do just the trick, but it will slow you down a little bit." Ripred ran up the stairs and came back about five minutes later with a kite shield, slightly smaller than most so it would fit Gregor.

"Now let's try again, this time use your shield to fend of my claws." Ripred said as he lunged for Gregor again. Gregor tried to defend himself, but when Ripred hit his small shield, it flew away. Gregor heard a clang, not too far away, signaling that the shield had hit the stone floor. Ripred's claw gashed a cut on Gregor's leg. Gregor winced, but grabbed his shield and tried again. This time when Ripred came at him, the shield flipped up and hit his chin, and Ripred's claw got his arm. Gregor stopped at sat down after that, rubbing his slightly bloody arm and his red chin, wincing. "Listen, Boy! You have to hold on tight to that shield! Don't let it budge in anyway!" Gregor got up and grabbed his shield from the ground, grumbling a little bit. Ripred came at him again, but this time Gregor held the shield tight and didn't let it budge. Ripred's claws hit the shield… hard, and he lost his footing and stumbled. Gregor took this chance and pointed the sword in Ripred's face. "Well done, 'Warrior', now we can start training for real." Ripred did a quick spin and knocked the sword off of Gregor's hand and came at him. All Gregor could do was use the shield with both hands and defend Ripred while backing up until he finally hit the wall, then Ripred made a huge swipe with his claw that dug into the shield and sent it flying away. "Don't get too cocky, pup; you still have a lot training to do," Ripred snorted. Gregor picked up his sword and shield and started again.

- - -

It was supper time, and everyone was heading up to the dining hall to eat. Ripred was the first one there and was waiting at the table. Everyone else came up at the usual time and took their places, everyone except Gregor. "Where is Gregor?" Luxa questioned Ripred. Ripred finished polishing a plate of food off then answered after smacking his lips.

"Gregor? Oh, he is in the hospital right now getting bandaged up. He definitely needs more practice, but I don't think we will have enough time; I got him many times with my claws and he tired quickly. We practiced straight through lunch." Just as he finished, Gregor came walking up, limping a little bit. He had small bandages all over his arms and legs where Ripred had got him with his claws. None of them were serious though. With a nod and a wave to Luxa, Gregor took his place and started eating ravenously. Luxa looked at him worriedly, but continued eating. Supper went on for a little while, mostly quiet with no one really talking much.

After the supper was finished, everyone going on the quest and Vikus stayed after in the room to talk about plans. They were going to leave in two more days. They were going to train on flying and flight maneuvers on their bats tomorrow, and the day after, they were going to train with swords and weapons on their bats. After that they would head out. The journey was expecting to take anywhere between four days to a week. Like they had stated before, Howard, Luxa, and Gregor would go on Nike, Aurora, and Luxio, of course, at first, Eric and Poseidon would take Luxa and Aurora's place. Temp would ride with someone on a bat, Ripred and Lapblood would run, Megara would carry supplies, and they had finally decided on a spinner. His name was Polko. It turns out that he was Gox's son. Gregor remembered Gox from his first journey. He had gotten split in half by a rat tail, and Gregor had always remembered him. They all decided to go to their quarters after that and get some much needed rest, except Gregor. He was going to go visit his mother first.

- - -

Eric entered his room and quickly closed to curtain-doors. He took the soft spider silk pillows on his bed and put them under his blanket to look like he was asleep there. He then went into a closet and pulled out some jet black silky clothing. He replaced his old white silk clothes with them and then he hopped out the high window to his room and landed on Poseidon's waiting back. The fall was cushioned by Poseidon's soft fur that matched Eric's jet black clothing. They took off flying away from Regalia, swiftly and quietly.

They kept flying, staying low to the ground, being sure not to be seen. Eric's black silk garments helped him blend in with his bat, Poseidon. They kept on flying, camouflaged by the dark caverns they were flying through. They finally reached a cave about six miles away. They slowed down and cautiously entered it. It seemed eerie, and even darker than all the other caves. They landed on the cold, hard ground and Eric hopped off of Poseidon. There were stalactites hanging on the ceiling, dripping water off onto the ground where small puddles were forming. It was cold and clammy inside as they continued. As they walked deeper into the cavern two pairs of sharp claws shot out of the shadows and grabbed both their necks.

"Stop! It is just Poseidon and me!" Eric struggled to gasp out with the large, bloodstained claws squeezing his neck. The claws released them both and a large rat emerged from the shadows. He was covered with scars, and patches of his shining silver fur were missing from massive injuries to him. "I have come with news about the warrior and the others. They are about to begin their journey. You can soon have your revenge upon them… King Gorger."