Okay, a little bit of violence in this Chapter, just so you know.
Chapter 4: The Horrors of the Forest
Jace felt dizzy, it was so high up…
So high…I can even see the tops of Merlin and Arthur's heads from here, they're so small and so far away down… I wonder what they're talking about…
"Jace? Jace?"
I can barely hear them, but they're calling for me... I should tell them I'm here…
He opened his mouth to speak only to find that he couldn't, his lips were held together tight by some sticky, gossamer, material that was wrapped around his mouth.
Jace jolted awake, it wasn't just his mouth; his arms, legs and torso, even his neck was also entangled in the material. Jace gulped, his breathing starting to speed up and beads of sweat came out of his forehead as he started to panic and trash around wildly.
He was in a web.
"Mmmmfff!" he tried to scream but that was the most that left him. "Mmmmff!"
Arthur, Merlin, Help me! Anyone, please!
The web around his neck tightened almost painfully and Jace stopped trashing, He could feel the presence of the being that caught him and he shuddered involuntarily, how could he not have noticed it before? It was probably hidden, but from this close he could feel it… It's aura was dark and filled with hate and malice… and hunger, Jace shuddered again, it was going to eat him… and Arthur and Merlin too if it could, because it's hunger was so great, it fed off his panic… his fears and despairs… they would be the appetizers, and after that… after that…
Jace tried to hold back a sob without much success, if he ever got out of this, he was going to train his tracking ability until he would never be fooled into a false sense of security like he had here. If I ever get out of this…
A clawed hand reached out and grabbed his chin, forcing him to look upward and at the creature that had caught him, Jace's eyes widened in shock and horror… It was hideous, a creature straight out of his worst nightmares, a cross between a man and a spider, with pointed ears and three, blood red eyes with sickly yellow pupils, and a rows and rows of sharp teeth the color of rust. No, it's not rust, He realized, it's blood.
The creature licked it's lips, relishing the terror it had inspired in it's victim, soon he would be ready, the creature didn't mind leaving his victims out to stew in their fears and despairs, but this one seemed delectable… perhaps there would be nothing wrong with taking a small bite…
Jace tried to move as far away as he could from it, but he knew there wouldn't be much of a difference, it watched him, amused at his small measure of defiance, before grabbing his throat and pulling him close enough…
He wanted to scream, it hurt so much, and he thrashed in pain while the searing heat and hurt on his shoulder continued on… oh, how he wanted to scream, to get away from it, he could feel it draining at his lifeblood and chewing on his flesh, he could feel it's teeth on his bone, but still the pain didn't stop, it wasn't enough, the pain continued on until he could no longer feel anything through it, just the pain, and the heat, until he couldn't even distinguish between the two.
Somebody help me, please.
He didn't know when the creature stopped feeding, he didn't care, all he knew was the pain.
I feel like I'm going to die, I don't want to die…
He slumped down, completely limp, his shoulder starting to bleed, he was spent, and the creature knew it, it licked away a few drops of blood on his shoulder, wondering if the human would mind very much if it took another bite, the human tasted better than it had thought.
I don't want to die… Somebody, please… help me
Please, anyone, please.
HELP ME!
The creature flinched and leapt away from the human, hissing. Below them, and a few feet away, Merlin covered his ears in an effort to ease the pain until he realized it was only in his head, Arthur had ran over to his side, a look of concern on his face as Merlin scrambled to his feet. His head still throbbing from the mental scream, memories that weren't his started entering his head, Jace's memories, he realized.
Jace. He thought. That was Jace's voice.
He looked up, to the tree tops, first this way and then that, where? He wondered, where was it? His eyes caught a stray glimmer, a small falter in the illusion and he immediately muttered a spell disguised as a rather long cough (how Arthur hadn't noticed was beyond him) "Afiareth costrais vhes…" and his breath caught in his throat, Jace was there, hanging limply while the horrid creature hissed and sputtered at one side.
"Arthur!" he shouted, Arthur turned to look at the scene, the emotions in his face changing from shock to horror to grim determination. He unsheathed his sword and advanced upon the creature, which had by then realized that it had been exposed. It hissed angrily, snapping the web around Jace and throwing the unconscious boy over it's shoulder before attempting to escape, Merlin and Arthur in close pursuit.
It leapt from tree to tree, and probably would have gotten away with the speed it was going, but Arthur had raised his crossbow and was shooting at the creature, the first two shots missed and the thing laughed mockingly, turning to face them before firing a barrage of gossamer-like needles, one of them barely missing Merlin's head and the young warlock watched in horror as a dark violet poison oozed out of it and the leaf it had pinned withered. Arthur continued to fire at it, ducking behind trees whenever it shot the needles… A bolt finally hit its arm and the creature screeched angrily and spat a glob of green acid at the two, which they barely avoided, but it had stopped.
Merlin watched the creature warily, it was hissing at them but was not moving, dark violet blood trickled down its arm and hit the plants underneath it, they withered. It growled at them and spat a web-like substance on the tree it was perched on and attached its captive to it, Merlin gulped, it was going to fight. Beside him, the prince of Camelot tensed and brought his sword up, ready for battle.
There were a few moments of tense silence… then it attacked.
It jumped downward, landing on its four spider legs in front of them and before either Merlin or Arthur could react, had lunged at Arthur, taking the prince down where he was saved only by his fast reflexes, which had caused him to bring his sword up defensively before he was skewered by the sharp ends of the spider creature's legs. The crossbow fell a few meters away and for the moment, was completely forgotten.
Arthur struggled to fend off the monster, it was faster, stronger, and had the upper ground, he didn't stand a chance, unless… Arthur slid his sword sideways, drawing blood but not deep enough to chop the limb off, and rolled away from the beast, it roared angrily and attempted to skewer the prince, and Arthur knew he couldn't keep rolling forever. Finally, he saw his chance, just as the monster lifted its leg to attack again, Arthur slashed, the blow connected and the prince found himself sprayed full on the face by the spider's dark violet blood.
It screeched angrily and jumped away, hissing while it crouched underneath a tree and eyed the prince warily, as if seeing him for the first time, Arthur wiped blood from his eyes and stood up. Merlin, who had been watching in bated breath, let out a relieved sigh and allowed himself a small smile, perhaps Arthur would be alright after all.
Then his vision started swimming, Merlin shook his head and brought one hand up in an attempt to clear his head, it didn't work and, if anything, got even worse, his vision was starting to blur and he felt like something was pounding his head repeatedly, he wondered if this was a delayed reaction to the bump he got a while ago but knew that it wasn't, it hurt too much to be just a bump. He felt his legs fold under him and clutched onto a nearby rock for support, he was starting to feel nauseous. Merlin stifled a groan, he didn't want Arthur to be distracted now…
He looked up to watch the fight and gave a start, dark tendrils were wrapped around the spider-monster, twisting and writhing in a way that reminded Merlin of worms, Arthur didn't seem surprised. No, Merlin realized, He just cant see them.
The wisps wrapped around the creature, slowly working their way towards its wounds and embedding themselves within while Merlin watched in horror, and then the wounds began healing and in a few seconds, had completely disappeared.
Magic, he realized, he was seeing its magic, and it was dark. Merlin shuddered, it was frightening, but strangely alluring at the same time… he could feel it, whispering, just beyond the edge of his consciousness, promising power, and immortality… and darkness, and nightmares. It was the dark abyss, the unknown, the terrifying… and it was there, looking at him and he, at it. He suddenly felt like he had been doused in cold water, and whatever hopes he had of winning, doused along with it.
He shook his head, the creature was using magic, Arthur needed his help if he wanted to win against it, and he could not, and would not fail Arthur. So despite the nausea and the constant fear that had wrapped itself around his heart, he stood up, and prepared to help his friend.
Arthur, in the meantime, was dodging blows left and right, he didn't understand how the creature had healed itself so quickly, but simply put it as an ability of the monster, he was trying to think up of a strategy to defeat it, but how do you defeat a beast when you cant even wound it for long? He scowled and dodged just as the creature spat acid on the spot he had been standing on, the acid splattered on his jacket and burned a hole at the sleeve; he scowled even more.
Then suddenly, there was no where else to dodge, his eyes widened, he had been cornered.
The creature cackled, it had finally gotten its prey where it wanted, and the blonde human looked like a tasty meal… but it had to be careful, the human still had his sword and that could be dangerous. It reached out an arm and swiped the sword away, it flew all the way to the other side and embedded itself point-first on the ground. Much better.
Arthur backed up as much as he could, though it wasn't much, he ended up flattening himself against the rock, caught between a rock and a hard place, great.
The spider creature advanced, licking it's lips, oh, the human would be tasty, yes… it leaned in to bite and Arthur closed his eyes, waiting for the pain… except it never came. The prince opened his eyes and blinked. The creature was gone.
Wait, no, it wasn't, it was on his feet, pinned down by an enormous piece of wood that had apparently, broken off and fell right on the spider creature. Arthur stepped around the monster and wondered at his luck, completely missing the cunning smile on Merlin's face.
"Arthur! Are you okay?" asked Merlin, running towards the prince.
"Yeah sure, no thanks to–" Arthur stiffened when he felt Merlin's fingers brushing a few strands of hair off his face.
"What are you doing?" he asked in a choked voice, tooclosetooclosetooclose.
"That looks like a bad cut" stated Merlin, peering at the wound in Arthur's temple and, in consequence, moving closer, oblivious to the reddish tinge on the blonde's face. Probably because it was still covered in the creature's blood.
"It's fine!" said the prince and stepped away, or he had been stepping away, except now he was falling forward, straight at Merlin, who caught him.
"Arthur? Arthur, what's wrong?"
Merlin's voice sounded so far away, Arthur shook his head but found that that only made him dizzier, he felt hot and cold at the same time, he groaned. His head hurt so much…
"My god, Arthur, you're burning up!"
Merlin saw movement from the corner of his eye and to his horror, watched as the spider creature shook off the piece of wood and stood up, hissing at them angrily. It bounded after them and Merlin was immobilized, he couldn't move, couldn't think, could only stare as the monster came closer and closer.
Then it was right beside them and raised it's clawed hand, ready to kill…
Merlin closed his eyes and held Arthur closer, using his own body to shield the prince…
…And felt blood splatter all over him.
I have no idea why I like to torture my OCs... must be a sadistic streak... review?
Oh, and a question, if this fanfiction incorporates characters from other shows, even in passing, do I have to put it at Crossovers? Because most of the characters coming aren't even there long enough to make a big impact. They just sort of... show up and disappear again, do I put this at Crossovers?
