It Is You I Have Loved

Chapter 10

They walked all day and all day Alastor had to endure listening to Angel's non-stop jabbering. Going on about his life goals and view points, singing his favorite songs, even trying out his dance moves. To Alastor he was as chatty as a parrot and more annoying than a mime. He couldn't imagine how someone could run their mouth for so long and he was almost tempted to hurl that spider into a tree.

"You know most people except arachnids to be sedentary creatures but not me." Angel rambled. "I much prefer to be on the move. Travel around, go where the wind takes me, and I gotta tell ya the wind has taken me to some freaky places."

"Why me?" Alastor groaned. "Why me? Tell me God, what was my crime? What did I do to deserve this?"

Thankfully though, Angel became quiet at night fall when they stopped to rest. Alastor treasured the peace and quiet for as long as he could.

Come the next morning, they started walking again and that's when the scenery started to change in a bad way. Little by little, the greenery turned browner, the grass got sparser, until finally Alastor and Angel found themselves moving across a bleak, burnt land-scape marked only by charred skeletons of trees. It began to get darker. Black clouds scudded across the sky and the burned trees cast long shadows the covered the ground. And just ahead of them was a huge devil's peak.

They climbed themselves up that rocky peak and there it was. A dilapidated castle, burned and blackened. Perched on a rock pinnacle, surround by molten lava.

"Oh Lordy." Alastor said taking in the area. "And I thought my home was scary beyond all reason. I should have considered moving here sometime ago. I would definitely have a lot more un-disturbed, privacy."

"Al I don't think even you could be comfortable living in a place like this." Angel said, wondering if he had been smart to go along with this quest.

"Well we better press forward."

Angel was stunned by Alastor's reaction to the scenery. Here he was in a part of the world which was shrouded in brimstone and lava, yet he was completely unafraid and was just walking around like it was no different from the field which they had come from.

"Oh splendid! Just what we needed. A bridge." Alastor pointed over to the wooden bridge that hung over the lava and it was the only way to reach the castle. But it looked very weak and wobbly.

"We're gonna walk on that?" Angel asked with fearful skepticism. "It doesn't look very safe."

"There's no other way across."

"Then maybe you go on ahead and I'll wait here."

"Oh don't tell me you're afraid of heights. You're a spider for Heaven's sake. You build webs in high locations all the time."

"Yeah about that, funny thing. I've actually never had the opportunity to build a web and I'm not afraid...It's just..."

He peered tentatively over the edge.

"I'm just a little uncomfortable about being on a rickety bridge over a boiling lake of lava."

"Now Angel don't be difficult." Alastor said. "I'll be right beside you and I'll make sure that you don't fall."

"Really?"

"Really, really."

"Okay."

"Just keep moving and don't look down."

"You know that don't look down phrase doesn't exactly help. In fact it makes me want to do the opposite."

Angel looked down.