cables of the webs. The light from those ambulatory bundles lit other shapes, big ones, small ones, that moved through the webs, hopped from strand to strand, or glided on ridged wings.
Oh, this is… different. Horrible and different. Moon’s throat was too dry to swallow, but at least he could breathe. He looked up, saw Stone not far above him, and the smaller figures of Chime and River. Chime had, somehow, managed to hold on to Esom. Moon wasn’t sure Esom was going to thank him for that; it might have been a kinder end to die in the fall down onto the leviathan’s skin.
Moon looked down and spotted a solid mass below, some distance from the walls. It was an oblong shape, a couple of hundred paces long and wide, suspended near the center of the space. Moon aimed for it and landed on the rubbery surface, then pulled his wings in and dropped to a defensive crouch. River and Chime landed on either side of him, Esom still clinging tightly to Chime. Stone reached it a few moments later. He snapped his wings in and crouched low.
The bulk of Stone’s body looming over them gave Moon what was probably a false sense of security. He peered into the dim blue light; nothing seemed to be coming for them, but that had to be just a matter of time. “What is this place?”
“Didn’t we fall into the monster?” River said, a thread of panic in his voice. “Where are we?”
“Parasites.” It was Esom who gasped it out. “Colonies of parasites…”
“He’s right,” Chime said, sounding near the edge of panic himself. “These creatures live inside the leviathan. They could be animals, or intelligent, I don’t know.”
Moon looked around again, his gorge rising, and wished he could unhear that.
“They carved out this space, out of its body? Wouldn’t that hurt?” River said, clearly still dazed from horror.
“Apparently they don’t care,” Moon snapped. Next to him, Stone made a low, soft growl and nudged Moon with a claw. Moon turned, saw Stone was staring at a thin column about twenty paces away. Glinting faintly in the blue light, it stretched up out of a ridged aperture in the gray rubbery ground. Moon looked up, traced its path upward… to where it connected with a thick strand of web crossing the chamber. Oh, no… This mass wasn’t suspended from the web; it was creating the web. “What are we standing on?”
Chime and River turned to look, just as the surface under them rippled. From the near end of the mass, an immense head suddenly loomed up. It had multiple glaring eyes and a round, fanged mouth. Spiked tentacles stretched up from its sides, as the whole creature started to curve up and inward toward them.
Stone surged over their heads and hit the creature’s face claws first. Moon yelled, “Up and over, now!” and sprang into the air.
He couldn’t tell if Chime and River understood his incoherent command or if they were just blindly following him. As they took flight, Moon saw a tentacle whip toward Chime, who was still burdened with Esom. Moon twisted toward it and slashed at the slick surface. It twitched at him, missing Chime, just as another tentacle slapped at Moon’s leg and knocked him into a sideways tumble.
He rolled, frantically tried to get his wings under control, and saw the tentacle dive toward him. Then River swooped past and swiped at the tentacle with his foot claws. It flinched, hesitating just long enough for Moon to drop out of reach.
Still falling away, Moon looked up at the creature. From the bottom it had a beetle-like carapace, the edges bristling with tentacles. It roared as Stone whipped over its head and gave it one last swipe with his tail. Stone tore through the tentacles that reached for him and dropped out of its range.
There was movement all over the web as the big creature turned ponderously on its supporting strand to follow them. There was no place to go but down, and Moon dove.
He dropped until the passage narrowed again and the lighted webs were left behind. He had no idea where he was going, and the light was running out, when Chime shouted, “Wait, stop!”
Moon swerved in toward the wall and found a perch to cling to. Chime hit the wall next to him and gripped it tightly. River landed on the far side of Chime, and Stone slammed into a spot just above them.