Anansi's Web

I woke up in a bright field. I was lying on some patches of grass while the sun wrapped me in its arms. Where was I?

All around me were rock walls that formed a tall circular prison. I looked up at the sky, and saw Joseph, flying in a circle above me. It was hard to tell from here, but his feathers were ruffled, and he looked a bit more red than usual. Then, I noticed the little crimson droplets scattered across the small field. What happened?

The last thing that I remember was the storm, and holding on to Josephs back. Now, I was here. Did I fall asleep, is that possible? I stood up with weak, aching legs, and grabbed onto the rock wall from protection. I felt like a child who just lost their parents at a store, and didn’t know what happened to them. I started to scare myself with some of the theories I was making up about where the others were.

I picked up a nearby rock, and hurled it across the patchy field of dirt. Well, at least I know that Joseph is okay, and if I need him, I have a ride out of here, but I refuse to leave without the others. I sat down, and cleared my head of all the panic that was ready to be triggered at the slightest whim, and closed my eyes.

I said the spell, and thought of Ember. Hello? Ember, can you hear me?

Angelo? Thank Terra; I was afraid something happened to you. Tell me where you are, and stay put.

Well, I don’t really know where I am. I’m on some kind of field. I think I’m at the top of the mountain. It feels a bit harder to breathe.

Don’t worry. I can track you with my magic. Stay connected, and I will come and find you.

I waited while Ember was silent, apparently tracking my location. In a few moments she was done, and then she said, I know where you are, you can close the connection. Vince and I are on the way.

I was so relieved that I let go of the connection without asking them where Cara was, or even how long until they were here, I leaned my head against the wall of rock behind me, and relaxed a bit. I still didn’t feel entirely safe. Joseph was hurt, and something had to have done it to him. I think demons live around the mountains.

I licked my dry lips, and found that I really wanted some water, but there was none around here to be found other than some small and very shallow puddles of murky water that had probably been from the rain.

Thunder still echoed gently in my ears. I wonder what caused such a quick, and violent storm. It had to be some kind of magic; someone made that storm to stop us from getting to Sraff. It could have been the general, and he could be here at this very moment. Sometimes I really hate magic.

I wondered just how far Ember was. I was starting to worry that something would happen to her, like it always does.

Joseph screeched, and I looked up at the clear sky to see another flying figure approach my griffin. It was red, and skinny with large thin wings, and a single eye in the center of its head with huge bat ears. My heart beat faster, and I shrank back into the shadow of the huge, jagged rock wall.

I tried my hardest to ignore the sounds of conflict that erupted above me. The shadows kept me from seeing what was happening, and I didn’t wanna see. I tried my hardest to block out the ear splitting shrieks of the Demon, and the roars of Joseph, but I couldn’t just give up anymore, and I decided, to push my fears way, and see if there was anything I could do to help Joseph.

Joseph was entangled with the demon, which had its huge eye directed right at my griffin, shooting daggers with a fierce glare. Its large mouth was open, showing its many rows of small pointed black teeth that had been stained by old blood.

Joseph had his claws buried deep into the huge bat’s body, but the demon had its powerful jaw clamped down onto Joseph, who screeched in pain. I flinched, but I tried to stand my ground. What could I do? Control the demon with magic? It was worth a shot.

I lifted my hand up at the two, and focused on the demon. I concentrated, and opened up my angry emotions. When I looked up, I hadn’t caught the demon, instead I caught Joseph. I immediately let the magic go, but it was too late, and the demon had released its hold on the griffin, and to my utter shock, vomited white hot flames onto Joseph just as he was regaining his balance in the air.

I caught Joseph, and placed him down in his painful, twisted pose. The fire on his chest went out as my magic touched it, but there were still pink spots, and blackened feathers on his chest. Scarlet drops of blood began to pool on the rough surface that we stood on. I let anger take over, and I picked up a rock and threw it at the demon before it could breathe more fire onto Joseph.

The rock hit the demon’s body, and he turned his attention to me. The red creature flew down, and crawled towards me. I heard the sharp long claws grate against the stone as the thing made its way towards me, not bothering to worry about the wounded griffin. I picked up another rock, and before the demon knew it, I had thrown the stone straight into the large eye in the center of its head.

He creature closed its eye and fell backwards, tumbling across the jagged stones that were scattered around.

I ran over to Joseph, and looked at his wounds. They looked pretty serious. If only there was some way to help him. I tried to think of something I could do while the demon was whining at the highest pitch in front of me.

I held my hand out pointing towards Joseph’s chest, and I tried to think about healing him. It was a long shot, but it was all I had. As I tried to heal him, I thought about what the name Joseph had meant to me, and how I had come to think of the griffin as a part of my home. he reminded me of my friend Joseph, and of Othal, where I had boring teachers, and friends. Where the forest I hiked as a child, and the secret spot only my friends and I knew about where no one could get to us.

Tears slid down my face, and my nose was getting stuffy. I cried even more realizing that my emotions were out of control. Joseph was a lot more to me than I thought. I focused harder, until I felt some kind of magic flow from my hand. Had the healing worked? I watched as my white energy touched the griffin’s chest, yet when my magic had dissipated, the wound was still there.

I stared at my work through tear blurred eyes. Then I felt a sharp, blunt pain on my own chest. I place my hand on my chest, and staggered backwards, wincing from the intense, searing hot pain. Meanwhile, Joseph stood up weakly. He looked right at me with white irises. When I looked into his eyes, this may sound weird, but I felt myself inside of him.

Joseph turned to face the staggering demon, which was on all fours, with one hand clawing at the closed eye, from which tears, and blood seeped through.

I clenched my teeth to keep from throwing up. I was dizzy, tired, and after seeing that I wasn’t sure how much longer I would last before I passed out.

Joseph swiped at the demon’s face, making it tumble backwards, and into the wall of rock. I watched in horror at how ferocious Joseph was.

The pain in my chest from earlier had faded slightly, but there was still a burning sensation there, like I had a warm iron pressed up against my chest. I wonder if I transferred some of Joseph’s pain onto myself.

Watching the two creatures fight I felt rage burn through me. I wanted to kill the demon, and the feeling scared me. I wanted to hide my emotions like I usually did, but the rage wasn’t mine to control.

The demon tried to fly away, using echo location, but it’s spastic, and erratic attempts of getting into the air was constantly intercepted by Joseph, who almost seemed to be playing with the demon until he grabbed hold of the fleshy red neck, and chomped, slicing the head clean off. I spared myself from the gory details by closing my eyes, but when I looked back there the head sat on the ground, with a gaping open mouth, and a tightly shut eye lying in a crimson pool that spilled from the severed neck like a waterfall. Sunlight heated the sticky, musty blood, and I finally threw up.

I refused to look back at the thing, but it was so close because of how small the field was. I covered my nose because the rancid warm smell was being wafted towards me by the wind.

Joseph walked in front of me, blocking the view from my sight. I saw that he was wincing, and struggling to stand. I raised my hand towards him, trying to calm him, trying to calm myself. He lay down, resting his wings. His breathing was heavy. He must still be in pain. Most of the aching in my chest I had earlier was gone, and it must have gone back to him. The untamable anger melted down into bitter relief.

I closed my eyes, trying to calm my stomach, and my heartbeat to pass the time. All I could think about was the look of that demon. I concentrated hard, and thought about Ember, and when she was getting here.

I tried to contact Ember myself when I thought I was calm enough, but I was so tired, and stressed, I forgot the words to the spell.

I looked into Joseph’s eyes, and saw that the shade of white was the same as my magic. It was actually kind of creepy. But it did remind me of How Ember’s eyes were the same shade as her magic. It made me wonder how that happened, and as I started to think, my heart rate slowed, and I began to calm down.

With my newfound calm, I tried to examine my situation the best I could. I was trapped with ugly, rough rock walls surrounding me, and anything could attack again at any moment, including the director. Joseph was hurt, and couldn’t fight if another attack were to happen. Ember was who knows how far away, and I didn’t know enough magic to defend myself on my own.

Panic creeped back but I fought it off. I took a deep breath, and leaned by head against the stone.

Joseph tried to look at his burnt chest, but he looked right back up, and his breathing became more rapid. I remembered doing that when I was younger. I would be fine until I looked at the cut, and then I would panic, but the sight of that molted mess would make anything worried.

I wished I could help, but nausea was still lurking, and there was nothing I could do to help him anyways. I avoided looking at the wound and focused on keeping calm as the mountain wind brushed past.

After a good twenty minutes and doing nothing but wondering, and shifting aimlessly through my thoughts, and memories, Ember’s spidery voice leaked into my mind, creeping like frost.

We’re almost there, flying up to get you. Be there in like two minutes.

Cool. I responded.

The connection left, and I looked around. Everything was pretty quiet except for the beating of wings rising up to rescue me. I welcomed the sound warmly, tapping my foot on the dirt.

In a few moments, two griffins were above me, and getting ready to land onto the field. Their beating wings keeping them aloft were sending the patches of grass on the field in a flurry. The wind also lapped across my face like waves in the ocean.

When Ember and Vince landed, they looked around for a few seconds before coming to see how I was doing. I tried not to be annoyed by this as I struggled to stand, using a shelf coming out of the wall of rock to lean on.

Ember turned to me, and looked like I was some strange alien creature. She walked forward almost cautiously. “Angelo, what happened to your eyes?”

“What happened to my eyes?”

Ember looked at Joseph, and saw that his eyes were pure white, and then she looked back at me. “Angelo, how did you know how to do that?”

“Do what?” I asked, with rising annoyance. I remembered the anger I felt earlier, and I closed my eyes, trying to swallow my wrath.

“You and your griffin have the same eye color, and it’s white, like your energy. You must have shared a link with him. I didn’t teach you that yet.”

“It’s called a link? I just tried to heal him, and I guess this happened. I was just thinking about how much I cared about him.”

Ember crossed her arms as if she refused to believe it. “Well, now you’re eyes are white, and to be honest it looks a little creepy. You should get some contacts.”

I felt my face grow warm, and I knew that I was blushing. Now I felt all self-conscious. “You’re not even going to say I did a good job? You’re just going to focus on my eyes.”

“Sorry, it’s just, amazing that you could do this so early…Well, I guess it just is. Come on, let’s go. Is your griffin good enough to ride?”

I shook my head, and told Ember about the demon fight. She walked in front of Joseph to get a closer look at his wounds. When she moved, I saw that Vince was observing the Demon head closer than I would have dared.

“I don’t think I can heal this, it’s not quite what I do, but maybe Vince can find some way to heal him. He got some supplies from his people, and he knows the environment well. I’ll go ask him.”

After talking to Vince, they both walked over, and examined Josephs wound. The griffin looked up at them wearily, like they may be a threat, but he was too tired to deal with them.

Vince took some stuff out of his small black bag. He pulled out a small bottle of blue cream, and dabbed it onto Joseph, who winced at first, but eventually puffed out his chest for Vince to cover every area. Then, Vince took out some wrappings and tightly wound them around Joseph.

“He should be numb a while, soon we’re gonna have to heal him.” Vince said, standing up, packing his supplies away.

“Vince, I’m uh…sorry about earlier.” I said, remembering the talk we had before the storm came.

“Don’t worry, just need to get you safe, and find Cara.”

Ember looked down, holding her arms tight to her chest. “We haven’t found her yet, and I can’t get a mental connection.”

“Well, what are we waiting for, let’s go out and find her.” I said, getting gently onto Joseph’s back. I felt him tremble a bit, but eventually he was steady.

“Not that simple. We think she’s okay, but we need time for a mental connection.” Vince explained. His hair was tousled, and there were a few small scratches on his face. His clothes were torn a bit, and dirt had stained his hands, and was smudged on his face.

“How long could that take?’

“Who knows? We can’t get a connection because she’s either asleep of knocked out. If she were dead though, when I try to connect I would hear a small buzzing, so she’s okay for now.” Ember assured me.

I stared out anxiously into the sky, wondering here Cara could be. I hoped she was okay, she doesn’t deserve to die, and the idea that she could was enough to make my eyes water a bit.

“I can try to get a connection now, but I doubt I would get anything. We’ll just have to wait here until I can get to her.” Ember said, sitting on the ground.

Vince took out his gun that he found from the farmers house, and looked up at the sky. I looked up too, but I didn’t see anything.

“Hey Vince, do you think someone planned the attack, and made that storm on purpose?” I asked.

“I’m sure. Hasn’t been rain here for a while and for a storm that sudden, directly in our path is suspicious. Bet it was the Amunites, with their stupid wind magic.”

I got off of Joseph, who collapsed onto the ground, and began to pick at his bandages, which I stopped by tapping his beak. I sat down next to him, petting his feathers. He lay his head down, and began to purr like a huge cat, filling the air with a low hum.

Ember was sitting, with her eyes closed like she was meditating. I assumed she was trying to get in touch with Cara. It must be that same spell she showed me in Neptia. I wanted to try connecting with Cara myself, but I wasn’t sure if it was safe.

“You’re griffin did a number on that Demon.” Vince said.

“Yeah” I said in a small voice, not wanting to re live the memory.

Ember twitched nearby, but she became still soon, and I figured it was nothing.

“So why did you become a Pirate?” I asked, trying to take my mind off of Cara, and how she was out there all alone.

Vince didn’t look at me, he stayed silent for a few seconds. I was beginning to wonder if I made him mad, but he turned to me, and said, “I was recruited. I lived in Othal, but my grandad was a pirate, and one day they found out I was his grandson, and decided to get me early. It was the best and worst moment of my life. I was thirteen.”

“Oh.” I decided to stay quiet after that.

Ember stood up and walked over to her griffin. “I found Cara. We need to go.”

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