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It’s late at night, we had stopped at a tavern for the night after a long day of patrolling through the woods. It had been a very boring day, we hadn’t seen any Ellien people, or any other people for that matter. So we were walking through the woods all day, in the rain, covered in mud. Luckily, I have enough money saved up from sewing up fabric armor, so I can buy myself a bath and room for the night. I silently pay for the room, not wanting to draw attention to myself, and I immediately go to a bathroom. The floor has been slightly warped from water spilling over after its years of use. I scrape as much mud as I can off my face before getting undressed and getting in the lukewarm water. The others in my squad would say that I am acting like a posh boy because, god forbid, I do not want to smell like I haven’t bathed in five years. I stare at my reflection in the water as I try not to fall asleep, staring blankly at the dozens of scars on my chest and arms. All of which I keep careful track of in my journal. I lightly wash my grown out brown hair as best I can.
When the water has gone completely cold I finally get out and I stand in the middle of the room looking for a towel feeling and looking like a cold, wet cat. I wash my muddy clothes best I can in the equally gross water and I put them back on. I struggle for a moment to put everything back on, but once I do I go back to the main area and sit at the bar. I sit the farthest away from anyone else in hopes that nobody else will talk to me. After the day that I had, all I want to do is have a drink and sleep.
“Pint of Ale,” I say softly, “please.” and I put two coins up on the counter. The woman working the bar gives me a look but serves me the drink swiftly. Although I was raised on a farm I was taught to mind my manners, in most scenarios. I drink the ale and I zone out at the bar.
Suddenly, an old drunkard man slurs as he sits on the stool directly to my right. He could have sat anywhere and yet he decides to sit next to me. Ridiculous. I roll my eyes and I try to do my best to ignore his yelling.
“Hey, are you listening to me?! I’m telling the truth here”
“Sure, yeah. I’m listening” I rub my forehead and I begin to half pay attention. I overhear the bartender mumble something about “Here he goes again”. Wonderful, this drunkard has done this before. Why do the cheapest inns always have the weirdest people staying in them?
“Everyone calls me crazy, but I’ve seen them before.” He downs like half his drink. “There are these huge spiders in the woods at night. As big as a horse almost. You can’t see them unless you're not looking at them.”
“That makes no sense whatsoever” I deadpan. The types of stories these people are trying to tell me these days just keep getting more outlandish.
“It makes complete sense. Now, before you rudely interrupted me, they are huge and they hide in the forests at night.” He pulls up his sleeve and shows me a scar. It’s faded but it’s real. “And if they pince ya, you'll end up in one of their homes. But I managed to escape.” He falls off his stool. I just stare at him from on my stool and I take a drink of my ale.
“Sure man” I shake my head.
“Well when you come across one of those beasts you’ll be sorry, and you will wish you had listened to me.”
“Uh huh, sure man.” I roll my eyes and I turn back towards the bar.
“Just ignore him, that’s what I do.” the bartender tells me as she finishes cleaning some glasses. I finish drinking my pint and I hand her the tankard. The man is still rambling but by now he’s switched subjects and I don’t care to let his nonsense get to me. I walk upstairs and I reach my room. It’s relatively small but you get what you pay for. I walk over to the bed and I brush my hand against the sheets. They’re not the softest thing, but they will suffice for the night. I walk over to the window, lean against the windowsill, and gaze out of it at the moon. The clouds only slightly obscuring the view of the moon. I press two fingers to my lips and I utter a few words meant only for Orion to hear. He was killed 6 years ago from 11 stab wounds. He went into the building ahead of everyone else and he was dead before I could even do anything. I killed his attacker as fast as I could and after the search in the rest of the building, we took him back to camp and buried him. Our romance was short, only lasting 2 sweet years, but it was the happiest I have ever been. I still wear his, now sewn up, cloak everyday.
I hum a song my mother used to sing to me and my sister as children. I’m not sure how long I stand there at the windowsill, but when I almost fall asleep standing up, I take it as my cue to go to bed. I blow out the candle, and I fall asleep on the first bed I’ve slept in in 3 months.
The next morning I wake up at the first light of dawn and I rub the dark circles below my eyes that never seem to disappear. I collect my belongings and quickly get ready for the new day. I exit the calm room and walk downstairs, tipping the keeper and I quickly leave the tavern, making my way towards the exit of the town to meet up with the others in my squad who couldn’t afford a room for the night. Several people are laying on the ground, procrastinating having to start the day.
“Where are we going today? Or is it just more wandering through the woods again?” I ask with little emotion in my voice. I really don’t want to do this again. The only thing we’ve done in the past nine years is walk through the woods hoping that at some point we’ll come across some Ellien people and kill them.
“More of the same I’m afraid. I doubt we’ll actually come across anything. We never do. But it is our sworn oath to patrol these areas and search for Elliens and prevent them from wreaking havoc on these lands.” The captain of our squad proclaims. I don’t think he really wants to be doing this anymore either but his stupid loyalty and pride prevents him from leaving or actually trying to make any of his own progress. I had suggested a few weeks ago that we finally try and actually storm into their lands and kill their king. But I don’t think they heard me, and if they did, they don’t care enough to listen to me. He leads us away from the town and we start making our way deeper into the woods.
“You know, they say that elves live in these forests.” Robin shouts loudly. I roll my eyes in response. I’m not in the mood to listen to these people talk about this again. I’ve never really liked Robin. He’s been here almost as long as I have. I think the only reason he sticks around is that he thinks being a military man will make him more enticing to women, newsflash, it won’t. But when I tell him that he tells me I’m wrong and that I ‘don’t know anything about women’. He’s not wrong but even still I think I know more than him.
“Yeah I’ve seen their palaces before. Huge and grand and all that.” Elnath replies. “You know I once dated an elf and let me tell you, she was crazy. Got all mad at me for who even knows what. Glad I got out of that relationship.” He chuckles. I don’t know if that’s true per say, but if any woman were to date him it wouldn’t be an elf. Elves have actual standards when it comes to others.
I scoff, elves live in almost every forest out here. They just don’t use their eyes to notice. And there’s no way I’m going to tell them.
The weather is cool, with a chill breeze in the air. The sun is still relatively low in the sky and there are few clouds. The grass coats our boots, wet from the morning dew. I take a deep breath and I start walking behind everyone else. As we make our way into the woods I mindlessly start to make more arrows from the sticks on the forest floor. I shape them as best I can with an old knife I have. Next I attach the metal heads and put them in my quiver. Attaching the feathers requires more precision so I’ll just have to deal with that later. Me and a few other people pass around some bread and talk quietly to each other. This early in the morning our captain allows for quiet conversation, but most of the time I don’t talk anyway.
The entire day passes much the same. At least the trip into town and the one out has the Giant Sequoia trees with all sorts of interesting creatures in them. They’re three times the size and height of normal trees. Because of this a stray creature or two will decide to make it their home, but we haven’t seen anything besides oversized bird nests.
“Have you been into these woods before?” A short, young man asks me, with way too much energy if I say so myself.
“Yes” I responded curtly. I’m not in the mood to talk to any new recruits. “Who exactly are you?”
“Jimmy, just Jimmy. No family name. I was an orphan you see and then I was taken in by some very nice people and they raised me.” He speaks quickly and way too excitedly in my opinion. He has bright red, short hair and freckles. He’s wearing genuine armor as well. Great, a rich kid too. He looks way too young to be here but I’m not going to question that, Captain has been desperate for new recruits to replace Orion anyway.
“How old even are you? Or did you trick the captain while he was drunk?”
“I’m a ripe 16 years of age. I think that is plenty old enough to be here.”
“Yeah okay kid”
Jimmy just ignores me and he begins talking about his fascination with this and that and I do my best to ignore him. I don’t have time to chat about which wines he prefers, I’m supposed to be actually doing something.
“Will you just shut up for five minutes” I yell, with my limit for listening to him having been passed.
“You're no fun” He pouts.
“We’re in a war, it’s not supposed to be fun.” I walk away from the conversation. I’m not in the mood to talk to some 16 year old kid about the horrors of war.
As the sun sets, a light rain sprinkle begins. We’re nowhere close to a settlement so we have to make do with the tree’s as our roof.
“Leo and Vincent, take the first watch. Wake up two others in three hours. Everyone else try to sleep the best you can.” Rigel, our squad leader, shouts.
I take this as my cue to begin my routine. I set down my bags, heavy armor, and my bow. I stretch my back and I walk to the closest river, which admittedly, is a bit farther than I am normally comfortable going, but nonetheless I still go. I wash my face in the cool river and relax. I haven’t had a moment to myself since I rented the room at the tavern, and even then the old man talked my ear off for most of that time. I’m sitting up on the rocks by the river, close enough to dip my foot into it if I want to, but I decide against it. I get up and I begin my soothing walk throughout the woods. I can hear the faint coos of owls awakening to begin their hunt. The brightest of stars are also starting to appear in the sky. I hum quietly as I walk, until I see something out of the corner of my eye.
I turn in that direction to try and get a better view of what I saw, but I don’t see anything. I shrug and continue walking, although I am a little unnerved, I don’t want my walk to be ruined by something that wasn’t even there. But then the same thing happens again. “Who’s there?” I pause and wait for a response. “I know someone is out there watching me.” A twig snaps and a group of birds flee from a tree. I look around for the source of the sound. Just then a giant spider pounces at me. It’s camouflage in a way that even after it’s made its presence known, I still have a hard time seeing it. It has large black eyes and is covered in green and brown fur, perfect for hiding in the trees. Of course this was the day I decide to leave my bow at camp. I try to pull out my short sword but it’s already too late, my skin has already been touched by the spider's pincers. I fall to the ground.
I wake up later. I can’t tell what time it is exactly, but the sky is nearly pitch black now. It takes me a moment to get my bearings. I feel dizzy and my eyes are unfocused, but it doesn’t take me long to realize that I’m 40ft in the air. I gasp in fear when I remember how I got into this situation. I try to move my arms to hold onto something and I can’t, my arms are stuck to the spider web. I can’t stay up in this tree. I clench my teeth and I rip my arm out of the webbing. My skin is left raw and red from where it was attached to the web. I rub it gently but I don’t have time to dwell on it. I have to get out of this. I grab a small knife that I have tucked away and I cut myself from the web. I wrap the excess webbing around my arms. I don’t have time to deal with that right now. And I’m not going to hurt myself more than necessary. I stand on the tree and I balance on the large branches and I begin searching for my sword. Although I would love to get out of this tree, I do need my sword back.
I balance on what appear to be large wooden platforms. I walk on several of them but their frequency decreases as I look towards the ground. So I have to carefully transition back to the branches if I’m actually going to get anywhere. As I’m walking on the branches one suddenly collapses under my weight. A chill of fear runs through my body as I feel myself start to fall through the tree. My body jerks forward and I stop falling. I turn my head and notice that a sharp branch caught onto my cloak. Ugh another hole I’ll have to fix. But my mind quickly moves back to the present. I pull arms behind me and I shove myself onto the middle of the branch. I breathe deeply and I notice I’m shaking slightly. Great, I already am high in this tree and now my body decides to flip out as well. I’ll ignore it for now. I have bigger problems to deal with than that. I look around for my sword. After looking for a moment I see the handle of my glittering sword, but it’s still a distance away from me. On shaky legs I carefully jump from branch to branch. I almost slip once again but I manage to keep my footing. I dig my sword out and I confirm it’s mine from the inscription.
I hear a faint ruffling sound to my left and I see out of the corner of my eye that it’s another spider. “Not again” I quickly slash at the spider’s face. Its screech confirms I made contact but it’s not enough to cause real damage. Now that it’s bleeding slightly the camouflage has been broken and I can actually see my target. I leap onto one of the large branches behind me to get some distance between me and the spider. “Of course that crazy man had to be correct.” I groan to myself. While I have the distance I climb up onto the branch above me using my body weight to pull myself on top of it. The shakiness from before still hasn’t dissipated and I notice that my sword is wavering slightly in my hand. If only I had brought my bow. The spider has started to climb up the tree to reach me. I thrust my sword down at the spider’s head but it moves out of the way and the spider only hisses in anger. I could try to escape but the chances of doing that are slim, and what if there are more of these creatures. As it continues climbing up the tree I manage to slice one of its legs off. It slips slightly down the tree. I take the opportunity to start descending from the trees as well.
I manage to climb down a few branches before another one breaks under my weight. This time I manage to hang onto the end still attached to the trunk. I’m barely holding onto the tree when the spider starts approaching to attack once more. I swing the blade at the spider, trying to deter it. I Look below me and I see a large tree branch, big enough for me to land on. I release my grasp on the branch above me and I fall. I exhale in relief when I land on one of the few wooden platforms this low, but suddenly I feel a sharp pain in my left arm. I attempt to move it but to no avail. Even if I make it through this, Rigel won’t let me live this down. I take my sword with my non-dominant hand and I pray to the gods I used to believe in. I hold my left-arm close to my body and I stand up once more. The beast approaches once more.
I wait for the moment to strike. I let it almost pince me but at the last second I get out of the way and take out another one of its legs. It tugs at my arm and I grunt in pain but I force myself to ignore it for now. I have to survive this. How embarrassing would it be if I were to die to a giant insect. I haven’t been afraid of death in years, but I don’t want to die like this. “Let’s see if you can get me now.” I taunt it. It struggles to crawl after me but I remain cautious. I let it rush me once again but this time I aim to kill. I force my left hand onto the handle of the sword, biting my lip through the pain. As the spider comes after me, an energy surges through me and I jump out of the way and stab the spider through its middle, twisting the blade. I quickly pull the sword out and stab once more. Blood spurts from its stab wounds, some of which splashes on my face, and it slowly curls up into a ball and dies. I breathe a sigh of relief and I cut its head off just in case. My blade is covered in its thick, red blood. Great, another thing I have to clean. I sit on the platform and breathe for a moment.
I groan, “now I have to figure out how to get off of this tree”. I start carefully climbing down the tree with little success, my arm is broken after all. I climb a few feet down and I have to pause. My arm is burning from holding onto the tree one handed. “I have to get down,” I affirm. I let myself sit for a few moments before I start climbing down again. My grip on one of the branches slips and I fall.
I suddenly hear a rush of air and I’m slowed down to a stop. “I hate trees,” I mutter to myself. I look to see what stopped what would have been certain death and it’s an elf. They look to be slightly taller than me and have dark hair and tan skin. “Thank you for uh, saving me.” I say quietly, wanting to be polite. The elf simply nods in response. “I know you like to keep to yourselves so I appreciate it.” They take me to the ground and I land on shaky legs. The elf quickly leaves the area before I get a chance to say anything else. I sigh deeply. “That was terrible.”
I hold my arm against my chest and I listen for the sound of running water to find the river once more. Once I come about it again, I gently wash the blood off of my face. I hear loud hustling footsteps coming in my direction. I can’t deal with more trouble right now.
“Oh Jason you look awful.” The person I now recognize as Jimmy’s voice. “What happened? Nevermind you were supposed to be on watch and then when they went to wake you up you weren’t there so we all kind of panicked and they sent me over here to find you. So isn’t it great that I found you.” I groan and I walk back to camp. They all greet me panickedly.
“What the hell happened to you?!” Rigel Shouts, “You’re one of the best I can’t have you dying on me. How did this,” he gestures to my broken arm, “even happen?”
“I fell out of a tree.” I say bluntly.
“What the hell… you know what, sure I’m sure you did. Whatever. Wrap it up and we’ll figure something out.” I watch as he walks away and shakes his head. “How is he going to be an archer with one arm?”
I shake my head and I find where I laid my supplies earlier in the night. It takes some finessing, but using my teeth and my still functional hand I wrap it in bandages and make a sort of sling. I lay back against the tree and look up. The brightest of the stars still show their light through the tree canopy. I close my eyes, breathe a sigh of relief, and I fall asleep.