Anansi's Web

Outside, I got a better look at the destruction of the island. The black sand absorbed all light that shifted through the haze, filling the air with darkness. Large craters were littered around, and the zooming of planes and mechanical clanking of tanks surrounded us. I felt that I was trapped, the island was my prison, and there was no way out. A sense of hopelessness rained onto me, but I shook it off, and decided to use this feeling to make myself even more determined to leave.

We walked away from the base, and snuck around, with the nurse leading the way, showing us where she found the cave. The three soldiers were even with her, and I was right behind them. Ember, now done with hexing the general was beside me.

“Be careful,” She said. Her voice was low, and scratchy. She was weak from hexing the general, I needed to step up, and help her lead.

As we walked through the island, I could hear Vince saying things in the background, but I didn’t catch most of it. His voice faded into the louder noise, and had drowned by the time it reached my ears, so I didn’t pay it any attention.

All plant life around me was dead, or didn’t exist. The smell of dirty water, and thick smog filled my nose, making me gag on the inside. We passed a strange tower that looked like it had been there for centuries. It was twisted, rusty, and colorless. I wondered what it did, and why it was there, but we passed it without a word.

Cara was constantly stepping on the back of my shoe, walking a little too close for me. I still wanted to know what was wrong with her. She was acting strange, I wanted to help her, but there was another objective at that moment.

“What made the sand black?” I asked to fill the time.

“Shadow magic.” The nurse said. She had a heavy voice, and an unusual accent. “We use it more than normal magic here. The energy of the island has been harvested with large machines, and used to keep up a protective spell around our bases. But we’ve been running out of energy, the island is nearly entirely dead. No plants will grow, and the pollution caused by the war isn’t helping.”

“So the world has its own magic?”

“Yes and no, but that is a question for a scientist, for now we need to focus on finding that cave.”

“There is one place plants grow.” Vince said.

The soldiers looked back at him, “How do you know?”

The former pirate walked forward, beside Ember and me. “I’ve been here before; I’ve almost seen every corner of the island.”

“We have too.” The selkie said. She and her friends were to our left, keeping their distance.

The soldiers muttered something about pirates, and then were silent for the rest of the trip. I looked at Vince to see if he would get mad, but he was stoic. The other pirates however, looked very annoyed.

“So where’s the fighting going on?” Cara asked.

“Zirea owns the island; Fervan only sends ships an occasionally. The main purpose here is to keep Fervan at bay,” Said Vince.

“If you’re fighting their ships you need some good defenses.” I said, thinking about the attack with the loud noise, and the robot.

As we searched the island, the nurse would talk to random soldiers and scientists, asking about patients, and reports for missing people. I ignored her, and tried my best to keep my attitude determined.

We stopped at what seemed to be halfway through the island. I was tired, but I wasn’t ready to give up. Ember was a little wobbly, and I was scared she might not be able to fight, but then I remembered that I could protect her. I would protect everyone.

“This is where the cave was, but I see nothing.” the nurse said. She was staring at a file, examining it closely.

I broke off from the group, and scanned the area. I didn’t see any kind of cave nearby. No hills, no trees, no buildings. There were only craters, and the occasional passing of people.

We all spit up, and looked for any kind of cave, or opening, or hill, but no matter where we looked there was nothing but open land.

“I think there is a cave; I might have seen it this way.” Vince said, but I didn’t follow him, it would be best if we looked separately to cover more ground.

“I think I’ve found it.” The nurse said. When we gathered to where she stood there was a medium sized pocket rising from the ground, like the upper half of a creature’s mouth. Inside of the gaping maw there was nothing but darkness, but if she thinks this is what she saw it’s our best lead.

I looked into the darkness, and shouted my name. My voice echoed around in the shadows. I raised my hand, and did the flashing light spell. From the light I got, it looked like the cave was pretty deep. The walls were grey and brownish with strange symbols etched into the walls.

“This must be it.”

They all walked forward. “Do you really think so?” The nurse asked.

I nodded as the pirates rushed forward, and pushed me out of the way. I fell to the ground, and watched the three inspect the cave. “What was that for?”

The three stopped moving for a few seconds before turning around at the same time, and standing in front of the cave’s mouth, blocking the entrance.

“What are you doing?” Vince asked. There was no response from their blank faces.

I looked into their eyes and saw their irises had become pure black. The moment I realized what that meant, there was a flash of darkness, and suddenly the director in the flesh was floating above us. He looked the same as he did the first time I met him. There was a black aura surrounding his strong figure, and light brown skin. There was a triumphant smirk on his face as he looked down at us.

We all stepped back. The nurse ran behind us, and the troops stood in the front. Vince pulled out his gun, and Cara fumbled in her bag for some alchemy stones, but her hands were shaking. Ember and I raised our hands, ready to help in any way we could.

A flash of red light flew towards the director, but in a blur of black energy, he was inside of the cave, standing behind the pirates with his hands behind his back. His expression seemed to say, have fun.

The pirates walked forward, stiff like puppets on a string as they pulled out their weapons. The selkie held her axe with two hands, and the two men pulled out their guns. They came straight for us.

Lightning fast snakes of colorful energy bounced back and forth from the soldiers, and the two male pirates, dodging, and shooting back with their guns.

The selkie went after Vince. She knocked the gun from his hands, and was trying to hack at him. He was too fast for her to reach, but she was quick too.

Cara tossed stones at the two male pirates, but they always missed and nothing would happen. She was shaking, and throwing without much thought as to the direction, and force. Ember shielded the soldiers from stunning blasts when their guard was weak. Sweat dripped form her face and she was breathing heavily.

I used the flashing spell to distract the selkie when she tried to attack Vince. He took his sword out from its sheath, and blocked her blows the best he could, not swiping at her with the blade, instead, he only hit her with the butt of the sword.

The flashing lights around us crackled, and snapped, causing confusion in the dark smog. I watched as one of the soldiers was stunned, and fell to the ground. The pirate ignored him, and focused on the two remaining soldiers, so I didn’t think they were interested in killing.

Ember joined the magic fight, despite her current state. The atmosphere became a blur of chaotic colors fighting each other. Cara’s stones were flying through the air, hitting nothing, and Vince’s sword clashed with the girl pirate’s axe while I used my magic to distract her occasionally, and give him a hand. We were all in the middle of commotion. This was the fight I was waiting for. It was my chance.

A stray stun blast flew towards Cara, and I put my shield over us. She walked towards me, and grabbed my hand while the outside world became an even more destructive place of swirling colors. Ember’s shape was a dull pink, and the two soldier’s auras were becoming weak as well. More stun blasts cracked my white energy, and I stood there waiting. Cara said nothing, but she didn’t have too to let me know that she was scared.

I turned behind us, and watched Vince’s light green shape fight the Selkies dull grey form. I looked Cara in the eyes, and held her shoulders tight. “Focus, we’re all here.”

She nodded, but I don’t think I helped much. My field burst open in a field of white sparkles, and I saw everything somewhat clearly again. One of the pirates was down, but so was another soldier. The nurse was gone, and Vince’s shirt had a tear across his belly, but he wasn’t cut.

I raised my hand, and surrounded the Selkie in my magic. She stood frozen mid slash. I was going to throw her into the sea, but a burst of black energy broke my magic, and I flew backwards, landing on my back in the center of the magic fight. Ember protected me as I got up, and moved out of the way. The selkie turned to me with her axe raised. I didn’t have time to put up a shield when she lurched, and fell to the ground. Vince was behind her, he hit her in the back of the head with the bottom of his sword.

I nodded to him, and turned to see that a stone had hit the other pirate, and he was covered by an orange mass that wrapped itself around his body, immobilizing him.

The fighting stopped, and there was nothing left but the high energy that fizzled away when we realized the fighting was done.

The cave entrance was wide open, and I could feel something strange attracting me towards it. The one soldier left after the fight tried to help his companions, but they wouldn’t respond. They were alive though, he checked their breath, and pulse.

“You should go back to the base, and bring backup.” Ember told him. He hesitated a moment before nodding. He grabbed one soldier in his arms, and managed to pick the other one up with magic.

“Let’s go in.” I said, stepping into the cave without objection from the others. In the darkness I felt mentally pulled by something, there was a strange feeling in my chest, and gut, but it could just be nerves.

Behind me there was a flash of purple light which turned into a dancing yellow light that cackled in the silence.

“Maybe I should lead the way Angelo.”

Ember walked up next to me with two torches. I put my hand out, and she handed one to me. We walked side by side.

The shadows flickered and melted as we approached. The stone walls of the cave were covered in more markings from ceiling to floor. Stalactites above us hung menacingly like sharp grey teeth in the dark jaws of a monster. The noise of the outside world was sucked away, and replaced with a deep, low moan that sounded from deep inside the chilly cave.

“The director can’t have gone too far.” Vince said.

I nodded as we kept walking straight. I almost couldn’t believe that we were actually here. This place was centuries old, and a major part of history. I tried to keep my wonder contained, but it kept returning to my mind, blocking out the fear.

We walked a few more feet until we reached a much wider space. The light in the room was dim, so I could see decently, but I didn’t know where the light was coming from.

Inside, there was a dark coil that went from the floor, almost to the ceiling. It took me a few seconds to figure out that it was a giant snake. The head was faced in our direction, but it didn’t move, or open its eyes.

Cara took out a bottle with some orange liquid inside, and Vince drew his sword. We took some cautious steps into the room, but the snake still did not move. We maneuvered around it quickly, until I noticed the snake was dark grey, and its scales weren’t very noticeable. I walked up to it before anyone could stop me, and I knocked on its body. It felt like stone, and made a heavy clanking sound.

Cara walked up next to me. “Magic?”

“I don’t know any spell that can do that, maybe it was alchemy.” Ember suggested.

“Fervan knows a lot of spells that Zirea doesn’t, it could be either but let’s just be happy it’s not alive, and move on” Vince said.

“We should keep moving.” I said.

We all walked out of the room, and found ourselves back in a thin tunnel drowned in shadow. I tried to keep my mind off of anything else we might see in here.

“Hey, you’re going too fast Monrolee.”

I stopped, and turned around to see them only a few steps behind me; I mean we need to catch up to the director right?

“What if the director’s already at the Siribi? We need to get moving.”

They walked a little faster after that, but not at a pace I thought was good enough. Do they even care about stopping this guy?

“The director must have been watching the island to see when we would get here.” Ember said.

“So he wants to kill us?” Cara asked.

“He must, or why wait? It makes sense seeing as…never mind.”

I tried not to think about why Ember wouldn’t say why it made sense for the director to want to kill us. I had to keep my head clear.

A menacing growl pierced the air multiple times. When we got to the next room, there was a large leopard darting around. The director was trying to get away from it, but he kept getting cornered, only to disorient the leopard with magic, and move away to get caught again.

When he saw us he cursed, giving the leopard time to strike, but the blow was blocked by the director’s dark energy. He then looked the leopard in the eye, and they both went still.

“He’s hexing it we need to hurry.”

We all ran to the end of the room, but the director was done hexing the leopard, who lunged at us. We scattered, and I watched as the director ran ahead down into the dark tunnel.

I had a firm grip on my torch still, even though the fire was flickering from my sudden movement. The leopard had Cara alone backed against a wall. Her face was full of indescribable terror that made me want to save her no matter what.

The leopard almost swiped her with his long, sharp claws, but my shield went up at the last minute, and blocked him, his claws breaking the shield, and freeing Cara.. It turned towards me, and I waved the torch at it. The beast crouched, and I didn’t hesitate to shove the fire into its face.

It roared so loud the room shook. Dust trickled from the ceiling, and I could hear stalactites cracking, and falling onto the ground. My legs pulled me away from the monster, and my heart was beating fast. My brain went into auto drive, and I ran into the darkness of the next tunnel, leaving the torch behind. The others were right beside me while the leopard continued to roar in searing pain.

Darkness surrounded us, but the one torch we had was enough to give us some light, even as it flickered because we were running.

Halfway into the tunnel we stopped. Our ragged, fast paced breath filled the air. Cara grabbed my hand, her eyes were still wide, and she seems to have lost her voice because she wouldn’t talk when I tried to calm her down. Her hand was sweaty, and I felt bad, but I didn’t know what to do.

Ember was sweating, and her hair was messier than normal. She leaned against the wall across form me, her violet eyes were dull, but she looked ready for whatever was waiting for us. Vince looked the worst. He was already tired from fighting the selkie before we came into the cave. His shirt was torn, and his hair stuck to his forehead. His face was aflame with frustration.

When we got our energy and wits back we heard footsteps in the distance. Together, we ran through the tunnel again, desperate to slow down the director. I ignored how quickly my breath left me again, and how my legs were slowly beginning to ache. I flew through the darkness, ahead of everyone else. Nothing was going to stop me.

Before I knew it I was right behind the director. He began to run as well. Now I was chasing him. His outline was faint in the dark, but I could still make him out. Everything else melted away as I chased him. The distant buzzing that hummed endlessly in my ears hardly had a place in the back of my mind. I ran until everything became surreal, like a dream. The shadows took shapeless forms that grasped at me, and the buzzing became background music, strung together in a strange song by my mind. Voices called for me, but they were far away, so I ignored them.