Free The Hollow: At The Edge by Andrew Day Page B

surprise
here. The others ran them down.”
    Serrel didn’t want to
see it, but he couldn’t seem to drag his eyes away. There were the
remains of four bodies, dumped in a rough heap on the forest floor.
They had been ripped apart, and barely even resembled anything
human anymore. What remained of their bloodstained clothing was
coloured Imperial green.
    There were two large
crows standing on the bodies, picking at the flesh. They had
strange iridescent feathers that shimmered different colours. As
the group approached, the birds looked at them haughtily with eerie
green eyes that glowed in the dim forest.
    Dogbreath kicked the
first bird savagely. It squawked angrily and took off, followed by
its partner. He and Caellix examined the bodies as the others
formed a rough perimeter and stood guard. Caellix found a bronze
coin still on a metal chain around the neck of one, and the remains
of some sergeants strips on another.
    “Beaumont,” she
said.
    “You can still smell
the oil in his hair,” noted Dogbreath. He didn’t laugh, or even
smile.
    “They were killed, then
they were eaten,” Caellix added, matter of factly. “Looks like the
Ferine took their weapons and supplies.” She stood and wiped her
bloody hands on her pants. “Come on. Let’s find that other
soldier.”
    They backtracked to
where the group of fleeing soldiers had been divided. They took the
second path, and followed the lone straggler. As they progressed,
the trees in this section of the forest grew closer together. The
canopy was dense and blocked out a lot of the light. Then Serrel
noticed odd patches of white among the tree branches. Like thick
white cloth and...
    “Boy’s fast,” Dogbreath
said as he examined the footprints.
    “He gave this Ferine a
merry chase,” agreed Caellix.
    “Maybe he got away,”
said Holly.
    He didn’t. They found
his body hanging between two trees, wrapped up in the strange white
cloth like that Serrel had seen in the tree tops. Except it wasn’t
cloth. It was a giant spider’s web, spun between the two trees. The
soldier had run straight into it in his frantic haste, and the
web’s owner had wasted no time wrapping him up tight for a future
meal. Serrel could just see the spider now, lurking high in the
tree branches, its mottled orange and black body just visible in
its vast web. It was almost as big as he was.
    “Is... Is he alive?”
Holly asked, her face pale. “We stood cut him down.”
    “No point,” said
Caellix. “The spider’s bite is poisonous. He’s slowly melting from
the inside out.”
    “That’s... There has to
be something we can do.”
    Caellix nodded.
“Brant.”
    Brant sighed, and
lifted his bow. He fired a single arrow at the man’s chest, and
killed him. The impact sent tremors up the web. The spider stirred
up above, and unfurled long spindly legs. Holly lifted her own bow
to shoot it.
    “Don’t,” said Caellix.
“That won’t solve anything. It’ll just make a mess.”
    “It killed one of the
Legion!”
    “It’s just doing what
it needs to to survive. Killing it will just draw attention to
ourselves.”
    Holly held her bow
raised for a moment, her arms shaking slightly. She looked ready to
shoot, like she was desperate to shoot. Or scream, or hit something
repeatedly until she wouldn’t have to feel anything anymore.
    Slowly she lowered the
bow, and released the tension on the string. She took a deep
breath.
    “What now?” she asked.
“Are we going to take the others back to camp?”
    “Too many bodies,” said
Caellix. “Besides, the Legion won’t be there by the time we get
back. We need to move forwards.” She joined Dogbreath where he was
searching the tree line. “Well?”
    “Pointy eared git’s not
bad,” replied Dogbreath. “He’s like oil. Straight into the trees
with barely a mark. Nearly as good as you.”
    “But he isn’t me,” said
Caellix with feeling.
    Dogbreath looked over
at her, and grinned. “No, he isn’t. Heheh.” He stayed low