Chapter < 16 >

"How can you understand me?" Glowmyth asked as she circled around Craig and studied his features. She was certain that humans could not understand wisps without a translation spell, which she did not cast. Yet no matter how hard she looked, Craig was definitely a human.

"I don't know, I just can. That isn't what's important right now." Craig replied, picking up the sword as he stood up and spun around, trying to keep track of Glowmyth. "Would you please stop spinning around." He blurted in annoyance. "Can you do anything about the poison? Yes or no?" His voice contained some anger in it.

One of the side effects of the poison was affecting the clarity of a person's mind. The reason why Death Weavers were so dangerous was also due to the effects of their venom.

Glowmyth stopped flying around and hovered in one spot with a look of displeasure on her face. "I can't do anything about the poison!" She barked coldly. "And don't think just because I helped you that I like you. I hate humans. If it wasn't for Lady Setra I wouldn't even bother with you." She pointed at Craig and threw a tantrum that looked nothing other than cute. When she was done she folded her arms and threw her head to the side with a "hmph."

Craig sighed upon realising that she couldn't cure the poison. He felt perplexed because he didn't have the ingredients to make the antidote for the Death Weaver venom. He doubted that he would be able to find all the ingredients in the cave, so he cast that thought aside. According to his knowledge, he had about twenty hours before it killed him. A grim smile appeared on his face as he shook his head. 'Death has really been hunting me down these past few weeks.'

He then looked at Glowmyth with an apologetic gaze, knowing he had snapped at her a bit too harshly. It wasn't completely his fault as the poison was affecting his temperament somewhat. "Forgive me, little fairly, I'm under a lot of pressure right now i didn't mean to yell at you."

Glowmyth cast him a side eye but chose to accept his apology because she understood his situation. "My name is Glowmyth, not little fairy, okay." She exclaimed.

Craig smiled, "Glowmyth huh, not a bad name, but I'll keep calling you little fairy, I'm already used to it." He teased.

Used to it? He had not even called her that name three times as yet, how could he be used to it. He was clearly choosing to ignore her name. Glowmyth fumed and dashed at Craig's chest, pummelling him with her little hands. "It's Glowmyth you hear, Glowmyth. How can you be used to something you've barely used."

Craig laughed at Glowmyth's futile attempt at expressing anger. Everything that she did amounted to only a single word; adorable. "So, who is this Lady Setra that you mentioned?" He was curious about what Glowmyth had said earlier. "Did she send you to help me? Where is she? Is she in here as well?"

Glowmyth stopped pounding on his chest and flew a little higher, stopping face to body with him. In this situation, face to face would truly be an exaggeration. With one hand on her waist, she pointed with the other like a little diva. "You must answer my questions first. Only then might I tell you what you wish to know." She proclaimed.

Craig sighed helplessly. Regardless of the size or race, women would always be women. "Fine, I'll answer your questions as we find a way out." He said, looking to the tunnel that continued upward from the large cavern and started walking toward it.

Glowmyth flew beside him and began asking what she wanted to know. "Okay, firstly, what part of the human territory are you from?"

"I was raised in the capital but due to some... mistakes I've been living a nomadic life for the past several years." Craig replied indifferently.

"What kind of mistakes, are you a murderer or something?" Glowmyth asked apprehensively, stopping in midair.

"Or something." Craig replied with a chuckle.

Glowmyth swallowed nervously and caught back up with him. "Then what do you do for a living, are you a merchant, a blacksmith... a mercenary?" Her final suggestion proposed that she assumed he killed things for a living, returning to her assumption of murder.

Craig stopped walking and looked at her with an indifferent expression and replied. "I'm a hunter and a thief." He then flashed her a smile and continued walking, climbing up a few ledges as he went on.

"A hunter and a thief?" Glowmyth mused as she followed behind him. "What did you hunt, what did you steal?" She was curious, and slightly terrified. The hunting part especially got to her, knowing how humans loved capturing exotic species. Wasn't she an exotic specimen?

Craig climbed up a final ledge and stood up, looking at yet another large cavern before him. It was very similar to the previous one with stalactites, stalagmites, and blackened bones.

"I steal from the wicked people of my kind, and from the orcs because they're always up to no good." He said as he tightened his grip on the sword in his hand and prepared himself for a fight. "As for what I hunt, well I hunt things like these that pose a threat to the innocent."

Taka-taka-taka!

The scuttling of lots of legs echoed all around and drew closer and closer. The one difference this cavern had from the one before was that the there were significantly less glowing mushrooms in it, leaving many areas shrouded in thick darkness. The scuttling sounds were all coming from within the darkness.

'The queen is already dead so these should be a lot sma-' Craig was estimating the size of the Death Weavers that were approaching only to be shocked when one finally walked into the light. 'lord help me.' It was just as big as the one before, not only that but as a few more walked into the light he noticed that they were all the same size.

Six of them had walked into the open and were making chittering and hissing sounds. One amongst them even purred like a cat.

Craig was dumbfounded. 'Is this a colony of queens? That doesn't make any sense. If so, then the one before most definitely wasn't the queen. Then how big would the queen be.' Craig's thoughts began running wild as he analysed the situation and began calculating a strategy. However in the depths of his heart he had confined himself to fate, knowing full well that he was no match for six queen size Death Weavers in his current condition.

At the pinnacle of that thought, another stabbing pain caused Craig to grip his chest and gritt his teeth in agony. He fell on one knee using the sword to prop himself up by stabbing it into the ground. 'Not right now!' He cried inwardly as he squinted his eyes due to his vision dancing like a mirage. The six Death Weavers were all blending into the surroundings like shadows.

"Are you okay?" Glowmyth's voice echoed out beside Craig's ear snapping him into focus. As soon as his vision sharpened he couldn't find any traces of spiders anywhere. There weren't any sounds of crawling either. 'What the--, was all that a hallucination?' He thought as he looked at Glowmyth sceptically. "Did you see anything just now?" He asked.

Glowmyth looked around and shook her head. "I didn't see anything. Why, did you see something?"

"I see." Craig muttered as he forced himself to stand. He now knew he had been hallucinating a moment ago. It seemed that was also another effect of the venom. This wasn't a good thing for Craig at all. "Listen, keep an eye open and tell me if you see anything. I may be hallucinating because of the venom. Just now, there were six spiders here i could have sworn they were real." He explained with a pensive expression.

Glowmyth nodded. "Okay. I wondered what you meant when you said 'things like these' but now I understand. No wonder you were able to kill that big spider down below. You're accustomed to hunting them."

Craig laughed awkwardly and shook his head. "It killed itself. I only managed to run from it. Luckily it impaled its own self before it could get to me."

"Luckily huh. You're right about that, I still can't believe you survived that fall. Even if there was water I still can't believe it." Glowmyth exclaimed in astonishment of Craig's luck. "Which brings me to my next question. Why are you here in the elves' territory and working with an elf no less. You even risked your life to help her."

Craig was taken aback. "Wait, how do you know so much. How long have you been following me?"

"I only arrived when the two of you were crossing the bridge. Then I saw it collapse with the two of you, and you falling after pulling her up to safety. Then i came down here to look for you." She mixed lies with truth.

If Craig only knew that she was the one who cut the rope because she wanted to test his character, who knew what he would do.

Craig didn't have any reason to suspect her so he believed her words completely. "Okay then, I'll trust you if you trust me. The reason I'm here is to save someone's life. More specifically to save an elf's life. That's the reason I'm working with an elf. Do you believe me?"

Glowmyth pondered for a moment. "I guess so. But why would the elves need a human to help save an elf's life. What's so special about you?"

Craig chuckled and said sarcastically. "I can fall from very long heights and survive. Isn't that special?"

"Ha ha, very funny." Glowmyth remarked.

"What about my companion, did she make it up alright?" He had been thinking about Maeli the entire time. Even considering the possibility that she had also fallen and ended up drifting down the river as well.

"She's okay. She climbed up safely after you fell. I think she was even crying but i couldn't really tell from the distance. But from the way she stood there looking down into the canyon, I could tell you mean a lot to her." Glowmyth explained.

"You're overthinking things." Craig said confidently. "Not too long ago she wanted to kill me. We're only working together to save her friend. My supposed death only caused her to feel pressure from the mission because she needs help." As he said this he started walking forward to look for another way up.

"Is that so." Glowmyth muttered as she recalled the look on Maeli's face. She felt there should be a lot more to it than Craig described. She fluttered her tiny wings and followed after him.

Without looking back Craig asked, "Earlier when i was paralysed, you said that your magic was being constantly drained by this place?"

"Yes, this canyon is known as Titou Gorge. According to the stories it was formed in the era of dragons. It runs in a fault-line know as a mana fount. Once a year, the water from the fount flows through the canyon and when it does it absorbs the mana from its surroundings. Only these mushrooms are unaffected by it for some reason." Glowmyth summarised what she knew on the matter.

"There's really such a thing happening here." Craig was surprised. 'No wonder Maeli's magic wasn't working. The interference should have come from down here.' Things were starting to make sense to him now.

"A door?" Craig suddenly exclaimed as he saw a large, round stone door in front of him. Half of it was blocking a circular opening in the wall. There were hundreds of engravings meticulously chiselled on its surface, giving it an ancient look.

Craig walked to the opening and peeked inside only to be shocked by what he saw.

It was the largest cavern he had seen so far, but instead of calling it a cavern it would be better to call it a hall. Around the edge of the cavern was filled with cylindrical vessels all filled with blue water and at the center of each one there was an elf newborn. The babies were riddled with tubes all over their bodies and had weird looking masks on their faces.

At the center of the room there was a large platform with eight pedestals forming an octagon. Atop the pedestals were large blue orbs that emitted a faint glow. These orbs were siphoning energy from a well at the centre of the platform and transmitting it over to the cylinders through the tubes.

"What in the world?" Craig couldn't make any sense of what he was seeing.

Glowmyth stood on his shoulder speechless as she too peeked inside.

"You're seeing this too right?" Craig asked in a hushed voice.

"Yes, this isn't a hallucination."