Wayne Batson - The Final Storm

Valden waved to the archer and drew in a great draught of air. Then, like a dragon belching forth its fiery breath, he unleashed a deep, guttural yell that rang among the trees and made those nearby clutch their ears.

Valden continued screaming and began to run. A fanged yellow-green snake uncoiled from a tangle of similarly colored vines. It lunged for Valden, but he swung his two axes-one high and one low.

“TRY OUT MY FANGS, BEAST!!!” Valden yelled as his axes connected. The low blade cracked across the creature’s snout. The other gashed deeply behind the snake’s head. The serpent fell to the ground, and Valden pounced upon it-screaming and hacking until the creature was still.

Arbalests and bows sang out as archers fired volley after volley. Knights hacked at the descending snakes. Others ran and tried desperately to fend off the spiders.

Trenna ran toward a giant snake, but a sudden shadow came upon her. In the chaos around them, only Robby saw her whisked away into the forest depths.

Robby started off after her. Someone yelled, “Wait, Sir Robby!”- but Robby did not stop. He ran as fast as he could, ducking the strikes of several snakes, but when he got to where he thought the spider’s burrow should be, he was at a loss. “Where is it?!” he yelled. But it was to no avail. The spider was too clever, too well camouflaged. It and Trenna were seemingly gone without a trace.

Robby stood among the tall trees and looked this way and that, frantically searching for movement-some sign of where they had gone. “Arrggh!” Robby yelled. He’d failed Trenna, dooming her to die agonizingly in the darkness of a spider’s lair.

“Never alone.”

“What?” Robby asked.

“You are never alone.”

“King Eliam, help me,” he whispered desperately.

An odd sense of calm descended upon Robby. He looked down at his feet, and his heart began to beat faster. There was a strand of web. If I follow it… Robby suddenly realized what he needed to do. “Thank you!” he uttered, and raced off.

Heedless of the briers and scratching limbs, Robby followed the thread through the forest as quickly as he could. He did not want to trip the wire until he was ready. At last, he found where the web disappeared under a thin ridge of earth. As Robby looked more closely, he recognized the outline of a wide circular trapdoor.

“This is gonna be close!” Robby said. He stood clear of the trapdoor and found a heavy dead limb. He tossed the limb in a high arc onto the web and waited with his broadsword. Quickly, the trapdoor launched upward. A hideous mass of black eyes, long segmented limbs, and dark brown leaped up from the hole. Robby swung his broadsword as hard as he could and felt it strike something solid. But it gave with a nauseating splatter and came through. Robby looked up and saw the gigantic spider drag its ruined body into the trees and then become still.

His plan had worked-he’d drawn out and killed the spider that had taken Trenna. Now all he had to do was get her out of the spider’s lair. He just hoped that Thrivenbard was right about the spiders taking their prey alive.

Robby went to work on the trapdoor, chopping and hacking with zeal. It was stronger than it had appeared, made of many alternating layers of spider silk, soil, and bracken. At last a vast dark hole gaped open in front of him. Robby stepped to the edge and peered warily inside. He saw a deep sloping tunnel lined with gray web.

“Trenna!” he called down into the hole. “Trenna, answer me!” There was no response at first, but Robby heard a strange clicking sound followed by a swish and a dull thud.

“Trenna, are you there?!” he called again.

At last there came a muffled cry. “Trenna!” Robby cried out. He took a deep breath and leaped down into the tunnel. It was farther down than he thought, and he landed awkwardly, the unfamiliar weight of his armor throwing him forward. He drew himself up and realized just how large the tunnel was. Ten feet high and at least that wide. Robby thought about the spider that he had killed a few moments earlier. It didn’t seem quite that large. Robby strained to look down the tunnel, but the light from the hole above traveled down the tunnel only a few yards. From that point on it was pitchdark.

“Trenna?” he called down the tunnel. There was no answer. Robby held his broadsword out in front and began to advance slowly. The web felt spongy under his feet, and the air was chilly and uncomfortable.

Robby walked down the left side of the tunnel so that he could let his left hand trail across the wall. Every few steps, he would stop and listen. Several times, he heard the same click-swish-thud noise again. It was an eerie, almost rhythmic sound, and Robby began to wonder if the spider he had killed was the only spider that lived in this burrow.

Suddenly, the wall on his left ended and he was reaching into darkness. “Trenna?!” No answer. No sound. It was as if his words had been swallowed up as soon as he spoke them. He reached out in all directions with his broadsword and found that the tunnel apparently opened up into a wide space or a chamber. Robby could see nothing, but he had the dreadful feeling that he was being watched.

I hope you’re with me, King Eliam, Robby thought as he slowly moved forward. Never alone, right? Somewhere to his distant left, there came the click-swish-thud sound. Robby stared, but saw nothing. Then, the same sound, but to the right and not quite as far away. And this time, light glimmered briefly in some corner of the chamber.

What is that? Robby wondered, and then he realized what it must be. Trapdoors. More trapdoors-but then that would mean this is not the burrow of one single spider, but the den of many!

His heart hammering and sweat pouring down his back, he forced himself to move forward. A few more steps, and Robby had the distinct feeling that there was something in front of him. He pointed the broadsword forward, squeezing the haft in a death grip. He lunged forward just to test and heard an ominous scuttling. It sounded like the crunching of broken glass on pavement.

Robby stopped and stood very still. He stared straight ahead. His mind whirled with a million thoughts-chief among them was that coming into this burrow was quite possibly the dumbest thing he’d ever done in his life.

“Not dumb. Valiant.”

Robby smiled tentatively. Okay, but I don’t feel very brave.

Suddenly, he heard the click-swish-thud sound. It came from far behind him, and there had been the briefest flash of light. It was enough at least to see what stood there in front of him-and to temporarily blind him. He’d seen long segmented legs, a pair of large sickle-shaped fangs, and eight black eyes. This spider was much larger than the other he’d seen earlier.

Robby carved the air in front of him. “Get back!” he yelled. He heard the creepy scuttling sound. Then, click-swish-thud, and the light flashed again. The spider had reared up. Its forelegs were high in the air and menacing, its sharp fangs and opening jaws fully visible-if but for a moment.

Robby backpedaled, keeping the sword moving. The light flashed again just as the spider pounced. He saw it coming at him in that momentary illumination. Screaming, he slammed the sword from low to high. He struck something so hard, it sent a tremor up his arms. There came an earsplitting chirping screech. And then something took hold of the end of his sword.

Click-swish-thud! The light flashed again. The beastly spider had his sword somehow clenched in its mandibles. All went black again, and Robby wrenched his blade with all his might. But the spider wrenched back. It lurched quickly to the side, and Robby stumbled heavily to his knees. It heaved back the other way, jerking Robby off his feet entirely. He crashed to the ground and yelled. The pain was intense. It was all he could do to hold on to the sword, but he did. He knew to let go would mean the end.