Gregor and the Prophecy of Death (Book 7)

Chapter 15

"We have to go!" I heard Tetris yell from below.

We both snapped out of whatever stupor we were under and went back under the rock, Hazard taking one last look before pulling it shut. We went down the stairs to meet Tetris. The flight back was as uneventful as the one to the exit. At this point I don't even know how to feel. At least I knew now unlike before that he definitely saw me as more than a friend. But more than friends could mean many things. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. I could just shoot my shot or... just don't talk to him? It would help avoid any further weird incidents. Or I could just treat him like a friend like I have been doing.

NORMAL POV

"Do you think they'll find anything?"

Gregor and Ares decided to go out to Ares' cave for their own picnic. "Sure they did. It couldn't possibly be at the other entrance."

Ares didn't seem convinced but turned his head to either entrance. "They're coming."

"Hey you're back. Did you find anything?" Gregor said approaching them as they landed.

"We found something. It looks very complicated," Hazard said.

Lizzie handed her phone to Gregor. "It'll probably take a while to decipher. We can do it tomorrow if we start now they're gonna send someone to get us for dinner," Gregor said.

~ ~ ~

This time, Gregor was one of the first to arrive at breakfast, walking in with Luxa. Breakfast went by pretty quick. Today everyone was back to their usual schedule and jobs so they had training in the arena. When Gregor got there with Ares, they were just about to start stretching. Lizzie had joined them again and this time was going to have her own section for shooting. She had also learnt echolocation from Gregor and Ripred wanted to test that out with her shooting. There was no running today for Gregor . They got straight to sword fighting. Gregor  didn't though. He was going to be watching Lizzie's training. While the others were running, Lizzie and Gregor had little free time before she started shooting.

"What's up with you and Hazard. You seem mad at him," Gregor said.

"Why does everyone keep asking this, there's nothing happening," Lizzie replied sharply. Gregor could see the red in her cheeks that she was trying to hold back. He wasn't sure if it was embarrassment or anger.

"C'mon Liz, I'm just checking up on you. You can't get mad about that. You do like him don't you," Gregor teased.

"I don't like him! I don't like anyone!" Lizzie snapped at him quietly, walking away to Ripred who was calling her.

Gregor went to one of the benches off the side to where he saw Hazard.

"Hello Gregor," Hazard said. He had noticed him coming but wasn't taking his eyes off something. Gregor followed his gaze and saw he was staring at Lizzie.

"Do you... like my sister?" Gregor asked him.

"Yes, why wouldn't I?" Hazard said.

"No, I mean do you have feelings for her."

Hazard went red for a few moments. "Why do you ask?"

"I'm just wondering. It's the way you look at her," Gregor said.

They were both silent for a while watching Lizzie until Hazard spoke up in a more serious tone. "I think we almost kissed yesterday," he said. "I don't know what happened."

"It was probably just confusion about each other's feelings," Gregor let out before thinking.

"Each other?"

"For you. Wether your sure about your feelings and also think about hers," Gregor said, hoping to put the cat he let out back in the bag.

"Makes sense. How do you think she would have reacted?" Hazard asked.

"I don't know," Gregor said as they stood up. Lizzie was just taken a break from her training and they had a few spare minutes before she had to continue. "Good job out there." Gregor told her, giving her a high five.

"Yea, thanks. When do you wanna look at what we found," Lizzie asked.

"We can't do it right now," Hazard said sitting down where they just got up from.

Lizzie and Gregor followed, Lizzie sitting in the middle showing then both the picture.

"Is it another code thing. Like the code of claw?" Gregor asked.

"You mean a cryptogram? It could be," Lizzie said. She seemed to be thinking hard about something. "Oh! I got it. It's easy really, just skip two letters forward for each one. So A would be C, B would be D and so on."

"So the message would go from," Lizzie said as she started decoding it.

Kp vjg vwppgn hct dgnqy
Ykgtg vig ycttkqt cpf hqtiqvvgp upqy
Jcf c hkikv yjkej ecwugf c dnqy
Vkcv ngf bq vjg wpfgtncpf yg pqy cnn npqy