Iron Blooded

Six: Hunted

I awoke to a hand clamped tightly over my mouth.   My eyes flew open in the dark, hand straying towards my boot but it wasn’t Jarvis I saw above me.   Draxus crouched over me, his face intent and a finger pressed to his lips for silence.   When I nodded and he removed his hand, and gestured to our surroundings. Slowly I sat up, taking in the camp. The fire smoldered low and the glow of the embers illuminated some of the nearby trees. Ten feet away Jarvis law on his side. We was wrapped in his cloak, his mouth was open in a snore.   Or at least that is what I thought.   When I looked closer I had to clamp my teeth together to keep from screaming.   Spiders were crawling from his mouth and eyes, hundreds of them, maybe thousands. They swarmed over him silently and I realized as I stared, that he was dead. The Spiders were tiny but I could see their green legs in the glow of the embers.   Draxus leaned down, his lips close to my ear.   “Cave spiders,” he whispered. “The brood mother will be nearby. They are blind, don’t make any sound.”   Then he withdrew, slinking away towards the prone form of Gills. He wope the Corporal up in the same fashion.   Cave spiders… I got to my feet, checking my clothes and pack. A single spider was crawling up the side of my arm and I brushed at it franticlaly.   If I remembered correctly their venom could be paralytic.   Jarvis must have been bit earlier tonight… had it been in the forest? Either way he had been unable to move as the spiders swarmed him, eating him from the inside out. My stomach churned at the thought and I felt my gorge rise.   It was a horrible way to go, and it just as easily could have been me.   In a way it was a twisted turn of luck that the guy who might have turned me in to the inquisition was the one who ended up dead. My own rush of releif sickened me.   Draxus and Gills roused the rest of the camp and we began so silently father what we could. We unhitched the Mule from where she had been tied to a tree and she let out a soft snort as we led her to the side.   Jarvis’s body was now swarmed by a blanket of spiders and Kato started towards it, his torch raised.   Gills made a cutting motion through the air.   “We can’t,” he hissed. “He was dead hours ago. It’s likely he was bitten by a bigger spider first and then paralyzed. There was nothing we could have done."   Kato hesitated, his face pale.   “But the body?” he whispered. “We can’t just leave him.”   “We don’t have a choice.”   We packed what we could, giving the body and the spiders now swarming it as wide a birth as possible.   Within minutes we were heading through the forest, following the light of Kato’s single torch. The Cave Spider’s were blind, so it wasn’t light we had to fear, but sound.   Every jingle of equipment or clank of armor set my teeth on edge. I kept looking around, expecting to see some nightmare of a spider come barreling through the trees towards us. Just how large could Cave Spiders get?   One of the soldier’s stumbled and dropped his spear. It slid down a small gultch and came to rest against trunk of a tree.   “Leave it,” muttered Gills, but the man was already climbing down after it.   We waited in tense silence as he crept towards the spear. He glanced around carefully before reaching down to pluck it up.   As he turned back towards us, something wet splattered across the font of his leather Jerkin. He glanced down at the same time that I looked up.   My mind failed to register what I was seeing for a few long moments. Then the true horror of it gripped me. A spider hung from above, it’s hairy legs curled around two trees. It’s multiple sightless eyes hung like pearly orbs in it’s dark face. Mandibles the size of my arm stuck out from either side of it’s jaws and they dripped a stringy saliva.   It was the size of a car.   The soldier stared up at it, the whites of his eyes glinting in the torch light. Gills tried to get his attention but he seemed fixated on the beast above him. He never saw the second spider that lunged from it’s hidden cave and went for him. He screamed and all hell broke loose.   I ripped my sword from it’s sheath and at Gills orders I stood back to back with the other men of the Auxillary. A series of clicks and chirps went off all around us. The spider in the tree lurched towards us, branches swaying as it half crawled, half ran across the canopy. Gills thrust his spear at it, managing to gore one of it’s eyes.   I saw the shadow of movement as another spider, this one the size of a cat, hurled itself at me. I slashed my sword through the air, sheering it in half with a spray of green goo. The trees were alive with dark and hairy bodies.   The soldier on the ground was still screaming as the spider began pulling him towards it’s abdomen. It starte to wrap him in thick strands of sticky webbing even as I watched.   Casting around on the ground I found a stone the size of my first and cocked back my arm, hurling it as hard as I could. It hit the spider with a solid thunk to the head and it lurched backward, dropping the soldier.   I ran forward to snatch at his arm.   “Come on,” I said, heaving at him. But his bulk didn’t move. I glanced down and saw his pale lifeless face. He must have bled out from the wounds in his neck.   “Will!” I had only a moment of warning before the Cave spider bore down on me.   It clicked it’s mandibles, trying to snap at me but I ducked away and rolled to one side. Slashing my sword, I hacked at one of it’s legs, spraying myself with green blood.   It lurched sideways and I took the opportunity to step forward and stab it through the head. A shudder went through it’s hairy body and it collapsed to the ground with a thud. I scrambled back up the gultch towards where my comrades were making a stand against a swarm of spiders.   I stabbed at one, then another. My hands were slick with green spider blood.   One managed to get a grip on my boot and began yanking at it like an angry dog. I drew my hunting knife from my other hand, stabbing wildly.   From all around us the trees began to sway. It was as if a breeze had swept through the forest, but I knew better.   “She’s coming,” said Draxus in a choked voice. “We have to leave, NOW. I’ll get the Mule.”   Gills nodded and began shunting the soldiers forward, shoving at their shoulders as he ordered them to run.   “Will and I will bring up the rear guard,” he said. I nodded grimly.   We bounded down the trail in a column two men wide. The soldiers in the front Draxus, among them, smashed their way through the swarm with shields and spears.   The rest of us ran behind, cutting at any stranglers that managed to come at us from the sides. Occasionally, one would leap from the trees but I managed to spear several through with the point of my upraised sword.   “They’re in a frenzy,” grunted Gills from beside me. “The Brood Mother wants to feed. My guess is that she smelled us when we first crossed inter her territory unknowingly.”   My eyes widened in realization.   “She’s been tracking us..” I hissed. “So that spider that Kato found the night before…”   “It was likely a scout.” Gills confirmed. “Shit.”   I hacked at another fist sized spider that had landed on Seth and was trying to gnaw on his head through his helmet.   “What do we do? Can we outrun her?”   Gills face was grim.   “We can sure as hell try.”   The chase led us out of the heart of the forest where the ground became rockier and more solid.   We were all exhausted by the time we reached the mouth of the ravine. Jagged spikes of grey rock plunged into the air, the sides of which were at least fifty feet tall.   It looked like the ravine might have been carved out naturally by water at some point in Kadian history. But now it was dry as bone.   When the company finally halted and I put my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. We were all covered in sweat and spider gore, and none of us was more spooked then the Mule. She snorted nervously, eyes rolling backwards towards the tree line.   “Theres no time,” rasped Gills, lifting his spear. “We’ll have to head into the ravine now. We’re only a few days for Castle Basset, and when we emerge from the other side we can try to hail down a patrol. It’s our best shot.”   I splashed some of the contents of my canteen across my face. My vitality meter was beginning to drop from green to yellow, and without the presence of a healer in our group I knew I’d need to find a merchant soon.   The meager funds I’d received for my part in taking down the Troll probably wouldn’t be enough to buy more than a minor healing potion.   “Alright,” I said. “Should we send someone to scout ahead?”   Gills considered it, then shook his head.   “No,” he said. “We have a better chance of surviving if we stick together.”   “That’s if the spiders don’t follow us into the ravine,” mumbled Kato helpfully.   “Always the optimist,” growled Draxus.   “I can’t believe those bastards got Jarvis in his sleep.” Seth ripped off his helmet and made to throw it down, then thought better of it.   “If I had noticed what was happening on my watch I could have..”   Gills rested a hand on his shoulder.   “There was nothing you could do lad,” he murmured. “This is just the way of things.”   Remembering I now had my own helmet I opened my pack, pulling it on and fastening the clasp beneath my chin.   With the visor lowered, my visibility was cut in half. Still, I had a better chance of surviving without my bare head as a target for monsters or arrows to find.   After a few minutes rest Gills led us onward and into the ravine. The roots and leaves of the forest floor gave way to sparse grass and smooth stone. The Mule’s hooves echoed as she clopped behind us on her lead.   I had gained a fair amount of experience from fighting the spiders, and I assumed it wouldn’t be long until I reached level 13. That boost in base stats would make a difference in a fight.   If only there were incentives for finishing Quests. I sighed and adjusted my grip on my sword.   The Quests were important, but so far I didn’t exactly know how or why. At first their purpose had been to feed me or keep me alive in this brutal new world. But now? Maybe I was wrong to rely on them.   A few loose rocks fell from the side of the ravine to the ground. The sound echoed like that of a gunshot and drew my attention to above. I could see a few trees growing at the top their roots wrapping around stone.   But nothing else caught my eye. Still, I was learning to be weary in this world of Monsters and death. I caught Gills arm.   “There is something up there,” I murmured, gesturing to the top of the ridge. Gills glanced up and worried at his lip.   “Whatever it is it means to ambush us. Pass to word down. We can set up a trap if we’re smart about it. And a trap will need bait.”   We both turned to look at the Mule. She blinked back at us reproachfully.   Gills grinned.