Trigger warning: Arachnophobia. This chapter has the appearance of a spider-like monster with spiders and webs being mentioned.

I stalled for a moment as I stared at the perfect, intact web. I’d never suffered from arachnophobia like a lot of people I knew, but that didn’t mean I was excited to have to fight a ginormous spider-like monster. 

Still, Pip needed our help and we couldn’t know for certain that the other three would find a way in if Leo and I didn’t.

No fear. Only action.

Scary things were my job, and I could do this too.

I reached up to pull at the web and collapse it, but Prince whinnied just as I was about to touch it.

“What is it, Prince?” I asked. 

There was no way that horse was actually shaking his head at me. Right? 

“I really feel like we shouldn’t touch that,” Prince said with Leo’s voice. 

Wait. No. Leo said it?

I turned to him.

“But we need to get in,” I said with more of an edge to my voice than I wanted to aim at Leo. Why did we have to get slowed down at every single point of the road, though?

Pip’s chances lowered every second we stalled.

“Well, the legend does call it a disintegrating nightweb,” Leo said and stared at me like that was supposed to mean anything.

“Uh huh…” That much I was aware of, thanks Leo. I really hoped this had a point, for Pip’s sake.

“A disintegrating nightweb,” Leo answered with emphasis on the correct words this time. “I’m pretty sure the molevarps’ legend said their screech can paralyze the strongest of men, and their webs can burn through anything like the most potent of acids.” 

My eyes grew wide as I turned to see my body and face not even a foot away from the damn thing.

I jumped backwards and clutched the hand I nearly touched it with at my chest. Well, shit. I could have lost my fingers there. Thank Matty for Prince! 

And Leo, I guess.

“Next time, try to be more urgent with the whole ‘this could take off your hand’ worthy information, thank you, ” I said to Leo and started to examine the web from afar.

It blocked the whole entrance, so nothing larger than a rat could get in without touching it. 

“What if I just cut it?” I said, pulling out Knightshade.

“I wouldn’t, if you like your sword,” Leo said, going closer to the cave entrance and the web. 

I hugged Knightshade close to me at the thought of her beautiful silver blade sizzling with acidic spiderweb. My poor baby. I had to start being smarter about where I used her.

Leo moved from one side of the cave to the other, looking like he was inspecting where the web was attached to the rocks and branches. He leaned in, rubbed his chin, moved back, and went to a new spot. Rinse and repeat. 

Eventually, I picked up on what he was trying to figure out. Maybe, if we can’t get through it, we could get around it. 

Great. That would be wonderful.

But how would we get around it?

“If we can pull this root out, it might drag down the web… ” Leo said, while continuing to investigate the entrance. I went over to him to take a look, as well. 

He was right. There was a root in between a pile of rocks that didn’t look entirely stable. It didn’t have any of the web on it, but the surrounding rocks on the entrance side did. It looked like it would be fragile enough to crumble completely down, if we could actually pull it out.

“I don’t know if I’m strong enough…” Leo mumbled with his face towards the forest floor.

Excuse me? Mountain of a man that went unbothered by the fucking heavy rock gnomes says what?

That branch couldn’t possibly have weighed more than ten fucking rock gnomes!

“You could… you know, try?” I said, hard edge to my voice. 

If Pip wasn’t alive when we got there, I was going to be pissed.

“Oh. Yeah! I guess I could,” Leo agreed with the old pep back in his voice. He pranced up, took hold of the root, and uprooted the entire thing in one smooth movement. It barely looked like he put any effort into it before he stood around with half a fucking tree hanging down from beside him, stones falling down, web following.

Seriously, what was this man made out of?

Whatever. Time to save Pip.

“Great, now let’s go,” I said, getting ready to move in, but Prince once again neigh’ed and stopped me in my tracks. I looked down and realized the ground was sizzling. Grass disintegrating. Flowers withered and died. But the web was a bit off to the side. 

Was this all from just barely touching it when it fell?

“Thanks, Prince…” I said, internalizing the warning. Do not get too close to the web. Got it. I’d remember that now.

Prince whinnied in response, sounding… satisfied?

I needed to stop personifying animals like this.

“Right. Now into the cave,” I said and took one step forward.

“Hold on,” said Leo.

Oh my fucking Matty what was it this time?!?

I swear steam was rolling out of my ears when I turned back to Leo who was skipping over to a patch of flowers off to the side of the riverbank.

When he turned around he had two more of the same pink tube-like flowers that he’d thrown down to Pip before he went deeper down the well. 

“We won’t get very far if we can’t see anything,” he said as he walked over and handed me one of the flowers. 

Okay. Fair point there.

“Thanks,” I said as I shook the flower, like I’d seen him do before, and it started to glow. “Now, can we go in?”

Leo nodded and we both avoided the smoking acid web as we entered the cave.

Prince stayed behind, which was probably for the best. We didn’t know exactly what awaited us inside, and I couldn’t handle the thought of losing him and Pip on the same day.

Plus, he couldn’t exactly hold his own flashlight flower.

But Pip was still alive. Absolutely. Yup. There was no doubt about it. He was handpicked by the king himself, and all of that other shit.

I fully believed.

Fully… Believed…

But believing got harder and harder for each step further we took into the cave.

Clean-picked skeletons—of things that were definitely not human—adorned the sides of the walls in piles, with a horrible, sour, and sharp stench getting so thick we could almost see it in the air. It was like a mix of vinegar and nail polish remover, just much, much worse.

It sneaked into my nostrils and stayed there, lingering to the point where it felt like I was choking. Every breath I inhaled shot more of the stench into my nose and down my throat. I could taste the bitter, pungent smell.

A cough forced its way out of my throat, but opening my mouth only made it feel like I was going to vomit.

Poor Pip… 

How long had he stayed in this place, now?

My firefly flower also showed splotches on the wall. Horrible big splotches that reminded me of crime scenes from tv-shows. I did not want to think too much about what that indicated.

“I think I hear something ahead,” Leo whispered to me after we had walked for a while in silence. I stopped, trying to listen. 

I could barely hear the swoosh of a breeze up ahead. 

A breeze. A breath. The Disintegrating Nightweb.

With a nod, we both seem to agree on our course of action. We put our flowers, and our only source of light, into Leo’s bag and started tip-toeing closer. 

I will admit, being stealthy in armor was not the easiest thing in the world. Every step I made came with a small metallic clink, so I moved even slower and more steadily.

We didn’t know whether Pip had attracted its attention from the light or the yelling, so we had to eliminate both for our best chances.

But…

Clink, clonk.

A very heavy, very clunking sound kept coming from Leo’s direction.

Clonk, clonk.

The man didn’t know how to be stealthy…

Clink, clonk.

…at all. I wanted to shush him, but an even louder…

CLIIIIING!

Shot through the entire cave, like metal hitting against rock much harder than a footstep. I turned around to see if Leo was okay. 

The darkness was heavy, but somehow I could barely make out a yellow glow of his general shape. He was standing very still, but looked okay despite the big sound.

Wait. Yellow glow? Our lights were purple.

And we had put them away.

I turned back around and…

…hundreds of yellow lights… No, eyes, looked straight at me.

Blood rushed from my face. My heartbeat kicked up. 

I swallowed down the horror, the fear, and the terror.

This was the monster that took Pip.

And if we didn’t act fast, it would definitely take us, too.

This wasn’t a human… book character or not…

This was a monster.

This I could fight.

There was no more time to think.

It was time for action.