Authors: Daniel Arenson
She trembled and her hands reached for her bow and arrows. Scruff placed his hand on her shoulder, leaned down, and kissed her cheek.
"Okay, Cobweb. We'll keep walking until we're in your home. We'll be safe there. And if any diddlywiggles show up on the way, I'll step on them."
As they walked, Scruff smiled to himself, imagining himself stomping on diddlywiggles. Surely, with a name so cute, they were fuzzy little caterpillars. He was used to Romy being scared of ducklings, caterpillars, and little cute things; it seemed Cobweb was too.
As the sun set, fireflies began to swirl. Purple mushrooms grew around him, some a foot tall. Night flowers bloomed, their pollen glowing. Scruff inhaled deeply, enjoying the beauty, the crisp air, and the peace of night.
A creature chattered in the darkness. It sounded to Scruff like a chipmunk, but larger.
Much
larger.
Cobweb froze and drew an arrow.
"Diddwywiggwes!" she said.
Scruff looked around, seeking cute caterpillars to squash. "Where, where?"
A shadow dipped down from the trees, cackling. Long legs reached out, wrapped around the snoring Willow, and the shadow pulled back up into the trees. Willow vanished with it.
"What the—?" Scruff said. "That was no caterpillar!"
Cobweb looked from treetop to treetop, panting. Her arrow shook in her bow. "What awe you tawking about, Scwuff?"
More cackling and chattering rose around the treetops. Shadows scurried. The light of fireflies reflected on long, shiny legs and purple eyes. Whatever those things were, they were big. Their eyes blazed above and the trees shook.
"Mmmm-mffff!" Willow cried above, voice muffled. "Let me goMfMMfff."
Scruff raised his mace. "Here caterpillars... here caterpillars...."
A diddlywiggle dipped from the trees, hanging from a silver strand. The light of fireflies caught it. Scruff grimaced.
"Great. So they're giant spiders. I should have known."
The spider reached toward him with glimmering black legs. Its purple eyes blazed, and its mouth opened, baring fangs. Scruff swung his mace. He hit the spider, and it flew on its cobweb like a tetherball. It made a full circle, then slammed into Scruff. It bit his shoulder. Scruff screamed and beat it off. It must have been four feet long, and its bite burned.
"Help!" Willow cried above. "Get them offfMFFFFMMMFFF". The spider seemed to cover her mouth again.
A second spider descended from the trees and lunged at Scruff. He clubbed it with his mace. It flew too in a circle, hanging on its cobweb, and came flying back toward him. Soon five spiders were flying toward him, and he kept batting them aside.
Cobweb was shooting arrow after arrow. One arrow hit a strand of web, and the diddlywiggle fell. The spider scurried toward her, jumped onto her, and leaned in to bite.
"Cobweb!" Scruff cried. He ran and swung his mace. The spider flew off Cobweb and slammed into a tree. It shook itself, then came charging forward, teeth snapping. Scruff was about to club it again, but another spider leaped onto his back. Its teeth sank into his shoulder, and he fell.
Cobweb's dagger lashed. The spider shrieked and scurried off Scruff. He leaped to his feet, mace swinging, and clubbed two more. They kept dipping from the trees, scratching, and pulling back up into shadow. A dozen or more filled the trees.
"I thought spiderlings worshipped spiders!" he shouted as he fought.
Cobweb nodded and shot an arrow into the treetops. "We do! Da spidews awe onwy g-g-guawding ouw home."
Scruff clubbed a spider, sending it swinging on its cobweb round and round a tree trunk, until it slammed into the tree and groaned. Webs covered Scruff's back and clung to his mace.
"Hel—" Willow began to cry above, but her voice was farther away now.
The spiders are carrying her off,
Scruff realized as he fought. More kept dipping from the trees. The sun was gone behind the horizon now, and endless spiders filled the darkness, their eyes glowing purple. Their teeth snapped and their legs filled the night, glittering and smooth.
"Oh bloody hell," Scruff said. "I ain't staying here to fight. These things guard the border? We're crashing through." He grabbed Cobweb's arm. "Come on!"
He began running forward, clubbing spiders aside. They swung from every direction on their cobwebs, biting and lashing their feet. One sliced his leg. Another bit his shoulder. Scruff kept running forward, pulling Cobweb behind him.
"I'm out of awwows!" she cried. She began lashing her knife at the attacking spiders.
"They're thinning out ahead!" Scruff cried. "We just need to get past the border."
He ran through the night, branches slapping against him, and saw glowing runes on boulders ahead.
Spidersilk Forest. We're almost there.
He clubbed two more spiders, leaped over a fallen log, and raced forward. Two more steps....
"SCWUFF!"
He turned his head and growled. A spiders, hanging from the treetops on spiderwebs, had wrapped its legs around Cobweb's shoulders. It began pulling her up into the shadows.
"Cobweb!"
Scruff leaped and grabbed the diddlywiggle. They swung on the spiderweb—overgrown spider, screaming spiderling, and a giant warrior with a belly full of pork and beer. They flew over the forest floor, up into the treetops, and back down again.
"Scwuff!"
"WhooooaAAA!"
They swung low over the ground, then flew up in the opposite direction, smashing through branches. The spider squealed and twisted. Scruff held on for dear life. Before they could fly back... the spiderweb snapped.
Scruff, Cobweb, and the spider flew. They crashed through branches and more spiders, over a stream, and down toward a grassy slope. They hit the ground, grunted and yelped, and rolled downhill.
"Cobweb, are you—ouch!—okay—damn it!"
Rocks covered the hill, jabbing Scruff as he rolled. Cobweb rolled beside him, wrapped in webs. The spider rolled too. Finally the three crashed into a fallen tree and were still. Scruff moaned. Scratches covered him. Cobweb moaned beside him, draped in spiderwebs.
"Cobweb!" he ran to her. The diddlywiggle attempted a half-hearted attack, limping toward him. Scruff kicked it, and it flew into the shadows.
"Oh, Scwuff." Cobweb embraced him.
"Are you all right?"
She nodded and looked back up the hill. Spiders still filled the trees there, swinging on branches and glaring with purple eyes.
"We have to save Wiwwow!" she said.
Scruff looked at the trees. Hundreds of spiders seemed to scurry between them. He shuddered.
"Cobweb, I dunno... I think Willow is...."
...dead already,
he wanted to say, but couldn't. Cobweb's eyes filled with tears. Scruff wasn't sure why Cobweb felt bad; if the witch was spider food now, that was fine with him.
"...I think she's fine," he finished. "Willow is a witch, Cobweb. Or at least a witch in training. She can take care of herself."
Cobweb took two steps uphill, moving closer to the trees. "But Scwuff! What if she n-n-needs hewp?"
Scruff heaved the longest, deepest sigh of his life. "I'll go look for her. Stay here."
She nodded, trembling.
As he trudged uphill, Scruff cursed under his breath. Who cared about Willow? The girl worked for Madrila. Let the giant spiders eat her! And yet Cobweb's tears stung him. Whenever she cried, he would do anything for her. He stepped back into the trees, club swinging.
"Willow!" he shouted. "Do you hear me, girl?"
The overgrown spiders dipped and chattered around him. He couldn't hear Willow's screams anymore.
"Willow!" he cried.
He heard nothing but spiders.
Eaten,
he knew. He clubbed two aside, then ran back downhill to Cobweb. She stood in the grass by the fallen tree, hugging herself. The moon shone above, glittering on her silver hair, purple skin, and gossamer dress.
"She got away," Scruff said. "She ran back west into the forests of humans."
That was a lie, he knew, but a white lie. A
possibility
. Cobweb nodded and hugged him. Spiderwebs still draped across her shoulders, and Scruff picked them off.
"Okay, Scwuff. Wet's keep g-g-going. Now da dangewous pawt begins."
Scruff sighed.
It gets worse?
He took her hand, and they began walking through a clearing toward more trees.
"More dangerous than giant spiders?"
She nodded. "Much mowe. If da spidewwing ewdews catch us—me, a b-b-banished one, and you, a human... we'we in deep twoubwe." She took a deep breath and clutched her dagger. "Wet's find my fwiends quickwy... den get out of hewe."
Chapter Thirteen
Water and Stars
"So... Romy," Neev said. "How many demon friends do you have who can help us?"
They were walking down a dirt road, a field of wheat to their right, a vineyard to their left. In the distance, purple mountains rose from mist. Geese flew above, incurring screams from Romy whenever they honked too loudly.
"Oh, lots and lots and lots of friends," she said. "So many friends you couldn't count them! Oh, all those friends that I have!" She thought for a moment. "Two."
Neev groaned. "Two friends, Romy? When you said we should go to Hell for help, I imagined... I don't know, at least fifty fierce demons with flaming whips and pitchforks of dragonbone."
Romy waved her own pitchfork at the birds who flew above. When they had flown away, she looked back at Neev. "Oh, don't worry. My friends are just as tough, mean, and scary as I am."
Neev sighed. "That's what I'm worried about."
They walked down the road until the fields faded into wild country. Grass and trees swayed and a stream gurgled. When Romy saw the stream, she froze, shivered, and pointed.
"Ducks," she said and began sucking her thumb.
Neev smacked his lips.
That evening they sat by a campfire, eating roast duck (Romy was less afraid of them roasted) and drinking wild mint tea. The sunset flowed around them, orange and yellow like Romy's hair of fire. After eating, they lay on their backs and watched the first stars emerge.
"What do you think the stars are made of?" Romy asked, twirling her hair.
"Candy," he said. "Fly and get me some."
She patted his stomach. "You've eaten enough tonight. You're going to get fat!"
"Remind me, who ate ten birthday cakes recently?"
She pouted. "I was hungry!"
"Pigs get hungry. You—"
He froze and frowned. Something moved inside the stream—a large shape with staring eyes.
"Who's the pig?" Romy demanded and stamped her feet. "You're the one who grew a pig nose last time you cast a spell. All I did was—"
"Shh, Romy. Look, in the stream!"
She turned to stare and gasped. "It looks like... a swimmer?"
A figure seemed to swim underwater, transparent and glimmering. The water began to rise, raining droplets, forming the shape of a woman wearing robes and a pointy hat. The watery spirit seemed to smile. It spoke in a gurgling voice.
"Hello, Bullies."
Neev gasped. Madrila! Or at least, it was a watery version of her. The spirit reached out her arms, and tendrils of water shot forward. Neev growled and lashed his magic, severing a watery tendril with blasts of fire. Romy squealed. The second tendril wrapped around her and began pulling her toward the stream.
"Romy!"
Neev ran toward her, grabbed her, and began pulling her back. Water wrapped around her like ropes, pulling her toward the river spirit. Romy tried to scream, but water filled her mouth, and she coughed and sputtered. Her wings tried to flap, but were pinned to her body.
"I've got you, Romy!" Neev said, but a jet of water shot out and hit his face. More water wrapped around his feet and tugged him. He fell, and Romy slipped from his grasp.
"Romy!"
The water spirit pulled the demon into the stream. Romy gulped for air, gave a last scream, and then vanished underwater.
Neev cursed. His fingers trembled, but he managed to summon a fireball and toss it into the stream. Romy was fireproof; the watery Madrila might not be.
Steam rose from the water and droplets splashed. The fireball extinguished. He could see Romy struggling underwater, the watery Madrila pinning her down. Neev tossed a second fireball, and more water steamed and crashed, but the stream kept flowing.
Neev summoned a fireball into each hand and leaped into the water. He sank to the riverbed, eyes open and stinging. He saw Romy floundering, clutched in Madrila's grasp. Neev swam toward her and pressed both fireballs against the water spirit's head.
The creature screamed. Its head melted. Its arms opened. Neev grabbed Romy and swam with her to the surface. Their heads burst over the water, and they gasped for breath and coughed. His arms around Romy, Neev swam to the bank.
He pulled Romy out, dragged her several feet away, and lay her on the grass. Her hair smoldered, slick strands of guttering fire.
"Romy! Romy, can you breathe?"
She coughed and sputtered, but she breathed and nodded. "I—" She coughed. "I swallowed a fish!"
Neev turned back to the stream. The watery Madrila was rising again, headless. Her arms lashed out randomly, shooting streams of water, hitting trees and boulders.
"Where are you, Bullies?" Even without a head, she managed to cry in a gurgling voice. "I will find you. You cannot escape from me. I will summon the water, and the sky, and the earth itself to kill you. You cannot hide!"
"Maybe not," Neev said. "But we can fight."
He shot a fireball and hit the water spirit's chest. The creature shrieked and crashed into the stream. The water settled. Silence fell.
Neev let out a shaky breath. "She's gone."
Romy stood up, walked toward him, and hugged him.
"Oh Neev." She kissed him. "You saved me. But oh, your nose!"
He touched it and sighed.
A pig's snout. Of course.
"Damn jinx," he said.
Romy giggled. "Piggy pig pig!" She laughed and danced around him, tail wagging. "Who's the piggy now, Sir Oinky?"