Page 11 (1/2)

Chapter 11

Gregor had never bitten his nails before, but he started doing it about five minutes after the fireflies arrived They were unbelievable! They argued about where they would sit, they argued about who should take the first shift, they even argued about whose servant Temp should be since he was obviously just a no-account crawler, until the roach spoke up with uncharacteristic force, "Only the princess, Temp serves, only the princess"

Mareth tried to feed them to distract them, but they just bickered about each other's table manners

"Must you talk with your mouth full, Zap?" Photos Glo said "It kills my appetite"

"This from someone who just sat in his milk!" Zap said, and apparently she had hier, and he chomped on a mushroom in silence for at least thirty seconds

"Are they always like this?" Gregor whispered to Mareth

"In truth, these two are not as bad as some others I have traveled with," whispered back Mareth "I once saw a pair try to fight to the death over a piece of cake"

"Try to?" said Gregor

"They are not very capable fighters, and they tire quickly So they ended up accusing each other of cheating, and giving up Then they sulked for several days," said Mareth

"Do we really need theor

"Unfortunately, yes," said Mareth

Even Boots, who had stationed herself on the floor of the boat to roll a ball around with Teravated by the newco on one of his wings "Shh, Fo-Fo!"

"Fo-Fo? Fo-Fo? I am he called Photos Glo and will answer to no other name!" said Photos Glo

"She's just a little kid She can't say Photos Glo," said Gregor

"Well, then, I cannot understand her!" said the firefly

"Allowto move "She said if you don't stop your incessant babble, that big rat sitting in the boat next to you will rip your head off"

The silence that folloas blissful Gregor felt positively friendly toward Twitchtip, and decided he wouldn'tin her boat at all

They were far out into the Waterway now The torches had been extinguished when the shiners arrived, and the fireflies' glow only illuor snapped on his best flashlight for a ns of land had vanished

There aves, too, now And even a decent breeze Mareth and Howard ran silken sails up thethe two vessels Their bats settled coor noticed that Ares didn't join theathered in a cluhts But maybe Ares wasn't welco it will take us to get to the Labyrinth in this boat?" asked Gregor

"At least five days," said Ares "If we flee could make it in less time, but it is believed that very few bats could make the journey No one has ever tried it"

"I bet you could or He meant it, too Henry hadn't chosen Ares just because he was a trouble and swift

"I have thought that I ht try it someday, to see if I could accoh He's the first guy who flew across the Atlantic Ocean by his?" asked Ares

"Well, mechanical ones He was a person He had a plane That's a machine that flies Now people fly across the ocean all the ti," said Gregor

"He is famous, in the Overland?" asked Ares

"Yeah, I mean, he was He's dead now, but he was real fa about a war," Gregor said, unsure about that part There was a sad thing, too, about a baby But he couldn't reor picked up the scroll with "The Prophecy of Bane" and opened it

DIE the baby, die his heart,