• Chapter 6: Trees and Spiders and Elves oh my!

    He only had a moment to stare before Alex was grabbed off his feet by Captain Gallan. Holding him by the hand Gallan swung from tree to tree as, whatever that was, was slowly gaining on them.

    As Gallan held him desperately by the hand, Alex could see the desperation on his face, as if this thing chasing us were certain doom. Looking around, Alex could see all the other elves with the same look on their face.

    What is chasing us? What was that thing? It looked like a huge tree fell on top of Vorxis but... could it actually be a creature of some kind? Alex thought as his eyes glanced over to Marie, who looked as terrified as the elves. Had she gotten a better look at the creature than me? Alex wondered.

    "SPLIT UP NOW! EVERYONE TRY TO AVOID THE ENT AT ALL COSTS!" Gallan shouted as the other elves split off in separate directions.

    For a moment, they seemed to be gaining some distance from the creature as Alex could no longer hear the massive crashing of trees. Maybe it was deciding who to chase? Alex couldn't be sure, it must have been so far away since the only thing he could see was the trees behind them. Though, now that I think about it... all I could EVER see was the trees... Alex thought as he tried to get a closer look.

    Swinging from branch to branch they entered a clearing beside a large gorge. Gallan and Alex dropped on foot and stumbled into the clearing. "Idiot I can't believe you killed it..." Gallan ranted furiously walking to the edge and looking into the gorge below.

    Alex threw up his hands in confusion "Why? Was that bad? I thought we were trying to kill it..." he said trying to defend himself.

    "No you idiot!" Gallan shouted turning to him. "You don't kill Entlings, they feed the forest making it grow so that we have plenty of wood to chop down. We were only trying to get the bark it uses as armor because its a very strong base for bows." Gallan said pacing. After a moment he collected himself and took a deep breath. "However, that is not the only reason you cannot kill an Entling." he said with a fearful gaze back into the forest. "If you kill an Entling, the Ent will rise and won't stop until whatever killed the Entling is dead."

    "What is the difference between an Ent and an..." Alex started to ask but was cut off by the sound of cracking and falling trees. Alex and Gallan backed up until their heels were against the gorge.

    "That..." was all Gallan got out before the massive creature broke through the wall of trees.

    Alex couldn't possibly comprehend the mass of this creature before now. It was a literal castle made out of the forest. It looked very similar to a turtle, but its head was square and shaped like a caslte gatehouse made out of pine trees. Its mouth was a drawbridge made out of tightly woven tree roots. Its eyes were glowing a dark green out of two murder holes in the gatehouse walls above the drawbridge. Its legs looked like 10 redwood trees tightly stuck together. While its body looked like a giant mound of dirt with a castle of trees built right on its back, towers and all. From its belly came thousands of roots which grasped and tore at the ground below as if looking for purchase. Animals fled from its back as it paused, birds flying from its branches. It was a walking forest all its own.

    As the gargantuan creature stood some 150 feet above them looking for its prey, Alex shook in fear as he tried to think of a way out. Looking back into the gorge, the river below seemed like the only option, but it was a 100 foot drop at least, he would surely die from the fall.

    The Ent moved closer, dirt and grass fell from its back as it charged towards them, the ground shaking violently at its coming. As its green gaze came upon them it roared, like the Entling, the sound of creaking trees came from its mouth that split the eardrum.

    "JUMP!" Gallan shouted a mere second before the Ent came crashing across the gorge. As they fell, the Ent eclipsed the gorge, so large it did not fall in, but simply stood across.

    Splash. They hit the water, hard. Darkness.

    Alex woke up several hours later with Marie looking down on him with a fearful gaze. As his eyes batted open she smiled and waved the other elves over.

    A small circle surrounded him as he sat up. He was laying in the dirt alongside the river of the gorge.

    "Welcome back to the living Alex!" Gallan said with a pat on the shoulder. "I wasn't quite able to grab you before you hit the water so, this is partially my fault." he said rubbing the back of his head. "But hey, first person to ever kill an Entling and live to tell the tale is a pretty fair prize eh?" Gallan chuckled lightly with the rest of the elves.

    Marie however looked overjoyed that he was alright. Alex, had no idea why. Up until just now she had always turned away from him or avoided talking to him, why now did she care that he was ok?

    "Alright boys, and milady." Gallan said with a tip of his nonexistent hat to Marie. "We head for the white wood, and before we get there, this time I am telling you everything about Stone Web Spiders." Gallan said smacking him on the back as they began to move again.

    Was nobody mad at him for the loss of Vorxis? Why did they seem so calm even though their comrade had just died? These questions and more filled Alexs mind as they walked.

    It was miles until they finally got out of the gorge, the hike seemed to be arduous on the elves but Alex and Marie seemed fine. Alex wondered if elves were sprinters and not much for long distance, or if there was something about humankind that was different. Through the whole fight with the Entling he had been panting for air, but as he ran he realized he hadn't really needed to. Maybe his body was reacting the way it thought it should? Again more questions than answers.

    They trekked for the rest of the day out on the plains and made camp on a large hill. The hill was very well centered in the middle of the vast plains-land. It was surrounded by some kind of wheat-like plant that stood about the same height but was a light brownish-orange color. From the hill Alex could see the Ent Forest, the gorge, the mountain range where the elves called home, as well as some thing he had not seen before. In the distance past the forest was an inlet which lead into what seemed to be a massive ocean. He must not have been able to see it from the Elves mountain because of the mountain range which bordered the forest, and lined the gorge. To the left of that was the lake he had seen when he arrived, and to the left of that was another mountain range, this one however was different.

    While the elves mountains were snow-capped and white. These were a muddy clay color and looked more like canyons that were sticking out of the ground than mountains. They had large walls and steep drops, and behind that range of mountain crevasses he could see an even larger mountain range which ascended into the clouds and beyond sight.

    "Hey Gallan, whats behind those mountains?" Alex asked pointing them out with his finger.

    "The Dragon Range?" Gallan asked walking up beside him. "Well, the tower of the gods is behind it. On a day of clear skies you can see it reaching far into the heavens." Gallan said with a smile as he placed his hand on his back. "They say the tower was built by the gods, and that the ones of the prophecy shall reach the top and unlock their destiny." Gallan said and the men laughed heartily. "HOWEVER!" Gallan said stepping back on one heel and spinning. "That mountain range is called The Dragon Range for a reason." he added facing Alex, looking straight up at his face. "It is protected by dragons that make that Ent you almost died to look like ants." Gallan chuckled lightly. "But you could always visit the dwarves if you wanted." he said and the men laughed again as Gallan sat back down in the center of camp.

    Night fell and Alex slept better this night than he had since he arrived in this place. As he slept, he dreamed, of places gone, of people forgotten, of little ones cared, of lovers past. When he awoke however, it was morning, and he could not remember what it was he had dreamed.

    They walked all day, across the plains, until they rounded the mountain range that extended from the elven mountains. On the other side, between the white topped mountains and the Dragon Range was a forest of white trees far off in the distance. As they got closer however, Alex quickly realized the trees weren't white, they were covered in spider webs.

    "Alright Alexandros and Marianne, theres something you gotta know about Stone Web Spiders. They are fast, and I mean stupid fast." Gallan said motioning a spider running really fast with his hands over Marie's side who jumped with fright. "And they have a crippling poison that will leave you motionless for days without remedy." he added calmly only adding to Marie's clearly terrified face. "However, they are blind, stupid, and deaf. The way they sense is by feel, you see those webs?" he said pointing to the forest. "You touch any one of those webs, and the spiders will be on top of you before you blink an eye." Gallan said lurching out to Marie who jumped back and gasped.

    "I don't like spiders... can I sit this one out?" Marie said holding her hands up to her chest and waving her hand, as if to shoo away a pest.

    "No, you are part of wolf squad now, where we go, you go." Gallan replied with a vicious tone. "Besides, we need you Skyfallen to carry all this crap." Gallan said and the group of elves chuckled.

    Though Gallan wasn't lying, all the wood had been placed on both of their backs, though oddly enough, it didn't bother Alex all that much. As they reached the edge of the forest they dropped their supplies off and took only weapons and axes.

    "Ok so lets go over do's and don'ts shall we." Gallan said calmly as they stepped into the forest. "Don't touch anything. Don't touch a web, don't touch a tree, don't touch a leaf on the ground, don't touch a branch, don't touch..." Gallan started but Marie cut him off.

    "We get it, don't touch anything." Marie blurted out in a whisper, clearly terrified as she whipped her head in all directions.

    "Right, and you don't need to keep your voice down, Stone Web Spiders can't hear s**t." Gallan laughed with the rest of the elves.

    As they got deeper into the forest of webs Alex realized he had forgotten to ask why they were there. "So, what exactly are we looking for? You said we needed Stone Web Spider String? Well isn't that whats all around us?" Alex asked, also in somewhat of a whisper.

    "Yes and no." Gallan said looking around as they walked slowly through the forest, avoiding any webs they crossed. The forest was getting denser, and the webs thicker, making it harder to avoid touching them. "You see, these webs are old. Once the web hardens, it can only be bent, but can no longer be cut, making it the perfect string for bows." Gallan said ducking under a web that crossed two trees as he spoke. "So, you have to cut the string fresh out of the spiders butt, or else risk attracting the swarm." he said, eyes glued to the webs. As they passed another tree Gallan held his hand up for the ground to stop.

    Waving for Alex and Marie, they slowly came up behind him to see what he saw. On a tree not 25 feet away was a giant spider making various clicking noises as it span what appeared to be some kind of deer into a ball of web. It must be 10 feet around... Alex thought as he stared in horror.

    Gallan grabbed the bow off of Marie's back and plucked out an arrow. Sneaking round the bend he pointed the bow at the spiders head which, relative to its body, was fairly small. The spider itself was attaching the deer... thing... it had caught to the tree and once it slunk back to the ground, it turned to face Gallan. It looked for a moment, as if the spider had seen Gallan, and gave him a look as if "What is that doing there?" before Gallan placed a shot perfectly between his 8 eyes.

    The spider cringed and reeled, trying to get the arrow from its head, but before long, curled up into a ball and died. Waving the group over they quickly lobbed off its legs as Marie and Alex watched in horror. Gutting open the spiders belly the silky web rope poured out. It was silvery and shined unlike the web around them. Quickly it was sliced into pieces and strung out after a few moments, the string seemed to lose its shimmer and dried out. However, it was cut into thin ropes and ready to carry.

    Throwing the rope over their back, they made their way out of the forest with haste.

    "Thank heavens were out of this forest." Marie said stretching as they entered the forests edge. It was maybe 100 feet from the forests exit, but as she stretched, her finger extended ever so slightly. The slightly extended finger gently touched a long, thin strand of web and plucked it just so.

    The whole group stopped with terrified looks on their face as the tiny string shook. Staring at the string as it vibrated, making the webs around it vibrate, then the webs around those until they shook the whole forest.

    "RUN!" Gallan screamed and the party took off in a sprint towards the forests edge.

    They were fast, but the spiders were faster. Alex could hear the skittering sounds of the spiders catching up to them quicker than he had thought possible. They felt so close, like their legs were brushing up against his ears and back. Hitting the plains last in the group, he kept running without stopping and when he turned back to look, the white forest had turned black and skittering spiders made their way up and down every tree. They must have been moving somewhere in the 60 MPH range to have catch us so fast from so far away.[/i ]Alex thought looking back to the group, who, all but he and Marie were on their knees panting for air.

    "Well..." Gallan said gasping for air. "Thats two times a humankind has almost gotten me killed..." Gallan laughed rolling on his back.