Tread Lightly – Among Monsters And Men

I hear the others behind me back up and scoot toward the edge of the building-sized skeleton. I do something similar and retreat just a bit and while I do so, I can hear Earl behind me continue to freak out. And Elizabeth asks him what’s wrong.

“Sp-sp-spider! A huge one!”

Leonard laughs, but Elizabeth elbows him hard. I just focus on the sound of the spider approaching as they talk.

“Shut up Leonard. Wyatt woke us up, so it's something serious. How big was it Earl?”

Earl continues to freak out and now he begins to hyperventilate. But he does spit out the answer.

“Huge. Like six or seven feet tall at least.”

They all go silent when Earl says that, but not because of what he said. Instead, it's because the massive arachnid crests the edge of the skeleton and we can see two of its legs and its face. It looks like it has a big enough mouth to bite one of us in half.

The mouth of the arachnid is massive with small little forelimbs surrounding it and venom that drips off and onto the boney ground beneath us like saliva. But more like acidic saliva as it melts the bone beneath it leaving small clouds of bone in the air.

Earl screams, which is getting really annoying and uses the embers of our campfire to light a torch. Even while having a mental breakdown, he seems to still be quick on his toes.

But while all this commotion occurred behind me, I was ramping up the Ether in my right arm and the half of my left that had been cleared. So, the instant that the spider appears atop the skeleton, I strike. I flit close up to its front right leg and try to pierce its chitin with my dagger.

It doesn’t go too well. My dagger bounces off and makes my hand vibrate in pain. Then, the spider tries to retaliate with its legs I only realize are sharp at the ends when they are pointed at me. Makes sense with how fast it climbs, but its speed is another factor that worries me as I struggle to maneuver and dodge the crashing down of each of its limbs upon me.

Every second I feel as though I come a little closer to being caught within its web. I jump, dash, dodge, and duck under everything imaginable while I stay underneath and around this huge monster. Just as I reach an unfortunate spot where I can see the inside of the spider’s mouth and watch the venom on its teeth drip, I hear a whoosh.

Then a crash sounds as a flaming bottle slams into the spider’s gaping mouth that was keen on eating me. It rears back in pain and surprise as it is engulfed in fire. I take this moment of confusion to climb upon one of its legs and try to reach its main body.

I hear an “Oh fuck, sorry” as I do so, that I am certain came from Leonard when the next section that I planned on climbing to is beset by another fiery body and set ablaze. The spider now is truly angered and begins to charge at where the fire is coming from. This prompts me to climb even faster and ignore the fire hazard in front of me.

I quickly and deftly while using my daggers to stab into weak points and my Ether to increase my grip strength climb atop the spider. The fire burns me deeply, but I ignore it and continue forward. The practice of climbing the skeleton with a handicap actually really helped here. Only this time, it's a bit direr.

Once on the top of the spider, I move towards its eyes, careful not to fall off and as I reach the eyes I see that it has noticed me and is trying to move to buck me off. No longer chasing my friends, it twists and turns to throw me off. I lose my balance abruptly as it drops low and turns to the right, but as I fall off, I sink both of my daggers deep into the top of its exoskeleton near its eyes which are thinner than on its legs.

I hold tightly onto the daggers as the spider begins to move frantically doing everything to shake me off of it or attempt to eat me whichever works first I’m sure is fine for it. In order not to be eaten or thrown off though, I curl my body into a ball and force a huge deluge of Ether into my right hand to be certain I won’t drop or get burned by its blazing maw.

Because of how the spider is moving, I’ll be thrown off of the skeleton to the ground more than fifty feet below. That’s far enough to dig my own grave upon landing.

Eventually, this stalemate ends where it cannot remove me or eat me and I can’t do anything but hold on as, instead of a flaming bottle, a flaming stick is thrown at the still-burning spider. The spider turns and is distracted by the new projectile, I guess it thought it was another molotov cocktail, but I have no idea where it came from. Was Leonard hiding alcohol? I don’t have time to care.

I take this quick lapse of teeth not biting me to rip out a dagger and plunge it a foot above me as I try and scale back up the spider. This time using my daggers as icepicks and its body as a literal mountain face.

The huge arachnid does not like this. It screeches and tries to throw me again as huge amounts of green blood begin to shoot out of its small wounds that I’m increasingly making. Eventually, I make my gruesome and risky way back to the top of the spider. With me now at the top, I stab one dagger into the top of the spider for stabilization, I don’t want a repeat of earlier, and I take a note from the Hunter woman that shanked me a few dozen times.

I pierce my serpentine blood-spilling dagger into the spider dozens of times as it screeches, thrashes, and throws me about. My body hit the top of the spider dozens of times with bone bruising force. I just grit my teeth and keep shanking.

Eventually, the spider slows, and I release my dagger for stabilization and use it to hasten its death. More and more green blood spills, but the spider doesn’t go down without one last hurrah.

Just as I stand to hop off of it, the spider thrashes and sends me flying off of it and into the skeleton that it stands on. I fall close to eight feet and slab into a hard bony floor before sliding several feet and getting wrapped in blankets and other items that prevent movement and sight as my eyes are covered.

Then suddenly, I’m weightless as my stomach drops, indicating that I’m falling off the building., but soon after I feel a tug upon my ankle and I stop falling. Whoo, that was close. I wonder who caught me. I try to turn and move my arms, but it takes me almost a full minute before I can do so and unbind myself from the blankets and sleeping bags that restrain me.

I look and see that no one is standing there holding me, so I yell for help.

“Hey! Guys! Where are you!?”

After a few moments, I hear feet scrambling and then pressure as I am slowly pulled back up. Once up, I see that Earl’s face looks green, Leonard is red-faced with sweat, Elizabeth is holding a flaming bottle of what I presume to be alcohol, and Esther is playing with a shard of chitin from the spider.

I look around further and see that the spider is not moving but blocks a huge portion of the floor that we can stand on which is probably the reason it took so long to get to me. But it’s also the reason I didn't fall as three of its legs are laying upon the tangled mess of blankets and sleeping bags that was created by me being sent overboard.

I release my hold on the Ether in my body and let it begin to dissipate before dropping to my knees in tiredness. I had to do all that even after treating myself before bed. I’m gonna feel this tomorrow for sure.

I ask Earl what his freak out was about and Leonard about the molotovs, assuming it was his alcohol as Earl doesn’t seem to be one to drink.

“Eal what the fuck just happened to you? And what was with the molotovs, Leonard? I didn’t know we had any alcohol.”

Earl just shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders in disappointment.

“I have a phobia of spiders. They just make me terrified to even see them. I’m really sorry I couldn’t help at all because all I could do was scream like a little girl and then light a stick on fire. Elizabeth was the one who came up with the molotov cocktail. She saw that a bottle of liquor stuck out from Leonard's sleeping bag, it seems as though he stole them from Harmony Town.”

What does Earl mean by phobia? Does he just not like them? I don’t know and don’t care right now. I just want to go back to bed. I feel exhausted. Checking my pocket watch, I see that it’s 3:28 AM. Fuck. The sun will be up in just a few hours.

I just nod at Earl and look at Leonard, trying to finish the conversation quickly so I can rest.

“So, why did you have alcohol and not tell anyone? It would’ve been good to know if we had to trade it for something.”

He looks at me flabbergasted. Then he grows frustrated at my assumptions.

“Why do I need to tell you guys about every little thing? Can’t I just have a little something to help me go to sleep?”

That’s.. actually pretty fair. I already had him give me his shotgun before, so I can’t ask that much of him can I? Earl doesn’t agree with me though as he speaks up.

“Leonard! I could have made something with that alcohol or planned for things like molotovs previously! Do you know how useful fire would be against spirits like the Bakwas? Most spirits and ghosts are weak to fire and bright lights. A torch may not be sufficient but a blazing liquid that covers them? Yeah, that’d do some damage.”

I didn’t know fire could be that useful against the Bakwas. I would’ve lit the whole town ablaze, but Earl’s not being fair to Leonard. Leonard wouldn’t know about any of that. He’s just a normal town boy without any knowledge of Sigils or the supernatural.

“Hey, lay off a bit Earl. He wouldn’t have known, hell, even I didn’t. Let’s just leave it at that and go to bed, okay? And Leonard, I assume you don’t have any more bottles of liquor?”

I see Earl shrug his shoulders in annoyance and walk away before sitting such that he faces away from the large spider. After a few minutes though, he turns to it with an empty bottle in his hand. It looks like he keeps hesitating to do something. I have no idea what, so I just ignore his weirdness.

Leonard however quietly tries to refuse that he has any more, and I immediately catch that he’s lying. Instead of being pissed off or annoyed though, I try to reason with him. The molotov was really helpful and based on where we are at, there are likely to be more creatures that could use a dose of the fiery liquid.

“N-no… I’m all out. I only had two left. The rest I used to help fall asleep with.”

“It’s only been a few days since you got the bottles. How could you have possibly drunk a whole one yet? Where are they? I won’t take them, but it will just be good to know.”

He hesitates for a moment, then speaks what I believe is the truth because of how sincere and heartfelt his words feel.

“I got one and a half more left. But, please don’t take them. Without them, I meet the Bakwas and Lonnie in my sleep.”

Damn, I didn’t know it was that important for him. I never really have nightmares all that often, but Butter, my old family horse used to have them all the time. I’d spend so many nights in the stable to comfort him.

“Sorry, I didn’t know that it was that bad. Yeah, don’t worry. We’ll only use them if we have to. If another spider shows up, though, we should be fine. I think I know how to kill them now. Shank 'em’ in their abdomen until they die.”

Leonard gives me a small smile before untangling his sleeping bag and trying to get some more rest in. I go to follow and grab my blanket, but a thought comes to mind regarding shanking. I’m forgetful, aren’t I?

I look at my serpentine daggers and sense the Ether within one of them, unworried of any backlash due to their low strength compared to the Lily or the Bloody Palm. Within, I sense a Sigil with two sides where I can recognize both. I recognize both of them as being a new Sigil that I just learned of. The Prowler.

The base Sigil is capable of increasing stealth, tracking, and the ability to find weak points. Does that mean that the evolved form can create them? Or Just cause blood loss? Either way, it’s useful and I hope to find a way to upgrade them.

I sense a bit deeper grasping for a possible name to call them as and a wave of Ether flows from both sides of the Sigil at once into my mind. Stalker. So that’s their name? I sense the other one for confirmation and the same feelings occur and so does the word Stalker appear in my mind.

Now, I’m a bit confused. Is Stalker their Sigil? Probably that’s how the Bloody Palm worked after all. It was named based on its Sigil. I think I’ll call them the Finders. They find and make weak points. Fitting, huh? My names are the best, for sure.

Another idea comes to mind after cementing the new name for my daggers into my mind. Did that spider have a Sigil? Probably, but I don’t know if it’s one I want. And I doubt anyone else will resonate with it because they didn’t kill it or were attached to it. I place my hand onto the spider’s leg that is closest to mine and sense for Ether within it.

I find a single-sided Sigil, so a 1st Sigil deep within its body that is slowly fading as Ether dissipates through its body. I touch my mind to the Sigil and feel its name, but I recognize it just by the feel before the word hits. It feels tired and like a shot of coffee all at once. My mind right away thinks of Nightowl and my thoughts are confirmed as that very word hits me just a second later.

Yeah, that’s not something I’d want at all. I like my sleep. It might sound nice to have to sleep less, but what else does it give? I certainly don’t want that as my second Sigil. Even if I am ready for a new one and could use a power boost. I’d much rather something like Soldier, Rogue, or Prowler than that if I can’t find another Philosopher.

After this newest discovery, I sit down and go back to bed after retying the daggers to my belt. I fall to lay directly beside the corpse of the massive spider to guard me against the chilly wind of the early morning.

Before I fall asleep though, I treat the remaining bit of my left arm for saturation and clear it out. With satisfaction and achievement coursing through me I drift away.

 

*******************

 

I wake up to the spider I am sleeping upon shaking and this time, I move instantly in case the spider is still alive. I jump backward from my blanket and my sleeping position all in one smooth motion and land on all fours. Just as I begin to flow Ether with my drowsy mind, I see that Elizabeth is cutting into the spider with the knife I gave Leonard.

She looks at me, laughs, shakes her head, and then continues cutting.

“Chill out Wyatt. I’m trying to get some of this thing’s chitin. I saw how it deflected your daggers with its legs. Maybe I can fashion some armor using it. I’m quite good at sewing.”

I could definitely use some armor. Even just a small piece to protect my heart or something could go a long way. A single marksman could put me down easily with a shot to the heart. And I feel like we’ll meet plenty of gunslingers when we reach Rustbank.

Crouching beside her and ramping down my Ether, I encourage her.

“Yeah, that sounds great Elizabeth! A little bit of protection could go a long way.”

She agrees with a small giggle and tells me to start to bring everyone down while she works so we can get a move on early in the day. Still a bit tired due to my interrupted night's sleep, I make Earl and Leonard get up before I help them down the skeleton. I use the side that the spider used to climb up with and it's much easier. The arachnid the size of a single-story house put huge handholds into the wall of the bone with its legs that make the descent almost effortless even while lugging other people on my back.

The descent only takes about an hour for Earl, Leonard, Esther, and all their things. I just have to wait another half an hour until Elizabeth is ready. Then, I help her descend while she has a backpack full of the harder-than-steel chitin from the spider that she slowly broke off in chunks. I don’t know how she’ll turn that into armor, but I’m sure she will.

Elizabeth also holds much closer and tighter onto me than the others while we decline down the skeleton. I smell her pleasant natural scent that overpowers my definite sweat, grime, and spider blood that covers me. Because of this, I am almost disappointed when we reach the bottom and she lets go of me.

I am forced to shake the thought of her away though, as everyone else is waiting for us. Earl is already done looking at his map and just tapping his foot on the ground impatiently. Leonard, whose liquor was revealed, takes a small swig when we reach the bottom. He better not drink it all. What if more ghosts appear? I just don’t have it in me to tell him that though.

I guess it’s time to start walking through this boneyard that stretches as far as my eyes can see.