Ben the Dragonborn

by Dianne E Astle

  Charla ran at the creature and buried her spear into its soft back. It reared up and fell backwards, driving the spear deeper into its body. Charla knelt beside Ben and began to cut the threads that held him secure. The creature rolled over and got to its feet. It ran towards Charla. She held her knife in front of her and when the creature came close enough lunged at it before dancing quickly away. Charla’s knife sliced across one of the eight legs. The spider backed up and ran up a tree, the spear still buried in its back. It was over nine feet up when the spear snagged on a branch, causing the spider to lose its grip and fall back to the ground driving the spear right through its body. Its legs twitched violently in the air and then it lay still.

  Charla cut the remaining threads away from Ben and helped him stand. They stood there with their arms around one another for support. Ben said, “Jared…is up there.” Charla followed his finger and saw a man-sized shape wrapped in sticky thread hanging upside-down from a branch high above their heads. Ben kicked off his shoes. There were no branches close to the ground for Ben to get hold of, but he imagined himself with suction cups and they appeared. He climbed the trunk of the tree until he reached the branch Jared was on. He took the knife Lea Waterborn had given him from its sheath and held it between his teeth. He threw one leg over each side of the branch and slid along it until he reached Jared.

  At this point Ben paused. If he simply cut the two threads that secured Jared to the tree, Jared might well be hurt in the fall to the ground. The last thing Jared or any of them needed was a broken leg. He cut one thread and swayed on the branch as he struggled to hold part of Jared’s weight. He put the knife in his mouth, suctioned himself to the branch with one hand and with the other wrapped the cut thread around his waist. The sticky thread stuck to itself and to him. Ben cut the remaining thread that held Jared to the branch. He held his breath as he waited to see if a single thread would hold the weight of the Lushakan. The thread did not break, but Ben slipped off the branch when Jared’s full weight hung from his waist. Ben and Jared swung back and forth. Only one of Ben’s hands held the branch. The weight on Ben’s shoulder joint was painful. Without suction cups on his hand it would be impossible to hold on. Ben struggled to get his other hand attached to the branch so that he would stop swinging. Once he was secure Ben began the climb down.

  When Jared was lowered to the ground, Charla took out her knife and carefully cut the web away from his head. Jared’s face was pale. He did not appear to be breathing. As Charla continued to cut the spider web, Ben pinched Jared’s nose and breathed air into his lungs.

  When Ben sat back, Charla gently slapped Jared’s face, and said, “Come on, tree ape, wake up. I saved your life again, and I want to hear you say I’m the best there is.”

  Jared’s eyes fluttered and he moaned. Charla and Ben sat back and waited for Jared to recover. Ben and Charla’s eyes scanned the trees and the surrounding forest anxiously as they waited.

  “What happened?” Charla asked.

  “It got us when we were asleep. I woke up to Jared’s screams. The spider was wrapping him in a cocoon. I tried to get up but the spider had spun its web over me and I could not get free. I watched it take Jared up the tree and then come back down. I kept calling you, but you didn’t hear.” Ben pointed out the large web with the struggling birds that hung across the river between two large trees. “It’s a wonder we didn’t see that web last night.”

  Charla said, “I saw it, but there were no birds in it then and I didn’t know what it was. Do you have such creatures on Earth? Is that why you know what they are and what a web is?”

  Ben replied, “Yeah…sort of…but not anywhere near as big.” The biggest one I’ve seen was about this big.” Ben made a circle with his hands about five inches across.

  “I could deal with something that size,” said Charla.

  “As long as you see it first,” Ben said. “Some are poisonous. Their bite can be deadly.”

  “You were lucky I was here. Once again I saved your lives,” stated Charla smugly.

  “Yes,” Ben agreed unwillingly.

  “You’d both be long dead without me,” Charla boasted. “Wait until Lea Waterborn hears about this. She’ll finally realize that I’m ready to be Chosen.”

  Ben said nothing. The mermaid’s arrogance was irritating, even if she had just saved his life once again. Ben changed the subject. “Charla, what were you doing following Brina and I.”

  “All I ever get to do is watch for arrivals from other worlds. Other mer get chosen to go off world, but I never do. It is as if the Guardian does not know I exist. This time, it was Lea Waterborn’s decision to make. I felt sure she would let me go. When I asked, Lea Waterborn said I wasn’t ready. Wasn’t ready!” Charla’s voice became shrill. “I’ve been ready for a long time. I’m the best in my class at everything! All I need is a chance to prove myself. If only Lea Waterborn could see me now. She would know that I am ready.” Charla paused, and then said, “I was just going to follow you to the island and wait for you, but then Brina…”

  Further conversation was halted by a loud groan from Jared. Charla took a sea shell from her bag and scooped up some water. Ben helped Jared sit up. Charla held the shell to Jared’s lips.

  Once he recovered a bit, Jared said, “Gone?”

  “Yes,” said Ben. “Charla killed it.”

  “…no…not again…to be free… must save…three times.

  “Don’t feel obligated. I didn’t do it for you. I did it for Brina and for all the mer that will die if that crown is not retrieved. Your life is not worth anything to me.”

  Jared said nothing to Charla, but addressed Ben. “…thought you were hero…not mermaid…”

  Ben said nothing, but took away his supporting arm from under Jared’s shoulders. Jared’s head thumped to the ground. He lay still a moment, then rolled over and pushed himself into a sitting position.

  “How did you get me down?” Jared asked.

  “I climbed the tree,” Ben replied.

  “You were high up, tree ape,” Charla piped up, “which is where you would have stayed if it was up to me. That’s where tree apes belong. I wouldn’t climb a tree for you even if I could.”

  “How…?”

  Ben called forth the suction cups and showed them to Jared.

  “Wow… that and invisible…beginning to believe …you are from another world.”

  “Slow, isn’t he? Charla said. Jared gave Charla a dirty look, but said nothing. Charla continued, “I’ll get some breakfast which will help the ape recover his strength. Not that I care. As far as I’m concerned we should have left you up there for the spider.”

  Charla came back with three cleaned and filleted fish. When his meal was finished, Jared noticed Charla’s spear sticking out of the spider. It was covered in inky goo. He stood, a bit shaky, and walked over to the spider. He pulled the spear out of its body. Then he cleaned the spear and gave it to Charla with a barely discernible ‘thanks.’ Jared’s eyes stayed on his feet and he missed the fleeting smile on Charla’s face, which had only a trace of smugness.

  Ben meanwhile was skirting the edges of the clearing. After a careful search, Ben found two places where people had passed recently. He followed one of the two trails into the forest. Broken branches, grass trampled underfoot, scuff marks on the exposed rocky path all told him someone had passed by. Ben was so focused on the ground that he just about walked into a cave made from web. Scores of dinner-plate sized spiders hung from the ceiling and the walls. They stood piled on top of one another on the ground. Beyond them, Ben could see the massive body of a spider larger than the one that now lay dead in the clearing. The baby spiders had one goal in mind – him. Fortunately, they were not particularly brave. Ben picked a branch off the ground and swung it. The spiders closest to him jumped back and ran into the ones behind them. Ben swung the branch from side to side as he stepped back one foot at a time. The spiders kept coming from their web cave. Ben turned and fled back towards t
he clearing.

  Jared was sitting on the ground near the tree. Charla was sitting at the side of the stream with her mer tail in the water. Ben yelled, “Get up! Hurry! Spiders! Lots! Coming!” Jared and Charla jumped up and met him in the clearing.

  “What’s wr…?” Jared began, but stopped as a spider leg rose up over Ben’s shoulder. Jared turned Ben around, grabbed the spider and threw it to the ground. Ben kicked the spider and sent it flying in the direction he had just come from. Its body fell in front of the spiders that were following it. The lead spiders stopped and began to eat their fallen comrade. The spiders just arriving walked over and around them. A flood of black covered the ground.

  “I hate spiders,” Ben said, his voice shaking as they all started to run towards the other path that led out of the clearing. Ben looked over his shoulder and noticed that most of the baby spiders had stopped at the body of the spider Charla had killed. A few still trailed behind them. The three ran as fast and far as they could, which was not all that fast or far. Jared was still weak and Charla was having trouble running. Legs did not come naturally for her. She had mastered them at school, where she walked on level ground under her tutor’s watchful eye. She was one of the best in her class, but she had never run over rough ground before. Fear made it hard for her to concentrate on keeping legs and not resorting back to what was natural. However, with much concentration Charla managed to keep her legs. When they stopped running there were only a few baby spiders nearby which were quickly killed.

  12. Omnivores and Carnivores

  The forest floor was covered with ferns, small bushes and a lush variety of plant life. Trees towered overhead and blocked out most of the light. Logs had fallen across the path. The companions climbed over or ducked under many fallen trees. It was slow moving. Moss covered the fallen logs and went up the trunks of the living trees. Black and yellow slugs left a trail of slime behind themselves. The occasional bird flew from branch to branch and chattered in the trees.

  They had been walking for over two hours when Ben came to an abrupt stop. Jared came to a stop behind Ben. Charla, who had been walking close behind Jared, ran into him.

  “Fish breath, don’t those fake legs of yours know how to stop?” Jared snorted.

  Charla shoved Jared aside and stepped beside Ben, who had dropped down to his knees.

  “What is it?” Charla asked.

  “An animal, a large animal, maybe more than one,” Ben answered. “They came out of the trees there.” Ben pointed to a place where Charla and Jared could see something big had bent down the grass and broken low-hanging branches. Ben stood up and walked further along the trail before stopping again. A number of flies crawling on a brown pile flew up into the air and swarmed him. Ben slapped at them as he hunched down over the evil smelling animal excrement or in other words pile of poop. He took a stick and began to stir the pile so that he could see what was in it. An unpleasant odor filled the air.

  “Yuck,” Charla exclaimed. “Leave it alone.”

  Jared grunted in agreement. “There is no gold crown in there.”

  Ben ignored them and continued to stir and examine the large pile of feces. Then he sat back with a worried look on his face.

  “What is it? What did you find?” Jared asked.

  Ben replied, “They are omnivores.”

  “And what does that mean?” Charla asked.

  “They eat both plants and other animals. We could look like a food group.” Ben stated flatly, not looking at Jared.

  Jared spun around and looked at the trail they had been following. “Are you sure we’ve been following the trail left by my brother?”

  “I don’t know if it’s your brother, but from what I’ve seen, humans passed by on this trail sometime recently,” Ben replied.

  “Do you think these creatures followed them?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Should we leave the trail?” Charla asked.

  “No,” Ben said. “Those animals could be anywhere now; for all we know they could be following us.”

  “Then we should keep going,” Jared said. “If my brother did pass by here we might find him up ahead roasting some omnivores for us.”

  “I hope so,” Ben replied.

  The three companions walked in silence, wondering what this new danger might look like. Occasionally, they turned off the trail to avoid a web that hung across it, but they always returned to it and continued the gradual climb to the top of the island’s one mountain.

  Ben broke the silence to say, “Good thing those spiders are cannibals or this island would be crawling with them.”

  “The same could be said for those spider crabs,” Jared said.

  Charla lagged further and further behind. It was the first time she had been in a forest. There were sights and sounds that she had never seen or heard in her life. She came to a complete stop to watch a group of large multi-colored butterflies flutter about a bush that was covered in flowers. Their wings shimmered when the light struck them. The flowers were beautiful to look at and smelled very pleasant. Charla was awe-stuck by this glimpse of unexpected beauty. She bent down to smell a particularly beautiful flower. When she looked up, Jared and Ben were out of sight. They had gone around a bend in the path. Charla hurried to catch up. When she caught sight of them, Charla stopped and called out, “Ben…ah.” Ben and Jared turned just in time to see a spider drop down in front of Charla.

  “I’ll be right with you,” Charla shouted, “just as soon as I kill myself another spider.”

  The spider ran at Charla on its eight legs. Charla kept her eye on the spider as she reached over her shoulder for her spear. A spider’s leg came from behind and wrapped itself around her arm. Charla screamed and dropped the spear.

  Jared and Ben ran back through the forest. Charla lay on the ground between two spiders ready to do battle with each other to decide which one would have Charla for lunch. Charla lay on the ground like a fish out of water. Her legs had been replaced by a fish tail. Terror tended to do that to the mer.

  “Jared,” Charla called, “if you want to get rid of one of your obligations this might be a good time to do it. Throw me my spear.” Jared may well have done so, but one of the spiders moved so that it stood directly over it.

  Jared had his spear in one hand and a knife in the other, as did Ben. Jared attacked the closest spider, while Ben ran around and attacked the second one. Jared hacked at the legs with his knife, while keeping the spider’s head away with his spear. He cut off one leg and damaged a second. The spider came at him on its remaining legs, hardly hampered by the loss.

  Meanwhile, Ben plunged his spear into the second spider as he had seen Charla do. This one did not fall backwards. It turned with the spear in its back and ran at Ben. Ben ran straight towards a tree and up the trunk with his octopus hands. The spider ran up the tree after him. Ben wished himself invisible and he was. The spider stopped, looked around and came cautiously up the trunk of the tree. Ben sat on a branch and slid along it. The spider continued on past where Ben sat. Ben took off his shoes and hung them around his neck so that he would have the extra grip from the suction cups on his feet. He stood on the branch and was just about to return to the ground when the spider came down on a single thread. It passed his branch and was heading towards Charla. Charla stood with her hands on her hips watching Jared battle the spider that still stood over her spear. She was oblivious to the one dropping down on her from above.

  Ben didn’t stop to think about it. As the spider went past him, he dropped on top of it, and drove the spear that was in its back further down into the spider’s body. The spider and Ben fell towards the ground. Ben held onto the spider with the suction cups on the bottom of his feet as they spun downwards. He continued to drive the spear further into the spider’s body. The spider came to an abrupt halt and hung limply in the air. Ben pulled out his spear, and looked down.

  Charla had a stick in her hand. With it she was poking the remaining spider from the side
. It ignored her and continued its attack on Jared. Jared had a raw wound across his arm, where the barbs on the underside of the spider’s legs had taken off skin. Ben launched himself into the air, hoping to land on the spider and drive his spear into its back. Instead of landing on a soft spider he fell on the hard ground. The spider had moved forward just as he jumped. Ben lay on the ground, the breath knocked out of him. Then he rolled over and discovered that he was on the ground underneath the spider’s belly. He stood up and drove the spear into the spider from below. From the spider's wound gushed thick black blood, which splashed over Ben’s head and down his body. The spider crumpled on top of him.

  “Yuck! Get this thing off me, PLEASE!” Ben’s muffled voice spoke from underneath the spider.

  Jared and Charla grabbed the spider and rolled it over. Ben used Charla’s spear to push himself up off the ground. When Charla grabbed her spear, Ben fell over.

  “I asked you to give me this, not use it as a cane,” Charla stated emphatically.

  “A thank you would be nice,” Jared said. “Let me show you how it’s done.” Mimicking Charla’s voice, Jared said, “Thank you for saving my worthless, sorry life. I’m sorry to be such a pain in the ass. I am forever in your debt, O most noble ones.”

  Charla ignored Jared and continued, “Let me see either of you handle two spiders at once. I could have managed one without any help.”

  “From now on we stay close together,” Ben stated firmly, ignoring the verbal exchange.

  The three companions resumed walking. Charla stayed close, but not, she told herself, because Ben told her to. She kept quiet as the boys went over every detail of their battle with the spiders, clearly excited with their victory and the fact that they had finally turned the tables, and been the ones to save Charla’s life.