SPIDERS!!

Kai'sair woke up to the sound of scuffling on the ground. Slowly opened his eyes, he looked around; no one was there. At first he was about to go back to sleep, but then he noticed two things: River wasn't where she was sitting when she took watch, and his legs couldn't move. He heard the scuffling again coming from his left, and turned to see his legs tied in a web with the biggest spider he had ever seen busy tying them. It was the size of a pony, which meant its ugliness was in full view.

Kai'sair quickly realized this was one of the Giant Spiders form the Dead Wood, but what were they doing here? Kai'sair wasn't going to wait to find out; his sword still in his hand, he sprang upward with a war cry. The spider started back, having not anticipated that he would wake up, and it couldn't recover fast enough to avoid the knight driving his sword through the creature's face, and it dropped dead on the ground. Kai'sair wasted no time cutting the bebbing loose from his legs and, putting his helmet back on, stood up immediately. As he looked around, he couldn't find Adrion, River, or Rhogar, and he soon realized they must have been carried off by other spiders.

"Oh no," he quietly said to himself, then looked around for Paletar, though he did not want to risk calling him lest he attract other spiders that might be nearby. Thankfully, he did not have to look far as the dead body of a spider crashed through the bushes in front of him, Paletar following behind.

"Paletar!" Kai'sair yelled, running to the dragon.

"Kai'sair!" the dragon replied, "One of those blasted spiders tried to tie me up; thank goodness I was keeping a slight watch. Are you okay?"

"And I think I'm the only one. Those things got the others." The knight said, gesturing to the empty clearing.

"Well, now what?" Paletar asked.

"Can you smell them out?" Kai'sair asked.

"I can try." The dragon replied, and he began sniffing the ground, searching for the scent of any of their companions. After a few minutes, it seemed hopeless, until suddenly, Paletar picked up the scent of smoke and fire, similar to the smell a fire dragon would give off.

"I've got Rhogar's scent," the dragon said.

"Follow it!" Kai'sair urged, "We have no time to lose!"

Then, Kai'sair climbed onto Paletar's back, and the dragon ran off into the forest, eventually climbing up a tree towards a cluster of branches above. Soon, he started to slow down.

"We're close," he said, and Kai'sair drew his sword. Soon, they heard voices from their left, and, climbing onto a branch to level out, they listened in. It was a cluster of hissing, nasty voices, all talking about a feast. It was obvious that the voices belonged to the spiders. Peeking through the foliage, they saw a clearing in the treetops full of webs, and hideous spiders mingling among them. Most of them were gathered around three bulges in the webbing, one much larger than the other two. Judging by how much the smaller ones were moving; it was clear that Adrion and River were awake.

"There they are," Kai'sair said.

"Shhh," Paletar whispered, "Listen."

"Quite a catch, we've got here." Said one of the spiders.

"Yesss," said another, "I've never tasted Half-Dragon before."

"Oh, it's delightful," said a third, "I hear the females are especially tender."

River, Kai'sair thought. He also head a muffled yell and a thud as one of the spiders began prodding River's cocoon, causing her to yelp in fright, as well as making Adrion swing his head into the spider, sending it sprawling. Kai'sair rolled his eyes in amusement; even wrapped up in a spider web, the wizard was intent on protecting River. As the spider got back up, the others burst out laughing.

"Even the food comes back to get ya!" they taunted. Kai'sair and Paletar pulled back.

"Rhogar's not moving," Paletar said, "They must have drugged him more so than the others."

"What do we do? We can't just let those things just eat them." Kai'sair whispered.

"Simple," Paletar replied, "We attack."

"What?!"

"Remember, Giant Spiders get scared easily, and we have the element of surprise. Plus, I'm a forest dragon, I can move among trees better than they can. We can fight our way through them, get to the others, and cut them loose."

Kai'sair considered the plan; it seemed to be a better one than any he could come up with.

"Fine," he said, "But we should hurry before they see us. I don't want to lose our element of surprise."

Meanwhile, the spiders had been debating who to kill first.

"Let's do the Half-Dragon," said one.

"No, let her soften up a bit," said the second, "I say we start with the boy."

Just then, a bat few down: "Well, did you get them?" he asked.

"Right here," said the first spider with pride. The bat looked the cocoons over, then said, "You missed some, there's supposed to be another dragon and human here."

"I thought, one of us was getting them," said a third spider, "Where did he go anyways?"

Suddenly, a massive roar broke the silence of the night, and the spiders turned to see Paletar crash through the branches with Kai'sair on his back waving his sword in the air. Scared out of their wits, the spiders scattered in a vain attempt to avoid the power of Paletar's jaws and crushing feet as well as the bite of Kai'sair's sword, though many fell to them anyways. The other spiders fled, with the bat flying after them, shrieking: "Wait, come back here, you cowards!"

Paletar reached the bough, where the cocoons were held and immediately began scaling it until he reached them. Once he got there, Kai'sair began hacking away at the cords with his sword, starting with Adrion, who fell through the webs and landed with a thud on the forest floor below. River followed once she was cut, and finally Rhogar. Once everyone was on the ground, Paletar dropped down as well. Kai'sair then dismounted and ran over to finish cutting the others loose.

"Ow," said Adrion as he sat up.

River was much more extreme, bolting upright once Kai'sair had cut the cords and saying: "AH! What? Kai'sair?"

"Yeah, it's me," the knight reassured, "You okay?"

"Sort of" she replied, "My head feels a little weird. What happened?"

"Spiders somehow got into the Great Wood. A nest of them ambushed us."

"Did they get you too?" Adrion asked, picking up his staff and sword that had been tied up with him.

"Almost. I woke up just in time."

"Well, that's something," Adrion said, walking over to Rhogar, and, channeling what little healing magic he knew, countered the poison in Rhogar's veins and woke him up.

"You alright, Rhogar?" he asked.

"Ugh, I feel awful," the dragon groaned, "That spider venom is really strong."

River looked up and began to panic: "Uhhh, guys, can we talk about this later?!"

The other heroes looked up to see the spiders returning in full force, the bat leading them and shrieking: "There! There! Don't let your dinner get away!"

"I really hate that bat." Paletar said.

"Yeah," Adrion said, "And I'm sure the feeling's mutual, now RUN!"

The company tore off into the woods, the angry spiders chasing them through the trees. At first, it seemed as if they would lose the spiders, until they came into a clearing where a spider dropped down in front of them. Stopping in their tracks, they turned around to see the spiders had surrounded them on all sides and were closing in.

"So much for running." Rhogar said, "Now what?"

Kai'sair lifted his sword and answered, "We fight."

The others raised their weapons too. Seeing this, the spiders sensed a better challenge and quickened their charge. The second the first spider got within range, chaos broke loose as Adrion lifted his staff and summoned a burst of white light, blinding and confusing the spiders. Even the bat realized he wasn't safe from the light, and he too was blinded, causing him to run into a tree.

With the spiders currently disoriented, the company took the chance and charged the spiders, hacking, blasting, and burning their way through the monstrous horde. Adrion fared the best, as he was able to blind or burn spiders with his staff before stabbing them with his sword. River leapt around, stabbing the spiders with her daggers wherever she could. Kai'sair was practically unstoppable, blocking spiders with his shield and stabbing them from around. However, as unstoppable as he seemed, the dragons were nearly ten times more so. Rhogar burned multiple spiders with his fiery breath, Paletar crushing or shredding any that got too close.

The fight lasted for a while as the company held its ground against wave after wave, but despite the multitudes they killed, more spiders seemed to keep coming, and the company was beginning to tire out. One of the spiders shot out a web, catching River by the foot, and it began to pull her in.

"River!" Adrion cried, and he tried to go to her aid, only to be blocked by multiple spiders. River was desperately trying to cut the webbing with her daggers, but it wasn't cutting fast enough. She screamed in terror as the spider came in for the kill, only to see the spider suddenly stop and fall to the ground, dead. Confused, she looked at the spider's body. And saw a long arrow buried in its body. Then, everyone stopped to listen as a hunting horn sounded throughout the forest. The spiders looked around in confusion, and River beamed in joy; she immediately had recognized that horn.

"Look!" she said pointing to the trees.

The company, as well as the spiders, turned to look as three spiders fell dead from the trees. Then, at least ten hooded figures dressed dark green and armed with bows and curved short swords materialized from the trees, firing down on the spider horde; the Wood Elves had arrived.

The spiders began to scatter in a panic with cries of: "The elves! The elves! Run away!" but it proved futile, as the elves, being at full strength, were cutting them down remarkably quickly. To make matters worse for them, the company's will to fight was renewed and they restarted their attack, except for River, whose legs were still tied by webs; she just stabbed any unfortunate spider that got too close.

The bat, having fully recovered, looked around at the battle, and attempted to flee in a panic, but it was cut short as a fiery blast from Rhogar quickly disposed of the creature. After a few minutes, only four or five surviving spiders managed to flee into the forest. The Wood Elves than dropped down from the trees and surrounded the company. One of them spoke a command in elvish, and four others ran into the forest in pursuit of the spiders. One of the remaining elves walked over to River and knelt down to cut the webbing around her legs. When the webs were cut, the elf helped River up.

"Thanks," she said, "That stuff is disgusting."

"Yeah, I'm used to it by now." The elf replied, removing her hood, showing a head of young, fair skin, bright red hair, and a face full of freckles. River recognized her as Hope Evenwood, one of the elves she befriended during her time in the woods.

"Hope!" River said, embracing her friend. Hope hugged back and said, "It's so good to see you again."

"How did you find us?"

"Madrik and I were following you guys since you entered the forest. Once we realized the spiders were after you as well, we decided to get a team together to hunt them down."

"Well, whatever happened," Adrion said, "Thanks."

Hope nodded: "Now, I'm sure you all are exhausted and slightly wounded. We can take you to our kingdom in the trees. There, your wounds will be treated and I'm sure we can find a place for you to rest safely."

"Are you sure about that, Hope?" one of the older elves asked, "We've hardly let outsiders into our kingdom."

"Well, we have to at some point," Hope argued, "If we keep ourselves isolated and refuse to help others, than we're no better off than the High Elves, those cowards."

The other elves nodded in agreement.

"We should at least blindfold them," another elf said, "There is still a reason we keep the location of our home a secret."

"Honestly, I'm fine with whatever you guys plan," Adrion said, "Just please get us out of here. I've had enough creepy crawlies for one night."

Kai'sair grunted: "Fine, whatever. I'm too tired to argue anyways"

Hope chuckled, than turned to the other elves, "Okay, guys, let's get these guys to safety before more spiders come."

Within a few minutes, Adrion Kai'sair, and River were blindfolded and, carried by Rhogar and Paletar, who were allowed to see (being dragons), they were led by the elves into the trees and towards the Wood Elf kingdom of the Great Wood.