The next morning I woke up with a pounding head and even worse, I didn't know where I was! I could see that I was lying under a blanket on the mossy ground of a forest and I could hear a fear crackling right next to my ear.
"Welcome to the waking world, Nyx," Kael said as I sat up.
I rubbed my eyes, hardly believing what they were seeing. Sure enough, I was sitting on the floor of a forest. Kael was stirring something in a pot over the fire and Izel and Evander were training in a different part of the clearing. "You kidnapped me?!"
Kael stopped stirring. "Well, technically no, but then again, technically yes. We drugged you and brought you with us when you wouldn't cooperate. If you had cooperated then it would've made our job a lot easier but our orders were to return with you no matter what. And that's what we're going to do."
"So it wouldn't have mattered what my answer was, you would've brought me with you either way?" I asked grumpily.
"Yes, but one way was easier and the other way was harder. You made our job a little bit harder." He went back to stirring whatever was in the pot.
"I hate you," I grumbled, looking at the ground.
"Oh, I'm sure you do, but one day you'll thank me. You'll see." He stopped stirring again and started pouring what looked and smelt like mushroom soup into four bowls. "Evander! Izel! The food is ready! Here." He handed me a bowl of soup and sat down next to me on a log. "We're going to rest for a day. Maybe work on some of your skills and figure out what you're good at and what you're not."
"What time is it?" I asked between mouthfuls.
He glanced at the sky. "About six thirty."
"In the morning??"
"No. Evening. The drug knocked you out for a long time. "
I stood up, yelling, "You knocked me out for an entire day?!"
Izel and Evander heard my outburst from across the clearing. Evander's lips curled up like he was amused but Izel rolled her eyes and she looked seriously annoyed.
Kael ignored me and instead called them before they resumed their fight sequence. "Why don't you come and eat, children? The soup will be cold soon!"
Evander rushed over right away but Izel stayed right where she was. "I'm not going to eat with that little brat," she called from where she was standing on the other side of the clearing. "Not until she gets her attitude into check."
I rolled my eyes but didn't say anything. Suddenly a horrifying thought struck me and I practically had a heart attack on the spot. "Did you bring my spellbook?!" I asked frantically, interrupting Evander and Kael's conversation.
"Check your bag," Kael said, not even looking at me.
I ran over to where the packs were and rooted through the pile looking for my satchel. When I found it my fingers were shaking so much that I could barely undo the buckle. To my relief the spellbook was in my satchel exactly where I remembered leaving it the day before along with some food, my new clothes that Pierretta had given me, and a water bottle.
When I sat back down near the campfire Evander asked, "Did you find it?"
I nodded. "Yeah. If I hadn't I swear you would've been in so much trouble. That spellbook is the only piece of my grandmother that I have right now and I need it to practice using my magic."
Evander smiled. "Well, I'm glad that you found it."
For the rest of the meal I sat in silence and because I wasn't actively involved in any conversations I started to zone out. A plan was forming in my head and by the end of supper I had a pretty good idea of how it was going to work out.
Later that night I had already gone to bed, claiming that the drugs were still making me sleepy. Once everyone else had gone to sleep I carefully gathered my satchel and quietly snuck out of the clearing. The night was chilly so I was glad that I had worn my new cloak as I crept through the underbrush to the main trail. A long time ago I had heard that Brimsbury Woods wasn't safe at night but all thought of safety left my mind. The only thought in my head was to get as far away from the trio as I could.
I was so focused on getting away from them that I didn't even hear the strange rustling in the trees above the trail. The further I walked into the woods the louder the rustling got but I didn't notice. I was stuck in tunnel vision.
When I finally noticed the rustling it had gotten to the point where there was absolutely no turning back. Now that I had noticed the rustling it was getting on my nerves and I could feel that a jumpscare was about to take place.
Suddenly, as I looked around, the rustling stopped and I could see hundreds of tiny red eyes peering at me from the darkness. I realize now that I should've used my magic to help myself in that situation but every conscious thought except for absolute terror had left my mind at that point. In fact, I was so scared that I couldn't even scream for help. Instead I ran. Full out sprinting away from the eyes that seemed to follow every movement. Unconsciously I ran in the direction of where the trio were camping.
I was right by the campsite when the spiders caught up to me and I think I woke up the entire world with my screams. The spiders were absolutely humongous, completely black except for their beady red eyes, and had extremely poisonous mandibles that glistened in the moonlight. I was cornered against a seemingly vast tree trunk with about seven giant spiders crowded around me. I tried to scramble away but they had completely surrounded me and I couldn't move.
One spider, much larger than the other spiders, slunk out of the bushes towards me. It was obviously the leader. Its mandibles were dripping with poison and its hard exoskeleton was shining in the moonlight. I screamed again. The spider was so close that I could feel its gigantic presence looming over me, blocking the full moon from my view. I felt a splatter of something wet on my arm but I didn't register what it was until it started burning. Poison. That was how close the spider was to me. Close enough to drip poison on me.
My vision was suddenly enhanced and I could see everything. My magic had just worked by itself again. I could see the spider's beady little eyes and its dripping poisonous fangs clearly and the bushes in the background were clear as day.
I focused back on the spider as it moved even closer, its mouth opening wider with every passing second. Slowly it leaned closer and put its mouth onto my skin, preparing to bite down.
As it started to bite down onto my skin, something whooshed over my shoulder and hit the spider right in the centre of its head. It was an arrow. The spider reared up in pain, a soundless scream being emitted from its mouth. I glanced behind me, narrowly dodging a second arrow sent after it. Izel was standing about twenty metres behind me and was sending arrows towards the pack of spiders. Evander and Kael were nowhere to be seen.
"Get out of the way, you idiot!" she yelled to me, gesturing wildly for me to move to the side again.
I did better than that. I side-rolled under another spider's gangly legs and bounced up on the other side. The spider leader had recovered from Izel's attack and was now coming for me at an alarming rate. I could hear its feet clacking on the forest floor and crackling in the fallen leaves as I ran.
The spider leapt at me, narrowly missing my head and instead managed to lightly clip me on my back. I screamed in pain. As the small dose of poison ran into my blood I could feel my limbs go limp and almost unmovable. The feeling was similar to the feeling I had experienced when the Enchantiss had taken my grandmother except this time I had a genuine reason to not move. The poison also made my vision cloud, and I could barely see my hand in front of my face and I pulled myself away from where the giant spider was recovering from its tree encounter and towards a very spiky looking thorn bush. I knew I would be safe if I could get inside it.
As I was pulling myself, I felt the spider's presence once again.
"Oh come on," I slurred, my lips not really working. Before I could turn around to look at the spider I felt its sharp foot dig into my back. It had pinned me to the ground and now it was going to bite me again. I knew that one more bite from the spider would knock me unconscious and it would take me back to its cave to eat me there.
I could almost feel myself fall unconscious and I was just drifting off when I realized that the spider wasn't standing on my back anymore. I could also hear distant shouting through the fogginess of my brain. Through blurry eyes I watched as Evander and Kael fought until they were surrounded by a ring of spiders, all poised for attack. The giant spider was lying dead a few feet from the ring with a glinting sword hilt sticking out of its abdomen. Black blood was spraying from the wound.
The haziness was getting worse but I blinked rapidly, straining to see what was happening with Evander and Kael. Just before I blacked out I saw a spider leap at Evander and he fell to the ground, clutching his stomach. Then the world turned black and I couldn't feel myself or my own thoughts. Absolutely nothing.