The gargantuan Nighthaunter loomed over all of us. Its utter existence was blasphemy to what nature had envisioned. If Haunt lingered in the shadows to hunt, his mother created them.

  Her legs were the size of trees as they held firm on the hill. Barbed hooks jutted from her feet. They clung on like a giant’s hand. From the bottom, we saw her fangs busily masticating the remnants of yesterday’s hunt. Waiting for digestive acids to do the trick for a spider of her size was unnecessary.

  If it weren’t for Basil coming out of his tent, we might have survived this encounter. But as the first syllables creased the air and vibrated across the Nighthaunters legs, she turned to us. We looked tiny inside her tar-splattered eyes.

  “Psst, if we act like a tree, maybe it’ll leave!” whispered Basil.

  She lifted a leg into the air. It was like an intervention from the Gods ready to rain hellfire on us. My limbs were wracked in fear. I need to move. I need to—

  “YEAH, WE RUN,” yelled Basil. Lesi leaped from under their tent and flipped Basil onto her back. The physically inert animal sprang into action and sprinted down the hill. In the same motion, the Nighthaunter’s leg shattered the tent they stayed in. The earth cried along the entire valley.

  I started jostling myself out of my temporary stay. Haunt crawled inside of me and began whispering. “Wait. Basil and Lesi distracting,” he said.

  A plume of disturbed leaves flew into the air as the Nighthaunter chased after them. Every momentary second of peace the duo had was interrupted with the spider crashing onto them from above.

  “We’re heading out,” I said. We barreled down the same trail of devastation. Daena’s items were still in my hollowed space. If worse came to worse we could escape. But, Basil had already run away. Who knows the range of these things?

  “What are you still doing here?!” Basil shouted. Him and Lesi were in the midst of playing a demonic merry-go-round with the spider at the epicentre. Flashes of fangs created exponential cascades of rock around us. “Get out of here while you still can!”

  “You idiot, if you run away, how are you supposed to use your mom’s work?” I replied.

  The Nighthaunter turned back in our direction. Her eyes scanned the area. Just a bunch of trees rooting around. She turned back to the carnage.

  “We’re near the river! Why not jump in there?” I yelled.

  “And ruin whatever speed we have left?” Basil replied in between the fuzzy spears attempting to impale him.

  I took out the vial of processed poison Daena left behind. Its chaotic green mixture rampaged away in the small vial. Even if we hit its legs with it, assuming it did damage, there were seven more to worry about. Maybe we bite the bullet and use the pendant of protection…

  “Haunt, how does your species hunt?” I asked.

  “Eyes and legs. Any movement, any colours, we consume. Legs sense the wind,” he replied.

  “Then we just need a chance,” I said, putting the vial inside Haunt’s feelers. He lifted his head at me. “Promise me, if you feel like your life is in danger, screech as loud as you can. I’ll crush the pendant immediately.”

  Haunt gazed at my branches, peered at the vial in the clutches of his fangs, and peered at Basil. “Life in danger since meeting. But, life also good. Not unlovable goblin,” he chattered, placing a feeler on me.

  “Then wait for our signal,” I replied. I continued barreling over to Basil’s position.

  Lesi’s legs were shaking, her groans were muddled in between the Nighthaunter’s roars of frustration. What should have been snacks had taken more time than she had expected. So just leave us be then!

  Another spear from the heavens raged towards the duo. Lesi remained motionless. Her jaws were outstretched with guttural breaths wheezing out of her.

  “It’s okay girl, you did your part,” he smiled, patting her head. She gently gave his hand a lick. Basil turned towards the barbed leg arcing in the air. “I guess you’ll be my warmup,” he laughed.

  “HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA,” he screamed.

  Basil flexed his arm, years of training and screaming like a lunatic in the forest finally led up to this moment. He pivoted his entire body into his next swing. His center of gravity flowed through his right hook.

  The Nighthaunter threw down its own gauntlet—seasons of consumption and growth. Hundreds of animals probably met their end as a brutalized shish kebab. Today would have been no different. But it’s up against Basil. And we believe in him.

  The two unrelenting forces met mid-air. Hundreds of hairs along the Nighthaunter’s leg exploded into the air. The shockwave rippled across the ground and tore open the ground beneath. She struggled to force through his fist, but ultimately her momentum shifted to the side and pierced the ground beside Basil.

  “Hooo…” Basil let out a breath. His right arm slumped to his side. The skin along his knuckles was eviscerated in contact. Blood was crying out of his hand. He winced as he pulled his thumb and an audible crack rang in the air.

  *Screeee*

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  The Nighthaunter pulled its leg out of the ground. The barbed hook at the end was mangled and bent in unnatural directions. A baby fissure rippled along the joints. She readied two more legs.

  “I got one more,” Basil yelled, “I really hate losing to this thing! You think we’re gonna have to pop Mom’s pendant?”

  Despite the constant jostling of battle, the ruby pendant stayed tucked inside my trunk. Enough pressure from one of my roots could do the trick. But…

  “Throw all you got into the left one, I got the right one!” I yelled back. I stood next to Basil. Maybe this spider only saw trees as things to run over, but I’ll be forcing this one to adapt! “When did you become a quitter?” I laughed.

  “Ha! You’re damn right, first this Nighthaunter, then what? I take a break from lifting and finish the set the next day?” Basil replied. He turned to face Lesi, she was still trying to catch her breath. “Spot me, will ya?”

  She pulled back her two legs in the air.

  “A similar happened years ago,” I shouted. A slideshow of a towering wolf sinking its fangs into me. A fairy casts a spell against a forest resident for the first time in her life. A spider trying desperately to patch up a bruised plant. I got involved in a situation I had no control over.

  “Okay?! And?!” Basil cried. A grey eye peaked through his shaggy hair. There were strokes of disbelief in those pupils as he looked at me. Lesi stood firmly behind him with her paws pressed against his back.

  “This time,” I yelled, “I’m well aware of what we can do!”

  She plunged her legs at us.

  Basil can meet her attacks head-on. With how I’m built, I’m lucky if she rips right through me. But you don’t need to directly block it.

  I shifted my entire body towards her right leg. Its target was Basil. His face was flushed with sweat as he trained his eyes on the left incoming leg. He didn’t spare a glance at the other leg.

  “You sure you can handle all that momentum?” I yelled at the spider. I lunged at the leg as it cruised towards Basil’s head. My trunk slammed into its side. The leg shifted a few centimetres at most. The momentum was too strong, the off-target leg impaled the ground next to Basil’s foot.

  The other leg? Basil’s left arm was covered in blood. More skin peeled off…but it worked. Both legs were stuck in the ground a ways from their original target. The ground churned up dust as the Nighthaunter flexed her joints.

  “Grab a hold of her!” I yelled. My tendrils slithered across one of the legs, painting it in a writhing mass of roots.

  Basil gritted his teeth. Blood was seeping through his lips. Both of his arms were now obliterated from her hits.

  “Ha! They’re absolutely screaming, but that just means they’re not dead yet! This is the best workout I’ve done yet!” he roared. He commanded his arms one last time like the captain of a sinking ship. He gave the other leg a bear hug and pulled down with all his might. His heart sent more blood to his wrecked arms, bursting out more spurts of blood. He anchored down the leg.

  Lesi stood next to us biting mercilessly at both legs. Her teeth raked against the chitinous plating. Green blood burst from her assaults.

  The Nighthaunter screamed and struggled to wretch her legs out of our trap. The ground beneath us crackled and boomed under the pressure. My tendrils snapped from the weight while Basil’s bones let us abyssal cracks and moans.

  “What,” he croaked, “now?”

  “Okay I’m out of ideas,” I said.

  “WHAT?” he yelled, popping his eyes at me. Despair was painted across his face like the black dress of a Victorian widow.

  “Nah I’m joking,” I laughed. I eyed an itsy bitsy spider jump from a tree and land on top of his mother’s spout. Choosing her fangs of all places was perfected insanity.

  “Can’t flex fangs,” cackled Haunt. The mini chitters he oozed out were like dull chalk against a blackboard. It was music to our ears.

  *CRASH*

  Haunt smashed the vial of acid held in his fangs across his mother’s eyes. It toiled and troubled across her eyes. Smoke billowed from her front eyes as the acid melted those hardened pupils. She roared again as all legs spasmed along the ground. The panicked sweep of one leg slammed into us and pushed us off her legs.

  “Get off of her Haunt!” I yelled.

  “Talk too much,” he replied. He gave his work another cursory look. His spinneret danced back and forth at the destruction he caused. Haunt leaped away from the convulsing mess of a mother and landed in my branches.

  The Nighthaunter viciously tried swatting away at the remaining acid bubbling away. Her movements sporadically knocked over trees around us. There was no time to hunt.

  “We’re getting out of here!” I yelled. I pulled Haunt inside my hollow and booked it towards the river.

  “What? I thought we were gonna kill this thing!” replied Basil. Lesi rolled her eyes and flung him on her back and began running with us. Basil stared lifelessly at the flailing spider behind us. “But…” he muttered, “imagine all that protein…”

  “Good luck trying to kill the thing! We managed to blind it for now, who knows if we got all of its eyes. Let’s get out of here before it recovers!” I shouted back.

  Haunt stared back at the carnation taking place. Every so often he’d tilt his head to one side, then the other. Was it to get a better look?

  “Do good?” he asked.

  “You did amazing,” I laughed, “Your venom is no joke, no wonder Daena was delighted to have it!”

  “I am good spider,” he declared triumphantly.

  “No,” I said. He turned his head towards me. He slumped his little feelers down. “You’re an amazing spider Haunt!”

  “Didn’t I do good?” yelled Basil.

  “Everyone did amazing! You guys are the few people that would try this with me!” I cried. The slideshow of my first injury ran through my mind again. This time, no intense hibernations or friends breaking a taboo. We managed it together. “And ya know what? We’re picking up the last amazing member in a bit!”

  Our group reached the shores of the river, its current flowed north through dense canopies. Lesi and Basil stood gasping for breath. The tree without a mammalian circulatory system and a spider that rode it stared at the two meatbags. Heh.

  “Basil,” I asked, pulling out the map Aktaaf gave us. “If we rode this river north, you think we can shorten the path?”

  Basil turned his eyes towards the dotted line his father elegantly etched for us…then bluntly moved his finger across it with the tact of a brick through an orphanage window. “If we ride this current for the day, we cut down on almost a week’s travel…but I miss out on working my calves along the mountain trails.”

  Basil pondered the ramifications as I wrapped a root around his waist. “Yeah we’re taking this route,” I said, jumping into the river.

  “I can’t swim!” he yelled.

  “Just climb on ya big baby,” I said. I lay flat against the current as the river pulled us away from the screeching spider in the distance. Basil shambled on top of my trunk alongside Lesi. We gazed at the botched scenery behind us.

  “Most of my supplies were still in that tent,” Basil mumbled.

  “You manage to take any optimism?”

  A mother nor her child died today.