Chapter 6: Sisters

“We should hurry Niila. The sooner we get that information to father the better.” Hiravii reminded her younger sister as they run through the night on the treetops of the forest.

“I know sister. You don’t need to remind me every five minutes.” Niila talked back to Hiravii sulkily.

They were two elf scouts who were coming back from meeting with spy, who monitored undead army. Only thanks to him were elves alarmed about spreading corruption in their loved forest so soon. Corruption could be very dangerous especially with somebody like lich-lord Korpus the Smiling Death, as many called him, who was one of the best and deadliest necromancers the queen had in her services.

That’s why Hiravii was in such a hurry to report to her father, who was general appointed in the charge of small army, which was right now preparing to subdue the undead in their territory. Both Hiravii and Niila were his daughters that wanted to help in this fight so they applied for scouting. At first he wanted to stop them, but in the end they successfully managed to convince him.

Hiravii, forty years old, with light-green hair and sharp look in her eyes was one of the most skilled archers of school witch prepared the young elves for the life of a warrior.

Niila, twenty five years old, light-blue haired beauty was similarly gifted but with swords.

When they first heard about undead in their forest they immediately volunteered for scouting duty. Their father didn’t even want to hear about it first, but when they told him they will still participate he rather made them his personal scouts and asked them to meet elven spy for information gathering. That’s how they learned that undead were led by well-known and feared Korpus, their numbers and exact positions. With this information they were certain that they can banish all of the undeads before some disaster happens.

Right now they were on their way back to inform their father. It was an easy mission, because they weren’t really involved with real fighting. Even now they thought they are safe from danger as undead still didn’t have influence in this part of forest.

It was then, when Hiravii wanted to reprimand her younger sister again about the importance of quickness that she stepped into shadow lurker’s webbing.

“Hiravii, watch out!” Niila shouted in slight panic, as she tried to push her sister away from the trap. But she was only half successful.

Hiravii’s legs were caught in spider’s web as she was falling down from treetops, unable to free herself. Meanwhile Niila was caught in second part of trap that was mean for Hiravii as she pushed her out of it.

After few seconds, when they were finally able to look around, they were both tangled in webbing and unable to free their legs.

“This can’t be happening.” Hiravii said as she desperately tried to cut out of web. “This is shadow lurker’s web. They should live in Abandoned plains. I never heard of one being in this forest.”

“Then why is it here?” Niila asked frustrated from being bound and not being able to do anything about it.

“Corruption, it probably migrated here because it could feel the corruption in woods and it was easy to prey on forest animals.” Hiravii tried to explain, still hopelessly trying to get out of the trap.

“What will we do sister?” Niila sounded full of worry knowing shadow lurker’s web could be removed only when spider died. Web was magical and impregnated with spider’s mana and it became enchanted and almost indestructible till its owner didn’t release it or died.

Even if elves were very talented in magic, even they couldn’t just easily remove it. Without spider the web needed high quantities of mana poured into it. Also this mana must be of the dark attribute, or this method won’t work and only dark elves have this kind of mana. After these steps the initial imprint of the spider could be rewritten. Only then they would be able to get from it without killing the spider, but this needed at least four or five other people, so killing the shadow lurker was much easier.

It was when Hiravii tried to reach for her bow, which fell not far away from them, that shadow lurker appeared before them for the first time. Six big eyes were quietly measuring them, waiting to seize an opportunity for final attack. When it saw that Hiravii is trying to grab her weapon, but she can’t reach it, it quickly moved and attacked with its sharp front legs. Niila, paying attention, successfully warded with one of her swords and left a shallow scratch on spider’s body. Not being able to kill Hiravii as it intended, spider ran to safe distance, but it took the bow lying on the ground with it. After some minutes of watching them it vanished in the forest together with Hiravii’s weapon.

“That clever bastard took my weapon with him.” Hiravii cursed looking into the darkness of night.

“I never thought they could be that big. When I read about them, the book said the biggest ones reached only about 1 meter.” Niila sounded surprised after seeing the spider in real for the first time.

“Only when they have enough food. This one must have lived in forest for quite some time now. It probably came together or even before the undead legion.” Older sister spoke, as she borrowed one of Niila’s swords.

Spider returned a few times that night, but every time it only checked on them and then quickly left.

“What is it doing?” Niila nervously asked when it left few minutes before the morning sun started to rise.

“It’s probably waiting and checking when we will run out of food and lose strength so it can attack safely.” Hiravii guessed as she checked her almost empty flask with water. “As I said it’s a clever bastard.”

It was already their third night that they were unable to move from their web prison. Yesterday they finally run out of food and water, and only think that didn’t allow them to lose consciousness was their strong determination. As it was nights before this one, the shadow lurker was quietly observing them from the shadows of the trees around them.

“There it is, same as every night.” Hiravii alerted her sister as shadow lurker came little closer to them. “Hey Niila can you hear me?” She tried to shout when Niila didn’t respond to her first time. “Niila wake up, you hear me! Wake up!” Hiravii was now shouting loudly, because Niila lost consciousness, probably from dehydration.

Shadow lurker didn’t miss this opportunity and slowly tried to approach Hiravii from her blind side as she was the only one left who stood between it and a tasty meal. Just when it was prepared to jump and kill Hiravii, Niila finally woke up and threw her dagger she has to the one of its eyes, again successfully fending it off. Dark green, smelly liquid squirted from it as spider trashed around and then went back to the forest, probably to lick its wound, but they knew it won’t be long before it will come back.

When morning came both Hiravii and Niila were weakened and extremely tired, and they knew this was probably their last day.

“Do you think father send somebody to look for us?” Niila asked in weak voice.

“Probably not. He must think we were captured by undead and he won’t risk entire forest and tribe just for us.” Hiravii slowly shook her head, knowing the safety of their tribe was more important than just the two of them.

It was then that they heard some rustling noise in bushes near them. At first they thought that shadow lurker changed its tactic and tried to attack them in day, but then a little human, wearing full robe, appeared. He hesitantly came closer to them, but still stayed out of their swords distance. Then he revealed his face hidden under the cape. Full of surprise, two sisters stared at the imp who was curiously observing them.

“For the love of mother earth, that’s an imp.” Hiravii commented clearly surprised.

“What is he doing in this forest? He shouldn’t be able to survive here, I mean I heard imps are very weak and dumb summoned demons or not?” Niila asked still vigilantly observing the little creature.

“I don’t know, maybe it came from Abandoned plains after its master was killed or something. This is a first time I’m actually seeing one.” As they spoke, imp tried to came closer but Hiravii automatically threatened it with sword. “I didn’t survive this long to be killed by you.” She said to him, warning in her voice obvious.

“I sizga zarar quilmaydi. [I will not hurt you.]” Imp said as he glared at Hiravii when she pointed a sword at him.

“I don’t understand you.” Hiravii replied surprised he can talk.

“Biz bir-biriga yordam berishi mumkin. [We can help each other.]”

“As I said, I don’t understand you.” She told him again, this time also trying to gesture with her hands.

For a second he weirdly looked at her. Then he reached to the sleeves of his robe and brought out two sinister looking black daggers. When sisters saw this they readied for fight, but as imp put both weapons to the ground, they were left speechless. He showed them empty hands as he slowly approached them. As he came over he started to draw something in the dirt with his small finger. When he finished they could see something that resembled a drawing of the spider. He pointed at himself and two elves, then at the spider and made a cutting motion through his throat.

“You, you want to kill that shadow lurker. But why would you do it?” Hiravii tried to question him. When she saw that he didn’t understand her she had drawn question mark on the ground.

Imp probably understood what she wanted to ask, because after that he added small stone inside of the spider picture and then snatched it away. When he could see that she didn’t understood for the first time, he repeated that motion.

“I think that he wants its soul core.” Niila quietly commented still trying to grasp the unusual situation before her.

“I see. But we can’t help you. We are like in prison with this web, and after few days without food and water we are quite weakened.”

Imp didn’t understand her and pointed at question mark she had drawn before.

She showed him her empty flask and pretended fainting.

After few silent seconds imp snatched a flask from her, picked up his daggers and quickly vanished in the forest.

“That was the weirdest conversation I ever saw.” Niila pointed out with small smile on her bewitching lips.

“Tell me about it. But he is quite intelligent. I never heard of an imp who is capable of that kind of conversation.”

“Well, he stole our flask.”

“It’s not like it is useful to us anymore. He will probably steal our weapons too when the spider kills us.”

They tried to get some rest knowing they would need to stay awake and alert at night, when, after some two hours, the imp returned. He again dropped both of his daggers in front of them before approaching them. He gave their flask back, now full, and also brought two raw fishes with him. He left it all with elven sisters without saying a word and again vanished in the woods.

“I don’t believe it. He brought us food and water.” Niila stared at raw fish full of surprise. “Yack, raw fish is quite disgusting, but I guess it’s better than starving.” She said biting the fish with grimace plastered on her face.

After that imp came back few times with some fruits and fishes. When night finally approached, he gestured them that he is going to hide for now. That night shadow lurker checked on them a few times, but seeing they were still alert, it never dared to attack again. It was probably resolved to wait till they starve.

Next morning imp again returned with fruits for breakfast and went to refill the flask.

“Others will think we went mad if we tell them that we were fed by demon.” Niila commented nonchalantly eating them.

After their meal he again asked them if they will help him kill the spider. This time Hiravii agreed.

“But I will need my bow to help you.” She said while drawing a bow with arrows on the ground.

When imp again pointed at question mark, she drawn quiver on tree and shoved him tree, where she was captured with web. With his hoofs he wasn’t able to climb, so he threw stones at quiver until he successfully got some arrows. It took him almost two hours, looking like some kid playing some kind of a game. Then she showed him that bow was taken by shadow lurker and he again vanished in the forest.

This time it took more time before he returned, but he returned with Hiravii’s bow. Two elves couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw it.

“Remind me to kiss him if we survive this.” Niila said jokingly, starting to finally see some hope about their situation.

After that imp watched the surroundings so they can finally take a little rest. Night was slowly approaching when they saw imp preparing to hide somewhere close, where he can probably surprise the spider.

“Wait, what’s your name?” Hiravii asked really wanting to know.

When imp looked back at her not understanding she pointed at herself saying:”Hiravii.” Then at her sister: “Niila.”

“Malakhay.” Were his words.

* * *

I was finally able to get those elves help me kill the shadow lurker. I must say that they were quite demanding. One would though they would be happy when somebody, who wants to kill the creature that wants to eat them, appears. Not only was I made to feed them, I was even made to fetch theirs weapon. I was lucky that the spider discarded that bow before its lair. If it were inside I wouldn’t be able to get it. Even outside was quite hard to get it back. One wrong step and I could have ended like them, entangled in web. When I get back I will need to ask master if every elf is so selfish.

Day slowly fades away and I’m waiting nearby, hidden in bushes, prepared for the spider. Both women are lying on the ground, probably pretending that hunger and exhaustion finally got them. Well I hope they are only pretending, because if they really fainted that thing will eat them, and I surely won’t be able to kill it alone. I can only suicide-attack it, or return to master empty handed so that he can kill me personally. In that case master will be probably more painless option.

I can finally see it. It’s studying the two elves, probably making sure that they are really knocked out. Huge spider slowly approach’s them, coming dangerously close to both. While it’s preparing to finally attack and devour the smaller one, she moved and slashed at it with one of her swords. Spider tried to react and almost immediately jumps backward, but it was too slow. Small elf was quicker than I though and successfully cut of one of its legs. Spider loudly hisses at her while showing its deadly fangs. Then it tried to attack again, now more wary of her, making her its main target.

The other elf suddenly sat up and fired two arrows at it in quick succession. Both of them finding their rightful place in its eyes. Probably surprised from sudden pain, spider stood on its back legs trying to let loose arrows in its eyes. Both elves seeing it as great opportunity attacked again, this time together. Smaller one threw her sword at it and the other one fired another three arrows. Sword pierced it under the head and arrows ended in its mouth.

As I observed them I knew that if they willed it, they could have killed me even while being bound. If all elves are so good and quick at fighting I will need to be extremely careful in this forest. Even I understand that even one good placed arrow from them can kill me easily.

But I needed their help, so I started to sneak to spider from behind. Both elves seeing me, tried to keep its attention on them while shouting something. They did a massive damage to it but it still wasn’t enough to kill it. Master taught me that I must pierce its heart in order to kill it. Otherwise it will heal itself with time, as if nothing happened. Master showed me that heart is located in lower part of its abdomen.

As I came closer and closer, making sure I didn’t make any sound, I readied my daggers. I could hear my heart beating like crazy. My hands full of sweat, I’m starting to think that this wasn’t such a great idea. For the first time I realized that this is really stupid, I mean that creature is many times bigger than me and I was just born a few days ago. After this realization, just when I prepared to run away back to the shadows, the spider noticed me. It lost interest in elves before it and turned around to a new threat, ready to cut me with its front legs. Seeing me, as I was trying to sneak close to it, it slashed with its right leg. I did the first thing that came to my mind and sky-dived under its leg sweep. I could feel the sharp edge flying close to my head as I near-dodged it with sheer luck.

More confused than the spider, I found myself lying under its body. Having some serious problems because of my hoofs, the shadow lurker recovered sooner than me and tried to pierce me with its other leg. Something flew over with “SWOOCH” sound and with “PENG” it slammed to the leg slightly changing its path. Thanks to it, it pierced only my shoulder. Sharp pain woke me up from confusion, and when I stared in front of myself I could see the spider’s exposed abdomen. Being so close its short, black hair almost tickled me. With ‘It’s now or never feeling.’ I jumped second time stabbing the spider. With my whole arm burrowed in its abdomen the dagger in my hand finally reached its heart.

From sudden pain the spider threw itself backwards and started to squirm from side to side with high pitched piercing, screeching sounds. I was flung to air, flying about 10 meters away from it when I collided with tree stump. It hurts but I forced myself to watch the spider. It slowly stopped its trashing and now only its legs were trembling and twitching. It took about 10 minutes till it finally completely stopped moving. I still didn’t want to risk anything, so I waited for about another 5 minutes till I dared to approach it again. Meantime I’m examining my shoulder which is now pulsing with sharp, burning pain. It’s bleeding and I have problems moving my arm because of it, but master will probably be able to heal it when I return to him.

I slowly come closer to big unmoving body and stab it with my second dagger which was still ready in my hand. When I see no reaction I finally sigh and sit down with exhaustion. Looking around I see two elves waving and saying something. I can see smaller elf’s second sword near the dead spider. I remember the crashing sound when it tried to slash me and I realized that she must have thrown it to save me that time. They probably want my help to cut the spider’s web that is still holding them. But I don’t trust that they will let me go. After all this is their forest and from what I understand master’s master is in war with them.

Ignoring their noisy shouts I take back my dagger embedded in spider’s heart and start to work on its poisoned fangs. Master told me that two will be enough for him, but I better take all six of them. I store them in small pouch provided by master so I’m not hurt by their leftover poison on my way back. Now for its soul core. If I remember correctly it should be somewhere behind its head. So I carefully start to dissect that area because I don’t want to damage it. My hands are bathed in green blood because of it. Master told me that soul core is quite fragile thing and if I want to quickly kill something I should always aim for it. The only disadvantage is that soul core will be ruined and can’t be used afterwards.

When I finally found it I slowly take it out. It looks like black, mirror-like sphere. I must hold it with both of my hands, because it’s quite heavy and as large as my head. It will be hard to bring it back with my injured shoulder, but I should be able to do it if I take my time. Done with everything I needed to do, I look at elves one more time. They are still wildly gesturing me to release them, but I don’t plan to do it now. With soul core in my hands I won’t be able to escape from them and they will definitely try to catch me. With this as my last thought I disappear in the darkness.

* * *

“That little sleazebag left us here.” Niila shouted at least tenth time.

Angry at Malakhay she vented her anger whole night this way. Hiravii wasn’t as vulgar as her but she was also quite irritated by him. She thought they had a deal, but it seemed like he betrayed them. They helped him kill the shadow lurker and he left them bound in its webs.

“And I even save his life when I threw my sword.” Niila grumbled, helplessly trying to break the web with her hands.

“It can’t be helped. We can only hope that somebody will find us again.” Hiravii tried to sooth her. “Thanks to him feeding us we at least earned more time.”

“Yea, but what if it ends like before? This time we will really die from hunger.”

Hiavii couldn’t say anything to that, because she knew it was the truth. But something felt wrong and she couldn’t find out what, and it bugged her. She thought that Malakhay would try to steal Niila’s swords when he didn’t help them, but he left them lying near spider, as if uninterested in them. Some time ago she was taught that lesser demons are greedy and stupid, but Malakhay clearly didn’t belong to this category. His communication with them and behaviour was quite clever.

When she thought about this she could hear Niila again.

“Something is coming.”

Anticipating worst scenario, that some other monster will pop-up, they readied themselves. Straining their eyes trying to find out what it is, they could only heard some rustling sounds. Then finally, from nearby bushes, Malakhay appeared. Studying them with suspicious look he stood before them few seconds, as if trying to decide what to do.

“What do you want, you traitor.” Niila asked with voice full of renew anger.

Malakhay’s eyebrows frowned as if he understood her, showing dark expression. He returned to spider’s corpse and slowly picked up one of Niila’s swords. He examined it and tried slashing with it a few times.

“Hey, that’s mine!” She still tried to preach, until Hiravii stopped her.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to agitate him right now.”

“And? What will he do? Attack me? Sorry Hiravii but I think I can take him on even in this state.” She said as she glared at Malakhay again.

Probably finally satisfied with testing Niila’s weapon he looked at Hiravii with unreadable expression. Seeing him coming closer she thought he will attack them any minute, but it never happened. Stopping roughly 5 meters away from them he tossed the sword in his arms with great difficulty. Seeing they can reach the weapon he didn’t wait, turned around and started awkwardly running to the forest.

“What just happened?” Niila asked, staring with open mouth, not yet understanding the situation.

“Can’t you see? He returned to help us.” Hiravii said, trying to pull the sword with the help of her bow closer to her. When she was finally able to reach it, she started to cut the web that was binding them for last few days.

Finally free they collected their other weapons.

“Why did he come back when he left us before?” Niila still didn’t understand.

“He was probably just cautious of us.” When Hiravii saw Niila’s still confused look she continued: “Didn’t you noticed how slow he was at running away? Also, he is injured from that fight and I could see that soul core was too heavy from him, so if we wanted to catch him he wouldn’t stand a chance against us and he knew it. He probably also somehow understands that we don’t like when demons roam in our forest, so he definitely thought we will try to either capture or kill him. So he probably went and hid that soul core first and only then returned to free us.”

“Ok, but why bother with returning when you could be killed?” Niila still asked, now also freeing herself the same way Hiravii did.

Hiravii shrugged her shoulders: “That’s the part I’m not so sure about. If I should guess, it’s probably because he wanted us to be in his debt. Maybe he thought that if he should let us die, other elves will surely sooner or later find our corpses. With dead spider robbed of its soul core they would be able to see that somebody used us as bait and they would try to hunt him down. But he helped us and surely knows that we will inform others of what happened here. He also knows we will inform them about him as he is still a demon. He runaway thinking, maybe we don’t have time to play hide-and-seek with him and if one of elves catches him later, he probably won’t be killed so easily because he saved us previously. See, this way we are in his debt and own him our lives” She said smiling.

“That’s a lot of maybe and probably don’t you think?” Niila commented after listening silently.

“As I said, I’m only guessing at his point.”

“If it’s like you said he is one hell of a smart guy.”

“He sure is and I hope we will meet again.” Hiravii again revealed a charming smile.

“What, you in love with him now?” Niila tried to make fun of her.

“Don’t be stupid. Of course I’m not.” Hiravii rebutted it knowing Niila is joking. “But he is the first demon that didn’t try to kill me as soon as he saw me. We can surely learn a lot about them if one is willing to negotiate and talk.”

Knowing they have to return as soon as possible they didn’t even think of tracking Malakhay down. So after retrieving their weapons they were finally able to go back to their mission. After all they had an important task to inform their father, one in charge of elven army, about undead legion camp in their forest, so that elves can destroy them.