NOVEL NEXT 125.5 Webways
She-who-hunts ran across the rocky tunnel walls on her eight legs. The only light came from some of the hot flowing rock in the chamber behind her and the odd glowing plant along the tunnel. Even with her many sensitive eyes it was just barely enough to see, but she didn’t let that discourage her. It was normal in these hot tunnels after all and she had long gotten used to it after she travelled through harsh and dark cold to get here so many nights ago.
She-who-hunts soon reached an intersection and went left, following a tunnel that went upwards. The incline continued to increase as she ran, becoming nearly vertical after a while. Unlike the annoying loud four legs however, this didn’t impede her and she didn’t slow down.
A few minutes later the tunnel took a slight red tinge that came from the light of the hot flowing rock and she slowed down. A few body lengths above her the tunnel levelled abruptly and entered another chamber. She entered cautiously, flitting from shadow to shadow until she was hidden beneath the leaves of large ferns and other undergrowth.
She-who-hunts stalked by one of the big lazy lizards, but it noticed her and gave her a snort before it continued munching on leaves.
The nerve to ignore and dismiss her like that! She chittered in irritation, clacking chitin on chitin, but continued on. To hunt one of the lizards she would need fresh hatchlings. Only the smallest of spiders could enter the lizard's ear holes, avoiding the nearly impenetrable scales, but her nests brood was already adolescent right now and couldn’t support a new brood until the current grew enough to provide for the nest themselves. Any other way of hunting them would more likely end in her death than her prey’s.
She-who-hunts stopped her idle thoughts as she neared the last stretch of her hunt and put her entire focus into remaining hidden. She left the cover of the foliage shortly thereafter and rushed to the wall of the chamber, making sure to stay in the shadow of one of the large hard flowers.
A bit above her the coloration of the wall's stone turned from a light grey into nearly black, which she could use to camouflage herself without the need for cover. To get there she had to climb multiple body lengths in the open, a considerable but necessary risk. She stopped for a moment, looking around for other animals to make sure she was still hidden and then sprinted across the wall as fast as she could without compromising her silence.
When she reached the darker stone a moment later she paused and kept still for what felt like an eternity but wasn’t actually all that long, hoping any possible witnesses would lose sight of her as she blended into her surroundings.
Without anything making a ruckus it was time to move on and she stalked her way up the wall until she reached the ceiling. Here She-who-hunts slowed down further, reducing the risk of falling as she hung on the ceiling upside down. There was nothing that would save her if she fell into the hot flowing rock. She couldn’t avoid the risk entirely however, because her targets liked to sleep hanging from the ceiling, where it was the easiest to spot and hunt them.
There was no room for hesitation now that she was already here and she continued, her eight legs carrying her across the ceiling. She-who-hunts was able to spot her prey, some type of animal with thin hides spanning from their front legs to the base of their back legs.
The thin hides were unfortunately right above the hot flowing rock and clustered together in one large group. Not entirely perfectly though and a few of them were a bit further out, making them comparatively isolated as well as perfect targets.
She-who-hunts carefully approached the first thin hide, making nary a sound and raised her two front legs, poised to strike. Without much suspense she hooked one of her front legs around her prey and pulled it towards herself, using the second front leg to secure the animal. The thin hide startled awake, opening its mouth in alarm and She-who-hunts struck one of her pedipalps into the opening, muffling the following cry into near silence. The thing bit down on her appendage in retaliation, but her chitin armour kept her unharmed.
She-who-hunts let out her fangs and quickly bit into her prey, penetrating the throat in a lucky strike. The thin hide struggled for a bit longer, but then succumbed to blood loss and She-who-hunts danced left and right for a moment, happy that she didn’t even need to use her venom.
After the moment of celebration she secured the corpse against her belly with one of her hind legs and approached the next thin hide. She caught two more in quick order, having to use venom once and skittered around the cluster towards the fourth. Once she had that one too she would have to head home, because carrying more than four of them would reduce her speed and agility too much.
Just as she reached about halfway to her prey she froze. Suddenly there was a feeling of something more being in the air, something all living beings had, mana. What was more, it didn’t feel stagnant and was more like a raging current that was running by. All of her instincts were screaming that this was good. That it would make her better and ensure her children would be better too.
She-who-hunts wasn’t the only one who noticed and the entire cluster of thin hides woke in a cacophony of shrill screams. She had to leave and, ignoring her instincts for now, she sprinted away in fear. Not a moment later the thin hides took to the air, most of them descending towards the floor.
One of them circled around her lazily and then closed in. She-who-hunts dodged around the pesky thing and continued running without bothering to counter. The thin hide fluttered around where she had been for a moment and then followed its tribe, leaving her alone.
She-who-hunts slowed down when she had left the thin hides behind and hugged the wall as she fled towards her nest. Everything was fighting down in the chamber, trying to secure some territory in the mana current, though quite a few were quickly realising they had no chance and started fleeing like her. Unsurprisingly the damn lizards were winning.
She-who-hunts didn’t care yet. What was one lone spider to do in this mayhem?
No, it was much smarter to rush back and use the collective might of the nest to stake out a place for them. With a spider swarm it wouldn’t even matter if their enemies were a bit stronger!
She reached the tunnel she had come from and rushed inside, avoiding all the fights simply by being high up the wall. She-who-hunts nearly threw herself down the steep incline with how fast she was moving while not having all her legs free, but somehow managed to hold on. She reached the crossway at record speed, going right this time and leaving the mana current which went left behind. Only now that she was outside of the current did she allow herself to relax a bit.
When she reached the nest, an artificial chamber she had created by forcing one of the delicious worms to dig it out for her and that was just a bend in the tunnel away from the next natural chamber, she threw her catch aside.
Then She-who-hunts became She-who-dance-and-tells-stories, narrating her epic hunt to her family with a mixture of chitters and dance-like movements, trying to inform them of the mana current and to get them to follow her into a brighter future.
Sadly, her family members were both lazy and much much dumber than her and quickly lost interest. She-who-dances-and-tells-stories stomped around in annoyance and raised her front legs menacingly, yet nothing seemed to move the simple minded creatures she called family.
Without another option she would have to become forceful and She-who-dances-and-tells-stories lay down her friendly facade to become She-who-is-Matriarch. Now she stomped on her family members to get them to do her bidding and soon a wave of spiders, the majority of which were still adolescent, streamed out of the nest, trailed by her and two male spiders that had the misfortune of having to carry around the worm the matriarch had kept alive somehow.
Sometimes she wondered what her nest would do without her. Probably either die or sleep in random tunnels like they had before she had claimed the nest and brought them through the bitter cold into these hot tunnels. Both options were unappealing.
The matriarch whipped the swarm of spiders on and they reached the crossway with the mana current after much violence. The moment they could feel the current her family became much more amenable to her plans and she stopped driving them on with force, now leading them instead.
This time she went right and followed the mana up-current. The mana had to come from somewhere and with the current pointing her in the right direction she figured the nest could find that place and claim it for themselves.
As they ran on the matriarch couldn’t help but notice a lot of new plant growth along the way and how some of the glowing plants were brighter than before. In turn the mana current seemed to be slowly getting weaker, reinforcing her decision to go up-current even further.
After a while of running and the occasional dead victim the spider swarm reached a new chamber that was thankfully devoid of hot flowing rock. Upon entering they were immediately challenged by some of the inhabitants and quickly piled onto them in a wave of chitin. Here and there some bystanding prey was nibbed too.
Despite the challengers being improved thanks to the mana current, they were helpless in front of the nest and slaughtered by the many spiders. Once the chamber was clear of threats the matriarch called for a break and the swarm made themselves at home, some stalking around in search of crunchy moss-eaters and other small snacks.
She observed for a while and decided they would sleep before continuing on. Senselessly rushing onwards would only lead to their deaths.
The matriarch settled down in the middle of the mana current after that and luxuriated in the mana, absorbing some as it went by. She was soon joined by more and more of her nest after they got bored and together they became more, became better.
The matriarch watched them, a glint of ambition in her eye and daydreamed about the future. Greatness would be theirs!