---
In between the act of picking apples, Jade thought about their current situation. Ever since they arrived here at this god-forsaken strange place, she has been feeling nothing but calm. It’s as if she somewhat belonged here—that or maybe all these humongous trees exude euphoria that has these calming effects.

She’s been feeling restless at school lately. With projects, exams and grades she must slave over till graduation, she could only wish for a big break to pause and rethink everything—as to what she wanted to do with her life and if she still wanted to pursue the field she is taking now. She is currently studying pre-med and she’s on her third year.
It wasn’t her first choice of career, but her parents wanted it—and like the good daughter that she is, she agreed to do it. And now she’s finally learning to accept and love the field she’s currently in, but problem is, the pressure is too high—hence her current dilemma. A Healer… at least now she’s sure of what she wanted to be.
“This is enough. With these numbers, we could already fill three sacks. It could last us a week, give or take.” Jade announced after looking at the apples they had gathered so far… It’s a lot.
She bet they’d have enough of these apples to last them a lifetime. But since they’re on a path to survival, they could only endure everything and pray it won’t last long.
“Yeah, I agree… if only we had those sacks you mentioned earlier. It could’ve been great.” Hurricane said with a sigh.
They already got the food—now all they need is something to put the apples with. Jade stared at the fruits sternly while wracking her brains for ideas.
“Use the leaves and the vines, daughter of the earth…” a deep strange voice said. Jade suddenly turned to face her cousin with a frown.
“What?” She asked Hurricane. Hurricane in returned stared at her cousin confusingly.
“What?” Hurricane repeated the question with a frown.
“You were saying something… you told me to use the leaves and the vines…” Jade said slowly.
Hurricane was all out creeped now; her cousin was suddenly acting weird again.
“What are you talking about? I was silent and contemplating the whole time. I never said anything about using the vines. Are you sure about hearing someone?” Hurricane asked her cousin.
“I am sure! You even called me daughter of the earth!” Jade insisted indignantly.
She was suddenly feeling agitated for some reason—all the things that happened to them since yesterday has been nothing but purely weird and crazy—that, and she’s getting this feeling of knowing this forest before, as if she’s already been here… it’s so familiar… she thought.
“Daughter of the earth? What does that mean? And the vines and leaves?” Hurricane pondered in confusion.
“Hey! You two, I found some berries not too far from here.” Cyclone announced the moment he arrived. On his left hand were branches with a bunch pink berries attached to it, while on his right was his dagger. He asked them permission to scour the place first for other food before temporarily disappearing… and now he’s back.
“Where did you say you got those?” Jade said while eyeing the suspicious berries. She has got a bad feeling about this.
“I said I got this not too far, north from here.” Cyclone replied with a frown while pointing at the direction he got the food from.
“It’s poisonous berries.” Jade replied. She was sure of it.
“Poisonous? How’d you know that?” Cyclone.
“I just do. Here, let me show you… give me the dagger.” Jade told Cyclone while gesturing him to hand her the weapon. He immediately obliged, and like a professional, she cut a few berries in half with practiced hands. All the berries she cut gave off green liquid juice instead of red ones which was quite off considering the berries were red in colors. After observing the suspicious fruit, Jade cut a branch of leaves from a nearby plant and bathed the cut plant with the juice from the fruit. The plant immediately gave off a hissing sound, and smoke floated off from the burnt plant emitting a stench smell.
Both Cyclone and Hurricane scrunched up their noses upon smelling the foul smell emitted by the burnt plant. It was like the smell of burnt flesh… Cyclone thought with a shiver—suddenly glad that Jade knew about the plant. He eyed the berries with distaste and inched away from it.
“Thank God, I never thought about trying those.” He muttered in shock. Jade however was not surprised of the outcome. Instead, using the dagger she borrowed from Cyclone, she started to hack into the vines, leaves and branches—cutting it from the trees, murmuring a humble thanks to the trees while throwing the cut things in a pile in front of her. She was sporting her deep-thinking face.
“Uh… what are you doing?” Hurricane voiced out.
“I’m following the voice.” Jade replied nonchalantly. Cyclone frowned at his cousin. What now? He thought.
“What voice?” Cyclone asked but was ignored by Jade. She was busy cutting things from the trees and adding those things from the pile. She stopped after a while throwing a glance at her work, she smiled in contentment.
“Now you help me.” Jade muttered before slumping indian style at the ground in front of her work. Cyclone and Hurricane stared at their cousin. She was acting way too confusing.
“I will. But first you got to answer my question.” Cyclone. Jade threw him an exasperated glance before giving off a defeated sigh.
“Okay—okay. I heard some voice telling me to use the vines and leaves and it even called me the daughter of the earth. I thought it weird at first but now I see its point.” Jade answered nonchalantly while gesturing the pile before her. Hurricane slumped beside Jade and observed her work. It seems that her confusing cousin was making a modified bag of some sorts with the leaves and the vines by tying the vines together and placing the leaves inside it in a manner which made it seemed like it was almost a real bag. Hurricane glanced at the hair turban she also made a pack out of for the book, it was of the same idea. Her cousin though sounding slightly unreasonable right now, was making a solution to their current dilemma!
“Where did you hear the voice? Is there anyone here besides us? I already scoured the area and I saw no one.” Cyclone said in a frantic voice. He was already thinking about the dangers of another creature lurking at these forests. His cousin on the other half, went back to making the bag.
“Can you hand me the dagger please?” Hurricane asked Jade whose currently in possession of the said thing. Jade complied and both started to do their craft. Cyclone released a defeated sigh and decided to stop asking pointless questions. He observed them, Hurricane seemed to be making a bow and arrow with the branches and vines from the pile, while Jade was making a bag to put the apples in.
After almost an hour of creating the makeshift bag and weapons, they gathered the apples and slid it inside the bag and started their way home—which is currently where the others are...
________________________
“Wait!” Cyclone stopped them as they arrived at the foot of the cave. Hurricane and Jade frowned in confusion.
“Why?” Hurricane asked her brother.
“This is strange—it’s so silent...” Cyclone commented at the same time Jade uttered— “They’re not here.”
All three of them ran their way inside the cave and found it bathed in white substances which is suspiciously composed of sticky weaved thread. “They’re in trouble” Hurricane observed grimly.
They were about to up and search for their cousins when Grub arrived at the cove looking panicked. Hurricane immediately dove for the creature—almost strangling it with the woodsy vine that snaked its way to the golem’s body. Grub tried to jerk away from Hurricane, but he was no match for her adrenaline and determination to pin him down. Cyclone and Jade decided to interfere then—they grabbed Hurricane by each shoulder and dragged her away from the sobbing child golem. It seems the golem is already traumatized by Hurricane.
“Where are they? Tell me Garuba! Where are my cousins!!!?” Hurricane bellowed at the golem. It was not going well… Jade thought.
Past experiences taught them never to mess with Hurricane, because the moment they do, they would see another side of her that would make them wish they never did anything to anger her in the first place… It was like—she’s out for blood each time her patience run out. Like that one time when they were visiting Emmanuel’s family who was living at another state, only to find him being bullied by teenagers all bigger than him. It all started with Hurricane asking them calmly to let their cousin go-but the leader of the bullies remained headstrong, instead he swung a fist towards Emmanuel—causing their cousin to stagger and slump straight to the ground with a busted bloody lip. In the end, Hurricane charged toward the boys in an aggressive manner and beat them all to a bloody pulp. It was her against five, and they thought the odds were against her—turns out they were wrong. Since then, Hurricane was in and out of the shrink department for anger management sessions.

“T-t-th-they were… abducted…s-s-s-p-idewssss.” Grub stuttered in fright.
All three cousins frowned in confusion.
“What did he say?” Jade asked the other two.
“I don’t know. He said they abducted something before the hissing part—then it’s all hiss.” Cyclone replied.
Hurricane was about to give a nasty retort, but Jade got to her first. “Cyclone, I’m gonna calm her down first. Go ask Grub their whereabouts, then let’s plan from there.” Jade said before dragging the fuming Hurricane outside of the cave to vent out her anger. It’s clouding her judgement… Jade thought.
Seeing as his cousin and his sister were already outside, Cyclone immediately resumed the interrogation with Grub who was currently calming down from his emotional state.
“So where are they? And give me the right answer Grub—if you don’t want me to set Hurricane off on you.” He threatened the golem. Grub took the threat seriously and bobbed his head frantically as a sign that he will talk.
“Daughters… bad spiders… she took them… food.” Grub muttered almost coherently.
Cyclone nodded—though still confused and with little understanding of what the golem said. “Do you know where they took them?” He asked again. Again, the golem nodded—this time in excitement.
Cyclone stared at the view before him. So that’s what all this white thread-y material is all about. Spiders huh? He pondered in silence. He threw Grub a glance and gestured they both go after Jade and Hurricane and tell them the news.
“So what did he tell you?” Jade asked the moment she saw Cyclone walking towards them with Grub on tow. Grub was holding Cyclone’s hand like a little brother—his steps were accompanied by soft thuds against the ground, leaving fresh footprints on his wake.
“From what I gather, we are going to rescue everyone from a big webby foe. And we got to do it fast before they have their dinner—with our cousins as the main course.” Cyclone replied sternly.
“Elaborate please?” Jade. Hurricane was still glaring daggers at Grub at the corner.
“Spiders. They were abducted by spiders. And upon examining the tracks, I’d say they left about ten minutes before we arrived.” Jade.
“Not too far. We got to get going then.” Hurricane said before she sauntered back inside the cove. Cyclone, Jade and Grub followed her.
“Let’s leave the supplies…We’ll be back for them later. The weapons however, we need them.” Hurricane said while grabbing the makeshift bow and arrows made from the branches, twigs and vines—there were two sets with lots of sharpened-tip twigs for ammunition. She threw the other one at Jade which the latter caught swiftly, like a practiced bow master. Cyclone stared at the poisonous berries, an idea forming in his head. He grabbed a bunch of it and slid it in his jacket pocket.
Jade, upon witnessing what Cyclone did—shook her head and smiled in amusement. With Grub leading their way, they went on to their rescue mission.
______________________
“There” Grub murmured as he pointed at the top of the trees. Cyclone, Hurricane and Jade followed the direction Grub pointed—almost awed at the view before them.
Gigantic spider webs were placed in between the trees like a beautiful trap fooling whoever… or whatever dare comes near it. Jade thought about their elementary science project where they observed spiders in class for a week.
The webs were exactly the same—with its intricate unique design, it was like staring at the same thing but with a magnifying glass or microscope. It was horrifyingly big and amazing. Also, it seems like a hundred feet off the ground and the only way in it is to climb one of the trees it held unto. Jade shivered at her observation. It was indeed a long deadly fall... she thought.
“I see a movement in one of the webs. Let’s check it out.” Hurricane said pointing at their west, after gesturing that they go after it, she started for the direction of the web she saw. But they were stopped short when an eerie sounding voice called out.
“That would be brave of you hoomans. Brave but foolish.” The voice drawled out in a taunting manner.
All three of them bristled at the insult and like a skilled fighter, they eased themselves in a fighting stance—not taking a chance on whoever might be talking to them. With the dagger ready at hand, Cyclone listened towards his surroundings, trying to pinpoint the whereabouts of the voice.
“Who are you? Show yourself!” Hurricane hissed at the voice.
“Who am I? Hooman, do you not know me? I am the spirit guardian of this forest…” The voice said again, but this time it was accompanied with an appearance of a creature. The creature in question, was all brown and woody… like a big slab of wood cut in the middle, its chest—no, its whole body was filled with designed ridges like gentle waves. It looked like a small human but except for its face, hands… and its overall entire appearance. His protruding hair in his head and mustache, was made out of growing roots—all sticking out in places. It has expressive eyes filled with wisdom, as if it lived for a very long time. It was an old tree man. Jade decided. The tree man was sporting a worried glance at them—he seemed to be wearing a tunic, and was holding a staff at his hand, and seems to be semi leaning on it.
“I know what you seek in this forest.” The tree man creature continued.
“Oh yeah? And what is that?” Cyclone asked challengingly.
“Your family. I saw them being taken by the daughters of Arachne—I followed them here. I know where they are, and I will help you. But know this hoomans, what you seek may bring you dangers beyond your control. The daughters of Arachne are vicious and arrogant creatures, they kill to live—like that of a predator to a prey.” The creature explained.
“Wait what? Did you say daughters of Arachne? Arachne like in the mythology? The woman Athena cursed to be a spider?” Jade asked frantically. The tree man nodded in uncertainty, he don’t seem to have any idea who Athena is.
“Where are they now? Please take us to them… please we have to rescue them before it’s too late.” Hurricane almost begged the creature.
“I will. But you must promise to be careful. We wouldn’t want them to be alerting the others and cause mass chaos.” The tree man replied in a serious tone.
They all nodded their heads in agreement and followed as the tree man led their way...