Thank you everyone for all the reviews! So sorry about not posting, I've been really busy lately hope this makes up for it!
The fliers flew up near the ceiling of the cavern so they wouldn't get stung. The stingers were sitting right in front of the entry to where the Bane was last seen. How were they to get through them?
Ripred dangled at the end of the flier's harnesses, only a few feet away from the poised stinger of a giant scorpion. He glanced anxiously up at Gregor, but didn't say a word, knowing his voice would be shaky.
"What are we to do?" Luxa called to Mareth.
"There isn't a way to get through them, we must negotiate!" Mareth replied.
A few clicks were exchanged between the scorpions. What were they saying? One twitched its tail and Ripred wrapped his paws around his harness, trying to get as far away from them as possible. Everyone was shouting things to each other and Gregor couldn't keep his mind straight.
"Temp speaks to stingers, yes?" Temp asked from behind Gregor.
"Wait, you can talk to them?" Gregor asked.
"Try, yes, try I can," Temp replied.
"Hey, Mareth!" Gregor called to Mareth who was yelling across to Howard.
"Why don't we feed Henry to them!" Ripred yelled up to the group.
Henry? Gregor totally forgot Henry had come with them because Mareth didn't want him alone in the palace. Gregor looked over at Mace who had Henry on his back. Henry looked startled; he knew that the group would be willing to feed him to the scorpions if they had to.
"No! Temp can speak to them!" Gregor called out.
Mareth looked over to Temp, "Can you?"
"Yes, try I can." Temp replied.
"Then start trying," Mareth said.
Temp let out a high pitched squeal just as the first scorpion had poised its tail to hit Ripred. It glanced up at Temp and clicked back. The two scorpions and Temp clicked and squeaked to each other for a few minutes, and then Temp turned to Gregor.
"We can pass, yes. Yes them startled, startled yes." Temp said.
"They said we can pass! But they are startled so we might want to be careful!" Gregor yelled to Mareth.
Mareth looked down at the two scorpions; they were clicking to each other. Mareth nodded his head and he and Andromeda slowly descended, staying clear of the large stingers. They flew into a large tunnel that was behind the scorpions. The rest of the group flew into the tunnel. Ripred passed the scorpions and they flicked their tails at him. Ripred jumped and a hm-hm-hm sounds came from the scorpions. Ripred hissed at them as he went into the tunnel.
The tunnel had high walls and a high ceiling so the fliers could fly easily. The group flew through the tunnel until it ended into a large, smoky cavern. Mareth called the group down to dismount. Ares landed and Gregor got off and went to help Ripred out of his harness. As he walked, ash flew up into his face, but didn't get through his mask of bandage wrap.
Gregor unclipped Ripred from his harness and Ripred hopped down, then Luxa helped the two fliers out of their harnesses. Ripred shook off some ash that had fallen on his shoulder. "Isn't this place just fantastic," he said sarcastically. "Now, where would a party of rats take a pup?"
"We must eat before we move again Ripred," Mareth told.
"Well, right after, we find my pup," Ripred hissed.
Mareth and Howard unstrapped all of the fliers as Gregor and Luxa made the food. Ripred paced in front of the opening to the cavern, flicking his tail and scratching his chin, and muttering to himself. Gregor finished his last sandwich and let Boots pass them out, but she passed Henry because he scared her. Ripred began to dig around in the food basket looking for any shrimp in cream sauce.
"Ripred, I made you a sandwich, you don't have to eat all the cream sauce," Gregor said as he handed Ripred two sandwiches.
Ripred glared at him and snatched the sandwiches out of his hand, then popped both of them in his mouth. "I wasn't going to eat all of it."
Gregor sat down next to Ares and ate his sandwich. Henry was across the tunnel leaning up against the wall, glaring at the two of them. Ares pinned his ears back against his head and hissed at Henry, then sat in front of Gregor, his back facing Henry. Henry let out an eerie chuckle.
"You can't let him get to you Ares," Gregor said.
"I'm not, I just hate him. I want to kill him," Ares muttered.
"Well, maybe you'll get the chance. But right now we need him, he would make good bait, though it sounds kind of harsh," Gregor replied.
"I could care less," Ares said under his breath.
Ares and the other fliers perked their ears up and their heads jolted to the entry of the tunnel. Smoke puffed through the entry and a loud screech rang through the air. Ripred moved towards the entry, on all fours with one paw up, sniffing the air, looking quite like a hound dog.
"It….smells like a flier. But I can't be sure, the ash is too heavy," Ripred said.
Just then a large body flopped into the tunnel, making Ripred jump back and run into Henry. The thing was covered in soot; no one could tell what it was. It coughed and a pile of ash lifted into the air. Howard moved towards it and rubbed the ash from its face. Small black eyes peered back, it was a flier.
"Get some water sacks!" Howard yelled.
Gregor ran to the harness holding the water sacks and got three of them. He rushed over to Howard who took the sack and poured water into the flier's mouth, then used the extra water to wash off its face. Underneath the soot lay a beautiful light cream orange colored coat with white markings above the eyes and going from the nose back to the cheeks. There was something different about the flier, its ears were much smaller and its nose much longer than the other fliers.
"It's a fox bat; I did a report on them in third grade. They are much larger than other bats, and really rare," Gregor said.
It was true, after Howard had brushed the soot off of the bats back they could see how big it really was. It was at least a foot longer than Ares, and its wing span was at least three feet bigger than Ares', but it was thin and lanky, not muscular like Ares.
"Why are you here, and who be you?" Mareth asked.
"I am Doroto, flier prince. I know where he is," the bat choked out.
"Where who is?" Mareth questioned.
"Him….the person," Doroto muttered.
"An Underlander? Who may it be?" Mareth urged.
"No, an Overlander…."