When Waverly began to dream, she somehow knew she had fallen asleep untucked. She dreamed she was back in the huge country with black smoky clouds and sky high mountains. The cracks on the ground were wider this time but black smoke still seeped out of them. The earth trembled and cracked and yawned until a large pit was right before Waverly's eyes.

She saw the light from far beneath. It was almost like the faint glow of a firefly but it was not yellow. It was powdery white. Waverly stretched out a hand. She had the feeling that she could reach the light but at the same time she knew it was as far away as the earth was from the sky.

"You must hurry. Save me, daughter!" The same female voice called from the depths.

Waverly felt a sob constrict inside her throat. She had to travel faster in order to reach her mother.

"I am on my way but you must try to tell me exactly where you are." Waverly said. The landscape began to shift, drawing her farther away from the pit and reducing the woman's voice to a faded echo.

"I fear i do not know where i am. But you must journey quickly to find me. You must hurry."

The landscape stretched out some more until Waverly found herself staring at nothing but a dark spot on the horizon. The sound of rushing waves roared in her ears and her body swayed from one side to the other. In her dream state, Waverly believed she was only swaying but when she stirred awake she saw Judson shaking her.

"You have to wake up!" He cried in alarm.

His hair was dripping wet and his face had turned whiter than it usually was. Waverly saw that he was incredibly frightened. She also realized that she was soaked to the bone.

Before she could sit up, a really strong wind blew in her face and ripped the sheets off the bed and the bed with it. Hilda was swaying defenselessly in the direction of the wind. Objects clattered around and flew out into the water.

"What is that?" Waverly shouted.

"Tempest!" Judson shouted back. Waverly thought she had never heard his voice so high before.

"Bad winds?" She asked gripping tightly to a bar that had been above the bed as Hilda did a dangerous pirouette.

"No. Tumut!" Judson replied.

"What?" Waverly shouted.

Judson pointed out to the sea.

At first, Waverly could not see anything in the violent splash of sea water and grey thunderous clouds but when she focused, she realized two things. The first was that Hilda had sailed out into open sea once again and the second was that the grey cloud had hands.

Waverly blinked.

Clouds do not have hands. She thought.

But these clouds did. They had very large hands and they stirred up the water so that the storm continued raging. Judson had called the storm Tumut. Waverly was sure she had never heard such a name before.

The sea roared and splashed against Hilda causing parts of the boat to break apart like paper. Judson quickly began to pack up his bag. Waverly did the the same and hastily strapped on her Grogana. She was thankful she had forgotten about emptying the bag otherwise many useful items would have been lost.

The storm clouds spread over them and rain poured down in cold angry whips drenching their clothes until it stuck to their skin. Hilda began to sink.

"No! We can not let her overturn!" Waverly screamed as the boat tilted sideways, vacuuming water faster by the second.

"Jump!" Judson prompted and took hold of Waverly's hand.

The storm Tumut, was forming a funnel cloud around them making Hilda its center focus. Waverly had no room for objection. She plunged into the cold depths with Judson before the last of Hilda was buried by waves.

Waverly stared sadly at the boat as it sank faster and faster. She thought of Pepinguild the Elven fisherman. She had given him only twelve coins in exchange for Hilda and now she was broken and torn, sinking to the bottom of the sea where she would never be found again. Waverly hated that she had just ruined the work of Pepinguild's hands.

Judson grabbed her hand from somewhere behind her. He tried to pull her up but Waverly somehow refused to budge. She struggled to swim then remembered that her Grogana was strapped to her back. It was made out of clay and suspending it in water had only made it become heavier. The good news was that no matter how long it remained suspended it would not break nor dissolve. Rogue fire made sure of that. The bad news was Waverly would drown with it because she could not let it go. All her belongings were inside.

Judson tried with all his might to pull Waverly up but Grogana only got heavier. The storm seemed to have calmed on the surface but Waverly did not bet on it. Her nose burned and her eyes stung. She began to sink as fast as Hilda when the boat had drowned.

Waverly wriggled her hand and pointed to the surface, urging Judson to swim up. His own weight had doubled underwater because of his wings and he would not survive trying to pull himself out and Waverly with him at once.

Still, he shook his head in disagreement.

He took her other hand and did something Waverly never thought she would witness him do. He unfolded his black wing. With just one flap, the pair erupted out of the water like a boiling spring. Waverly could see Judson's face contorting in pain as she dangled under him. She did not know the real reason why he never used his black wing. She had always thought it was because the wing was broken. Now it seemed she was right.

Judson only flew for a few kilometers before Waverly spotted seven huge stone structures ahead. Each stone was as large as a siege tower and as they got closer Waverly realized the structures were not separate, they were lined up to hold a larger sloping frame that she thought resembled land. They were coming up to it with uncontrollable speed. At the last second, Waverly concluded that the incredible structure was the bridge of Bridge.

They crash landed in grass and mud. Waverly spat out the mouthful of dirt she had almost swallowed by mistake. She looked about for Judson whom she soon found lying down curled up in a ball by the edge of the bridge.

She lunged toward him. "Jud!"

For a short time, she feared he was dead but then his body suddenly seized violently. When she touched his skin, it burned her and briefly took on a strange color like that of fire ashes. Waverly unstrapped her bag, scooped his head up and laid it underneath him as a pillow.

She searched around for his own bag for she knew that no matter what, Judson would never travel without medicine. He was also an aspiring healer. She found the bag a few walking steps away from where he had crashed, fumbled inside and found herbage. It was a good thing she recognized most of these leaves because Judson packed up a few poisonous ones as well.

She plucked out a few medicinal ones and crushed them with her palm then squeezed the liquid into Judson's mouth. It took quite a long and frustrating while before his skin color became that of peach.

Waverly breathed in relief when his eyelids flew open.

"Do not ever attempt that again. You are no Outcast!" She chided.

Judson coughed and sat up. "You are most welcome."

"I must admit that was very brave of you. You saved my life. Many thanks!" Waverly said. Judson nodded, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and collected his bag from her.

"Is this it? Is this the bridge of Bridge?" She asked looking at the gigantic structure.

The bridge was built from large impressive stones and held underneath by seven powerful stone pillars. These structures formed a series of arches underneath and would look like extremely huge passageways to anyone who sailed under it. Waverly could not see over the edge because they were barricaded by stone walls the size of tower houses.

"This is it indeed. We must travel across it." Judson muttered.

He hated to walk but he wanted to accompany Waverly by all means. He had spent two days tracking her down and thought it would be foolish to turn back after all that effort.

"How long will it take us to get across?" Waverly inquired.

The bridge was extremely broad and made her almost believe she was still on land. The sound of the sea below them was also completely blocked out.

"I am not sure. I have never crossed." Judson replied. He was squinting his eyes at something far off.

"HalfHyde. . . I mean, Pa, mentioned to me once that there are dangers out on the border which is why nobody ever tries to cross it. . . without permission, that is. Do you know of what these dangers might be?"

Judson swallowed nervously and pointed weakly. "Those!"

Waverly turned and gave a loud shriek - hurriedly coming toward them were two spiders.

She had seen spiders before. They were no bigger than pebbles and she sometimes let them walk across her palm or her boot. These spiders were different. They were as tall as stalls in the local market and they had bulby eyes that glowed gold.

"What are they?" Waverly asked, her voice trembling.

The spiders had only four legs instead of eight and their legs were nothing like the spindly limbs other spiders had. Theirs was as thick as timber from an oak tree and had points like fat needles. When they stomped on the grass, it flattened.

"Epeiras." Judson replied.

"Can they see us?" She asked.

"Clearer than we would like." He replied.

The spiders continued to advance, clicking their legs against the ground. They looked more like large ants than spiders to Waverly.

"We have to run!" She whispered but it seemed the Epeiras understood that. A lot of their victims might have said the same thing.

One of them lunged at Waverly and she jumped away from Judson giving the second spider a chance to have at him. She ripped open the base of her Grogana, pulled out her short sword and brandished the Elvish wood. Even though the sword was smaller and shorter than regular swords were, it looked quite deadly. It had a wooden hilt and a wooden flat but embedded in between a crack in the middle of the flat was a sharp blade. No one would be able to tell that the sword could hurt them unless Waverly actually made use of the sharp edge.

The Epeira attacked again but Waverly was ready this time. She spun out of the way and slashed at one of its legs. She could hear Judson yelping from across her but she could not risk getting distracted. Her strike seemed to anger the Epeira. It came at her again and again but she dodged each time then she made the fatal mistake of stabbing the blade into another of the spider's legs.

It stuck fast and the creature squealed at her. Waverly looked around for any sort of weapon but there was only dead grass and mud. The Epeira charged. Waverly maneuvered midair and landed on its back.

"Well, this is pointless!" She yelled as the spider violently tried to shake her off.

She slid down its orbicular surface and managed to pry her sword off its legs. It squealed and thrashed in pain. This gave her a few seconds to check on Judson. He was hovering a few feet in the air, flapping his white wing to stay airborne. It was obvious that he was not trying to hurt the Epeira. The air that emanated from his wing did seem to make the spider uncomfortable and kept it from advancing but Waverly knew Judson would not be able to remain that way for long.

She faced her own opponent. She had to finish it off once and for all to be able to help Judson. She tried to remember her lessons on spiders. HalfHyde had never mentioned anything peculiar about an Epeira but he had always said that every creature had a vulnerability. All she needed to do was find it, and fast.

Waverly studied the spider as quickly as she could. Dark red blood seeped out from its wounds but that did not seem to faze it. She glanced at the opening in the front of its underbelly. For a second, she saw it throb.

She wondered if that was its heart. The creature stomped and came at her again. It sliced a chunk of material off her shorts and this threw Waverly off balance. She fell on her face.

The Epeira wasted no time. It picked her up and began to spin a web around her. Waverly tried to slash at them with her blade but the creature was a natural weaver. It spun a hundred times faster than she could move. The webbing was already halfway across her nose when she suddenly felt a strange sensation.

Silence.

The entire bridge became death silent. The Epeira dropped Waverly immediately, squealed and ran away with its partner following closely behind. Waverly struggled to turn but her new cocoon kept her from moving. She felt the way she did whenever HalfHyde tucked her in for bed as a child.

Judson ran over to her and cut her free with his own knife. Waverly had not even realized he had one but then she recalled he had gut fish with a knife on the boat.

"Why did they run away?" She asked when she was able to stand.

Judson shrugged and gestured that they should be happy the Epeiras left. He picked up his bag and slung it over one arm.

"Sunset soon!" He announced, peering up at the sun.

Waverly turned her Grogana over to examine the damage she had done and thankfully, the tear was not big. She strapped her sword to the leather belt holding up her shorts.

"We have to get across now. Before anything else attacks. . ."

"Shhh!" Judson quickly placed a hovering finger near her lip and inclined his head.

He gazed at the direction of the bridge that led back to Bremeton. Waverly was not so long sighted but she could see the trees moving from the distance. Something was coming and whatever it was, she knew it was big.

"Run!" Judson said and the pair scrambled off as fast as their legs could carry them.

They ran for a long time with nothing really in pursuit but with hopes to put a great distance between them and whatever was behind them.

When they were convinced they had run a great distance, they stopped to breathe. Judson pulled out two water carriers and threw one over to Waverly. They both had a refreshing drink and rested for a few hours before analyzing their situation.

"Whatever was that in the trees?" Waverly asked.

The sun was high in the sky and it gave off a dull heat but the light from it illuminated everything. Waverly was thankful they were under the open sky. Judson had mentioned whilst they were running that a colony of Epeiras lived under the bridge. There were certain tunnels down in the water where the spiders came from. He mentioned that these tunnels were also a shortcut from one realm to the other but no human or creature could take that route. The Epeiras would outnumber them greatly and feast on them.

"A Triad!" Judson replied.

"What is it?" Waverly asked.

It was ironic how she had been the one taking lessons and yet Judson knew more than she did. She could barely remember all the creatures she learned about from HalfHyde but Judson had no problems recounting. This was yet again another reason that made her grateful for his company.

"Border animal. Three heads." He explained distastefully. If he found Waverly's ignorance annoying, he mentioned nothing about it. He was simply willing to answer all her questions.

"Three heads? That seems a burden." Waverly mocked.

"Seems!" Judson repeated. "We should continue."

Waverly hated the idea of walking for so long. She missed Hilda badly. It was easier to sit around while the boat did all the movement but now she had to walk a great deal. She sighed and stared at her left boot. She had come prepared for walking with an extra pair of shoes but now the sole of her boot had come loose. It was when the Epeira tripped her that she ruined her shoe. She had not planned on ruining them so quickly.

She took off the shoe and ripped the sole off entirely then put it back on. She jogged up to Judson and they began their long trek across the bridge of Bridge. While they walked, Judson tried his best to explain some things to Waverly. He knew a lot more than he let on and Waverly wished she had taken classes with him.

They stopped occasionally to rest and drink or eat. Judson cooked life-saving meals that gave them energy enough to walk a thousand miles. He suggested they make a map when they came to the other end of the bridgehead.

It took five long days to get to the end of the bridge. Waverly understood now why only a few determined people crossed the border. It took nearly all of her will to keep moving.

They came to the part of the bridge that sloped down smoothly into land. Waverly and Judson stopped at this point and stared at the land before them. It was all forest like the other side of the bridge that was the entrance to their country.

"This is it?" Waverly asked looking at Judson.

He nodded. "The Gateway of Realms!"

"The In Between!" She whispered.

Judson had been telling her about it right before they came up to it. HalfHyde had also retold very many tales about the five known Realms of Power but this was the first time Waverly had ever seen one.

"Do you know of what we might face in there?" She asked nervously.

Fighting a duo of large spiders had left her greatly disquieted. The last thing she wanted was to face another monster.

"No. But whatever may be in there, let us hope it does not try to eat us or kill us." Judson said.

He was more visibly restless than Waverly was. His hands trembled and he walked with a lot of reluctance. He was so slow that Waverly had to hold his hand all the time to keep him on the same track as her. She had once gotten vexed to the point that she yelled at him for being such a drag then later apologized for it.

"Let us go on then!" She urged.

They tried to walk down the slope together but it was so slippery that they slid on their behinds until they crashed into the tall grasses below. The bridge now looked like a towering wall to Waverly. She only realized its true height from the ground.

"If we keep bumping into dirt this way, we might have absolutely no need for supper by nightfall." She complained, spitting out a mouthful of dirt then stood up to brush down her clothes.

She placed both hands on her hips and looked around. The In Between did not look like much. It did not look magical or fascinating considering the fact that it was a realm of power and the home of a supposed deity. All Waverly could see was thick green forest and all she could hear was absolute silence.

"We go on!" Judson said pulling leaves and small branches out of his hair.

Waverly walked up to him and took his hand. He had gotten more comfortable holding hands within the few days of their walk.

The sun was behind them as they strolled toward the forest but suddenly a huge shadow blocked out the sunlight. They both stopped dead in their tracks.

The thing was standing at the top of the bridge and so its shadow was perfectly projected on the ground in front of them. It looked like a large dog and Waverly was about to state so when two objects moved on either sides of the animal. She realized these objects were heads.

"The Triad!" She whispered harshly.

Her voice trembled and her hand gripped Judson's tighter. Neither one of the two felt anxious to turn around. They rather felt very anxious to run. All three heads of the Triad growled in oneness.

"We cannot outrun it or kill it." Judson said with a little sob.

Waverly let her head drop and silently turned to the left. She glanced from her side vision at the animal and let out a sharp gasp. The creature had surreptitiously climbed down the bridge and was now directly behind them. They had been standing still for much too long.

At last, they turned to face the animal.

Waverly could not say it was the ugliest creature she had seen since she was yet to meet others even though she wished to never do. The Triad could fit in a list of ugliest creatures alive. A list Waverly would make later. The dog heads were the size of fully grown cows and its one huge body was larger than a Qoi's. It was a good deal taller than an Epeira and it drooled from all three mouths and growled angrily too. It had sharp claws and even sharper teeth that was stained with fresh blood. Waverly felt sick to her stomach. She wanted to believe the Triad had feasted on an animal and not a person.

The Triad scratched one of its hind legs against the ground and created a small pit of mud water and flattened grass. Waverly carefully unleashed her sword and gingerly shoved Judson to stand behind her.

The Triad barked viciously and charged.

Waverly pushed Judson out of the way but was too slow to move away herself. The creatures swiped one of its paws and knocked her up into the air. She came falling down again and landed on its back. Without hesitation, she drove her short sword into the skull of the middle dog.

This caused the animal to become befuddled. It threw Waverly off its back and she came crashing down in a dead faint. The Triad crinkled and twisted its head in an attempt to dislodge the sword. The other dog heads tried to bite at the blade but they could not arch their heads any higher.

The dogs snapped and yapped at each other while the middle one quickly lost consciousness. The creature began to tilt aimlessly as its middle dog head drooped down - dead.

The other two heads became agitated. They turned with great effort to face Waverly. She was lying in a muddy pool by the bridge.

"Hey!" Judson yelled.

He knew that he needed to keep their attention on himself and away from Waverly. She had killed their steer dog with only one blow and they looked intent on taking their revenge. Judson ran a mental list of possible ways to defeat a Triad. He had read about them in books he found at the market.

An old thought suddenly came to his mind. By then, Waverly had begun to stir. Her vision cleared just as the Triad snapped its attention to Judson.

"Jud?" She exclaimed weakly. She watched in horror as the Triad reared and aggressively pounced on him.

A sob caught in her throat. She struggled to stand up but her body went limp and her head ached badly. She stretched out a hand and bit back angry tears, watching helplessly as the Triad feasted on her best friend.

The Moon Spawn|
Book 01