Disclaimer:The Underland, Gregor and all that stuff belongs to Suzanne Collins.
Dryadas and Nixclaw belong to me, though. Hah; I own something for once! :P
Since it's so cool, I'll be posting something, a poem, lyrics, anything that inspires me while writing. It probably won't relate directly to what I've written, but...it's cool, y'know? ^^
By the way, I love the poem this time...so beautiful. ^^ I want to thank everyone who takes the time to write such meaningful poetry; it's a wonderful gift to be able to express yourself so well. :)
Rainbows created my imagination
As it arched across the sky
On one end there sat you
At the other end, there sat I
Imagining I could slide across
Over the rainbow to the end
There would be my pot of gold
The sweet love of my dear friend
The rainbow is a connection
Like a bridge from me to you
It appears joined by sunlight
Then the grey skies turn to blue
Arriving after the rainstorms
It became so evident to me
Thoughts of love follow rainbows
They arched right across the sea
A colourful arching rainbow
It has no gate, it has no door
It reaches from friend to friend
It arches from shore to shore
I smiled up today at the sky
How far would my loving smile go
It slid right over to the other side
The other end of the coloured rainbow
Arched Across the Sky
~By Hope
"Where are we?" Nixclaw's voice echoed eerily in the cavern, and the running water added an interesting extra scariness to their surroundings. Gregor jumped, stifling a yell but accidentally allowing a squeak to pass through his fingers.
"Would you quit that already?" he hissed at her, turning to point his flashlight at her. "It's bad enough without you adding yourself to the situation, geesh."
They were trekking through the sewers which connected at some point to another portal to the Underland. According to Gregor, he had explored these tunnels frequently in the days since he had left the Underland. Currently, they had come to a more open place in the pipes, and were waiting for Dryadas to catch her breath, again.
"I am sorry...Underlander. I was not always...like this. I am recovering, though." she shook her wet fur, ridding herself of some of the moisture that had collected in beads on almost every hair in her pelt. "I need only...a moment more to rest." She felt incredibly disgusted with her own weakness, and was considering letting the others go on ahead though she didn't like the thought.
"No problem." Gregor half-grumbled – he wasn't in the best of moods when he was soaking wet. Ah well...at least it was clean water and not something worse, like the rotten egg-smelling water that dripped perpetually in a tunnel he had been through several times. "We'll be at the portal in a few moments. Will you be able to make it, Dryadas?"
She gave him a somewhat skeptical look and answered, "Yes, of course, provided it is no more than an hour's flight from here to the land down below."
Nixclaw, who had remained silent until now, gave a small snort. Dryadas was in no shape to fly for an hour straight, carrying a rat – even one as small as her. She sighed inwardly and continued splashing ahead of the others, forging her way through the dankness of the sewers. After pausing to listen for a scant moment, she crept back to the others as quietly as possible.
"We're being followed. Or possibly even set up for an ambush." she coolly informed Gregor, who scanned their surroundings instinctively before using echolocation to check down the pipe opening out on every side.
"What is it?" he whispered, not seeing anything recognizable let alone anything. It would seem that even echolocation had its limits, he decided.
"It sounds like...snappers, but they have not the same clicking. Nor crawlers. More like..." Her eyes widened and she stretched her ears as far out as they would go. Dryadas followed her example and frowned, unnaturally expressive for normal bat. Of course, she was far from normal, but still.
"No..." she echoed softly. "Not crawlers, or snappers..." they both continued listening intently, such odd looks on their faces that Gregor almost laughed, though there was nothing funny about the situation.
"Will they try to stop us?" he breathed, barely audible even to himself though he knew they would easily hear his words. Even in here, when one spoke softly, the sounds bounced off the walls, increasing decibel by decibel until they were audible to anyone with an ear to hear.
Nixclaw nodded, finally giving up on her listening. "They come, and I know not what they are. Have you a sword, Warrior?"
In answer, he pulled a sword, which had been tucked so neatly under his long shirt that neither bat nor rat had noticed it before. After hanging the electric lantern on a twisted spur of metal jutting from the wall, he glanced down the pipes once more and was rewarded with a sight that was, however disturbing, better than nothing.
In the water that flowed incessantly down the bigger pipes, looming, long-armed shapes with bulbous bodies drew closer. Somewhere from down the tunnels, a slow, periodical, and loud snapping noise emanating, filling even the Warrior with a measure of fear.
"Oh, geez." were Gregor's final words before the monsters mercilessly attacked.
__________
Nixclaw and Dryadas watched as their friend went into rager mode, spinning and slicing off several of the creatures' limbs. The blood oozing from them was so dark it could have been black and there was no way to avoid being splattered by it. The smell was foul enough to cause even Nixclaw trouble, mainly attempting to resist the heaves that threatened to disable her. Shoving her nose swiftly into a patch of mud, she took care of her sense of smell for the moment.
Meanwhile, Gregor was oblivious of the stench, of the two mammals behind him, fighting off yet another creature, and the burning of a tentacled lash. His sword scythed through the last arm of the octopus nearest him, and the mollusk flopped weakly on the floor. Half a minute later, it was still, suddenly just like so much sushi.
As one of the creatures let out an unearthly stuttering shriek of rage, Dryadas saw the monstrous beak that had produced the snapping noise from before. It had a deadly serrated edge, and she didn't have time to warn Nixclaw before the creature struck her friend.
The rat dodged as best she could given the circumstances, but let out a high-pitched squeak as the beak clamped onto her ear, slicing cleanly through it. Dryadas hissed and threw herself at the octopus, biting deeply into one of its arms close to the body and clawing at the head with all her strength. Within seconds it had flung her off of itself, and as she shook her head, blood spattered around the chamber. With renewed rage she leapt at the octopus once more, severing a limb and severely mauling another with her slashing forepaws and claws.
Seeing her opening, Dryadas dove, partially distracting the octopus from Nixclaw and giving her friend an opening in return. Together they managed to sever another limb, and the mollusk's squeal of pain and anger caused the bat's ears to sing with the echoes of the octopus's voice.
While the bat and rat together took on the one mollusk, Gregor was battling at least three others, and without much difficulty. After losing several limbs while trying to kill him, they squelched back from him as if considering their options. In a moment they disappeared down a gaping pipe, leaving nothing behind save their detached limbs and the foul stench of their blood.
Gregor had turned in a flash to help the other two with the only remaining octopus, but before he could land a single blow it seized Nixclaw with an unscathed tentacle and disappeared down a gaping hole, dragging her behind bodily.
It took Dryadas a moment to actually realize that her friend was nowhere to be seen, and Gregor could hear the building up of a scream he'd heard only once before. Ares, when he was in the ultimate torment from the hellish currents in a cave they'd passed though once, had screamed in much the same way. The ultimate expression of suffering bats, it seemed like such a long time ago and brought back memories he'd rather leave forgotten, so Gregor just stood there, listening, a shocked look encroaching his face.
The bat's piercing scream broke off into horrible, ragged sobs, and she took flight, trying frantically to follow the slippery creature that had stolen her closest and possibly only friend. When she crashed into a wall, missing the tunnel by feet and stayed there, shaking and weeping, Gregor could see the full extent of her agitation and sorrow.
"I..." Gregor stopped before he had really started, feeling nothing he could say would console Dryadas at this point. After all, what does one say to another when the person closest to them of all is suddenly snatched away? "I'm sorry." he finished lamely, feeling how truly inadequate this sounded.
"I know," Dryadas whispered limply, wings askew in a way that appeared painfully uncomfortable. "So am I..."
Several minutes later and with difficulty, she composed her face and gazed evenly at Gregor. "I will continue on my own. Go home, Warrior; from now on, this quest is mine, and mine alone."
Gregor's eyes widened slightly at her last words, but he didn't object – not visibly. "You're going after her, aren't you?" It wasn't a question; more a statement of fact.
She nodded once, then turned. "You do not need to stay with me. I release you from any obligation you have to help me. After all is said and done, in the end, she is my friend."
"I know." he replied mournfully, unable to turn away from her dark gaze, but wanting badly to rest his eyes on a sight that wasn't so heartrending. There was something in the bat, so unlike any others in her species, that was different to a degree that both frightened and intrigued him at the same time.
"I bid you goodbye, Warrior, and may happiness follow you wherever you happen to travel. Fly you high." she turned immediately and disappeared down the tunnel, wings beating silently and heart and mind set on rescuing Nixclaw.
"-Good luck!" he choked out, not sure she had even heard, or if she had, that she would acknowledge it. Either way, he wanted to have it said.
"To you...as...well..." her voice bounced to him, sounding miles away already.
Sorry about the looooooong time between updates; I've only recently had time off of school and stuff to actually write, or rather, edit my writing. :P It's amazing to me how different my writing has become as apposed to half a year ago. I was just reading through this the other day, and I was amazed how much better I am at writing now. I'm a lot better with using more vivid verbs, better adjectives and adverbs and all that now, though I'm still comma-happy as always...but I'm improving.
It's interesting to watch someone improve at things; in a way, I suppose it's like dancing or skating, or any fine art. You watch someone from the time they begin their class or careers, and you watch as little by little, everything changes. Maybe they get more graceful, and the sweep of their arms leaves you dazzled, or maybe that triple Lutz(sp?) comes out so amazingly beautiful and perfect that you can't see anything that the person could improve on...but yeah. It's an amazing journey, and it's all the more amazing if you get to be included in it. ^^
Anyhoo...comments and constructive crit are totally always welcome; I don't mind crit at all, so long as it's constructive. It's a learning experience, and though the person may not always be right, I still value their opinions.
Thank you everyone for reading this, and I hope you enjoy reading more! :)