– mine in particular. If we enter the dream world, they’ll know right were where are, and how to get here. They’re watching for our entrance to that world.
“And that’s not the worst of it. The elders have great power, great control, over the world of dreams. If we leave the physical realm, they can turn the entire dream into a never ending nightmare. They will torture us, inflicting pain so severe that it cannot be matched in reality. We will be trapped forever, with no hope of ever returning to our bodies. That is a sentence much worse than death.”
“But isn’t it possible to enter the world without arousing their attention? It must be!”
“I thought so when I went there with you.” He shook his head. “No, we cannot do it. It’s too much of a risk.”
“I’m not like you, you know,” Laura suddenly snapped. “I can’t just go without food forever.” Her hunger was getting the better of her.
“I know. I’ll find a way out. I’ll find the Proper path.” His voice was determined, steely. Half to himself, he added with a whisper, “I know I will.”
Laura prayed he would.
--
They had been walking for what must have been a few hours when the slope of the tunnel started going down. The air was becoming damp, stale and heavy with age. Laura did not think anybody had been here for generations.
Slowly, the sides of the rock came closer together, until Laura couldn’t walk side-by-side with Logan anymore. She took the lead in front of him, and he let her go without protest.
A pang of guilt struck her for the way she snapped at him before. They had walked in near-silence since then, and she debated apologizing, but thought the better of it each time. In the dark, damp air of the cave, she wasn’t in the most tolerant of moods.
Suddenly something caught her arms and legs, preventing her from moving. She tried to jerk them free, but they wouldn’t budge. She was trapped! She cried out, and struggled mightily against whatever was holding her. But the more she moved, the more restrained she felt. What the hell?
“Stop moving,” Logan laughed behind her. “You’re in a giant cobweb.”
“A cobweb?” Laura hated spiders, hated anything to do with them, and the thought of being entrenched deep in their disgusting sticky thread was petrifying. She tried to pull back, to jerk herself free with more force than before, but ended up only feeling more trapped. She could feel the gluey substance on her arms, on her face, in her hair.
“I said, don’t move,” Logan chuckled. “I’ll help you out.”
Laura felt a jerk above her, heard a tearing noise, and dropped to the ground unceremoniously. She stared daggers at Logan.
“Why didn’t you tell me it was coming?” she demanded. “You must have seen it, with your eyesight!”
“You were in front,” Logan shrugged, “I figured you would have a handle on things.”
“A handle on things?!” Laura was furious. She ripped the threading from her arms, from the front of her dress, and out of her hair. And she threw it all at Logan. Deftly, he caught it, and tossed it back at her. It landed right in her arms. Emitting a high-pitched screech, she shoved it away and scrambled back. And he laughed.
“Don’t you dare laugh at me!...” she began, but suddenly realized the humor in the situation. Either that, or Logan’s laugh was so overpowering it had affected her. She started to chuckle too, and soon broke out into a full laugh.
“So you’re not mad at me?” Logan asked.
“Mad? Why would I be made?”
“You haven’t said a word for the past hour.”
Laura stared in amazement. Was he really so sensitive as to how she regarded him? Here was a paragon of an man, with superhuman abilities and otherworldly powers, and he was worried if she was mad at him? None of it made any sense.
“No, I’m not mad,” she told him gently.
“Good,” Logan said. “In that case, you wouldn’t mind if I take the lead? We can avoid any other nasty cobweb incidents then.”
“I think I’d like that a lot more,” Laura replied kindly.
They kept going, marching on in the darkness. Laura noticed the floor started to curl up a bit, hopefully signaling that they were done with the descent into the earth. The light from her torch had grown weaker, but she didn’t want to replace it until it was fully extinguished.
In the distance, Laura started to make out a widening of