Chapter 1
Gregor woke to the sound of soft pitter patter of feet circling around his bed. He heard a little giggle that was recognizable as his sisters Boots and Lizzie. "Shhh! You'll wake him up
Boots!" Lizze whispered. That just made Boots laugh even louder, Lizzie moaned and climbed on the bed then boots climbed on the bed and stuck her face up to his. "WAKE UP SILLY
HEAD!!!" Boots screamed loud enough to break his ear drum. "Boots! You just ruined it!" Lizzie screamed at her, the little four year old started to whimper then burst out in a crying fit.
He picked her up and cuddled her until she lowered her crying to a soft whimper again. "What a baby" Lizzie muttered as she stalked out of the room. "I just wanted to wake you up!"
Boots managed to get out of her whimpered voice. "I know Boots, its okay!" Lately Lizzie's become very rude and easily agitated; he thought it was because she had to leave her big
rat Ripred behind in New York City. Gregor picked the chubby three year old up and carried her into the big spacious living room of his aunt and uncles farm house in Virgina. Sadly his
grandma was diagnosed with lung cancer and died shortly after they returned home from the underland. That was the only reason his mother allowed them to travel to Virginia. As
soon as he sat Boots down on the sofa she ran off to get her sandals screaming "I go play with Starburst!" "I go play with Sunshine!" Starburst and Sunshine were the two horses
that belonged to his cousins Macie and Jessica. Although Macie and Jessica are now 18 and off at college the twins still love their horses. Its weird how once you've spent a lot of your
time with something or someone you feel like you have an attachment to them. The thought of the horses and his cousins made him think of Ares, his bat who had bonded with him
before he was almost banished from the fliers land and Regalia. Ares had sacrificed himself so that Gregor could live while they were battling the Bane. He could feel tears streaming
down his face at the thought of Ares, so he walked back to his bedroom and buried his face in the pillow. Thoughts of the underland came rushing back to him, Ares, Vikus, Hazard,
Nerissa, Ripred, Hamnet and even Solovet who had died under the ambush of a gang of rats sent by the Bane. But his most treasured memory was Luxa. He could feel himself wince
at the memory of the time he had last locked her violet eyes into his. After about 5 minutes of mourning about The underland, Gregor regained himself and sulked toward his closet. He
pulled out a pair of dirty ragged jeans and a blue tee-shirt. He wished he still had the cool sneakers that Ms. Cormaci had given him, but they had perished in the battle against the
Bane. So instead he chose a simple pair of white sneakers that his aunt had given him last Christmas, and shoved them on his feet. He slowly walked into his bathroom. At least one
highlight of living in Virginia with his aunt and uncle was that they were wealthy beyond anything he could imagine. He stared at the scars on his face from all the prophecies he had
been through. To count them up it was a leading number of six. He slowly combed his hair then brushed his teeth. When he looked out the window of his bathroom he could see his
mom and aunt chattering away about something. Probably from their past, they were great sisters, they never argued or disapproved of each others decisions. He could feel his
mouth forming a sly smile and remembering that his mom wasn't living with that retched plauge anymore. He turned away from the window and walked out of his bedroom toward the
back door when he noticed a small copper colored cockroach on the book shelf next to the back door. Gregor picked the cockroach up and looked into its little eyes bringing the
memory of Temp and Tick back. The giant cockroaches always thought of his sister Boots as a princess; and Tick the brave cockroach who had died for his little sister Boots while
on the journey of the "Prophecy of Gray". "Hey little guy, mom will freak if she finds you here!" he whispered to the cockroach. Gregor turned the brass doorknob on the door and
stepped outside into the cool breezy air. It felt so good to have the light wind blow against his body, he felt like he could stand there forever. He closed the door behind him and
walked over to a small clearing surrounded by raspberry bushes. He set the cockroach down next to a fallen berry and watched him scurry off into the woods behind the clearing. He
had always wondered what was behind the clearing, but he had always chickened out before he even made it past the first tree. But right now he felt like it was the time to discover
what was behind the first tree before he chickened out again. He slowly and carefully walked into the woods. Past the first row of trees then the second and so on until when he finally
looked back he could see nothing but trees and twigs and little bugs crawling around everywhere. He kept walking for about an hour until he reached another clearing. This clearing
was similar to the clearing where he had let the cockroach go. This one had raspberry bushes surrounding it, and it had more woods behind it, but he felt something different about it,
like he should either keep walking or turn back and not stop here. But his curiosity just led him to investigate the place. His aunt or uncle or cousins never talked about a second
clearing. This made him even more suspicious. He walked around a bush and all it had was just more berries, he did that to all the bushes. Even dug a little bit through the grass to
find nothing. Gregor was about to walk back to the farm when out of the corner of his eye he caught a little black circle with just a millimeter of a millimeter of light shining thought the
black. He went silent hoping that the mysterious circle like object would make a noise, but all he heard was the chirping of birds and leaves blowing around. He slowly walked toward
the circle seeing that it led into the ground, way deep into the ground. It was a pretty big circle, large enough for him to fit though, but small enough that he almost missed it. Gregor
reached his hand into the circle then quickly pulled it out. Nothing. He yelled into it, and again nothing. This time he reached farther down into the circle and as he was stretching his
arm farther he slipped and fell straight into the circle head first! He started yelling and screaming images of the first time he had followed Boots into the vent at his old apartment in
New York City. This time Boots wasn't along with him! The tunnel seemed to take Gregor farther and farther away from the surface now he had no light except that tiny sliver still
shining from below him. What seemed like hours passed until Gregor hit a solid surface with a thud still clenching his eyes tightly shut he felt around then finally stood up. He opened
his eyes and staring right back at him was a pack of giant rats, with one rat in the middle that Gregor could never forget the face of. Ripred.