Heroes of Dreamland Rewritten, Book 1: Stars Amidst Lightning

Chapter 17

Kirby Dee|カービィディー

Trembling in terror from where I've fallen out of the web onto the hard ground, I watch as the Mariel fixes its web in a frenzy with seven legs, its eighth clenched firmly around an unconscious Meta Knight. Galaxia lays discarded on the forest floor, not far from my own sword. Pincers clacking unnervingly, the giant Mariel ties Sir Knight into its net in much the same way it did me, and then turns to me with what seems like a delighted grin at the expanding size of its breakfast.

The sky seems to grow ever darker as dawn approaches. Something in me has enough sense to pick myself up and grab up my sword, but I have hardly any time to steel myself before the spider comes skittering down the tree towards me.

Scared stiff, I do the only thing I can think to do, which is run away from the spider, only to quickly realize that it's strengthened its fortress. I'm surrounded by spiderwebs on every side. Besides that, I remind myself, I can't just leave Meta Knight here. I have to get him out of that web somehow.

Spinning around, I find myself face to face with the hulking beast, which is at least five times my size and reeks of I-don't-even-want-to-know. "Um.." I try weakly, shuddering at the way it grins at me with its pincers, "Think maybe you could just give me back my teacher and we could leave and all forget this ever happened?"

The Mariel answers with a bitter, bloodthirsty skree. Of course not. I didn't think so. "Shotzo," I mutter, using the curse word I've heard Sir Knight utter on a few choice occasions for the first time. Clenching my sword's hilt tighter, I swing it at the beast, only to totally glance off of it when the sword slips in my glove. "Shotzo," I repeat in a hiss, wishing Sir Knight hadn't decided to throw a new sword at me the same day he expects me to kill something for the first time. Adjusting to a brand new sword, especially a bigger, heavier one, isn't exactly a picnic in the park.

The Mariel doesn't even seem to notice my attack, except to grow angrier. With another skree, it rams a leg out to grab me. Instinct kicking in, I manage to jump over, barely managing to keep from falling over onto my face when my balance falters while doing so. A split second later, the beast repeats the same attack from the other direction. This time, I fall down onto the leg when it attacks me, having to grab hold to keep from slipping off.

Enraged, the Mariel shrieks at me, as if demanding why I dare to touch it. Squeezing my eyes shut, I cling on to both it and my sword for dear life as it flings its leg around, trying to throw me off. When it finally pauses to catch its breath, I force myself to shake off my dizziness and clamber up its leg. Once I vanish out of its range of sight, the spider seems to forget I ever even existed, instantly calming. As it begins to climb up the tree back towards its breakfast, I clutch its abdomen, refusing to let go.

The Mariel slowly crawls toward Sir Knight, as if savoring the thought of its coming feast. The idea makes my stomach turn. I can't let it hurt him. No matter what he said earlier, I can't let such a great warrior come to such an inglorious end as this.

Sitting up on the beast's back as it walks out onto a branch, turning parallel to the ground again, I hold my sword above it in both hands, gloves shaking, preparing to ram my sword through its abdomen and kill it. But even now, even with my teacher in danger, I can't bring myself to do it.

It's only when the spider reaches a leg down into its web for Meta Knight that I somehow find the courage to slam my sword down into the spider's abdomen, receiving a shriek of anger and pain in reply. Leaping off, I grab hold of the branch as the spider falls down, down, down to the ground below, and lies there, still, its legs splayed out around it.

Carefully, I cut the still unconscious Meta Knight out of the web, puff up and float, and slowly lower him down to the ground. There, I nudge him gently with a glove and quietly ask, voice still shaking, "Sir Knight? Are you okay?"