Well, as I promised, here is my new story. Sorry for all you people who liked my original one, but this should be much better. It will follow the same basic storyline, but I may add on or take out a little bit. Without further ado…

(Beta'd by ILikeAres who rocks for helping me so much.)

Disclaimer – I do not own the Underland Chronicles or anything in them. The only things that I take credit for in this story are the prophecy, any characters I may add that are not mentioned in the books, and the storyline.

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Gregor and the Prophecy of Loss

Prologue

Fall

The multi-colored leaves blew in small, intricate patterns in the nippy fall breeze. Gregor sat on the kitchen counter, staring vacantly out the cold glass window, watching the last few brown leaves on the trees waving, barely hanging on to their bearers. He let out a long sigh, wishing he had something to occupy himself with. Normally during the fall, he and his little sister Boots would go down their street to a vacant lot around the corner. There, other poor kids around his age would make giant leaf piles and leap into them. Since their families didn't have rakes, seeing as most of them lived in apartments and didn't have any yards, they would make use of whatever they could, grabbing an old, rusty trash can lid or a particularly thick branch to scoop the leaves into piles.

Gregor wished he could've done just that, and he knew that Boots would love it, but there was no way. After his last ordeal in a place called the Underland, where there were giant talking insects, a race of pale skinned, violet eyed people, and armies of rats that tried to kill him and many other animals, his mother never let him out of the house without her except for school and other necessities. Still, he always felt that she would watch him out the front door for as long as she could until he was gone from sight. Gregor hopped off the counter, letting out a sudden grunt of discomfort at his landing. He gently rubbed his chest near his heart, where five large indents were forever engraved into his skin. This had been the last injury he had received in the Underland, from a ferocious giant white rat called the Bane, who he had killed on his last trip down there.

"Gregor! We jump in leaves!" Boots came dashing around the corner of the hallway outside the kitchen.

"Oh, boy, she remembered," thought Gregor with a sad heart. He didn't want to break it to her that they wouldn't be able to go back to the empty lot unless their mom, Grace, went with them, which meant that they wouldn't be able to go. It wasn't that Grace didn't want to take them, it was just that she was busy working from morning to late at night every day. She had to support their family the best that she could; times were always hard, but recently, they had gotten worse. Gregor's dad was too sick to work, as he had been kidnapped by the rats in the Underland and held captive for nearly three years, and that had caused serious health problems. Over time, he had seemed to get a little better, but often he would fall back into fevers and he still had a very long road of recovery ahead of him. It seemed now that the only thing that kept the family going was Mrs. Cormaci. Mrs. Cormaci was their next door neighbor, who lived right down the hall. She had always been there for as long as Gregor could remember. She had been like a guardian angel to his family. She was always saving them from going hungry one day or having that spare jacket that used to belong to one of her daughters that just happened to be the perfect size for Gregor's other little sister, Lizzie, when they couldn't afford to get her a winter coat. She always was saving them from one disaster to the next and always made it seem like she just had what they needed lying around. Gregor couldn't help but smile as he thought of her. She was the only one outside of his family that knew about the Underland and he was glad of it.

"Gregor! We go! We go!" Boots' small pleas snapped Gregor back to reality. He knew he had to tell her that they couldn't go, but had a hard time doing it.

"Listen, Boots, I'm sorry, baby, but we can't—"

"It's okay, Gregor, I'll take her," Gregor's dad's voice interrupted from the other room. Gregor hadn't noticed that he was there, probably watching Gregor stare longingly out the window. He felt a little ashamed know that it must've made his father feel bad.

"I can take Boots to the lot. Your mother would be okay with that," he said again.

"But Dad, you shouldn't go out; you're not ready yet," Gregor began.

"It's okay, I'm feeling quite invigorated right now, and I think I should take a small walk," his dad replied Gregor could tell that was a lie. His dad never felt lively, let alone invigorated, but he did look like he was feeling pretty well at the moment, and Gregor had trouble bringing himself to say no to Boots.

"Are you sure you're up for this, Dad?" inquired Gregor thoughtfully. He hated the thought of his dad going somewhere with Boots without being perfectly healed of his illness—Boots was a lot of work. "Are you really sure, Dad? I mean, I don't really know about you doing this." He nervously wrung out his hands, but he knew he would have to let his father do this. Boots, anxiously waiting for her dada to take her to the lot, was jumping up and down, clapping her hands together and beaming happily.

"Of course, I've been aching to get out of the house for a while now. And some fresh air would do me good," he responded.

Gregor watched his dad as he bundled himself up, smiling as his father blew raspberries on Boot's stomach while trying to put her own coat on.

"Okay, but don't be gone too long," Gregor called worriedly after his dad as he was exiting through the door.

"Don't worry, I'll be back in about an hour," his dad replied.

Gregor couldn't help but to smile at himself; it sounded like he was the father and his dad was the child, but then again, he couldn't really think of himself as a child anymore. Not after what he had been through, the pain he often got in his chest reminded him of that.

Gregor plodded across the tiny, barren room that served as both a dining room and kitchen to return to his spot on the counter, hoping to see his dad and Boots on their way through the window.

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Her eyes slowly cracked open upon hearing the familiar voice. She groaned and turned over pulling the soft, silken blanket over her head. The voice came again, stronger at first, but ending with a tinge of sympathy. Vikus walked up to her side and squatted next to her bed with some effort. The poor man, even though it had been almost a year since his stroke, he would never fully regain control in his body.

Luxa pulled the sheet off her head and sat up, leaning against her pillows. She didn't know what time of the day it was, but she knew she had gotten no more than five hours of sleep.

"Luxa, you are late for your morning studies, and you must hurry yourself and go to them," Vikus told her for the third time.

"Yes, Vikus, I will go and prepare myself at once," Luxa assured her grandfather, her voice a hoarse whisper, the fault of an abrupt awakening. She blinked her violet eyes to clear them, to see the room with more clarity. Her lids were heavy, bleary and tired and wanting to shut to sleep again, but Vikus quickly came sharply into focus. He looked more tired than she; just the sight of his sad, half-sagging face made Luxa want to jump right out of her bed. It wasn't like Luxa to stay asleep so long; most often she would awaken early.

"Very well, see that you hasten yourself." With that, Vikus exited the room, limping slightly on his left side.

Luxa swung her legs over her bed and stood up. She made her way through the silken curtain that led to her washroom and took off her nightgown. She entered the rock-bowl that had warm flowing water running through it and began to bathe herself. She wished to go back to bed and catch just one more hour of sleep, but she knew that was not a possibility. She would never hear the end of it from Vikus and her teacher, an old woman that seemed worse than Stellovet, Ripred, and an army of gnawers all put together. She let out a sigh, she would get more sleep if she wasn't up so long during the night, thinking. It was the only time when she had time to slow down and think, during the time when she would be sleeping, but she dreaded it. With time and nothing to occupy her mind, it wandered, and whenever it wandered, she returned to thoughts of him. She remembered telling herself after her parents had died never let her become attached to another person. Henry only reinforced this choice. She used to tell herself everyday that it would be her last, so that she would live it without fear. When Gregor came, that all changed. Something about him just seemed like he would always be there, but when he did leave, she continued telling herself that, as an emotional defense, to help keep her from becoming too close to others. Being emotionally tied with people only brought pain. She didn't know what it was about Gregor, probably everything, but she couldn't stop herself from becoming attached to him. And just like every other person she had loved, he also had to leave her. It was thoughts like this that kept her up during the night. Sometimes thoughts of him brought her comfort, but most of the time they brought regret, sadness, and on the harder nights, anger. Sometimes she wished he had never came, that she would have never met him, so that she wouldn't have to feel the pain of him being gone forever. But she knew deep down inside, she needed him in her life more than anything else. She was often up at night, lying on her back with the tears silently flowing until sleep finally brought its blissful cover over her.

Luxa snapped back to reality, as she was starting to doze in the bathtub and letting her mind wander. She hurriedly finished washing herself and preparing to face the day. Sometimes she was almost happy that her life was so busy. Since there were always things to do, she usually didn't have time to let her mind wander and think of the thoughts that she dreaded the most like how she did at night in her bed. She trudged back to her room to grabbed a pile of heavy leather scrolls sitting on a stone shelf near her unmade bed and started heading up the stairs of the palace, ready for another day of tasks to occupy her mind.

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Well, I guess that was a bit short. Try and think of it more as an introduction than a chapter. I will post another on soon enough. Please review and tell me if you think it is better, worse or just as good/bad as the original. Thanks!By the by, I watched Pan's Labyrinth for the first time tonight, I know it's kind of random, but you guys should check it out. Personally, I loved it. Be warned though, it's in Spanish with English subtitles, it's rated R, and there is some pretty gruesome scenes and some strong language. Anywho, hope you enjoyed it, see ya!

Sincerely,

Thomas (xthe beastx)