Anansi's Web

The director came to a sudden stop just in front of another wide space in the tunnel. I was running too fast to stop, but his black energy shield rose, and I was blown backwards, tumbling onto one of my friends who caught up to us.

I got up, and gave Vince a hand, with Ember and Cara next to him. Ahead of us, the director was inside of the room, surrounded by a field of his energy. Around him a massive shifting cloud of hornets hummed as loud as eight lawnmowers.

Ember stepped forward; her hand was pointed towards the hornets. A thin grey mist formed around the insects, slowly growing thicker, and consuming them. They hummed just as loud, but they didn’t move. Ember was putting them into a daze with smoke.

“Look,” Cara said. Her voice was shaky, and light.

She pointed to a large glistening black jar with the top resting beside it. I told Ember about the jar, but she shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know how we can get them in there, the smoke only calms them, and I can’t hex them all.”

The director’s shield lowered, and he backed away from the cloud slowly until I captured him in my magic. He broke through my magic immediately, but it gave Vince time to stun him with his gun. He surprisingly wasn’t completely stunned, but he did lose his balance, and was fumbling to the end of the area.

Cara took out another bottle from her bag, but she didn’t do anything with it. Ember walked into the room, keeping away from the cloud of subdued hornets. She still held her torch towards them, so the smoke from that might help.

The director turned to us, but before he could attack he was hit with purple energy. He was knocked into the wall, but he walked right back towards us like it was nothing. We hurried into the next tunnel, finally ahead of him, but not for long if we didn’t do something. This was the final fight.

Cara uncorked the bottle she was holding, and splashed it onto the ground. A huge red fire blazed behind of us. The flames swirled, and danced in the shadows, whirling yellows, reds, and oranges blended into one huge unquenchable beast that rested its intense heat onto my face.

“That should hold him off for a bit, we should hurry.” She said.

I wanted to say something to her, but I didn’t know what, so I just did as she said.

We walked as fast as we could to get to the next part of the tunnel. I felt strange as we continued. The deeper part of the cave was still tugging at me.

“That won’t hold him off for long, do you have anything else?” Ember said.

Cara searched through her bag, and pulled out a bottle of orange liquid, like the stuff she used before that turned into goop. She uncorked the bottle, and poured it onto the ground. It expanded, and grew larger, clogging up the path. She took out a small vial of some tan colored liquid, and poured it onto the orange mass, and in seconds the stuff started to smoke, and it expanded, rising all the way to the ceiling of the cave.

We kept walking forward, relaxing a little now that the director had his hands full. The farther we went, the more we realized that this tunnel was longer than the other ones. I was nervous about what might be at the end of this cave. Something told me there was a strong energy at the finish.

I caught sight of a pair of red eyes hanging in the shadows, staring at us. I shivered, holding my arms across my chest until we reached it with the fire light. It was a small bird with a mix of black and grey feathers. It kept watching us as we passed. I couldn’t have been happier to pass it, but then even more popped up. All of the birds were perched on small ledges, and shelves in the stone. They were completely silent while they observed us with those blood red eyes.

I think Vince spoke for all of us when he said, “Creepy…”

Ember led the way for the rest of the tunnel as the crowd of birds watched us from the side. “What did we get into?” Cara whispered.

One of the little birds stirred, hopping closer to us, flapping its feathers. Vince swiped his sword, but he thought against it, swerving before the bird was hit. We all stood still, waiting for something to happen, but the birds were just as calm as the always were.

Past the birds, the tunnel went back to usual. I focused on my footsteps, and my breath. Maybe If I didn’t think about it I wouldn’t be scared.

A few steps ahead of us, Ember stopped. When we caught up with her there was another room, and in it was the shrine of the Siribi. Inside, there was a stone shelf at the end of the cave. On the shelf was a stone statue of a spider, with the top two arms holding a glowing green gem that glistened, its light was dull, but it still filled the room, allowing us to see. There was a golden name plate in front of the statue with the name: Anansi carved into it.

Gem stones, shimmering necklaces, shrunken heads, rings, and other treasures piled around the shrine. White marble columns stood at every corner, and on the roof, flecks of light glimmered like stars embedded into the stone. I lost all words. My breath escaped my lungs as I gazed at this final room.

Then, in all of a sudden a dull green light flooded my vision. Before I could tell what was happening, I was standing on a small island with pure, white sand. Dark clouds swirled in the sky, threatening to rain. All around me were soldiers wearing helmets, and carrying guns and swords. Tanks were in the back pointed at the giant silver spider looming over the island.

The spider was humongous; it cast a shadow onto the entire piece of land. The terror on the soldier’s faces couldn’t be hidden even with their helmets on. The spider looked at everyone with beady black eyes, its fangs were releasing thick globs of green venom onto the island, and into the clear blue water, creating craters in the sand, and turning the water a toxic green.

This was the Siribi, Anansi. I must be back in time, or something, but the people here didn’t seem to notice me, even though I was dressed way different than them, and was obviously younger. This must be an illusion created by the room. Realizing that I tried to relax, but it all looked so real part of my brain was still scared.

Everyone trembled in horror as the spider spoke with a surprisingly soft, gravelly voice that sounded intelligent, like an old professor.

“You humans are so impudent. Do you really consider stopping us? You have entered a biosphere that you cannot inhabit, it is beyond your universe’s laws, and we are evidence. Now you have fallen into my deception and you didn’t even know. If I were you I would go back to your fading world, and live out my last few decades. It is truly a hell of your own creation, you only have yourselves to blame.” The spider let out a small laugh, but it still sounded sinister.

Around me the humans looked offended, and regretful, but they did not move an inch. I looked away from the warped, ugly face as it gnashed its fangs, drooling, and slobbering.

From the crowd a woman stepped out surrounded by three Amunites, who seemed to be helping her. Their black wings were outstretched, but their faces were weary. They were thin, and had scars all over their arms, and legs, but they stood with her staring up at the creature with all the contempt in their bodies.

The woman’s face darkened as she looked into the spider’s glistening eyes. She had brown hair, and wore some kind of metal armor.

The spider laughed again. “Humph, is this the best you can do? This one doesn’t even have magic. She is unarmed, and surrounded by three weak, spineless moths.”

“They are weak because of what you did to them, but I would not call them spineless, they had the courage to stand up to you.” The girl said.

“You’re point girl? If you’re here to stop me then do it, why would you bother arguing?”

The girl was stoic as she took a green gem from one of the Amunites. It must be the same gem from the cave I realized.

The spider leaned forward, staring at the little thing with all of his eyes. She raised the gem high into the air, and began a little chant.

The spider looked as confused as possible for an insect. He must have been trying to figure out exactly what this strange human was about to do.

A white energy that looked similar to my magic swirled around the gem. The light flowed into the stone, and began to funnel like a tornado towards the spider Anansi. He still couldn’t figure out what was happening. “You ought to have learned that magic cannot harm me, what do you hope to accomplish?”

The girl smiled as the white magic began to consume Anansi, who still didn’t seem sure if he wanted to leave, or see what these humans had up their sleeve. His long silver legs were just beginning to move backwards through the water when the energy consumed his entire form.

“If you kill us girl, magic as you know it will cease to exist.” He warned.

She spoke, but I wasn’t sure if anyone but her could hear. All around her people watched with awe as this beast was being dragged into the gem. The fear the once held them collectively stood still, and shifted into hope.

“I don’t know how you’ve done this, but you won’t be able to do it again.” Those were the last words of Anansi before his shape was shrunken down into nothing, and the white energy was absorbed into the stone, to be locked away for centuries.

When everything stopped, the people cheered, holding up their guns, and weapons, screaming. The Amunites took flight, and circled the group, twisting, and turning in the sky. The girl was smiling wide, and her eyes were lively, but then another huge shadow darkened the sky. It covered everything I could see as it soared above. Then, a scaled foot with sharp black talons swooped down, kicking up sand, and knocking people away. When the foot left the island, a huge chunk of the crowd was held tight in its grasp, one of those being the girl, and two of the three Amunites. Shrieks of pain and fear echoed through the sky.

As the dust cleared I saw many were injured. The talons had raked the island, slashing a few people in the process, I tried not to look. Then, from the side the Amunite who escaped came into view. He had dark hair, and looked sophisticated. He elegantly reached down, and grabbed the green crystal from the ground, and the last vision the room gave me, was him standing there, looking in shock, concentrating on the gem that held Anansi.

A flash of green light dissolved the illusion, and I was back in the cave, dazed. Everyone else was awake as well, looking around. We were probably right below the spot where that happened. I looked at the green gem before the director crossed my mind.

I whipped around and saw him standing there, caught in the magic trance. Now was our chance.