Author's note: Expect some form of mild book and animated series divergence here, I've got big plans for the further arcs in store. Chapter 3 is still a work in progress, I've other fics to advance too. Thank you now don't forget to read and review!
Up ahead, Nugget trotted beside Podo, choosing his path with care so that Leeli was safe from low branches. Tink sat behind Leeli with his bow at the ready.
Janner tried not to look back, but he couldn't help himself any more than Elisheva did. They saw even more Fangs and trolls, close enough to make out looks of vicious glee on their faces. And smell them. A sharp, bitter odor polluted the air, and with the smell came memories of Slarb, of Gnorm and the Black Carriage, of cold, damp Fang flesh. With the memories came deep and overpowering fear.
Tink managed to hit a few Fangs, however, it looked like these ones had extra reinforcements.
A horned hound burst from the ranks of the charging Fangs and barreled toward them. A gray canine—except for two tusks jutting upward from its snout and a dangerous-looking horn that crowned its head, and the fact that it stood at least as tall as Janner. It wore a collar, and its face and body were decorated with black war paint. Tink sat frozen on Nugget's back.
"Grandpa, they have horned hounds!" Tink called to Podo.
"Trained horned hounds to boot!" Elisheva yelped.
"Everyone keep moving!" Podo ordered.
One of the hounds got to close to Nugget snapping at Tink and Leeli's heels. Elisheva loaded her new sling with a river stone the size of a golf ball, let it circle three times over her head before flinging the stone.
The smooth stone did not hit the hound snapping at the younger children's feet, but it hit the one directly behind Nugget, causing it to yelp.
"Hang on!" Leeli said determinedly, leaning forward to speak in her dog's ear.
Nugget leapt into motion so fast that Tink nearly toppled from his back. The dog pounced atop the horned hounds, making it whine then picked it up in his jaws before tossing it to the side.
Tink blinked twice and came back to himself. He drew the bow and loosed the arrow, and the hound collapsed in a burst of leaves.
Elisheva had loaded another stone and flung it at the third hound, hitting it in the jaw. The vicious canine whined and stumbled.
The way was difficult. The forest north of Peet's tree house rose and fell in steepening hills. Now and then they had to skirt around treacherous gullies, dried riverbeds tangled with fallen trees.
From the top of a long slope, Elisheva saw the Fangs were no more than an arrow shot away, and two more of their horned hounds sprinted toward the group. Tink loosed another arrow and missed. As he hurried to draw another arrow from the quiver, Peet swooped down from the trees with his talons bared, killed the hounds, and disappeared into the leaves again. Peet was no match against so many Fangs, but his sudden presence was like a cool wind on a hot day. A Throne Warden of Anniera occupied the space between the Igibys and their enemies. Peet's appearance had a surprising effect on the Fangs as well.
Elisheva couldn't see much, but the space between the group and the Fangs increased. Though they numbered in the hundreds, the Fangs hung back, wary eyes on the branches above.
Abruptly the group stopped. Nugget bounded to where they were, with Tink and Leeli still on his back. They'd reached the edge of a deep gully. The trench stretched a long way in both directions, so they had no choice but to cross it.
Nia nodded to Podo, and they all began to make their way downwards. Podo turned with an irked groan to see the Fangs hadn't by any means given up the chase.
Peet keep knocking down a few with his bounds, making a few of them hesitate.
"Keep moving, you maggotloaves!" shouted Khrak, smacking one of the Fangs behind the head. "Advance!"
Elisheva slid down the steep bank. Down in the forestal trench were countless old branches, brown leaves, and rotting tree trunks.
If Janner had not been running in fear for his life, he might have remembered what Pembrick's Creaturepedia had to say about such gullies in Glipwood Forest; he might have thought to warn his family before they scrambled down into the tree-clogged floor. If Janner hadn't been thinking about the Fangs and trolls snarling through the woods behind him, he would've suggested firmly that the entire group was to find a way around the gully, even if it added hours and miles to the journey.
If Peet the Sock Man, so familiar with the dangers of the forest, had been with them and not fending off the Fangs and trolls and homed hounds, he would've most emphatically suggested that they not descend into the hole. But they did.
Then Nugget began sniffing something. He began to look woozy.
"Augh, what smells so rank?" Elisheva wrinkled her nose and felt uneasy. A part of her wondered whether they'd stumbled into a carnivorous animal's den.
Weird. Nugget should have crawled up the other side by now, but the large dog looked rather dazed at the bottom of the gully. Leeli pleaded with her dog to awaken from his trance.
"Help Nugget." Nia told Janner.
Janner hurried over and began tugging at Nugget's makeshift leash.
At Janner's urging, Tink had dismounted and stood in front of Nugget with his hands on the sides of the dog's face, calling his name.
Nugget responded with a lazy whine. Elisheva approached, ready to help haul the children back up on Nugget so they can escape.
Then Tink screamed and struggled with something at his feet.
Janner scrambled over fallen limbs to his brother before anyone else had time to react. When saw he the source of Tink's distress, Janner screamed too.
Elisheva soon noticed why and yelped, swiping at the cause with a fallen branch.
From a space between two dead limbs on the gully floor a milky-eyed head emerged. Its nose was moist wide, its snout long like a horse's but stouter, and two yellowed fangs jutted d from a mouth full of crooked, sharp teeth: a toothy cow.
Within the cow's mouth was Tink's left foot, a foot that would've been removed from his body. But the cow acted sluggish and it's eyes oozed yellow fluid and rolled around in a drowsy fashion as it worked Tink's ankle deeper into its maw.
Did that thing catch some kind of disease?!
"Let him go!" Elisheva kept hitting at the cow with a branch even though the cow's head was only partially visible through the opening in the branches.
Janner pulled at Tink's leg, but the cow's smaller teeth were angled inward. If the cow had been fully awake, Janner was sure Tink would be yet another member of his family with only one working foot.
The commotion had jarred Nugget out of his trance. The great dog growled and tensed his body, taking in the situation as if he had just woken from a dream. When Nugget saw the cow, he pounced at the opening in the floor, which nearly sent Leeli flying from his back. When he landed, the patchwork of branches where they stood shifted and revealed more of the toothy cow's head.
What they thought was the gully floor was more like a brush pile hollowed out from below.
The children and Elisheva looked at one another long enough to figure out that they were about to fall-and then they did. Seeing this, the adults hurried over. Podo looked down into the hole and jumped inside at once with a grunt.
Nugget crashed to the ground. Leeli landed in the soft fur of her dog's flank, and Janner, Tink, and Elisheva followed, head over heels, slamming into the leafy floor below. In the fall, Tink's foot had slipped loose from the cow's jaws.
From above, Nia watched with worry then began trying to pull something up. "Oskar, help me!"
Oskar noticed what she was moving and proceeded to do the same.
Down in the hole, the others were getting their bearings straight. Nugget whined a little and slumped on all fours, as though ready to fall asleep.
Leeli was trying to snap Nugget out of the haze. "Wake up, Nugget, please!" she patted his side. "It's alright." When he only groaned a little, the little girl urged him. "You need to wake up!"
Podo, Janner and Elisheva hurried to Tink, who looked at his right foot. It appeared uninjured.
"It just slobbered on me!" Tink chuckled, glad to see he was still in one piece.
Phew! Elisheva shared the relief.
Then Janner saw Tink's expression turn to fear. Podo looked past Janner and Elisheva at something that made him tense up. Once the teenage girl and twelve year old boy turned to look, they too were afraid.
"Steady now." Podo whispered, holding his sword.
The shadowy areas were crawling with monsters.
There were four toothy cows; a hissing, flapping family of cave blats; a horned hound, wounded so that it stood on only three of its legs; and a diggle staggering about, flashing its quills. Piles of animal bones littered the floor, and the skulls of all manner of forest creatures gazed at the group.
"Draw your sword slowly." Podo said, "Elisheva, you too."
Janner and Elisheva drew their blades carefully. The toothy cow that had been sucking Tink's foot leaned against the side of the enclosure, breathing heavily, a sick rattle in its throat. The animals were sluggish, but beneath the daze, the beasts were fierce and hungry.
"Doesn't anyone find it weird that these wild animals are taking their sweet time attacking us?" Elisheva wondered. "They're not infected with some kind of disease, are they?"
"No, I think it's the mist." Janner replied. "I read something about this in Creaturepedia…" he then noticed what his mother and Oskar were up to and he nudged his little brother. "Tink!"
At once, Nia and Oskar's efforts in moving a tree trunk down into the hole as a ladder paid off.
"Children, you need to climb out." Nia tried to keep her voice steady.
Podo readied to fight as a Toothy cow got closer. "Get Nugget and your sister out of here, NOW!" He said.
Tink pulled on Nugget's collar on one side and Elisheva took the other to lead the woozy dog away to the trunk. Nugget seemed to understand and began bounding upwards with Leeli on his back.
"You're next, kiddo!" Elisheva pointed upwards.
Tink glanced at his older brother, his grandfather and then at Elisheva before nodding and climbing up.
Podo, Janner and Elisheva now had to contend with the half-asleep beasts advancing on them. Elisheva swiped at a cave blat and Janner found himself staring down at a toothy cow that groaned at him.
And then abruptly, something pulled the cow from behind. The animal mooed helplessly and pawed the ground as it disappeared into a shadowy area, followed by a sickening crunch.
Janner stared, then gasped and his face blanched. "G-Gargan…Gargan…"
Elisheva was stunned. "Jan, what is it?"
"What? Speak up, boy!" Podo hollered as he punched away a horned hound.
And that same horned hound tried to advance with a grunt, only to be dragged back by the same unseen force!
This time Elisheva cried out. "Aaaugh! What keeps doing that?!"
Janner pointed at something. "We're in a rockroach den!"
"A what?" Elisheva frowned then she saw Podo's expression as the words registered, and she finally saw the creature Janner was pointing at.
A chilling sight awaited.
From the depths of the den, the gargan rockroach emerged, still in the process of devouring an unfortunate toothy cow. Helpless mooing echoed as the cow was gradually consumed.
The ex-pirate, usually unshakable, trembled and turned his back where Janner and Elisheva stood.
Long, spindly legs reached out of a hole in the rear of the den and waved around like a cluster of shiny black broomsticks. They were attached to what looked like a cross between a cricket, a beetle, and a slug. The rockroach's back was rounded and hard but plated so it could wriggle and bend, and its sheen gave it the appearance of being moist or sweaty. Beneath the dome of its armored shell was a face with four beady eyes—two large ones above two smaller ones, all attached to the head by stems. The rockroach's mouth looked just like a human mouth puckered up to kiss, except for the spidery mandibles that surrounded the lips and writhed, clacking together like the sound of marbles spilled on a wooden floor. Its mouth stretched open and gobbled up a full-grown toothy cow. The cow mooed helplessly as it was worked deeper and deeper.
Elisheva felt as if she had been plunged into her worst nightmare, trapped and paralyzed by fear. Janner briefly averted his gaze as the rockroach ate another beast, unable to bear the gruesome scene unfolding before them.
"RUN!" Podo roared and he swung his sword down with all his might, striking one of the legs. The sword clanged against the creature's exoskeleton, but the rockroach was startled and temporarily backed away, providing Podo an opportunity to leap past it towards Elisheva and Janner.
No one else but Elisheva's family knew, but up until a few more certain events unfolded, Elisheva was only afraid of things: racial persecution made legal by bigots, haunted graveyards, and any bugs that were bigger than a school bus.
It all started when she was eight years old, while all the other kids were rambling about not being afraid about the latest horror movies, Elisheva had ended watching and getting scared while watching another movie: Men in Black.
Oh sure, most of the aliens were no big deal, but she was scared half to death of Edgar the giant alien antagonist.
So when she saw the gargan rockroach... One can easily imagine her terror in that instant; now she'll knew exactly how Dr. Ellie Sattler felt when the T-rex was catching up to the Jeep in Jurassic park.
Elisheva gripped her sling tightly, but her terror overwhelmed her as she stumbled back, causing her to let out a piercing scream. "AIIEEEEEEEEE!"
Elisheva's terrified scream echoed through the treacherous rockroach gully, the sound sent shivers down the spines of both the heroes and the villains alike.
Zouzab Koit, who had just leaped atop a nearby tree branch, His expression contorted with a mixture of worry and conflicted emotions.
While the Fangs, who were in hot pursuit, froze in their tracks, their eyes widening. For they had been tasked with capturing the Jewels and ensuring the Key's safety, knowing that Gnag the Nameless had a vested interest in their well-being. The realization that their mission was at risk sent a wave of panic through the group.
The fate that awaited them if harm befell their "prey" was far more terrifying than any gargan rockroach or pursuing Fang.
"Enough delays!" Khrak shouted, "Go down there!"
With a shriek, Peet the Sock Man leaped through the hole in the ceiling, landing gracefully in a feline crouch. In his eyes blazed a single purpose: Protect. Protect. Protect.
"Janner, eyes up! Keep moving!" Peet ordered. "Focus, Eva-lish!"
The rockroach turned its four black eyes towards Peet, its spindly legs wiggling menacingly in his direction. Peet swiftly rolled away from the rockroach's grasping broom-handle legs, intentionally drawing it away from those still in the den, buying the group precious time just as he had on their escape to Anklejelly Manor.
"Move your feet! " Podo urged, pulling Elisheva's arm.
The sudden movement and Peet luring away the rockroach made Elisheva regain her senses. Long enough to see Janner run after the rockroach, fearing for his uncle's life.
"Peet!" The boy cried, wrenching himself free from his grandfather's grip. He understood the futility of Podo's sword against the rockroach's impenetrable armor, but he believed that if he could get close enough to stab the creature near its head, he might discover a vulnerable spot.
"Janner!" Elisheva cried.
"Get out of there, son!" Podo shouted.
Peet kept dodging the rockraoch's legs and with a shriek, he leapt intending to claw out it's eyes… an enormous hand-a troll's hand-reached down, seized Peet, and lifted him through the hole, his feet churning, his claws scratching uselessly at the troll's massive fist.
"Keep them safe!" Peet called out to Janner as he was pulled out.
The other had stared in horror then looked back down to where Janner was. He felt behind him, a bundle of journals tied together with twine, a hammer, one old boot, a live mouse, and a leather flask—the water from the First Well. Janner gasped.
While the rockroach gloated over him, and before he knew what he was doing, Janner removed the flask from his pocket, opened it, and flung it into the rockroach's mouth.
Wisps of steam rose from the droplets that sprayed across the beast's face as the flask spun through the air. Then the flask was gone, buried in the depths of the monster's belly where the toothy cows, a horned hound, and a quill diggle had so recently gone. The beast reeled backward. Its legs and mandibles wheeled at blinding speed, and steam rose from its mouth like smoke from a chimney.
"We have to run!" Elisheva's urgent voice shouted, seizing Janner by his shirt collar.
Janner swiftly grabbed his sword and scrambled through the hole, with Elisheva close on his heels. They ascended the north slope of the gully, their hearts pounding with adrenaline.
"What happened down there?" Podo asked Janner as he and the others pulled him and Elisheva up.
"I choked!" Elisheva replied, and she almost dry heaved. "And Janner here saved my hide."
Janner elaborated. "I had to throw the well water." And he hugged Nia.
Yet, after they all hugged the two in relief, they gasped. Their attention fixed on the opposite side of the gully.
At the edge of the slope, a multitude of Fangs had gathered, too numerous to count. Their swords were drawn, arrows nocked, spears raised. Some watched the group with smug looks, and some eyed the hole in the floor of the gully. Among the Fangs were four trolls, so tall that their heads brushed the leaves and branches of glipwood trees.
On one troll's hulking shoulder sat Zouzab Koit and another ridgerunner, both of whom appeared quite pleased with themselves. In another troll's smelly grip, Peet the Sock Man squirmed and squawked and shook his head in panic.
Zouzab's gaze swept over the group, his eyes searching until they landed on Elisheva. With an impish grin, he locked eyes with her, but she shot him a defiant glare in return.
"Zouzab!" Tink scowled and prepared an arrow. Beside him, Oskar was also glowering at the ridgerunner.
Elisheva's eyes darted to Peet and to the Fangs, her hand reaching for a river stone in her sidebag, prepared to load it onto her shepherd's sling. But would her aim prove accurate?
However, as she took a silent count of the Fangs staring them down, her eyes landed one Fang in particular. This one wore a red cape and had a few scars on his face. General Khrak, but Elisheva didn't know that's what he was called.
And she froze. She recognized him, her mind flashed back to the very night the Fangs separated her from her father and little brother...
Elisheva wailed, struggling against the Fangs, tears streaming down her face as she was forcibly separated from her family. "No! NO! Zev! Daddy!"
Her cries of anguish filled the air, blending with the sound of the falling rain. She reached out desperately, her outstretched hands grasping at the air as the Fangs dragged her away.
The last she saw of her father and brother, they were shoved into the Black Carriage, and one of the Fangs with a red cape gave the order to take them away. "Taken them to...!"
Elisheva's attention was drawn back to the present as the Fang who'd been present that night gave a command.
"Lower your weapons. One word from me," Khrak sneered, "and the bird-man dies." He snapped his claws.
The Fangs of Dang parted and another being Elisheva once thought to be mythical, emerged from the Fang front lines with Peet in it's grip.
The troll's legs were short and stout, but the creature still stood twice as tall as a man. Its torso and arms bulged with muscle and veins; a tiny head with a sprout of gray hair peeked out from between its shoulders. The troll's eyes were hidden in the shadow of its bony forehead—a forehead matched by a bony jaw that looked strong enough to batter down a castle gate. The beast gripped an iron-studded club in a fist the size of a wheelbarrow. It held the club above its head for a moment, then growled at Peet (in a moanish sort of way) and slammed it down. The ground vibrated, and pebbles shook loose from the bank where Janner stood.
The troll's hands were enormous. The three fingers and one thumb on each hand were the length of one of Janner's arms and twice as thick. With one hand, the troll gripped Peet around the waist, pinning his arms to his sides, and with the other, it covered Peet's head so none of his face was visible. A tuft of Peet's white hair peeked out of the top of the beast's fist. The troll looked like a child holding a doll.
With a grunt, the troll tightened its grip. Peet stiffened. His legs strained downward and his toes pointed at the forest floor.
Tink intended to shoot an arrow at the troll holding Peet, Nia gently lowered his bow downwards. She didn't want to risk it.
Elisheva continued staring at Khrak in shock. Her voice trembled with disbelief, "Y-you were there!" she croaked.
What? For a split second Nia, Podo, and the boys all looked at Elisheva in shock.
They all might be in distress, but it was easy to figure out Khrak must've been present when the Fangs had separated Elisheva from her family, right after the Bennets had been dragged out of their homeworld.
Even Zouzab listened with baffled interest atop a troll's shoulder, he was looking from Khrak to Elisheva.
Khrak's lip curled as he regarded Elisheva. "Ah, so the little outsider girl remembers," he said, his voice dripping with a mix of amusement and malice. "How touching."
"Stop! You let him go right now!" cried Leeli. She nudged Nugget forward until he stood with his massive paws at the edge of the gully. Her back was straight, and she seemed more angry than afraid.
Khrak only laughed derisively. "You're in no position to make demands. The only thing left to do is surrender. Where can you run that Gnag the Nameless will not find you, hmm?" he derided them. "You can't go home. Glipwood is destroyed because of you."
"Ex-squeeze me?!" Elisheva scowled furiously.
"Surrender now and we leave, or run and we'll burn all of Skree to the ground as we hunt you down!" Khrak sneered, "In the end, Gnag will not be denied!"
The Fangs, snickered nastily, relishing the imminent victory they believed was within their grasp. Meanwhile, Peet, held captive by the troll, continued to struggle.
"The crazy sockman tries to say something." Zouzab taunted. "You won't have anything to say when the Fangs rule all, and I'm swimming in an ocean of fruit." He then glanced at Elisheva with hooded eyes. "Perhaps maybe something more."
Elisheva made her way forward, spreading her arms out protectively in front of the group. "You want them? You're gonna have to go through me."
Her display of bravery caught her new friends - the Igibys and Podo- off guard.
Zouzab himself glanced at Elisheva looking somewhat concerned, and uttered, "That won't be necessary."
Hold up.
At a word from Khrak, the archers across the gully could send a hundred arrows flying at them. But… if the Fangs wanted them dead, they'd be dead as doornails already. Gnag wanted the Jewels of Anniera and the Key alike, and he wanted them alive, though none of them knew why. Janner had also figured it out.
"Grandpa, get down," Janner said as firmly as he could.
Whether because Podo sensed the same thing or because he submitted to some new authority in his grandson's voice, Podo dropped to the ground behind Janner. A chorus of angry hisses slithered across the distance between the Fangs and the Igibys, and Elisheva noted there was more than one arrow aimed at the Igiby children's grandfather.
"Mama, get behind me," Janner said to Nia.
"Don't be silly," Nia whispered. "It's too dangerous."
"What're you doing?" Elisheva whispered.
"I think they're afraid to kill both us and you," Janner whispered back. "Gnag wants us alive, but I don't think the same goes for Mama and Grandpa and Oskar." He urged Nia, "Please, just get behind me."
Nia shot a fiery look at the Fangs across the way and ducked behind Janner.
Janner said to Tink through gritted teeth. "Stay up front. They don't want to shoot us, just the grownups."
Elisheva, Nugget and the Igiby children stood like a rampart in front of the three adults.
The Fang commander watched them with interest for a moment, then burst into laughter. The other Fangs joined in, and even the trolls boomed what must have been chuckles of their own. Janner's cheeks burned with humiliation.
"Ah, but don't you wish to know what's become of your crippled father and runt brother?" Khrak seized the opportunity to goad Elisheva. A deliberate jab aimed at testing her resolve and potentially sowing doubt within her.
Elisheva gasped. She was conflicted, this could be a trick… or not? What if it was both?
"This is your last chance: surrender or the birdman dies." Khrak jeered.
"Janner," Tink whispered. "The rockroach. Look."
From the hole in the floor of the gully, a tendril of steam rose, and in the shadows, a deeper darkness writhed. A tremor shook the ground and sent pebbles and twigs rattling down into the rockroach den.
Inevitably, Elisheva shivered with a whimper. If a little water from the First Well had made Nugget as big as a drafthorse, then what can a whole bottle do to the rockroach?
And then, like a horror movie, the rockroach burst out of it's den!
The enormous insect had tripled in size. The domed back of the giant bug rose like a hard brown bubble, and its churning legs were like many- jointed spears, stabbing and clawing at the Fangs.
Many things happened all at once as a result.
There came the screams of the Fangs, the bellows of the trolls, and above it all, a bloodcurdling chatter-the clicking, clacking, insectile racket of the gargan rockroach.
Khrak stared at the creature in shock for moment before glaring as it ate several fangs. "Forward, you fools, " he ordered and he drew his blade. "Get through the gully while it's eating someone else!"
The troll holding Peet moaned and mumbled a little.
"Not you!" Khrak snapped at the troll, "He's too valuable to us! Get him out of here!"
And the troll obeyed, lumbering away with Peet still in its hand.
"We need to move!" Podo shouted, his hand on Janner's shoulder.
Immediately, the group took this chance to run, intent on putting distance between themselves and their pursuers.
Behind them, the Fangs poured into the gully.
Zouzab had been on the troll's shoulder keeping his eyes on Elisheva. When the rockroach erupted from it's pit, he'd been accidentally flung into tree branches by the startled troll. He'd clung to the branches and climbed into the foliage to avoid being devoured by the rockroach.
Once he got his bearings straight, he saw Elisheva running away with the Igibys across the gully. And he frowned, this wasn't over.
General Khrak was thinking the same. The hunt continued.
They ran and ran. No one spoke. The only sounds were their heavy breathing, troll screams echoing through the forest, and the steady roar of the Mighty Blapp growing closer with every step they took.
Nia walked a little way ahead and looked north. "Papa, look! The River Blapp!" She pointed.
They had come to the end of Glipwood Forest. Below them, writhing through a mass of wet boulders, lay the white, angry waters of the Mighty River Blapp.
Elisheva watched the river contemplatively, for it was her first time seeing one this close. Not including the times she'd seen from bridge during family trips to National parks.
Finally at Oskar's suggestion, they stopped to rest albeit for a few minutes. Everyone but Leeli was winded and pale from running.
Podo walked up to Janner. "You did good back there, lad." He then addressed the others. "You all kept your heads and I'm proud of ye."
A chagrined Elisheva ran her hand through her loose strands. "More than I can say about myself, I must've looked like some stereotypical damsel in distress who screamed her head at the sight of that giant bug." She didn't even want to imagine if Khrak was telling her the truth and held her family hostage in some Fang-infested settlement.
"No one's blaming you." Oskar assured, "Grown men lost their nerve at the sight of such a monstrosity."
"You took the first stand when you crawled out of there, didn't you?" Podo pointed out to Elisheva. He patted her shoulder. "It's just like Ships and Sharks, ain't it? Always a way out."
The youngsters were drinking water from flasks and when Janner had his fill he said. "Grandpa, we have to go back for Uncle Artham!"
Nia shook her head, "Janner, I'm sorry. We can't do anything for him. We have to keep going."
Janner looked to his mother and to Podo. But…
"Trust me, son." Podo said, as he handed the water flask to Oskar. "Arthram Wingfeather has gotten himself out of worse scrapes than this."
"So where do we go now?" Tink asked.
They stood at the crest of a hill and looked down at the impassable mayhem of the Mighty Blapp.
Podo spoke, "We'll duck and hide low along the shore. Make our way west to Torrboro, cross there to Dugtown. Then head out to the Ice Prairies."
"But every Fang in Torrboro will be looking for us, Papa." Nia pointed out.
"Look, they can't catch us all at once." Elisheva pointed. "And if my Dad and little prisoner are locked somewhere in the city then…"
Nia sighed. "I'm afraid there could be a number of places they could have been taken."
"That's also exactly what they'll be hoping for." Podo noted, not so subtly hinting that Elisheva's family is being used as bait to lure her out.
"It's too dangerous." Nia said.
"There's a chance we might avoid Torrboro altogether." Oskar spoke up.
"What're ye talking about, Reteep?!"
"I once translated an ancient text, that mentioned a…" the old scholar explained himself. "Miller's bridge, carved by ancient Skreeans spanning the Blapp at Fingap falls where-"
At the mention of Fingap Falls, Podo was briefly alarmed before turning to fix a glare on Oskar.
"Fingap Falls!" Podo sputtered. "Are ye mad?! How could there be a bridge at that awful place? I went there as a boy, and it was all cloud and thunder, a thing to make yer stomach curl up into yer throat. I'd sooner take my chances with Gnag the Nameless than chase a fool's fairytale."
"But Grandpa, I remember seeing the bridge too." Janner said. "On a map in Books and Crannies, it might be real. I mean the First Well was real."
"And…" Elisheva piped up with a sheepish grin. "Not to be that girl, but I'm practically living proof of other worlds existing too. Stranger things have happened." Then her face fell. "But I haven't even had much practice in opening portals."
"No, if there's no bridge, we'll be trapped with our back to the sea." Podo thundered. "Our only hope is West of here!"
"Torrboro is too far." Nia said. "The forest stretches for miles and miles, and Maker knows how many cows we'll meet, even if the Fangs don't catch us."
"What does the King of Anniera have to say?" Oskar suggested.
All eyes turned to Tink, who stammered nervously.
Leeli had been listening then she climbed down off of Nugget. "The Fangs are faster than we are, if we can sneak across the bridge maybe there's a chance."
"Uh yeah," Tink nodded. "That's what I meant. What Leeli said, that Fingap thing."
"FINE!" Podo roared, then quickly took control of himself. "Fine. Maybe there's a bridge. Oskar, if ye say there's a bridge at Fingap Falls, it's to the falls we go. Move! We've wasted precious time."
Soo onwards they made for the falls, with the Mighty Blapp rushed with increasing frenzy. The air was thick with a mist that soaked the Igibys, Elisheva and Oskar, but it smelled clean and sharp.
They picked their way over the rocks as the bank rose, so steep that it may be impossible to find a safe way down to the bridge, if it existed. The other side of the Blapp looked no different-wet boulders and shale that sloped up to a tree line.
The river evenly divided Glipwood Forest. Beyond the forest in the north lay the Stony Mountains and then the Ice Prairies.
"Look!" Leeli cried. She and Nugget stood a stone's throw ahead of the rest, where the river took a sharp turn to the right and seemed to course straight into a towering cliff and disappear.
"Do you see a bridge?" Nia called to her daughter.
Nugget suddenly growled, turning his head. At least several feet behind the group, came the growl of a troll and the howl of a horned hound.
The Fangs were gaining!
To be continued…