Drumwe Isles

chapter twenty four

(tw: descriptive violence)

At some point they stopped to give their legs a much needed break. They were just outside the Singing Caves now, meaning they didn't have much longer to go until they reached the tree. Acoris had found a large, smooth rock and planted himself on top of it, stretching his legs out before him. Amra had wandered close to one of the cave entrances and was listening with her acute Elven ears.

Somehow, someway, the Singing Caves had been formed in such an exact sort of form that they emitted a constant, though hardly detectable, sound. It was almost like the low hum of a mother washing dishes or a note being held firmly for as long as it takes the note to fall mute. Amra had only been to these caves on one other occasion, but she very much liked the noise they emitted.

To dip inside the caves was considered unwise. While no one could be certain, the Elves were fairly sure that pixies had marked the caves for their own. Pixies were tricky little things, pesky and annoying, though elegant and beautiful all the same. From time to time they'd wander about outside the Singing Caves but in general they stuck to their cool, damp home. Which was probably for the better. Pixies have a nasty habit of hexing any humans who wander too close to them. Make no mistake, they weren't too fond of Elves either, it's just harder to hex another magical being.

"About how far do you reckon we are?"

Amra tilted her head, thinking.

"I'd wager thirty minutes of blind wandering in the general direction."

Acoris nodded, his thick dreads sawing around his face.

After he'd splashed his face with water from a nearby stream, Acoris was back on his feet. Amra took that as a sign he was ready to carry on and they resumed their journey. The large, thick redwoods of Fallburne began to thin out around them as they emptied into an open meadow. The grasses were beige and gold, some variety of wheat they reckoned, the sort that'd make a good rye bread.

Before them was a very, very large tree. It was out of place among the redwoods and stood with twisting outward branches and thin spiralling extensions out from each branch. While most trees in Fallburne had leaves of a very vibrant lime green, this tree held leaves of a darker more wise evergreen.

The awe of staring upon their sought destination temporarily distracted the travellers. Whilst Amra and Acoris gazed up at the spiralling extensions, a great beast crept up behind them. Acoris saw a shadow in his peripheral and went to shout but was a millisecond too late.

"Amra!"

He shouted as two thin appendages sliced Amra across both her arms.

When the woman realised what was happening she drew her daggers and flipped to face the beast, blood already slipping down her arms with a whimsical sort of sting. Before her was a woman's torso atop the bottom half of a spider's body. The spider beast shrieked and went to grasp Amra in her scapulae. Amra became a frenzy of slashing as she feared what the beast could do with her amidst its arms. She managed to slice off a good portion of one of the eight legs, to which the spider beast hissed in agony.

Acoris was shouting about her now but she couldn't afford to stop slashing. One of the legs caught hold of her hair and Amra hissed as her body was pulled off the ground. Despite the immense pain at her scalp, Amra managed to keep one of the daggers in her hand, though she dropped the other.

She heard the whizz of an arrow just beside her and vaguely registered that it landed somewhere in the beast's lower body. She began swinging the dagger about the appendage holding her and eventually landed a solid hit, successfully cutting her free from the beast's grasp. She fell through the air freely until thumping onto the ground and all of the wind was knocked from her chest.

Disoriented, Amra tried to look at the dizzying scene above her. She could see the form of Acoris and the form of the beast but keeping track of which was harming the other was hazy. She brought a hand to her head and patted around for open wounds. As her eyes came back into focus, Amra confirmed that she had no head injuries and pulled herself to a sitting position. She snapped all the way out of it when the creature let out a blood curdling scream; then she took to scrambling wildly around the floor near her, trying to find her daggers. When her hand grasped the cold metal she felt the ground just behind her shake with a THUMP to follow.

Amra turned to find the beast had fallen, still and unmoving. She scrambled backwards away from it and eventually found herself standing, dagger in front of her. Acoris stepped toward the beast and cautiously kicked one of her bloodied appendages to confirm he'd killed her.

"It's done. Hey, hey, are you okay?"

Amra's head snapped wildly towards the sound of her companion's voice. He wore a worried expression with his weapons lowered. When she confirmed the danger had passed, Amra slumped back onto the ground, relieved.

"Amra?"

Acoris had taken a seat across from her, still carrying his worried look.

"Sorry, I'm alright. Really."

"Are you sure? It picked you up."

Amra shuddered.

"Don't remind me."

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Comment question: Which mythological creature would you wanna fight LEAST?