Underland Chronicles: 1 - The Border's Edge (A Gregor the Overlander FanFic)

Chapter 26

Pandora had a fitful sleep and woke up almost as tired as she had been before climbing into bed. She had had an interesting dream that night. Even though Pandora was fully awake now, she took her time getting out of bed. She didn't feel like talking to anyone.

She slowly made her way towards the closest bathroom and spent a good long time just soaking in the tub. She felt weighed down with something, and knew exactly what it was. The reason she didn't want to see anyone was because she didn't want to say goodbye.

As she was floating in the water, she thought about the dream she'd had. A man lay dying, his hand in that of a young girl's. When he spoke to her, he referred to her as "Judith," however, Pandora knew the girl was Luxa. It took a bit of time to connect it with a dream she'd had before: the one with the toddler on the beach. The man was the same one in both dreams, and she finally realized who the little girl was. She was Luxa. In her newest dream, they were in the jungle and sitting in a puddle of blood that seemed to be coming from the dying man. He spoke of Hazard and told Luxa to let him be "anything but a warrior." He must have been Hazard's dad, which made him Luxa's uncle.

After thinking about the dream, Pandora dried herself off and put on a fresh Underland outfit before heading to the High Hall, where she usually had breakfast with Vikus and Hazard. Hazard was nowhere to be seen, but Vikus was just leaving. By the gentle look Vikus gave her, she knew Luxa had already discussed with him that Pandora was leaving.

"I suggest you spend your time wisely today," he said as he passed. Pandora just nodded and sat alone at the long table, knowing at some point, she would be led out of the Palace and towards home. A servant presented her with a plate, but she only managed to nibble on a piece of bread.

It took her a while to get up and leave the table, and at first she was so caught up in her own thoughts that she hadn't thought about where to go. Clearing her muddled mind for a moment, she decided to go to the only place she wanted to be: with Howard.

Her connection with Howard was much stronger than with any other person Pandora had ever met. She sat in the chair that was next to his bed, enjoying watching him sleep. He looked significantly better. The doctors didn't need to amputate his leg and he showed no signs of infection. His stitches were healing nicely, and he looked much stronger. He was able to walk around his room, although under heavy supervision.

Sooner than she realized, Howard woke up. She was dreading having a conversation with him. It would be easy to tell Ripred or Aurora she was leaving, but it would be most difficult to say goodbye to Howard.

"Thank you for watching over me," he said, laying on his side to look over at her. "If it wasn't for you I..."

"No don't say that," Pandora said. "I don't know how you made it that far all alone." By the look on Howard's face, Pandora judged that he didn't want to talk about it.

"I am glad you are here," he said.

Pandora have him a pained smile. "It hasn't been easy just to sit around and wait. Waiting for the others to get back to Regalia safely after Nike made it back. Waiting for you to get back, too. I knew you were going to make it, but I wasn't expecting for it to be the way... the way I found you. And then I kept waiting for you to get better. I got so frustrated with just sitting around feeling as if I wasn't being any help that I did something that I thought would change everything."

Howard have her an inquisitive look so she kept talking. "I had a vision that a servant was going to poison Luxa. I had a plan to stop her, but... it doesn't seem to have done any good."

"But you did save Luxa, didn't you?" Howard asked quickly.

"Yes, yes! Of course, I did! She's fine. Now that I think about it, I never received a thank you."