Of Men and Spiders

Alice knew she'd been right! These were good spider people! She always had fun playing with bugs and spiders and things, and despite them scaring her mom, the spiders never bit Alice. Of course, she could understand why Scott was scared of the big ones. She'd seen the smaller spiders eat plenty of bugs before, so it made sense that he'd be afraid the big ones would eat people, especially after that first one chased them. But whatever the reason, they were good now. First, one had saved her from the water. Now, this one was helping her find her camp again!

Of course, Alice felt bad now. She knew Scott didn't mean the things he'd said. He was scared and tired, just like Alice. He was so smart and clever, making their leaf tents and building traps for food, but she knew he wasn't sleeping well, always going to sleep last, waking up first, and crying out in his sleep all night long. He missed their mom, just like Alice did. She shouldn't have run away like this.

Then she'd gotten lost. Alice tried to find her way back, but nothing looked right, and after a while, she ended up in the middle of the forest with no idea where she was or how to get back. That was when one of the spider people showed up. At first, she remembered what Scott said about them wanting to eat her and was a little scared, but the spider person waited patiently, and when Alice got close, it started leading her in a new direction.

It didn't take too long for the spider person to lead her back to the camp, but Scott wasn't there yet. Maybe he was out looking for Alice? Still, Alice had always been told to thank people when they helped her, so she turned to her guide. "Thank you, mister spider person!"

It tilted its whole body slightly to the side, like a dog tilting its head, then turned around and skittered toward one of Scott's drying racks. The fires were long cooled, so there was no smoke when it pried open the leaf door. Alice wasn't sure what it was trying to do, but then her stomach growled, and she decided maybe it was hungry like her. So she walked over to the drying rack and grabbed a couple of pieces of dried meat. She gave one to the spider and started munching on the other. It wasn't very tasty, but at least it wasn't as icky as some of the meat from the other animals Scott had cooked. But it did make her thirsty, so she walked over to the creek to get some water, wondering if Scott would return soon.

-

Scott was hungry, thirsty, cold, and exhausted. Because he'd been slowly chasing his sister, he'd lost her in the underbrush and began searching the forest. He'd been looking for her ever since. But night was approaching, and Scott knew that if he didn't get food and water, he would collapse eventually, so He decided to go back to camp, grab a quick bite to eat and some water, then make himself a torch to keep looking in the dark.

There was just one problem. As Scott turned and looked around, he realized that in his rush to find his sister and with the shadows twisting as the sun set, he'd gotten turned around somewhere. He wasn't sure what direction the camp was in...

After a moment of panic, Scott took a deep breath and calmed himself. He'd be alright. It was his sister that he was worried about. He had to focus for her sake. As he stood in place, calming his breathing, Scott listened. Soon enough, he could make out the sound of water in the distance. That must be the creek he'd set up camp next to.

With a renewed sense of determination, Scott reoriented himself and set off as the wind began picking up.

-

She was quite pleasantly surprised with how readily the male accepted the presence of her hand. It had even shared some of the dried flesh of one of its animal carcasses with the hand. This was very promising for the prospect of a partnership between She and the tool users. However, the one She'd most have to impress would be the female, who was still out in the forest somewhere.

She didn't have many eyes in the area but started looking for the female with those that were near at hand. There were plenty of signs of the female's passing, but they looped around and back into each other, making tracking the female a near impossibility.

What was worse, She could sense cold weather approaching, and the wind was getting turbulent. Perhaps the female would know what to do, but the male would probably be helpless in such unpredictable weather. She contemplated how best to protect the male when the smaller creature walked up to her hand and lightly tugged on the hand. She turned the hand to face the male, who started vibrating at the hand. While She couldn't make out much of what the tool user was trying to express, one thing that made sense was the vibration, "Brother," which was the creature's vibration for the female pack leader.

While She was concerned for the female, the small male was far more vulnerable at the moment, so She made up her mind. She started moving her hand, and the male followed it like before. She needed to get the male somewhere to protect it from the coming wind and rain and was only aware of one location near at hand that She was sure wasn't occupied by something that would be dangerous to the helpless male.

-

As the rain started, Scott found the source of the water sound from before. It was a creek, but either he was in a different spot along the creekbed, or this was a different creek altogether. But with the rain picking up, it didn't much matter. Alice was probably still out here somewhere, and he needed to find her. With frustration, he turned and shouted into the wind. "Alice! Where are you, munchkin!"

The only sound he heard in response was the distant rumble of thunder. With no other option presenting itself, Scott started walking along the creek in the direction he hopped the campsite was in.

-

As Alice followed the spider person, it started to rain. Alice wrapped her hands around herself, but it didn't help much, and she began to shiver. She hoped they'd find Scott soon.

Alice occasionally spoke to the spider person, but the most it would do to respond was to pause for a second to look back in her direction before it began moving again. So before long, Alice stopped speaking and just followed, shivering in the rain.

After some time, they came across a cave, and the spider person crawled inside, leaving Alice alone in the rain. A part of Alice wanted to follow, to get out of the rain, but the cave looked odd. Its walls were something between pink and red, with shades of purple throughout, and when she touched it, the walls were slightly soft, almost like touching skin. It was weird, and she didn't like it. Then, to make things worse, there was a flash of lightning followed by the rumble of thunder.

Alice squeaked out in fear before calling out for her guide. "Hello? Mister spider person? Are you in there? Can we...can we keep looking for my brother?"

After a moment, she could make out the legs of the spider person returning, but before it came into view, she realized there were too many legs. There were other spider people in the cave. More and more movement showed there were many more, dozens at least. Alice felt an icy shiver of fear go down her spine, but her legs refused to move. What if Scott was right? What if the spiders did want to eat her? Then there was more movement. Something massive in the back began crawling into the light, many, many times bigger than the spider people Alice had seen before now.

Alice felt her heart racing as she gasped for breath. She screamed, and the world went dark.

-

She looked at the fallen form of the male tool user, contemplating what to do now. Perhaps She'd been too late, and it had died from too much exposure to the falling water, upsetting its delicate thermal balance. She reached out with one of her hands, but the small male still seemed to be breathing and had a heartbeat. She gently picked up the small tool user with one of her hands and brought it into She's home, where it could warm up safely.

The tool user would likely need nutrition, so She reached out with one of her hands to return to the tool user's nest and retrieve some of the dried flesh to bring back to the remnants of the ancestral home.