Chapter 5: Betrayed
Mody led them through the swirling mist quickly and confidently. Paddy and Seamus followed a few paces behind Mody, with Mr. Elf tagging along behind them. The wary Aelf kept his bow in his hands and an arrow at the ready. He spent almost as much time peering back into the mist, as he did watching Paddy and Seamus.
The mist was thicker in this part of Boggy Marsh and the companions could only see for a couple of feet in any direction. Paddy and Seamus talked quietly, as they walked.
“Seamus, why did you say we’d help Mody find her mother?” Paddy inquired.
“Well, she seemed so lost and helpless, I thought it was the right thing to do,” Seamus replied.
“Aye, it is a very noble gesture. Do you have any idea where to look for her?” Paddy asked.
“No,” Seamus said, shaking his head, “but I have a feeling that something will help point us in the right direction.”
“I thought we’d agreed to stay out of other people’s business. Don’t you remember what happened the last … Hey!” Paddy exclaimed, loudly.
Paddy and Seamus were so caught up in their conversation they failed to notice that Mody had completely disappeared into the deep swirling mist.
To make matters worse, both Paddy and Seamus had walked right into a giant spider web and were now stuck fast in the thick, sticky strands of the web.
Mr. Elf caught up with them quickly when he heard Paddy’s shout. “What’s this then, and where’s Mody?”
“We’re stuck in a spider’s web!” Seamus shrieked. “Get us out. Quick!”
Paddy and Seamus were both struggling to get out of the web. This sent shivers rippling through the web and alerted its owner that lunch had arrived.
Up in the mist, out of sight, something hissed in approval and started moving slowly down towards the trapped Leprechauns. The swords, still hanging at Paddy’s and Seamus’s belts, were glowing fiercely.
“Get your swords out and cut the web,” Mr. Elf instructed quietly, as he backed away from them. He was looking intently up into the mist, with an arrow set and his bow held ready. Whatever was coming down the web was about to receive a deadly surprise.
Paddy and Seamus desperately drew their swords and started hacking furiously at the strands of web that were holding them tight.
“Seamus, watch where you’re cutting, would you!” Paddy said, angrily. “You almost cut my hand off then.”
“Help, it’s coming!” Seamus shrieked, flailing madly with the sword at the strands of web.
Sensing its lunch was about to escape, the spider rushed forward. It was huge, easily as big as Mr. Elf.
Mr. Elf saw the giant black and purple spider rush down out of the mist and let fly the first arrow. A second arrow was on its way before the first had hit its mark. The arrows flew straight and true, each one blasting into a large purple eye.
The spider let go of the web and shot forward, plunging headfirst into the ground with a loud splat. The impact forced the arrows through the spider’s head, to protrude from the back of its skull.
Mr. Elf approached the spider with his sword in his hand. He poked the still form forcefully a couple of times, to satisfy himself the spider would be no more trouble. “Didn’t think there were any of these left anywhere,” he mumbled.
Paddy and Seamus finally cut themselves free from the web. “Spiders aren’t uncommon,” Paddy said, stepping forward to get a better look. “But I’ll admit, I’ve never seen one this big.”
“I hate spiders,” Seamus said, shivering as he picked the last strands of web off his shirt. “More than anything else in the world, I hate spiders!”
“This is no ordinary spider,” Mr. Elf stated. “This is a Spider Wraith. Filthy things they are,” he said, with a barely repressed shudder of his own. “Spider Wraiths don’t just eat the things they catch in their webs. If their victims have any magic about them, they will keep them alive and feed on their magic first. Then they lay their eggs inside them. Spider Wraiths require a magical host for their eggs to grow in and hatch.”
Hearing this, Seamus turned very pale and sat down in the damp earth with a plop.
Mr. Elf, with his sword still in his hand, ready for action, scanned the trees, as if expecting more trouble. “Where’s that dratted bird?” he asked.
Something flickered in the corner of his vision. He focused on what was just an outline, blinking disbelievingly as he did so, and watched, as Mody darkened into view right in front of him.
“Hey! How did you do that?” Paddy asked, also not sure of what he’d just seen.
“How did I do what?” Mody asked, sounding confused.
“You weren’t there and now you are there,” Seamus said, angrily.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Mody replied, nervously. “I’ve been here the whole time.”
“You really don’t know, do you?” Mr. Elf said, quietly, his ears twitching gently.
Mody looked worriedly at Paddy and Seamus. Both were clutching their swords tightly and both looked very angry indeed.
“Please,” Mody beseeched, “don’t look at me like that. You look like you want to hurt me.”
“Don’t worry, Mody,” Mr. Elf said. “Nobody is going to hurt you. We do need to have a talk and figure some things out, though. Why don’t you start by telling us what you did when the boys here walked into the spider web?”
Mody sat down on the ground with a sigh. “I was leading you through the mist, when I spotted the spider’s web. I moved to the side to go around it. Paddy and Seamus were talking to each other and didn’t see the web. They walked right into it.”
“You could have warned us,” Seamus blurted. “That thing might have eaten us, or worse,” he added, with a shiver.
Mody squirmed uncomfortably and her head bobbed on the end of its long neck, as if she was shrugging. “Everything happened very quickly, I didn’t know what to do, so I just waited.”
Mr. Elf had a thoughtful look on his face, as he said, “So, you boys didn’t see Mody waiting?”
“No,” Paddy and Seamus said together, shaking their heads.
Mr. Elf stared at Mody and said, “You knew that Spider Wraith was here, didn’t you?”
Mody dropped her gaze to the ground and nodded. When she looked up she had tears in her eyes. “The Spider Wraith has been trying to catch me.”
“What!” Seamus exclaimed. “You led us right into that web?”
“I had to!” Mody wailed. “I was very scared and I knew that you, with those glowing swords, would be able to take care of it.”
“That’s not right,” Paddy said, shaking his head. “You should have told us. We still would have helped you.”
Mody was crying openly now, with big tears rolling down her feathery face.
“Now, boys, you shouldn’t be too hard on young Mody. She is very young and she couldn’t have known we would help her,” Mr. Elf said, taking pity on the sad bird. “It all makes sense now,” he continued.
“What does?” Paddy asked, sounding confused. None of this made any sense to him.
“Why Mody seemed to disappear and then reappear, and why the Spider Wraith would have been trying to catch her,” Mr. Elf said, with a satisfied smile.
“This should be good,” Seamus muttered, still angry at nearly having been fed to a Spider Wraith.
“Mody is an Invisibility Bird,” the Aelf said. “I thought there was something familiar about her when we first met her.”
Both Paddy and Seamus were looking at Mr. Elf blankly. “What’s an Invisibility Bird?” Seamus finally asked.
Mr. Elf looked quite smug, as he spoke. “Invisibility Birds don’t have wings, so they can’t fly. They can’t run very fast either. In fact, they have no way to defend themselves at all. What they do have is a very powerful magic that makes them turn invisible when they’re in danger. It’s what’s known as passive magic. They don’t even know they’re doing it.”
“Good trick,” Paddy said, looking at Mody with a ne
w level of respect.
“A very good trick indeed,” added an impressed Seamus.
Mr. Elf bristled at the interruption, but continued nonetheless. “I’m not at all surprised the Spider Wraith would have been doing its best to catch her. Mody here would have been a perfect host for the Spider Wraith’s eggs. The strong passive magic that makes her turn invisible would have fed the Spider Wraith and her young for a good long time.”
Hearing this, both Paddy and Seamus shivered, as they imagined what would have happened if poor Mody had been caught by the Spider Wraith.
Paddy had a frown on his youthful face. “Hang on a minute. If Mody turns invisible when she’s in danger, how could the Spider Wraith have seen her, to chase her?”
Mr. Elf nodded understanding Paddy’s point. “Those weird looking purple eyes the Spider Wraiths have help them to detect and hunt magical creatures. If they are to find hosts for their young, they need a way to tell magical creatures from non-magical creatures,” he explained.
“So when Mody’s invisibility kicked in, it would have been easier for the Spider Wraith to see her and chase her,” Seamus added, nodding in understanding. “How did you manage to get away from the Spider Wraith, then?” he asked.
When Mody spoke, there was a soft quiver in her voice and tears filled her eyes again. “I was running away from the spider when I came across a group of ugly creatures. They didn’t see me and I just went through their group. The spider ran straight into them.”
Mr. Elf chuckled. He had a very good idea about what had happened next.
“I kept going,” Mody said, with a shudder, “but I heard them fighting, as I ran away. The sounds were horrible to hear, and they scared me.”
Mr. Elf grimaced with distaste. “Leading a hunter to other prey can be a good way to save yourself, particularly if you can’t fight for yourself. Just don’t do it to us again!” he finished, sternly.
“I’m sorry for being angry with you, Mody,” Seamus said, understanding that the young bird only did what it need to survive.
“Me too,” Paddy said.
“It’s all right,” Mody said, between sobs. “So long as you will still be my friends.”
“Of course we will,” Paddy and Seamus said, together.
Mr. Elf just smiled.
“How is it that you know so much about Invisibility Birds?” Seamus asked Mr. Elf.
“When I was a boy, living in Aelfinholme, a flock of Invisibility Birds would sometimes come past our home. Invisibility Birds live in flocks and move around all the time.”
Mody suddenly looked very happy. “So you know where I can find others like me?” she asked, hopefully.
Mr. Elf frowned. “The Invisibility Birds only come past Aelfinholme once every few years. And it’s been a very long time since I’ve been in Aelfinholme, but I suppose they could still be around there somewhere.”
“Goody!” Mody exclaimed. “Maybe that’s where my mother is. Will you take me there?”
Mr. Elf suddenly seemed very uncomfortable. “Wait on,” he said. “Aelfinholme is a very long way from here, I don’t see how your mother could be there, if you’re as young as you appear.”
“Oh,” Mody said, sadly.
“We said that we would help you find your mother, after we find the pot of gold,” Paddy volunteered.
“Yes, we did,” Seamus added. “If we don’t have any luck around here, maybe we could take you to look for the other Invisibility Birds. They might have some ideas on where to look for your mother. What do you think, Mr. Elf?”
“I knew that getting involved with Leprechauns was going to be more trouble than it was worth,” Mr. Elf muttered. “You two were the ones that offered to help Mody; I just came along for my share of the gold,” he finished grumpily.
“But you know where the other Invisibility Birds might be,” Paddy said, not understanding the Aelf’s reticence.
“We could all go there together,” Seamus put in. “It would be like going off on an adventure. It could be fun,” he said, getting excited by the idea.
Mody bobbed her head excitedly. “Oh, yes. Please Mr. Elf, will you help?”
If Mr. Elf had seemed uncomfortable before, he now looked positively worried. “Go back to Aelfinholme? To help an Invisibility Bird find her mother?” Mr. Elf stared at the hopeful look on Mody’s face and took a deep breath. “Let’s wait and see how things turn out. Maybe we’ll find your mother around here somewhere.”
“And if we don’t, it’s off to Aelfinholme,” Paddy said, enthusiastically.
“Hmm,” Mr. Elf said, sounding unimpressed. “Before we move on, I just want to get some of these.” The Aelf drew his dagger from its sheath, bent down to the deceased spider and started to shave thick dark hairs from the spider’s legs.
Seamus looked on with revulsion at what Mr. Elf was doing and was almost sick. “Is that some weird Aelf thing, shaving the legs of things you’ve killed?” he asked, swallowing hard against the bile rising in the back of his throat.
“No,” Mr. Elf replied. “The hairs of a Spider Wraith have some unusual and useful properties. They’re too rare to just leave behind.”
After quickly shaving all eight legs clean, Mr. Elf put the shaved hairs in a small pouch and tucked the pouch into his pack.
Paddy, Seamus and Mody had moved a short distance away to wait for Mr. Elf to complete the strange ritual. The whole thing turned their stomachs and they preferred not to watch.
Finished, Mr. Elf walked towards them beaming happily. “It’s not every day you get a chance to gather something as usefully as that,” he said, with a wide grin.