The Seeker and the Curse of the Warmbloods: A Gregor the Overlander Fanfic

Chapter 13

Previously...

There goes the ball, thought Stella.

She watched as it disappeared into the jungle. She was right. The ball disappeared. But not in the twisted vines, as she had anticipated. Instead, it landed squarely in the mouth of a colossal lizard.

.

.

.

All she could really see was the creature's head, a scaly iridescent blue-green face twelve feet above her. It swallowed and Stella caught a glimpse of rippling neck muscles.

"My ball!" said Boots.

Temp was already chasing after the ball but he put on the brakes when he became aware of the enormous reptile in the jungle.

Boots was not so easily deterred. She slid from the cockroach's back and ran forward, pointing at the lizard. "You eated my ball!"

"No, Boots!" Gregor cried. He scrambled to his feet and tripped over a skeleton next to Stella. "No!"

At that moment, the world before her became red. And red as in bright red. Everything within her sight was red. She rubbed her burning eyes and dropped to her knees. Tears of pain were uncontrollably falling from her eyes. Her breathing became short and she had to gasp for air. Her heart was pumping rapidly in her chest. But what topped it all was the burning sensation in her eyes; it felt like they were on fire.

From next to her, Stella could see the red form of Gregor desperately trying to free his feet from something's rib cage. "Boots! Get back!" He screamed.

She could see the red forms of other members of the party springing into rescue mode, but how could they reach Boots in time?

"You give Temp my ball!" The red form of Boots howled at the lizard. "Yooooouuuuu!"

The lizard, also red, glared at Boots and opened its jaw wide. A frightful hiss issued from its mouth as a ruff shot out around its neck, making its head look five times bigger.

"Oh!" said Boots in surprise. Her own arms shot up over her head as if she had a ruff as well. "Oh!"

For a moment, the towering lizard and the tiny girl were mirror images of each other. Mouths open, ruffs up, eyes wide.

At that moment, something hit her back sharply, making her plant her hands on the stone beneath her. The world snapped back to its usual colours and her heartbeat gradually became normal.

Stella turned to see where that blow had come from, "Ripred?! What was that for?!" The burning in her eyes was receding but she was still short of breath; she wiped the tears from her face.

Ripred just looked her in the eyes and watched them curiously. "Remarkable," he said. It wasn't in his usual mocking tone though.

Stella noticed that the ruff around the lizard was a rainbow; before, she hadn't been able to distinguish the colours since everything was red.

And then someone started laughing. The sound came from the direction of the lizard, and seemed to be coming from its mouth. But it was a distinctly human laugh, so Stella knew it must have some other source.

The blue-green lizard's tail flopped out of the jungle, its tip resting on the ground near Boots. The vines rustled and someone slid down the tail. A pale, violet-eyed Underlander landed easily on his feet next to Boots. He was still laughing as he bent on one knee next to her.

"So, are you a hisser, too?" he asked.

"No, I'm Boots," she replied, dropping her arms. "Who you?"

"I am Hamnet. And this is my friend, Frill," said Hamnet. He indicated the lizard, whose ruff was slowly folding down.