“When I… Paid you… So much… I didn’t expect… It to be so… bumpy,” I said between painful jolts.

Red chuckled but didn’t bother responding as he rushed over the dips on the ravine floor. Swinging over the river on a fat rope of silk had been fun but aside from that it had been a rough ride. The prickling of his rough hairs was making my skin turn red and itchy beneath my leathers. I don’t know a great deal about spider hair but damn it might as well have been itching powder.

Red ran up the far wall of the ravine as though gravity wasn’t a force he recognized. Swinging wildly on his back while he skittered one way and then the other made my stomach threaten to erupt in a manner that might rival a volcano. A very small one of course but still.

We reached the top and Red abruptly dumped me on the ground next to everybody else. I don’t know how I drew the short straw of being the last one over but here I was.

Nora reached down and gave me a hand up. I dusted off my ass and glared at the smug-faced Arachnes. He was not bothered by my disdain which was a tad disappointing. No one ever took me seriously. Someone really needed to explain that one to me.

Stella barked and butted her head against my leg. It would have been cute if it didn’t almost send me face-first into the dirt. She still got a pat though. Stella always deserved a pat.

“Well, if there is nothing else I can do for you,” Red said. “I’ll be on my way. You know how it is, so many people to see and not enough hours in the day to do it.”

“It was good to see you again Red,” Nora said.

Red gave us all a wave and disappeared back down into the ravine. I watched him go with my Blindsense until he was little more than a green spec in the distance.

“If it’s all the same to you guys, I think I’d rather go back to sleep. All this crap is a bit much,” Jacob said.

“Don’t you fucking dare, it took me forever to wake you up,” I snapped.

“Don’t be so mean, Joe. It’s not Jacob’s fault Miranda put him in a cursed sleep,” Nora said, straightening her shoulders and facing forward.

“Shut the hell up!” Frank screamed as he dove from the sky, dropping Boopzy from his talons directly on Nora’s head.

Nora screamed in a manner I did not think she was capable of doing as she floundered about trying to tear the slimy creature off to no avail. Boopzy’s suckers were ridiculously strong when he wanted them to be.

I snickered as I walked past the flailing pair. I was starting to like Boopzy more and more. His ability to torture her was putting me to shame but somehow I was okay with it.

We’d barely made it an hour or two down the road before the sky darkened with rain-heavy clouds. I was getting really sick of traveling in the wet season. The rains brought with it the burgeoning heat of the approaching summer. Sure, it was little more than warm now but the further we got into it the hotter it would become until the rain stopped altogether and it got dry and unbearably hot.

What I wouldn’t give for an umbrella or a pair of sturdy rubber boots. Or you know, a cabin by a freshwater lake with a comfy chair beside a roaring fire with me ass deep in it with a full belly, a case of ice-cold beer by my side, and, of course, no monsters. Ahh, aren’t fantasies nice?

We trudged through the deepening mud until we got just that little bit closer to Phlegm’s tavern on the outskirts of Perth. It was such a long way to travel on foot and Sob would not have a bar of letting anyone ride him. Not even Nora.

The sky overhead rumbled angrily as lightning shot across it in long blue forks. I watched them go, mesmerized by how many there were and how quickly they were coming. It was something I hadn’t seen before. No matter how they forked they always seemed to spark around a centre point. Either I’d spent too much time cowering inside avoiding weather like this or maybe I’d just never had the time to look up.

“That’s not good,” Jacob mumbled so close to my ear that I almost jumped clean out of my boots. Jacob lifted a brow at me and added, “Storms don’t normally do that.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“But it’s so pretty,” I said and almost immediately regretted it when Nora snorted behind me.

“No seriously, I think we should find somewhere to wait it out,” Jacob said.

I stopped where I was in the middle of the road and looked up at the fireworks. The thunder was grumbling much quieter than I would have expected for such a nearby light show. Maybe Jacob was right; something did feel off about it even if it was pretty.

The lightning flickered, sparked, and pulsed until it formed a solid circle of blue high up in the air. It reminded me of Sob’s magic only otherworldly aggressive.

Nora grabbed my arm and yanked. “Come on, there’s an outcropping over there we can hide in.”

Her words didn’t even penetrate my brain. They slipped in one ear and flew out the other without leaving so much as a footprint in their wake.

I was busy staring up at the portal circling in the center of the spiraling electricity. It was oddly familiar. A place I knew but somehow didn’t at the same time. I could see a tall spire there only this one wasn’t singular and painfully shrouded in purple light. Instead, it was surrounded by three smaller identical towers that cuddled in close to the first. It gave off the same energies as the Shadow Realm; Potent, dangerous, and tantalizing.

I never thought I would miss that place and yet here I was, desperately looking up at something just because it was a tiny bit similar. How was it possible to miss a place where I’d been almost murdered every single day?

The image of the spires was blocked out by an enormous pink eye that blinked and then focused on me. I could see the ghostly pale skin around the eye crinkle in a way I wish my brain could make sense of. What was looking down on me wasn’t my Goddess but she was something similar. Something just as formidable.

Suddenly I wanted to run but my feet felt glued to the ground. I couldn’t see or hear my friends anymore.

Take care of her Nephew, a blaring voice like a foghorn only far more musical screamed inside my head. My arms shot up to cover my ears but it didn’t help at all, the voice still spoke, she is weak for now but she will grow. Don’t let the wolves find her until she is ready.

The eyeball vanished in a brilliant flash of blue and pink intermingled light that would have looked at home on New Year's night. I blinked away the spots as my feet came unglued. Nora was still standing beside me, yanking on my arm as her mouth moved up and down. I frowned and stared at her before letting my hands drop from my ears. My palms were coated in a puddle of dark red blood and I still couldn’t hear a single word she was saying.

My mouth dropped open at the sight of it. Nora grabbed my wrists, staring in disbelief at my hands. I’d stopped looking though as a force dragged my eyes upwards again. Where the lights had been there was now a speck of white floating downward like an enormous snowflake. A strangely shaped snowflake. One that was falling much faster than it should be. No, not a snowflake. A person.

I swore and jerked, shaking off Nora’s hold, and Blinking over and over in my rush to get there in time. I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t some caped hero who could catch someone falling from the sky without the pair of us dying together in a bloody splat.

I threw myself into the shadow beneath a tree, burying my bloodied hands in the deeper darkness by its roots.

“Get the hell out here,” I bellowed silently. I couldn’t hear the words but the vibrations were strong enough to cause physical pain.

I yanked my hand back, not sparing more than a glance to make sure the black glob of shadow was stuck there like it was supposed to be.

I stood beneath the tumbling person and threw my hands up, hoping this would work. “Get up there and slow her down!”

The glob lifted off my hands and shot into the sky on wisps of shadow that served as wings. The glob grew and spread until it looked like an enormous bird. It swept up to meet the woman, cushioning her just enough to give me a moment to think.

Just a hint in case you were wondering, a moment to think doesn’t mean much when thinking isn’t your forte. If you have any ideas, please, say them now, don’t be shy.

The shadow glob beat its flap-like wings desperately but it was little more than a stopgap. I raked my fingers through my hair as I summoned another Blink, using the moment of slowed time to spin in circles looking for a miracle, or better yet, one of those giant air-filled cushions you see actors and stuntmen jumping into.

Sob and Stella were the closest to me but were still too far to help. Nora and Jacob were much further away, and would never get here in time. I was on my own unless you counted the shadow glob.

Frank's fast-moving shadow crossed over me from above proving me a liar. I swung my head up, watching as Frank and Boopzy worked in unison to help the shadow slow the falling person. They were so close now I could make out their long auburn braid and what looked like a flowing white robe. Boopzy wrapped his tentacles around the person and Frank, with the Tentarat firmly clasped in his talons, beat his wings in desperate powerful strokes.

I was out of time now. They were so close to the ground. I yanked out my sword and with a thundering roar I still couldn’t hear I slammed it into the ground.