Free Eye of the Wizard: A Fantasy Adventure by Daniel Arenson

like a baby as usual. "A hundwed mowe a-awchews wait b-behind me. I wiww s-s-summon dem if you d-d-don't weave."
    That was a lie, of course. She had been on this island for a week now, and had not seen another soul. But these humans had just arrived and did not know that.
    Cobweb bit her lip. The past couple weeks had been difficult, the hardest in her life. Only two weeks ago, she had lived the good life, frolicking with her fellow spiderlings through the forest. And then her sixteenth birthday had arrived. Her Star Ceremony. Cobweb blinked away a tear, her stomach aching with the memory.
    Standing on the hilltop, her arrow drawn, Cobweb shoved that memory aside. She couldn't dwell on the past now, not as humans lurked below, ready to eat her. Everybody knew that spiderlings were humans' favorite meal.
    "Hello up there!" came a voice from below. The girl with the short black hair, shield, and sword was yelling. Her name was Jamie, Cobweb remembered; she had heard it spoken as the humans sat around their campfire. "I don't want to hurt you," Jamie called, "but if you keep firing arrows, I'm going to cut off your head. Okay?"
    "This island belongs to all outcasts," added Scruff, the warrior who was either a gargantuan human or a compact giant. The arrow still stuck out of his shield. "That's what Hermit Island is for."
    Cobweb shivered; their voices sounded demonic to her, so rough compared to the silky voices of spiderlings. She could imagine them trussing her up, placing her into a pot with carrots and turnips, and cooking her into spiderling stew. She yelled down to them: "I-I-I won't wet you e-eat me!"
    "Eat you?" Scruff called back, peeking from behind the fallen log. "We don't want to eat you."
    "I might," the demon Romy said, peeking from behind a boulder, her eyes afire. "I am a bit peckish, now that you mention it."
    Cobweb's fingers trembled, and she worried she wouldn't be able to aim her arrow. "Humans eat spidewwings, d-d-don't dey?" she called down.
    Scruff sighed and peeked from behind his shield. "No. Don't worry, we're not planning on eating you."
    "Speak for yourself," Romy muttered, her hair of flame crackling. Scruff hushed her.
    "I... I just c-can't twust you," Cobweb said, heart racing and fingers trembling. "You stay b-bewow da hiwwside. You stay dewe, I'ww s-stay up hewe. If you c-come up da hiww, I'ww shoot you."
    Cobweb turned to leave, walking into the copse of trees that crowned the island, the only trees here with some leaves. From up here, she had a view of the entire island. Let the humans stay there below, she thought. The crest of the island was her territory, and she would defend it. She tried to push aside the thought that she had only seven arrows left. It would have to do. She wouldn't let those creatures eat her.
    It was getting dark, the sunset twinkling over the lake. Cobweb found a tall tree and climbed it, then concealed herself behind branches and leaves. Her dagger on her thigh, her bow slung over her shoulder, she drifted off to sleep.
    * * * * *
    The night was rough on Romy. No matter how she tossed and turned, some stone or root poked her back. She was used to sleeping in a big, fluffy bed surrounded by warm fires, miles underground. All this open air was not for her. She missed having stone surrounding her. She missed her teddy bear and her downy blanket. She had been on Earth for only a week or two, but every day seemed more tiring, every night more restless, and Hermit Island was the worst place she'd seen so far.
    Romy rolled over again, muttering. She reached under her back and pulled out a pebble, then tossed it aside with a curse. The humans slept around her, Scruff snoring like a drugged Slime Devil. How could they sleep on this rough, cold ground? Romy sighed, opened her eyes, and tried to count the stars, but soon gave up. There were too many. She missed seeing the stone ceilings of Hell, not this endless and distant sky that seemed to swallow her.
    Could Neev magically