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Description
Chapter 22

I’m not sure how long I was unconscious.  All I remembered was blacking out after that tower knocked Dreyfus and me down.  I opened my eyes.

Through my blurry vision I could see a dimly lit area made of wooden boards and beams.  To my right was a window overlooking what I assumed was Westvard.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes to clear the blurriness then looked out the window.  A clear, starlit sky covered the horizon.

Wait a minute…I thought.  Clear sky?  What happened to the clouds?

Before I could think on it any farther, a thump turned my attention from the window to the floor in front of me.  What appeared to be a giant spider had suddenly landed there.  At first it did nothing.  It just stared at me.  I cocked my head and stared back at it.

Then it started creeping forward.  I got to my feet and backed away from it.  I didn’t really care for where this was going, and to be completely honest, I was getting just a bit tired of things constantly trying to eat me.

A hand suddenly grabbed the top of my wing.  I looked back and saw an elderly man in some kind of robe standing behind me.

“Darn spiders.” He said.  “Once they settle in, there’s no getting rid of them.”

I turned back to the spider only to see that it had gone.

“I’d say you’ve got one big infestation.” I said.

Catching my joke, the man laughed.  “Yes.  I’d say so too.” He offered his hand.  “I’m Kanneui.  What is your name?”

I offered my hand and almost told him who I really was, but one of the voices in my head interrupted me.

Don’t give him your real name.  William said.  Don’t trust anyone here completely.

Whatever.  I said, not entirely sure it was William talking and not just Ted pretending to me him (which Ted sometimes did and sometimes it was hard to tell if he was or not).  “I’m Verterus.” I said, using the name I had taken as a kid when I had first been bitten.

“The Latin word for ‘change’, huh?” The man observed.  “You got the ending wrong, but that’s okay.  It’s fitting for you, changing into a vampire and all.  And believe me,” Right then, he seemed to change slightly…almost becoming spider-like.  I stepped back.  “I know all about changing.”

Once he had fully changed to spider form, the other spider came out from hiding.  And then a third from another shadow.

“Oh come on!” I said, “Enough already!”

A fourth one suddenly pounced on me from behind, knocking me off my feet.

“@#$%!” I swore and rolled over, knocking the spider off of me.  The others started coming at me, the first one reaching me before I was able to get to my feet.  I kicked it in the head repeatedly until it backed up.

By then the second one that had been Kanneui was upon me.  It was followed by the others.  I didn’t even have time to get out my Fire Blade through fighting off spiders.

At some point while I was on the floor I happened to look up.  Something was up there.  At first I wasn’t sure what it was.  It looked almost like a bell wearing a jester hat.  There were four of them hidden high up in the beams.

My first thought was, Oh great.  MORE things to attack.  But then I saw four clear cords in the air.  They were so transparent that I hadn’t even seen them until I saw the bell things.  Each cord connected a bell thing to a spider.

One of the spiders bit my wing while I was distracted by the cord.  It sat on the wing, chewing it while another bit my hand.  All four spiders started trying to take a chunk out of me.

But that wasn’t as bad as what happened AFTER they started biting.  The first one started changing again.  The changes looked very much like me.

I thought of Kanneui and how perfectly the spider had imitated him.  What if these things ate me and took my form and one of them attacked Dreyfus?

“Oh no you don’t!” I said and struggled harder.  When that didn’t work I almost gave up.  The spiders were a lot stronger than they looked.

Something in me snapped right then.  Whether it was an instinct reaction that was caused by my desperation to not get eaten or what I can’t say.  I felt a sudden tingling in my wings and noticed that red, glowing swirls had started appearing on them.

Fire suddenly burst out of the Fire Blade’s handle.  This was different than any other time I had used it.  All those other times the fire had only been a blade shape.  But this time, the fire exploded from the sword’s handle and swirled all around me.  I didn’t feel a thing but the spiders stopped chewing on me for a moment.

The fire traveled up the transparent cords and met the bell things.  The instant the bell things were hit the spiders started panicking, running all over the place while the bell things flew around.  The inferno blazed, burning them until they were nothing more than ashes.  Then the fire shot back into the handle like it did every time I stopped using the sword.

Cool. I thought and stood up.  I groaned, sore all over from the bites, and set off to find Dreyfus before some of those things got to him.

Description
Chapter 22

I’m not sure how long I was unconscious.  All I remembered was blacking out after that tower knocked Dreyfus and me down.  I opened my eyes.

Through my blurry vision I could see a dimly lit area made of wooden boards and beams.  To my right was a window overlooking what I assumed was Westvard.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes to clear the blurriness then looked out the window.  A clear, starlit sky covered the horizon.

Wait a minute…I thought.  Clear sky?  What happened to the clouds?

Before I could think on it any farther, a thump turned my attention from the window to the floor in front of me.  What appeared to be a giant spider had suddenly landed there.  At first it did nothing.  It just stared at me.  I cocked my head and stared back at it.

Then it started creeping forward.  I got to my feet and backed away from it.  I didn’t really care for where this was going, and to be completely honest, I was getting just a bit tired of things constantly trying to eat me.

A hand suddenly grabbed the top of my wing.  I looked back and saw an elderly man in some kind of robe standing behind me.

“Darn spiders.” He said.  “Once they settle in, there’s no getting rid of them.”

I turned back to the spider only to see that it had gone.

“I’d say you’ve got one big infestation.” I said.

Catching my joke, the man laughed.  “Yes.  I’d say so too.” He offered his hand.  “I’m Kanneui.  What is your name?”

I offered my hand and almost told him who I really was, but one of the voices in my head interrupted me.

Don’t give him your real name.  William said.  Don’t trust anyone here completely.

Whatever.  I said, not entirely sure it was William talking and not just Ted pretending to me him (which Ted sometimes did and sometimes it was hard to tell if he was or not).  “I’m Verterus.” I said, using the name I had taken as a kid when I had first been bitten.

“The Latin word for ‘change’, huh?” The man observed.  “You got the ending wrong, but that’s okay.  It’s fitting for you, changing into a vampire and all.  And believe me,” Right then, he seemed to change slightly…almost becoming spider-like.  I stepped back.  “I know all about changing.”

Once he had fully changed to spider form, the other spider came out from hiding.  And then a third from another shadow.

“Oh come on!” I said, “Enough already!”

A fourth one suddenly pounced on me from behind, knocking me off my feet.

“@#$%!” I swore and rolled over, knocking the spider off of me.  The others started coming at me, the first one reaching me before I was able to get to my feet.  I kicked it in the head repeatedly until it backed up.

By then the second one that had been Kanneui was upon me.  It was followed by the others.  I didn’t even have time to get out my Fire Blade through fighting off spiders.

At some point while I was on the floor I happened to look up.  Something was up there.  At first I wasn’t sure what it was.  It looked almost like a bell wearing a jester hat.  There were four of them hidden high up in the beams.

My first thought was, Oh great.  MORE things to attack.  But then I saw four clear cords in the air.  They were so transparent that I hadn’t even seen them until I saw the bell things.  Each cord connected a bell thing to a spider.

One of the spiders bit my wing while I was distracted by the cord.  It sat on the wing, chewing it while another bit my hand.  All four spiders started trying to take a chunk out of me.

But that wasn’t as bad as what happened AFTER they started biting.  The first one started changing again.  The changes looked very much like me.

I thought of Kanneui and how perfectly the spider had imitated him.  What if these things ate me and took my form and one of them attacked Dreyfus?

“Oh no you don’t!” I said and struggled harder.  When that didn’t work I almost gave up.  The spiders were a lot stronger than they looked.

Something in me snapped right then.  Whether it was an instinct reaction that was caused by my desperation to not get eaten or what I can’t say.  I felt a sudden tingling in my wings and noticed that red, glowing swirls had started appearing on them.

Fire suddenly burst out of the Fire Blade’s handle.  This was different than any other time I had used it.  All those other times the fire had only been a blade shape.  But this time, the fire exploded from the sword’s handle and swirled all around me.  I didn’t feel a thing but the spiders stopped chewing on me for a moment.

The fire traveled up the transparent cords and met the bell things.  The instant the bell things were hit the spiders started panicking, running all over the place while the bell things flew around.  The inferno blazed, burning them until they were nothing more than ashes.  Then the fire shot back into the handle like it did every time I stopped using the sword.

Cool. I thought and stood up.  I groaned, sore all over from the bites, and set off to find Dreyfus before some of those things got to him.