The Children of When (Complete)

Chapter 33: The Vault

I am so over passing out, and missing all the exciting stuff," Raff said, as they watched the green lines slowly receding from his veins. Leah had been horrified at how far the poison had travelled by the time Belle had started healing him. Once he was awake, she had listened in awe as Belle related her conversation with the spider.

Leah blanched at the part where the spider had decided she was expendable. "Wow, how did you know what to say?"

"The whole thing was more good luck than good management. Once I realised increasing its hunting ground was enough to save Raff, I figured it'd be excited at the size of the hunting ground on the other side of the waterfall." Belle frowned. "So, the only problem now is, how do we not let the spider out into the Forever Forest? I mean, I was desperate to save Leah when I made this deal, so how do I undo it?"

Leah had been secretly horrified when Belle first mentioned the deal she'd made with the spider. How could they even contemplate letting the spider loose in the Forever Forest? She was relieved to hear Belle now regretted it, and knew her friend had just done what she felt she had to, for all the right reasons.

Raff frowned, and scratched his head. "Listen, I don't think there's much we can do to change things at the moment. We need Mr Spider's help to find the vault, so I reckon we just go along with the plan for now, and deal with this problem when and if it arises."

Belle and Leah nodded in agreement.

"Well, hopefully now this means we've all been proven worthy, and if Mr Spider over there knows where the vault is, maybe we're through the worst of it?" Leah hoped the others wouldn't pickup on the false bravado in her voice.

Raff chuckled. "Yeah right! And you're basing this thinking on our incredible run of good luck so far, are you?"

Belle interrupted them with a frown. "How are you doing Raff? Mr Spider is getting impatient. I don't think I'm going to be able to put him off much longer, and I'm not sure how reliable spiders are at keeping their word."

They helped Raff stand up so he could test his weight on his leg. His face broke into a cheeky grin. "Doesn't hurt anywhere near as much as it did when I walked out of the cavern."

Both girls scowled at him. Leah had to fight the urge to punch him, but decided she'd wait until they were out of the cave, and he was better, and then she'd pummel him stupid!

"Okay then, I'll just let our friend know we're on our way." Leah watched in fascination as Belle sent a message, and the spider moved off down the tunnel.

They had been following the spider for about half an hour when Belle stopped, held up her hand, and closed her eyes.

"I'm starting to wonder how this spider measures distance..... not far obviously doesn't mean the same to him as it means to me," Leah whispered to Raff as they waited.

Raff slumped to the ground. "Tell me about it!" He rifled through his backpack, and sighed happily as he pulled out an apple. He then proceeded to devour it as if he hadn't eaten in a week.

Leah took a swig from her water bottle. "How's the leg?"

"Yeah, not too bad," he said, between munches.

Belle opened her eyes, and shuddered. "I don't think I'll ever get used to having a spider inside my head." She groaned, and flopped down beside them.

"So, apparently the entrance to the vault is just up ahead. We need to take the left fork, and our friend will be waiting when we come back out. Lucky us!" She rolled her eyes and shuddered again.

They finished their meagre meal, and headed off towards where the spider had been standing earlier. They arrived at the place where it had told them to turn left, thankful they hadn't been forced to try and choose the correct turn. Leah wondered where the other two would have led them, then decided she was probably better off never knowing.

It wasn't long before a faint glow appeared in the distance. Goosebumps prickled along Leah's skin, whether from fear or excitement, she wasn't sure.

The tunnel ended, and set into the rock in front of them was a massive glowing door. It looked a lot like the portal they had stepped into in Naissance, only bigger.

Raff stared at the door, a frown on his face. "Well, I guess we're about to discover whether we've proved ourselves worthy or not. Only one way to find out..." And then he stepped through the doorway, and vanished.