Chapter 12: Caught in the Web of Love

A Chapter by Chris

The two boys woke up about midmorning the following day. They only spent a couple minutes there before resuming their expedition. The field they were walking through appeared to be endless. Even by the end of the day there was still nothing but open plains on all sides of them. When the sun sunk below the horizon, the two warriors set up camp for the night.

During that entire day, however, Spike and Skylar had been talking a lot. Ever since their conversation last night, Spike felt as though he had grown really close to the younger boy. Skylar was actually the first person in a long while that Spike felt he could actually trust. Ever since the betrayal incident, Spike felt as though he would never be able to trust another human being again, but it was different with Skylar.

Not only that, but Skylar had continued to better himself as a warrior with every single bit of training he got. Spike was actually starting to wonder if Skylar would maybe surpass him in skill someday. Spike had been trying to teach Skylar a couple more spells too. The blond struggled with them at first, but got the hang of them pretty quickly. Even his skills in the field of magic seemed to be close to exceeding Spike's.

Both of the boys woke up a little late in the morning the following day. After they gave themselves a couple minutes to fully awaken, they resumed their walk through the field. It wasn't until about early afternoon when they finally came to a small town. Skylar and Spike weaved their way through the crowded streets, only wanting to stay for a few minutes to maybe find something to eat. Unfortunately, they were running a bit low on money, so they wouldn't be able to get too much.

The two soon came to a marketplace that sat somewhere in the middle of the town. It was more crowded here than it was in the streets. Spike and Skylar looked around, figuring they would just get a little something here and be on their way. Due to the crowdedness of the place, they ended up getting separated. Skylar wandered around a little, looking from one stand to the next as he passed them. He soon came to a fruit stand, where he stopped and looked for something good to maybe buy.

“Hey,” a voice came a few seconds later.

Skylar looked to his left to see a guy standing there looking down at him. He had messy red hair and blue eyes. A small, friendly smile was on his face.

“Hi,” the blond greeted back as he looked back down at the stand.

“Haven't seen you around here before,” said the boy. “You new here?”

“I guess you could say that,” replied Skylar as he looked back up at the boy. “Just passing through the town.”

Spike walked through the large crowds in the marketplace, looking at all the stands that were set up there. He soon came close to the fruit stand where Skylar was. The brilliant warrior looked towards his comrade and then at the redhead he was talking to. Spike thought he saw a large smile on the boy's face and he could've sworn that the boy winked at Skylar too. A bit of anger swept over Spike as he inched his way towards them.

“Hey Skylar, ready to leave yet?” he asked the blond when he finally reached them.

“No, sorry,” Skylar replied as he looked back at the fruit that was sitting on the stand before him.

“Hurry up,” Spike said a little irritably, glancing at the redhead, who had a puzzled look on his face, before looking back at the shorter boy.

“Okay, okay, I will; jeez,” muttered Skylar as he randomly picked up a pear. He handed the merchant the money before walking off with Spike, who glanced at the redhead once more, though in a bit more of a grimmer fashion.

They navigated their way through the streets and exited the town about a couple minutes later. After walking through the field for about an hour or two, the two warriors came to the fringe of a forest. Both of them entered and slowly made their way through it. Skylar idly looked around their surroundings, seeing a few small spider webs here and there.

Skylar and Spike spent the rest of the day walking through the forest. By the time the sun was about to disappear below the western horizon, they decided to stop their expedition for the night. Spike set up a small campfire in the clearing they were in before sitting close to Skylar near the warmth of the flames. As they sat there, they talked a little, mostly about the journey. Spike looked around the area a little as they did so and soon spotted something large from the corner of his eye. He stopped in the middle of his sentence and turned his head to look. There wasn't anything in sight except for trees and other plant life, however.

“See something?” asked Skylar.

The dark-haired boy gave a shrug before saying, “Dunno. Thought I did, but I guess I was just seeing things.”

Skylar shrugged in response before looking around a little himself. He too ended up seeing something from the corner of his eye. However, when he looked directly in the direction he saw it in, there wasn't anything there.

“I don't know, I think I might've seen something too,” stated Skylar.

The older male slowly rose to his feet and peered about their surroundings as his hands went up to rest on the hilts of his twin blades. Skylar emulated him and he soon thought he saw something large move nearby. The blond gingerly moved in the direction, curious as to what he might have seen. By the time he reached the place though, there wasn't anything in sight.

Skylar then looked up and right when he did, he saw a web shoot down at him. Out of natural reaction, Skylar threw his hands up in the air and a wave of flames shot out of his palms. The web was burned and the boy looked up in the tree to see something jumping down towards him. He quickly jumped backwards to get out of the way.

Now standing in front of him was a half-human, half-spider hybrid. The bottom half was the abdomen, which eight legs—four on each side—were connected to it, and the top half was a lady. She had long red hair and malevolent green eyes. She was clothed with a green shirt.

“You have guts for coming into this forest, boy,” she said, a smirk on her face. “I take it you haven't heard the stories about this place? Everyone who comes in here never gets out alive!”

“Heh, if you think I'm going to let you beat me, think again!” replied Skylar, also smirking.

Spike rushed into the area now. The spider lady tilted her head back and her laughter filled the air. When it had died down, she looked back at them, the smirk wider than before. She soon said something in an unknown language and seconds later, giant spiders entered the area to surround them. Skylar and Spike quickly drew their weapons before the spiders started to close in. The two boys got to work on taking out the spiders. They weren't difficult to fight, but their numbers were large.

As the boys tried to take out the spiders, the spider lady started to fire arrows at them. A grunt of pain escaped Skylar's mouth as one lodged itself into his arm. He yanked the arrow out while mumbling a curse word before throwing it on the ground. The blond turned to face the spider lady before charging towards her. Suddenly, a large trapdoor spider shot out of its hiding place. Skylar gave a yell of surprise and in the next instant he was pulled into the trapdoor.

The yell from his comrade made Spike lose all his focus on the fight before him. He looked in the direction it came from and next thing he new, he felt himself get hit by a sticky substance. The force was strong enough to knock him off his feet and send him flying to a tree trunk. He was stuck to it by the webbing that had hit him. Spike tried to struggle free, but the web was too strong. Unfortunately, it also prevented him from using spells too, which left the warrior helplessly hanging about twelve feet above the ground.

The spider lady walked through the spiders and slowly climbed up the tree to where the dark-haired boy was. Once she reached him, she opened her mouth a tad, her small fangs faintly gleaming in the moonlight. She slowly lowered them towards Spike's neck, who hopelessly tried to move it away from the spider lady.

“Angel feathers!” shouted Skylar as he climbed out of the trapdoor. Multiple feathers softly fell towards the ground, some of them landing on the spiders in the vicinity. The golden energy burst from them and all the spiders were wiped out.

The spider lady heard the sounds from below and she paused to see what was going on down below. This distraction from her meal was all the time Skylar needed to jump up towards her and slash her with his sword. The spider lady screamed in pain as she fell towards the ground. Before she even had a chance to scramble to her legs, Skylar delivered the finishing stab.

After sheathing his blade, Skylar looked up towards his comrade. He mumbled a short chant and the wind picked up around Spike. It grew a little violent and the webs were soon cut, freeing Spike, who fell down towards the other male. Skylar caught him and Spike's arms went around the boy almost naturally. A small smile curved on his lips as his eyes slowly closed. He was so lost in the feeling of being in the blond's arms that he didn't even realize that Skylar had set him down on his feet.

“Uh, Spike, you can let go now,” Skylar said a few seconds later, blushing a little from Spike's arms still being around him.

“Oh, right, sorry,” apologized Spike a little sheepishly, blushing a bit too as he looked away from the shorter male.

The two warriors walked back to the fire that was still burning. They sat around it for a while in complete silence, their minds replaying Spike hugging Skylar repeatedly. After a while, Spike volunteered to keep watch for the first half of the night. Not complaining about it a single bit, Skylar laid down and dozed off minutes later.

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