Morgan Rice - A Land of Fire

There came a shout, followed by Conven’s cry, and they all chased after him, on his heels.

Thor and the others burst into a small clearing, and as he did, he stopped short, shocked by what he saw.

It was like something out of a nightmare. There was a gigantic spider, grotesquely large, five times taller than Thor, with eight hairy, thick legs, fifty feet long. Thor was horrified to see that one of them was wrapped around Conven, lifting him, examining him, and squeezing him as it opened its huge jaws and raised him toward it.

O’Connor stepped forward boldly and fired off three arrows at the spider’s gigantic, purple eyes. One was a direct hit, and the creature shrieked and dropped Conven; he fell through the air and landed on the soft forest floor.

The spider, enraged, reached down and swiped O’Connor before he could react; O’Connor shrieked, a gash in his arm from the spider’s razor-sharp claws. O’Connor sank to his knees, clutching his arm as it gushed blood, and as he did, the spider leaned down to eat him.

Elden rushed forward, raised his ax, and chopped the end of the spider’s leg right before it could grasp Conven. The spider shrieked, gushing a green pus, and it swung around with one of its other legs and wrapped it around Elden. Elden cried out as it squeezed him, constraining his arms, and lifted him up to its mouth.

Thor rushed forward, the others beside him, and raised his sword high and reached up and stabbed the spider in the chest; it shrieked. Beside him, Indra threw her dagger, lodging it in the spider’s eyes and Matus charged forward and sliced one of the spider’s other legs. It dropped Elden and buckled, as if about to fall.

Yet as they watched, the spider, to Thor’s shock, grew a brand new leg. It hissed, an awful sound, and as it opened its mouth wide, there suddenly emerged a massive silk web, shooting out and entangling them all. It was the stickiest thing Thor had ever felt, and as the spider wrapped it around them again and again, soon Thor found himself unable to move, completely restricted.

The spider hoisted them all up into the air, dangling before it, and examined them all, as if deciding which to eat first. It seemed to settle on Reece, and it leaned forward, opened its jaws, and prepared to eat him.

Thorgrin, helpless as the others, closed his eyes and summoned his inner power.

Please, God. Do not abandon me. Not here, in this place. Do not allow my friends to die.

Thor gradually felt a warmth rise up within him. He felt his inner power returning, recalling his time in the Land of the Druids; he began to feel the power of the spider, to feel the very fabric of the web, and inside him there grew an ancient and unmistakable power, stronger than any weapon, stronger than any man or any creature. He felt his mother’s bracelet buzzing on his wrist, and he opened his eyes and looked.

A hole began burning right through the web, emanating from the diamond in his bracelet. It widened, and Thor felt his arm freed up. Soon, the hole burned even greater, and he felt himself freed from the web.

Thor turned and leapt for the spider’s mouth, right before it could eat Reece, throwing himself inside it, planting his hands on its upper jaw and pushing higher and higher until the spider screeched and dropped Reece to the ground.

Thor spun out of the spider’s jaw, and as he did, the spider snapped its mouth shut, barely missing killing him. In the same motion, Thor leapt upward and jumped onto the spider’s back, raising his sword and plunging it in the back of its neck.

The spider’s legs buckled, and it collapsed down to the ground, on its belly, shrieking.

One by one his Legion brothers disentangled themselves from the spider’s web, and as they did, Thor used his power to move the web, to wrap the spider in it, again and again, until the spider was immobile, helpless, flailing in rage. Thor reached down and grabbed the web, spun it around with superhuman strength, then hurled it.

The spider went flying over the trees, through the air, until it finally landed far out into the ocean with a splash. It hissed and flailed, and they all watched as it slowly sank down into the sea.

The boys all exchanged a look of wonder, realizing how lucky they all were to be alive, how close they had come to death. As they all made their way back to the boats, Thor realized that, even in this empty sea, they could never again assume any place was safe.

Gwen, having handed off the baby to Illepra, knelt on the deck of the ship beside Argon, laying a gentle hand on his wrist. It was cold to the touch, as it had been ever since they had departed for this journey, and he still lay in the position in which she had left him. Gwen was heartbroken to see him like this, lying on his back, looking so frail, so weak, his eyes moving beneath his closed eyelids, as if he were living some dream, off in some other world.

“Argon, are you there?” she asked. “Come back to me.”

He did not reply; he did not even flinch. Gwen felt that a part of Argon was still with her, but that another part was far away. She wondered if he would ever come back to her. He had given so much of himself to enable them all to survive, and Gwen felt guilty for it. She wanted now, more than ever, to be able to turn to him with questions, needing answers more than ever. Here she was, a Queen leading a nation in exile, heading to the most unlikely of places, right into the heart of the Empire. Gwen wondered if it was an insane plan, if they were all on their final death voyage as the currents pulled them further and further east, away from the Ring, away from the Upper Isles, and most of all, away from Guwayne and Thor.

Gwendolyn closed her eyes and felt a tear. She thought of Thor and Guwayne, out there in the sea somewhere, searching for each other, so far from her. It was a quest, she knew, from which they might not ever return. She wondered how fate could be so cruel to take Thorgrin away from her just at the moment she had seen him again. Were they ever destined to be together, in one place? Would they ever wed? Would they ever settle down together?

Gwen opened her eyes and saw that Argon would not be able to answer her now. She was on her own, and she would have to be strong, for all of her people.

Gwendolyn rose to her feet and walked to the side of the deck, looking out at the exotic creatures in this part of the sea, noticing all of her people standing at the edge of the railing, watching and wondering. She followed their gaze and looked up to the sky, and she blinked in surprise. Perhaps a hundred yards overhead, instead of clouds, there was an ocean, just like the ocean beneath him. At first she thought it was a reflection. But then she realized it was a real ocean, floating in the sky. Out of it fish leapt, upside down, then went back in.

It was the strangest thing she’d ever seen, and she could not fathom how it was possible.

Gwen scanned the horizon, and she saw rainbows—not just one, but hundreds of them. They were not shaped in arcs, but in circular cones, rising straight up from the ocean to the sky. There were cones of color everywhere, lighting up the sea.

Gwen heard a strange noise and looked up to see a huge bird, with a wing span perhaps twenty yards wide and a huge, grotesque head, circling above and shrieking. There appeared several more, swooping down, grabbing strange creatures out of the water, glowing, orange squid-like creatures, then swallowing them as they flew off.

The deeper into this sea they sailed, the more foreign everything became. The air smelled different here; the wind felt different. They were sailing deeper into a land Gwen had never known, a land she had never wished to know. She found herself missing home, missing the familiar, wanting to turn back, wanting everything just to be the way it was. But she forced herself to realize that the past was gone forever.