Despite Thea's moanings and groanings about straying from their journey, the three returned to Kown the next day, and soon found themselves in the middle of a dark forest. The night before, Casey had given Wilky a list of simple beginner spells to practice. She practiced every time they stopped to rest or eat, but was never able to recreate the incredible illusion of the ballroom, nor any other room, even when using the light spell to guide them through the forest when it got dark. Wilky was discouraged by this at first, but Casey assured her that her progress was astounding considering such a short amount of time had passed, and so Wilky was satisfied.

There was one drawback to her staff glowing, and that was that she caught the attention of a pack of imps, which attacked her out of nowhere, and tried to rip her translator necklace off her neck, nearly strangling her in the process. Fortunately, Wilky had a skilled wizard on her side, who managed to drive them off with a clever stunning spell, which he taught Wilky afterwards for future self defense. She had fun practicing it a few times, but had to stop after she nearly hit Thea.

"Alright, I get that you're learning magic and all," Thea snapped, when they stopped at about midday to eat. "But it's getting really annoying, so could you be a little more careful? I'm going to go blind from that light spell you keep doing."

"I've got to practice somehow!" Wilky complained.

"Thea," Casey said patiently. "She's not hurting anything."

"You're just jealous that you can't do magic," Wilky pouted.

"No I'm not!" Thea exclaimed. "I have no interest in magic. I hate magic, as a matter of fact, so if you could not use magic at all, I would appreciate it."

Wilky gasped. "Why do you hate magic? Magic is so cool and fun and pretty!"

"Doesn't matter," Thea muttered. "The point is that you-"

"Thea," Casey said, but he wasn't looking at Thea. His gaze was fixed on a point somewhere above her, and he was slowly climbing to his feet, reaching for his wand as he did so.

"What?" Thea snapped, glaring at him.

Wilky followed Casey's gaze. "That's a big spider," she observed calmly.

Thea looked up, then scrambled to her feet, eyes wide with terror. It was, indeed, an enormous spider, with eight prominent glowing eyes, dangling from a sticky strand of white connected to a vast web spread among the treetops above.  Thea rested her hand on the hilt of her sword, but looked afraid to draw it.

"Just... back away slowly. Stay calm." Casey had his wand pointed at the creature.

"Its eyes are cool," Wilky pointed out. "They're all glowey."

"How the vile sackan are you not afraid of that thing?" Thea asked, her voice shaking.

"Don't be silly, it can't hurt us! Spiders are mostly harmless, and that's just a big spider!"

"You thrad, those things eat flesh!" Thea exclaimed.

"Wait, what?" Wilky asked, confused.

"Wilky, just stay calm," Casey said. "It's fine. Thea, mind your language."

Thea rolled her eyes. "Ok, so what do we do?"

The spider suddenly hissed, and dropped towards the ground, landing on eight hairy legs. Wilky pointed her staff at it, hands shaking.

"Pya! Pya! Pya!" she yelled, using the stunning spell Casey had taught her earlier. Bluish-white sparks spouted harmlessly from the end of her staff.

"Focus!" Casey called to her, between casting his own spells, which had longer incantations, and were more complex in their patterns of crimson light. Thea was standing off to the side, looking quite helpless and uncertain of what to do.

The spider seemed to have chosen Casey as its target, and was advancing on him, even as he cast a spell that froze one of its legs to the ground, and another that made it stumble about like a drunk.

"Pya!" Wilky exclaimed, and this time, a solid white ball of light hit the spider in the back. It hissed and chattered, beginning to turn in circles in confusion.

Casey lowered his wand. "Nice hit! I think we've got-"

A jet of sticky web shot out from the now enraged spider, hitting Casey in the chest and sending him flying back into a tree, where it pinned him firmly. He struggled and strained in an attempt to free himself, but his arms and legs were stuck. His wand had fallen to the forest floor by his foot, red sparks crackling over the splintery surface.

The spider, shaking off the stun, began crawling towards Casey, who wriggled desperately, to no avail.

"Come on!" Wilky called to Thea. "Cut off its legs or something!"

Thea finally drew her sword, but immediately began struggling with its weight.  As soon as she shifted her balance to swing it, the weapon dragged her arms down, nearly pulling her over entirely.

"You can fight, can't you?" Wilky asked.

"Of course I can fight!" Thea snapped.

"Oh, ok, good. Just checking."

Wilky didn't see Thea fail to lift her sword a second time, her attention back to casting spells at the spider. Now, unfortunately, instead of being stunned when she hit it, an intricate pattern of red light flashed on the spider's back, harmlessly absorbing her spells.

Casey was no longer trying to escape. The spider had bitten him, and its venom, seeping into his blood and spreading through his body, had paralyzed him. It now pried him from the tree, wrapped him entirely in web and turned its eight scarlet eyes back to Thea and Wilky.

Wilky moved towards the bundle of sticky web that was Casey, keeping her eyes on the spider as she moved. Thea followed her movements, still struggling to lift her sword.

"What do we do?" Wilky asked, casting a few more spells at the spider.  The spider shot a web in Thea's direction and she ducked, barely avoiding the trap.

"Not a clue. That thing doesn't seem to be taking hits from your magic though."

"My magic isn't useless!" Wilky protested, sensing the bitterness in Thea's words. "It's just that this spider thing is super powerful in ways I don't understand!" Wilky complained. "It's absorbing my magic or something!" She glanced back at Casey and sighed. "He'd probably know what's going on."

"Well, he's unconscious," Thea pointed out, a tone of mockery in her voice.

Wilky turned back to the spider, just as a leg came flying towards her. She raised her staff to meet the blow just in time, but the magical branch began to crack under the immense pressure the spider was putting on it.

Wilky searched her mind, heart pounding. Casey had given a spell for strengthening an object, but of course, at the moment she needed it most, she couldn't remember it. If her staff broke in half, what would she do? She couldn't do magic anymore!

The spell popped into her mind suddenly, and Wilky grinned.

"Sharod!" she yelled, feeling the power in her words. Blue wisps swirled around her staff, binding the wood back together and giving it a new layer of strength that buzzed under her fingers. Her staff became a sword, though the weight of it still resembled a regular old branch. She felt like a warrior, like Wesley, someone who was familiar with her weapon and knew how to use it.

With a high-pitched war cry (more or less) Wilky leapt through the air, swinging her staff-now-sword and hitting the spider squarely in the face. It flew backwards with a momentum not usually found when hit by a staff, and landing on its back, eight long, hairy legs paddling helplessly at the air.

Wilky stepped forward, her sword (now a staff again) still glowing with a blue aura of strength. Wilky had a plan now, a plan that she could only hope would work. As soon as the spider shot another bolt of sticky web at her, she aimed her staff at it, and under her breath, said,

"Sharod qu ginow."

The web was hit with blue magic, which swirled around it like fog before it hurtled back in the opposite direction. The spider shrieked as it was tangled in its own web. It's legs churned, but this only caused the web to glow brighter blow and release a flurry of sparks.

Wilky giggled. "Gotcha!"

Thanks for reading and as always, don't forget to comment and vote if you enjoyed!