Chapter 19: Mother’s Call

Mother’s Call

 

“Alright it’s time to light em up then.”

 

“What?”

 

“Oh yeah, I never said what I was trying to do with that first plan, I just sprung it on you two. Well, sit back and watch, because it’s my time to shine.”

 

With that, the strange man teleported away once more. Gregor thought he was foolishly reckless, but couldn’t deny that if Alteep survived, it would likely be due to Logan’s actions. Still, he could afford to explain his ideas in more detail. It was starting to frustrate Gregor.

 

As if the man could hear his thoughts, Logan appeared on the other side of the wall of flames, behind even the twisted spiders. If anything went wrong, there was simply no way for Gregor to make it over to assist, so all he could do was keep plugging the gaps in the flames and sneak occasional glances.

 

Gregor reached a breaching point and battered at the two spiders trying to force their way through. They were less wide than natural spiders, but their increased bulk was still too much to fit comfortably through, which worked to Gregor’s benefit. After a couple slashes almost sent them into the roaring chemical fires, they skittered away, looking for other gaps to squeeze through.

 

Suddenly a piercing shrieking noise rang out over the battlefield. Gregor took the reprieve he earned to look over at the source of the noise. As he thought, Logan had done something strange again.

 

Somehow, he had managed to cover a spider in its own incendiary spit, and it was writhing in pain, flipping itself from front to back, alternating sets of legs as it tried to scrape the foul secretions off its carapace.

“Now how did he do that?” Gregor mused aloud.

Logan had been making chaos.

 

As soon as he had teleported into the enemy lines he was already lambasting one of the spiders with their own noxious medicine. As the orange goop sprayed from the new orifices located at the heel of his palm, it landed heavily on the abomination only a couple meters from Logan. 

 

For a brief moment the spider's carapace just sizzled under the toxic chemicals leaving it free to turn on Logan before the ignition occurred. Then the mixture burst into flames and the spider collapsed in a rictus of pain, a horrible screeching coming from its mouth. Logan winced both because of the noise and some instinctive sense of sympathy. 

 

This was a mistake, as the other spiders turned on the noise and began rushing Logan’s position. As he looked back, four huge forms were already within ten feet of him and were closing in fast. Once again, Logan's inexperience showed.

 

Although he had been training intensively, Logan hadn’t really faced real combat before. He had tried to seek out the opportunity, but to no avail, and now it was evident, as once again Logan flinched back.

 

This was especially costly, as Logan needed to see in order to teleport, which meant his instinctual closing of the eyes would likely cost him his life. As he imagined oblivion closing in again, Logan’s resolve hardened. 

 

Not again, I refuse to die again so soon!

 

Reaching out, Logan flashed through the pattern for Root almost instantly, seizing control of the little uncharred plant life left around him. It wasn’t enough to stop all four of the remaining spiders, but it might be enough to move him.

 

With a mental command, the cords of prairie grass flung Logan about twelve feet towards the sky. Shooting upwards, Logan felt the whistling of the air beneath him as the spiders just narrowly missed out on skewering him. Logan’s escape wasn’t complete yet, as the spiders waited for gravity to return their prey to them.

You are reading story Through the Void (and Back Again) at novel35.com

 

Unfortunately for them, Logan wasn’t about to wait for gravity to move him around. At the pinnacle of his arc, Logan popped out of existence and reappeared behind the fires, his already arrested momentum allowing him to gently land on the ground.

 

“Welcome back.” Gregor said.

 

“Thanks, you should have seen it out there, the traffic was killer.”

 

The blank look on his face made Logan crack up, despite the situation.

Now that the spiders weren’t actively pushing to get past the barricade their comrades unwittingly constructed, the trio could once again take stock of the situation. Standing side by side, Amar, Logan and Gregor watched the fires smolder and flicker while finally, the largest threat appeared on the field. Literally.

 

The horde mother and her brood towered over the other combatants and made her adversaries tilt their heads backwards in order to fully observe her. Logan decided right then and there that after today, he would try to avoid looking too closely at a spider. Ever again.

 

Freshly hatched spiderlings ran down her tremendous legs and joined the fray, spreading out with their older brethren to line up against the wall of flames. Still, the abominations showed patience, and waited for something. Logan tried to remain positive, but seeing the forces arrayed against them, and not seeing them fall to animal instincts meant that any battle would be prolonged and bloody.

 

“Troops, reinforce my son’s position!”

 

Almost fifty pairs of feet stomped out of the village’s edge, and Logan’s spirit buoyed. Gregor’s dad had showed up with reinforcements of their own, and now the two sides could really throw down.

 

The horde mother must have been thinking the same thing, because that was when it made its move. A huge foreleg swept out across the semi-permanent wall of flames. Although the napalm collected on the horde mother, she gave no indication of pain, and simply brushed open a wide breach, directly in the center of the field.

 

Then she let out a shriek, and all the humans covered their ears. The shriek sounded like the call of banshee through autotune, all layering vibrations at a decimal and pitch that made Logan think his ears would bleed.

 

Then thankfully the cry tapered off, and all the defenders had to do was stop the horde of spiders running down their throats. Logan’s new life surprised even him sometimes, but this was exactly the sort of thing he had imagined doing. Only in all those daydreams, he hadn’t imagined it would happen after only a couple weeks revived.

Jeremiah knew he didn’t have much time left. That’s why when Bennett showed up in the clearing, tears came freely from his eyes. Bennett had been one of Jeremiah’s true friends and companions in this life, both titles he used sparingly. However, the big fuzz ball letting out concerned pants was one of them.

 

Honestly, Jeremiah hadn’t minded being born an outcast. His size had kept the worst of the harassment to a minimum and instead people had just left him alone. The quiet had been his friend and mentor, since his mom passed.

 

She had been the one to teach him about the old ways of the world, and about the history of the elves. His childhood had been filled with their ancient heroes, those who carried the Goddess of Life’s will into the world. Those had been the days when he had woken up with purpose.

 

Then she had died, and somewhere along the way, Jeremiah lost sight of those heroes. Eventually he’d lost sight of everyone else entirely, and had wound up entirely alone. As he found himself aging, with no one to pass his life lessons onto, he had tried to rectify that, but it was too little too late. Even the one time he had dared to hope fell apart quick enough.

 

Then Jeremiah lost sight of even that. It wasn’t until Logan had showed up that Jeremiah found himself cracking the occasional smile. He had never been a very warm person, but still, it felt good.

 

He was glad to have gotten the chance to truly live for a couple more weeks, before his time expired. Really, Jeremiah thought it was more than he had deserved, as he felt the last of his strength leave. Right as his mind was fading, Jeremiah thought he heard a very familiar voice say, ‘Join me.’ before he passed.

You can find story with these keywords: Through the Void (and Back Again), Read Through the Void (and Back Again), Through the Void (and Back Again) novel, Through the Void (and Back Again) book, Through the Void (and Back Again) story, Through the Void (and Back Again) full, Through the Void (and Back Again) Latest Chapter