Gregor the Overlander and the Ghost of War

Chapter 4

During dinner that evening, Gregor could hardly eat, he was so excited. His seven-year-old sister Boots quickly noticed his relentless grinning.

"Why's Gregor so smiley?" she asked their dad curiously. Gregor laughed at her choice of words, and Boots was so unaccustomed to the sound of her brother's laugh that she started to giggle too. Soon the whole family was laughing for no reason at all - sometimes there didn't need to be one. When the laughter died down, Gregor's dad looked at Boots.

"Your brother's taking a visit to the Underland."

Boots' eyes widened, and Gregor's smile faded. Of course, she'd want to come too. "Can I go? Pleeeease? Come on Dad, it's been years since I saw Dulcie and Temp. And Hazard!" Dulcet, or Dulcie as Boots called her, had been the Regalian nanny that looked after Boots in the Underland, and Hazard was the Halflander child who used to be Luxa's cousin, but was quickly adopted by her as if he were her own brother. Temp was the freakishly large cockroach that tended to keep to himself a lot, and had also protected Boots with his life. Gregor's family owed Temp a great debt because of the insect's bravery.

Hazard had just turned seven before the war had begun, Gregor thought. So he would be about... eleven years old now. The same age Gregor was when he was forced to fight in a horrifying war that would never stop haunting him.

Gregor hoped Hazard's future would hold less darkness than Gregor's had.

"Please Dad!" Boots protested. "Just for a couple days. They're my friends! I need this as much as Gregor does!" I don't know about that, Gregor thought as he rolled his peas around his plate, and he could tell his family thought the same. Gregor's dad shook his head. "I'm sorry honey, but you need to keep going to school with Lizzie. Gregor's been having a tough week, and we think he needs this break the most." A tough four years, more like, Gregor thought. Boots was only three when the series of events had unfolded in the Underland, and she had experienced the least trauma out of the family.

As Boots continued to argue with their parents, Gregor worked on forming his mashed potatoes into a volcano. When it took shape, an image of a giant volcano pouring molten, golden lava appeared in his mind, and Gregor dropped his fork with a loud clatter, his smile quickly vanishing. The peas around the potatoes became suffocating mice, thrashing on the plate, unable to breathe from the poisonous fumes leaking out from the volcano. He had to save them, he had to—

Gregor shook his head, the hallucination clearing from his mind. The dying mice became peas, the volcano became mashed potatoes again. He picked up his fork and quickly stirred the potatoes, removing any shape resembling a volcano.

He looked around quickly to see his brief episode had gone unnoticed by his parents and Boots. He noticed Lizzie staring at him from across the table quizzically. You ok? She mouthed. He nodded and quickly returned to finishing his food.

Yeah, he really did need this break.