No.
      I most definitely do not want to go back to Hamnet's grave.
      I ride with Luxa on Aurora as Kel leads the way on his nameless white bat, flying over the Underland jungle. Everything below us illuminated by that strange phosphorous glow from the streams that lace the land. I remember walking this distance before, dehydrated and delirious, in the company of three other rats. Lapblood, Mange, and Ripred. I also remember flying this distance again with Luxa to visit the mice, before finding their home over-ridden by twisters. Neither of these memories is pleasant, and the last thing I want to do is relive it.
      But I don't really have a choice.
      We need to know what those men have been doing in the tunnels, if they know about the people living beneath them, and if they're planning to invade. And apparently Greenthorn can give us some answers.
Kel was adamant that his friend is the only one who can help us. That there are no other friendly creatures down here who watch the movements in the Overland sewers. I would have preferred to get more details from Kel before following him blindly, but Luxa seems to trust him. For some reason she chose Kel out of all the other Underlanders we know to accompany us on the quest, but I didn't know he existed until this morning. There's something strange about him, and I won't trust him as far as I can throw him.
My stomach rumbles loudly and Luxa turns around to face me with a half smile. "Hungry are we?"
"Just a little." I say, which is in fact true. After a few hours of flying my hunger strangely abated, although my stomach feels like it's shrunk to about half its size. I decide to take advantage of this moment to ask Luxa a few questions.
"So what's up with Kel?"
"What do you mean?" Luxa asks cautiously.
"You know what I mean. I've never seen him until today, and someone with his fighting skills should have helped in the battle against the gnawers. I think I'd remember a soldier like him. And how does he know someone in the jungle?"
Luxa is silent a moment, then she turns around completely so we're sitting facing each other, her back to our destination. "Kel arrived at the Fount a few days before I declared war on the rats. No one knew of his swordsmanship so he was not asked to fight when the time came, and no one trusted him enough either. He came from the jungle. He said his father died in there, entombed in the carnivorous vines."
I shudder at the mention of the plants I know are writhing in the jungle below us. I encountered one such tree, with acid that dissolved flesh, and still have the scars on my feet to show for it.
"Kel hasn't said much about what happened, but I've managed to get out that his mother was a Half-Lander. Like Hazard. His father was a Regalian Underlander banished during the time my parents ruled. I think he broke the vow to his bond."
I close my eyes at this, knowing full well the shame that follows such a breaking. Ares endured it after he let his own bond die to save my life. I push the memory away before it consumes me, the anger that Ares had to endure such pain when his heart was so good.
"I tried to get more out of him about where they lived in the jungle. If they ever met Hamnet or anyone else, but he wouldn't say. It hurts him to think about who he lost in there."
I return my gaze to Luxa and wonder why she took the time to find out so much, what with the time she spent filling her new role as Queen and bond to the Peacemaker. Why did she care enough to ask Kel these questions? Why did she try so hard to pry open this boy's secrets with so many other subjects she could have done the same for? I feel a flash of jealousy at the thought. Luxa never did anything like that with me. We never even acknowledged that we loved each other until just before the final battles.
"Kel lost his parents, but he didn't give up." Luxa's last words are barely more than a whisper. "If anyone can help us, then he'll be able too."
I suddenly understand Luxa's reasons for prying, and my jealousy dissipates into sympathy. She found someone just as alone as she felt, someone who'd lost everyone close to him, and she tried to find out how he was still moving forward. Maybe that helped her to move forward too. Life had to move on, and Luxa had no way of knowing if I'd ever come back. I shouldn't blame her for looking for a friend.
      Suddenly Aurora starts to descend, and I see that she's following Kel's white bat into a barren clearing carpeted in dead plant stalks. Luxa twists around to face forward again and I internally catch my breath as I recognize the place.
      It's the starshade field.
      For some reason the jungle around the clearing hasn't closed in on the dead, decomposing plants. Every tree along the forest line seems to be in the same place as during the battle here, the jungle for some reason unwilling to reclaim the land like it did with the nibbler caves after they left. The sweet lemony scent of starshade fills the air as we land softly on the field, dead stalks forming a springy carpet under our feet.
      Luxa and I slide off Aurora, taking shallow breaths of the air that holds so many bad memories. Without a word, Luxa makes her way toward the spot where Frill and Hamnet were laid. She stands stock still, shoulders rigid with unveiled tears, and I quietly approach her, placing my hand on her shoulder. Luxa's eyes are closed. For a few minutes we just stand there in silence, remembering her uncle and his hisser.
      Then, just as silently, we return to the bats where Kel stands waiting. There's a curious expression on his face, almost like he's wondering if we'll cry. But that fades the instant I meet his eyes.
      "Why did we land?" I ask, trying not to sound too suspicious and accusatory now that I know the guy's backstory.
      "We must go on foot from here if we are to speak with Greenthorn. He will not show himself unless Osiris and Aurora are out of sight." He responds.
Osiris. So that's the name of his flier. He's named after the Egyptian god of the dead, and I understand why, with his ghostly white fur.
"So which way then?" I ask and at the same time my stomach decides to growl again.
"How about we first get something to eat, hm?" Kel replies. "Seeing as you skipped breakfast as well as lunch."
Luxa glares at me and sighs with exasperation. "Sometimes I doubt that your mind even works, Gregor." I look down sheepishly, but at the same time I can't help but wonder how Kel knew I skipped breakfast. The more he talks, the less I trust him, although Luxa has spoken with him the most and trusts him enough to follow him into the jungle on a whim. I just don't know what to believe anymore: my instincts or my girlfriend.
But I don't protest as Kel leaves to find food in the jungle. Instead I decide to sit with Luxa and the two bats. An awkward silence stretches for several minutes while I try to think of something to talk about that will include Osiris, although the bat has moved several yards away, clearly distancing himself from us. Nothing comes to mind and I've decided to give up when Luxa speaks.
"Have you ever flown over the jungle before, Osiris?"
The bat shifts slightly before answering in low, neutral tones. "Not this far. But to the Arch of Tantalus, yes."
Again, silence. No one else seems too keen to continue the topic after the mention of that deadly place. I'm wondering if I should just talk to Luxa and pretend Osiris isn't here when Kel returns, several plum-like fruit in his arms.
"Oh, I love those!" I say, remembering the orange plums we ate while staying with the mice. Kel divides the fruit among us, saving several of them for later and placing those in a pack I didn't notice before. He slings it across his back as we finish eating, and I wonder what else is in it.
"Are you ready to go yet, Warrior?" Kel's tone is a little mocking but I ignore it and nod my assent. "Then let us say goodbye to our fliers for now. We will meet them hear once we get our answers from Greenthorn."
At those words, Kel turns to his flier and looks deep into the bat's eyes. Luxa hugs Aurora, but I watch the strange exchange the other two are having. Kel doesn't move to touch his bond, or say any words of comfort. They simply stare at each other for several seconds before Osiris gives a jerky nod and turns away.
Luxa mutters something into Aurora's ear that sounds like, "Be safe." Then we all turn to the jungle wall furthest from Regalia, and gently push our way through the vines.
A strange path opens in front of us after we squeeze through a few feet of the clingy leaves. I warily examine the trail, wondering if the plants created it for us to follow, to lure us to our death. But Kel takes one look around and nods, like he knows the path, and strides forward. Luxa follows a moment later and I'm forced to walk behind her, as the vines are too close on either side to walk two abreast.
We make our way through the jungle as silently as we can, although my stealth hasn't improved much since my first visit. I keep thinking I see movement out of the corner of my eye, but every time I turn there's nothing. No animals or insects inhabit this stretch of jungle and I hate how quiet it is. I keep my hand on my sword hilt, worried about being attacked.
      But nothing goes amiss for the next hour, except that I flinch at every twig I step on, and hold my breath every time I think I see movement. I'm looking over my shoulder at one of the suspiciously still vines when out of nowhere I trip and nearly face palm the jungle floor. I look down to find what I tripped over and see that my shoe is untied, and that's weird, because it was definitely laced tight just a minute ago.
      I quietly kneel and start undoing the laces, not wanting Kel to make fun of me for being clumsy. Strangely, the laces on the entire tennis shoe are loose and I have to fix them from the bottom up.
      I look up and have a moment of dejá vu, the situation is so similar to my first trip here. I tripped a lot then too, and both Hamnet and Ripred made fun of my clunky shoes. I can even picture the fliers overhead, although the jungle closes off any glimpse of the cavern above us. But instead of picturing Nike and Aurora as the fliers over me, I instead see Aurora and Osiris, wheeling around and waiting for us to pick up the pace.
      I can't figure out why the imagined scene is so clear, why it feels like I've seen the two bats flying together before when I didn't meet Osiris until this morning.
      Then I remember.
      Last night I dreamed of walking through the jungle with two figures in front of me: Luxa and a dark haired boy. My shoe came untied and while I knelt to retie it, I looked up at the bats just before--
      That's when I feel the vine encircle my throat.