Well here I am with another chapter! Since I have no clue as as to what this chapter is going to be about, I think I may as well start the quest that we all know is coming one way or another, so expect that in the next few chapters! So, I have been thinking, and I have come to a conclusion that I may actually put multiple quests into this story , though I already have a few of them planned out, they it is not set in stone, so don't hope for multiple quests. So, I think I may finally have more of this story laid out, though it's more towards the very end of it all. It seems that, just like mazes, I'm working backwards here, starting at the end and working up until the beginning, it is awkward, but I seem to be able to think better that way. So as usual, all responses are encouraged and appreciated, so give me any and all thoughts on the story, good or bad! So I guess I will see you guys after the chapter, bye!

See you all later,

-Tytonic

Disclaimer: I do not own any of The Underland Chronicles, only the characters I make up and the plot itself.

Gregor and the War of the Myriapods

Chapter 12: The Monument

They sat in that position for quite some time before breaking apart for air. They knew they shouldn't kiss in public, but everybody was so focused on the Myriapod that nobody had noticed. They had both though thought that nobody had seen them. They thought this until out of the corner of their eyes, they both saw Zoey Staring at them. They both looked over at Zoey's miserable face, and both witnessed as she ran out of the room, tears streaming down her face.

Alex's Point of View

Alex had been looking over the Myriapod corpse, and he knew, just from looking at it that, that they were in some serious trouble, especially if these creatures out numbered them greatly. He let this thoughts wander. . .

His thoughts wandered over many things for a period of time, but he stopped and entered a state of deep though once his mind came over a sentence that he had heard just minutes ago.

Just minutes before. . .

"This meeting will continue in 3 days time, please grant us with your ideas for this upcoming war then, we will need every advantage we have against this new enemy" Said Luxa.

Back to current time. . .

That was it, he knew. She was right with what she said, they needed every advantage they could muster up.

Alex reached out his hand to touch the Myriapod. Recalling his blacksmith lessons (which he had enjoyed very much, and learned a lot from (he had gotten the knack of it very fast)), he ran his hand along the shell, and let is thoughts run wild.

"Yes, yes, this is perfect! It is to strong to damage, but it is just like diamond! You can't damage it with anything save itself!" Thought Alex, letting the newly discovered blacksmith side of him run free.

Alex continued to allow this line of though to run free, coming up with numerous ideas. This went on for a short period of time, though was cut off abruptly by the sound of loud sobs. Alex spun around just in time to see Zoey running out of the room, tears streaming down her face like a waterfall.

It seemed that Alex was not the only person that had heard, or seen this display of emotions. Every other head in the room turned just in time to see the female overlander running out of the room crying. The entire room had gone silent that instant, and once the loud footsteps of the girl running away quieted down enough, the entire room broke out into murmurs and whispers.

It seemed that everybody was asking the same question. Why had she burst out crying, and then ran out of the room so abruptly? It seemed that everybody was curious to know, but when everybody looked around, the only thing they could find was their beloved queen and warrior, looking just as confused, making it seem as if this display had interrupted a conversation on the matter of war strategies, or at least this is what it seemed like.

Alex, knowing his friend, could see right through the queen and warrior. He knew what they had been doing, and he knew that Zoey had seen this. Deep inside, Alex knew that Zoey had know that Gregor felt nothing for her, though it seemed she had only grown to accept this as a fact now.

Alex knew what he had to do, and he knew if he didn't, that she would sit in her room, crying, and wouldn't leave until somebody forced her to, or until she deemed necessary, which would be never.

Alex left his spot beside the over sized bug corpse (his spot was immediately filled by another underlander), and proceeded to follow the sound of footsteps and loud sobs.

Gregor's Point of View

Gregor just stood their dumbfounded. He knew he had hurt her very badly, that she had liked him so much. Despite this, Gregor knew it was bound to happen sometime, that Zoey would finally get the message that Gregor didn't like her the way she liked him. Gregor knew she would find out sometime, though he had never wanted her to find out like this. Gregor figured that he would deal with it later, because for now it seemed like he had more important matters to attend to.

"What was that all about?" Asked a puzzled Luxa.

"Well, you see, she has had a thing for me for a long time, though I don't feel the same for her. I think she only really accepted this as a fact now though" Responded Gregor.

"I am not surprised. When you got hit in the head by Ripred, she got very mad at me when I went to help you. She claimed that I am not to be trusted, and that you wouldn't want me to help you" Said Luxa.

"Well I just want to tell you that that isn't true, I trust you with my life" said Gregor.

"And you with mine" responded Luxa.

"Well I would kiss you know, but half of the people in the room are watching us, plus it seems some of the people are clearing out, and I want to see the enemy before I dive head first into the fire" Said Gregor.

Both Gregor and Luxa blushed at this comment, but once the red color dissipated, they both stood up and walked over to the Myriapod to get a good look at it. It seemed that Luxa had been to busy with work to actually see this beast (she had fought it before, though it was to fast to really get a good glimpse of it, plus they were kind of rushed to get away), so it seemed that she was just as curious as Gregor was.

Gregor and Luxa took a position around the middle of the beast. They could clearly see both the head and tail from this position. Gregor could see the clear concern flow right into Luxa, she had already know it was deadly, but seeing it in person made it seem so much worse then the words had describe it.

Gregor would have pulled her into an embrace in order to comfort her, and maybe dampen her worries, though the room was still full of people looking over the body, and talking about strategies that may help defeat this near unstoppable force.

Gregor looked over the entire body, looking for any weaknesses that he may be able to use against them, and evaluating the moves that would and wouldn't help him against this beast. He noticed the extremely shallow scratches that Ripred had caused. They were barely visible. What worried Gregor the most was that were Ripred had cut through to the neck, killing the beast, the shell was still several inches thick, around 5 (he could see this looking into the cut that Ripred had made). It seemed that the only reason it was able to be cut through was because it was softer, in order to allow the creature to move its head around.

"Gregor! Come, I must take you back to the hospital to check your injuries. If they are ok, you will be allowed to leave the hospital" Called Howard as he made his was through the small crowd towards Gregor.

Gregor followed Howard out, though upon glancing back, he caught the concerned violet eyes of the queen. He could see her eyes practically screaming at him telling him not to let Howard push him around. They both knew that Howard was going to have one of his famous "special" talks with Gregor about his relationship with Luxa.

Gregor made his way out of the room after Howard. Once they were out of the room, and also out of earshot, Howard stopped and turned around.

"Gregor, I need to talk to you about your relationship with my cousin" said Howard.

"Save yourself the words Howard, I don't give a damn what you think! It is of none of your concern how me and Luxa feel for each other, so lay off before I shove a sword up your ass!" Yelled Gregor at Howard. Gregor had never used swears lightly, so this was really saying something.

Gregor had at this point shoved Howard into the wall, and had his arm against Howard's neck. Gregor let off of Howard's neck and stormed off in the direction of the hospital. Gregor, using echolocation, could see Howard following after him. Once they got to the hospital, Gregor sat back down on his bed so that Howard could inspect whatever he had to with Gregor.

"Well, for the most part you are fine. I am releasing you from the hospital. You can go back to training if you wish, though be warned it will give you a large headache, but will not worsen your condition" said Howard.

Gregor did not respond, he simply slid off of the bed, and walked strait out of the room. He did not look back or thank Howard.

Gregor didn't know what to do now, he had a lot on his mind. He thought about this for a few moments, but found his head was to full of thoughts at the moment to really think strait, so he did what he always did in order to clear his mind, he went running.

Gregor had made his way over to the platform that lets you down out of the palace. When he got there he stepped onto the platform, and the guards hesitated a moment, but let it down, knowing not to mention that he should just use a flier. Everybody knew that it wouldn't work out to talk about that around him. Everybody knew the story of how the mighty warrior and his brave flier, Ares, killed the monster threatening all of the underland, and how Ares had lost his life in the process. Ares was an outcast when he entered battle. If he had come back, he would have lost the title of outcast, and he would have been highly respected as a hero. Now he was only spoken of in the stories parents told their children. The stories of how a mighty warrior from another land came and saved all of the underland from the clutches of evil.

Once the platform hit the ground, Gregor stepped off and began to walk to the arena. On his way he had to walk through several neighborhoods. In each and every place he went, he would receive cheers from people on the streets and outside their houses. He even saw a couple of kids throwing the ball back and forth, though the once kid saw Gregor and stared. The kid didn't notice the ball had been thrown back at him, and he got hit in the side of the head with it.

As Gregor was making his way to the arena, he could see with his echolocation, a man with a knife holding a young girl around his age up to the wall of a house. This scene was going on in one of the alleyways between houses, so nobody could see what was going on. Gregor took an abrupt turn into the alleyway the second he saw this scene. The man had no clue that Gregor was there, and definitely didn't expect Gregor to grab him by the arm and yank him out of the alleyway.

The man lost his balance and fallen to the ground. Everybody on the street (which was quite a lot, they were gathering in hopes of getting a glimpse of the legendary warrior) was presented with the scene on a man on his back holding a knife, and the warrior standing about 5 feet away, looking down on him.

The anger in the mans eyes disappeared the second he saw who his attacked was. It had been replaced with pure fear. The man quickly stood up and slid into a ready position. He was requesting a formal duel. Gregor, having no weapon, also slid into a ready position. Gregor had to give it to the man, either he was very brave, or really stupid, or both. The man clumsily charged at Gregor. Gregor spun around behind the man, which was extremely easy due to how slow the man was. With once quick jab to the neck, the man had fallen to the ground out cold. This whole display only took around half a second to play itself out.

Gregor picked the man up by the collar of his shirt and held him up. Gregor waited for a moment and then passed the limb body over to the guard who had come.

"Thank you, warrior, the crime rate in Regalia is very low, though we do have a few occasional crimes occur" Said the guard as he started off. The guard signaled to the girl who had been pinned on the wall to follow.

The girl was about to follow when she ran up to Gregor and planted a kiss on his cheek and whispered something into his ear.

"Thank you" whispered the girl. Gregor only nodded in response, though his expression did not change.

Gregor got many stares, though none were awkward, they were all looks of respect. By the time he had gotten to the arena, he had probably been walking for around half an hour. He let out a sigh of relief when he found that the arena was completely empty. He immediately began to run laps around the arena. He found a nice pace that he was sure he could maintain for at least an hour, and stuck to it. He began to let his thoughts run free, allowing anything to freely enter his head. Many many things flew into his head and out the other side, though none of the thoughts really concerned him. That was the case for around the next 40 minutes, that was until thoughts of what would happen after the war came into his head.

"Once it's all over. . . I will have to go hom- no, I can't consider the overland my home anymore, not after what I have seen, what I have done" thought Gregor.

"I will have to leave, I will have no choice. I will have to leave everybody again, I will have to leave Luxa. . . I can't leave her though, I can't leave her alone again, not again" thought Gregor.

"Gregor!" Yelled a voice from above.

Gregor didn't stop jogging, at least not until he saw who was calling to him. Once he saw who was calling, he jogged over to were they had landed.

"Hey Luxa, how it goi-" Said Gregor, getting cut off by Luxa throwing her arms around Gregor.

"Gregor! Why did you just leave without telling me? I'm still in the meeting and I get word that you saved a girl and caught a criminal!? I though you were going to come back to the meeting after your "checkup" with Howard!" Said Luxa, though she was very irritated.

"Yes, I just kind of felt like I really needed to clear my head" responded Gregor.

"Yes well, it seems that it doesn't matter now. What did Howard say about your condition?" Asked Luxa.

"Well I'm fine, though doing anything should give me a bad headache, though it will not worsen my condition" Responded Gregor.

"Good, because training starts in around 15 minutes" said Luxa.

"Well that is 15 minutes of free time" said Gregor.

"Yes, and I have something to show you, and I really think you will like it" said Luxa.

"Well let's see it then" Said Gregor.

Luxa grabbed his hand and led him over to were Aurora wait, and they both climbed up onto her back, Luxa in the back and Gregor in the front. They flew for a minute or 2 before Gregor felt them slowly gliding in for a landing. When they landed the first thing Gregor could see was what looked like a park of sorts.

"Come" said Luxa, as she grabbed his hand and began to pull him along.

They walked for a few moments, and Gregor had to admit, it was a very nice park. It had fountains and streams, though it didn't have any plants like central park, so it was mostly rock formations.

When they arrived at their destination, Gregor saw what he though he thought was why Luxa had brought him here. There was a statue. It was a perfect rendition of Gregor On Ares back, holding Sandwiches sword in his right hand. Luxa continued to walk over to the statue, and when she got to it, she let go of Gregor's hand and ran her hand over the words carved onto a golden jewel-decorated plaque. Gregor began to Read what it said.

Here lays Ares the flier

Bond of the Warrior

Savior of the Underland

May he rest in peace

-O-

Thank you Gregor

Thank you Ares

For all you have

sacrificed

we will always

remember you

Gregor had to admit it was not what he expected at all. He could feel tears begin to form at the corners of his eyes as he remembered Ares and the final moments with him.

"Gregor, I knew you wouldn't want to have him left were he died. I had this monument made a couple of days after you left. It took a lot of effort, but he is actually buried here, in the stone" Said Luxa.

Gregor was speechless. He didn't know what to say, so he said nothing. Gregor put both hands on either side of the plaque. He read the words over and over, ignoring the tears that were landing on them. Gregor could feel Luxa put her arms around him, and so he returned the gesture. They stayed like that for several minutes, and Gregor allowed himself to cry his eyes dry int hat time. Gregor very rarely cried these days. The only thing that could every make him cry was the memory of Ares, and how it was his call that caused the bats death.

Once Gregor had finished Crying his eyes out, he and Luxa proceeded back to the arena. Anybody that questioned why Gregor's eyes were red and puffy, quickly got shut up by a look that Luxa shot at them.

Training went as it usually did, though Luxa convinced Gregor not to spar against Ripred again, not until he was 100% better again, so he refrained from fighting Ripred, though Ripred wasn't happy about it.

Gregor knew that he wouldn't be able to win against Ripred with his condition, so instead he challenged Luxa to a spar. She had accepted, curious to see how long she would be able to last, though she knew that she had no hope of winning.

"Ready?" Asked Gregor as he slid into position.

"Indeed" said Luxa as she slid into position, and with that they began.

They circled each other for a few moments before Luxa went on the offensive. She began with a simple slice downward, though she purposely pointed the blade more horizontal then she should have, and coming up short, she thrust back upwards, in attempt into catch Gregor by surprise. When the sword finally came back up, it hit nothing but air, and left her completely exposed on all other sides. She quickly spun around to block the blow that would surely come. She brought up the sword to block nothing, and quickly realized that he was behind her once again. She slid the blade under her arm, thrusting the blade backwards. Again it hit nothing. This went on for another minute before she realized that he was playing with her, and could have killed her many times by now.

"Your holding back, you could have killed me many time over already" Said Luxa.

"Nonsense, I would never" said Gregor in a playful tone.

"Your turning into Ripred" Said Luxa

"Oh god, kill me now" Said Gregor.

"Well if you haven't noticed, that's what I've been trying to do" Said Luxa playfully, as she hit nothing but air once more.

"Oh, hmm, good point, well how much longer you willing to go?" Asked Gregor.

"I don't know, training ended 10 minutes ago, but you have made it clear that I can't beat you" Said Luxa.

"Yes, I'm getting kind of hungry, shall we go eat?" Asked Gregor.

"As soon as you beat m-" Said Luxa as she got cut off by the sword being held to her neck.

"Ok then, let's go eat" Said Gregor pulling away.

Gregor and Luxa had gone back to the palace to eat, and found that they were sparing for around an hour and a half. Gregor had found that he was left with free time for the rest of the day, though he was wiped since he had been sparing with Luxa for so long. It was around an hour after lunch when Gregor heard footsteps coming up to his door.

"Gregor, are you there?" Called an all to familiar voice.

"Yes, you can come in, Luxa" Responded Gregor.

"Gregor, you have. . . visitors waiting for you in highhall" Said Luxa.

Gregor had proceeded over to highhall immediately after he heard what Luxa had to say. When he and Luxa walked into highhall, they were both presented with 4 overlanders. A women, a man, a 7 year old girl, and an 11 year old girl.

"Mom, dad, Lizzie, boots?" Asked Gregor.

That took me soooo much longer then I expected. It just took me a full 7 hours to write that. I got so much writers block during this, so I'm wiped. I had expected to start the quest in this chapter, though I guess I still have a few more things to write before I throw Gregor jumps into the fire. Give me any and all ideas, since I'm sick of sitting at a computer for 7 hours strait in order to write only one chapter. As usual all responses are encouraged and appreciated, give me all the feedback you can muster up! See you guys later!

Fly you high,

-Tytonic

*CLICKCLICKCLICK*

*POOF*

Tytonic- Ok so what did you guys think of the chapter?

Gregor- well it was ok, though my parents are going to try to drag me back to the overland.

Luxa- oh please don't go!

Gregor- Don't worry, I wont go, not yet.

Tytonic- well thats not your call! Though for purpose of the story, I'm not going to send you home, I'm not that cruel, though I can be very cruel.

Gregor- you better not!

Tytonic- I wont I wont, though you the one behind bars not me, so it doesn't matter how mad you get now. So before I piss you off to much, see you later!

Luxa- Bye!

*Gregor ignored Tytonic*

*CLICKCLICKCLICK*

*POOF*

Tytonic- Uhhh, I'm getting bored at this computer.

R&R peeps,

-Tytonic