Author's Note: Karra's reaction when she first sees the spider looking at her is pretty much word for word my reaction (minus the part about stabbing it with her sword) when I saw a big fuzzy spider on the wall while taking a shower. And yes, this really did happen.

Chapter 23-More Elves?

Karra just sat there for a minute, staring at the trees around her. Now that she was really alone, they all seemed to be staring back at her. And she was beginning to see those eyes again. She slowly got to her feet, her hand going to the hilt of her dagger, which she had just remembered she had. That at least gave her some comfort. She took a step forward in one direction, then turned, as it seemed like the wrong direction, and took a step in another direction, and finally just sat down against what she thought was the same tree.

For the first time in a while, she felt totally helpless. She had been clumsy before, yes, and she had gotten herself in danger before, but she was always with someone. There had always been someone to protect her. Now there was no one. She had never felt so utterly alone and lost in her life.

She tried calling for help once more, but again her cries were swallowed up in the forest. She let herself slump back against the tree and nervously clutched at the hem of her shirt. Nothing…there was nothing she could do. Any direction would just get her more lost, she could tell. She would never find the path again on her own strength.

No! She couldn't start thinking like that! It was just this forest, planting thoughts in her head again! She got to her feet clumsily but determinedly and headed off into the trees again. After all, there seemed to be just a hint of path here; maybe it would take her somewhere. But as she followed the little trail, it disappeared and left her stranded once again in the thick forest.

She plopped down abruptly and put her head in her hands, running her fingers through her tangled hair in desperation. She was lost; there was nowhere she could go without getting more lost; she had no food and water with her; and the logical conclusion of those thoughts was that she could probably die here.

As if to add to her anxiety, she began to hear noises. They started out as little rustlings; but then, she had heard those before, and was getting rather used to them. Then she heard a noise right behind her. She whipped around and saw nothing. Hearing a noise to her left, she turned, and once again saw nothing. She was starting to get really nervous now. Not only was she lost and alone, now she was hearing noises. She wondered briefly if she was going a little bit crazy.

But then she heard another noise, and this one was unmistakably close. She turned and saw a shadow move behind her. And heard another twig snap.

With a sharp intake of breath, she jumped to her feet and plunged into the woods away from it. She still saw the shape behind her, and it seemed to be following her. She was beginning to hear even stranger noises, little hissings and the pitter-patter of animal feet in the underbrush.

She fled as fast as she could, willing herself not to trip. Whatever was chasing her seemed to be gaining, and fast. She ducked suddenly out of the way and ran into something soft and squishy.

She nearly gagged when she realized what it was that she had just run into. Pulling her short sword out of its sheath, she took a deep breath and sliced the giant spider web out of her way. It was the biggest expanse of spider web she had ever seen. It almost made her want to puke. Holding her breath, she tiptoed away from it, making sure none of the sticky threads were still clinging to her clothing. The thought of what could be accompanying these giant spider webs made her drop down in the underbrush and cover her head.

Hearing a sound, she raised her head slightly, and saw a shape that somewhat resembled…her eyes popped open and she caught her breath. This would be her friend Kat's worst fear come to life. She had never been a big fan of bugs either, but it wasn't like she would jump onto the nearest chair and scream if she saw one. But…

A giant spider?

Now that was just wrong.

A giant spider, for goodness sakes. She was lost, hearing noises, and running into gag-inducing masses of spider web, and now she was seeing giant bugs.

This day couldn't get much worse.

A moment later, it did.

Because she looked up to see the face of an even bigger spider, all eight of its huge eyes staring straight at her.

She jumped to her feet. "G…go away," she cried. "I wouldn't stay here…if…if I were you. I…I have a sword and I'll kill you…I'll stab you…I…I…" She reached for her sword, only to realize it wasn't there.

She let out a shriek and ran. Something in the underbrush caught her about her ankles, sending her sprawling to the ground.

A giant leg reached towards her. Groping for something, anything, she found a rock and threw it as hard as she could. She missed the spider's face, but it provided enough of a distraction for Karra to slip into the bushes. She crawled as quietly as she could through the underbrush, trying to quell her rising panic and willing herself not to get up and run as fast as she could. Maybe if she could just get far enough away from these beasts without being noticed….

She heard the noise behind her again. The thing had obviously followed her trail. She tried to crawl even more quietly, but her hair caught on a branch and stuck there. She pulled, wincing. A giant leg poked through the underbrush and nearly touched her. She dropped to the ground and rolled away, the branch breaking off and staying in her hair.

Suddenly she rolled over something that didn't feel like a rock. Brushing her hand over it, she found herself grasping the hilt of a dagger. Picking it up, she saw that it was hers. Was she really going in circles then? She was glad to have it back.

She was especially glad a moment later when another spider leg almost hit her. She slashed forward with her dagger and chopped it off at the joint, not really realizing what she was doing until she saw the severed leg laying at her feet.

Ew! Kicking the thing away from her, she crawled on in the direction she thought was away from the spiders, though now she was hearing noises all around her. She thought about calling for help again, but that would only call attention to herself. She crouched nervously in the underbrush waiting for the spiders to leave or something to happen.

Another leg burst through the layer of underbrush. Karra let out a little shriek and stabbed at it as hard as she could. She jumped to her feet and found herself facing the largest spider she had seen yet.

She began to back away but it followed her. She held her sword out in front of her, her hands shaking. The spider approached her, and suddenly everything was chaos.

More spiders exploded out of the trees, and Karra was caught up in the middle of a battle. It was just her against about five spiders, and she was pretty sure she wasn't winning. To her surprise, she actually managed to slice a leg off, but that only seemed to make its owner angrier. It bore down on her, hissing. The sound grated on her ears, but she held her ground, and as it approached, shoved her sword into its face. It drew backwards with an even uglier hiss, seeming a little startled. She took the opportunity to turn and run.

She ran right smack into another huge leg. She hacked at it and fought the urge to gag as black liquid spurted out onto her shirt. It hissed something that sounded suspiciously like a curse, opening its jaws. She backed up and without warning found herself enmeshed in another huge spider web.

She tried to struggle, but there was nothing she could do. The more she moved, the more stuck she became. Soon she was surrounded, and felt as if she might smother in the horrible sticky stuff. She felt a pain in the back of her neck and everything became very fuzzy. She felt as if she was struggling in slow motion and she couldn't focus. She let her eyes drift shut for a moment.

Her eyes popped open and she tried to focus on something, anything. She was surrounded by a strange, fuzzy white glow. She tried to move her hand and found she couldn't. She thought she heard some sort of noise in the back of her mind. But when she tried to figure out what it was, she found she couldn't quite think, as if her thoughts had been dulled by some potion.

All at once she felt a jerk, and found herself hitting the ground. She heard a strange squishing sound, and she felt herself being rolled over and over. She found that her eyes could focus a little better. Hovering over her was a tall figure holding a sword. The sword plunged downward, and she heard that squishing sound again. She realized with a churn of her stomach that it was the sound of the spider web being pulled off of her.

As her eyes focused a little clearer, the figure stood again and slipped the sword into its sheath. It looked like…an elf? What was an elf doing here?

Her vision was still a little blurry as the figure reached down and pulled her to her feet. Her head throbbed and so did her arm. The elf spoke something in another language, and another figure appeared, this one armed with a bow and arrows. Her vision cleared a little more and she saw they looked a bit perplexed. One of them motioned towards her and said something, and the other walked over and ordered her to stand still. As she was already standing still, she obeyed his orders, and he proceeded to search her, taking her sword and her makeshift sword belt.

Just as he was finishing his search, something seemed to catch his attention. Reaching forward, he lifted the gold necklace in his fingers. Karra was surprised he hadn't noticed it before, and relieved that her key had managed to stay tucked under her shirt. Maybe he wouldn't notice that.

He unlatched the chain of the necklace, and without so much as asking permission, took it for himself. Karra sighed with relief. He hadn't taken her key.

But a moment later, he reached forward and took hold of the chain, pulling the key out from under her shirt. She opened her mouth to say something, but he interrupted her with a "What's this?" surprisingly in English—or whatever they called it here—this time.

"It's mine!" she cried, batting his hand away. What good could a dwarven key do to an elf?

"You have entered our forest," the elf said, unlatching the chain and taking they key in his hand, "and therefore, you are our prisoner. As our prisoner, we may take anything from you that we deem of value." He looked at the key in his hand. "And I deem this of value." He nudged her with his bow. "Move along," he ordered.

Almost before she knew what was happening, she found herself captive in the middle of a long line of elves, all armed with swords or bows or daggers. Surely they hadn't all come out here to rescue her. Or the rest of the dwarves. Or whatever. The rest of the dwarves! Were they all here? She strained to see down the long line in front of her, but saw nothing but tall elves. When she turned to look behind her, she got a firm nudge.

The spider venom began to wear off as they marched through the forest, and Karra found her vision getting sharper and her mind clearer. She still had that annoying throbbing headache, though, and she suspected that would take a while to go away. What she wouldn't do for an Advil right now.

She continued to plod along, as she couldn't exactly do anything else. She wondered where she was going, and what the elves were going to do to her when she got there. Half of her hoped they rest of the dwarves were with her, half didn't. After all, wouldn't this be just the delay they didn't need? But she didn't want to be alone.

And the further they walked, the more one thought drove itself into her mind.

She had lost the key—her only link to home.

Well, due to Thanksgiving travels and such, I may or may not be updating again this week. So if you don't see another chapter for a week, don't start getting worried that I've randomly decided to abandon this story. :D

And yes, that elf armed with a bow and arrows was who you thought it was. It wasn't really originally, but I thought, oh what the heck, I should put him in here somewhere. ;)