Chapter 6

6 "Let me introduce myself. My name is Aria," said the silver spider. Aria moved quickly over the threads of her web. As she touched each thread, there came a tinkling bell sound. It started low and went up a

tone with each step until the notes were very high near the web's center. Quinn felt a shiver of happiness. The notes were so clear and pure. "Wow!" breathed Mei. Aisha clapped her paws. "That was just the warm-up," said Aria. "Now I'll play a real song." Aria began to jump back and forth across her web, landing on one thread and then bouncing off to another. Each time she touched a thread, a beautiful clear note rang out. It's like a harp crossed with the tinkling of a wind chime, thought Quinn, closing her eyes to fully enjoy the music. But there's something else, too. It's the touch of magic! When the song finished, Aria took a deep bow as the Dragon Girls clapped their paws furiously.

"Incredible!" Aisha said. "I didn't know spiderwebs could sound like that." "Most can't," said Aria. "But I am a Song Weaver." Something was bothering Quinn. "Why haven't the Shadow Sprites stolen your sounds?" she asked. "Oh, they keep trying," said Aria. "But my family and I have been spinning musical webs for

as long as the Magic Forest has been here. They are no match for us. Also, we just bite them when they get close." "You have family?" Quinn asking, trying to focus on that and not think about being bitten by a spider. Aria put two of her feet to her mouth and gave a short, sharp whistle. From behind the leaves appeared hundreds of shiny silver spiders, some bigger and some smaller, their eyes all glittering like jewels. Quinn heard Aisha gulp. "That's a big family," Aisha whispered. "I hope they aren't venomous." "Of course we're venomous!" Aria replied. "We must protect ourselves." "Exactly!" chorused the other spiders. "Even before the Shadow Sprites gained strength, creatures were always trying to steal our music," Aria explained. "Don't worry, we're not here to do that," said Quinn hastily. "We're in the middle of a quest

right now." "We know! We know!" said the spiders, rolling onto their backs and waving their legs in the air. "You have the Heartstring Violin." "Our webs are very sensitive," Aria explained. "They catch hold of any sounds in the Magic Forest. Once they are caught, we can listen to them. We heard you talking with the Beat Badgers. We know you have the violin in your bag."

Quinn, Mei, and Aisha exchanged surprised looks. These spiders really did know everything. "We're taking it back to the Magic Forest's treasure vault," Quinn said. This seemed to upset the spiders, who began chattering. Their voices sounded like hundreds of little bells chiming at once.