Doom Valley Prep School

In clean clothes and well scrubbed, I met Rocky after class as we once more headed to Sir Grieve's classroom. Once again the older students in the hallway were there making nasty remarks especially about my being a cat girl, openly placing bets on how we'd die, and laughing at how we'd sabotaged ourselves the day before. I just kept looking at the floor, wishing this would all be over.

When we got to the classroom we were surprised to find it empty except for Sir Grieve.

He looked even more intimidating then usual, standing with his massive arms crossed over his chest. The only sign that he wasn't some metal golem or automaton were the bright blue eyes that glared at us, like a gryphon looking at a tasty rabbit. “Do either of you know why I am disappointed in you two?” he asked.

“Not really, sir,” I said. “We didn't make the students fight each other.”

A sigh of disappointment came from his helmet. “The students were supposed to fight each other. Did you honestly think you two alone would be a challenge for them? You task was simply to keep moving and hiding, while the competent students fought to see who would catch you first. I had thought you would last ten minutes at least, and we could do the scenario three or even four times. How long do you think you lasted before you took yourselves out of the lesson?”

Rocky was rubbing his head again, like he had a headache. Wincing, I realized I was going to have to do the talking. “Um... twelve minutes?”

“With the five minute head start included, you survived for nine minutes and fifty-four seconds. I could have thrown an asthmatic sloth demon at my class, and it would have done better than you.”

My eyes once again went down to my shoes. They were really nice shoes. They didn't look at me like I was absolutely useless, or make me want to crawl back under my bed and never leave.

“So you both have disappointed me. Do you know what I do to students who disappoint me as much as you two have?”

In a tiny, squeaky voice, I managed to say, “No, sir.” Anything else would probably make the situation far, far, worse.

“I stop being nice.”

Those four simple words would have made me wet my pants, if I hadn't already done that half an hour ago. If he'd been being nice before, I probably wouldn't have to worry about the third, fourth, fifth day of detention. I'd be dead in the next hour.

“Sir Drago needs some giant yellow back spider venom for his alchemy classes. Normally we'd purchase some, but we have decided to save some money. So you will do it.” He handed over a metal bottle about as thick around and as long as my forearm, that had runes etched into it. There was a leather strap attached to it, so it could hang over my shoulder. “Fill this with the venom. When it's full you'll be teleported back to school.”

“What if we can't get enough?” I asked.

“Then you stay there until you get enough.”

Well that was helpful. Before I could ask anymore questions, Sir Grieve tapped a black crystal on his armour. The world spun and I was standing up to my knees in warm, murky black water. I suddenly realized why so many cats hate getting wet. Soaked fur is heavy.

We were in the middle of a swamp. It wasn't even a kind of nice swamp with green reeds, fairy dragons, and elves who were in tune with nature. It was humid, grey and muddy. Trees that looked half dead stuck out of the water, forming small islands of muck and debris, that reeked of rot. Slimy things swam past my legs, I hoped they were just fish and not blood suckers or tentacles. Mosquitoes sensing food immediately swarmed us. At least my fur seemed to give them some trouble, but that just meant they were going for my nose, eyes and ears.

Putting on my combat class pin, I turned to Rocky who didn't look very happy. “You OK, big guy?”

“My head hurts,” he rumbled.

Patting his hand, I said, “Well lets find this giant yellow back spider and we can go back to Doom Valley. Now if I remember my Squire Scouts lesson on giant spiders, the yellow back is an aquatic ambush predator. It spreads out sticky lines of silk that float just under the surface of the water waiting to snag prey. When it catches something, it sneaks along the bottom and takes it's prey from underneath. One bite will paralyze an adult human, and they'll drown the victim before eating them.”

“I should carry you. Don't want you drowned,” Rocky said, picking me up in his enormous hand and putting me on his shoulder.

“Thanks, drowning is bad.” Wrapping some of his hair around my hand to help stay on, I used my new claws to gently grip his shirt. I'd seen Ivy biting him without really hurting him, but I didn't want to accidentally scratch him, even if my claws wouldn't go through his thick skin. Shifting the bottle so it wouldn't hit him, I pointed towards an area that looked pretty muddy. “I think we should go that way. It looks like a place the spider would like.”

Wading through the muck was easy for Rocky. What would be waist deep for me was about knee deep for him. His huge feet acted a little like snowshoes, spreading out his weight so much he didn't sink into the mud very deeply. Having legs that looked like good size tree trunks, also really helped.

“Don't like mud,” he grumbled.

“Not much mud back home?”

“No. Lots of rock. Rock is good, hard, lasts. We make comfy caves to wait out storms. Use rock to protect our sheep. More rock to make paths on the ocean, for fishing nets and spear fishing. Rock is good, solid. Mud is weak, broken rock.” He sighed, and I had to shift a little to stay on as his shoulders slumped.

“You're homesick, aren't you?”

“Yeah. My bed is too soft. Everything is too soft.”

“So why did you come to Doom Valley? You really don't seem like the type.”

“Smartest boy, and strong. Not strongest. I'm only a half-giant, but I train hard. So I go to Doom Valley to learn to fight hard and important things. When I go home, I'll have important position, become a leader.”

That was surprising. Rocky seemed so simple, yet for Rock Giant's he was pretty smart. So I was sitting on the shoulder of someone who could become a famous general or leader of an entire nation one day. Sure they were mostly known for controlling a bunch of mostly barren islands in the north, but whenever someone tried to invade or raid them for slaves or to get the minerals under the surface, they'd been beaten each time. That was pretty impressive.

“Do all your leaders go to Doom Valley?”

“Boys do. Wise girls go to Hero School. Learn magic and things. That is really hard.”

It was my turn to sigh. “I wish I'd gone to that school.”

“Yes. You are too soft for Doom School. Cute, but soft.”

I wasn't sure what to say. He was right, but I didn't want to be soft. And I REALLY didn't want to be cute. I was saved from my awkwardness by Rocky coming to a stop and almost falling on his face.

“What's wrong?”

“I'm stuck,” he said.

Lifting his foot out of the water, I saw a thick, sticky strand of silk attached to his leg. This was it. We'd tripped the trap, now we just had to catch the yellow back, get it's poison and if we were lucky we could go home. Peering into the water I looked for any sign of it. The spiders were big, but not enormous, only the size of a pony. It would kill me, but Rocky would be able to handle it with a little help.

Ripples formed in the water. Something that looked like a reed was coming towards us, that had to be the breathing tube the spider used when underwater. Tapping Rocky's ear I pointed at it, and was about to tell him to get ready.

Then my heart got caught in my throat.

I could see the yellow back under the water. It wasn't the size of a horse. It was the size of an elephant.

“JUMP!” I screamed, diving off of Rocky's shoulder to a nearby tree. Driving my claws into the slimy wood, I watched in horror as my friend tried to get out of the way only to be stopped by the web around his leg.

The spider reared up, it's eight legs grabbing Rocky and dragged him down into the muck. The water frothed and churned, as the two giants fought. Fists larger than my skull pounded on the thick, leathery skin of the spider, while claws and fangs flashed and tore into my friends thick, hard skin.

I had to do something.

There was no way I could let Rocky die. He my friend and it was my fault he was here with me. And if he went down, I'd never be able to get any venom. I'd be stuck here, waiting to be eaten.

Then I saw more ripples in the water. Little yellow backs, only a little smaller than me were swimming towards the fight.

Rocky might be able to handle the big spider, there was no way he could handle all of them. Baring my claws, I whispered a prayer to the god of fools and jumped.