Banished Pt. 15

Everyone shot awake as the scream echoed through the woods, piercing the veil of silence, before again going still.

"W-What the fuck was that?" someone asked.

They did a quick check, before Devin spoke.

"Ray. Where's Ray?"

"Something just pulled him up there," I said, my eyes on the treetops as Francesca moved to my side.

"Did you see it happen?"

I nodded.

"And you did nothing?" a boy asked.

Colt, I think it was, and he was staring daggers at me.

"It took all of a second," I said, slightly dismissively, but as Colt moved to press me, something fell from above, and I immediately went on alert.

I saw some movement at the spot where the thing had fallen from, and a familiar shifting of branches, but this creature I noted moved much more slowly, though steadily, than the leaping movement of the aufhöcker.

This was a different beast.

Someone screamed; one of the girls, I think, and a panic quickly broke out.

"Nate," Francesca said, moving to the thing, and I swallowed uneasily as I made out what it was.

A foot.

"Wha- hey!" I called out, as someone bolted, but he was into the night before I could properly react, and I shook my head, as there was no way that going after him was a good idea.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"The foot, or the runner?" a girl asked, a bit too casually, and I quickly made a mental note of her face.

Was that Alice, or Blair?

I couldn't recall.

"The runner," I clarified.

"Graham," she said, and I nodded.

"I know you all are spooked," I said out loud. "But you need to be alert right now. Stay close together, and keep your eyes on the treetops. You see movement, shout. Immediately."

"There!" someone said, and I followed the cry, but saw nothing but a branch swaying gently in the breeze.

I kept an eye on it for a few moments, then shook my head.

"Let's move away from the lower hanging trees," I said.

The group, however, began to separate, and I quickly chastised them.

"Stay together. I wanna see each hand on a shoulder at all times!" I called, but as Sheila immediately moved to rest a hand on mine, I shot her an amused look.

"Might wanna stick to them for now," I said, and she nodded, moving reluctantly to the girl, either Alice or Blair, from earlier.

"The trees hang lower closer to the stream," Francesca said, and I nodded.

"Let's move to one of the massive canopy trees," I said, indicating a spot where there were very few trunks close-by, and she nodded.

"Fuck me, you can see through this darkness?" someone asked.

Francesca kept her spear readied as we prepared to move, but we'd taken no more than two steps when I saw it this time; a string like thing descending towards Francesca, wavering in the wind a little, and Francesca leapt aside just as it landed on the ground, and as soon as it made contact, the thing was pulled taut, and a bit of earth came up from the floor.

Francesca slashed through the line, and it quickly retracted into the canopy above.

"Move!" I called, as everyone seemed to remain rooted to the ground, and I half-pushed half-guided them to the tree up ahead.

Francesca picked up the bit of earth from the ground, then came over to join me.

"What is it?" I asked, as she examined the stringy thing.

"Kind of like a web. Sticky," she said.

"Are you telling me that spiderman is out here trying to kill us?" a girl asked.

I noted that the question came from the Alice/Blair girl from before, and there was a slightly amused look on her face, however, she quickly corrected her expression as soon as she caught my eye on her.

"Keep your eyes peeled," I said, as Francesca moved closer to me.

"Fighting things that can climb trees is a fucking nightmare inside of this forest," she said, and I nodded in agreement.

Was there some kind of skill that could let us use that to our advantage, though?

I thought back to the branch swinging skill that I'd used, but even that was only slightly useful unless I could reliably climb to a point where branches were within reach.

It seemed unlikely that we'd be able to do that, but we would have to come up with something sooner or later, if enemies that used this kept coming up as often as they already had.

"How's your core?" I asked, and Francesca shrugged.

"Well rested enough to fight," she said.

"What about to run?" I asked, and she eyed me for a moment, before returning her gaze to the treetops.

"They can't keep up with us," she said, gesturing to the others, and Sheila quickly cast a panicked look in our direction.

"That thing up there can't move that quickly in the treetops. I think they could outrun it on the ground, and if it comes down, we kill it."

She pursed her lips as she gave the suggestion some thought.

"What about Ethan?" she asked.

"Yeah, what about me?"

I jumped as the voice suddenly came from beyond the tree trunk where the group was huddled, and the man to match the voice quickly emerged from the tree.

"I can die a happy death this night, knowing that a pretty girl like you worried about me even for a moment," he declared, and Francesca bit her lip, shooting me a concerned look.

Ethan took a quick look around, then frowned.

"There's three less than I left. What happened?"

We gave him a quick rundown of the attack, and he shook his head.

"That's two. Where's the third?"

"Oh, right. Jayden. I let him leave with some armor."

He raised an eyebrow at that.

"Wait, Jayden? Is that the one who was worried about Julie?" Ethan asked, and as I nodded, he cracked a smile. "And with armor, too? Guess you must have cared about 'Julie' way more than I realized."

"Can we get back to our friend's severed foot falling out of the fucking trees?"

The complaint came from Wilt, who I noted, seemed to dislike me quite a bit.

"Sorry; I'm gonna go look for, what was his name again?"

"Graham," Devin answered, and Ethan nodded before heading off.

He was gone for no more than twenty minutes, however, when he returned with a grim look on his face, as he handed a core to Devin.

Wilt cursed under his breath.

"Your assessment was spot on," Ethan admitted, as he turned to me. "We're dealing with what you'd call a spider-type mutation. Funny for me to call it that though, since I've never actually seen a spider."

Wilt shook his head at Ethan.

"What the fuck part of earth did you come from to never see a spider?" he asked, and Ethan chuckled.

"Sorry, I've never been to earth. My parents were earthlings, but I'm a native born to this planet."

Wilt's jaw dropped, and Sheila moved to my side.

"Nate says that there's no going back to earth. Did your parents ever-?"

Ethan shook his head.

"Sorry, guys. But Nate is right. There's no going back."

Wilt crouched down to the floor, and panic seemed to be spreading through the group again.

"In any case. I think we need to focus on surviving the situation we're in, presently," I offered, and Sheila moved to my side.

"He's right," she said, turning to the group. "Even if we want to get back, we need to survive long enough to find out everything there is to know about what's going on."

The group seemed to calm down a bit, and she shot me a quick look, as Ethan moved to my side.

"I wanna head south; I could check on, uh, Jayden, was it-?"

I nodded, and he continued:

"Yeah, I'll see if I can grab him on the way back. The monsters seem to be sweeping in from the north, but if they catch us on both sides, it'll be trouble, and our little herald seems to be doing his work in that general area. You should take them east, Nate," he said, and I nodded, but Wilt stepped forward.

"Wait, why are we going east?"

Ethan rubbed the back of his head, as he turned to look at him.

"There's a guildhall to the East," he answered. "It's the only place I can keep you safe right now while I sort out these things that are attacking us."

"I thought we were heading to this camp, across the river," Wilt said, and Ethan chuckled.

"Can't be helped, I think. You won't make it to the bridge at this rate, and even if you found a way across, knowing that this domain is really done changes things; the monsters won't hesitate to track you to the other side anymore."

"Then why the fuck did you people lead us in here?" Wilt asked.

"Well, to save you from the hunters," Ethan replied, as if it were obvious, but as Wilt turned on him, I quickly intervened.

"Everything on this planet probably wants to kill you right now; how about you take out your frustration on them instead of us?"

Wilt backed down a bit, and Ethan shot me a thankful smile, though his gaze lingered on me a bit before he seemed to suddenly catch himself, and he shook his head, before speaking:

"We should get moving," he said, turning to me: "Head due east; don't rest until someone absolutely has to, and then sleep for a few hours in shifts, before continuing on again. Do you have a compass?"

I nodded, and he smiled.

"Okay, then you should be fine on direction. About a hundred miles east, there's an old knight's hideout; a cave on a slightly tall hill. You should be able to spot it in daylight. When you get there, head south-southeast and you should come upon a guildhall. It's not a starter, and way out from anywhere that people ordinarily pass through. You can leave these there, then head off on your merry own way," Ethan said, and I nodded.

"Will you catch up to us?" I asked, and he shook his head.

"Looks like this is it for us, brown," he said to Francesca, and the girl's eyes went wide with surprise.

She glanced at me, and as I indicated to my hair, she nodded a little absently, then offered Ethan a little nod.

He bit his lip, and shot me a nervous smile.

"Guess there's no stealing this one from ya," he teased, dropping his voice to a whisper, and I smiled.

"Thanks for everything," I said, and the man nodded.

"I should be thanking you. These young'uns would be in the ground by now if you two weren't around."

He gave some instructions to Devin, who he seemed to think of as the group leader, and the boy nodded, as he said goodbye to everyone else and prepared to head out.

"In the event that we don't meet again, I think you should take this," Ethan said, handing me a small piece of cloth.

I examined the thing, and noted an emblem stitched onto it.

"What is it?"

"A badge that identifies you to Davion's knights as a friend. They'll be much nicer to you on contact if they see this," he said, and I nodded.

"Well then. Take care. See ya, brown," he said, waving, and Francesca again merely nodded, as he turned and headed off.

I slipped the badge away into my pack.

Best keep that hidden for now, just in case, I thought, and Francesca shot me an approving nod.

"Everyone ready?" I asked, and the group mumbled half-heartedly, but Sheila moved to my side.

"About what he said," she began, but I shook my head.

"Let's get moving first. We can discuss that later," I replied, and she gave a reluctant nod.

We organized the group into lines, walking two abreast, with Francesca at the rear, and me leading from the front, but it took a while for us to get them running at a consistent enough speed.

"Hold on a sec!" Colt called out, and I turned back and noted that Wilt seemed to be clutching at his ankle a bit.

"What's wrong?" I asked, and Wilt scowled a little.

"Sprained my fucking ankle," he spat. "What we get for running around the forest in the middle of the fucking night."

I peered into his core, but there didn't seem to be threads collecting at the spot, so I shook my head.

"It seems fine. We'll rest a minute, then press on," I said, and he clenched his jaw shut, an angry expression on his face.

I ignored him, and moved to Francesca's side.

"Seen anything?" I asked, as she was eyeing the tree line at our rear, and she shook her head.

"No, but I keep getting little chills. Nothing's coming at us, but I can almost feel these things crawling all about."

I nodded, turning to the rest of the group.

"Breaks over guys, let's move."

"Seriously?" Wilt asked, but before I could respond, Devin threw the core that Ethan had given them at him, and as he caught it, Devin looked down at him.

"Unless you want us to carry yours in your loving memory, you might want to listen," he said, and Wilt swallowed uncomfortably, but seemed to simmer down at that.

"Let's go," I said, and the group began to gather themselves up.

As we moved off, however, Sheila snaked her way up to my side, and I shot her a slightly worried look.

"You wouldn't... really... leave us. In that hall... would you?"

She was struggling to get the words out while keeping up with my running, and I shot her a disapproving look.

"Focus on running for now. When we stop for another rest, you can talk," I said, and she shot me a pouty look, before falling back to Samantha's side.

We continued on for about another twenty minutes, when a chill ran up my spine, and I came up to a stop so suddenly that Alice actually ran into my back.

"What the-?" she began, but-

"Nate! It's coming!" Francesca yelled, and I nodded.

I took a quick look around then spotted a tree with a wide enough trunk.

"Over here!" I called out, directing the group, and as they piled up into one of the nooks created by the tree's massive roots, Francesca moved to my side, and we got ready for whatever it was.

We waited for about ten minutes, but while the presence remained, nothing happened.

"Doesn't feel quite as overwhelming as that aufhöcker freak, huh?" I asked, and Francesca shook her head.

"No, but it's not coming directly at us either. Maybe this one is smarter-"

"Ahhhh!"

We spun around to see Alice being pulled into the air, but Devin had quickly grabbed onto her.

"Help!" he called out, and Lin and Wilt quickly grabbed onto his feet, and I leapt toward the root, then climbed along until I was high enough up, and with a leap, I sliced through the web, though falling down a bit precariously onto Colt.

"Sorry," he mouthed, but I shook the sentiment away as I quickly moved to retake my defensive position.

"Watch out for each other!" I called, and as if on cue, another web came drifting down, this time targeting Devin, but the group reacted together, and as they pulled on him, I was able to slice through the webbing without needing a higher vantage point.

"Think we can trust them with a weapon?" I asked Francesca, and she nodded, but before we could do anything, another web came drifting down, but I never got to see who it stuck to, as a white javelin came flying at us from the darkness ahead, and I swatted it aside, just as something burst out of the woods at us.

Holy fucking hell... is that- Caleb?

I was only able to just barely process the thought when his hand transformed into a long, silvery looking blade, and as he sliced at Francesca, she brough two hands up to block the attack while I moved in and stabbed at his shoulder.

He twisted his body to the side, reacting quite well to my attack despite executing his own swing, but I grazed him just as his attack pushed Francesca back half a foot.

She planted her feet well, however, and maintained her balance as she absorbed the blow, and as he leapt backwards, glaring at me, Francesca darted in with a jab, and I followed it up with a sweeping slash.

Monster-Caleb evaded Francesca's attack, then deflected mine, before moving in suddenly and shoulder barging into me.

The attack knocked me off my feet, but I quickly recovered just as he slashed at my neck, and I rolled out of the way and swung low.

He leapt just over the blade, but a spray of blood came from his side as a spear point slashed into him, nicking him just over the hip.

He turned and hissed at Francesca, but just as I moved in to strike at him, I felt myself being pulled off of the ground, and I gasped as I looked back, and saw a web attached to my shoulder.

I reflexively made to strike at it, but as I looked into the canopy and spotted the culprit; a monstrously sized spider, I instead prepared myself, and just as I got within reach of it, I stabbed the beastie, then latched onto a nearby branch and swung my way over to a larger branch where I could stand reasonably well.

There was a shifting of weight, and I spotted another spider crawling its way across a web towards me, but as it leapt at me, I braced myself and impaled it on the pointy tip of my halberd, then cast the thing down to the forest floor below.

I heard screams, but they weren't Francesca's, so I didn't bother to look down, and instead tried to get a feel for what the situation was up in the trees.

The visibility up here was much better, I noted, as a bit of sky could be seen above the trees, but there didn't seem to be any more spiders, and as I looked down, I felt a bit of anxiety forming in my chest as I realized how far the ground was from my branch.

Do I climb down?

I noticed that there were lower branches that I could leap to, so I quickly moved across to them, then tried to gauge how far I was from the ground.

I'd leapt three stories down from Gert's tree, didn't I?

I thought about jumping, but I wasn't as sure of the distance, so instead I slung my halberd over my back, and tried to climb using the rough bark, but I made it no more than five feet down before I lost my grip and fell, and I quickly twisted myself to land on my feet.

*Thud*

I rolled as I landed, and breathed a sigh of relief, as my feet still worked when I stood up.

Monster-Caleb was exchanging blows with Francesca, who I quickly noted was dripping blood down her forearm, and I waited until she forced him to leap aside before darting in, and Caleb shot me a terrified look as I swept at his neck, but his attempt at an evasion only half succeeded, and he glared at me, as a spray of blood erupted from his neck.

He clutched the spot, then turned and bolted, but Francesca shot me a glance, then quickly gave chase and I followed closely behind.

We're heading... south, I thought, making a mental note of the direction, but we quickly realized that monster-Caleb was faster than we were, even wounded, and Francesca stopped as I pulled up to a halt.

"Nate... that was Caleb, wasn't it?" she asked, and I nodded. "He's so fast..."

I nodded again, but I took some comfort in knowing that he wasn't quite as overwhelmingly strong as that talking aufhöcker or Jacinda were.

We quickly made our way back, and Sheila ran to me and hugged me as soon as she saw me.

"You're alright!" she said. "But holy cow, that was amazing! You let it pull you up and then stabbed it!"

Although she seemed to be the most outwardly excited by the exchange, I noted that everyone else also seemed to be impressed by how well we handled ourselves in the fight.

"Where's the wound?" I asked, as Francesca examined her arm, and she pointed to a spot just below her arm guard.

"Tried to deflect with one hand and the blade almost dragged over me there," she said. "Their appendage blades cut like our weapons, don't they?"

I nodded, as I withdrew one of the scraps of cloth from our pack, and bandaged her arm.

Sheila seemed to be watching the interaction with interest, though she quickly looked away as soon as she caught my gaze.

"This might be a good chance to rest," I suggested, and Francesca nodded slowly.

She tested her arm a bit, and I studied her discomfort with some interest.

"What's wrong?" I asked, and she shrugged.

"It's just feeling a bit stiff," she explained, and I frowned.

"Is it really safe to rest here?" Sheila asked, and I shook my head.

"Not here. We'll press on until we come to a clearing-"

"Clearing?" Wilt asked, "there hasn't been a clearing in these woods since we entered it."