Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 3: Pursuit

THIRTY-NINE

"The vengeful spirits of the Gi remain trapped here in these caves, unable to return the lifestream or disappear. But there are other things here as well. So you must be on your guard, all of you."

The next section of the cave consisted of several twisting paths that wound along either side of an underground river and also crossed it at several points. Perhaps it was merely a trick of the light, but in the dim illumination of the cave, the water looked almost like blood. I shivered at the sight and moved on, wary of the mist. It was thinner here but not gone, and we had to fight a few more spirits as we made our way along the shore of the narrow subterranean stream.

After a while, Grandfather paused again. "As you can see, this cave leads directly to the back of Cosmo Canyon. And unfortunately, the Gi tribe was larger than we were. They had great numbers on their side. If they had succeeded in striking at us from here, we wouldn't have stood a chance that night. Now we must continue on."

After crossing over a rock bridge to the other side of the dark river, we followed another tunnel onward and away from the water. We soon found ourselves facing a set of five ominous-looking passageways, each adorned with thick, sticky webs strung across them. I shuddered at the thought of the creature that had made them.

Yuffie glanced around nervously. "Oh, gawd... I hate spiders."

"You can always wait here," Cloud quipped.

"Hell, no!" she shook her head. "No way I'm staying in this creepy old place any longer than I have to. Yeesh!"

Aerith smiled. "It'll be fine, Yuffie. Don't worry."

"Thanks..." she nodded. Her eyes lingered on the webs. "But, uh... how big would a spider have to be to, um, make these?"

"Big," Cloud answered.

Yuffie gulped. "I was afraid of that..."

He drew his two swords and led the way cautiously into the tunnel Grandfather pointed out, which was the second on the left. I wondered how Cloud could wield both of his weapons with as large as they were, but then I remembered him mentioning in the buggy on our way here how light Force Stealer was compared to Buster, perhaps because of the unusual materials used in its construction.

The passageway was about twenty feet wide and covered with webs that stretched across our path. Cloud hacked through them, his blades easily cutting the tough, sticky threads apart, but there were more, and the corridor was long and uneven. Then, when we were about halfway through, we heard a soft scuttling sound overhead.

Yuffie looked up, her eyes quite wide. "Uh, guys..."

We all saw it at once. A huge, dark, spindly shape moving above us amidst more webs that had been carefully spun across the high ceiling between the stalactites. The half-eaten remains of monsters and even a few humans hung like grim trophies or lay ahead of us amidst the gray threads. Fighting here would be difficult with the risk of entrapment in the webs, and a glance at Cloud told me he'd had the same thought. He quickly motioned to us with Buster as he got moving.

"Run!" he ordered. "It's too risky for us to fight in here with all the webs. We'll do it out in the open where it's clear."

"I'm all for that!" Yuffie agreed.

Grandfather nodded. "By all means! Hurry!"

We did so, rushing through the rest of the tunnel as quickly and as carefully as we could, but the webs were many and difficult to navigate. Cloud had to slash his way through them several times as the monster above us wove effortlessly amidst the stalactites, closing in fast. I raced behind the others, urging them on as Yuffie glanced nervously over her shoulder every few seconds, her shuriken held tightly in her hand. But as frightened as she was, she never lost her step.