So, hey guys, and welcome back! First off, a lot of you guys seem to think that I have abandon the story. I am not abandoning this story, what type of author would I be if I didn't even finish my first story? Try not to worry guys, I wont abandon this story, and update at least once a week, despite any difficulties, otherwise I try to update at least two times a week. I know I was suppose to update a while ago, a few things came up. First, all of this week I had the biggest tests of the year, so I was basically dead when I got home each day. Also, the third book I'm one of my favorite series came out, and I finished it in one sitting. Started at 4, ended at 12. This series is amazing, and it's tied for number one on my 'top book series list', which happens to be The Underland Chronicles. It's name doesn't make it sound to good, but trust me, you will love it, if your like me. It's called The Undertakers By Ty Drago. Weird, right? Well it's not what it sounds like, it's really good, and I suggest that you all buy it, at least the first book. I actually did try to write this chapter on Thursday, but I didn't manage anything, my brain was dead from testing, so it gave me a really bad headache. So, about the question last chapter, Machine got the closest, once again! It seems he's always getting it xD. You'll all get the answer in the chapter. So, as usual, any and all feedback is encouraged and appreciated, see you guys later!
See ya'll later,
-Tytonic
-Update-
I wasn't really happy with this chapter, so I am rewriting most of it. I Know a lot of you want the next chapter, but that just can't happen right now. It should be up Friday-Sunday, though I will try to get it up Friday. Sorry for any inconvenience, but it's a story in progress, you can't expect for it not to go through stages, and major changes. See you guys later.
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 24: This is my Life
Gregor truthfully didn't have anywhere he needed to go, he just wanted to get out of that uncomfortable situation. Gregor went to his room, and dreaded what was going to come next when he saw who was waiting for him. The look she gave him, oh boy, if looks could kill.
"M-Mom?" Stuttered Gregor.
-O-
Gregor had not expected his mom to be here, he thought she was still on 'probation', that she wasn't allowed to go anywhere without permission from Luxa, and a guard. Unless. . . crap.
"Gregor honey, gather your things, we are leaving. . . Now." Demanded Gregor's mom.
"Mom, I don't think you understan-" Said Gregor calmly, before being cut off.
"I understand that this place almost killed my baby boy, multiple times. We. Are. Leaving. Now." Demanded Gregor's mom, once again.
She used that certain tone, the one that will get a parents child to whatever they were told. That would have worked, on the old Gregor. That Gregor never fought, never killed, was innocent. But no, that Gregor was gone, lost five years ago, the day he fell into that laundry grate. This Gregor, was a killer, a warrior, and certainly not innocent (at least not in the ethical category). He was not the same boy he used to be, that boy was lost, forever.
Gregor guessed that his mom had expected this tone to force Gregor to obey, because when he responded, she looked absolutely shocked.
"No." Said Gregor, using a stern, steeled voice.
"What?!" Shouted Gregor's mother.
"No." Repeated Gregor, using the same tone.
"What do you mean no?! I am your mother, you can't just openly defy me! Now come, we are leaving!" Shouted Gregor's mom.
It used to terrify Gregor when she got like this.
Used to.
Turns out, when you fight twelve foot tall wight rats and have your chest ripped open, fight in wars, and fall in love, only to be forced apart for four years, your perception of fear drastically changes.
Gregor didn't say, or do anything. He would have mouthed back, he wasn't the push-over 12 year old he used to be, but he didn't want his moms yelling to wake anymore of the underland than it already had. His mom did not like the was he just stood there, not responding.
His mom glared holes right through him. Gregor didn't return the glare. Instead, he held the 'no matter what you do, or how you do it, you will never change my mind' look on his face. This served as an active weapon, shattering his mothers defense. He watched as her structure crumbled before him.
"Why are you doing this? This place is destroying our family! It has almost killed us all, and it made my baby boy a killer! Don't ruin your future, Gregor, just come back to your life!" Begged Gregor's mom.
This had been a battle of the wills, who would out-last the other, who had the strongest desire. Gregor's desire to stay in the underland, or his moms false dream of their family living a normal life. Gregor had just won this battle.
"This is my life." Said Gregor, putting emphasis on the 'is'.
Gregor turned and left the room. If he had stayed a second longer, or looked back, he would have seen the tear that began to roll down his mother's cheek.
Gregor realized that he still had no clue what time it was, so he decided to ask a random human that he happened to pass at the end of the hallway his room was in. He discovered that it was almost lunchtime, so training was currently underway.
Being warrior, he needed to keep his skills sharp, so he headed to highhall, were he would then proceed to the arena. He arrived within a few minutes, receiving more thankful looks from anybody he saw; he did save all of Regalia, after all.
Gregor whistled for Chronos, though he assumed that Chronos was helping out with cleaning up the battle field. There were very few survivors, note why the hospital wasn't filled to the brim. If you had been hit, you were killed.
Gregor's train of thought was confirmed when a medium sized brown and gray bat landed in front of him rather than Chronos. The bat explained to Gregor that Chronos, being larger then the average flier, was required to help cleanup from the battle.
Gregor understood, and allowed this flier to take him to the arena. The flier attempted to initiate a few conversations with Gregor, but he was still shaken up from his encounter with his mother. He may have seemed calm during the 'encounter', but he was boiling on the inside. He really needed to let off some steam, note why he was heading to the arena.
When they arrived at the arena, Gregor was slightly surprised by what he saw. Nothing. He saw absolutely nothing, not a single soldier training. Despite this, Gregor slid off of the flier, and headed over the storage area. He had seen soldiers dragging stuff into the room when training ended, so he assumed he could find something there.
He had assumed correct. When he entered the room, he found it full of everything you could think off to train. He found dummies, blood ball cannons, archery targets, underland equivalent to weights, even hurdles for running. Gregor went through all of this carefully, looking for the perfect thing to train with.
After Gregor's third round through the stuff, he decided that a simple training dummy would be best for his current need, blowing off some steam. He dragged the dummy out into the center of the arena with a little difficulty; it had to have weighed around 200-300 pounds. Gregor positioned it so that it was facing him. He noticed that's the weak spots were painted a dull red color. Spots such as the neck, paths into the heart, and major arteries.
Gregor simply needed to let out all of his emotions, relive the stress that has been building up inside of him. So he let go of his rager side. He didn't bother to control it, he let it run wild, and run wild it did.
If the target had been a real person, they would have been dead in the blink of an eye. He moved to fast for his movements to be read, and the dummy took it all. It was slash after slash, stab after stab, and within seconds, the dummy had enough rips and tears on it that, had it been a real person, they would have died dozens of times over.
Gregor kept up this act until the dummy was falling apart, literally. Pieces and chunks of it were beginning to fall to the ground, not to mention that it's right hand was nowhere to be found. Gregor began to clean up bits of the dummy, putting them all in a pile so that they would be easier to clean up later. Gregor became aware of a figure coming up on him; it was around 30 meters away, close enough to pick up with echolocation, but to far to distinguish anything, just that it was a figure, probably over 6 feet tall. He decided to act as if he was not aware of it, see if it was just a passer-by, or a real threat. He tossed it under the category of 'mangy rat' once it got close enough to distinguish.
Ripred. Of all people, it had to be Ripred. Gregor was not in the mood for this, he had enough to deal with as is; the last thing he needed was a few more snarky comments shoved down his throat.
"What do you want Ripred, I'm not in the mood right now." Questioned Gregor.
"Your echolocation is rusty, you need to work on it. Usual place, ten minutes." Said Ripred, turning to leave.
"I'm not in the mood right now, my echolocation is fine anyway" Responded Gregor.
Ripred snorted, "And how much do you think you will be depending on echolocation in slasher land? Come on boy, the queen is to stubborn to train. She will actually listen to you, she doesn't let me boss her around, which is, in reality, the only way she will learn anything."
"Luxa is going to be there to? Why, isn't she busy, you know, being queen?" Asked Gregor.
"The sniveling pup insisted that I teach her echolocation. I told her it would be useless to her, but, as you know, that's far from the truth. She lives here, in darkness, all the time. It would almost be more valuable to her then it would be to you." Responded Rirped.
Gregor didn't need to respond, so instead he just let out a whistle, and waited for the substitute flier to arrive. Ripred stalked off into the shadows, though Gregor could 'see' right through them; made the whole scene less dramatic.
It took a minute or two for the flier to arrive, and when it did, Gregor clambered up onto it's back. The two exchanged no words as they flew to the palace. It was extremely awkward, getting so used to one flier, and then shifting unexpectedly to another flier, one which was a complete stranger.
This flier was much slower then Chronos, so it took almost four minutes to get the the palace, compared to Chronos, hitting a two minute average. This bat could probably nick two minutes is it rushed, but Chronos could hit a whopping thirty to forty five seconds if he went full speed.
Once they arrived in highhall, Gregor practically leaped off of the fliers back, and set off towards the cave beneath the palace, or in other terms, the 'usual place'. It took him a few more minutes to make his way there. It's funny how it takes only few minutes to go from place to place in this city. It can be convenient at times, and horrible at other times (Middle of the night, about to piss your pants, and the bathroom is only five minutes away! How convenient!).
Gregor arrived, and opened the giant stone door as quietly as possible, and slid in. He shut the door behind him, and quietly made his way deeper int the cave. It was weird how Gregor would describe this as entering a cave; weren't they already in one giant cave?
It took Gregor a few moments to gain his bearing, where he then continued in the pitch darkness, yet still able to 'see' everything. It hadn't been twenty seconds when Gregor began to hear soft clicks, human clicks. He hadn't been using clicks, only his breathing, so these lit the entire place up like a flare for him. He could hear Ripred and Luxa arguing up ahead, such sweet and pleasant sounds.
"This isn't working! They don't sound different at all!" Growled Luxa, frustrated.
Gregor knew exactly what she felt right now.
"Then keep trying! The other brainless pup could do it, so you can do it to, now keep trying." Snarled Ripred. When he had said 'brainless pup' he had pointed at Gregor, though it was to dark for Luxa to see, so she still didn't know he was in there to.
After a few more failed attempts, Luxa huffed. "Can we not just wait for Gregor? He would do a much better job at teaching me this!"
"Maybe, but until he is here, your stuck with the mangy rat. Deal with it." Replied Ripred.
Luxa's frustration was kind of funny, but Gregor managed not to laugh, giggle, none of that; he didn't want Luxa to know he was there, he wanted to mess with her first.
Luxa huffed again, and began to click one more. Gregor put his finger in his mouth, and covered it in saliva. He took that finger, and placed it on the back of Luxa's neck, lightly. She visibly shivered and moved forward a step or two.
"Ripred, that's not funny, just gross." Luxa hissed.
"That wasn't me." Ripred replied, from the opposite side of the room, far from Luxa's neck.
"Then what is slimy on the back of my neck?" Asked Luxa.
Gregor responded by flicking the end of her hair, which he only now noticed was cut short. Probably in because of the previous battle with the slashers.
"Ripred, I'm not kidding, stop." Luxa said.
"What?" Questioned Ripred.
"Don't play stupid with me, you know what." Said Luxa.
"Your right, I do, but it doesn't matter. Keep clicking." responded Ripred.
Luxa huffed, again, and began to click. After a few more clicks, she let out a soft growl of frustration. Time for Mr. Overlander to see how good of a teacher he is. On the next click, Gregor put his hand in front of Luxa's moth, about an inch or two away.
"Wait, that sounded different. It sounded like something is in front of my face." Explained Luxa.
"That's because my hand was in front of your face. Listen for the echo, not the sound itself. You can't actually tell anything from the initial sound, it's the echo that you hear. It will sound closer or farther depending on what is in front of you." Gregor finally spoke out. "Now try, just ignore the sound, listen for the echo."
"Gregor? How long have you been in here?" Luxa asked.
"A few minutes, give or take. I've been screwing with you the whole time, I've been a few feet away the entire time." Gregor responded.
"That was you? Remind me to lock you up later." Said Luxa.
"Will do. Now seriously, start clicking." Responded Gregor.
Luxa did just that. The next hour dragged on, and Luxa made no progress. She could, however, tell if something was right in front of her or not, like Gregor's hand had been. Slow progress, but steady. Hey, it beats getting locked up in a dungeon like Gregor had been.
After their little picnic down in the cave, the three made their way out (Luxa held Gregor's hand so she wouldn't get lost, since it was pitch black) and to highhall, where they had apparently missed luncheon all together. No problem. All it took was Ripred growling at a servant, and minutes later the servant came back with food, 70% of that food being shrimp and cream sauce. Figures.
It was only about half way through luncheon that Zoey sprinted into the room, and up to Gregor. Everybody looked confused, she had been at Alex's side for a while now, why would she suddenly leave?
"Gregor, come quick!" Said Zoey, grabbing Gregor's arm, attempting to pull him.
"What is it?" Asked Gregor curiously.
Zoey's eye sparked. "It's Alex, he just woke up!"
Not the greatest of endings, but hey, it is what it is. While I was writing this chapter, I got more reviews. I got a couple more calling me a quitter for not updating, and then cursing a lot. I denied both of these, so neither of them will be shown. I allow hate and cursing in reviews, but not hate and cursing together. As this chapter shows you, I am not abandoning this story. I am really starting to have trouble writing this stuff; I'm getting to eager for the ending, even though I already know what all will happen. When I try to brainstorm for this story, I end up with ideas for my sequels, and for a book I am planning on writing (It won't be posted anywhere, I am going to try to get it published when it is done! I will tell you all about that when the time comes), so I have trouble planning more for this story. All I have left to plan is the quest itself, and I have the end of the quest planned already. I'm sorry to say, but this story may only take 4-5 more chapters to finish! As usual, all feedback is encouraged and appreciated, so give me any and all ideas! See you guys later!
See you peeps later,
-Tytonic
Question: Since the council says that Luxa can't go on the quest, what will happen? I want specifics here, and remember, Aurora is down for the count, so no sneaking away on her.
*CLICKCLICKCLICK*
*POOF*
Tytonic: So, how was the chapter guys?
Gregor: Really? I'm about to see Alex again, you have terrible timing!
Tytonic: Yes really, and I happen to have great timing, I purposely chose that moment.
Gregor: You have got to be cold blooded, your abnormally cruel
Tytonic: I'm abnormal? And what, your normal?
Gregor: I. . . Well. . . Yes, compared to you.
Tytonic: In what way?
Gregor: I don't sit at a computer typing all day, making other people's lives miserable.
Tytonic: Very inaccurate description you got there, I don't sit at a computer all day, only like 5-6 hours every couple days. Plus, if it were not for me, none of this would be happening to you, you would still be stuck in the overland, miserable.
*Gregor huffs*
Tytonic: Silent treatment? Okay, have it your way.
*CLICKCLICKCLICK*
*POOF*
Tytonic: I swear this little 'post-chapter chat' thing is turning my hair gray.
Until next time,
-Tytonic