a Queen of Butterflies

Chapter 02: I threw up, in the Únderworld!

After everything goes black I can feel a sharp tug on my upper arm and after that it feels as if my entire body is squeezed through a tiny hole.

I wonder if this is what it's like to fall into a black hole.

Next my body crashes down on the ground and I can't help but to screach in pain. My ribs feel as if they're broken.

I hear muffled sounds from underneath me and realise that I must've fell on top of Lucas.

I quickly scurry up to my feet and look down to check up on Lucas.

He looks just fine, a little smooshed here and there but apart from that, fine. 

Standing up wasn't a good idea though, I can see the world dancing around me and I feel extremely nauseous.

I spin around on the back of my feet and start throwing up. It's as if my intestines are still squeezed and everything that was inside them has to come out now.

Once I'm done throwing up I carefully lower myself down until I'm sitting on the ground.

I cover my face with my hands.

I feel horrible.

"Hey... erm... Are you okay?"

God I hate how nice he sounds. He's not nice, he's annoying

He's annoying.

Annoying.

Annoying.

Annoying.

"Yeah, no, don't worry about it", I reply trying to smile at him reassuringly, "I'm totally okay."

"Sure", Lucas answers, not quite able to hide the suspicion creeping up on his face, "Anyways, we, need to get going now if we want to reach the palace by sundown. Due to the Styx and stuff I wasn't able to teleport us as close as I would've liked but we got legs for a reason, better use them."

"Wait, what?" I mutter, "We're going to walk? I just threw up!"

Is he some sort of psycho, do I look like I can walk right now?

"O yeah, that's right", he says right before placing a hand on my chest, "Let me fix that for you."

I can feel how there's a strange sort of energy flowing out of the palm of his hand and I immediately start to feel better, less nauseous and more energetic. "Erm... wow, thanks I guess", I mutter whilst I'm standing up and testing wether my ribs still hurt. They don't.

"And?" Lucas asks carefully. "And what?" I reply.

"You're not going to freak out because I just healed you?" he says, "With nothing but my bare hands?"

"Oh", I whisper, feeling stupid about the fact that I didn't even appear to notice.

"Wow, loverboy", a voice behind me says, "As usual you did a great job and didn't make any mess at all. Congratulations."

Wow that must've been some sort of record, I don't think I can say 'congratulations' in a more dry fashion.

I look at Lucas and see that he has clenched his jaw and that he looks pretty angrily at the newcomer.

Then I turn around and let every detail of the newcomer's body sink in. He has a pretty face, sharp and slim with deep, nearly black eyes and skin that was a lovely shade of olivebrown. He wore a black turtleneck sweater that tightly hugged his chest and arms and a pair of black jeans.

He's stunning... and angry.

I can tell from every fibre of his muscular yet slim and elegant body. He is angry, all the way from his feet to his curly jet-black hair.

"Oh wait", the newcomer says, anger and annoyance dripping from his voice, "You díd make a mess, a mess that Í had to clean up! Again! Like why did they pick me to be your babysitter, you are all incredibly annoying."

Wait, what's he talking about?

"Excuse me", I ask the newcomer, "But what the hell is going on here? Where am I? Who are you? and most importantly why do you say you're his babysitter, you guys are like the same age."

The newcomer smirks, "Yeah, we're totally about the same age, it's not like I'm, hmm, I don't know, more than three and a half millenia older than him or something like that."

After he sees my shocked expression he smirks again and continues, "My name is Thanatos and you, are currently located in the underworld, just north of where the Acheron and the Styx split."

Wait what?

"I'm sorry could you repeat that for me please..." 

"Thanatos, my name is Thanatos." 

"Okay, thanks... Thanatos" I reply, struggling a bit with the foreign sound of his name.

"No problem miss, my name is, after all, a rather difficult one." Thanatos says kindly.

"You and I on the other hand", he says, with anger in his voice as he turns back to Lucas, "Have quite a lot of problems." He slowly walks closer to Lucas and I notice something I didn't see before.

OMG I'm so blind. How could I miss them, they're litterally gigantic.

Two large, oil-black wings sat on his back. He had folded them in such a way that their tops stuck out around twenty centimetres above his head whilst their tips where only a few centimetres away from dragging across the ground.

"I said, you should find the girl, wait until she turned eightteen and then take her here. I did not order you to wait long enough for a mantichore to sneak into her school and start murdering some kids on its way to the library", Thanatos says to Lucas.

"But..."

"NO BUTTS! You miserably failed your mission and by doing so put nearly a whole school in serious danger. I should report this to king Hades right now you know", Thanatos says, rudely interrupting Lucas, "But, I won't because you're a usefull asset to our kingdom and when you fócus you can do some really great things. So chin up and explain what happened, no excuses just explanations."

Lucas lifted his head and started talking, "So I arrived at the school early december and I immediately found the Nola. Even before she turned eightteen the aura of magic surrounding her was strong. So I tried to come in contact with her but it just seemed as if my magic was working on the whole school except for her. She never fell for it and I wanted her to come with me voluntarily, but I forgot that her aura of magic could also attract other creatures and I waited for too long."

"Right", Thanatos responds with a frown starting to appear on his forehead, "King Hades is already very busy so I don't think we need to throw some more trouble on his plate, I'll just clean up that little mess and it'll be our little secret then.

Anyways, we should get going." He stretches out his hand for me to hold on to. 

"Are we... going to teleport again?"

I can feel his gaze darting across my body that's still shaking and also across my skin which is probably a lot paler than usual.

He smiles and pulls back his hand, "Yeah, maybe we'll just walk."