The web was wet, hairy, and sticky, which aggravatingly itched my bare arms. The powerful stench of formaldehyde burned my nose. If I pulled hard enough, I could get unstuck, but I wouldn’t be able to move fast enough if my plan was to continually unstick myself while moving toward Emma to get us out of here.
“I can’t move,” Emma said, panic climbing in her voice but I could hear her fight it. Indeed, we could not, the net was fiercely viscid and my clothes, neck and face were adhered to it. The covering of the tree tops blocked out any light, so even when my eyes adjusted to the pitch black, I still couldn’t see much.
“Don’t worry,” I said with a grunt. “We won’t be here long.” When I had turned around in the air, I brought my sheathed sword to the front of my body. With my hands wrapped around it, I was able to pop the hilt up with a sharp metal scraping sound and use the exposed bit of blade to cut at the gather of web that led to one of the trees it clung to.
“Your parents are coming down,” Emma said.
They descended toward us, my mother’s fist still emitting a pale green light, slightly illuminating the web as I worked on it. She would be moving slower, expending a great deal of energy to keep the power active.
The web was as thicker than a three-strand rope, but I kept sawing away with my sword. “Yes, well, didn’t think they would give us up so easily, did you? After all, if they go back, they will have to tell their elders thetruth,”I mocked.
“Did you almost make a joke just then?”
I paused very briefly but went right back to cutting through the thick sticky strands. “Yes, I believe I was in danger of it.”
“You know, for a second there, I thought maybe we were jumping out a window to… to jump out of a window. But then I told myself you would have a plan, if I just trusted you.” She seemed to be talking to calm herself down. “And you did have a plan. Well one that didn’t involve killing ourselves rather than be taken alive. Oh hey, I got my arm off…. aaand it’s stuck back down.”
The net moved underneath us. It was too soon for my parents to have reached it as it would require a careful climb down several trees to reach the net. When I’d caught sight of the web as I gazed out the window of the treehouse, I had also noticed they had cut away most limbs of the nearby trees to keep anyone or anything from climbing toward them.
I kept sawing, but lifted my gaze to see what had gotten on the net. “Yes, but I’m still not sure you’re going to like my plan.”
“What do you mean? Man, you must be cutting away at that thing. But hurry, your parents are halfway down.”
“I have good news and bad news. Which would you prefer first?” I’d heard the expression used twice before and felt it fitting for the moment. Beads of sweat popped out on my forehead as I doubled my efforts.
“Good news. I could really use some good news after all this bullshit, right about now. Lay it on me, hot stuff.” She was doing her best to sound bold, but she couldn’t keep her voice from trembling.
“All right. The good news is I’ve almost cut through an essential corner of the net.”
“Good, because they are really booking it our way. Damn, you got this thing shaking.”
“You see, that is where the bad news comes in. The bad news is this is an oversized arachnid’s net and he’ll think we’ve come to be his dinner.”
Emma swallowed audibly. “Then I guess we better get the hell out of here before it gets home.”
“I should have mentioned the bad news has two parts. He is home. That is what’s making the net shake so badly.” I was able to just make out Emma’s head tilt in the direction of the creature straining the net. I was sure in the dark she could still make out long, hairy legs about five feet long, and she may have been able to see some of the fat, purple body. But even if she didn’t, she could definitely see the thirty, milky yellow eyes blink hungrily at her.
“Okay, time to go,” she shouted. “Time to go, right now.”
The creature shrieked back at her, making me wish I had use of my hands to cover my ears.
I was glad it wasn’t light enough for Emma to see its gaping maw filled with tiny jagged teeth. I only knew what it looked like from when I had encountered its horde during my trials. However, I had spotted them first and knew to go around their den.
Two more bounces came from the opposite side of the net.
“Quickly, let us help you,” Phillip said. “We’ll get you out.”
From the bounce of the net, I knew they were hurrying toward Emma, though the arachnid stood between them. I wasn’t sure how they could walk on the net but my guess was they had attire equipped to use these webs as a means of travel when they were empty of their owners. The creature whipped around and screeched at the intruders interrupting its dinner.
“The point was to get you in,” I said. With a final grunt, I cut the last thread of the net’s corner. One whole side dropped, slamming the remaining net and us against a tree. My cheek slammed into the rough bark, knocking the wind from me. I heard Emma’soofsomewhere above me on the net. Where Emma and I were still stuck to the net, my parents bellowed as they were dropped down and out of sight, the creature screaming as it fell after them.
“Oh god,” Emma breathed after a few heartbeats. “Are they dead?”
“No,” I said, managing to angle my head down. Glowing green light was being hurled at the creature below. “I just needed to give them something else to focus on other than you.” If the creature was violent before, it was positively incensed now. It wouldn’t go down without a hell of a fight.
Slowly and painstakingly, I pulled myself off the web and started my way toward Emma. “What do you say we get out of here?”
“I say if you get me out of here, I’ll let you do anything you want to me, stud muffin.” Her voice was shaky despite her half attempt at humor. I couldn’t say her incentive didn’t speed up my efforts.
