"Hmm, well this is a tricky situation" he said to the air. "I suppose I should have listened to that old lady with the extra eye on her forehead and a second shadow. Though I feel she was unnecessarily vague with her warnings." He mumbled as he assessed his surroundings. He'd found himself in a small clearing in between some trees, thoroughly trapped in a sicky web laid across the road. "Bewaaare, she said, lest ye fall to her, she said" He tugged at his arm, stuck fast. So were his legs. His left arm was also stuck but his hand was very close to the small knife he kept on his hip. "You shall love her and perish, crazy old bat if you're gonna warn somebody of something you might as well just say what you mean"
His fingers were infuriatingly close to the dagger. After several minutes of hoping his fingers would magically grown an inch or two 'Not necessarily out of the question in the god forsaken forest' he thought. He stopped reaching and took a moment to think, normally a good thing in a situation where one finds oneself stuck in some form of trap with unknown consequences approaching at an unknown point in the future. However, when one has a lot of things to think about the mind often finds it easier to dwell on thoughts of the past. How this instinctual reaction has not been bred out of the human species is beyond the scope of this text, but needless to say Tod was deep in thought about the wrong things.
"I bet she'd think this was all very funny." She, being the girl he'd loved and lost. The shock of which had sent him waking into the Forest. "She'd know just what to say..." he trailed off. Anger and embarrassment turning his ears and cheeks a stark shade of red. "She'd know how to do a lot of things... reach the knife, insult me, probably not get stuck in the first place like some absolute idiot, fuck my best friend while i was at the store picking the 37 cans of sauerkraut she wanted. The store owner didn't even have that much i don't know why... ohhh" he trailed off both coming to the realization that she very obviously was just getting him out of the house and the secondary realization that he'd forgotten about the present predicament he found himself in.
"Right yes." he mumbled, "Trapped in a web, old lady bad at directions, need to find a way... out" He looked, as best he could, to the points where the web met the trees. There he noticed two vital pieces of information. The first being that the strands were strong and sturdy with not a sign of wear anywhere along their length. The second was the sight of dozens and dozens of person shaped balls of webbing high up in the trees... some of which were wiggling. This might have been enough to spook him thoroughly but when a darker shadow rose from a cluster of bodies and started moving towards him his blood turned cold.
The creature was hulking and it's many many legs carried it slowly but surely down the trees towards where he was.
The dagger was his only hope at this point. He thrashed his arms, hoping to wiggle his hand close enough to grab the knife, his only lifeline.
It's monstrous form lumbering towards him he kept desperately trying to break his arm free. Straining, gasping, screaming. It's dripping fangs came into view and he felt the sharp horrible sting of them and the creeping, clawing, splendid warmth of her ichor flowing through his veins. Her beautiful eyes came into view, reflecting the light of the heavens filtering through the canopy. They shimmered and swam as if the truths he had always sought were captured in the glimmering shine of those eight beautiful orbs. He smiled, and she smiled back at him. She chittered and stroked his hair with one of her long mandibles, as she wrapped him. The warmth, the safety, it was all he had ever wanted. He was finally happy.
2024-07-15