Trek For Survival

They were within hours of reaching the border and there hadn"t been a single sign of them.

"I doubt they gave up that fast," said Elisen, shaking her head as she placed her baby back into the front carrier, she wore for him. "Especially after I killed the Grand Mystic. I imagine they are going to try something big right before we get there, so be ready!"

Everyone finished their breakfast of rations and tightened the straps on their backpacks. Vonn was talking quietly to Tom about something when Gia saw the first strand of webbing. With a gasp, she realized what she was looking at and cried out in alarm.

"Stop!" cried Luan, spying the same thing. "Quick! Turn East!"

A giant spider rose up over the edge of the trees ahead of them, twitching its mandibles and waving its front two legs slowly. All of the trees that were carrying people turned while the empty ones darted forward to distract it.

"Spiders?! Why did it have to be spiders?!" cried Gia, rubbing her arms as gooseb.u.mps formed and her hairs stood straight up.

"Stay close to the trunk of your trees!" cried Luan, keeping an eye on the spider behind them. "If one attacks your tree, chances are it will take off branches rather than get to you. Closer to the ground is better too!"

"Oh! I hate losing limbs! Do you know how long it takes to grow them out?" demanded the tree carrying Luan.

"Don"t worry, if you get hurt, I"ll heal you," said Luan, patting the tree to comfort it as they continued in the new direction.

"Luan, this isn"t going to work!" said Elisen after a few minutes. "The spider has the entire southern end of the forest blocked off. There"s no way to go around the webbing! We"re going to have to go through it, and hope we make it to the coast before the spider shows up. Hopefully there"s only one."

"Is this spider related to the Mystics?" asked Tom, holding on to a branch near the trunk of his tree as it ran along.

"Probably," said Elisen. "I haven"t been to this southern border in a while, but I would have remembered if there were giant spiders in our forest!"

"The King hates them and kills them whenever they appear. If the Mystics are behind this one, they will be in serious trouble!" said Luan.

Pausing as the trees of the forest b.u.t.ted against a stone cliff that stretched high above them, the trees turned towards the webbed forest to the south.

"It"s going to be tough going! Hold on!" said the tree holding Elisen as it dived forward, quickly getting entangled in the webbing.

"Luan, I need your help with this," said Elisen as she started chanting, holding up a hand ahead of her.

Luan quickly nodded, holding up her own hand and chanting along with her. The trees in their group started glowing a soft green, and the webbing that clung to them fell away, as if it couldn"t stick to them. The sky above them, what little could be seen of it, started to cloud over, cutting the light around them drastically. The trees pushed on, forcing their ways through the last silent mile of forest, as a drizzle of rain began to fall.

All hopes of getting through the web covered trees without encountering a giant spider faded away as the water clinging to the webbing began to bounce and shake.

"Gia, if Elisen and Luan stop chanting, this webbing will stick to the trees and trap us in place. We have to stop the spider ourselves!" called Vonn, pulling out the crossbow he had gotten from the dwarves.

Mikey had a grim look on his face of determination, as he pulled out his hand axe. "I won"t let any spider get to Luan!"

Gia turned and watched as the spider rose up over them, then turned and chased after them as they pa.s.sed it by. The trees they were on didn"t pay it any mind, focusing instead on reaching the edge of the forest as fast as they could.

"Gia, I can"t watch!" cried Carla, shutting her eyes tight as she clung to the trunk of the tree.

"Me, either!" cried Tom, trying to make a joke as he held on for dear life.

No one laughed as the spider drew closer, preparing to pounce on Luan"s tree in the back of the group. Vonn took his time aiming, before letting loose a bolt from the crossbow. It hit the spider"s eye, but seemed to bounce off. With a m.u.f.fled curse, Vonn reloaded the crossbow and prepared a second shot.

This time he aimed for the mouth, waiting for it to attack, before letting loose the bolt down the throat of the monster. Its fangs slid off the outer branches of the tree, and Mikey swung his axe at one, missing and almost falling off his branch. Getting a better grip, he glared at the spider as it paused in its run.

Vonn quickly reloaded the crossbow for the third time as the spider lunged in his direction. Gia screamed as he let loose the bolt without getting a chance to aim. The spider bit off the entire top of the tree, exposing both Vonn and Tom for the spider"s next attack. The tree they were in whimpered in pain and dived in front of Luan"s tree as the spider went for a second bite. Missing its mark, the spider tried to overcorrect but slipped in the increasing rain, giving Vonn enough time to reload the crossbow yet again.

Waving her arm to try and distract the spider, Gia questioned her sanity when it noticed her and turned her way. Clinging to her tree with a high-pitched whimper, Gia closed her eyes as it lunged her way. Her tree shook, and she opened one eye to see everything above her head was gone.

The spider spat out the wood, giving Vonn another shot into its mouth.

There was a bright flash that caused spots to dance in front of Gia"s eyes, quickly followed by a loud crash of thunder. The stone cliffside beside them began to crumble and collapse, raining loose pebbles down onto them as the trees they were riding on picked up their pace. Glancing back at the spider, Gia saw it disappear under the collapsed cliff and breathed a sigh of relief.

With rain pouring down around them, they stared out over the rocky coastline ahead of them. Climbing down out of the trees, Gia turned to Luan.

"We wouldn"t have made it without you!" she exclaimed, giving the elven girl a hug.

"I wouldn"t be alive, if it wasn"t for you!" laughed Luan, returning the hug. "You are my mom, after all. I just wish you could stay in the forest. I think I would like having you and Vonn as my parents."
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"I"m sorry, Luan," said Elisen, glancing back into the forest. "We must go. The Mystics have several more of those spiders on the way. They will be safe from them, being outside of the forest, but we will not."

"Alright," nodded Luan, giving Vonn a quick hug as well before turning and diving back into the forest behind Elisen.

Vonn turned and looked at Gia, taking her hand. She wiped away a tear, and turned away from the forest. Even if they weren"t in the forest, they still didn"t want to be close enough for one of those giant spiders to consider them for supper. None of them breathed a sigh of relief until they had followed the coast around a bend in the cliff wall, cutting off the view of the forest entirely.

"I"m going to miss her," said Gia softly, holding Vonn"s arm as they slowed their pace to something more comfortable.

"Me too," said Vonn.

"We need to find somewhere to wait out this storm," said Tom, pulling his cloak tighter around him.

"Your father"s right. Help me look for a cave or something," said Carla.

"What about that?" asked Mikey, pointing ahead, where a small cleft in the wall formed a small waterfall.

As they drew closer to it, they could see that the way the rock had split, formed a natural hollow that was dry from the lashing rain. Getting everyone up to it was difficult, and they found that they weren"t the first ones to have used it. Piles of bones and bits of fur greeted them as they piled in.

"Do you think the owner of this cave is going to mind?" asked Carla, pausing at the sight of the bones and fur.

"They"re old, Carla," chuckled Vonn. "I don"t imagine anything"s been in this cave in a while. In fact, if I build a fire, it should deter anything that might be seeking shelter."

"Good idea. That will also give us some heat to get the chill out of our bones," said Tom, settling down and shivering. "Carla, dear. I think I have splinters in places I can"t seem to get out on my own. Would you mind helping?"

Rolling her eyes, Gia moved to help Vonn gather some of the drift wood that had collected along the rock wall as Mikey groaned behind her. They were safe and sound, and past one more obstacle on their trek to a new home.