14
They settle in for dinner. Luxa argues with her cousin to get him to take pain medication. Gregor suggests rock, paper, scissor (he thinks this should be a rule from now on), and Luxa wins. Howard takes the medication. In the meantime, Gregor quietly asks Lapblood about Whiptail.
"Ripred didn't pick her. Neither did I. She was part of an agreement." Gregor has to ask her to explain. "Many of the gnawers did not want to be included on this expedition. The ones who did not want to be included said they would agree to it only if they could pick a representative. I don't why, but they picked that pup," she gestured to Whiptail with her head. Gregor thought that deal seemed a little strange. He decides he is overthinking things, and turns his attention to the humans, who are the only ones still awake now.
"Wynn," Howard says. Gregor could see the medicine was taking affect. "You do not see the trouble you could cause."
"Oh yeah?" she says, looking a little amused.
"Yeah." They all have to keep from laughing. Underlanders do not sound right saying yeah. "You are immature. And you do not think about your actions. And you keep breaking rules."
"Oh, because breaking rules will truly be our demise," Luxa mumbles to Gregor.
"How long are you going to be mad at me?" Wynnora asks.
"Until you apologize."
"Alright. I'm sorry for saving your life. I'm sorry for putting your honor in question. I'm sorry you had to kiss an Overlander. I promise I will never molest you again." Luxa buries her face in Gregor's shoulder to keep from laughing at the ridiculous apology. He just tries to cough over his laughter.
Howard seemed pleased though, and nodded. "You are forgiven, Wynnora." He laid back to sleep. "But I really did not mind kissing an Overlander." Luxa and Wynnora bursted into laughter, but Gregor did not find it funny. "He has nerve to be suspicious of Luxa and me," Gregor thought, "Then goes and says something like that about my cousin. It better be the meds talking."
The next day, everyone prepared to leave. Wynnora said she would ride with Howard again, but Gregor quickly stopped that. He insisted on riding with Wynnora. The trip was rather uneventful except for Gregor trying to nudge into all of his cousin's conversations with Howard. When they landed for midday, Wynnora asked to go for a walk with Gregor. When they were far enough from the group, she confronted him.
"This needs to stop," she says.
"What does?"
"This whole thing with you not letting me near Howard. Yeah, I noticed."
"I'm not doing anything. You're just imagining it." He did not even sound convincing to himself.
"Howard and I are friends. You shouldn't have a problem with that. You're the one throwing googly eyes at Luxa all the time."
"What's that supposed to mean? We're just friends too." He felt himself blushing.
"Oh Luxa chan," she says is a mocking voice. "Won't you practice with me today? I hope she notices how funny I am."
"Shut up. It's not like that." He knew it was lame, so he tried to think of an insult. "And you watch too much anime." That was terrible.
"I'll stop when you stop." She continued making the joke, and Gregor really wished she could be more mature.
"Fine. I'll stop."
"Excellent." Wynnora smiled happily. "And so long as you know your limits, I'll keep him off your back." She walked away. Gregor wanted to still be mad at her, but he could not. It was a kind offer to distract Howard since he was always keeping an eye on Luxa when she was with Gregor. He reprimanded himself for getting happy at the possibility of having a moment alone with the queen.
The party continued on after lunch, and Gregor went with Luxa and Aurora again. Just as Wynnora promised, she kept Howard distracted the whole time. Gregor was not sure if there was a connection or not, but with her cousin looking somewhere else, Luxa leaned on Gregor's back again. Gregor wondered if this was going past a limit. "It's totally fine," he thought. "She's just more comfortable like this."
The fliers' ears all perked up.
"There is a cave up ahead," Nike says excitedly.
"It must be enormous," Aurora says. Everyone perks up, and awaits the cave. Luxa's hand falls on Gregor, and he is so distracted he almost misses the tunnel ending abruptly.