The Seeker from Above: A Gregor the Overlander Fanfic

Chapter 8

Previously...

Teams of bats lifted the two loaded boats by rope loops and started down the river. Orion extended his wings and Stella felt the odd sensation of flying, for the second time, as they began the first part of their journey.

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Stella rotated her head to see the fading lights of Regalia as they flew down the river. They passed a crystal-walled beach and their torches created dazzling shadows that danced on the crystals. Soon came the wide-open expanse of the Waterway. Stella could see the dark water churning beneath them, moving smoothly like a curtain that grisly secrets lay beneath.

Stella loosened the grip of her legs a little, realising that she must be hurting Orion. They flew a few miles out over the Waterway before the teams of bats lowered the boats into the water and took off. Howard's bat landed in the boat with Twitchtip. Ares settled in the second boat, as did the bat of the Underlander whom Vikus had called Mareth. Orion smoothly landed in the same boat as Twitchtip, Howard and his bat.

"This is Andromeda. She is my bond," Mareth said, touching his hand to the wing of his gold-and- black-speckled bat.

"Hi!" Stella waved. She'd always liked meeting new people.

"Hey, nice to meet you," Gregor said.

"I am honoured to meet you also, Overlanders," she said.

Mareth also introduced Stella and Gregor to Howard's bond, Pandora, a graceful bat with beautiful rusty red fur. All she said to them was, "Greetings."

Vikus had flown out after them to bid them good-bye. "Gregor, I forgot to deliver you this," he called. His large gray bat swooped over Gregor's boat, and something fell to the floor. Stella watched as Gregor picked up a scroll.

"Fly you high!" Vikus headed back toward Regalia, giving them an encouraging wave. Stella waved back.

She turned back as Howard was hoisting a wooden mast into the air and securing it at the hinged base, as was Mareth. From where she stood, the sides of the boat rose up to her chest and was around twenty feet long. She ran her hand along the side to discover that it was made of some sort of animal hide, stretched over a bone frame. The masts were located about a third of the way from the front of the boat. There were a few seats fashioned from leather, and a lot of supplies. Especially food.

"Are we really going to eat all this?" she heard Gregor ask.

"Not by ourselves. But the Shiners will require a great deal of food," said Mareth.

"The Shiners?" said Gregor and Stella in unison.

"Vikus did not tell you?" began Mareth.

"On long voyages, we cannot carry enough fuel to provide light. So we hire shiners to aid us," said Mareth. "They should be here directly — yes, see...here they come now."

Stella gazed out into the darkness — well it wasn't dark for her. She could make out two silhouettes of giant bugs, their lights went out...and turned on again. Each time the lights flickered, they got closer to the party. She realised that they were fireflies. The last time she remembered seeing fireflies was back when she lived in Florida.

They'd make the parks so enchanting at night. She remembered her parents taking her to one park in particular. Their mum calling, "Stella, Leo, goodness, you're fast. Hold hands and don't get lost." Their dad running behind them, "Watch out, I'm gonna get both of you!" The laughter and squealing. Stella's and Leo's five-year-old hands entwined. The soft breeze and surrounding glow of the luminous fireflies.

Gregor's voice of realisation shook Stella out of her trance, "Oh, they're fireflies!" He said.

The fireflies were about three-feet-tall and they perched on the bow of the boat that Gregor was in. Their lights combined was so bright, that they illuminated both boats and the surrounding water.

"Greetings, Shiners," said Mareth with a bow.

"Greetings, all," one of the fireflies said in a high and impossibly whiny voice. "I am he called Photos Glow-Glow and she is Zap."

"It was my turn to make the introduction," wailed Zap. "Photos Glow-Glow made it last time."

"But we both know that, as a male, I am more visually pleasing to humans," Photos Glow-Glow said, his rear end blinking in a variety of colours. "Zap can only make one colour, and it is yellow."

"I hate you!" shrieked Zap.

Stella sat on one of the leather seats, mentally aware that this was going to be one long journey. Orion seemed to notice the same and fluttered over to Stella.

Within a matter of five minutes after the fireflies had arrived, Stella was gripping the leather seat so tight, that her knuckles were white from the lack of blood circulation. She could hear the irritated shuffling as Orion tried to distract himself by rearranging his wings. It was sure that the fireflies were infuriating everyone.

They argued about where they would sit, they argued about who should take the first shift, they even argued about whose servant the cockroach called Temp should be until the roach spoke up with uncharacteristic force, "only the princess, Temp serves, only the princess."

Mareth tried to feed them to distract them, but they just bickered about each other's table manners.

"Must you talk with your mouth full, Zap?" Photos Glow-Glow said. "It kills my appetite."

"This from someone who just sat in his milk!" Zap said, and apparently she had him there, because his rear end went bright red in anger, and he chomped on a mushroom in silence for at least thirty seconds.

Stella tried to keep calm and unaffected by these newcomers, but with their constant quarrelling just made it worse.

"Why are they so annoying?! It's not like we need them," she asked Orion in a whispered voice.

"All Shiners tend to act the same way. They hardly ever come to agreements," he said.

"Hardly ever? More like never!" She whispered loudly.

"Well, as Mareth mentioned earlier, we need their light on long voyages. Else we would have long periods of darkness," he explained.

Stella picked up Boot's high pitched voice from the other boat.

"Fo-Fo, too loud!" she said, tugging on one of his wings. "Shh, Fo-Fo!"

"Fo-Fo? Fo-Fo? I am he called Photos Glow-Glow and will answer to no other name!" said Photos Glow-Glow.

"She's just a little kid. She can't say Photos Glow-Glow," said Gregor.

"Well, then, I cannot understand her!" said the firefly.

"Allow me to translate," Twitchtip said, not even bothering to move. "She said if you don't stop your incessant babble, that big rat sitting in the boat next to you will rip your head off."

A serene silence followed and Stella felt like hugging Twitchtip and saying, "thank you! Thank you! Thank you so much!" But she thought that Twitchtip probably wasn't friendly enough for hugs.

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