Chapter 10 Truths and Answers; The Escape
Corridors
After reaching the rafters, the teens and animals returned to the caves, and headed for an exit that would lead them back outside the castle. Jack, Chamo, and Arista stayed in the front while the others stayed behind. Within in the group, there was an unease and awkward presence in the air. Despite no words being said, everyone knew who the sources of this were. Ariel and Arista had not said another word to each other after escaping the kitchen. They shot a glance at each other every now and then, but never made eye contact with each other.
As Eric walked next to Ariel as Jack walked next to Arista, both boys could tell that the girls were feeling awkward around their sibling due. Eric knew about Ariel's argument with her sister when she returned from Atlantica while Jack heard the girls arguing before the giants arrived. Both boys decided that they needed to try and get the sisters to talk otherwise the atmosphere would remain awkward.
Both boys cleared their throats getting the girls' attention, "So-" "So miss-"
"I don't want to talk about it now," both girls said flatly as they both knew what the boy next to them were going to ask. The boys got the message as they stopped talking.
"Good call ladies. Priority one should be getting out of here," Iago said while flying in front of the baby chick in order to comfort his investment, "Last thing I want is to run into more giants and spiders!"
"I agree with you there mon. Last thing any of us want is to run into the giant that somehow made these tunnels," Sebastian said as he feared that the giants would learn where they are. Especially if Ursula was really leading them.
"No need to worry about that," Jack said with a confident smile on his face, "You see, the giants didn't make these tunnels."
"Well that's a relief," Dax said feeling relieved that there was less risk of being discovered.
"The spiders are the ones who made them," Jack said causing Dax, Sebastian, Iago, and Arista to go pale at the mention of the eight eyed monster from before. "You see those spiders are a breed that dig holes in order to trap their prey," Jack continued, "These tunnels were made when they were building their burrows."
"That spi- whatever made all of these passageways," Arista asked in an alarm tone of voice.
"No, of course not," Jack answered earning a sigh of relief from Arista and the others, "Its parents made them. It's true they are dangerous, but they are also great banjo players if you avoid being seen by them."
Everyone just stood there not sure what to make of that comment as they processed that. "So," Eric finally broke the awkward silence, "What are the chances that they spiders will-"
Suddenly, different parts of the wall broke as long hairy black legs broke through attempting to attack them. Pieces of rock flew everywhere as the group covered their heads to avoid being hit by them as they saw more spider legs break through.
"Of them attacking us for invading their territory? Very good actually," Jack said as he hit a leg back with his staff, "That ends the tour of the castle. Now I recommended we-"
"QUIT TALKING AND JUST RUUUUUUUNNNN," Iago finally yelled as he pocked the gosling's behind. It yelped in pain and surprise as it made a break for it. Soon the others followed as more and more legs burst out of the wall attempting to grab the teens.
As they ran, more and more walls burst open around the adventurers and their tour guides. Ariel and Eric who were still weakened from the magic and lack of food helped each other move. Sebastian, Iago, and Dax rode on the Goseling while holding on to dear life. Jack and Arista were running on their own while Chamo held on to Jack's shoulder as he avoided the legs.
"THEY WANT TO EAT OUR FLESH," Iago exclaimed as he held on for dear life to his nest egg as more legs burst through the cave walls.
"Actually, spiders don't eat flesh," Chamo spoke up, "After trapping the prey in their webbing, they use acid to burn holes in the victims and extract the life fluids for sustenance."
Ariel and Arista both looked at Chamo as the processed what he said. They both imagined being tied up in the webbing of the spiders as they're life fluids were drained leaving them withered husks of their former selves. The girls were filled with a feeling of fear and disgust more than anything they had ever felt before in their lives. "IS THAT REALLY IMPORTANT NOW," the sisters exclaimed in fearful voices as they continued to run.
Chamo turned back to see both girls, "The more you know," he replied as a banner with his words over a rainbow appear over his head.
"Besides," Jack said as he turned a corner, "We need some education in this story somewhere." As the group turned a corner, they saw a bright light before them as they ran faster, "Not to worry everyone. We're almost out of this cave," Jack said with a confident smile.
"Thank goodness," Arista replied, "Running on these legs is harder than swimming with one tail! I still don't see th-"
'CRASH!'
The cave was suddenly filled with more dirt in the air that prevented anyone from seeing clearly as they covered their eyes as best they could. Arista however, aside from the burning feeling in her legs and the dirt in her eyes, now had a burning pain on the back of her head and her back. "Oww," she said to herself, "What was that?!" The moment she opened her eyes, her blood ran cold as her face went pale like a ghost.
There breaking through the cloud of dirt, was a long black harry leg that was now connected to shoulder of Arista's coat pinning her to the wall. Through the darkness and the cloud of dust slowly fading, she could make four black inhuman eyes staring at her through another hole. As a chill rain through Arista, creating goosebumps all over her, she realized that this was one of the adult spiders Jack was talking about.
"Arista," Ariel cried out as she ran for her sister along with Jack, only for more spider legs to shoot through the rocks blocking her path along with the animals and Eric who was still too weak to fight.
"Hang on," Jack yelled, "Oh dear. They are very angry now," he said at this new development as he pulled his staff out and began to strike at the legs to force them away.
Back with Arista, she could see the eyes still stare at her creeping her out. The feeling became worse the moment she saw one of the spider's mandible poked through the hole and reached out towards her. It was as though the spider blamed her for the attack on its child "Oh, my Poseidon," she yelled in fear as the fear told her to swim or rather run away. After a moment of struggling, she managed to free herself but left the left shoulder of her jack still pinned to the wall.
With fear all over her face, she princess began to run with new found experience with her legs as fast as they could go. "First man eating giants, now ravenous crustaceans without claws," she exclaimed, "I don't even want to know what's next!" At that moment, she reached the barricade of legs blocking her off from the others.
"Grab this!"
Before Arista could react to the new situation, the sound of Jack's voice caught her attention though the noise the spiders were making as she saw a green vine sticking out between the legs. Without hesitation, she grabbed the vine, only to be pulled through the legs at lightning speed as though she was trapped in a high current of water. As she was pulled through, parts of her clothing were torn, namely her jacket, and she could feel the hair from the spiders all over her. It felt as though her skin was being pricked by the legs, not enough to break her skin but enough to make it crawl.
The moment she was pulled through by Jack, she was shivering all over from the hair. "Worst... Vacation... Ever," she said as she looked at Jack, "Thanks."
"Not a problem," Jack said as they group resumed running, "And yes, I agree. Not a pleasant feeling to be sure. Thankfully, these aren't the dangerous kinds," Jack continued as the group reached the exit of the cave.
Outside the Castle
From a hole in the valley outside of the castle, a burst of dirt came flying out of the hole as everyone flew out of the hole just as the cave collapsed behind them from all the wall damage. At the moment, they were all spread out outside the entrance as they coughed up dust and catch their breath from the experience. Arista however had taken the most damage from it, specifically her coat. It had been cut so much that the sleeves were tattered and the main body had fallen off leaving Arista without it.
"Oh man," Iago said as he laid on the ground breathing hard as the goseling nudged his side, "When this is over, I never want to see anything taller than a tree for the rest of my-"
"Quit hogging him!"
"Wait your turn!"
The voices of more giants caught everyone's attention as they looked around what remained of the cave to see something that was a shock to see. There in the middle of the area near the bridge to the castle were three giants playing catch... By using the BFG as a ball. The smaller giant was tossed left and right by the larger ones as though he was an action figure or a football much to the BFG's discomfort. All the giants laughed at the good time they were having and at the BFG's misfortune they were causing.
Back with the group, they all were in shock, not as much as Jack who was used to seeing this but still enough to notice. "Oh my," Ariel said as she covered her mouth from the dread she was feeling from the scene, "That's- That's horrible!"
"Before the night of the party, I've seen bullying back in school," Eric said as he leaned on Ariel for some support, "But that's... That's just," he said unable to find the words to describe how he felt he seeing this.
"Okay, I know that I worked for a bad guy for a while, but that is just low," Iago said as he and the other animals stared in shock, "Although even though we don't know the lanky one, we're still going to help right," Iago asked knowing the answer.
"We do know him," Chamo spoke out, "He happens to be a good friend of mine and Jack's. Now we just need to figure out a way to save him."
"This is worse than before," Arista said as she stared in shock at the scene. She looked at Jack who despite seeming calm, had an anger growing inside of him. She grabbed Jack's shoulder causing him to look at her pleading face. "You have a plan, right," she asked hoping the answer was yes.
Jack looked at Arista's face. Despite his anger, her sad face had a calming effect on him. "Of course, Miss Arista," Jack said with a smile as he looked into his bag, "We just need a safe method to do it with. Especially since I used the last of my sleeping bombs."
"Well in your defense, you have been using a lot of them lately," Chamo said as he jumped on Jack's shoulder to see what he had left. The three looked in to see a number of acorns shaped items tied together like bolas. The acorns seemed to be hollow with an opening like a bell in them. "Hmm, just noise makers left," Chamo said in thought, "Good for distractions but not the best for knocking giants out."
Arista stared at the bag as she thought in desperation, suddenly she remembered something from before in the forest. "Wait, the giants didn't like it when Ariel used her water bending back in the forest. Maybe we could scare them away with it," Arista suggested.
"Not all the giants like that. Only the ones who work with Fleshlumpeater are afraid of it. Rather they dislike being clean," Chamo explained, "Something about body odor being a badge of honor or something like that." That caused the others to cringe in disgust at the idea of no bathing.
"I remember that the giants were afraid of my water bending from the forest," Ariel began to say after getting over the disgust, "But I'm out of water and there are no trees around to use water."
"Wait. Ariel, you don't need trees to water," Eric told her, "In this place, there is more water in the air. I felt it when I first fought a giant here."
"Yeah. He was able to literally surf in the air using the water in the air," Dax spoke out, "I bet Calipso didn't know he could do that."
Ariel looked at Eric after hearing this as a look of excitement appeared on her face at hearing that, "I would've loved to have seen that!" She then placed Eric down so he could rest, "Okay, let's see if I can do this. I'll need a big amount of water to knock those three out."
"Wait, I have a better idea," Jack said getting her attention as he pulled out some noisemakers, "Why fight big, when we can fight smart," he said with a confident smirk leaving the others confused.
Back with the Giants
The BFG landed on the ground with a thud after being thrown again for one of the giants to allow BFG to hit the ground rather than catch him.
"Awww, we almost break the record," one of the giants wearing a large helmet with horns that covered his face and a loin cloth on the side said while nudging the giant that missed for screwing up their game.
"No trouble," the giant replied while wearing a yellow kilt made from a circus tent, "We just try again," he said as he and the other giants began to go to pick him up again.
The BFG backed away with fear all over his face, 'Just think of it like the days before Jack entered your life,' he thought in order to steel himself for what was about to happen again just like the old days.
'BOOM'
The four giants were broken out of their train of thought when they heard a loud sound in the air. They all instinctively looked up to see nothing but the sun and a few clouds. "Must have been a Fallon fighting again," the giant wearing a green kilt with tent poles hanging from it said as he turned his attention back to the BFG, "Now-"
Suddenly, all three giants stopped in their tracks as they began to feel something wet on them. They looked up in silent horror as they saw water drops began to fall from the sky and slowly increase in number and speed.
"SKY WATER," all three yelled out in horror as they ran around in circles in panic, "BLECH! CLEAN! GROSS!" After a moment, all three ran away from fear of the rain weakening their BO badges of honor towards anywhere that could cover them.
The BFG watch them run away as he picked himself up as the rain started to die down.
"That worked better than I thought it would."
The BFG turned around to see Jack running towards the BFG along with Chamo while the others caught up with them. "You're all being all right," he said happy to see his friends were all right and succeeded in their mission.
"Yes, I'm sorry we took so long though," Jack said as he looked up at his friend, "Are you all right?"
"No problem being," the BFG said with a smile hiding his injuries, "Nothing I be not used to."
Behind them, Arista was smiling at seeing the bond between Jack and the BFG. 'They're like brothers, they know they can count on one other,' Arista thought as she watched them but then became disheartened, "Ariel and I used to be like that until after the concert. But now..."
Ariel who was helping Eric along with the animals looked up at the BFG and could see the bond as well. But what really got most of their attention was the giant's kind face. Like a grandfather happy to see his family.
"Over here! This is where I saw him!"
Everyone was broken out of their train of thought when they heard more loud voices heading towards them. "We have to being going now," the BFG said as he placed his hands on the ground to pick them up. Not wanting to argue, especially Iago who was protecting the goseling and nest egg, jumped on the large hands.
"Where to now," Arista asked Jack, "Do we head back to the house?"
"Not a chance," Chamo replied, "The giants will look there first for us. We need to go to the one place they can't go."
"Are you crazy," Iago exclaimed, "The giants practically rule this land with size and numbers! With them in charge, there is no safe place!"
"I have to agree with the loud mouth Mon," Sebastian said from Ariel's shoulder, "If there was such a safe haven, where would it be?"
The BFG and Jack looked at each other knowing the answer, "Dream Country," the two said in unison as the BFG started to run towards the forest out of sight of the incoming giants.
Meanwhile, the giants led by Fleshlumpeater and his men arrived to find the BFG, but found only signs of their brothers, and rain.
"This not good," The Butcher Boy said, "Fallon wants to see the Runt, not signs of others."
"Why not just go to his hidey hole," The Manhugger asked Fleshlumpeater, "He bound to go back there."
"Fallon wants the Runt now," Fleshlumpeater said in an angry tone, "He not want to wait!" Suddenly, he sniffed something in the air. A familiar scent he had come across before. He followed the scene until he arrived at the remains of the cave. There he noticed a small red spot on the ground. He got on his knees and saw the spot was in fact what remained of Arista's jacket. He took it and sniffed it as the giants surrounded him. With a glare on his face, he knew what the scent was and what it meant.
"Other Fishy girl with the Runt!"
Sorry, work got in the way again but I did it. I'm not sure when the next chapter will be up but I'll do what I can when I have time between work and seeing Venom (Nothing anyone says will change my mind about seeing and supporting it.) Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.
Next Chapter: Dream Country; The Journey