Marquis froze, staring at the huge spider hanging above him, dread coiling in his gut. He swatted his legs against a tree, springing off it. He crawled and got up on his feet and sprinted back up the mountain.
The huge spider landed where he was and gave chase, its bloated abdomen twitching as it scuttled forward on bristled legs.
Marquis's body screamed at him to run, but his boots slipped on loose gravel as he backpedaled. The spider lunged at him, and he barely dodged, rolling sideways as a barbed leg speared the ground where he'd stood.
Pain flared in his shoulder—he had hit a rock—but he forced himself up, sprinting for a cluster of boulders. Maybe he could wedge himself between them.
A whip-like strand of webbing snapped around his ankle.
Marquis crashed face-first into the dirt, his scream echoing off the mountain. The spider reeled him in, its mandibles flexing in anticipation.
He clawed at the ground, fingernails breaking against stone, but the silk held fast.
"No. No, no, I can't die just yet. I'm too close," he said.
As the creature loomed over him, Marquis twisted, grabbing a jagged rock from the ground. The spider struck, its fangs sinking deep into his thigh. White-hot agony seared through his leg, but he roared, tears dripping like waterfalls from his eyes, and swung the stone with all his strength.
A sickening crunch echoed as it connected with one of the spider's eyes.
The beast shrieked, recoiling, its grip on the web loosening just enough. Marquis didn't hesitate. He wrenched his leg free, ignoring the tearing pain as the fangs ripped out of his flesh. Blood soaked his pants, but adrenaline kept him moving.
He stumbled behind boulders, gasping, pressing a hand to the wound. The spider thrashed, disoriented, but it wouldn't stay that way for long. Marquis had to move. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he started running up the mountain as fast as he could.
While limping up the mountain, a thick silk web grabbed his leg again, stopping him in his tracks.
Marquis looked back and noticed the spider reeling him back down.
"Ngrrh. No, let me go!" he screamed, looking around for something to use as a weapon.
He grabbed a stick, then started hitting the web that was stuck to his feet to no avail. Annoyed, he groaned, then threw the stick at the spider, but it did no damage at all. He lifted his right leg up and grabbed the web stuck to it and started pulling on the web when suddenly—
Thud!
He slammed into a tree.
"Ngrrhhh!" he groaned.
Still getting pulled, Marquis threw his hand to the left and grabbed something. Kareem instantly fell. He looked back only to see Marquis holding on to his leg.
"Please help me," Marquis pleaded.
"Let me go, you little shit!" Kareem's face was ugly with rage. He started stomping on Marquis's face with his left leg until Marquis let go and continued being reeled in by the spider.
Marquis pulled his leg up again and grabbed onto the web and started pulling again. Once his mouth reached the web, he started chewing on it like a maniac, trying to get loose.
The thick web finally snapped, and Marquis was free. He grabbed onto a tree to stop sliding down and quickly started running back up the mountain. He felt something graze him and looked up only to see Dex jumping over him, running like a madman. He looked behind and saw the spider running towards him, behind it was a huge snake, and above was the fire-breathing griffin creature.
"I can't die, no, not when I'm this close," Marquis groaned, running up the steep mountain.
Kareem reached the part of the mountain with a flat surface and stopped to catch his breath, only to see Nia and Ethan running towards him, and a roar followed them.
"Another one?" he said, shocked. He was about to turn and run when he heard a voice.
"Kareem, over here!" He turned and saw Chloe hiding inside the open doorway in the huge boulder. He instantly ran into the pathway to hide. Behind him, Dex emerged from the steep part of the mountain onto the flat surface, following Kareem into the open pathway in the huge boulder.
"Over here, over here!" Kareem, Chloe, and Dex yelled, signaling for Nia and Ethan.
Nia was holding Ethan's hand, helping him run. Kareem and Dex let out their hands, ready to pull them in.
Kareem grabbed Nia and pulled her into the doorway, and Dex grabbed Ethan, instantly pulling him in, Ethan barely missed by the giant wolf's claws.
Marquis emerged flying with flames behind him. He landed on the flat surface face-first, his back burnt. He quickly got up, stumbling, and started limping towards the open doorway when he saw everyone else there.
"Run, Marquis! Run!" the crew yelled. Marquis was trying his best. Behind him was the huge spider and snake, and to the side up front was a huge bloodthirsty wolf running toward the open pathway, trying to intercept him.
He ran with sweat, tears, and snot running down his face at the same time. When he was only a few meters away, he jumped, and the wolf jumped at the same time.
He made it to the doorway first, but the wolf's claws ran across his back as he fell into the doorway, screaming in pain.
The creatures started to run towards the pathway, but the pathway closed in their faces.
The group stood on a stairway cave that led down inside the mountain.
"That was so fucked up, you guys," Kareem said, gasping for air.
They quickly turned on their flashlights to make sure there weren't any more creatures hiding inside the cave. They sat down, finally resting, their bodies battered and bruised.
"The fuck, Kareem!" Dex yelled.
"What did I do? You wanted me to wait around to get eaten alive?" Kareem retorted.
"All you had to do was listen to me, and all of this could've been avoided. Why the fuck did you run?" Dexter's anger was palpable.
"Bro, why would I wait around to get—" Before he could finish, he was interrupted.
"Shut the fuck up, Kareem. I don't want to hear a single peep from you, OK? Look at us—all this hurt, it's all your fault man."
Everyone got silent for a few minutes. Kareem wanted to speak, but his fear of Dex stopped him. He couldn't accept being blamed for all of this, he was just trying to survive.
Dex then took a deep breath. "What the heck was that, Marquis? You better have an explanation about this," he asked, clearly angry.
"I don't know," Marquis replied, wheezing in pain, his back burnt and with bleeding claw marks on it, and his leg still in pain from the spider bite.
Nia jumped in, "You better start talking. What the heck is going on here, Marquis? You're the one who got us out here searching for that magic orb thing."
All eyes were on Marquis. His mind started racing, looking for an answer.
He got up, climbing, and answered, "Maybe they were protecting the Ancient Orb. They were probably trying to stop us from coming in here. They only started to attack once we opened this doorway, so maybe the Ancient Orb is in here."
"Well, we can't go back out there and face those things, so we might as well go down these stairs and see what's down there," Dexter reasoned, burn marks from the snake's acidic venom visible on his face.
Except for Chloe and Kareem, everyone else in the group was injured. After a few minutes of rest, they got up and started walking down the stairs. The walls had beautiful, colorful stones on them. When one of their touches hit one of the beautiful stones, the stones lit up, shedding light on all the stairs.
The crew slowly made their way down the stairs while praying that they didn't meet any more creatures down there. Dex had Ethan's remaining arm across his shoulders, helping Ethan walk. It took them a few minutes to reach the end of the stairs.
When they finally reached down deep inside the mountain, they were greeted by a bed of green grass and beautiful flowers. There was a beautiful garden inside the mountain. The garden had beautiful trees, flowers, and different kinds of fruits hanging down from the trees. The atmosphere was amazing and relaxing, with the air being as fresh as fresh air could get.
Walking into this amazing garden, they felt warm energy around them. Green strands of energy rushed towards them from all around the garden, and their wounds started healing slowly. Dex sat Ethan down and was surprised to see his arm slowly growing back.
"Wow! This place is amazing," Nia said.
Chloe chimed in, amazed, "Yeah, it's beautiful."
"Yo, I'm all healed up, bro," Dex said, looking at Ethan. Ethan got up, stretching his new arm.
"I thought I was a goner, man," Ethan retorted.
After all of Marquis's wounds were healed up, he got up and stretched his hands, feeling relieved, and stretched his back. He could finally walk with his back straight. He looked around, his eyes lingering, searching for something.
His eyes stopped when he saw the moonlight shining at the center of the garden. His interest was piqued. He started walking towards the center of the garden.
Kareem noticed that Chloe was frozen in place again, staring at something. Her eyes were fixed on a swing hanging down from one of the trees. It was swinging on its own, going back and forth.
"Chloe! You good?" Kareem asked, concerned and scared that she might have found something weird again.
She quickly snapped back to reality, looking at Kareem.
"I'm fine, it's nothing," she said, shaking her head. Her eyes flew back towards the swing, and she noticed that it was just frozen in place. Confused, she shook her head and brushed it off.
"Let's go check out the rest of this beautiful garden," she said, walking in front of Kareem, who quickly followed.
Marquis finally reached the center of the garden. He saw two huge hands made of tree vines that seemed to have come out from the ground. The two green vine hands were holding a metallic bluish-purple orb. The orb had runes and symbols engraved in it and seemed to be glowing a bit.
A grin appeared on Marquis's lips as he started walking towards the orb. He reached his right hand forward. The closer he got to the orb—
"So that's the magical, wish-granting orb we almost died for, huh?" Dex snarled.
Marquis was startled by Dex's voice and quickly turned around, scared, and looked down.
"Yeah. I think this is the Ancient Orb of Power," Marquis said, his voice laced with nervousness.
"Thanks for helping us find it, little buddy," Dex said in a mocking tone.
"Guys, look. It looks like someone died here," Nia said while pointing at a human skeleton that was lying to the far right of the Ancient Orb. The skeleton was lying atop a beautiful bed of flowers, and the bones were shining with a white glow. Next to it, they saw a basket of fruits, and the fruits were surprisingly still fresh even though the basket seemed to have been there for a very long time. The basket literally had plants growing out of it.
"Do you think that person died hiding from those creatures outside?" Nia asked, her mind racing with the thought of spending the rest of their lives inside the mountain.
"If that's the case, then our best bet of making it out alive is that magic orb, granted it works and can really grant us any wishes we want," Dex said while placing one of his hands into his pocket.
"I doubt this thing even works, 'cause if it worked, that person would've survived. I'll go first," Ethan insisted.
"Yo! Nerd, how does this thing work, anyways?"
Marquis quickly looked at Ethan.
"I don't know. Maybe just place your hand on it and make a wish, I guess."
"Okay, here goes nothing. What should I even wish for?" Ethan's mind went crazy, thinking about all the things he could wish for.
"Oh, I know," he said, placing his hand on the orb. He looked back for a second, embarrassed about believing in such nonsense. Behind him, he could see Dexter already about to burst out laughing.
"Make a wish, bro," Dex said, holding back his laughter.
"Bro, shut up," Ethan replied, laughing at himself.
Ethan's mind went back a week ago, to his orphanage.
"You need to get a job, Ethan. You're almost 18, and we'll have to kick you out, so please get a job and save some money for yourself," an old nun who ran the orphanage said.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I got an interview coming up," Ethan lied and continued, "Just get off my back, you old hag."
All Ethan could think about was his situation. Where was he going to live after getting kicked out of the orphanage? His only problem was lack of money.
"OK. Here I go. I wish I was the richest man in the whole world," Ethan declared.
The Ancient Orb started glowing. Ethan's eyes were wide open as he felt a weird sensation, his mind racing.
"I think it's working," he said. Then it stopped glowing.
"Uhhh, was that it?" Ethan asked, confused.
Marquis kept on staring, hoping and wishing for the orb to work.
The rest of the guys looked at each other, then burst out laughing.
Dex pushed his chest forward.
"I wish I was the richest man in the world," he said in a mocking voice, mimicking what Ethan said, then burst out laughing with the rest of the crew.
"Bro's broke as shit," Kareem jumped in.
"Man, fuck you," Ethan said, feeling embarrassed. Suddenly, his phone started vibrating nonstop. He quickly pulled it out of his pocket and answered.
"Hello!"
"Greetings, is this Ethan Reed?" the voice of an older male asked.
"Yeah, is something wrong?" Ethan asked.
"I'd rather talk in person, sir. When are you coming back from your trip?"
Ethan was confused. "I'll be back later today, I think," Ethan replied.
"Okay, I'll be waiting for you, young sir," the older male hung up.
Ethan was confused, but that wasn't the end. A bunch of messages started appearing on his phone. He opened the messages one by one.
"Wait, dude, you're getting phone signal out here? My phone stopped working as soon as we got here," Dex said, and the rest of them jumped in, complaining about not getting any signal too.
They were confused when he didn't reply, so they looked over to him, and his mouth was on the ground, shocked. He was reading the messages he had received.
"Greetings, Mr. Reed. Congratulations on inheriting all the Reed family fortunes."
"Greetings, Mr. Reed. Congratulations on inherit—"
"Greetings, Mr. Reed. Congratu—"
Ethan was shocked. His wish had been granted.
"Dude, are you okay?" Dex asked, worried about his friend.
"It—it came true. Guys, the wish came true."