The Banished
Chapter 17
Only darkness welcomed them on their journey to the cavern Queen Athena was located in. Gregor held fast to his use of echolocation. The closer they got, however, the more he became troubled.
"Aurora," he whispered after making out shapes in the darkness. "Why are there humans here? They are not captives, are they? I cannot-"
"No, Overlander," she told him softly. "I am told that they are not from Regalia."
"Then-"
"They are the banished. They filter throughout the land here now that Queen Athena has affiliated with them."
"Then where are all the torches? How can they see without them?"
"I do not know, Overlander."
The bother he felt with this revelation was short lived, as not soon after, they reached their destination. The small alcove Queen Athena was in was lighted, though it was done hastily. Gregor could tell that from the fact some of the human men were still lighting torches when he arrived. It was no doubt done for his comfort.
"Greetings, warrior," Athena said not soon after Aurora landed in front of her, dropping Gregor off on a rock jutting out from the alcove the queen was resting on. She was at her full height, wings outstretched as she merely stared at him, her silver fur catching the light in places.
Giving a sweeping bow though he felt foolish, Gregor reasoned that it was best should he stay on her good side. "Greetings. I come not from the humans."
"Oh?"
"I come on a more…personal matter."
"Then you care not of my decision?"
"I care deeply," he said slowly as he rose to stare at her again. She almost seemed to be squinting in the firelight. No doubt there was rarely a fire to be had in her caves. "However, it is on matters of your daughter that I come."
"I assure you that my daughter is of none of your concern," she told him swiftly while some of the men who were holding the torches looked over. "And I would advise you to return to your own queen. She shall be needing your protection in the coming hours, warrior."
"The warrior is-"
"Then I speak to you not as a fighter, but as a guard. Your duty is there, not with my daughter. She is not your bond, not your concern. And I warn you again, your queen is in need."
One of the banished men cleared his throat then as Aurora adjusted her wings, opening them slightly. Gregor could tell that she too was nervous.
"I thank both you and Aurora for your concern," Athena went on hastily. "However, it would be the best for us all if you made your journey home."
"I consider Nike a friend and-"
"We are not aligned with you, Overlander," the silver bat told him, ruffling her own wings then. "I am being kind, only for your great deeds to the Underland in the past. Should you have been any other human, I would have already had you killed. Bring that information back to your queen, yes? And leave me now. There is nothing you-"
"If I could only see Nike-"
"Do those of the Overland lack comprehension skills or are you just not too smart?" One of the men with the torches shook his head. "You shall learn soon enough, Overlander, that what you wish and what you want matter not to us. You will leave now, yes? Before we decide to capture you again, yes? Is that what you wish?"
Gregor glanced at the man before snorting and keeping his eyes on the queen. "You are cowards. You did not capture me. The gnawers did. You bring us no fear with them any longer, so you attempt to go through our allies, the fliers? Cowards. You shall not face us in true battle because you fear the truth. There was a reason you were banished and there shall be a reason when you are all killed."
Queen Athena let out a high pitched noise then that about broke Gregor's eardrums. When the man drew their blades on Gregor, which he shockingly enough found to be about the same quality of his own, he got ready to withdrawal his own. Luxa had told them not to fight with the men that lied outside their gates, fine. He was no longer inside the humans' lands, however. He could do as he wished.
Just then, he was knocked over from behind, though he quickly found it to have been Aurora. She had bumped him with her head, tossing him into the air. Just as quickly, he was flat on his back on top of her as she took once to the air. Queen Athena was making more noises then, but Gregor could not tell if they were for the banished, him, or Aurora. Even when she fell silent moments later, he was sure she was still speaking; the pitch was merely too high for his ears.
"You should not have done that, Overlander," Aurora told him as she flew off. Other fliers were tailing them then, but Aurora was picking up speed. She and Luxa were quite the pair in many regards though their specialty was always aerial stunts. She maneuvered swiftly in between many different stalactites and outstretching cliffs. They had a few narrow movements, but Aurora always seemed at control. Gregor just tried to keep his head low and hoped for the best.
"I would have killed them," he told Aurora though she didn't answer then as she continued with her great escape. "Why did you not-"
"You humans always think yourself so much smarter than the rest of us," she told him harshly. "Do you not think that the rest of us might have plans at times? That the rest of us might know what is going on? You are narcissists. The lot of you. For once could you just sit there and let me do what I must?"
He shut his mouth then, more out of respect for the golden flier than anything else. He knew that Aurora was constantly bossed around by Luxa, which he himself found to be a rather stressful thing. Add in the fact that she was being chased out of her own lands and, well, you had a recipe for disaster.
It wasn't until his echolocation turned up nothing that Gregor truly felt safe. Even then, he clicked constantly, convinced that another flier or human lied around the next corner. It took a few minutes for Aurora too to feel safe, but once she did, she immediately found them an out of sight place to land.
"Are you alright?" she asked him as he slowly pushed himself off her while still clicking. "I did not mean to startle you, but I had to get you out of there."
"And why is that? Now you seem to have aligned yourself with me. No doubt your queen will-"
"My queen is the one who instructed me to."
"What?"
Aurora was panting then, but Gregor had no water or anything to give her. Again, he sucked at planning such things. Luxa planned many of their misadventures.
"That is what she was telling me. She was rushed, when you pulled your weapon."
"What did she tell you?" Gregor asked as he finally sheathed his sword.
"Only that Nike is captured."
"Captured?"
Aurora nodded her head then, still taking in deep breaths. "The banished keep her in the Dead Lands. Or that is what I gathered. She was shrieking it, truly."
"Why would they do that if…unless…"
Aurora nodded. "She could not get out much of the message to me, but she wishes for you to rescue her daughter."
"Me?"
"You must remember, Overlander, that we are not the humans. We still have much faith in you. And I tell you this not as a compliment, but as a warning. We will always fall back on you, in times of troubles."
"Such as now?"
"Aye."
"Then why did she not just send a flier to Regalia to tell Luxa?" Gregor asked. "If she told you in confidence, then no doubt she would have been able to tell someone else who would have explained to her what is really going on."
"It is not so simple. Queen Athena thinks Luxa is…"
"Is what? Untrustworthy?"
"Not on purpose," Aurora assured him as he took another look around the darkness that surrounded them. "However, she is very impulsive. Not to mention, she likes to boast much. It would not be inconceivable for Queen Athena to fear Luxa telling the troops at her gates that Queen Athena is not truly turning her back on the humans."
"She is not?"
"She wishes not to. She wishes for you to find Nike."
Gregor shook his head. "I would need to return to Regalia. I-"
"What is there in Regalia? I just told you that you cannot tell Luxa of this, did I not? No doubt you would, should we return."
"Then what, Aurora? We have no supplies, it is only you and I, there is-"
"We shall find Ripred then."
"What?"
"In the Dead Lands," Aurora told him. "He is bond of my bond. Not to mention, he wanted for you to be there to begin with. We shall go to the Dead Lands, locate Ripred, and then he shall help us recuse Nike."
"Ripred isn't exactly one for helping out people with nothing in return," Gregor said slowly. "We would need something to offer him. And even then, we both reek of Regalia. No doubt any gnawer for miles would be able to sense our approach. I-"
"Forgive me," Aurora said slowly. "I thought I was speaking with the man that was willing to give his life to find Nike. Not the one that is afraid of a few rats."
"I am not afraid! I-"
"It is only natural," Aurora told him. "You did nearly get yourself killed before. You-"
"Only in an attempt to save my men. I did not-"
"I would understand if you are fearful of-"
"Enough," Gregor finally said, crossing his arms. "Fine. You take me to the Dead Lands then, Aurora, so we can locate Ripred, and then rescue Nike. That's fine. Let's go do it then. We might as well. Luxa will skin us both when we return anyways. She'll call us defectors and have us murdered. So let's go get Nike first. Shall we?"
Aurora opened her wings once more. "Gladly."
"God, at times, you and Luxa are more alike than you know," he grumbled as he got back on her back. "Honestly."
"The flights seem longer, the older we get."
Gregor shift slightly. "Do I bother you, the way I sit now?"
"No, Overlander. It is fine. I only mean that distances seem to take longer than they once did."
"It is an oddity, you and I making a trip alone."
"Luxa always finds a way to include herself in everything."
"You are bitter now, as she is at you," Gregor said. "You allow one of you to be hurt in this non-war. You will be back at one another's sides in no time."
"We both know that if we return from this unharmed, Luxa will have our heads. We went behind her back. She will not be happy."
"Then perhaps I should get another grievous injury, yes? Then she'll feel so bad, why, she won't even bother to be angry with me."
"You joke, Overlander, but if you knew the way she fretted when those humans had you…"
"She tells me constantly that my death would just be another to add to the list."
"We both know that is not true."
"I know that I merely wish to find Nike currently. Whatever awaits us at home will be worth it."
"We suffer through Luxa's anger so constantly that I seem to have gotten used to it."
"Surely it has not taken this long."
Aurora let out a soft laugh, though Gregor could tell she was as tense as he was. They were going not only into enemy territory, but enemy territory where other enemies were actively attempting to take over. Danger was immense, but then again, wasn't it always?
"I think she is angry now, at this very moment," Gregor said finally. "But that by the time we show back up, she will be so relieved that it won't matter anymore."
"I do not wish to stay here long."
"Neither do I," he told her. "Yet we are going into gnawer land to find a bat and a rat. Two needles in a huge haystack. If we can at least find one, well, then we will be lucky."
The closer they got to the Dead Lands, the more overpowering the scent of the place got. Sometimes he felt for the gnawers. He truly did. They were forced into a most unfavorable land and every single time they tried to get out of it, the humans cut them back down. It truly wasn't fair.
Then he just had to remember the times that the gnawers tried to kill him, his sisters, Luxa, or the nibblers and he remembered that their hands weren't so clean. But still, who would not go through extremes in an attempt to free themselves from a horrid situation?
"Overlander, there is-"
"I see them," he whispered softly.
Below them on the ground, there were two gnawers walking along, speaking in soft tones to one another. Gregor was hoping against hope that they did not sense him, but knew that it was unlikely given the fact that both he and Aurora carried very obvious scents. Not to mention, they were going to have to let their presence known at some point. And what if the gnawers were with Ripred? Or at least knew where to find him? That would be extremely helpful, given the situation.
"What do you wish to do?"
Gregor shook his head slightly, continuing to look over her side, clicking softly to make the outlines clear to him. "I do not know. They have not made any movement towards us. And neither is big enough to be Ripred. I say we fly on. If they do not-"
One of the rats let out a screech then, a rather audible one. Her tone told Gregor that she was female.
"Do you smell it then?" the other asked her, pushing up on his haunches and keeping his head facing up. "The Overlander cometh. And with a flier."
"Their wretched queen's," the female one continued to screech. "Yet they are too afraid to come down below and fight us. Run then, Woundgrazer. Go and warn the others. I shall take care of them."
Aurora was no longer flying, but rather just hovering as she awaited Gregor's direction.
"Let the male go. I shall take care of her, yes?"
"Do you wish-"
"I will attack from the air. It shall be quicker, yeah?"
The gnawer was ready for them though, claws out, ready to either rip into Gregor or tear Aurora's wings to shreds. That was one of the most gruesome injuries to Gregor, when a flier's wing was torn. It was terrible, really. Like someone getting their legs and arms sawn off.
"Careful, A-"
"Do not think of me as weak and I shan't you, Overlander," she told him gruffly as she dived down onwards their enemy. When the gnawer jumped up to get at her though, Aurora feinted towards the right, leaving the gnawer's arm out stretched. His blade already drawn, Gregor easily ran the smooth metal right through her underbelly, hitting in between the bones in a way that only a person with such skill could manage.
The gnawer let out a piercing cry as Aurora angled herself upwards once more, her belly narrowly missing a scrap against the rough ground below. The rat wasn't finished yet though and Gregor knew that if he just waited for her to bleed out, she would go noisily. It was bad enough that the male had gone off to give their location.
She was on the ground then, pawing uselessly at her own wound. Gregor watched from above for a moment before doing a dive off Aurora's back. She was expecting it, but did not try to catch him as he tumbled to the ground. Practice made perfect as he landed squarely on his feet. This was lucky, considering he still had his blade unsheathed.
"Kill me then, you filthy human." The gnawer spit at him as she laid almost bonelessly on the ground. Gregor had hit something significant and they both knew it. She only had minutes. "I would rather death than to sit here howling in pain."
"I shall not," Gregor told her as he kept his distance, his sword drawn in her direction. "Less you tell me what I wish to find out."
"Never! I am not a coward. I-"
"I merely wish to know the location of Ripred. Or Nike. She is a flier that-"
"As if I would tell you of Ripred. That scoundrel! Siding with the humans like a worthless weakling. He gives us a bad name. And then arming you with sight in the darkness. He is the greatest betrayer of all time! A false prophet. A-"
"Look." Gregor took a step forwards then, pressing the tip of his sword into the rat's throat. "I can make this quick or I can make this bloody. Where are Nike and Ripred?"
She spit at him again. "Do your worst."
Try as he might, Gregor was always slightly timid when it came to torture. It was one thing to sentence someone to death in his mind, but to take enjoyment out of their killing or to prolong it just seemed insane. He was not bloodthirsty and he wished to never become that way.
"Let's go, Aurora," he said as she dropped back closer to the ground. He slowly pulled his sword from the throat of the gnawer, taking no satisfaction in the blood that now stained his blade. It would soon be joined by much more; he was almost certain.
"Where to then, Gregor?" Aurora asked him once they were both off the ground once more. "Head in the same direction-"
"No. We must find a second tunnel, one th leads us far away from here. That gnawer went to alert the others. I do not know how many he shall bring."
"Back the way we came then," Aurora said with a sigh as she turned around in the air. "Nike had better be here for all the trouble we are going through for her."
"She is," he whispered solemnly. "She has to be."
They flew for some time, back the way they came, flying only in silence. Aurora was keeping her eyes peeled for another tunnel for them to go into while Gregor was clicking constantly. He never liked to be taken off guard, after all.
"Here then," Aurora finally announced to him as they turned into a different, small tunnel.
Gregor had to get down from her back, due to the ceiling being so low, but it was worth it. Gregor could still remember his first Underland adventure, when Ripred led them through the dankest, grossest, most unlivable parts of the Dead Lands, if only to hide their scents better. Before they got too far in though, the smell of the place was too much for him and he had to ripped a piece from the fabric of his shirt to hold over his nose. Sulfur and rotten eggs had nothing on the Dead Lands.
"Your wings fare fine, Aurora?" Gregor called softly up to her. "I do not wish for you to be cramped."
"I shall not leave you, Overlander."
"It was not my worry. I only-"
"Does not matter how I fare. Currently, I only fear for Nike."
"Aye," he agreed softly. Poor, poor Nike.
The tunnel's stench was not one that Gregor was able to focus on for long. He was more focused on using his echolocation to not trip over any rocks or anything as they went along. Not to mention he was fearful of a horde of gnawers coming in the other side of the tunnel, leaving them defenseless. Still, there was not much he could do to help that than pray.
The tunnel seemed long, endless almost. There were no other parts branching off it and the deeper they went in, the more Gregor feared that they were just going to reach a dead end. It would be rather fitting, given his luck as of late.
"Aurora," he whispered up to her at some point. "Sway my fears of death. Do you see the light at the end of this tunnel as well?"
"I do not know it to be the end, but I can see light up ahead."
"We much be coming onto people."
"Yes," Aurora greed softly. "Or gnawers."
"No," he said. "Gnawers would have smelt me by now, I am sure. They are no doubt used to this smell of this stuff in here. Our scents would have stuck out to them. It must be those humans from before."
"For what use would they need fire? The ones in the flier's land seemed to see just fine in the darkness."
He took a deep breath then, being able to separate the scent of rot with another one. A better one. "Smell you it not? It is the scent of roasting meat."
"Ah." Aurora paused. "Think you be it of a rat?"
"I would not think so, but then again, there is not much to eat out here or so the gnawers whine constantly." Gregor shook his head. "What else could it be, do you suppose?"
Again, Aurora took a moment to think before replying. "I always thought that gnawer would stink more than this."
"You would think, yes," Gregor agreed as his stomach betrayed him. It had been a long while since his last meal and, as they were so ill prepared for the journey, Gregor doubted he and Aurora would have one any time soon. "It smells wonderful, no?"
Aurora took another second to think. "It does not smell of gnawer and yet I do not understand it. I cannot fathom what else they are cooking out here. It is not fish. I know fish well. And yet it does not smell of gnawer. I would like to think that would be an obvious scent. So what could it be?"
"I do not know," Gregor said with a shake of his head. "I am craving it, however."
"Perhaps, after they discover us and you kill them, we can eat whatever it is, yes?"
Gregor wasn't sure how he felt about eating a gnawer, but still nodded his head. Food was food. And just so long as it wasn't straight off the bone, he figured he could do it. Maybe. Only if there was no other option.
When they made it to the end of the tunnel, they lucked out by there being large rocks at the end, Gregor immediately took cover behind one while Aurora simply stayed back in the cave, in the shadows.
"People," Gregor mumbled as he peeked out from behind the rock. It was once he saw exactly what was going on that he wished he hadn't.
The area in front of the tunnel was alight with a bonfire, humans scattered around as well a few fliers. They were all extremely emaciated, scantily dressed in rags, as they awaited the cooking meat. It was up on spokes, held over the fire. Gregor at first was concerned with what they were using to stat a fire, given there was no vegetation around for such a thing. That interest was quickly swept away when he realized exactly what the meat was.
He vomited. He couldn't keep the vile that rose up down. Who could expect him not to when he had just been craving…when he thought that the meat smelt good…that meat. It wasn't meat at all. How could a person be…meat?
"Cannibals," he groaned softly, wishing then for the scent of the disgusting Dead Lands to come back to him so he could get the wonderful scent of flesh from his nostrils. How sick was he then? To think that that smelt good? It should have repulsed him. Why didn't it? Had they cured the meat or-
"No."
Not meat. Flesh. Flesh. It was a person! A human person. They were eating a person. Who would those banished people have found to eat, huh? Regalians. No doubt a scout or a-
Someone he had known. What if they were eating someone he had known? And he had thought about…
He vomited again. This was no good. He was shaking and everything. Cannibalism was a disgusting thing to witness, yes, but by far not the worse. He had seen the mass murder of the nibblers, seen Lapblood's mate get swallowed by a huge plant, killed countless men and women. This was bad, but still. He was the warrior!
…Right. He was the warrior. Now he was nothing, but the queen's boytoy.
"Gather my children of the darkness. All of you. Take a seat."
Gregor leaned back against the rock as he heard the voice of a man, speaking loudly, beckoning the others. He heard a few children giggle and another let out a soft cry, but they were all quickly shushed by older voices.
God. Children. Children cannibals.
He was having trouble regulating his breathing then. He had to make sure not to make a lot of noise. He was hiding, after all. Still, his mind whirled around at alarming speeds as many thoughts swirled around. He had left Luxa there with…cannibals. That man, Vlad, he was a…then what about Nike? If they would eat humans the surely… And Boots! Boots was in the capital. What if she went to find him and-
"The God, our dearest God, has granted us with many, many blessings, my children," the men was going on then. "From the tiniest of us to the largest, he has given us much. Now, King Vlad and Queen Usha have given us a chance at life. A chance at redemption!"
People cheered then while Gregor just shut his eyes, leveling his breathing somewhat. Okay. Okay. A little freak out was expecting with something like…this. Cannibalism was definitely not something accepted in the Overland. And though he knew the spinners partook in such a practice, it was still not something he liked to think about. Ever. And now, here it was, shoved in his face. He had a hard enough time accepting that one day he might have to eat a gnawer or a nibbler or even a bat. The thought of eating another human being though…
Suddenly, Gregor felt something hit his thigh. He jumped slightly, staring down at the ground, shocked to find it to be a ball of some kind. A child's toy. Then, when he looked to his left, he found that in his panic a young child, a little older than Zander, had come to his side. It was a little boy, who only smiled at the man, his purple eyes meeting Gregor's green ones.
"Hi," the boy said. "Ball?"
Gregor only stared at him for a moment before slowly moving to put a finger against his lips. He was immediately reminded of the time he first met Luxa, when she wouldn't give Boots the ball in the arena. It was a bad memory to have because it immediately made him fear for both of them. They were one of the few people he had.
The child nodded, putting his own finger to his lips before holding out his other hand, palm opened. Slowly, Gregor moved to place the ball in the boy's hand before resting back against the wall. Then, softly, he said, "Go. Go back over there."
Giggling, the boy bounced slightly, staring at Gregor. He was only dressed in a pair of shorts, some kind of paint or something strewn in lines on his face. Gregor was too jumpy at the moment to be dealing with this. Honestly. He had no idea what he was going to do. He couldn't very well just strode out there. There were far too many people. Ripred conked out around 400, but Gregor wasn't even sure he could take a 100 humans on his own. Twenty, certainly. 50, maybe. But more than that?
Especially cannibals…shiver.
"Malachi!" someone called then. "Get back here. Now. What are you doing?"
When the little boy heard his name called, he immediately ran back over to his parents, his toy in hand. Gregor sat there for another minute before slowly standing and heading back into the tunnel. He listened hard for shouts or something alerting him that he had been discovered, but there was nothing except that man talking again.
"Overlander, what-"
"We have to get out of here," he told Aurora as he headed back the way they had come. "There are too many of them for me to fight and I do not think we can get passed them. We-"
"Did you not want to e-"
"No!" he hissed at her. "I do not."
"Why are you-"
He stopped then, taking a deep breath. "You do not get it, Aurora. They're eating…humans. They're cannibals."
"Surely you are-"
"I cannot fight them," he reiterated. "They have small children with them as well. It would not be right. We are not at war yet. Fighting in front of children, possibly hurting them, is something that's hardly acceptable during battle. To do it outside of battle…"
"Then we shall go," Aurora told him simply. "If you so wish."
"I do," he sighed, moving back through the rank tunnel again. "For now."
"The tunnel seemed to have grown, though perhaps it was because Gregor was carrying more in his mind at that point. His head felt heavy as he thought about what could possibly be happening at that moment in Regalia.
Cannibals? How could they all have missed that?
They heard voices, loud voices, at the other end of the tunnel before they even made it out. Gregor was so done at that point, that he pulled his blade immediately. He was not going to allow himself to be trapped. He would fight these people, cannibals or no cannibals.
…Until he found that it really wasn't cannibals out there.
"Ah. Here you are. I knew when they said that Overlander was here that they weren't lying to me."
Gregor continued to click in the darkness as he moved to sheath his sword once more. Twenty or so rats. Huh.
"You're finally doing good for yourself, Ripred," he said softly as the big rat headed towards him.
"And look at you! No light at all."
"Yes, I-"
"Do you have any food, Overlander?" Ripred was next to him in moments. He only glanced up when Aurora came out of the tunnels.
"No," Gregor told him. "I-"
"What exactly are you and the queen's bond doing out here all alone anyhow?" one of the gnawers in Ripred's little gang asked.
"I must find Nike," Gregor said, though it was more directed at Ripred. "Do you know where she is?"
"Nike. Hmmm. Which one is that again?"
"Ripred-"
"No, I do not know where your stupid friend is, Overlander." The gnawer moved away from him, growling slightly. "How could you have no food?"
Gregor only shook his head. "I can't even begin to think of eating again."
"And why is that?"
"These people," he said, nodding back at the tunnel. "They're cannibals."