"Wow," said Gregor. Her gentle demeanor bad fooled him.
Gregor shifted his weight on the bat and something poked his leg. He pulled the prophecy Nerissa had given him from his pocket and unrolled it. Maybe now would be a good time to ask Vikus some questions. "So, do you think you could explain this 'Gray Prophecy' to me?"
" 'The Prophecy of Gray,'" corrected Vikus. "What of it puzzles you?"
"The whole thing," thought Gregor, but he said, "Maybe we could just go through it a piece at a time." He studied the poem.
Beware, Underlanders, time hangs by a thread.
Well, that seemed pretty clear. It was a warning.
The hunters are hunted, white water runs red.
He asked Vikus to unravel the second line. "The rats are traditionally the hunters of the Underland, for they would happily track and kill the rest of us. Last night, we hunted them to save you. So, the hunters were hunted. White water ran red when we left their bodies to the river."
"Oh," said Gregor. Something was bothering him, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
The gnawers will strike to extinguish the rest.
"Are 'the gnawers' the rats?" he asked. "Exactly so," said Vikus.
The hope of the hopeless resides in a quest.
The quest to get his dad. So, he'd escaped, the Underlanders had saved him, and now they were at war and off on the quest. Gregor suddenly knew what was bothering him. "So ... this whole thing is my fault!" he said. "It never would've happened if I hadn't tried to escape!" He thought of the approaching army of rats. What had he done?
"No, Gregor, put that from your mind," said Vikus firmly. "You are but one player in a very long and difficult tale. 'The Prophecy of Gray' trapped you, as it trapped us, long ago."
Gregor was silent. He didn't exactly feel better.
"Read on," said Vikus, and Gregor's head drooped to the page. The lights of Regalia had faded away, and he had to squint to read by the faint torchlight.
An Overland warrior, a son of the sun, May bring us back light, he may bring us back none. But gather your neighbors and follow his call Or rats will most surely devour us all.
"So, you say this next part is about me," he said unhappily.
"Yes, you are the 'Overland warrior,' for obvious reasons," said Vikus, although Gregor didn't think the reasons were too obvious. "You are 'a son of the sun' as an Overlander, but also the son who seeks his father. This is the sort of comedic wordplay Sandwich delighted in."
"Yeah, he was a funny guy," said Gregor glumly. Ha ha.
"Now the lines that follow are most gray," said Vikus. "Sandwich could never clearly see if in fact you succeed in bringing back light or if you fail. But he most adamantly insisted we attempt the venture or die by the rats'teeth."
"Well, that's not too inspiring," said Gregor. But for the first time Sandwich had struck a chord with him. The possibility that Gregor might fail made the whole prophecy more plausible.
"What sort of light am I supposed to bring back?" asked Gregor. "Is there a sacred torch or something?"
"That is a metaphor. By 'light,' Sandwich means 'life.' If the rats can truly extinguish our light, they extinguish our life as well," said Vikus.
A metaphor? Gregor thought an actual torch would be easier to bring back. How could he bring back some metaphor thing he didn't really understand? "That could be tricky," he said. He read on.
TWO over, two under, of royal descent, TWO fliers, two crawlers, two spinners assent.
"What are all those twos about?" asked Gregor.
"That tells us whom we must persuade to accompany us on the quest. We are proceeding as if the 'two over' are you and your sister. 'Two under' of royal descent are Luxa and Henry. Henry's sister, Nerissa, as you might have gleaned, was not a possible choice. Fliers are bats. Crawlers are cockroaches. Spinners are spiders. We go now to assemble our neighbors in the order that the prophecy dictates. First the bats."
The number of bats had been increasing as they flew. Henry led the party into a vast cave. Gregor gave a little jump when he realized the ceiling was bumpy with hundreds and hundreds of hanging bats.
"But don't we already have bats?" asked Gregor.