Free Victim of Fate by Jason Halstead

to snap his head around. He stared into the darkness but could
see nothing beyond the light of their torches. The others took
notice and fell silent, each searching for whatever it was that had
spooked the young warrior.
    "What is it?" Tristam whispered.
    "I'm not sure. I heard a branch break. A
deer, maybe?"
    "Those wasps went after horses; a deer
wouldn't last a minute!" Karthor reminded him.
    "I don't know then. Maybe a squirrel or a
falling branch. We'll not find it sitting here," Alto said.
    Namitus hissed to get their attention and
whispered, "I hear something."
    They turned as one to look at the rogue. Each
of them lifted their heads or cocked their ears to try to help
them. "Another stick?" Tristam asked.
    "No, it's…" Namitus paused, frowning. "I'm
not sure. Over this way though," he pointed down the stream.
    "Lead the way," Tristam bade him, abandoning
Alto’s discovery.
    Alto continued to cast glances to his left.
He feared whatever made the noise would be upon them when they were
least ready for it. Tristam's hand on his arm stopped him a few
moments later. Alto jerked to a stop and looked at Tristam, and
then ahead into the gloom. A darker shape lie ahead of them,
bridging the stream from bank to bank. Alto squinted harder and
realized that it was shifting and moving in the darkness.
    "Found it," Tristam whispered.
    The shape was a massive wasp nest, Alto
realized. A nest with wasps crawling over it. He heard the noise
now, too; it was a low hum that he hadn't even noticed at first. A
hum that was the beating of wasp wings.
    "That's going to take a lot of smoke,"
Tristam said. The stream was less than ten feet across and in the
shadows, the nest looked to be at least three times as long and
twice as thick.
    "Resting over a stream, too," Alto whispered.
"If it breaks or burns, it will fall in and put the fire out."
    "Got an army of giant bears on the prowl for
honey?" Tristam quipped.
    Kar cleared his throat. "Be careful what you
wish for, this forest may provide it."
    "What do you mean?"
    Kar shrugged. "There is fey magic about this
place. It's not mere superstition and ignorance that makes the
villagers call this forest enchanted."
    "Can we drop a tree on it or something?"
Namitus asked as he peered up into the towering trees around them.
Each one seemed sinister in the darkness, as though they would
reach down with their branches and grab them up.
    "Be silent!" Kar hissed. He forced his torch
into Namitus's hands and sniffed the air, and then began to mutter
a quick spell while weaving his hands back and forth in front of
him.
    Alto watched the wizard and tested the air
himself. He glanced about, remembering the noise he'd heard
earlier. Another noise intruded on the buzzing of the wasps, a
bubbling and popping noise. He followed his senses to the stream
and saw the water bursting as bubbles rose to the surface. "What's
that?" he asked, pointing at it.
    Kar finished his spell, only to curse a
moment later. "Back! Away from here! Now!"
    "What, why?" Tristam demanded.
    Kar grabbed his torch back from Namitus and
threw it ahead of them, towards the wasp nest. It fell short by a
dozen feet but it was close enough to cast a light on it and show
the wasps that crawled across the nest growing clumsy and losing
their grip. They fell off and landed on the ground or in the
stream. They continued to move sluggishly and then stiffened or
jerked to a final rest. "Some poisonous fog is arising."
    Tristam sucked in a gasp of breath and turned
away. He grabbed Alto and yanked him after him, but lost his grip
as Alto was staggered off balance by the abrupt motion. In moments,
they were all hastening away from the bubbling brook.
    Alto felt his vision swimming as they ran. He
slipped and staggered, and then pushed himself to his feet. He
looked up at one point and saw the shadows twisting and taking on
shapes of their own. Shapes with claws and beaks. Something reached
out of the darkness at him and knocked the torch from his