When I fell out of the shadow nothing moved around me. It was still night out but, from how far the moon moved, it was already past midnight. I didn’t see any others from the group or the spider creatures, but I knew better than to just trust my eyesight at this point.

If the creatures were smart they might have left a lookout behind.

I listened to the moonlit woodland around me, but it was just as silent as it had been during their first ambush. That could mean there was one or more still hanging around or every other creature was keen on stealth or keeping out of the spider creatures’ territory. I couldn’t blame the forest animals even if the eerie silence didn’t help my nerves.

The air was thick with the scent of pine, though there was also an undercurrent of blood and…rot. I hoped no one had been severely injured after I escaped into the shadows. Despite the chaotic mess of a fight, I didn’t remember anyone bleeding heavily before then. Three spider creature bodies were sprawled out under the trees and I thought the faint scent of rot came from them.

I kept as still as I could as I scanned the area for my missing weapons. Better to be as prepared as possible before I made more noise to give away my position.

My knife lay a handful of feet away, outside the shadow I was crouching in. I must have let go of it after the creature punched me. Rawley would have chided me for bad form, and I agreed with her, but now that I could think properly, I knew that it wouldn’t have been much help unless I could have pulled the blade free of the creature’s bite.

I didn’t see my spear, but I thought I remembered where it had been headbutted out my hands. As long as it wasn’t broken or trapped under one of the bodies, it shouldn’t be too difficult to recover.

After checking the branches overhead again, I crept to my knife, wiped it carefully in the grass to clean it off as best as I could, and then sheathed it. I breathed a tiny bit easier after that. It was much better to have at least one weapon that I knew could harm the monsters.

So far it didn’t seem like a lookout had been left behind, but I didn’t lower my guard. They had waited in the trees, unseen, until Colm lit up the shadows with his sparks. If there was a lookout it could be waiting for the best time to strike.

Keeping one hand near my knife, I kept my movements low and slow as I inched closer to where the main fight had taken place. I circled around the spider creature that I had killed with Fern.

If anything, she was the most likely to have also escaped the creatures’ clutches. She had the experience and skill with the goddess’s boons to pull it off easier than I had, and she could leave the shadow paths from a different one from what she entered. Best case scenario she was able to take someone with her. From what I knew, she didn’t have the skill yet to pull in two other people with her or, if she did, Fern needed the darker, bigger shadows that made opening an entrance into the shadows paths easier.

My spear was where I expected it to be, but, because nothing ever seemed to be easy, one of the dead creatures had fallen on top of it. I tried tugging the spear free but it didn’t budge under the creature’s weight. If I could shove the creature’s bulk over two or three inches or get it to roll over then my spear would be free. The trouble was that it had taken me and Fern to pull the one off of Colm during the fight—and moving the storming thing would likely ruin any semblance I had of stealth.

Debating my options, I scanned the area around me again, looking for any other weapons that might have been left behind. A long line on the ground drew my eye and I made my way over to it. Another spear but its point was shattered. So one way or another we would be down at least one spear. A knife was buried in the joint of the third creature. I pried it out and added it to my pack since I didn’t have a good spot on my belt. A pack with a broken strap lay on its side a little further away. A few things had strewn across the ground and I gathered them up before looking through the pack.

It still had the bedroll attached to the bottom and the standard traveling supplies inside. If that was all it had I wouldn’t have been able to tell who it belonged to, but then I found the jar of sleet beetles carefully tucked in a change of clothes. My jaw clenched. It was Wren’s pack.

On one hand taking the pack with me would throw me off balance, tire me out quicker, and make it more difficult to move stealthily or fight. On the other hand, there was no guarantee that we could come back for it and I didn’t want to leave perfectly good supplies behind.

A bit against my better judgment, I stuffed the items that had fallen out back into the pack and slung the good strap over my shoulder. It hung at an odd angle against my pack and was heavy, but I left it there with the excuse that I could always drop it if I needed to.

In the spirit of continued recklessness I went back over to where my spear was trapped under the creature. If I was taking the pack, then I was also taking the spear since it could do a lot more harm to the enemy. Besides, nothing had attacked me yet and if it did I’d have another weapon to defend myself with.

In the end I had to take both packs off and press my back against the spider abdomen while digging my heels into the ground to move the storming thing the necessary inches. They weren’t huge creatures, but they were heavy. As soon as it moved enough I snatched the spear up and crouched behind the body. Ready and waiting.

No attack came.

Relaxing slightly again, I took a little time to examine the dead creature next to me. Rawley had liked to point out the importance of gathering as much information as possible in a reasonable time frame. It was difficult to be flexible and prepared if you didn’t have any information to go on. I could hear her voice in my head, calm and firm, “Everything is a resource”.

The creature’s skin—outer shell might have been more accurate—was a tough, thick layer of wood. It was a kind I didn’t recognize, but that was hardly surprising given that it wasn’t on a plant and the creatures were hardly natural. I was careful to avoid the spit that had oozed from the creature’s mouth, but it was clear from looking in its mouth that the creature did have flesh beneath its outer armor. I couldn’t tell the color in the moonlight, but its blood was clear. I hadn’t noticed them bleed a lot during the fight, but that could have been because the blood and spit were difficult to tell apart. The oddest part, however, was the crystallized wounds at random points across its body. The crystal patches were all of varying sizes and depths, but the deepest ones seemed to have ate through the wooden shell and exposed the flesh underneath.

I’d have to go for those in the next fight. The bigger patches would be easier to aim for than the joints or mouth and there was a chance I could hit something vital if I got my spear deep enough.

Very carefully, I pulled out one of my empty jars from my poisoner’s pouch and filled it as best as I could with the creature’s spit. I wasn’t sure if such a small amount would do anything and I very much doubted that it would work on the creatures, but part of me was curious if Prevna could make use of it with her mark. The creatures’ wooden bodies could also make good fuel for a fire if we had a way to bring them with us, but that wasn’t going to happen now.

I pulled both packs back on and kept my spear in hand as I started to scout around for tracks. While getting dragged across the ground was hardly a pleasant experience, part of me hoped that it had happened to the others just for the obvious tracks it would leave behind.

No such luck.

I did find some gouge marks in trunks of a handful of different trees and a couple on the ground that pointed me in a general direction, but I wasn’t able to follow them for long. The creatures had taken to the trees and, while I could try to climb every tree and check it for marks, I doubted I could do so before I ran out of supplies and the others ran out of time. Instead, I kept going in the general direction that the original trees the creatures had swarmed up indicated and hoped they hadn’t laid a false trail.

I also kept my eyes open for any signs of others who might have escaped the creatures’ clutches. There had been some human tracks near where we had fought, but I couldn’t tell if they were from the fight itself or after.

About a quarter of an hour after leaving behind the last gouged tree I found the first arrow. Someone had drawn it in chalk on the trunk of the tree. It corrected the course I had been going by a few feet. I made a mental note to add chalk to my pack next time. In the ground a few clear footprints had also been made. They looked to be the size and shape that would belong to someone in our group.

Obviously, someone else had also escaped and found where to go. Like me, they hadn’t waited for anyone else to appear from the shadow paths—it wasn’t practical. In the chaos of the fight, it was unlikely to see someone else disappear into the shadows and, if you did, there was no way to tell if they had already left the shadows before you or not. Not unless we had picked a time or place to gather and there hadn’t been time for that. Better to try to find the others and leave directions for anyone else who might be following after.

After that, I paid extra attention to tree trunks. Arrow after arrow guided me in the correct direction. The further I went, the more cautious I became. Just in case I accidentally caught up to the spider creatures before I was ready.

Which was why, when something small flew right toward me out of the branches, I aimed my spear for it first and decided to ask questions later. Rather than being a new spit attack, I got pecked on the nose after Chirp flew around my spear.

I glared at him from where he perched puffed up on my shoulder. “Next time don’t dive straight at my face right after we got attacked!”

I could tell that he wanted to twitter angrily at me, but he held himself back after he hopped a little to look in the direction he had come from. He settled for biting my ear instead and I had to remind myself why it would be a bad idea to snatch him up and shake him for few minutes.

Chirp fluttered up from my shoulder to a branch a little further off and looked back at me. I followed him. He took me to a small cluster of bushes that hid a small dip in the land where two low hills met. Fern and Breck met my gaze as I pushed past a handful of prickly, thin branches.