My dear readers and fellow fans,

It saddens me to inform you that I won't be writing for the Underland anymore. It's partially because I have so little time to write, partially because I need to invest myself in other things (college, for instance), and partially because I can only come up with so many ideas and follow through on them. But mostly, I've outgrown the series.

That's not to say that I dislike The Underland Chronicles now. The series will always have a special place in my memories as a tool that helped me grow, much like the Maximum Ride series or Borders. And I doubt I'll give up on fanfiction in general. It's just that my priorities have shifted, and I'm writing more and more real fiction, if I write at all. In fact, I've published a book.

Now, before I continue, I need to tell you: please, please, please don't assume that this author's note is meant to be only an advertisement. I'm mentioning my book because I've heard some of you say you like my writing style, and for those of you who do, I'm hoping that my book might be a sort of apology and a compensation for my lack of fanfiction. If you want to ignore the offer and read about more Underland-ish things, skip the next paragraph.

My book is called True Stories, and the link to buy a copy is on my profile page. It's a collection of short stories, poetry, and longer works, many of which will please Underland fans. I wrote a fifty-page story about a girl in a foreign kingdom who meets the rulers (sound familiar?), and there's also a long poem called "Ballad to a Rat", which is essentially TUC except with no names mentioned and with a slightly different ending. As you can see, the Underland will never leave me completely.

Is anybody still with me? Good. Advertisement time is done.

I hope you'll give my book a chance, but if you don't, I understand. I hate ads, and that's why I'm offering you all something for free: what I have of the sequel to Adrian the Blood-Drinker. To all interested parties, I will type and email the first (and only) three chapters that I've written, but currently I present the Prophecy of Price and a summary of the plot that is driven by said prophecy.

Hear the heart, the blood yet shed
That stays until a curse is bred.
In different fur, a time refrains:
A pup will bring a second bane.

Each leader—two of consequence
Who act in pleasure, lack in sense—
Will fight a battle fought in fear
Of she the formerly revered.

Regrets aside, Peacemakers stir
To halt what has before occurred.
Regalia's future, unforeseen,
Lives in thanks to two new queens.

Master love, but hear the heart
And act for both, though far apart.
He who learns can then step up
To save the peace or save the pup.

Enemies have made their choice,
So listen hard, recall their voice.
A challenge from the bane who leads
Will set your first or final deeds.

Seek the answer from the eyes,
And therefore stop the battle cries.
But foremost, know this last advice:
For every move, there is a price.

Now, what say we go stanza by stanza and see what all that means? Hopefully you somewhat remember what happened in the first story. I'll just be happy if you remember that two of the main characters are named Adrian and Darius.

Hear the heart, the blood yet shed

That stays until a curse is bred.

Adrian and Darius have a pup. That's essentially the entire story. But wait! I have details, explanations, and a somewhat decent plot to accompany that statement.

In different fur, a time refrains:

A pup will bring a second bane.

This pup is a dangerous thing. Nobody knows if it will drink blood like its mother, but regardless, the humans and the rebel gnawers (yes, the rebels are still around) both want it. Even if it's harmless, it's a pretty powerful tool because the blood-drinker and the Peacemaker's bond are its parents, and Queen Luxa and Gregor the Peacemaker are friends of those parents.

Each leader—two of consequence

Who act in pleasure, lack in sense—

Just another statement that Adrian and Darius had a pup. Yes, I'm that much of a fangirl to have my characters procreating already. But hey, Adrian and Darius are really good friends. And seriously, who was going to teach them about how pups are made, anyways? Hestia? No, she was too busy trying to keep the gnawers from killing her baby and his (girl)friend. Aurora? She hardly even knows how to discuss the next meal with a daughter she hasn't seen in two years. Everyone thought they were too young to know about this sort of thing. Besides, it's mating season at the beginning of the sequel, and the two are feeling lonely. I'm just that cruel.

Will fight a battle fought in fear

Of she the formerly revered.

"She the formerly revered" is Adrian. No, she wasn't particularly revered, but she did save Regalia after almost ensuring its destruction, and that deserves a little credit (which was then lost upon the discovery of her pregnancy). As for the "battle fought in fear," that's discussing the threat this pup brings. I intended to let Adrian's pregnancy secret slip while some delegates from the rebel gnawers were visiting. These gnawers would then kidnap Nerissa—the only one who could tell them more—so that they could lure the Peacemaker (Gregor), his bond (Darius), Queen Luxa, and the blood-drinker to their cove. There, they intended to capture Adrian so that her pup will belong to them too.

Regrets aside, Peacemakers stir

To halt what has before occurred.

That's Gregor and Darius going out to save Nerissa (who, by the way, left this prophecy before her disappearance). They intend to rescue Nerissa without Luxa or Adrian present, both of whom the gnawers hope to obtain: one for her ability to grant them control of Regalia, and one because she's expecting a pup they see as a future killer and symbol of power. "What has before occurred" refers to Adrian being kidnapped and raised to hate humans, which they don't want to happen to Adrian's pup.

Regalia's future, unforeseen,

Lives alongside two new queens.

Nike and Luxa are the two new queens. Nike and Howard take pregnant Adrian to the fliers' lands, where Queen Athena is slowly dying. This is also a distraction so that Adrian won't follow Darius, who, Adrian is convinced, is headed to his death at the hands of vengeful gnawers. Furthermore, all the Regalians refuse to be around Adrian because her pup might demand more blood than they already supply (and, you know, it could be as lethal as Adrian).

When Queen Athena dies, Nike takes the fliers' throne and sends a sizeable army after Gregor and Darius (the latter being extremely worried about Adrian's safety and about being a dad). The army never finds Gregor or Darius because the two had snuck into the gnawers' headquarters and were in disguise amongst the gnawers' captives. There, they tried to find Nerissa.

Master love, but hear the heart,

And act for both, though far apart.

Adrian thinks Darius is dead because Nike's army never found him and Gregor. Darius thinks Adrian is dead because he overhears the gnawers talking about the soldiers they had sent to find and kill her in the fliers' lands. Adrian and Darius love each other, of course, so this is extremely hard for both of them, but they must still "act for both, though far apart."

Adrian escapes from Nike's and Howard's custody and runs off in search of the gnawers, ready to kill whoever killed Darius. Unfortunately, nature takes its course along the way, and Adrian gives birth to a young male flier with black fur except for two brown patches on his eyes. As they sleep in a hiding place outside the gnawers' cove, the pup limps away from Adrian. I'm guessing that this pup is an explorer like his father and a rule-breaker like his mother.

He who learns can then step up

To save the peace or save the pup.

Gregor runs into this pup, who has by now snuck through the entry to the gnawer's cove by limping over the rocks as only a newborn flier can. Unsure of what to do with him—or even if it's a boy or a girl—Gregor takes the pup to Darius. Darius knows that this pup is a newborn and that he needs nourishment, but he thinks that Adrian is dead and their pup along with her, so he only treats the pup as a stepfather might, trying to fill in the gap caused by mourning for Adrian. The pup is slowly losing energy; he must be fed soon, there's no milk for him in the cove, and nobody's realized that he may be a blood-drinker.

Lacking anything to do (since they don't know where Nerissa is), Gregor and Darius try to retrace the pup's steps and end up meeting Nike's army, where they learn that Adrian was recently seen alive; only then does Darius realize that this pup may actually be his son, which makes Darius "he who learns" the truth about the pup. Too late does he realize it, because the gnawers have followed Gregor and Darius and capture everyone—including the pup they know to be Adrian's. Saving the peace and saving the pup foreshadows what happens at the climax.

Enemies have made their choice,

So listen hard, recall their voice.

"Enemies have made their choice" means that the gnawers have chosen to rebel once more, using this new pup as a rallying point. As for "recall their voice," this refers to what happens when Adrian wakes up to find her pup missing. She searches for him and she stumbles upon voices: gnawers. They're speaking sweetly at first, and then maliciously; only after a couple of minutes does Adrian discover that they're talking to her pup, coaxing and then threatening him to eat something (probably a "squishy orb", or fruit) that he's not hungry for. Adrian knows from their voices ("listen hard, recall their voice") that they mean nothing but harm to her son.

It's here that she runs into Luxa and Aurora, who have come in with a couple of soldiers to enforce negotiations that are taking far longer than necessary. Also, Nike had reported Adrian's disappearance, so they're worried.

A challenge from the bane who leads

Will set your first or final deeds.

While in captivity, Darius and Gregor have a visitor: Nerissa. She never was kidnapped, she explains; she went willingly and even asked that the gnawers take her. She envisioned herself conversing with the leader of the gnawer rebellion (for whom I had a really cool name which I can't remember now). This mad chase, it turns out, is a test devised by Nerissa and the gnawer leader to see what sort of future rulers the Underland will have.

Darius and Gregor go with Nerissa to meet the gnawer leader, who gives Darius a choice: surrender his son and let all the prisoners go free, or take his son and watch his fellow captives die. If Darius takes his son, the gnawers will declare war. If Darius surrenders his son, the gnawers will be unstoppable with the new blood-drinker as theirs to mold.

Seek the answer from the eyes,

And therefore stop the battle cries.

Adrian, Luxa, and Aurora ambush the meeting and interject, and Darius and Adrian share a joyful moment—upon finding that neither of them is dead—before realizing that their son's life is on the line. Luxa tries to interrupt, but Nerissa and the gnawer shush her: this is a test for Darius and Adrian, who have yet to prove their worth. While Adrian frets and tries to reach her pup—who is near starvation, having eaten nothing in the days after he was born—Darius ponders Nerissa's prophecy, which tells him to "seek the answer from the eyes." His son's eyes are coated the same brown color as Darius' fur, though the rest of the pup is covered in Adrian's black pelt.

While Adrian is the fighter, the one who will drink blood to keep living and the one who would kill her own race to take revenge, Darius is the one who sees through Adrian—and everyone else—to the true nature. If the pup's eyes are surrounded by Darius' fur, that means that he sees like Darius—he looks through others to see the good—and therefore either he cannot drink blood or he can resist the temptation on principle. Darius tells Nerissa and the gnawer that he will surrender his son (to Adrian's disappointment and rage) but requests that he see the pup drink blood first.

The gnawers take Darius and Adrian and place them on opposite sides of their son. Adrian has only to stand there, since she has the milk that the pup may need, but the gnawers cut Darius so that blood falls from his neck to the ground. The pup sits between them for a painful moment before he inches towards his mother and begins to nurse. He isn't attracted to the scent of blood, and therefore he is not a blood-drinker like Adrian. Because Darius was the one to point this out, he was the one to "stop the battle cries".

The gnawers don't want a flier that can't drink blood, so now they have less will to fight Luxa's and Nike's armies to claim the pup. Nerissa turns on the gnawer leader after seeing the gnawers subdued, and Luxa's and Nike's armies help the group draft treaties of surrender for the rebel gnawers. The group returns to Regalia, where Darius and Adrian go on to raise their pup and help rule the Underland fairly; life continues.

But foremost, know this last advice:

For every move, there is a price.

I just like this line. Doesn't it sound cool?

I realize this is a pretty lousy plotline. What about Gregor and Luxa? What happened to Howard and Nike after they went to the fliers' lands? Don't the princesses have anything to do with this? To any question you have about my plot, I answer: I don't know. If I were actually writing this, I might include a couple of subplots and fill in some plot holes, but for now, if you ever ask me if I would _ in the story, I say that I don't know.

That's pretty much all I have for you in terms of the sequel. But here's my last gift, my last little trick. These are the first lines of each of the six stanzas.

Hear the heart, the blood yet shed
Each leader—two of consequence
Regrets aside, Peacemakers stir
Master love, but hear the heart
Enemies have made their choice,
Seek the answer from the eyes,

Look at the first letter of each line. Do you recognize the name? Not only is that the name of Darius' father—the flier who brought Lizzie into the Underland and then died from battle wounds—it's what Darius and Adrian will name their pup.

Why not Ares? Reason number one: a prophecy with four stanzas isn't easy for me, since I like to write quite a lot. Reason number two: Adrian can only think of one Ares, her father; as much as she loved Ares, she wants her pup to have a better fate than what befell her family. So she chose Hermes, who lived a lackluster life but helped the right cause and died nobly. And when you have a life like Adrian's and Darius', wouldn't that be all you wanted?

I'm afraid, dear readers, that if you want neither the first three chapters of the sequel nor a copy of my book, that this is all I can offer you.

It has been my privilege to write for you and my joy to be part of this series. And as I've said, the Underland will never really leave me. Last year I got to visit New York City for the first time in my life. And as my mom and I were wandering through Central Park, I couldn't help but look at all the rocks and smile, hoping that there really was an Underland down there.