While running I being to notice things that I never noticed while up in the tree house, or that I was in too much denial to notice. One of those things being how disgustingly colorful this place is; just running through the trees and sandy grass brings on an instant headache. To say that this “forest” is an eyeful would be doing it a disservice. In my “humble” opinion it is gaudy and downright ugly. Just the sheer excessiveness of it cause me to slow down…well that and I’m not in great shape. I wish I could say that walking around makes it better, but it doesn’t. Walking around here makes me feel like I’ve been transported into a Lisa Frank sticker book… and yes it’s as bad as it sounds. But I don’t have the time, patience or interest to focus on this ugly forest, I have to begin my man hunt for “He-Who-Shall-Be-Killed” and find a way to get the hell out of here!

I guess I’m now becoming desperate because I am actually contemplating yelling out his name, as if we’re just playing hide and seek and if yell out my surrender he’ll appear from behind a car sized root and laugh, saying something irritatingly corny, but I know the truth. That it won’t do me any good and I’ll end up looking like an idiot… or an every bigger one because I realize how stupid it was of me to leave the tree in the first place. But that’s water under the bridge now.

I continue down the makeshift path I found, if you can a slight flattening of feathery grass a path, dearly hoping Aether was smart enough to follow it instead of wandering into the trees…. but I’m pretty sure he didn’t. Because it’s Aether and he never does anything the easy way. Seriously he once chose an essay topic that was harder than all the other topics we had to choose from, simply because he wanted to challenge himself… I swear I don’t understand that kid sometimes.

Deep in my thoughts about all the of the odd ball things that he does, I’m suddenly clothes lined by the toughest rope I have ever had the displeasure of coming across, it sticks to me for a moment and I rip away from it, tumbling to the ground. And before you get started… don’t ask my why I didn’t see; I just didn’t. I stand up, rubbing my throat and brushing sand out of my hair, and contemplating who in their right mind would randomly place some rope in the middle of a rainforest when I look up.

The biggest, ugliest, grossest… if I had another ‘est’ word to describe this monster of a spider it would be in this list. It’s larger than a van and a translucent gold, it’s abdomen a net of spun gold over silver mirrors that reflect back my crazed reflection. The ‘rope’ that I had the pleasure of introducing to my trachea is part of this mammoth beasts web. The strands of silver spreading out between four of the massive trees. I can feel my heart restarting, beating faster and faster till I can hear it echoing off my eardrums and dancing around my stomach.

You don’t know true terror until you are looking into the eight-multicolored eyes of a gigantic spider; your own image staring back at you out of the mirrors on its back as it advances toward you. I need to run away.

Run. Run…. Please Run….

That’s all that my brain is chanting… but my legs aren’t listening…. in that moment it’s almost as if they’ve gone numb, they’re so heavy. I can’t move, but I can feel my heart in my lungs urging me to run…run. To run as far as I can, as fast as my out of shape body can take me.

Maybe I’m paralyzed.….. that’s it, that’s the only explanation as to why I’m not a mile away from this already…. this…. I swear I need more adjectives for big, ugly, and terrifying. And the funniest thing, I swear I can hear Aether’s commentary, ‘Oh but it’s beautiful Raylen, and so unique, in fact I think I know what it’s earth counterpart is.’ And I start to laugh hysterically. That’s exactly what Aether would say. The spider is still inching it’s way down the web towards me. I can see the pincers in it’s face, nearly count the tiny hairs prickling it’s legs and the mirrors are shining so bright they’re nearly blinding me now. Run. My legs finally decided to get with the program and high tail it out of there.

I think I run for a good ten, maybe even fifteen minutes or so, which for someone who spends all day every day in front a computer, and only runs to the bathroom, is an accomplishment. I think I could have kept going if I wasn’t falling face first down a hill into the river. My legs and torso meeting each other as I stumble down to splash into a river, of all things. Aether, wherever you are, you’re dead to me.