Ruthrrien woke as light began to filter through the trees. Yawning, she sat up and stretched, noticing that little pain remained in her shoulder. Smiling a little, she looked around and noticed Lucerin and Gelwyn packing up while Ianz stared up at the sky, eyes glazed over unseeingly.
Her smile faded grumpily. They had let her sleep all night unnecessarily. The last thing she wanted was to be coddled. She got up and began packing away her bedroll, just about to say something when Ainz blinked and seemed to return to the present.
“Blackwing has found a lake nearby. That’s our best chance to find more flowers. But we will have to be quick and quiet. There’s a huge amount of spider activity on the opposite side.”
“Quick and quiet,” nodded Lucerin.
Ainz gave Ruthrrien a pointed look. “Can you handle that?”
“Of course I can,” she spat angrily as she stretched some to loosen up her muscles.
“Let’s make this quick then,” heading down the trail, “this way.”
No one spoke as the quickly made their way back in the heart of the cove, entering the tunnels of web once more. They were careful not to touch the web this time as Ainz led the way to the lake. Hours passed and slowly the thick webbing thinned out again, more and more light filtering through. Finally, the path broke free of the tree line where a dazzling blue lake greeted them, sparkling in the midday sunlight.
As their eyes adjusted to the brightness, they saw the flowers they had been searching for dotted along the shoreline. Ruthrrien got to work immediately while the others kept watch. It was not lost on her that once again she was the only one prepared, thinking how much quicker this would go if they all had thought to bring a trowel.
Kneeling by a small cluster, she began digging up the flowers. As she pulled the third one free from the dirt carefully, she noticed a few strange pearlescent spheres buried there. Stowing the flower, she curiously dug one of the spheres out to get a closer look, thinking it might be valuable.
As soon as it came free of the dirt, a horribly loud screeching noise issued from it as it rocked a little in her hand. Panicking, she dropped it back into the hole and quickly covered it back up to stop the noise.
But the damage was done. The raven squawked angrily above their heads and Ianz felt a spike of panic. He closed his eyes and looked through the raven’s as it angled back toward the other side of the lake. What he saw made his face pale. The hoard of spiders had split in two and was rushing around both sides of the lake directly towards them.
Cursing loudly, he turned to the others. “They’re coming!” he yelled. “RUN!”
“You just HAD to pick it up!” snapped Gelwyn before transforming herself back into a bear.
“I didn’t know!” she snarled back at her, quickly getting to her feet as the others started running back towards the trail.
The skeleton controlled by Ainz ran back towards the lake as they entered the treeline. With a great heave of its non-existent lungs, it breathed fire on the webs and trees, setting it all ablaze as they continued to retreat. Ruthrrien and the bear, Gelwyn were ahead, being the faster of the four. Ainz and Lucerin were not far behind, all running as quickly as they could.
“If she doesn’t turn werewolf before we get back,” Lucerin panted angrily, “I’ll kill her for this!” firing off a bolt of lighting over his shoulder and setting another section of forest aflame. He just barely glimpsed the skeleton being completely overrun by spiders before turning back to pick up his pace.
The fire quickly spread as they sprinted through the forest and the spiders gave up their chase as the wall of flame separated them from their prey. They were halfway back to the troll bridge before they finally stopped to catch their breath, bent over and panting with hands on their knees. The cove was now far behind them, a great plume of smoke rising in the distance.
“Well, that went well.” said Ainz breathlessly.
“We could have gotten all the flowers we needed if you hadn’t been so stupid,” Lucerin spat bitterly to Ruthrrien, glaring at her. “Now we have still have three more to find.”
She glowered at the ground, but didn’t respond, avoiding his piercing gaze. “Can’t you send you’re Raven to search for another water source?” she asked Ainz with only the slightest hint of guilt, not looking up.
“Hmph” was his only response and sent the raven out to search, closing his eyes again to watch its progress.
“Next time you decide to do something,” Lucerin added through gritted teeth, “ask.”
She looked up and glared at him incredulously. “Fat chance,” she thought, gripping a hand ax tightly at her waist, ready to challenge him. But before she could form a response, Ainz stepped between them, facing Lucerin with a raised eyebrow as if to say, “you’re really going to threaten the almost werewolf right now?”
But instead he said, “he’s found another small pool at the base of a waterfall about a day’s hike from here. That’s our next best chance. We should hike as far as we can before dark” moving on to lead the way.
Lucerin seemed to cool off, casting one more dark look at her before following after him. “That’s right, move along,” she thought with some pride, thinking it was her intimidating stature that dissuaded him. Gelwyn had been watching the exchange from the saddle of her pony.
“What?” she growled.
“Nothing,” she responded with a small smile and trotted after the pair.
She sighed heavily, “Maybe I should be nicer, they did save me from those spiders.” But she knew that it had nothing to do with them actually caring, and everything to do with them needing her strength when magic wasn’t enough. And why should they care? They hardly knew her and she hadn’t exactly made their task easier.
Hoping this new location would yield the last of the flowers they needed, she followed slowly after the group, telling herself that it would be over soon enough and it didn’t really matter in the end what they thought of her.
The Whitney Scott 