***

In the middle of the night, a line of cars travelled along a dirt road, weaving past haphazardly placed trees. The road was bumpy and hardly comfortable. They were in the forest, heading towards a secret passage to U’dreg Rookweh. Inside the second car, Wazp, Hyssss, Vezpar, and Kobre were trapped within the detainment boxes. The ruags shivered from the cold, the chilled air fogged the containers. A different team of Keepers were responsible for escorting the ruags.

Wazp had been complaining the whole way. Hyssss looked like he wanted to strangle him but he had no hands to do it.

“I-z don’t-z want-z to-z go-z to-z the-z Hub-z!” Wazp whined, his tiny mandibles quivering. “Itz zupposed-z to-z be-z really-z cold-z there-z.”

“Itss already cold here!” snapped Hyssss. “Thiss iss all your fault! You just had to keep inssissting on teaching that mynah a lesssson!”

“Itz your-z fault-z!” Wazp buzzed angrily. “You-z juzt-z had-z to-z diztract-z uz with-z your-z oozpad-z: ‘duh-z, do-z I-z ztill-z have-z to-z hold-z him-z?’”

“Sshut it! You’d do the ssame if you were sstuck with the sstuttering fulu!”

“Would-z not-z!”

“Would too!”

“Quiet-sz!” bellowed Vezpar in annoyance.

“Quiet back there!” demanded the brunette Keeper at the front.

THUMP!

Something had landed on the hood of the car. It felt quite strange as if there were many arms grasping his back. The Gardios sensed a large hairy head with eight eyes glaring down at him.

“Eeeeeeaaaaaaargh!!” screamed the car. He swerved out of control until finally crashing into a tree, which uprooted and toppled over. Blood trickled down the Keeper’s forehead as he sat unconscious in the driver’s seat, resting upon the deployed steering wheel airbag.

The Gardios shouted in agony as the car roof was peeled back by a large pair of long furry spider arms. To him, the sensation was like having the flesh ripped off his back.

“He’ss here!” declared the smirking Kobre. “No one can win againsst the mighty Raknae!

Raknae tossed the roof aside as a gelatinous mass seeped out from underneath the car and passed out from the pain. It was then that the car collapsed to the ground, unable to bear the giant spider’s weight without a Blood merged with it. The rest of the vehicles screeched to a stop by the crash site. Several Keepers and Gardios shouted as they rushed to apprehend Raknae.

“One ruag confirmed!” shouted a blonde man. “There may be others lying in wait!”

“Sorry to disappoint,” Raknae sneered. “I’m all that’s needed here.”

“It’s a bluff!” one Gardios shouted, a lizard-Blood. “Stay on guard!”

To their dismay, Raknae leapt towards them, capturing the crew beneath a heavy, silvery web.

“Oosspad!” hissed Hyssss from the flattened car.

“Yeah-z! Oozpad-z!” Wazp chimed in.

“Can you two jusst sshut it?!” Kobre commanded, finally losing his patience.

***

Several miles away, a yellow all-terrain vehicle was driving deep in the forest. Tim sat in the driver's seat, fastened in place by holds made from Terranis’ metallic flesh. Terranis swerved between trees, humming operatic tunes through the mounted radio. His partner was fast asleep, too tired to care about his taste in music.