Jinxton lifted his head up to the air and sniffed. The smell was of sweat and fear and sadness. Lovely smells.
Jinxton lunged forward, and the two other Arachnids followed. Quickly, Harry stuck out his hand and grabbed the lead Arachnid by one of the arms. His exoskeleton was as hard as a rock; so hard that it hurt Harry’s fingers. Jinxton whirled around, his sword out and ready. He snarled.
“Unhand me, wizard-Elf,” Jinxton growled.
The other Arachnids had drawn their swords as well. Harry didn’t let go. Now was not the time to let these creatures dominate him; it was he who was leading this mission, and he alone.
“Cool it, Spider-Man. Do you know Spider-Man? Big-time comic book hero on Earth. Ah, I can tell by the crossing of your eight eyes that you don’t know Spider-Man. Well, you should,” Harry whispered harshly. “Anyway, we don’t move on them yet.”
“But they’re vulnerable,” Jinxton said.
“Yes, sitting ducks,” another Arachnid said.
Harry cocked his head. “ ‘Sitting ducks’? Where’d you hear that one? That’s an Earth phrase. You been sneaking off to the other world, my friend?”
The Arachnid averted his gaze, obviously uncomfortable.
Harry looked back to Jinxton. “We move out once they finish digging. Unless you idiots wanna have to do the digging instead? No? Okay, didn’t think so. Once they’re done, they’ll be so wiped out they won’t even be able to cast a simple water spell. And you guys aren’t too magical, right? You can’t dig without physical labor, and I don’t trust my own magic enough to do it.”
“So we let them do the hard work for us?” Jinxton said, confused.
“Duh,” Harry said. “That’s a little trick I’ve picked up in my travels. Besides, the easier the fight, the more pleased your giant spider queen will be.”
The Arachnids nodded at that.
“Don’t want to disappoint her now, do ya?” Harry said, smiling. He could see that he had won the argument , and that was all that mattered. Winning.
“No, we don’t dare disappoint our Queen,” Jinxton said. “Or she will rip out our innards with her giant fangs.”
“Yeah, I saw those fangs. They definitely look like they could do some innard ripping.” Harry looked through the trees at Ignatius Mangood and the other wizard whose name he did not know. “So we wait. Sit back and relax, my eight-legged friends. Pull up a chair, and maybe bring the lemonade.”
“Lemonade?” Jinxton asked.
“Ah, an Earth delicacy. A reward for hard work,” Harry answered.
“But we aren’t doing any of the hard work.”
Harry grinned his best grin. It was a smile that had been known to charm the pants off many women in his travels. “Exactly,” Harry said. “It’s not like we have lemonade, either. But I digress.”
The Arachnids looked back and forth at one another. With a slight smirk, Jinxton taunted, “Can’t you just conjure up some lemonade, you wizard-Elf?”
Harry sighed. “Oh, how I wish I could do that. Perhaps, maybe I could…if I tried hard enough. But I think I should save my magic for when it counts, like for when Ignatius and his wizard friend try to kill us.”
Jinxton grunted. “That’ll be the day. I’ll not let a wizard kill me; not even the great wizard Ignatius Mangood. His Arachnid-slaying days are over.”
Harry rolled his eyes. He was done with the conversation. The more they talked, the more likely they were to be found out by the enemy. Harry brought a finger up to his lips, and the Arachnids squinted their eight red eyes at him, not understanding the gesture. Harry turned his back on them and mumbled, “You freaks should really get out more.”
“What was that?” Jinxton grumbled.
“I said, ‘These peaks really look like Blackmore’.” Harry didn’t know the meaning of his statement, but it confused the Arachnids enough to shut them up.
They sat in silence for some time, while Ignatius nearly broke his back from all the digging. When the time came, they would be ready to pounce. Harry, who wasn’t an advocate of violence, just wanted to move off of the forest floor. The damn twigs and sticks were poking him in places he didn’t particularly want to be poked.
They watched as the two wizards pulled a sheet out from the ground. Dirt cascaded down it. The sheet fit loosely around whatever was inside. Harry didn’t want to imagine the smell.
Ignatius knelt with the bundle in his arms. His tears gleamed in the strong moonlight overhead. The other wizard knelt next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. They both bowed their heads for a moment. Harry’s heart broke while he watched this exchange of friendship and love. He was beginning to feel like the lowest form of scum in all of the worlds. Stealing from a corpse. Disrupting a family reunion, even if said reunion involves digging up a dead body…
It struck him that he could leave right then and there. He could walk away and not have this on his conscience for the rest of his life. He had enough bad stuff on there as it was.
Just as he was about to back up from the Arachnids and their stench and their low, grumbling breaths, he realized he could save the wizards’ lives if he stayed. He was in charge of this group of Arachnids, wasn’t he? The simple fact of the matter was that the Arachnids were going to move against the wizards no matter what, and the wizards were vulnerable. They were powerful, yes, but they were outnumbered.
Unless…
Harry saw the Arachnids looking at him. He nodded and directed them forward. They moved through the forest silently, but Harry did not. He sought out every large branch and twig in his path, and stomped down with more force than was necessary. Still, they were few and far between.
Through the trees, Ignatius Mangood and his friend never looked up from
