Anansi's Web

The sea dragon started moving through the water in slow, sleek movements that made me feel like I was getting nowhere. Sitting on the back of the thing felt like riding on the back of a huge, slimy snake. I just felt uncomfortable as the wind blew against us, while the serpent fought the tide. Plus, this thing smelled like fish, and not one fish, more like a pile of fish in an old fisherman’s cellar topped with mermaid vomit. I would not have done well on this thing if I had sea sickness.

As time went by, the creature slowly picked up speed. No one said anything as we moved. I think we were all trying to get ourselves together, and keep from vomiting, or falling off. Eventually we were moving at the speed of a car on the open road going moderately fast, but not insanely fast.

There wasn’t much to do on this ride but think. The day was just beginning, and I wondered when we would make it to the island Fortri I had been hearing about for so long. I remember fighting Ember to get her to agree to take me, and now I was having second thoughts. The only reason we were going now was because there was no other safe place for us, so why not stop the director? We’ve been fighting him for weeks, why don’t we just finish it?

“Wooo!” Cara shouted as we maneuvered quickly around a series of rocks, twisting and turning like a bolt of lightning. I shouted after her, and then Vince, but Ember stayed quiet.

After maybe one hour or so I started to notice the bright, clear, sunlight capturing blue of the water become a murky, dirty jade color. I remembered my reoccurring dream about the woman, and the gem eyes. The second half of that dream was about the gems falling into murky green waters. I gripped the scales of the snake tight, and hoped that my dream had no significance, but in this world who could tell?

Some sounds came from the distance, and the clouds became grey, and stormy. The water became darker, and the sky was tinted grey with some kind of smog. It smelled like heavy smoke, the kind that oozes off of major fires. My eyes began to water from the smog, and the water felt warm as droplets touched my skin.

Ember looked back from where she was, with an expression that told me that she better not regret her decision.

The sea serpent stopped, and opened its mouth for one huge roar. I didn’t see the island anywhere near us, but the smoke looked heavier in the distance so maybe it was just hidden.

I gripped onto Ember tight, and she spoke in my mind.

You’ll be safe, just trust all of us, and yourself.

I felt her leave my mind. The sea dragon had started to move again, it was slithering gently through the green waves, almost like this was a calm boat ride through polluted waters. Cara gripped my back tight from behind me. I closed my eyes, and said the spell Ember taught me. I told Cara the same thing Ember told me in her mind. Cara told me that she was nervous, but I reassured her, and left. I didn’t feel like talking to her right now. I just wanted to see what the island was like.

The sea serpent rose further out of the water, and we slid further down its back as its height rose. Ember gripped the scales tight, and we all held onto each other as tight as possible. I looked back at the green water, and thought about my dream.

Then, there was a flash of red light in the distance that cut through the black smog. Along with the red light came a harsh beeping sound that assaulted my ears. I almost wanted to swim to the bottom of the sea to avoid the sound. The piercing noise felt like it was jamming a jackhammer with a needle point into my ear. I screamed, trying to block the sound, but my scream was absorbed by the noise. The sea serpent’s roar was barely audible as it swam forward, fighting the terrible racket.

The noise cut abruptly when the serpent passed the red lights. My ears were ringing so bad there was no other sound. Ahead of me, Ember went limp, and I shook her, but she didn’t respond. When I checked her pulse, she was still alive, but she wasn’t moving. I entered her mind, but there was nothing but darkness.

Cara was weeping as she clutched me. Everything was quiet for a moment. The ringing in my ears hurt really badly, but I shut my tear blurred eyes, and gripped the sea monsters scales. Would I never be able to hear the same way again? My ear wasn’t bleeding or anything, maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought?

A huge wave erupted in front of us, but I could only hear muffled noises. The water scattered everywhere, and I got a wash with the warm ocean water. From the wave of jade water came a large machine rising from the sea. I guess it was waterproof or something. It was black, and looked like it was made of steel. It was like something from a science fiction movie. There were two pairs of “arms” One pair had four pronged grippers, and the other had…some kind of gun.

I gulped, and held on tight to the monster with one hand, while gripping Ember with the other. This wasn’t going to work, and I knew it. What would my dad do, he’s been in a situation like this before right? Oh, I really shouldn’t have come; I should have gone home to Othal. Now I might die.

Cara let go of me, and when I looked, she was trying to pull Vince onto a sturdy position. His eyes were distant, and foggy, and he was moving his lips, but I don’t think I could hear that even if I had normal hearing.

Cara managed to pull him up, and he held onto her just as she threw up into the murky water. I did the same, and realized how much worse this situation was. We were in no condition to fight, at all. I remembered the bright city of Sraff, and when I met Cara. Was it going to end like this?

The sea serpent moved like a long, slimy bolt of lightning. In smooth movements it coiled around the war machine, squeezing the metal with surprising success. We all threw up again.

I tried to focus on an emotion in this situation, but I couldn’t, so I couldn’t use my magic to keep Ember still. I gripped her with all my strength, and Cara gripped me. I wasn’t sure about Vince though. When I looked back, he was there, lying face down, gripping the creature with his arms, and legs.

The machine grasped at the serpent with its two free arms, but couldn’t bend its joints that way. The machine fired its guns mindlessly into the water, hitting nothing with the bright flashes that rattled lightly from its gun hands.

The sea serpent roared, and clamped its strong jaw firmly onto the robot’s head, but it didn’t crack the head, or tear it apart but it did manage to fit its long sharp teeth into some of the cracks, snapping the wires, and setting off sparks that grew into fires.

I had nothing more to throw up, but I still managed to. I still couldn’t hear anything, no matter how hard I tried. The fire from the robot’s head grew bigger, and the serpent managed to get its head away before it got scorched.

We uncoiled from the machine as it fell into the ocean, spraying random bullets all around us until it fell into the water, and kept still. I breathed a sigh of relief, and lay down on the serpents back until it jerked, and I was thrown into the depths.

The water consumed me, washing over my eyes, and stuffing itself into my nose. Bubbles drifted around me, along with dark pieces of debris. When I looked, I saw the black machine was laying a few yards away, still trying to move.

I swam forward, trying to get back to the surface. When I emerged, Cara was there, holding a hand out to help me. I grabbed her hand, and she pulled me back up onto the sea serpent. I was cold despite the heat of the water. My clothes were drenched, and sticking to my body, and I was done with this.

We slithered forward, past the remains of the robot, and I finally saw the island. The sand was black and dull while the buildings were huge grey and stern faced. I felt I didn’t belong, like I was in my dad’s head. I watched as some troops jog from the building, and watch us as we came. They looked much less than pleased to see two kids, and one passed out adult along with another weak adult riding on the back of a huge sea serpent.

The serpent stopped when it touched the dark sand, and I slumped off of it and lay on the black sand, surrendering to whoever they were. Cara did the same, dragging Vince with her. I closed my eyes.

A bright light assaulted my eyes. I shut them tight, and blinked until I could see my surroundings clearly. I was in a small white room that smelled like floor polish with a hint of coffee that made me wonder exactly where I was. There was nothing there except for a table across from me, and a chair next to me, with Cara sitting in it. She had handcuffs on, and her head was down, knocked out. When I tried to move, I found that I was handcuffed as well, they dug into my wrists, but it felt more numb than painful. I tried to move, but I felt weak, and I almost fell back asleep.

My ears didn’t ring anymore, on the upside. In fact, they felt pretty normal, Cara’s low snoring sounded sharp as it echoed through the room.

I took a deep breath as something stirred inside of me. I could feel it, the anger rushing from the tightness in my chest, spreading into my body. All I wanted to do was break out of the stupid handcuffs, and despite reason I fought the metal restrainers with all the force that surged through my body. I never wanted to get angry, in the back of my mind fear of what I might do spread. I never had anger issues, but when I did get angry…I just didn’t like myself.

I clenched, and unclenched my fists, energy returned to my body. I got good at not becoming angry from practice, but I guess something snapped. I can’t believe this is happening, the moment I’m free, and someone steps into this room…they better hope I don’t get free. My breathing got louder, and my pulse got faster I closed my eyes, and tried to calm myself, but it was hard.

I cursed as I continued to fight the handcuffs. My voice was like lava that seeped out of a volcano before the real eruption. No matter how many deep breaths I took, nothing would get better. I remembered what my griffin, Joseph did to the demon when we were in the mountains, and I remembered how scared of him I was. Now I looked back at the memory with a toasty fondness.

“Mmmm, whazallthatracket?” Cara murmured in her sleep.

I sat up straight, and took a deep breath. I looked at her, and I felt my eyebrows tense. My hatred had found a new target, in spite of the sea of reason that told me Cara had done nothing wrong. I shook the handcuffs, and rattled the metal chair on the floor to wake her.

After a few seconds, she lifted her head, and her eyelids peeled open only to close right after. Cara hissed as the light filled her eyes.

I swallowed whatever thoughtless remark I was going to make, and said, “Are you okay?” The words made me feel caged but I didn’t want to make Cara feel bad.

She groaned, “Yeah, just a little woozy.”

“Good.”

“D-do you know how long we’ve been here?”

I shook my head. “I just woke up a few minutes ago, how could I know?”

Cara seemed to realize she was stuck, and then she groaned, complaining that her eye was itchy. It took a lot of my strength not to lash out. The little voice in my head was getting louder as time continued, but I was still angry.

“I’m scared.” She said. Her voice was as quiet as a mouse.

“Hmmm, I don’t think I asked how you felt.”

Cara looked at me, but I couldn’t meet her eyes. The voice of reason in my head was as angry was I was. Cara was silent after that, not talking unless I said something first, which was aggravating.

“I’m just glad we can hear again, and that we survived that sea serpent attack.” I said.

“Yeah,” Cara said in half a whisper.

“I wonder where our stuff is.”

She didn’t reply.

I swallowed my pride. “I’m sorry for snapping at you.”

She shrugged. “It’s fine…Do you think the others are okay?”

“I hope they are. I hate this, how long will it take for these people to realize we’re trying to help them? Their secret war has been busted for a while now probably. They’ve got us chained like criminals for helping them, can you believe it?”

Cara shrugged, and anger began to melt as I spoke in the silent room, turning into something different. “We’ve done a lot; just think about it for a moment. Oh Terra, these people are stupid.”

“You probably shouldn’t say things like that.”

“I don’t even care about what I say anymore, how could things get any worse? All I wanted after we left Neptia was peace, first Ember told me I couldn’t fight the director, and now this is happening. We need to come together, I won’t stand around anymore. I’m taking control.”

“That’ll be hard if we never get out of here.”

She looked away before I could turn to her. “I know.” I said.

“I’m sorry.” She said.

“Sorry for what?”

After a moment she shrugged, “Nothing, forget it. I just…It feels like my fault.”

“No, you didn’t have anything to do with us getting captured. You’ve saved my life a few times.”

“I know, but maybe I could have done more, or maybe I messed up somewhere, I don’t know.”

“Don’t think like that, the only think we need to think about now is getting out of here.”

After some time of thinking, I decided that escape was out of the question. Just when I had begun to doze off, a door slid open from the right wall, and in stepped a grey haired man. He looked to be in his mid-forties, with icy blue eyes. He wore black camouflage like the soldiers we saw when we first got to the island. His hands were behind his back, and his walk was stiff.

He stood in the middle of the room, and looked us over. When he talked, the room didn’t just echo, it shook, even though he wasn’t speaking very loud.

“Hello.”

“Hey.” I said, trying to match his cool tone.

“Now, tell me what you two are doing here.”

I wanted to tell him were came here to pick daisies, but I struck the idea down. “We’re looking for something.” I said, trying to sound confident, but not challenging.

He looked down at us like we were filth on his brand new car. I found anger bubbling back up, but I remained in control. “What are you looking for?” He asked.

“A director of Fervan chased us, and he was looking for a Siribi, which is here.” I said.

The man took out a small notepad, and read something on a page. I wondered what he was reading; maybe he has notes from talking to Ember, and Vince. As I looked at his eyes they seemed to march across the page. He was worse than my dad.

“You are both minors,” He spoke, looking up from the notepad, “But you do understand it is forbidden to come to these islands. And you chose to break the rules. Even if it was for some greater good, yet from you’re stories it seems to have been the only option.”

I nodded, and he looked even more irritated. “I’ll take you to your friends.”

Relief flooded my senses, and I took a deep breath. The only thing that would ruin the moment would be if Ember and Vince are dead.

The man walked up to me, and undid the handcuffs. After letting us go, we stood up, and he led us out of the room. Cara grabbed my hand, and I didn’t mind. But when I looked at her, her eyes were all watery.

We walked through some simple white hallways that led to a single room. The room was more comfortable than the rest of the place, it felt like a break room. There was a brown carpet, and sofas with a coffee table, and a TV. Sitting on the couch were four people. Two of them were Ember, and Vince, but the other two people I recognized to be the pirates that I last saw in Sraff. There was selkie and one of the male pirates. The other male pirate was leaning on the wall with his arms crossed because there was no more room on the sofa.

“Hey kid.” Vince said as I walked in. He sounded weary, but he didn’t look harmed, neither did Ember. I smiled a bit, and walked beside the couch.

“Uh, why are Ember’s eyes closed?”

Vince leaned in, and whispered, “I’ll tell you later.”

I nodded, watching Ember. The general who led Cara and me in the room stood at the door, watching us. I felt like a statue, I was scared that if I moved, his eyes would dart right towards me.

“What are the pirates doing here?” Cara asked.

Vince was about to answer when one of the guy pirates spoke. “We’re chasing the director. That guy from Fervan told us the same thing he told you.”

The moment of silence that followed stretched longer than I could bear when another man walked into the door. He had on black camouflage clothing, and towered over everything in the room. His brown hair was cut in a short boring fashion, and his face was just as emotionless as everyone else’s. He was followed by three shorter people, who seemed to be soldiers.

The man walked in front of us, and looked us all over with a face that verged on contempt. “We’ve made a decision.” He paused for a few seconds. “I’ve decided that…that, everyone…” He fought to find the words, but he was failing. Then he looked at the man at the door, and instructed him to leave the room, along with the three soldiers who were all watching him with funny expressions. I stood there, wondering what he was fighting to say.

“The…the…everyone, is going to help find the Siribi tunnel.” He said, yet he looked like with each word he said he was being stabbed in the gut. He gulped, and continued.

“And, and, I will command no one to interfere. Now I will go tell that to the man outside the door. H…ha…have, have a nice day.” He fumbled, walking awkwardly out of the room.

I pressed my lips together, trying not to laugh. I expected Cara to be laughing already, but her face was knitted with very serious concern. Vince wore a grin, and Ember still had her eyes closed…She must be hexing the general, but he’s strong, so she has to concentrate to keep control over him.

“Ember’s pretty good.” Vince said.

“Indeed.” The selkie said.

The other two pirates brushed it off, like they could have done a better job at hexing him.

“Oh, wow, that was Ember?” Cara asked.

Vince nodded.

“How did you guys use magic? I would have thought magic is forbidden here.” I said.

“Some parts of this place aren’t like that. Ember and I passed a hallway, and we saw the guy’s wristband that lets him used magic. Long story short, Ember was able to hex him, and make him give her the wristband. After that she’s been focusing like this to keep him in line, but it’s been hard.”

“What’s your plan?” I asked.

“Ember’s gonna get everyone off our backs, and then she’s gonna get our stuff, and we can look for the Siribi.”

“Sounds good. But, I do wonder if the director has gotten here, or if he hasn’t even reached this island yet.”

“He hasn’t or we would have known a long time ago. He’s had so much time to get here though, I’m thinking he is getting information from his spies in Sraff, and is waiting for us to show up so he can kill two birds with one stone y’know?”

“Yeah, that makes sense. I wonder why he thinks we’re still such a threat, we already told Neptia about his plan.”

Vince shrugged. “If we can stand up to him maybe he thinks we’ll try and stop more directors like him, I don’t know. But Ember told me that you’re magic is different somehow, maybe that’s why he wants to stop you.”

What did Ember mean, different? “Did Ember tell you anything else?”

Vince shook his head.

I remember back in the mountains she called my magic color different. This was starting to feel bigger than I thought.

“You’ve been quiet Cara.” I said. She didn’t look sad, or confused, just lost in her own thoughts as she stared into the floor.

“What? Oh, sorry.” She said as if she was annoyed that I was interrupting something.

“You okay?”

Cara nodded. She sat on the floor cross legged, and was resting her elbow on her knee with her fist on her cheek, blocking me off. What was wrong with her?

I was in silence for several minutes. No one turned the TV on, it would have felt out of place, but the stillness of everything was poking my brain from a distance with a stick. I wanted to take the stick, and snap it in half, but in the end all I wanted to do was take everyone to the cave, and get this thing over with. There was nothing to keep my mind from thinking about how the final fight would go down, but when I thought about everything we’ve done it didn’t seem so scary. The empty room was warping my thoughts.

The tall man from earlier walked in, he was carrying our stuff, including some bags, and weapons that I guess belonged to the pirates. He laid the bags on the floor, and we all walked up to pick our stuff out.

When that was done, and Cara had her bag and Vince had his along with his sword, and the pirates had their items, the man walked in front of the room. He was followed by a timid brown haired woman wearing a black uniform with a lot of pockets, and an entwined blue and gold circle emblem on her chest that was a symbol for Terra.

“I’ve found a nurse that reported seeing a mysterious cave around the southeast section of the island. She will accompany you, as well as three loyal troops for extra protection. I will leave now. Do good…”

The man stumbled from the room as the nurse watched with a permanent look of confusion and distress. Her fingers were resting on her lower lip, while she looked at us with big brown eyes. The three troops came into the room as the man left. They all had single handed guns on their waists that sat next to their black shadow magic wands. Each of them looked like they were trying a bit too hard to keep up an appearance, but there was still an endearing quality to them that gave me respect for what they were doing. They all probably miss their homes, but they weren’t being pitied by me, I only tried to remind myself that they were human. I thought about my dad, and his family for a brief moment before the soldiers commanded us to follow them out of the room.