The Girl and the Orc - (A Middle Earth Story)

The Spiders

Rain followed slowly behind her two friends, Bogwater and Creature. Her mind was full of scrambled thoughts. She had woke up in the middle night to hear Creature mumbling to himself in his sleep. He kept mentioning a ring and... 'getting rid of the girl'. What did he mean? Did he mean her? No, couldn't be. It had to be another girl he was talking about, an old lover perhaps?
No. Rain lifted her head, looking at the creature leading the way. Taking them through a dark, thick forest. He had to be at least a hundred years old, or more. Any old lovers would probably be dead already. But how did he live so long? Could the ring he kept mentioning have anything to do with it? Was that even possible? Questions boggled in Rain's brain. However, she knew one thing was certain.
He was going to find a way to get rid of her. If not now, soon.
The thing she wasn't sure of, is if she should tell Bogwater or not. Bogwater trusted the creature, and she wanted to as well. But with what she heard last night, she couldn't. Paranoia filled Rain's little chest. The only thing she could figure, was to wait. Maybe, just maybe, she had heard wrong. Maybe she was mistaken.
Bogwater had noticed that something was on Rain's mind. He didn't know what, but he could see that her mood had fallen drastically. Usually she would be leading the way herself, occasionally making silly faces and jokes. Today she was behind the group, her head and shoulders slumped as if she carried the weight of the world. He wanted to help her, but he wasn't sure how. How could an Uruk comfort a human girl? He would end up saying the wrong thing, offending her.
Rain felt a tickle on her arm, she brushed it away. It was something sticky...? Her hand got stuck on it. She looked down, tugging at her arm. Spiderweb? How did she get spiderweb all on her arm? Rain looked down at her feet. It was there too! She was stuck! Rain tugged and pulled and clawed at the spiderweb, getting only more and more caught. Panic flooded through her.
"H-h-help!" Rain cried pitifully. Her voice was frail, shaking.
Bogwater heard a soft cry come from behind. He turned around quickly. It was Rain! Stuck in some sort of thick spiderweb.
'Oh my god' he thought to himself.
A spider, a huge spider sat in the spiderweb above Rain. Waiting to attack it's prey.
"Rain, look at me," Bogwater forced himself to stay calm.
Rain looked up, fear in her blue eyes.
"Don't move, just stay still and keep your eyes on me."
Bogwater had to find a way to get Rain out of the spiderweb. His eyes scanned the area around them, looking for something that could help.
In the shadows he saw more spiders. The biggest spiders he'd ever seen.
If he didn't do something soon, they would die here. A fire. He needed a fire.
"Rain, do you remember the flint you got from the village?" Bogwater kept his voice calm. If he panicked, so would she, and the spiders would have an even higher chance of killing them.
"Y-yeah," Rain nodded, reaching into the bag she carried.
"Toss it to me, I'll make a fire."
Rain obeyed, throwing it to the Uruk.
Bogwater caught it easily, quickly crouching down onto the ground, using the sticks and leaves in front of him to make the fire. It took a little while to get the flint to work, but a small flame began to burn the dry leaves. He took a large stick nearby, putting it into the flame and making a torch. Once the stick was ablaze he made his way over to the girl.
"I'm going to get you unstuck, but as soon as I do, we'll have to make a run for it."
The girl nodded as Bogwater quickly began to use the torch to burn the web around her. It was enough to get her unattached from the rest of the web, but she'd still be covered in some for a while yet. They would have to get the rest off of her once they were away from the spiders. Luckily, it seemed to the Orc that the spiders were afraid of the fire he had made. He had left the leaves ablaze. He knew it was a bad thing to let a forest burn up, but it was the only way he knew to keep the spiders away. It was working. The spiders kept slinking further and further into the darkness. It looked like they would make it.
Once Rain was free from the sticky web, Bogwater took her hand and ran as fast as he could. He didn't know how to stop the fire from burning the forest, and he felt a bit guilty for burning the spiders' home. All he knew was that they needed to get out of there. The spiders didn't like intruders, he understood that. And now the intruders were burning up the spiders' home. It reminded him of when he burned the village. It felt like a lifetime ago now.
The two ran out of the burning forest. Hand in hand they ran, as fast as their feet could take them. Finally, they could see the light at the end of the darkness.
They collapsed onto soft green grass. A great open field surrounded them. The two laid on their backs, breathing hard.
"Are you okay?" Bogwater asked, turning his head to the girl beside him.
"I-I think so," Rain breathed heavily.
Now, rain fell from the sky. Drenching both them and the ground around him. Bogwater felt a wave of relief fill him, the spiders would be okay.
"Where... where's the creature?" Rain asked.
The Uruk-hai sat up in the muddy grass, "I don't know. Is he still in the forest?"
To be honest, she knew it was terrible, but Rain hoped with everything in her that he was.
Suddenly a strange feeling of suspicion washed over her, "Do you still have the map?"
"Yeah," said Bogwater, pulling it out from the pocket of his fur pants.
Rain took it, unrolling it and studying it. She quickly found the forest they just went through. However, Rain noticed there was a path. A path that went around the Spider Forest. Yes, it would have taken longer to get around, but it would have been safer. She should have looked at the map before letting the creature take charge. She couldn't help but feeling as if he had done it on purpose.
"We could have went around."
"Seriously?" Bogwater cried.
Rain shrugged, "It would have been longer."
"We almost died though!" He argued.
Rain shrugged again, rolling the map back up and handing it to her Uruk friend.
He put it back in his pocket where he kept it. "Are you sure you're okay?"
Rain nodded, she sat up as she tried to pick off the stringy web still stunk on her clothes and hair.
"Let me help," Bogwater began to pick web out of Rain's hair as well.
"We thoughts we lost yous!"
The couple looked over their shoulders to the source of the voice.
"Where have you been?" snapped Bogwater, "We almost were spider food!"
The creature sat on the ground, "Was a long way ahead when we realized we losts you."
Rain's heart felt like it dropped to her stomach. He was lying. He knew they were back in the forest. He knew. Rain looked away, angry and confused. Now was he trying to kill both of them? But Rain had no proof of this, and she couldn't blame the Creature of something like that without solid proof.
Bogwater just shook his head, brushing more spider web out of Rain's hair. Rain seemed bothered by something, like she knew something he didn't. He sighed. He would have to ask her about it when they were alone. It was obvious she didn't want to talk about it in front of the creature. He supposed that Creature could have something to do with it. Did the creature say something to her? Something to upset her?
Rain soon fell asleep on Bogwater's shoulder. Running from giant spiders sure makes a girl tired, and Rain was no exception. Bogwater let the girl sleep, he was tired as well. And soon he too fell into a deep sleep. No one said anything else for the rest of the night.