The valley pressed in on them like a living thing.
The air was heavy—thick with damp rot—every breath tasting of mildew and venom. Vines twisted overhead, swollen and slick, dripping sap that hissed when it struck stone. Beetles the size of fists crawled along bark that seemed to pulse beneath their feet, as though the trees themselves had veins and blood moved sluggishly through them.
Rory clung close to Elise, his fingers digging into her sleeve, his eyes darting at every skitter in the underbrush. Shawn walked point, blade bare, each step slow and deliberate. Behind him, Lyra gripped her sword tight enough for her knuckles to pale, the steel catching faint, sickly streaks of light that bled through the canopy. Selene followed close, pale and silent, her fingers brushing Rory's shoulder whenever his steps faltered—as if reminding him she was there.
No birds sang.
No wind stirred.
Only the constant whisper of unseen legs.
Elise broke the silence, her voice tight. "How much longer?"
Shawn didn't answer right away. He crouched and pressed his palm to the ground. When he lifted it, his skin was smeared black, the soil damp and warm. "The valley doesn't want us here."
Rory swallowed. "It feels… wrong."
"It is wrong," Lyra muttered. "Stay sharp."
They pressed on. The path narrowed, hemmed in by jagged rocks slick with moss. Twice Elise swatted away snakes that dropped from the branches above, their bodies recoiling into the leaves with angry hisses. Once, Rory nearly stepped into a nest of cockroach-like creatures—too many legs, too many eyes—before Lyra crushed them beneath her boot, her mouth twisting in disgust.
But it was the silence that weighed heaviest.
Selene's skin prickled. Something brushed the edges of her mind—faint, cold, watching. She reached for Rory's hand and squeezed. "Stay close."
He nodded, though his lips trembled.
The ambush came without warning.
A sharp snap overhead—a glistening thread cutting through the dim light. Then the ground shuddered.
From the shadows between two massive stones, it emerged.
The spider was larger than a wagon, its bloated body armored in dark, overlapping plates that gleamed wet with venom. Twelve eyes burned like coals, scattered across its face in uneven rows, reflecting the group back at themselves like fragments in a shattered mirror. Its legs slammed into the earth, cracking stone and shaking loose dirt—and bone.
"It's real!" Rory screamed, terror shredding his voice.
"Gods—" Elise staggered back.
Shawn cursed Then yelled "MOVE!" Shawn shoved her aside and planted his shield as the spider lunged.
A serrated limb slashed down. Shawn met it with steel. Sparks screamed as blade struck chitin, the impact driving him to one knee.
"Shawn!" Lyra's roar tore through the valley. She charged, her longsword carving a brutal arc that bit deep into one of the spider's legs. Black ichor exploded outward, sizzling where it splashed her skin. The beast shrieked—a sound sharp enough to rattle bone and thought alike.
Selene dragged Rory behind a rock. "Hide!" she hissed, though her own voice shook.
The spider struck back.
A leg whipped out, smashing Elise off her feet. She hit the ground hard, her dagger spinning uselessly away.
"No!" Rory sobbed.
Before the beast could impale her, Lyra hurled her sword. The blade buried itself deep into the joint of the spider's limb, staggering it. Ichor rained down. Lyra ripped the weapon free with a snarl, already swinging again.
Elise scrambled back, coughing, blood at her lips, eyes wide and wild.
"Get up, Elise!" Shawn barked, hacking at another leg. Venom splattered across his armor, hissing as it ate into the metal. Smoke curled from his shoulder plate, but he didn't falter.
The spider reared, mandibles dripping acid. The stench burned the lungs. It struck again—faster than thought.
A limb clipped Lyra's side, sending her sprawling.
Selene's heart thundered. Rory's sobs tore at her ears. Elise struggling. Shawn bleeding. Lyra forcing herself upright again, fury blazing in her eyes even as her breath came ragged and sharp.
They couldn't win.
Not like this.
Her lips parted.
Again—just like yesterday.
A sound slipped free. Soft. Trembling. Yet steady.
A hum.
Wordless and fragile, it threaded through the air like light through darkness.
The lullaby.
The spider faltered mid-strike.
Its legs slowed, trembling. Twelve burning eyes blinked, heavy-lidded. Venom dripped sluggishly from its mandibles as its massive body swayed, unsteady, as though drunk.
"What in the—" Shawn faltered, blade still raised.
Selene kept humming. Louder now. The melody wavered, but it held, weaving through the chaos like something ancient—older than fear, older than thought.
The whispering in the underbrush faded. The valley stilled.
The spider shuddered once. Twice.
Then it collapsed.
Its body slammed into the earth with a quake that sent rocks tumbling. Its limbs curled inward, twitching weakly. Its eyes dimmed, dragged under by an unnatural sleep.
"Selene…" Lyra rasped.
"Not for long," Elise wheezed, hauling herself upright.
They didn't hesitate.
Lyra roared and brought both weapons down in a brutal cross. Steel split carapace, bit into flesh. Ichor sprayed her arms and chest.
Shawn joined her, blade plunging into the beast's underbelly. Elise, shaking but furious, snatched up her dagger and drove it into the joint of the spider's mandible.
The creature convulsed, mandibles clacking one final time—
Then it was still.
Venom leaked into the soil, hissing as the ground drank it down.
Silence returned—but it felt changed.
Selene's song faded to a breath, then to nothing. She clutched Rory close, her chest heaving, hands trembling against his back. The spider's corpse already sagged into the dark earth, as if the valley were eager to reclaim it.
"Twice now…" Elise murmured weakly. "Twice that song saved us."
She swayed. Selene caught her instinctively. Pale light bloomed beneath Selene's palms—soft, silver, warm. Elise gasped as torn flesh sealed itself, pain retreating as though drawn away by the tide. Blood dried. Breath steadied.
"Um," Elise said, managing a shaky smile, "could you… maybe teach me that song someday?"
Selene hesitated. "Maybe, If i remember all of it" she said, unsure.
Shawn leaned heavily on his shield, venom burns still hissing faintly along his armor. Selene turned to him next and knelt. Her hands pressed to the scorched plate.
The light returned—stronger now. The corrosion stilled. Beneath it, burned skin knitted itself whole.
Shawn inhaled sharply. "You fixed it," he said quietly.
Rory shifted in her arms. "Selene… who taught you that song?"
Her breath caught.
Something stirred—almost a memory. Moonlight. Voices layered together. A warmth that hurt to reach for—
Then nothing.
She shook her head, eyes stinging. "I don't know. I can't remember."
Rory frowned. "But you knew it."
"Yes I remember some of it, I feel like the song im singing is incomplete" Selene whispered. "It feels… old. Like I've always had it. But when I try to remember where it came from, there's just fog."
Lyra said nothing. Her gaze lingered, searching Selene's face as though expecting something to surface—and troubled when it didn't.
The mist around them shifted.
Not retreating. Not advancing.
Listening.
The crawling beneath the leaves resumed, quieter now. Slower. Vines loosened their grip just enough to allow passage.
The valley breathed.
Shawn glanced around uneasily. "Does anyone else feel like something changed?"
Elise swallowed. "Like we weren't… rejected."
Selene felt it too—not fear this time, but a strange, aching familiarity. The mist brushed her ankle, cool and fleeting, then slipped away.
The path ahead opened—narrow, cautious, allowed.
They moved on.