TMNT Ninja Tribunal

Chapter 8

The pathway to the cave was littered with dark black liquid and what looked like alien creatures. The path was concealed in the thicket of the forest around them.

"There it is."Firewing said, pointing ahead.  The mouth of the cave was huge and dark.

"We need something to see with."Foragie said. Fire walked over to the thicket and grabbed a few bundles of sticks. She then walked over to some black liquid on the ground and covered one end of the sticks in it. Finally,  she placed a hand over the top of each bundle and lite them with her fire. She handed one to Adam.

"Can you walk in the back of the group?"She asked in a stern voice. "I will walk in the front."

"Yeah. Sure. " Adam said with a smile.

"Ok. If anyone sees anything that looks bad or different,  please tell me or someone." With that, She lead everyone into the tunnel.

After tripping a few times, Foragie began to stick close to Fire. The walls of the cave were covered with a gray slime that smelled like burnt sugar.

"What is that stuff?" He asked with a disgusted look.

"Spidrickle waste." She said.

"You mean..."

"Yes. We are getting close to them."She walked over to the wall and touched the gray slime. "It is old. They must be further in. Stay close to me." She ordered firmly.

The group had decided to take a rest after walking in the darkness of the cave for what seemed like hours. Though Fire had protested,  everyone out voted her. They had found an opening in the tunnel where they could sit. Everyone sat down and began to drink water and rest. But Fire only looked into the darkness of the tunnel.

"Hey. Loosen up." Raph called over to her.

"I will once we get the Artifact." She said under her breath.

Suddenly,  Joy let out a scream.

"What?"Foragie asked, running over to her. She was pointing at the ground behind a rock.

Fire walked over to the rock and saw a skeleton of a human wrapped in thick webbing.

"Like I said. We are close to them." She said as she took Joy into her arms and turned her away.

"They eat human flesh?" Tora asked, fear in his voice.

" You didn't see the other skeletons?" She asked with amusement. They had passed at least twenty.

"No." Raph said as he looked at her.

" Ya could have told us!" He said, anger in his voice.

"I tried to tell you that we needed to keep moving." She said.

"Oh. So the dead bodies didn't do it for ya?" He yelled.

"Raph. Calm down." Donny said.

" No. She should have told us." He said turning towards her. He tried to get her gaze, but it was pointed else where. She was very still like something was watching her. She was looking right above Raph.

"Now what?!" He yelled.

"Stop moving." She said with a warning. She took a step towards him and then stopped suddenly.

"Why? Ya act so tough when you're not!" He yelled again.

"Raph!" Mikey said.

"I am only tough when I have to be. Now stop moving. And be quiet. " Her voice was stern.

"No. Make me." He said a challenge. He stepped towards her.

Suddenly, she lunged at him. Before he could do anything, she shoved him out of the way. As she made contact with him, a giant spider like creature, much bigger in it's body then Raph, came out of the darkness with a screech like nails on chalkboard,  from above where he was standing. It looked like a giant Black Widow. Black and red. It's fangs as big as Raph's hands. It jumped at her and knocked her off balance. It began wrapping a thick web around her. She let out a yell. Everything happened so fast, before Leo could do anything, the spider had Fire wrapped tightly and grabbed her, and carried her off into the darkness.

" Fire!" Leo yelled.

There was a loud screech abruptly cut off, from where she had been carried off too. The group grabbed their weapons and readied themselves. Suddenly,  Fire appeared with her body still partly covered in the spider's web. She had her ax out and a dark green liquid dripped heavily from it. She whipped the liquid off of the blade on her leave and pulled off some more of the webbing. She had the green ooze splattered on her face. She had a maniac look in her eyes and written on her face. She pointed her ax at Raph who was still on the ground.

"Next time I tell you to shut up and stay still, listen. Please." She said and then turned to the group. Before she could speak, everyone could hear clicking sounds like something was running on rocks. But it sounded like more than just one thing.

"There's more?"Adam asked.

"They travel in packs. Common! "She yelled and took off running into the cave. Everyone followed her as screeches like before echoed from behind them.