by J E Mueller
“How do you cure it?” I asked curiously, glancing over at Benz.”
“It’s awkward.” Benz sighed. “Let’s have that conversation another day if we can avoid it.” He followed the last of the group down the stairs.
It sounded like Kip was laughing in the distance, and I was even more curious now than when I had asked. Still, with no choice left, I followed them down, shutting the door behind me lest the spiders escape somehow up the stairs. No one needed that chaos.
At the bottom of the stairs, it was oddly quiet and far darker than I had expected. In the distance, a light hung, swaying softly from side to side despite the lack of wind. The dim light did little to really illuminate things, but I could glimpse something dark and large from time to time.
I hugged my arms close to my chest. Spiders were not my thing, but at least I didn’t have an immobilizing fear of them. There was no way I could have asked Mare to join us. Flipping my vision over, I noticed there were a ton more spiders than I thought. All sizes at that. Tiny ones, ankle sized ones, and ones as large as farm dogs. I didn’t see too many bigger than that, but I didn’t know for sure how far my vision could go.
“Your eyes are gold,” Benz whispered, causing everyone to look at me for a moment.
“Oh…” I flipped my vision back to normal, the darkness taking a moment to adjust to. “I didn’t know the magic did that.”
“It’s not too crazy, but right next to you the slight glow is obvious.” Benz patted my shoulder. “Still, good to see how it works right away.”
I nodded my silent agreement as Kip spoke up. “Shall we begin then?” He held up a fireball and movement could be easily heard.
Kip didn’t wait for anything and cast his fire far and wide, setting a few spiders on fire and helping the others to see. Gretta started to throw her spikes, and I noticed another using throwing knives. One of the girls magiced a scythe while the guy had lightning dancing along his finger tips.
With the chaos of the fight begun, we slipped along the wall. Benz called for his sword while I summoned my bow. Nothing seemed to be looking our way at first, and then Benz lunged forward to meet a spider jumping from the shadows. A quick thrust through its head ended its existence.
“You really are ready for this…” I hadn’t even seen it there.
Benz shrugged. “I think I’ve seen a few too many of them recently.” With another shrug he continued on as he whispered, “Maybe use that vision of yours. This place is not one you want to get tripped up on.”
Taking his warning to heart, I switched my vision over and really hoped it wouldn’t call much to me.
Nothing seemed to really shift toward me. In fact it seemed everything was either watching or moving to the group fighting by the stairs, allowing us to stay nearly against the wall.
Random objects got in our way every few feet, but it was all small, easy to walk around objects. There seemed to be everything down here from side rooms, chairs, broken tables, and almost all of it was covered in web. I really wanted to know what was in those rooms, some closed by doors or blocked with too much cobweb, but I didn’t dare deviate from the path. As likely as there were cool things, there were probably also another dozen spiders just waiting for someone to come in.
It didn’t take long for the sound of fighting to stop and for the room to slowly narrow into a tunnel and steadily grow cooler. Nothing was ahead and nothing close enough behind us so I shifted my vision back to normal.
“How much longer?” I whispered curiously.
“Maybe two or three miles.” Benz shrugged. “There shouldn’t be much trouble here.”
“Much? What could be ahead?” Probably something from outside.
“Mostly bats, some normal, some not.”
“Do I even want to know what the not is?” I really didn’t, but just in case we were to meet such a thing…
“Well, it’s very similar in shape and stature to the Agmon, except instead of long and horrifying claws, it has smaller claws and wide wings. It’s really an awkward creature that can’t do much harm, can’t really fly, but can screech loud enough to cause you to temporarily lose your hearing, which is the only way it really gets in good hits. It’s easy to be disoriented when you suddenly go from hearing to not.”
“Joy…” I shook my head. “It’s not poisonous or anything like that?”
“Nope. Basically an oversized bat that is really bad at killing things.” Benz smirked, the amusement lining his features. “Even better. It can’t fly but it still might try and pick you up to fly. Talk about a lost cause.”
“Maybe it could if there wasn’t someone around to kill it?” It was something terrible to wonder.
Benz scoffed. “It tends to sleep in caves but it goes out and does like to try and mess with humans. I am confident the Watch takes care of it.”
I wondered how he could be so confident in a group he never saw or interacted with. How was he so certain they were even all still alive? The only reason I thought they were was because of Marella. Without her say so, there was no proof.
Still, Benz never had a shred of doubt about it.
“How do you know they’re alive even?” I decided to just ask.
Benz gave a slight shrug, letting his sword vanish. “Asher is just one of those people. They used to come back and visit more, but I bet with the Creators missing it’s made things harder for them. Still, you’ll just have to see what I mean. It’s like… If you had an entire group of just me, Clove, and Mare. We’ve done this for years and we’re pros at indoor stuff. He’s done it for years, but outdoors. Asher knows how to handle things and trains everyone to handle things.”
I nodded and wondered how well my sister was learning any of this. Hopefully, she was doing fine. I missed my Melly. It was weird being apart from her for so long. Usually we only spent hours apart, sometimes a day or two. I couldn’t help but pause when I saw the dark figure standing off to the side between the shadows. I quickly switched my vision over to try and get more information.
While I couldn’t see the face or much detail wise from here, it looked like someone wrapped up tightly in a sheet. It hit me that it had the giant wings wrapped around itself, blocking its face, and thin dark legs with claws for toes. I wasn’t sure if the wings would actually work or not but I did not want to find out. With it being maybe around eight feet tall, I didn’t see it flying very well, even with the larger wings. This must be the thing Benz had mentioned.
Benz gave me a light nudge, not saying anything. It was probably better to continue to move along, but couldn’t bats pick things up very well by their hearing? While we were being fairly quiet, enough not to bother the spiders, I did not think this bat like thing would be as easily forgiving. Then again, it could just be asleep.
Carefully, we moved past it. The creature didn’t even look like it was breathing. There was no detectable movement from it. Maybe it was dead? Maybe something injured it and it retreated here?
Every few feet I kept turning to glance back at it. It didn’t move though, and I finally gave up on it. I started to wonder if we would arrive to whatever end point in total darkness or if there would finally be lights again. It was at this point something made me check back behind us again.
I gripped Benz’s arm tightly forcing him to both acknowledge my fear and look my way. Leaning several paces behind us was that bat creature acting as if it hadn’t moved an inch.
Benz sighed. I could feel him let the illusion around us drop. “A Nightwing.” He whispered. “It’s really just an oversized bat and tends to leave bigger groups alone.”
We weren’t a big group though. “What can it do? Is it the thing you mentioned already?”
Benz nodded. “It is. Really it’ll just likely follow us and be a pest.”
“Is there any more bad news with it?” It didn’t seem right that this thing was so useless.
“Well, it lives off of blood so that’s pretty bad. Oh and it can probably drain us dry in about three
minutes.” Benz shrugged. He didn’t seem bothered.
“Then why aren’t you even pretending to be scared?” I did not like the thought of losing all my blood.
“Because I have a sword, you have a bow, and we’ve got this,” he replied calmly.
“You think we can take it on?” He sounded far too confident.
“I have before. It doesn’t like swords. This thing cannot get within my personal space to do enough damage. If it wants to attack us, it will try to deafen us first. We don’t need to hear to fight, though it is very disorienting.”
“Is there anything you haven’t done?” I sighed.
“Stayed on for a shift with the Watch. Now those people are a legion of their own.” He chuckled. “Let’s go. It will probably keep following us.” Benz waved his sword. “If it does anything weird, I’ll just kill it.”
“Why don’t we just kill it now?” I asked, glancing back at it before turning to move forward again.
“Because it’s annoying to kill, so why bother when it’s being harmless?” Benz shrugged as he continued on.
I glanced back but didn’t see it anywhere. “It’s gone…” The surprise and confusion evident in my voice.
Benz glanced back and cursed. “Let’s hurry.”
It was almost too late when I turned and saw a clawed hand stretching out for me. With a small shout, I dove out of the way, tripping ungracefully over myself before landing hard on the ground.
Benz was on it, cursing as the creature dodge his attacks. I could see it move, but still I couldn’t hear it. It didn’t need an ear splattering scream to throw us off, and its front claws were much more fierce than Benz described. This one was different. Of course it was. That would really better sum up our luck. Unless of course Benz didn’t do a great job remembering how to describe it.
Quickly, I tried to get up and aim my bow. The Nightwing, or whatever it actually was, kept moving too fast for me to pin down. Any time I was ready to let loose, Benz would suddenly be in the way.
This creature knew exactly what it was doing.
That was when a screech came from the direction we were heading. Something so loud and piercing I was forced to drop to the ground and cover my ears. There we go. That was the one Benz was thinking of. I turned just in time to see a creature more my size try and fly at me. I whacked at it with my bow and tried to take on a stance and aim at one of these things. Everything felt shaky for a moment before I could steady myself and get a good lock on the new one. I missed my hearing already.
Just as I fired my bow I felt something pull my hair, causing me to crash to the ground and grab my shoulder. The claws of the first creature dug in deep as it tried to lift me and failed before Benz slashed it’s arm.
That was something I could have avoided seeing. I tried to block the image of spraying blood from my mind and glanced back over to Benz as he tore into the wing with his sword. It looked like the creature screamed with its mouth agape, fangs freely showing. I was surprisingly grateful not to hear any more of it as Benz drove a killing blow into its gut.
Turning, I saw the smaller one struggling to get back up, an arrow in its upper chest. I aimed for it’s skull and let loose an arrow. The creature fell backwards, twitching for a few seconds before laying motionless on the ground.
Hoping the worst was over, I stayed on the ground, letting myself breathe for a moment.
Benz sat down next to me. After a moment, he nudged at me and pointed to my shoulder. It stung. I couldn’t just shrug it off, but what was there to do? I gave a half hearted smile instead. It looked like he sighed before he shrugged and pointed at his ears.
I wasn’t sure when either of us would have hearing again, but I was more than willing to rest a moment and recover.
I just nodded and leaned my head against his shoulder. This adventure was already too fun. At least so far no spiders for this part of the tunnel. We could do this.
It seemed to take ages for some semblance of hearing to return. Once it did though we were on the move again. The tunnel stretched on and on, but seemed very empty. Even my extra vision showed nothing.
“How much longer do you think?” I finally asked.
“Maybe ten minutes? I don’t know. How long have we been walking? Six years? Seven?” Benz made a tired sound caught somewhere between a sigh and yawn. “I'm honestly surprised we didn’t have much trouble. I hope the others are doing fine.”
“They’ve got things to do. I’m sure they can handle it. We really have no choice but to believe in them for now.” I tried to shrug, but my shoulder stung too much. I bit my lip to hold in a hiss of pain.
“Is that a fancy way of saying we’re fairly doomed if they can’t?” He laughed without humor.
“Maybe.” I had no idea what the end result would actually be, but if I found my sister, it would be worth it.
It wasn’t much longer before we could see light up ahead. Once we were out of the tunnel the forest stretched out around us. A gravel path wound its way into the woods and out of sight.
“Have you been to the Watch?” I asked as we carefully followed the path. I switched my vision in and out but nothing was too close.
“Eh, not since I lost my Dreamer status. It’s really been forever. I'm not sure how much has changed or whatnot, but yeah….”
“Sweet. This is either going to be great or terrible. Probably terrible.” I switched my vision and checked around us again. “People aren’t much further away, thankfully. Maybe. They look like people.”
“Guess we’ll approach with caution and hope things don’t suck.” Benz’s eyes followed to where I was looking.
I sighed. “Maybe one of us should approach them first? Or will they be fine with two people coming out of nowhere?”
Benz considered it a moment as we paused in our tracks. “I think it’ll be fine, though we should probably not go straight up to them. You know, give them some distance, a moment to acknowledge us first.”
That seemed fair. We didn’t want to surprise them.
26
The trees made the snaking path seem to take longer. We probably could have cut through the forest, but neither of us wanted to run into potential traps. If I were living out here, I knew I would certainly set dozens of traps and alarms to help keep me safe.
Finally we exited the woods into a rather good size clearing. In the center was a small shelter built up high into a large tree. A deck wrapped around it and there was a single staircase down, though it looked as if there were some hand holds in the tree for climbing up and down that way.
We took a few steps into plain sight and stopped to watch the few people walking around. A few were gathering things like woods and plants while others seemed to be patrolling the area. We could see five total.
A whistle from the shelter was echoed by those walking around. A moment later a few responses differed and then someone could be heard coming through the forest toward us.
Benz gave a wave as a man came into sight.
The man's hair looked like he cut it recently himself. Brown pieces stuck out at random angeles. He waved back and frowned. “Now there’s someone I haven’t seen in years. What’s a house dweller doing outside?”
Benz gave a small laugh. “Asher, this is Remi. We’ve got an odd situation and we know her sister ended up out here. She wanted to find her.”
Asher’s frown deepened, getting straight into the matter at hand. “How could you know such a thing?”
Benz glanced around as he sighed. “It’s a bit of a story, can we move out of the woods first?”
Asher shrugged. “I suppose. It’s safe enough here though.” He motioned for us to follow and led us to the base of the giant tree in the clearing.
Benz leaned against the tree as he began his story. “To put it simply, we fucked up, and badly.”
“Ah, this is going to be a good story isn’t it?” Asher gave a lazy smile as he crossed his arms.
“Depends on your definition of good.” Benz
shook his head before quickly diving into the tale, starting with his own beginning and what happened to the Creators, who he believed were involved with the imprisoning of them, and leading into what was happening now. “So, Marella knows that Remi’s sister is here.”
“Well, it’s entirely possible. We’ve had three new people join us. What’s her name?” Asher looked over at me, accepting the story without question.
“Melody,” I readily supplied, eager to find out for sure if she was here.
Asher nodded. “We do have a Melody, so it is likely this is the same person. She is out on patrol with a group. A very standard patrol, so no worries. She will return soon. Now, we have a bigger concern though. These demon and angel creatures are trying to spread their influence. Melody has mentioned dreams, which is always their way of luring in victims.”
Asher started to pace as he thought aloud. “They corrupt things in their own way. Pushing souls this way and that to feed off their energies. If they had their way, they’d feed off the world until it was dead, and leave for another. They’ve been securely trapped here as to cause far less harm. Of course we’ve discovered where these creatures are locked away ages ago and do our best to keep others away from them, but we haven’t the people to watch over that area all day long.”
“That would explain how I got in that mess in the first place. They must have led me around your patrol,” Benz considered.
“Likely. It sounds we need to shift focus. If we can bring the Creators back, we can stabilize everything.” Asher seemed to have no issues changing focus from what they had been doing to a new mission. We might succeed after all.
“We need to get rid of those creatures,” I waited to see how Asher would react.
He nodded. “It’s not that simple of course. Their magic is a good portion of what is keeping this realm alive.”
“How do you know that?” Benz seemed surprised by the possibility.
“The demon creature Marella is hard to get information out of, but it can be done. There’s a lot that would need to be done to be truly done with that, not to mention the Creator Tella doesn't feel it’s right to destroy something just because its life purpose is to destroy.” Asher smirked, happy to show off the knowledge he had gathered over the years. “It is truly a messy situation.”
