The Spider Garden Part 3

Brand felt something hit the back of his right heel as he was running full speed behind Giga. Before he could react, the something went taut and yanked his leg backward causing him to fall face first into the foliage. Brand dropped his spear and his torch trying his best to break his fall with his suddenly free hands. He hit the ground hard, barely avoiding knocking his head against the ground.

Shaking his head, Brand rolled over to look behind him and see what had grabbed his foot and caused him to fall. Squinting his eyes, he saw the flickering light of his torch reflecting off a clear, thin, sticky thread that was attached to the back of his heel and lead diagonally behind him and climbed upwards into the trees before disappearing in the dark branches.

Before Brand's brain could grasp exactly what to do about his predicament, something big drew his attention away from the thread. Eight hairy legs, a round black body, and a menacing head rushed forward into Brand's eyesight, quickly running up the trail that he and his companions had just made. Brand could see the frenzied spider's eight eyes lock onto him. Its giant fangs dripped with venom, intent on sinking them into the prone figure in front of it.

Panicking, Brand started to shuffle backward on the wet vegetation, trying to push himself away from the large spider with his free leg and hands while still facing the oncoming arachnid. Scrambling to get away, Brand accidentally brought his right hand down on the torch that was lying on the ground behind him. "Ahhh!" he screamed, more out of fear and surprise than pain. He looked down to his slightly red hand for a moment out of instinct, then immediately looked up once more at the charging monster and saw that it was almost upon him.

Brand crossed his arms in front of his face, closed his eyes, and braced for impact. Suddenly a loud roar rang out from right behind Brand, drowning out the sound of raindrops for a few moments. He opened his eyes and watched as Giga's large body charged past him on his left and collided with the spider that was running full speed at Brand. Brand could almost feel the impact as Giga's head slammed into the spider, propelling it back a few feet and off its legs.

Giga wasted no time and walked over to upside down spider. Putting one of his large feet on the spider's body, Giga leaned down and bit clean through the struggling spiders head. The spider went still as its legs curled up in a death pose. Looking back at Brand, Giga gave him a look of pride as if to say "How about that?".

Brand felt a little relief after being saved from the giant, charging spider, but the feeling passed quickly when he saw another of the spiders descending from the treetops directly above Giga. Before Brand could yell out a warning, the thread attached to his leg went taut again and he suddenly felt himself being dragged upwards. His arms started flailing around him trying to grasp something he could hold onto to keep himself grounded.

As his body left the floor of the forest, one of Brand's hands brushed over the spear he had dropped earlier. He quickly grabbed the spear as he was hoisted completely off the ground. Dangling upside down by one foot, he began to rotate as the thread pulled him higher. He struggled as he was dragged upwards until he was facing Giga's direction again. The dinosaur was looking up at Brand with a confused expression on his face, totally oblivious to the spider that had descended from the trees and was now only inches away from his head.

Brand realized that it was probably too late to warn Giga. Now was the time for him to act. Trying to ignore the fact that he was upside down and blood was rushing to his head, Brand took a breath, cocked back his right arm that was holding his spear, and threw it at the spider above Giga's head with all of his strength. The spear left his hand like a lightning bolt and hit the spider square in the center of its body. Giga's head arched back and he looked on as the impaled spider went flying off into the darkness.

Before he could even think to himself how he keeps throwing away his main weapon as soon as he gets into a fight, the thread holding Brand up went slack and he fell to the ground with a thud. The spider he'd just skewered had apparently been the one that had caught him with its thread. Rubbing his head and standing up, Brand bent over and picked up the torch that was still burning strong on the soaked forest floor.

A deafening thunderclap sounded overhead as Giga walked back over towards Brand. Brand held up the torch and looked around. The other members of their party were nowhere to be seen. Looking beyond Giga, he saw that more spiders were coming up behind them. He could see that more were coming from the left of the trail too. "Follow me!" he yelled at Giga as he began to run forward along the trail again. But before he had even run a few feet he saw that the giant spiders were already crossing the trail ahead.

Noticing that the ones in front weren't coming directly at them, Brand realized that the spiders were trying to encircle him and Giga. Brand stopped running and turned around to look at Giga. "This way!" he shouted to the dinosaur as he pointed his torch off to the right of the trail. After a split second of confusion, a flash of understanding appeared on Giga's face. Roaring powerfully, Giga began to charge through the underbrush on the right, clearing a path for Brand as he went. Leaving the trail behind, Giga and Brand started zigzagging through the trees, going as fast as possible to escape the spider's onslaught.

A couple of the spiders up ahead saw the duo change course and began to rush them from the side. Brand saw them coming. Switching his torch from his right hand to his left, Brand drew that dagger that he had brought with him from Ragash. The first spider lunged through the trees at Giga, but before it could bite the dinosaur, Brand crashed dagger first into the arachnid causing it to rebound back into the trees dead. "Keep going!" Brand shouted. "I'll cover your back!"

The second spider saw its fellow get killed by the human running behind the dinosaur, so instead of attacking Giga it immediately rushed Brand from the side. Brand saw it coming so he stopped and dodged to the side hitting the spider in the face with his torch as he did. The spider recoiled from having its face burned, and before it could recover, Brand slashed at the monster's legs. The spider fell to the ground and Brand finished it off with a stab to the head.

Bypassing the dead spider, Brand rushed ahead to catch back up with Giga. Catching up with the giganotosaurus, Brand continued to guard his dragon's back as they made their way through the thick underbrush of the forest. After about a half-hour of trailblazing and a few more spider attacks, the duo finally broke out of the treeline. Walking out from under the trees and into the pouring rain, Brand realized with horror that the break in the trees only lasted a few dozen feet. In front of them was the edge of the cliff that ran through the middle of the Ostish Forest.

Walking to the edge, Brand peered over and stared down at the river rapids below. The river apparently followed along the wall of the cliff for quite a while. It was a long drop down. And rocks jutted out here and there making jumping into the river a terrible idea. Giga walked over to the cliff and copied Brand in looking down. Turning around, Brand started thinking about which direction they should go when he saw giant, black shapes crawling out of the forest from every direction. They were trapped.

Giga turned with his feet on the ledge and roared at the approaching spiders, but they kept moving forward. Brandishing his torch and dagger, Brand couldn't help but feel beaten. There was no way they could fight off this many giant spiders by themselves. Feeling hopeless, Brand suddenly remembered what Perenu had said. Music! Spiders hated music!

Taking a deep breath, Brand thought of the most upbeat song he could remember the words to and began to sing as loud as he could through the rain. "Life is like a hurricane, here in, Duckberg. Racecars lasers aeroplanes, it's a, duck blur! Might solve a mystery, doo doo doo, or rewrite history, DUCKTALES! WOOHOO!"

The spiders all stopped together at once looking baffled. They looked at each and Brand with confused looks on their faces. Giga was also looking at Brand like he had gone insane. This only gave more confidence to Brand as he began to sing louder. "EVERYDAY THEY'RE OUT HERE MAKING DUCKTALES! WOOHOO! NOT PHONY TALES OR GOBLIN TALES NO DUCKTALES!" Brand had done it! Perenu was right! Music was the spiders' weakness!

He thought that for another few seconds before the spiders shook off their confusion and started moving towards Brand and Giga again. Stopping his serenade to the spiders and feeling quite stupid, Brand cursed Perenu in his mind. Music is apparently not a weakness of spiders.

The spiders were now right in front of Brand and his dinosaur. Looking between Giga and the spiders, Brand knew that it was time for his last resort. Sheathing his dagger, Brand threw his torch at the nearest spider then charged at Giga. Slamming into the dinosaur, Brand and Giga both toppled over the edge of the cliff and fell towards the rapids below. Falling in a heap of confusion, Brand saw Giga hit the water first with an immense splash, then hit the water himself a split-second after. Brand's head plunged through the water and hit a rock hidden just underneath the surface with his face. Everything went blurry as the current dragged his body downstream, then everything faded out as he lost consciousness once again.