The Rainy Day Trip
Part XVI
By Saphron
Negación (ie: Disclaimer-ah! D**m the English language! (My mum made me promise I wouldn't swear in my fics anymore…sighs…I have no idea how long that'll last, but I'm making an effort.) There aren't enuff cinnamons! Oh, well, time to put what I *learn* (snorts, sp-class is so pointless it's not even funny-all I do is sleep.) in Spanish class to good use…negación is Spanish for 'disclaimer.' Wee-a new language! I'm really good at educating you all. Soon we'll all be multi-lingual! Anyone have any new foreign words they wanna learn? Nada y nadie pertenece a mí, todo el crédito va a Tamora Pierce. (Translation: yada-yada, I know you can figure this out, but I own nothing! All credit goes to Tamora Pierce.) And thanks to Systran dictionary. And extra special thanks to Larzdinn-great idea for the language thing!!!! Huzzah, time to go call up my on-line dictionary, one sec…ah-ha! Next vocab word will be-well you'll find that out next posting, onward with reading!
A/N: First and foremost, this is IMPORTANT so listen up! It has recently come to my attention, via a reviewer, that they thought that my story was too similar to Sulia Serafine's "A Life Less Ordinary" (great fic by the way) which I was completely oblivious of. Although I have read ALLO, and loved it, I didn't think that I was plagiarizing her work in any way. I e-mailed her and she very kindly understood and told me reassuringly they she has no grudge against me whatsoever, for which I thank her. Anyhow, I want to apologize for anyone out there who finds similarities in her and mine's work, I assure you that they were all completely unintentional. Sulia has been a MAJOR influence, she is an outstanding author and I highly recommend you read her work if you have not all ready done so. That being said, I hope I have cleared the air, if anyone still has questions, pleez feel free to e-mail me at turtlegirl884488@aol.com. Thank you.
A/A/N: ::takes big breath:: that being said, onto regular a/n's. This chapter really bites. I wrote it out of writer's block and I'm sorry to say it sucks. Or at least I think it does. ::shrugs:: Anyhow, I apologize. Oh well. That's why it took so long, sorry again! (At least it's kinda long…)
A/A/N: Once again plans change! There will a spidren attack, in this very chapter! Hey, I didn't know what else to do, ::glares at worthless muse:: so I decided to make them get attacked. I'm really no good at battle but oh well.
The sun was just setting as the trio stole away from the dinner table feigning sickness. They each crept into their room too gather necessary supplies. Kel grabbed her soft leather bag and stuffed into it a pair of breeches, a clean shirt, a water bottle, some small weapons like the dagger from her mysterious benefactor, and a few other random things. She met Joren and Cleon outside and the three trekked through the darkness until they were out of site. Then Joren cast light into a nearby pebble Does Joren have magic? Probably not, but I don't know. ::shrugs:: well for this story he does. Just a little light magic though and that sort of thing, nothing major. My license again. Is it possible to overuse that thing? I hope not. and the three continued, tripping over their own feet a lot less.
First they tried heading north to a grassy place they knew (via a scout) but no luck. They searched the mini-field but all they found were some fireflies and mosquitoes, the former was pretty (and 'romantic'-"your eyes shine as bright as yonder fireflies, my dove" -good ol' Cleon) but the latter was very annoying.
"Ugh!-Stupid bugs," Cleon muttered as he slapped the back of his neck. "They're everywhere!"
They found many flowers, but none that fit the description of nightshade. They couldn't even go that far, for they had to be back by dawn or their disappearance would be noticed.
Trekking around in the semi-dark with two swearing boys was not Kel's idea of a good time, but there weren't really any other options.
Eventually they wandered past the wind swept pasture and into a small forest. All the trees were tall and lank and looked exactly the same. It was so foreboding that none of the three really felt like venturing in there, but a slight shimmer caught their eye and they decided to enter its gloomy depths.
After wandering around for quite some time they discovered the source of the light, which was hidden deep within the spindly trees, phosphorus moss.
"Great! So we came all the way out into the forest just to find some stupid glowing moss?" Cleon hollered. The mosquitoes had put him in a very bad mood.
"No…" Joren said slowly, "Kel, hand me the book for a sec." It wasn't a question.
She silently gave it to him and started to leaf through it, "I found this earlier before. Something about see page 56 for further details…" smiles at Jae, it's her lucky number suddenly, "ah-ha! See, I was right! As always. The moss is important, listen to this: Sentai Ourin is a phosphorus moss distantly related to the nox noctis-umbra flower. It contains the same glowing phosphorescence (fluoreszkáló) that is found within. It's characteristics are as followed: whitish-iridescent in color" Kel checked them off while Joren read, "grows in clumps or clusters," yes she though silently "crinkly soft and has the appearance of crumbly powder. Although seeming to appear fragile, it is actually quite durable." All those things worked for the moss on the trees. "And is found in cold, windy altitudes. Although there is no scientific evidence, it has repeatedly been reported that the moss often grows in patterns, instead of at random. We can never know for sure however, although it is deemed popular belief. An old fable is that ancient traders used it to mark paths, but this is unreliable and probably nothing more than a bedtime story."
He finished reading and glanced at the two of them, Kel and Cleon nodded at him and the three mutually agreed, well, they might as well follow the moss trial and see where it would take them.
*
Meanwhile, not too far away:
"I hear him coming," hissed an evil voice, "he should be here soon."
"Yesss-" responded another, just as evil.
"We must kill the boy…the wizard will reward us well if we do so…"
Back to our fav trio:
They 'followed' the trail, if it could be considered that, until they were thoroughly lost. Yes, lost. In the middle of a forest, at night, with nothing but some dumb glowing moss. Joren claimed he could follow any path, so Kel and Cleon let him take the lead. But he of course, had managed to screw everything up by getting them lost.
"We've been traveling around in circles Joren," Cleon told him irritably, "we've passed that tree twice now."
"How can you tell?"
"It has those funny branches."
They bickered and bickered and bickered and Kel just rolled her eyes. She was too tired to intervene, her legs felt like lead and all she wanted to do was a take a nap. She yawned as the two boys started insulting each other over something completely non-related to getting lost, something about what tastes better, beef or chicken. Cleon was all for cows and Joren was all for poultry. Just as Cleon started making squawking noises and flapping his arms Kel stopped abruptly.
Something had caught her eye, but she shook it off. It was just more glimmering moss. Or-was it? Kel wandered away from the cackling chicken and mooing cow, and approached the bright thing, it glowed like the moss except it was even bigger. As she came near she gasped; it was a giant web!
A spidren's web! It glowed in the dark.
This is a true fact! The webs do really glow in the dark, check your wild magic books, page 53 at the bottom to see 4 yourself.
She was about to call the boys/farm animals over when she thought better of it. If there were any spidrens about she didn't want to alert their attention. She turned her back to the web and was about to find the boys, when suddenly a long hairy leg wrapped around her abdomen and covered her mouth, but not before she emitted a small scream.
She fought blindly in the dark, tooth and nail. She lashed out at the thing, or things, another had joined the first, with her dagger, which was the only weapon she had bothered bringing, not really expecting to get attacked. Stupid she muttered to herself as the knife was knocked out of her hand. Good thing she remembered a little bit of training from the Yamani islands. As a spidren advanced she swept her legs underneath it and it tripped and fell forward. She took this opportunity to grab it and flip it over her hip, right into another spidren that was sneaking up behind her, the two met with a sickening thud and both collapsed unto the ground.
She stood up straight and took a shaky breath; the only time she could remember being this scared was when her older brother had held her by the feet from atop a balcony.
Then Cleon, as usual, with horrible timing, came crashing through the bush screaming, "what happened? You alright?"
Joren wasn't far behind, "we heard you scream."
She pointed with a shaky finger, still unable to believe that she had lived through the ordeal, to the small pile of black hairy legs lying behind her at her feet.
Joren and Cleon both gasped, and Cleon smiled at Kel, "you took care of those things all by yourself? Good job!" But the foolish grin was soon wiped off Cleon's face and he suddenly lounged forward and knocked Kel out of the way. "Watch out!" he managed to scream first, as Joren jumped into the fray by tackling the other moving body.
Kel jumped up to help as Cleon, as always, tried to joke, "crap! These things are good at playing possum, huh?"
Kel would've laughed or shook her head at him but she was too busy elbowing a spidren she had assumed unconscious in the eye.
He hissed at her, "there's three of you? No matter, we'll get you all!" before trying to bite her.
She dodged the bloodstained teeth and knocked its jaw back, but it was not to be so easily put down. It retaliated with a blow from one of its hairy legs to her stomach, which winded her and caused her to fall to her knees. It sprang at the opportunity, and the next thing she knew all was black.
***
~*Saphron*~
A/N: Well, I guess that dungeon will come in use…::grins::…cliffy? Yeah? WOW! I never do cliffys! Cool! Yeah, um, right…so when's next part up, right? Well…good news…it's already written! ::hopes that's good news:: But…should I post it?…Should I be a big meanie and see how many squeals I can get out of you all first? ::grins evilly:: that'd be fun-c how many reviews I can get. ::sighs:: I'm too nice. I'll post regardless of whether or not anybody reviews- ::snorts:: what a softie.
A/A/AN: Real quick, I've done the language thing again for the name of the moss. Sentai Ourin is Japanese for moss and phosphorus, respectively. I figured that the Yamani islands are a lot like Japan, so y'know. And I think TP mentioned that once too, about modeling them after Japan somewhat. And fluoreszkáló is, you're never going to believe this, Hungarian of all things. Cool word tho' huh? Er, yeah, just thought I'd mention it.
A/A/A/A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Er, yeah, for all those non-author peeps out there, when you upload a fic you CAN'T CHANGE IT! In other words, you can't go back and edit it without replacing it, which gets rid of your reviews and screws everything up. So I do appreciate all you intellectuals out there who catch my grammar and spelling mistakes (I'm b-a-d at grammar AND spelling, most likely cause I always skip grammar hw to write fanfic ::grins::) and if you want to I suppose you still can…but I won't be able to fix it. Don't' get me wrong, I appreciate you effort, but it's slightly pointless. Anyhow, I just wanted to apologize for all my mistakes, I actually DO go back and reread my fic looking for mistakes (whod've thought?) but I usually don't catch much. Sorry.
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