Ohmymothertruckinggod. You have no idea how embarrassed I am right now. I promise I'll make that huge gap up to all of you wonderful readers. I was framed and got a referral for something stupid that resulted in my laptop being taken away. To tell the truth I got it back a few days ago, but I dimwittedly used it to watch Netflix instead to find out that season three of Kickin' It was on there. Yes, I'm in middle school and I have an obsession with Kick. So of course I watched all the episodes in one sitting only to shed a tear in the last episode. Freaking. No. Why did I tell you this? Because as my sincerest apology I will be writing more. Yes, you read correctly, more. It will either be of: 1. The aftermath of Kickin' It. 2. Oneshots from Star Crossed. 3. The Hunger Games (The Capitol children as the victims like book 3 suggests.) 4. Oneshots with Simon and Iz (Mortal Instruments, and them because honestly the actor that played Jace in the first movie looked like a drug addict and therefor ruined 'Clace' for me.) OR 5. Something from a book series/movie/show that hopefully I watched. (Note: I am not a Whovian, watcher of Supernatural, or a brony/pegisister.)
Gregor didn't remember falling asleep, or even laying with Luxa, but here he stirred in the darkness of the cavern with the sleeping queen resting against his side. He bit his lip in order to keep himself from letting out a chuckle. Sleeping next to him, with her head on his shoulder, mouth agape, and arms lazily draped to the ground, was his tightly wound queen. Gregor had his arms and legs crossed while his ear lightly rested against her pale hair and the back of his head lay against the smooth cave wall. Quietly, he clicked his tongue to view the room once more—The remaining few embers of the once brightly burning torch were now just barely glinting any light.
The sound nimbly reflected off the walls, and ventured just feet outside the exit before bouncing off a large creature and pinging back to Gregor. Too panicked to click his tongue again, he lurched forward to stand. Numbly forgetting Luxa was fast asleep leaning on him, so she then slipped, and started to fall towards the solid ground. Gregor, too shocked to even move again, stared wide-eyed as she rapidly approached the unforgiving stone.
Gregor was already starting to run through his head what he would say to Vikus when Luxa whipped her arms out to brace her fall in the last moments. He had little time to react with even a relieved exhale when she then rolled to the ground, and sprang back up, then started flailing her fists wildly in the dark. Overcoming his mini-heart attack, Gregor swiftly lifted a hand to grasp one of her wrists. Then, using her moment of being stunned, he smoothly pulled it over to lock the remaining wrist in his middle and index finger. Gregor pulled her closer so that he could whisper in her ear without potentially being heard by the thing outside. Or rather; outside the cave.
"Don't make a sound." He murmured as best he could without his voice cracking from adrenaline from his sudden spike of fear. If he were to fight, could he? The tension in the air around them vanished, as Luxa must have recognized his voice.
"Overlander, what is going on? Why are you—" She stepped forward as Gregor released his careful grasp, but he cut her off.
"Later, I promise, but right now we have bigger problems." He looked over his shoulder instinctively as if somebody was watching them, but of course nobody could considering the pitch black darkness was enveloping them in such a manner that Gregor could just barely see the faint glow of Luxa's pale hair.
The short ruffle of what he assumed was a result of Luxa nodding her head and the skin rubbing against the smooth fabric was what Gregor took as a signal to lead on. After grabbing one of her hands once more, and having to switch to her opposite hand on account of the angles making it awkward to walk with, she laced her fingers into his in a subtle sign of encouragement.
If Gregor knew what he was about to face, he would have needed an entire embrace from Luxa.
Slowly, they broadly stepped and made their way towards the tunnel that led to the entrance. Before leaving Gregor slid his foot against the ground to get one final 'look' at the place with his echolocation. He squeezed Luxa's hand once to let her know he was going to be moving forward, and she gently tugged back in response.
Wait a minute, Gregor thought as the cave mouth started to broaden, it's no predator it's—
"Pups and your mushy love stuff."
Ripred. It just had to be Ripred. But of course it was. There sitting on his hind legs, leaning back as if he hadn't caused the two of them multiple panic attacks, and nonchalantly gnawing a rather large bone into a point was the good for nothing rat.
"Holy shit," Gregor started to threaten the old, scarred, rat. Releasing Luxa's hand—Leaving her momentarily in the dark, which of course he would apologize for at a later time. He began to take a few steps towards Ripred, but was intercepted by another gnawer who promptly bared his two incisors and puffed up his pelt.
"Slashtongue, back off." Ripred's bone he was chewing on broke in half, and he flicked away one half. Leaving the larger piece for him to throw into his mouth, chew into bite-sized pieces with his molars, and spit out onto the floor. Gregor realized this action to be Ripred's form of showing his dominance over the other gnawer.
The new rat, Slashtongue, smoothed its pelt down, and loped over to stand at Ripred's side. Then, with a muffled grunt, he, or she, lifted their forelegs off the ground to lean back on their hind haunches as Ripred was. Slashtongue was roughly a foot shorter than Ripred. As for how old they were, Gregor could not even hope to guess. With a concealed shudder, he remembered how swiftly Bane had grown in just a few short months.
"Are you going to introduce yourself, pup?" Ripred turned to face him, or her, Gregor hoped to find out soon.
"Yes, Father." A garbled voice sounded from the smaller rat. That alone was enough to make Gregor freeze. His entire being was in a state of confusion of whether or not to laugh at the fact that Ripred was even capable of being a father, or remain quiet to determine the gender of his pup.
"I am Slashtongue, or if you're sense of humor his remotely like Ripred's, you'll probably end up calling me 'Notongue,' or 'Mangledmouth.'" Slashtongue's voice seethed with sarcasm. That is, the little voice he had. Most of any sound uttered from the gnawer's mouth was absorbed with the sound of slurping from it attempting to keep in all it's saliva or the clicking of it's uneven teeth.
"You mean neither of those are your name?" Ripred looked away; pretending to be hurt.
"I, um, didn't mean it like that, Father." Slashtongue looked down in shame, "You can… You can still call me those if you'd like."
"Easily guilt tripped, yet one hell of a fighter." Ripred shook his head and let out a sound that vaguely resembled a 'tsk.'
"Sorry…"
"I guess the strange combination creates character, or whatever, so I guess if I wanted uniqueness you'd be my favorite son." The larger rat lifted a claw to the bottom of his own muzzle as if scratching a beard.
"I'm your only son." Slashtongue looked over, but was so focused on Ripred that he forgot to suck in that last strand of spit, and caused a string of it to hit the floor with a vile 'splat.'
"Right. It's easy to forget that Sharpear isn't a male." This must have been funny to the both of him, because it caused a few snorts of amusement to escape both of them.
"Why did you bring me along anyways, and not her?" Slashtongue tilted his head in curiosity, once more causing thick, gooey, saliva to roll out.
"It was only right to bring all the known ragers together." Ripred nodded once before turning to where Luxa stand in shock. The poor queen could probably only hear the wicked sounds coming from Slashtongue. "I guess it's alright that the queen of Regalia be present as well."