Orc and Bunny
Chapter 13 - The Spider’s Nest
Anne sliced through the thick webbing surrounding her before stabbing the large spider that jumped through the hole she had cut. It hadn’t even been half an hour after they had gone their separate ways before Anne and Belmoral had found themselves in the middle of some sort of spider-filled nest.
“I am deeply regretting,” Anne said through gritted teeth as she stomped as hard as she could, extracting her sword from the twitching body of the spider she stabbed, “sending Ansemoni back.”
Belmoral leapt out of the way of a spray of sticky webbing, chopping off a spider’s leg with her bardiche.
“That makes two of us,” Belmoral grumbled loudly, “she probably would have seen this coming. Britom spare me, she is going to laugh at us when she sees this mess.”
The two women stood back to back as nearly a dozen spiders surrounded them from all sides.
“I don’t suppose you know any magic,” Belmoral asked panting from the exertion of slashing at spiders. There were so many corpses at their feet that their steps crunched with each step. Anne was doing her best to imagine that she was simply snapping branches under her boots. The squelching did not help that effort any.
“Magic would certainly be nice right now, wouldn’t it? But, I’m afraid not,” Anne did her best to stab through the oncoming wave of legs and fangs.
“Pity,” Belmoral was swinging her ax-like bardiche with well-practiced efficiency, delegging the few spiders whose bodies she missed. Before long, both girls were surrounded by the slain, and breathing hard.
“I think,” Anne gasped, “we managed to get them all.”
“I’m,” Belmoral gulped in air desperately, “inclined to agree. Let’s go before more show up.”
Anne felt her wrist grabbed by Belmoral’s strong hand, and allowed herself to be pulled along through the hole she had cut in the webby nest that they had fallen into. The hole opened up into a small clearing covered in old dusty webs, and thin silky white new ones.
Anne tried not to think about the content of the large lumps of webs all around, as they slipped away from the spider-nest, and back into the normal trees. The two of them were far more on guard this time. That didn’t save them from their next unfortunate encounter in the western forest.
Anne was sprinting as fast as she could from the strange humanoid wrapped in what looked like gray paper. Its orange glowing eyes (at least, she thought they were eyes) glaring at her. It was somehow keeping pace with her even though it looked like it was only walking. She turned to look where it was when she tripped over a large rock concealed in the tall waist-high grass that suddenly surrounded her. She landed in an open area just outside the treeline of the western forest.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
She turned to see Belmoral continue running to her left, without even a glance down at her fallen companion. One of the horrible creatures right behind her grasping at the pack on her back. When the sunlight hit the creature it shrieked as it burst into flames. The one chasing Anne fell on her, covering her in ashy remains.
“Ew!” Anne shrieked as she desperately tried to wipe the ash off of her.
She stood to her feet, and saw more oange glowing eyes just inside the darkness of the forest. A mass of writhing shadowy figures moved, trying to figure out how to get their quarry. One at a time they turned and left.
Belmoral flopped into the grass beside Anne, she started laughing. Anne joined her a moment later.
“Whew,” Anne exclaimed, “I thought we were done for. Thank God we got into this field when we did.”
“Right?” Belmoral wiped sweat from her brow, “What even were those things?”
“That’s what I was gonna ask you!” Anne scoffed, “You’re supposed to be the one from around here.”
“I suppose we could call them paper men,” Belmoral mused, “but I’m sure Ansemoni knows what they’re called. We can ask her when we meet up in Farport. Speaking of, did you see the city before you fell?”
“No. One second,” Anne lifted herself to her feet despite her aching legs protests, and looked around the field they found themselves in. The field stretched out before her, but all she could see besides long, swaying yellow grass, was a dilapidated old tower.
“Weird, I don’t remember there being mention of a tower by Farport,” Belmoral observed, “We must have ended up off course in the forest.”
“Well, that tower looks abandoned, maybe we can climb it,” Anne said, “We might be able to see the city from the top.”
“Worst case, it might be decent shelter for the night.”
The two stretched and took a little break before they continued their journey towards the mysterious tower. A warm breeze gently blew through the tall grass around them. They had finally made their way through the perils of the western forest.
At least that’s what they thought.
Illusprady the Venomous finished wrapping her latest acquisitions with pride. Her two new toys hadn’t even noted the change from the forest to her illusions. Reading their minds had been a delightful diversion. The spider nest was her favorite introductory illusion, a trial she made all her toys go through. She delighted in their successes, and she reveled in the screams of their defeat. It seemed these toys had spirit.
Their success was amusing to her. She ran them through the paper man scenario next, that always wore her toys down into compliance. She pondered what strange sights these toys might allow her to experience in the trial after that. Even the strongest were known to fall to despair in the tower, and when they finally reached its apex - they would be hers, body and soul. She shivered slightly at the ecstasy of it.
Illusprady the Venomous’ spirit was filled with giddiness. Her countenance shining brightly as her mind flooded with the possibilities available to her with the two toys helplessly within her grasp. The abert laughed with excitement mirroring Illusprady's mood as she hummed a meandering tune and dragged the entrapped ladies behind her.