Chapter 7

The group's reaction to the Prophecy was pretty well unanimous, Gregor groaned, Luxa sighed, the Members of the Grand council broke out into furious whispers among themselves. Knight and Anna looked pretty confused.

"This," Narissa said, oblivious to their reactions, "I call the Prophecy of Hope."

"Hope?" Knight asked. "If you ask me, it sounds more like a Prophecy of sadness or something like that. Was all that supposed to make sense?"

"Once it's all over," Gregor said, "Then it usually makes all the sense in the world."

"Take a copy may we, take a copy?" asked Temp, scuttling forward, "Read we, find we a meaning."

Narissa handed Temp a copy of the prophecy and the different members of the Grand Council left quickly, still whispering in their different tones of voice as they went to try to interpret a meaning to the vague words.

Gregor turned to Luxa, "what do you think?"

The girl turned to look at Ripred, "I think it's time we tell him the full story, in the telling we may stumble on some deeper meaning to what is going on here. But first I must find Vikus and Hazard," she said, turning to leave. "Then I shall return and tell you all I know. If we are to have hope, this prophecy must be strictly considered. Tell your friends what you must, Gregor, they very well may play a part in this too."

Gregor sighed, as he watched her go, if he could help it, non of them would play a part in another prophecy. They brought too much pain.

"Okay," Gregor said, finally turning back to his friends. They had leaped after him into the Underland, they did deserve an explanation of some sorts. "I will give you a brief history so you'll understand. What do you want to know?"

Anna asked, "How did you find this place?"

At the same moment Knight asked, "How exactly did people get down here?"

Gregor smiled, "I'll try to answer those questions in order. In about the sixteen hundreds, this guy named Bartholomew of Sandwich had a vision that one day the world would be destroyed and that in order to preserve human life, he had to take his followers to the Underland. They took 50 years to get everything ready to go, then sealed themselves off from the Overland except for a few special gates-like the one in my laundry room."

"And you found that one by trying to escape laundry duty or something?" Knight asked.

Gregor shook his head at the memory of that day, "Boots found it by accident when she was two and I dove in after her. It was the worst experience of my life. We got caught up in one of these prophecies and a year and four or five more prophecies later, I returned to the Overland, against all odds with only these-" He stripped his shirt off, revealing fully the scares he'd often tried to keep hidden. "and the nightmares to remind me of the experiences."

Anna stepped forward to get a better look at the scares. Gregor realized they had been good friends to him. After his initial explanation of a farm accident, they hadn't asked him about them. Anna looked up at him wearing a look on her face to match Knight's, it was one Gregor knew full well when it came to the Underland. It said, I have to believe this because I'm here, but really, it can't be true.

"What are they from?" Anna asked as her fingers ran over one of the five long scares that spread across his chest, Gregor pulled back slightly from her touch.

"They are from a gigantic fourteen foot rat called the Bane, who tried to destroy the Underland."

"And the Warrior here killed him," Ripred said from directly behind Anna, making her jump closer to Knight. "You don't know that your friend here has a legacy for every Underlander."

"Ripred," Gregor said, pulling his shirt back over the scares, "that was dangerously close to a compliment. You're getting soft in your old age."

"Soft? Old? I still have some of the sharpest claws and teeth in the Underland, and one rager to another, you don't want to make me mad."

"You got one more prophecy left in you then?"

Ripred looked intently at him, all joking gone from him for a moment, "You know my feelings on the prophecies, Gregor, but this is much, much more than just another prophecy. The whole Underland stands in a balance once more, and this enemy is not one you can simply slash with a sword."

"Ripred!" Luxa said, making all three of them jump as she came back into the room, Vikus, Hazard, Aurora and Elpis fluttered in behind them. "let us tell the tale, perhaps it is not as dire as it may seem."

Narissa stayed in the room, but not in the circle of those who gathered around Luxa, Gregor watched her as she went around the room, seemingly trying to organize the different artifacts in the museum.

Luxa knelt on the floor and rolled out a large sheet of parchment with a map of the Underland on it. Gregor could see that it wasn't the same map he'd seen before, not only was it smaller, but this map was newer, the Uncharted Lands took up less space and the boarders between the Underlands different inhabitants were not so solid.

"Hazard," Luxa said, looking at the boy who had become her brother in the past few years. "Would you explain the logistics of the map?"

Hazard took four stones from his pocket and put them on the four corners of the map to hold it in down and then took his place beside Luxa above the north end of the map.

"Here," he said pointing, "Is where Regalia is in the north of the Underland. To the east of us is the waterway, with the Fount just here."

He went on, pointing out the other places Gregor knew, the Firelands, the Labyrinth, and the Deadlands. Gregor's eyes went to his friends, realizing that he was glad that they could see this part of him, although they looked astonished at the sheer size of the Underland.

Gregor's eyes were drawn to the parts of the map that were completely new, places that were labeled as inhabited by nibbler and crawler colonies. The Gnawers were divided and Gregor could see how placing them in different areas lessened the likelihood of attack.

Hazard's brief geography lesson ended and he gave a small smile at his cousin, "Did I miss anything?"

Luxa tousled her cousin's hair and grinned at him for a brief moment, "You know far better than I do. Thank you Hazard."

She turned serious again though as she looked up at Gregor, "You know much of this and can see the changes that have taken place in the Underland since the last time you were here. We face a new challenge though, we have the councils put in place and we are striving to work together."

"So. . ." Knight asked, "What's the problem?"

Gregor frowned as he looked at the map and put the words all together. He found himself looking into Ripred's eyes and he knew the answer even before Knight finished his question. "You're running out of food. The Underland can't support you."

"Hmm…" Ripred said, "Perhaps you have actually got some brains after all."

Luxa nodded slowly, "We realized it just about a year ago, things were going so well, we were all working together, but I think we went too fast. We just felt like we had to work out the peace part of things, we didn't realize that we were spreading out, perhaps too thin. The new outposts and settlements we've set up haven't got the systems in place for growing food and so Regalia was supplying them, as well as providing for the nibblers while they got back on their feet, making peace offerings to the Gnawers. The earthquake and shifting of the river has, for the time being, diminished the fish available."

"Why don't you guys just come up to where we are?" Anna asked and all eyes turned to her as silence fell.

"Well," Ripred finally broke the silence, "I'm not sure New York City would be ready for the likes of me."

"Uh…well," Anna stammered and Knight put a supporting hand on her arm.

"I think, she wondered why you don't come to the Overland," he directed his question to Luxa, who sat with Hazard and Vikus on either side of her.

Luxa looked behind her and Aurora and Elpis, then at Ripred, "Many of us could not survive your Overland, not without our bonds. This place, it is where we are from, our home and I cannot lead my people to abandon it."

"Besides," Vikus said, speaking for the first time since entering the room. "We are too different. We would be captured and studied, we would become an oddity. At least, we know that the Overland exists, we can welcome those Overlanders we meet here. But they have no idea we are here. They would invade our lands and demand answers. And our eyes and our skin have never seen sunlight, we could never live normally."

Gregor touched a spot on the map just outside of Regalia, "The Garden of the Hesperides," He said looking directly at Ripred. "Why did you order it rebuilt?"

The rats black eyes narrowed, "In the Underland, friends can become your enemy very quickly. The best way to convince the majority of the rats that the humans were sincere in their attempts at peace was to give back the one thing that they wanted the most."

"What is The Garden of the Hesperides?" Anna asked the group at large, and though most ignored her, Hazard turned to answer.

"The Garden was once given from the rats to the humans as a sign of peace between them."

Luxa reached out and grabbed Hazards arm, "A sign of peace?"

Gregor looked up at her in surprise, "A tool of war,"

"Hmm… very clever," Ripred said as he looked between the two of them. "The prophecy of hope is talking about the Garden."

"We must find a way to…make it grow?" Elpis said, breaking into the conversation. "But that has been tried before and has not worked."

"And that," Luxa said, looking up at Gregor, "Is our quest."

Everyone began talking at once, Vikus left immediately to go and talk with the Grand Council about their theory. He instructed Hazard and Luxa to meet him there shortly.

"What can we do to help?" Knight asked over the chatter.

And Hazards voice tugged at all their hearts when he said, "Where will we find the seeds Luxa? I will accompany you."

They fell silent, most people looking away from the boy who's history was so tied to the Garden.

"You must not come, Hazard," Luxa told him gently, pushing his hair from his eyes. "You must stay here and take care of things here. Vikus would never let you go, and I cannot send you. You are untrained and would only be a danger to yourself. Here, you are invaluable."

Gregor watched as the boys eyes fell to the map and stayed there, his fists clenched at his side. There was something familiar about that expression. He had some of Luxa's attitude in him after all.

Luxa looked at the others then, smiling a little at Knight. "The council will have to decide who goes on the quest. We should break for dinner while Hazard, Ripred and I go to the meeting."

"Sure," Ripred interjected. "Feed everyone but the rat."

Luxa easily ignored him, "Tomorrow morning we should have a clearer view of who is going and where they are going."

As everyone began to file out of the museum, Luxa touched Gregor's arm, "Overlander, may I speak with you?"

Anna and Knight stopped at the door, looking back at him, but Gregor motioned them on, shaking his head at Anna's smug look in Luxa's direction. Ripred, who skulked along behind them shoved his nose into Knights back.

"Ow! We're going!" He said, grabbing Anna's arm and dragging her out of the room with him.

Ripred, the last in line, turned to look at Luxa, their eyes met for a long moment and Gregor had the sense that this was a form of communication they had developed over their years since being bonded. Their thinking had become so in-sync they could practically read each other's thoughts.

Luxa gave a terse nod and Ripred turned to leave, "Oh Overlander," he said snidely over his shoulder, "One day you will learn you are tied too tightly to this place."

Once they were alone, Luxa turned to pace the shelves between all the relics that had someone landed in the Underland over the years. She touched a square of yellow paper and held it up to him. "What is the purpose of this?"

Gregor smiled as he took it from her, "They're post-it notes. You can write on them and stick them somewhere so you don't forget." He peeled one off and stuck it to her shoulder.

She pulled it off curiously and rubbed it between her fingers. "You waste trees for reminders?"

"The Overland is a very different place, Luxa," he told her somewhat sadly.

"Another thing between us then," she said, continuing down the row of treasures. "I can not live there Gregor. I cannot leave the Underland to destruction. What am I to do?"

"Luxa," He said and she turned around at the sound of her name, unable to completely hide the pain on her face. Did she let anyone see how much it strain she was under?

When she spoke, it was soft and to his surprise, he knew the words. Knew them well from the weeks when they had defined his life. "When the monster's blood is spilled,"

"And the warrior has been killed." Gregor continued, picking up the last stanza to his old friend, the Prophecy of Time. "You must not ignore the rapping, or the tapping, tapping, tapping. If the gnawers catch you napping, you will rot while they are mapping out the law of those who gnaw in the code of claw."

She nodded at the words, "Even with Ripred and many of the rats on my side, there is growing unease among them. If we run out of resources, we will cut them off. We will see that the humans survive. They know this, and they will attack before they see the humans attempt to kill them again. Solovet's plague is not yet distant enough for them to forget that there was at a time a plan to kill as many of them as possible."

"But I am the warrior, and I didn't die. I won't let this balance tip. We'll figure out the Prophecy of Hope. We'll go the quest and we'll win." He brushed his hand over her cheek, "no napping for us."

She smiled just a little, "It appears that we do not have the luxury." She sighed, "The Council will want my input on who should go. I cannot sit and wait while they debate though, Gregor. We must make haste and leave right away."

"But to where?"

She looked at him sadly, "I know not where they got the seeds for the golden apples that grew in the Garden. Looking at Hazard's map, I can only think of two places where plants grow easily in the Underland. The Jungle and-" She broke off, not wanting to say it.

"The Vineyard of eyes," Gregor said as he tried to suppress a shudder of his own.

"We cannot take others into that kind of danger, not after what happened last time. When we lost Thalia and almost lost Hazard and Boots. Gregor, I have to do this, and if you will come with me, I will be ever grateful."

"Of course I will come," he paused and thought about his friends. "My friends cannot stay here though, they needed to get back to the Overland before something bad happens to them here."

"I will give orders to have them flown back up to the Overland," Luxa promised him. "And then, we will leave. Tonight, after everyone is asleep. Meet me at the spot."