“Will you play with me?”

When Lin had yelled at the creature, she hadn’t actually expected a reply. So she stared at it dumbfounded, mouth agape as she tried to process just how to take the situation.

“Hello? Can you understand me? Aren’t you a friend of Morgan’s?”

The mentioning of the witch’s name snapped the teen back to reality, this whole surreal suddenly making much more sense than it had only moments ago. Of course this thing was related to Morgan, why wouldn’t it be?

The creature calling itself Avalon stared up at her, its jewel-like eyes patiently waiting for a response.

“Did she send you?” Lin asked at last. “Morgan I mean.”

Avalon tilted its head at the question, almost appearing as if it was actually considering what was being asked. “Would you play with me if I said yes?”

“What?”

“She sent me. Morgan sent me. Come with me to see Morgan!”

“Wait, what?!”

Without explaining itself the six-legged ferret then scurried off, only stopping at the edge of the horizon as it looked back and waited for Lin to follow.

“What… what the heck?” Lin scratched her head, the situation obviously beyond her grasp. On the one hand it was certainly crazy if not idiotic for her to suddenly go following some magical creature to who knows where it wanted to take her. But on the other, if Morgan had really sent this thing to come find her, something must have been wrong.

“Haaaaah!” she screamed to no one. “Whatever!” Hopping back onto her bike, with renewed gusto she followed after the mustelid. So much for an ordinary day.

Avalon as it had already proven, moved faster than what its stubby legs would have led to believe. As if by magic (in fact it probably was magic decided Lin), it kept its distance ahead of her, only stopping to look back every so often to make sure that she was still following. “Hurry,” it would say. “This way.”

It had to have been about 15 minutes of this pattern, during which Lin noted that there was strangely no one else around as they passed numerous streets and buildings. Had Avalon chosen a route where it knew no one would see them? Or was there something else to blame?

Before she could wonder just how much further they had to go, the air suddenly thinned as they seemed to pass through an invisible membrane. Looking up, the shape and colour of the sky distorted under the influence of a heavy cloud of miasma. For better or worse, they seem to have entered a magical barrier of some kind.

“Are you sure Morgan’s here?” Lin asked, disliking the situation more and more as they ventured deeper into the fog. It was getting hard to breathe and she could swear it was getting colder. This was not a place for humans to be.

“Over there! She’s in there!” Avalon stopped at last at the edge of a hill, eagerly wagging its tail as its destination was finally in sight.

Catching up to it, Lin then felt her stomach drop at what she saw below them. There was supposed to be a daycare there, wasn’t there? But now instead a giant white dome, large enough to cover an entire square block stood in its place.

As she got closer, she noted that the dome seemed to be made of thin strands of fine thread. And closer still, her suspicions and fears were realized as little black spots skittered across and hid themselves deep within the glossy structure.

As impossible as it was the dome was made from web, and as such– it was a nest of spiders.