After leaving the cave, we were back out on the open plains, but the sun was beginning to lean in the sky, so Kade led the way. It was easy to see the chasm as we walked and whenever we would crest a hill the cracked landscape got closer. It wasn't really one single big gap, it was more like thick cracks that ran along the barren ground, leaving only darkness in view.
As we got closer Kade pointed out and I could see the entrance to the pass. It was a long thin road that ran along a tall cliff face. The place didn't look too bad, but the path curved and disappeared behind the rockface, so there was no real way to tell how far the path went. Kade kept looking at the sun and hurrying us along, but she had said we wouldn't make the pass tonight anyways, so what was the rush?
We had made our way to the entrance of the Diamond Divide Chasm pass and it was just before dark. Kade didn't think we should be this close to the chasm this close to nightfall, but asked what the point of rushing here if we weren't going to take a quick look?
I told her I just wanted to see what we were working with and how wide the path was. After about 10 minutes of convincing, Kade finally yielded
"Fine, but we are only going to take a look and nothing else, see this is why I rushed because I knew you would be too stubborn to resist looking!"
"Yes, Yes, Mom, can we go look now, before it actually does get dark out here?"
Once we got up to the chasm pass, I found it hard to believe that Kade was so scared of this place. Purple and blue crystals rose from the sides of the pass, giving off a soft glow. We could see more crystals sparkling across the chasm as the fading sunlight caught them, and it made for a beautiful scene.
The reflecting lights made colors dance back across the upper walls of the pass, but when I looked down, it was nothing but blackness. We hadn't walked down the path more than 50 feet when Kade started pulling on my sleeve. I looked down at her to find she had a panicked look on her face
'Do you hear that?' -Kade
I was startled at the sound of Kade's going in my head, considering how long it had been since we used this way to speak. I stopped and strained my ears to hear the sound Kade was picking up. It was a low clicking sound, almost like two pieces of glass touching, but it sounded like it was coming from all around us...and behind us!
I turned left to look down into the chasm, and then stepped back. Up the side of the chasm were what it looked like to be about thirty glass spider-like creatures crawling up the glass-like rock face. They had three legs on each side, and they each looked like two crystals attached at the ends and then attached to a round multifaceted gem. They had six small diamond-like glowing red eyes. Eyes that were staring up hungrily as they climbed towards us, crystal mandibles clicking menacingly.
"Go back!"
I tried to yell at them, but as I turned around to go back, I could see that we had been trapped, and ten more were already blocking our exit. Stell had just thrown a spider off the side, and I could see rock slowly covering his body. Swearing, Stell turned to me.
"We have to keep going. We have no choice now, Dak run!"
Stell grabbed Kade under his arm with Silk spinning around his head, squealing. Once Stell and the other passed me, his footsteps now crunching any spiders that went in his way, I threw up a wall to block the spiders and followed them. I looked back as we ran, but the spiders had just climbed over the wall and were still pursuing us.
'If we run, how long will it take us?'
Kade answered as she bounced up and down in Stell's arm.
"3 to 4 hours at least, it takes a full day to cross when you are careful.' -Kade.
Kade winced as Stell landed after jumping clear of the spider in front of him. Behind him, I had created a marble cyclone and tossed it to the left of the spiders ahead of me. Then once I released the sphere, a small twister formed sideways and sent the spiders tumbling down the chasm.
There was an endless number of the ugly little thing, but we were able to keep ahead of them. If I would have only listened to her, then we wouldn't be in this mess. The only thing we could do at this point was to keep on running.
We had been running for an hour, and it was almost pitch black in the chasm pass. I wasn't sure how much more of the constant running we would be able to do at this rate. If those spiders were to get smart and get ahead of us, we are in trouble. Abruptly, we came to a stop. In front of us, our worst fears came true.
More spiders than I could count lay ahead of us, crawling towards us over top of one another. There was no way we would be able to make it through them and they didn't look like they would wait for us. They all raced towards us from all sides, and I looked towards Stell.
"Do you have a plan?"
Stell grunted, motioning towards Kade. I could see Silk clutching tightly to his ear, so I threw up a wall on each side of us to slow down the advancing spiders. Then I looked back at Stell, and the color drained from my face.
Stell had backed up tight against the wall and now had Kade in a better grip, and she was clutching him tightly, the same way Silk was. Oh no, this doesn't look good, and last time I checked, there were no spells we knew of that made us fly. Stell just smiled at me, Like he knew how crazy he looked and shrugged, then ran at me, full tilt.
I tried to yell, "stop," but never got the words past my lips before the air was forced out of me as Stell came crashing into me, wrapping his other arm around me. We flew out into the open air of the chasm, sailing through the air towards the other side that was way too far away for us ever to hope to reach, and then we began to fall.
I tried to scream, but I had no air left in my lungs to use, and I couldn't seem to suck any air. We fell for what seemed to be hours, but I'm sure it was only second. Then everything slowed down, and I began to hear a beautiful melody. It felt like something was pushing against us, slowing our descent. I opened my eyes to see Kade's eyes and pendant glowing an ocean blue.
"Honestly, I thought we were going to die there."
Soon we reached the bottom of the chasm, and it was pitch black, but there were no signs of the spiders that had chased us up top. Silk's wings seemed to light up the area slowly as my eyes got used to the dim light, but no light from above would help us down here. I looked around and started to hear the clicking sound coming from above.
Just when you think that surviving a 200-foot drop is an accomplishment, the world tosses you more swarms of glass spiders, while running blindly into more danger. Could this night get any worse?