"Where?" she said, springing to her feet. "How many nibblers? Were the rats with them or did they flee? Tell me!"
"Oh, there must have been hundreds," said Zap. "Maybe thousands."
"The rats were driving them somewhere. They are always driving the nibblers somewhere. Out of the caves, into the jungle, out of the jungle, into the tunnels. The whole thing is very tedious to watch," said Photos Glow-Glow.
"We fell asleep," said Zap.
"Were these nibblers from the jungle?" asked Gregor.
"No, they took the ones from the jungle straight to the Firelands," said Zap. "At least, I think someone said that. It was days ago. But the rats have been moving the nibblers around for years."
"Maybe they'll just leave them all in the Firelands and stop annoying the rest of us," said Photos Glow-Glow.
"The nibblers could not make a decent home in the Firelands," said Nike.
"Everyone has troubles, and no one helps," said Zap. "Look at us. Those slimers drove us from our home, and who came to our aid?"
"No one knew you were under attack," said Luxa.
"Because ... we were too proud to ask for help!" said Photos Glow-Glow dramatically.
"And it was such a long trip to Regalia," admitted Zap. "Nobody wanted to fly that far."
"But mostly... because we were too proud to ask for help!" repeated Photos Glow-Glow with a flourish.
The fireflies claimed they'd flown for hours and had to be exempted from watch duty that night. Soon they were snoring. Luxa asked Howard to take the first shift with her, and as he drifted off to sleep Gregor could hear her trying to reason with her cousin about the shiners, saying they would give Hazard comfort and that they might reveal more information about the nibblers.
The next morning, Gregor was awakened by Boots's surprised voice. "Fo-Fo? Are you Fo-Fo?"
"I am he called Photos Glow-Glow and will answer to no other name!" said the firefly.
"Oh, shiners!" said Hazard, rubbing his eyes and smiling. "How bright they are!"
"Temp! Temp! Look! Fo-Fo is here!" said Boots cheerfully.
"I said, I am he called ... oh, never mind," said Photos Glow-Glow crankily.
His mood improved with breakfast. The bats fished to provide a base for the fireflies' meal, and Luxa gave them each some shrimp salad. It was starting to spoil, but they didn't seem to notice.
The little band hadn't flown for five minutes when they passed the fireflies' current home. It was an enormous cave off Hades Hall that emitted a continuous whiny buzz. Multicolored lights flashed from the inhabitants' butts and a few voices demanded to know what Photos Glow-Glow and Zap were doing, but none of the other bugs could be bothered to fly out and find out.
Apparently Photos Glow-Glow and Zap were real go-getters for their species.
Hades Hall continued to veer downward at an alarming rate. They were moving deeper into the earth every moment. Often when Gregor swallowed his ears would pop.
They had to stop many times and fish for the fireflies just to keep the bugs going. Gregor wondered if they were really worth the effort. Then he remembered being knocked around the cave by Twirltongue and her friends and knew that they were.
"We near the bottom," said Photos Glow-Glow finally.
"Good, we will make camp there," said Howard.
"Not us," said Zap.
"Why not?" asked Gregor.
"Are your noses of no use at all?" asked Photos Glow-Glow.
There was a smell. A horrendous smell, wafting up from below them. Gregor flashed back to a summer several years ago, the farm in Virginia, his grandpa dragging a possum carcass from under the shed. "Something died down there," Gregor thought. A moment later, he saw them.