This cave was much different than the one Alice entered this world through. There was no moss on any of the cave walls, and once the tiny cave entrance was out of sight, the pair were completely enveloped in darkness. Luckily, Tily was able to form a glowing source of light with her hands to illuminate their path. The two walked down the rocky pathways in silence for some time, as Alice began to think. "Tily," she finally spoke. "You know if there are any kind of...creatures in these caves? Anything living here?"
"Well..." Tily said. "It's been a while since I've been down here. There might be some along the way, but the ones I know of are pretty friendly..."
As Alice peered into the darkness surrounding them, Tily suddenly let out a yelp. And like that, the light she was providing vanished before Alice could even turn her head. She was now enveloped in total darkness. "Tily!" she cried, hoping her friend was still in ear shot. There was no response. Alice did, however, hear another noise in the darkness...some kind of wet, barely audible sound, like something above her was moving quickly...
And just like that, Alice felt a pair of long, hairy arms wrap around her body and lift her into the air. She cried out as whatever had grabbed hold of her pulled her up into...somewhere.
Alice could barely even register what happened when she began to see again. As her eyes adjusted to the light, the first sensation she could feel was that of spinning. Something was spinning her around and around, and to say it was disorientating would be putting it lightly. She could make out gigantic, black appendages of some sort. Appendages that belonged to an enormous, pitch black mass.
It was a gigantic spider, a spider much larger than her. It was in the process of wrapping her up in a cocoon of silk. Alice could now see that she was in some lit part of the cave where every surface was covered in a thick layer of web. Shining crystals poking through the web-covered walls provided a dim light. Save for the spider and the rocks, her surroundings were white. As difficult as it was to think straight in her current situation, Alice suddenly remembered what spiders did immediately following the wrapping of their prey. If this was like any Earth spider, then in just a few moments...
"TILY!" Alice screamed, overtaken by fear.
"Alice! Over here!" a muffled voice cried out. In her rotating vision, Alice spied a large lump of silk amongst the web-covered ground.
"Tily! Are you alright?!"
"I'm fine!" Tily's voice called out. "The one that wrapped me up left. I don't think these guys are going to eat us yet, they might be saving us for something!"
"What do you-" Alice wasn't even able to finish her sentence before her entire head was covered in web by the spider. She had finally stopped spinning. She could hear the spider crawling away from her, out of the section of the cave they were in.
"I'll get us out of here! Hold on!" Alice could barely hear Tily's voice from across the room. "Just give me a second, I think I can break out of here."
Inside her cocoon, Tily clenched her fists, hoping to blast her way out with a few bursts of energy. But as hard as she tried, she wasn't able to generate the right kind of power. After a few moments of frustrated struggling, Tily stopped and remembered her mantra.
Relax...focus...and relax...
Tily shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She clenched her fists, and they began to light up. She pressed both fists against the sides of the cocoon as she continued to breathe in and out. Easy, easy...just a little more...and...
KABOOM! Tily's cocoon exploded. The fairy girl rubbed her head as she got to her feet, naturally feeling a bit disorientated from being spun into a tight, enclosed space. She went over to Alice's cocoon and held her hands out. They began to light up again, and she carefully dug her fingers into the thick layer of silk. "Hold still, for just a moment," Tily reassured Alice. "I'm opening this thing up now, and then you'll be free." She slowly tore open the cocoon, revealing her shaken, but otherwise unhurt, friend.
Alice sat right up, gasping for air. She took a moment to catch her breath before turning to Tily. "Thanks for getting me outta there," said Alice. "I couldn't move at all, it was like I was mummified!"
"You're very welcome, but we're not out of the woods yet," said Tily wearily as she helped Alice to her feet. "I've heard about cave spiders. They build entire cities of webs through places like these. It might be awhile before we get out." Tily looked around, and noticed a few holes leading out of the chamber they were in. "All we can really do now is a bit of trial and error exploring..."
"Uh, Tily..." Alice said, glancing upward. Tily followed her gaze towards the top of the chamber, and her heart sunk at what she saw. Pouring through a few entrance holes near the ceiling came dozens of smaller spiders, crawling down towards them. The horrifying sound of hundreds of spider legs crawling over the web-covered walls filled the air. "I think they're what the big spiders were saving us for..."
"Run!" cried Tily, taking Alice's hand and running through the nearest hole. Tily had no idea where she was going, or even if there were any other spiders in the maze of webs. She just knew she and Alice had to get out of there as soon as possible. As she ran, the little fairy began to feel a rising sense of guilt. Alice didn't deserve any of this. The poor girl just wanted to go home, and Tily wanted nothing more than to keep her safe on this journey. Now, they were being chased by countless hungry spiders dead set on draining them to a lifeless husk! How could she have let this happen?
Tily noticed a glowing light coming from a hole at the end of one tunnel. "There!" she exclaimed. "Light, that's gotta be good, yeah..." However, in her haste, she had failed to notice how warm it was suddenly starting to get...
The two girls leapt through the hole and down a slope of web. Tily then froze as she saw the source of the light...below the slope was a giant river of lava running through the cavern.
"No, no, no, no..." Tily stammered. "No, this can't be happening, no..."
"Could you fly me across here?" Alice asked.
"My wings aren't that strong, I'd never be able to carry you so far..." Tily replied, frantically glancing around. "There's gotta be something that...yes!" She spied a very large plum growing at the edge of the web. She darted over to the giant fruit and began to pull hard on it. "I said I'd bring you back home, and I intend to bring you back home! With all your blood intact!"
Tily finally ripped the plum off of its stem, and hovered back over to Alice. By now, they could both hear the distant sound of the approaching spiders. "Alright, this is going to be a lot take in, but I need you to listen closely, Alice," Tily began, starting to become nervous as she handed the plum to Alice. "Trust me. You're going to sit on this plum while holding onto two of its leaves. I may not have the strength to lift you, but I can stand on the back and keep you balanced. Also, keep your legs raised. You don't want your feet to get singed."
"We...we're going down there?!" Alice began. Suddenly, all the spiders emerged from the hole behind them and began spilling into the room, running down the web.
"Alice, get on the plum!" Tily cried, panicked. Alice quickly held onto the plum's leaves, and sat down on the large fruit. Tily wrapped her arms around her, and placed her feet up on the plum. "Raise your legs, hurry!" Tily began to flap her wings, lifting them off the web. Alice screamed as the two dropped down to the lava below, and...
Doink! Doink! Doink! The plum connected with the lava, upon where it proceeded to...bounce like a skipping stone before simply floating across the surface. As she held onto Alice tightly, Tily looked back up behind them. All the spiders were piling up at the edge of the web, looking down after the duo. Tily turned down to Alice. "You okay?" she asked.
Alice was shaking, gripping the leaves of the plum tightly. "Y..y...yeah...I...we...we're..." she stammered weakly. Tily further tightened her grip.
"Don't worry, you're okay." Tily said. "Before long, we should reach solid ground". Tily looked down at the lava they were drifting to, and she remembered her feelings when they were being chased. "A...Alice? I'm sorry."
Alice was confused. "What do you mean?"
"We nearly got killed back there. We're only still alive because we're riding a piece of fruit across a river of lava." Despite the absurdity of what she just said, Tily retained a frown. "I wanted your journey back home to be as safe as possible. You shouldn't have had to risk your life to leave this place. I should've been more careful."
"Aww, you don't have to feel that way," Alice said. "You've been a big help to me. And besides, it's been fun travelling with you! Who cares if we almost got eaten?"
"R...really? You mean it?" asked Tily, taken aback by the girl's positive attitude.
"Uh-huh!" Alice continued. "We're friends now, right? I was scared at first because I was all alone, but you've been really nice to me and now it's not so bad".
Tily smiled, feeling a good bit of relief. "It's been great getting to know you too, Alice. You'll have to come back and visit sometime so we can have some proper fun together!" Alice grinned as her excited friend went on.
"Like, I know you've already seen a lot today, but trust me, the Glade of Dreams is huge, there's so much we still need to do, so many places we haven't been to yet...oooh, just thinking about it's making me giddy! I don't even know where we would start, I'm gonna have to write out a plan..."