My word count is now at 54,618
Every author knows there is nothing more annoying then flies buzzing about one’s head while they are trying to write. And so, when the girls heard that low buzzing coming their way they knew they were in trouble. All authors know what buzzing flies sound like.
Jumping off the rock Ness and Jo joined the other girls on the ground. “That sounds like flies,” Laura said as the girls dropped down beside them.
Joy shuddered as she said, “Flies?”
“Ugg!” Rose grunted. “Flies are terrible!”
“Muse killers!” Jo said as she looked up at the sky.
The buzzing was getting louder. Ness looked at the other girls and said, “Should we wait for them to come?”
Though they were not really scared of the flies it seemed foolish to just wait around for them to come and get them. Not all flies are nice, and in books being written by characters it is certain that they will not be nice at all.
The buzzing grew louder; the ground seemed to be vibrating with the noise. Jo shook her head. “Those are not normal flies, come on, we need to get out of here!”
Quickly they looked around for a place to hide. At first they saw nothing and they were beginning to think they would have to stand and face the flies when Rose saw a black hole in the side of a tall hill. Though they could not be sure that it would be a place to hide it beat standing out in the open doing nothing, so they all ran for it.
Behind them the buzzing was growing so loud it seemed to be filling the air. All the earth seemed to be vibrating with the noise, they ground seemed to be shaking, this making running next to impossible. Laura stumbled and fell once, and Joy stopped to help her up, then once more they raced toward the black hole.
Ness was the one who dared to look back; the sight she saw made her skin crawl. Behind them the sky had turned back from the horde of flies that were sweeping toward them like a huge storm cloud. The very thought of all those flies crawling though her hair, no more like dancing, flies like to dance in author’s hair, was enough to make her scream. It wasn’t the scared kind of scream; no it was an angry, irritated scream that escaped her lips.
The other girls looked back and felt their skin crawl too, which came as no surprise. The sight also made them run faster. They had nearly reached the black hole when the first of the flies landed on them, crawling slow and lazily up their arms, dancing through their hair, running races about their ears and doing all in their power to annoy.
The girls swung at them as they ran, but the flies managed to escape getting hit as only flies can. The hole was very close now. They pushed on harder; they could see the black hole looming toward them, growing bigger with each step.
Rose was the first to reach it. Without a glance back she dove through the low opening, she was quickly followed by Joy and Laura, then Ness and Jo. Jo saw a rock leaning against the wall. Running to it she ordered the others to help and they rolled it over the entrance of the hole, locking out the horde of flies proceeded to beat against the rock trying to get in.
Some had managed to get in before the rock was rolled into place. These buzzed about in a loud, annoying manner and got on the girl’s nerves. There was a light filtering into the cave, and by it Jo found a stick, this she grabbed and proceeded to beat the flies.
The other girls found sticks as well and with a vigor they attacked the rather large flies until every last one of the annoying bugs were dead. They were about to throw down their sticks then, only to realize how much like swords they looked and felt like. So they decided to keep them.
“Now what shall we do?” Joy asked as she looked back at the rock. The flies were still beating against it.
“Go down into the cave I guess,” Jo said who, being the oldest, had sort of taken charge.
The girls stuck their sticks into their belts and with mumbled agreements followed Jo down, deeper into the cave.
C ran a hand through his hair and leaning back in his chair asked, “Now what should happen?”
Thaddeus shook his head and muttered, “Something bad, something really, really bad!”
“Oh that is real creative,” Justin muttered.
“I don’t see you coming up with anything!” Thaddeus countered.
“I can come up with something better then, bad, really, really bad!” Justin scoffed.
“Oh put a sock in it!” Cedryck snapped.
Sonega crossed his arms over his chest and grinned. “Once you four are doing going at each other’s throats I have a plan!”
The others turned to him and he smiled. C seemed to understand when he saw Sonega was holding a notebook. Yes! That was a perfect plan! Why he had not thought of it before C knew not, all he knew was that he was now about to get back at Jo!
That cave was cold and dark, but there was a light, gray and dim, that was shinning right in front of them. It lit enough of the cave so they could see where they were going, but not enough to penetrate the blackness. It was a ghostly light, sickly in color as though it was old. They would have liked to have gotten a closer look at it, but it always stayed three feet in front of them.
“Do you think someone is carrying it?” Ness asked as she stared at the light.
“It is not moving up and down,” Joy pointed out. They all knew if someone was carrying it, it would be moving up and down as the person walked.
“It is a gloomy light,” Rose said. “Almost looks sad.”
They might have told her that was a ridiculous thing to say, that lights cannot look sad, but they were all thinking the same thing.
“We should just ask if someone is up there,” Laura said as she dug her finger nails into Joy’s hand. She was feeling a little nervous about the light.
“Is anyone up there?” Jo called out; though she spoke loudly the blackness seemed to eat up her words.
The light continued forward not so much as pausing.
“This is kind of creepy,” Rose whispered. For some reason she thought she had better whisper now.
“Should we turn back?” Joy asked wondering which would be worse, the light or the flies, her skin crawled at the very thought of the flies.
Jo looked back over her shoulder; all she could see was blackness, a heavy blackness that looked like it could smoother. She shook her head and looked at the light again. Though it was a rather frightening light at least it was a light, and light was better then blackness.
“We should keep following the light,” she finally told the other girls, and so they continued on.
They walked for what seemed like forever. In fact they were certain that it was forever. They had forever been following the light because that was all there was to life, blackness and following a gray light through the blackness. This is a depressing thought and so it can come as no surprise that they all fell into a depressed mood.
After a long, long while, or what seemed a long while, Ness said, “I am hungry!” Her voice sounded odd in the cave.
“So am I,” Laura said. She had released Joy’s hand because she had begun to believe this had always been her life and there was no need to fear something you have always known.
“What do we have to eat Jo?” Rose asked the older girl.
Jo reached down for a bag that for some reason she knew would be on her belt. She was not surprised when she found the bag there, she pulled it free and opened it saying, “Bread of course.”
Yes, of course, that was all there ever was to eat down there. They knew this for some reason. They also knew the only water there was to drink down there was gotten from off the cave walls were it was always dripping. After eating their hard and dry bread they stopped to drink and then continued on.
If you were to ask them what the bread and water tasted like they would have said, “Bread and water.” They no longer knew what stale bread and dirty water tasted like because they had already forgotten what fresh bread and clean water tasted like. Had they remembered they would have said this bread was nasty.
They had all fallen into a dull and board state when all the sudden the light stopped. This was so strange that they too stopped and stared at it. They knew the light did not stop unless they stopped, but here it was, the light had stopped before their very eyes.
“What is wrong with it?” Joy asked dully. “Is it broken?”
“Did it die?” Rose asked as she let her arms fall limp at her side.
“Can we fix it?” Laura asked, though she did not sound as though she wanted it fixed. She was just as dazed as the others.
Jo moved toward it and this time it did not move. The others followed Jo as she closed in on it, two feet, one foot. She was upon it now, and slowly she reached out her hand and touched it. It was smooth and hard. Jo moved her hand over it until it came to rest on a piece of paper. Jo pulled the paper free and moving it close to the dull glow read, “For more light turn knob.”
“What is a knob?” Ness asked with a yawn.
Jo moved her hand over the light again until it came to rest on a round thing, Jo turned it. Slowly the light turned from gray to white and it lit up the cave. The blackness did not like this but it fled backwards seeming to promise it would have its revenge.
The girls all blinked in the sudden burst of light. They did not know what to think of it and so said nothing. Ness noticed a long pole that was holding the lamp up. Someone had been carrying it and now that someone had just vanished. That could only mean two things. One he was truly gone, or two he was hiding somewhere and was watching them.
Jo picked up the light and turning held it above her head. She nearly dropped it when she saw a pair of beady eyes watching them all. Jo gasped and the other girls turned, only to gasp at what they saw.
Behind them stood a huge spider, he stood about thirteen feet tall, huge fangs that were dripping with either droll or poison. It seemed to be smiling at them, but why not? It had them in its claws and it was going to find a way to slowly eat them now.
“Turn their wood sticks into swords!” Sonega was saying.
“Why?” C muttered. “Everything is going so well!”
“Because we are making them fight a spider, the least we can do is give them real swords.” None of the other characters had thought about that of course, and to Thaddeus changed them to real swords.
Jo reached down and pulled her stick from her belt, only to discover it was a real sword. The spider looked at her and blinked his ugly eyes. The other girls drew their swords and the spider seemed to think this was funny. He let out a noise that sounded like a laugh.
“Be off spider or we will have to kill you!” Jo cried.
The spider shifted his feet. Then without warning he shot forward, he was very fast for such a big spider. He was running for Laura, who froze for a moment, and really no one can blame her. Just at the last moment she snapped out of her daze and thrust her sword forward where it met the spider.
The pain was unexpected and the spider leaped back and howled. The sound was so loud the girls all covered their ears.
The spider jumped about in agony for a moment before realizing they had all dropped their swords. Quickly he rushed them again. This time he was able to reach them before they picked their swords up. He grabbed Ness and was about to carry her off when Joy grabbed her sword and rammed it into his leg. With another howl of pain the spider dropped Ness.
Ness hit the ground, landing on both feet, and running back to the others grabbed her fallen sword.
Jo looked up at the spider as the girls all stood side by side. “Come and get us if you dare!” she cried and her voice echoed through the cave.
The spider blinked and met her gaze, and then rushed at them all. It is not a nice thing to see a spider charging you, in fact it made them all a little nervous, though they did not show it.
No one moved as the spider thundered toward them, moving so quickly it was hard to keep their eyes on him. It was even harder when he began to run quietly, not make a single sound as he ran.
He was nearing them when he moved out of the white light and vanished into the shadows. Without thinking Jo ran at the spot wanting to shed light on it before he popped out of some unexpected spot and got them all. The moment she left the other girls the spider pounced. He leaped out at her, fangs gnashing as his eyes fell upon her.
The other girls saw him as Jo nearly dropped the lamp in her haste to ward him off with her sword. Throwing aside fear and caution they ran at the spider and all managed to jab at him several times.
The spider turned on them and with a sweep of one of his legs, which was wounded, he knocked Joy and Rose on their backs where they lay winded. As they gasped for breath Jo leaped at the spider waving her sword in one hand and the light in the other. The spider looked right into the light, before shoving a leg forward and tossing Jo backwards were she crashed into a wall and dropped the lamp.
Laura froze, fearing the lamp was going to break, thankfully it did not, though the spider saw that Laura was looking at the lamp and not him so used the advantage to knock her onto her back. He then turned upon Ness who was hacking away at one of his legs.
He wanted to eat her, by then he was really hungry being all the fighting had worked up his appetite. Though he was not crazy about little girls, he preferred grown men, there was really nothing he could do. After all, picky spiders were starved spiders.
He was moving in, about ready to eat Ness and then turn on the others, when Laura did a very brave thing. She was very scared about doing it, but throwing caution to the wind she climbed up on a rock and leaped onto the spider’s back were she jabbed her sword into his back.
Pain tore through the spider and he wreathed about violently. Laura lost her grip and went flying off the spider, still holding onto her sword. Thankfully Jo managed to get to her feet and caught Laura before she hit the rocks. The spider did not fare as well.
In great agony he screamed and stomped about but there was nothing he could do. In the end all his howling and wiggling in pain succeeded in doing was cause him to fall over were he wreathed about on the ground for a long while before he finally died.
The girls all stared wide eyed at the spider. They did not move toward him because they were not really sure he was dead. But what after seemed like years Jo picked up a rock and threw it at him. He did not move an inch and so she moved closer to him. She then noticed he was not breathing, they had killed him.
Once they realized this they all sat down with relief. They did not stay down long however before they decided to move away from the spider. Once they were far enough away that they could no longer see him they all sat down again. They were so glad to be rid of the spider that they closed their eyes and relaxed.
“I would not care if I never saw another spider again!” Joy mumbled without opening her eyes.
“I very much agree,” Laura said with a shudder.
Ness once more saw the spider moving in to eat her and had to shove the thought out of her mind.
Rose settled back against the cave wall and suddenly realized how tired, and how comfortable she was. She smiled to herself and slowly let herself drifted off into a very deep sleep. The others soon followed, they all were starting to realize all that walking had worn them out, not to mention the fight.
They were all a little sore from the battle but they did not let this bother them, instead they made themselves comfortable in their spots and then, once they were settled, fell asleep. They later wished they had posted a guard, but then again, what good would that do seeing as they were all as equally tired.
No sooner had they all fallen asleep then the rock wall in front of them opened like a door and a small, rough looking man stepped out. He looked at all the girls and then closely at the light. A breeze blew down the tunnel carrying with it a foul stench. Someone had killed a spider.
It took the man a full minute to realize these girls must have killed the spider. These five little girls? Killed a spider? That was hard to grasp, he knew grown men who were not able to hold their own against one of those big and hungry spiders! He knew armies of men that were eaten alive, armies of heavily armored and armed men at that!
After checking their swords the man had to consent and admit that these girls had indeed killed a spider. Slowly his shook his head and without a word picked up the nearest girl. His king was going to like this, yes he was going to like this a lot! The man stepped back into the wall and the hole closed behind him, leaving the four other girls fast asleep behind him.
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