Chapter 10: 10. Burn

Burn

Alexander

Dozens of hands were grabbing Alexander, long nails claws at his hair and clothes trying to get a grip. The vines attached to the hand encircled him like snakes, their thorns scraping along his skin, drawing blood.

As they pulled him along the ground, the crows that had led him into the trap landed on trees and the ground. Their cawing sounded like laughter. Their human-like eyes glittered in the early dawn light.

The thorn bush was spreading open, revealing thick muscular hands growing out of ground. More vines were creeping towards him, the fingers crawling along the ground like insects. The monstrous thing was going to rip him apart.

Fighting against the hands, Alexander managed to grab one of the vines holding his arm. With all his strength he crushed the fibrous thing, coating his hand in a blood red sap. Catching hold of another one, he did the same. Freeing his arm.

With both his arms free, he grabbed onto a nearby tree, holding on for dear life. Gritting his teeth against the pain of thorns digging into his skin, he crushed more of the vines. The crows hopped over to him, pecking at his hand, trying to make him let go.

The beaks hurt, but they wouldn't kill him. Ignoring them, he kept working at freeing himself. Only swinging at the birds if they got too close to his eyes.

The vines started to loosen and slither away. Over a dozen of the hands were limp and being dragged along the ground, too damaged to work. Taking the opening, Alexander grabbed one of the crows that wasn't quite as fast as the others and snapped its neck, tossing the body at another crow.

The birds took flight, crowing fearfully.

Wrenching himself free of the last of the vines, he got to his feet. His clothes were shredded, he was bleeding from dozens of cuts, but he was mostly all right.

“Dela, you OK?” he asked.

'Ow. My head hurts,' she thought.

“Can you take over again? I have no idea where we're supposed to go.” He really didn't. The trees weren't quite as thick in the ravine as they were in the rest of the forest, but that wasn't saying much. He couldn't really see clearly more than ten or twenty yards in any direction, and while he could hear the howling of the werewolves, he didn't want to head straight for them.

'I think so. I know to watch out for birds now.'

He felt her rise up, and then he was watching through her eyes.

Jumping, she took to the trees.

Dela

The crows were annoying.

They kept trying to dive bomb her, making it hard to go in a straight line. Jumping to the ground to avoid another attack, she yelped in fear and had to dive to the side as an ant the size of a chihuahua tried to bite her ankle. It's jaws clicked menacingly together, and it lunged at her again.

Leaping upwards, she climbed up a tree, wary of the crows and tried to get her bearings again. Smoke was rising up all along one side of the forest, which wasn't very helpful. Flamer and Dwayne could be anywhere around there, or they could have already escaped through a crack.

Without thinking, her hand lashed out catching a crow by the neck. It croaked, beating its wings on her arm, and trying to claw her with its talons.

'Kill it!' Alexander thought.

She knew he was right. It wanted to kill her, but she couldn't bring herself to crush it's neck. Frowning she gave it a hard shake and threw it at the ground. The bird spread its wings, and nearly hit a tree before it got control of its fall. Cawing unhappily, it landed on a branch just out of sight.

The crows seemed to get the idea that she wasn't helpless and stopped flying quite so close.

'Why didn't you kill it?' Alexander asked.

“I don't know. It's not that easy,” she said, while jumping to another tree.

Flames erupted a mile or two ahead of them, well away from the edge of the forest. From up above something howled. Turning to look, she saw a fiery werewolf plummeting towards the ground. A moment later another portal opened up in the sky, Flamer and Dwayne fell out of it. Flames lit up the sky as the Warden unleashed fiery hell behind her. Another portal opened up beneath them and they disappeared from sight.

Alexander started cursing, while Dela looked all around hoping to get some idea of where the two had gone. There was a raging inferno back in the smokey area. Off to her left, she thought she saw a flicker of flame and smoke.

With no other ideas, she turned towards the flames and started jumping. She tried to go faster, taking riskier jumps, getting a bit more cut up from the branches as she pushed past them rather than trying to work her way around.

The crows were still following her, but they were mostly staying back.

“Do you think they're still there?” she asked.

'I don't know,' Alexander said. 'I hope they are.'

“What do we do if they're gone?”

'Survive and keep going. There has to be someplace safe, even here. And the Wardens have to be doing everything they can to get us out of here.'

“How do you know that? Maybe they can't, or they can't do it without everyone getting out. Maybe they'll just leave us here forever.”

'Look, we don't know what's going on out there. Worrying about it right now will get us killed. We need to deal with one problem at a- BEES!' he shouted.

Dela saw the swarm emerge from the trees at the same moment. The black cloud buzzed impossibly loudly, coming straight for her. She jumped blindly away, crashing into a tree top. Jumping again, she tried to gain some distance.

Something stung her ankle, making her shriek. It felt like she'd been shot. Liquid fire spread up her leg. She hit the next tree and found her leg didn't want to work. She could barely feel her foot through the pain.

'Switch!' Alexander shouted.

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She let him take control as they flew through the air.

Alexander

Hitting the ground, Alexander covered his face with his hands, hoping his skin was tough enough to protect him.

The bees circled him, their buzzing seemed to echo in his skull. He felt them land on him, searching for a place to sting. Their feet made his skin itch and twitch. He desperately wanted to brush them away, but he didn't dare let them get in his eyes, nose or mouth. Their stingers rose and fell, futilely trying to pierce his flesh, his eyes weren't as tough, and he wouldn't be able to breathe if they flew into his sinuses or throat.

A few found the cuts he'd gotten from the bush earlier. They stung him as hard as they could, but even there they couldn't do any real damage. The wounds burned, but it wasn't the extreme pain Dela had felt.

'Are you OK?' Dela asked. Her 'voice' was tight from pain, but she sounded better.

'I can handle this,' he thought back.

'We need to get moving. Any ideas?'

'No.' They both knew they couldn't just walk blindly through the forest. They'd eventually run into something that could seriously hurt him. But if they stayed here, they'd be easy prey for the werewolves.

The buzzing began to fade.

He couldn't see what was happening, but the bees started to fly away. His skin still itched and burned it places, still the reprieve was heavenly.

Peering through his fingers, he saw why the bees had flown away.

The forest floor and trees were hidden under a carpet of thumb sized ants. They moved as one, making it look like the ground itself was rippling, their dark carapace shimmered in the dim light. The crows which had been their constant companions, were flying well above the trees.

'RUN' Dela shouted.

Getting to his feet, Alexander tried to find somewhere he could run. The only clear bit of ground he could see was the three foot circle he was standing in. He wasn't sure if he dared step on the ants, there was no telling what they could do.

The ants stopped moving, raising their abdomens.

Alexander jumped out of the circle, his bare feet crushed dozens of the ants. Their carapace crunched, sounding a lot of like croutons being chewed. His feet burned, and he smelled cooked meat.

Streams of liquid erupted from the ants, coating his legs in acid.

His pants started to melt. His skin blistered, turning a brilliant red. He jumped again, biting back the pain. More acid splashed onto his legs. His skin tightened and burst open, exposing his muscles.

'Switch!'

Dela

Dela felt her feet burn. She jumped into the nearest tree, leaving the ants far below. Biting her lip, trying to ignore the pain in her feet, she leapt through the trees, not caring where she was going, just trying to reach the edge of the forest where they had a chance to get away.

Alexander's moans of pain filled her mind. She tried to block out the waves of agony coming off of him. Usually she had to concentrate to feel him when she controlled their body. Now the sensations threatened to overwhelm her.

Her leg still ached from the bee sting. Between her injured leg, the acid on her pants, and the acid burns on her feet she was clumsy and slower than usual. Instead of landing lightly on the tree branches, she slammed into them. Every jolt made her want to scream.

The buzzing of the bees rose in her ears.

She tried to go faster.

A branch tore free as she grabbed it. Tumbling through the sharp branches, she managed to catch herself before she hit the ground.

The swarm of bees surrounded her.

They began to sting.

Pain overcame her. She couldn't move, she couldn't think, there was only agony.

She couldn't tell when they stopped stinging. Their venom ran through her body, overwhelming her nerves with pain. She twitched and moaned, feebly trying to protect herself.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the pain faded.

Regaining her senses, Dela looked up into the face of an enormous wolf.

“You had best hope you're important girl,” the werewolf said in a raspy, digital voice.

A massive clawed hand encircled her, lifting her into the air. She whimpered at the pressure, her skin and flesh felt raw and open.

“COME HERE HEPHAESTUS!” the werewolf bellowed. “You have invaded my territory! Broken our treaty! Stolen my prey! Lycaon demand payment!”

Dela managed to look around. There were dozens of werewolves, many of them burned, they were surrounded by a flock of birds, dozens of insect swarms and the clearing crawled with insects. It looked like an army.

A whining sound filled the air. From the sky a silver vehicle slowly came into view, electricity arced along its surface. A hatch opened up and a man in shining, silver armour stepped out. He looked like a fantasy knight. Walking to the edge of the craft, he looked down at Lycaon and removed his helmet.

“Daddy!” Dela shouted.

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