Orphan

Chapter 38 - Discover

Did Zoe get killed? Where was she?How were we supposed to survive if she was gone? We were in the middle of the forest, a bunch of kids, defenceless, and not a single one of us carried a weapon. We were doomed. There was no food, or water. Maria once told me that we could survive about 21 days without food, but water different story. You would only survive for 3 days. If Zoe really did die then the first thing we needed, was to start find water. It should definitely be available. I mean there can't be a forest without water. "She made it!" someone screamed in the background. "Thank goodness."It was at this moment that a green figure moved out of the water and came towards us."Shut up kid. What did you expect? Do you really think I was going to die?"Looking around it was as if we were in a party, all the kid's eyes sparkled happily. We were not going to die. We were going to survive. Zoe was back and as much as we were scared of her, it must have been the happiest sight to see her return. "So, did you find out what it was?""Damn right I did. It was the giant mother snake. It must have taken Sophie to feed her off springs.""You mean there's more than one?""Obviously, we are in a jungle and this is just one of the hundreds of different animals that we could encounter. So, if you kids are ready, I still have a whole heap of things to show you with so little time."Zoe led us past a cave, lifeless trees, with their leaves missing, and in the distance there was even a wooden house on the hill surrounded with an eerie black fence that looked as if it was there to prevent anything from coming in or out."Hey what's that place?""Young lady, if you would like to go there. Then go, I am not stopping you.""But to answerer your question it is said to be haunted. You know like ghost. They say long, long ago there was a girl, who died there and now she now haunts the house. At night when its dark, the lights sometimes flicker on and off. And if you look hard enough, you will see the shadow of the little girl in a white dress looking at you."Shivers ran through my body at the sound of that. Eying the building one last time from left and right I tried to look for the little girl in the house. But there was nothing, turning back, I followed the other kids towards the bush."Stop. Look here"Following her hand, on a tree was a black scorpion. It had two massive claws that were bigger than its body and a tail that stretched upwards and curled back towards its body. The tip of its tail shone of crystal blue. It moved slowly, as if it was assessing us. "That there is one of the main attractions of this trip. It's called a death stalker; the colour of the beast should be yellow but here, it has evolved and changed colour. It has bigger claws and learnt to protect itself from its predators.""You can normally find them residing in dark places, always be careful of its tail, if it strikes you, it will only take seconds before you drop dead. They are aggressive and, in these woods, they work together.""That's impossible. These things can't be the death stalker, you must have gotten it wrong. They live in the desert. And there's no chance that they would hunt together I mean they even eat each other.""Well smarty pants, we have a large collection of strange animals here. Didn't you see the surrounding earlier on your trip here? There are sand and dirt and most of our surrounding is the desert. But we have moved some of these guys here to see how it would survive and make a change to the current ecosystem.""Well I read in a book that one sting will not kill you.""Normally one sting will not kill you. But these guys here have had evolved and as a result they always hunt in groups. One will sting you, then another and before you know it there will be four or five streams of poison running through your veins and this will result in you dying. So be careful, when there is one, there will always be a second. You are welcome to put you hand into the log and prove to us that you will not die" "No thank you. It's painful and I will get a fever. I don't want that.""Then don't interrupt me next time. Or I will force your arm inside."We continued moving, walking back into a forest, with trees that actually looked alive and as if welcoming us was a long pathway that stretched through the forest. What a world we lived in, it was so big, and I was exploring it with all these other kids. It was exciting!As I walked into the woods, I could feel thin lines hit my face, and as I tried to rub it off. It only got worse as I was stretching and swinging my arms like a mad goose trying to fly. The more I swung, the more I felt that I was connecting with some form of invisible line. Looking around all the other kids were doing the same. But standing still was Zoe our teacher. "What is this stuff?""I keep feeling something sticky, and it's covering me more and more as I move.""It's like as if we have somehow walked into a spider web of some sort and we are stuck inside it.""That's because you are in a spider web. Look above you, look at all those wonderful eyes that are staring at you. You have crossed the line, you have invaded their space and soon they will stretch down and bite you and give you a mark to remember.""What?""Save Us.""Just kidding, there are way too many of you for these little guys to want to attack. Maybe if it was just one of you in the web then they would come and trust me you wouldn't be able to run as there are so many threads here that go around this place."As she said that, a ray of light cascaded down from the sky and glowing blue was lines and lines of broken webs that stretched across our bodies. But what I could see was that we had somehow arrived in the centre of the web and it stretched forever in the forest. Panicking I started to jump and run backwards, back to where the Zoe was. And surely enough there were no more webs."Those eight eyed things are called shadow widows. They hide well in the bushes of the trees but as you guys invaded their turf, they could only watch assess the situation. Could they take you all out? I think not. But if they did come down it wouldn't be just one, like all spiders they bread and have a whole army of spiderlings that hunt together on these cords. They worked together to set this up and it aren't easy. But what they have established here is a fine web that will catch any insects and even birds and lizards. And do you know what happens then?""They wrap you up in web and suffocate you before slowly drinking you up.""Right on Alex."Moving a long we passed a swarm of butterflies, they floated and flattered in the sky. They were gorgeous, in vibrant colours of blue, orange, red, green and yellow. They had different patterns, some in the shape of webs that ran on the wings, others had spots as if there were black stars on their bodies, some even had black borders that wrapped around the body, making the green and blue really stand outThere were lizards, slithering in the bushes, there was even one that had a long tongue that shot out and took out a butterfly and bought it into its mouth. It happened so fast that even I wasn't ready. Only the wing was visible.I expected the butterfly to slowly disappear in the mouth, but the wings fluttered. It began to vibrate quickly; it was as if the butterfly didn't want to die. The next thing that happened was disgusting the body exploded and ripped apart. Blood bursting out, splashing the floor with green and yellow. As the body of the lizard got sliced apart. The butterfly was intact. It was different to the other butterflies. It had no patterns, no bright colours, instead it was just black. Its wings fluttered and then it flew off with the rest of the other butterflies.Moving along there were other things we passed, frogs of yellow and orange in colour with weird patterns of yellow. Beatles, lots and lots of them, in branches and scurrying on the floor. We kept walking through the bush only stopping every now and then when Zoe told us about the inhabitants.There were colonies of ants, as well as packs of wolves that stared down upon us and howled as we passed by. Zoe said that we had to stare at them in the eyes and not leave the gaze until they fled. This meant that we were the dominant one and that they should be scared."We are going to move to our final location now. This is what I wanted to show you before we go back to the school."Walking, running, in a speed that was much faster than before, we moved in a single line, following and chasing up to Zoe.When again we suddenly abruptly stopped.Sleeping in front of us, eyes closed, with fine black leathered skin, wings that wrapped around its body, with a giant head that stretched from its body, with scales that looked like it could defend even the strongest of hits was a dragon. Its tail stretched forming me a barrier around it."This here my lads and gals is the Dragon, it is the true king of the forest. It has the ability to fire and burn to a crisp anything that lays in front of it. But as you can see today is our lucky day as it is deep in sleep.""What is a dragon?""It's a winged beast that can fly, and burn down a whole city.""Why is it in the forest?""It is here to hibernate during the winter and eat to restore its energy before it flies out.""This is the dragon of the woods. The true king of the forest. When it sleeps the forest is alive, but when it is awake all things in the forest become scared.""So why did you want to show it to us?""This is the highlight of the trip. Observe it, study it, learn about it and understand it" "It's sleeping, there is nothing to learn." "Just take it in Evelyn."Looking at the dragon, the floor on the floor was filled with dead, dry leaves and grass. It seemed like it had slept over the spot for a long time and the wilderness underneath it had its life sucked out of it.It was massive the size of ten elephant, while it was sleeping it stretched its wings like a bat. The wings looked like giant webs that also acted like a blanket, covering itself, protecting itself and keeping it warm.The tail at its bottom was long, it was thin, and looked very strong. It must have looped around its body at least three times and guessing by the look of it, if the dragon is awake it could definitely swing that around and sweep all of us onto the floor.It was one terrifying winged beast, it had claws the size of knives, it has teeth the size of blades, the vampire teeth that stretched out of its mouth was at least the size of my legs, looking at it sent chills down my spine. It looked like a truly terrifying killing machine. "Alright gals and boys! That's the main attraction, we will be going home now.""What? We are going back already?" Alex said. "We walked this far just to see it asleep?"I had mixed feelings, I wanted to see what it could do as well, but at the same time maybe it was better to not know."Yes, unless you want to stay here. I am sure it won't mind an easy meal.""How about no...""Then let's go."One by one we followed Zoe. The path she took was a different route we crossed a log that stretched across the riverbed. It was hard at first, there were many times I felt like I was going to fall off, but it was flat, so one by one we all made it across the river.