And What I Found There - Book Two

18. The Pain was Beating on Me Like a Drum

I duck under a root and quickly scramble over another; I wipe the sweat and blood off my brow again and keep running. I have no idea where or how far Adisonia wanted me to run but right now I don't think I can stop running -

I scream bloody murder as the ground underneath my feet suddenly gives in and I plummet down and down...

I crash land on an enormous springy spider-web, the weight of my impact though makes the net violently sink and my ribs bash against something hard beneath the surface.

I shriek with pain before I am flung back up into the air.

I scream as I claw for anything to hold onto but now fall straight back down into the massive web. Several strands snap and now I roll crazily, getting more and more of the tight, rope-like bondage wrapped around me before I come to an abrupt halt, stuck and captured within this web.

I struggle to breathe with the radiating agony from my ribs.

Did I break something just now? Am I dying or something? It feels like it! I just like, fell from so impossibly high up and now I broke something and am all freakin' tied up in this disgusting web!

If this isn't a death sentence than I don't know what is.

I frantically thrash, but the more I struggle the tighter my bonds get. I force myself to relax, panting for a moment before I manage to catch my breath, and now slowly try to move my arms, my right one tears free first and now I am wildly tearing at the webs constricting my other limbs.

A massive shadow moves slightly.

I freeze briefly, what the hell was that?

I look around desperately. I'm under a massive root base beneath a huge tree, so the darkness is really too thick to see anything. The dirt compacted room is covered in web-ridden roots that look like risen veins under tightly stretched skin.

I glance up at the small hole that I made when I fell into this mess. If I wanna get out of here then I'll have to climb, and boy, do I wanna get out of here.

I'm frantically ripping and pulling on the webs, pulling myself free a bit at a time, when suddenly something moves closer from the darkness. I strain my eyes to see and can just make out something shining faintly amid the shadows.

They're eyes, huge wet glittery eyes.

My jaw drops in horror as an enormous monster creeps forward. It looks like a centipede/cobra hybrid.

Hold the scream, yes.

It has the lethal body of a massive snake with stripes that keep changing colors. Cold, unblinking white eyes and a rattling hood tipped with fangs sizzles with anger as it crawls forward on thousands of sharp, talon-like legs. A huge forked tongue slowly waves from its mouth, the tongue itself keeps changing colors.

I can't help it. Now I do scream.

It rears up and its legs wildly slash at the air before it dives for me, its giant mouth stretching open, its impossibly large black fangs sailing for me.

I'm still screaming as I hurl myself across the web. The snake monster crashes into the layers of webs violently enough to send me flying through the air again, a cord of web is still tightly wrapped around my leg though and wrenches me back down. No!

The snake whips around, its body filling up the nest we're in, and now it jerks its head back to spit a huge, nasty cluster of wet webs at me. I yank back on the web entangling my foot and now suddenly fall deeper into the nest, the sticky clump of webs flies over my head.

It's like a maze in here! I think frantically as I scramble deeper down into the nest of webs.

There are mini tunnels formed within this encloser, and massive bands of webs zigzag back and forth. I use these like tree branches as I descend desperately. The snake doesn't seem to be slowed down by the stickiness of its own nest, and instead just glides right through the layers in pursuit of me.

There's an eerie, lurid blue tarn that glows from these webs, giving off just enough light to create even darker, more menacing shadows. I trip on a thread and now suddenly pitch forward, my hair and dress once again getting tangled in the stickiness.

I wildly strain and tug as I feel the webs tremor as the snake monster slithers closer. I look up as its spiney legs stab through the webs over my head, the webs above me sink down under its weight and now I feel the scales scraping over the strands.

I seize my hair close to the ends and give a brutal yank, grimacing on the pain but now scramble down one of the narrow tunnels. Luckily the webs are so tightly spun here, there's no chance of me falling through. I am panting as I crawl on my hands and knees, not sure where I'm going, only knowing that I have to get out -

The snake's shadow suddenly falls before me and now it dives straight through the webs, I scream as its tears through the tunnel right behind me and it continues to fall down.

The webs beneath my hands and knees are yanked down too and suddenly I'm thrown backwards and fall down the hole the snake made.

I collapse on something soft and squishy. Looking around wildly, I realize I've fallen completely beneath the webs. I see them glowing higher above my head. Now I look around and realize with a sickening jolt that I am laying on slimy white eggs the size of bean-bag chairs, and now they all start to tremble.

Abruptly the snake monster lunges out of the shadows with a roar, savagely scrambling over the eggs towards me.

I scream as I struggle up to my feet and now take off running across the squishy, sagging, and vibrating eggs as the monster rushes after me.

The eggs burst open all around me, vile looking baby monsters the size of Great Danes fly up into the air on strands of slime, and now suddenly the eggs I was running on wilt limply and I plummet yet again with a scream. I slide down one of the snake's exit tunnels on the leathery skins of the eggshells, and now all of a sudden, I roll to a stop outside at long last.

But I don't have to time to catch my breath.

I leap to my feet and whirl around as I hear the hiss of the snake monster and the eerie cries of all the baby snakes.

I force myself to calm down enough to summon my connection with earth and now as I see the gleaming eyes of the monsters, my ability to control the elements kicks in.

The tree's roots shoot up from the ground and rapidly lace together forming a fence between me and them, the beasties throw themselves against the roots violently and -not willing to see how long this is going to hold- I take off running.

My side is killing me but I try to dig through the pain to put the distance between me and the latest thing that has tried to eat me.

I may have gotten rid of them, but now I have another problem.

I'm lost and alone in Ghost Hills.