Of Men and Spiders

Scott was shivering and exhausted by the time he found his camp and stumbled in. Against all logic, he hoped Alice would be there, snug and dry in the lean-to he'd made, but when he looked inside, there was nothing but the damp padding he'd put down waiting for him.

He'd probably never find her in the rain this late at night, but that made it all the more critical that Scott go out and find her. If he was struggling, there was no way she'd survive out there in this storm! He was trying to figure out how to fan out and explore so he didn't get lost again when a crashing sound outside caught his attention.

Scott rushed out, expecting to see his sister stumbling through the campsite, but was met instead by the form of one of those giant spiders picking through the remnants of one of his smokers.

Without thinking, Scott reached beside the lean-to to the spear he'd stored there the night before, then charged the spider monster. The spider turned and hissed, causing Scott to slow his advance. They'd never shown any kind of threat or warning before, and this show of aggression made him hesitate, crouching low but staying ready.

For the spider to come into his camp and bumble around his smokers like this probably meant it was desperately hungry. Scott took comfort that this probably meant it hadn't recently fed on his sister, and he wasn't about to give it the chance to rectify that situation.

Scott charged forward again, stabbing down with his spear, but the spider scurried back, just out of his reach. Scott lunged forward again, driving the spear forward in case it stepped back again, but the spider dodged to the side this time. Bracing his foot in the mud, Scott swung the spear to the side, intending to catch the spider's front legs with the spear's shaft, only to slip in the mud and land face down beside the monster.

This was the end. Scott knew it would be a simple matter for the spider monster to take advantage of his vulnerability and finish him off, but he struggled to his feet anyway, slipping and sliding in the mud as he did so. However, against all odds, he regained his footing, only to find the spider now a few dozen feet away, regarding him silently. It was as though the thing was trying to understand the human. Something about this infuriated Scott, and he threw his spear, only for the spider to easily sidestep the spear and then begin to actually approach the human.

Realizing throwing his spear was probably one of the stupidest things he could have done just then, Scott pulled out his pocket knife and prepared to defend himself as best he could, knowing he'd probably thrown away his last chance at survival.

But rather than pounce, the spider stopped short, then turned around and walked a few feet away, only to turn and look back again. If Scott didn't know better, he'd suspect it was trying to express something. It was almost like it wanted him to follow.

It was so ridiculous that Scott couldn't help but stop and laugh. Here he was, trying to kill some hungry spider monster, and it was acting like some dog. It was all too ridiculous! What was next? Playing fetch with spiders?

Still, whatever was going on, Scott wasn't stupid enough to trust a spider, of all things. Eventually, after trying to walk back and forth a few more times, the spider seemed to give up and turned and walked away, leaving Scott alone again, shivering in the rain.

-

She was somewhat frustrated. At least the female stopped trying to kill her hand, but it didn't seem willing to follow her. Her brief attempt to communicate through vibrating the air with her hand's mouth had been of limited success. At least it had slowed the female's assault, but it was clear that the fact that She'd been trying to communicate with the tool user had been lost on the creature. If she was going to get the female's help to aid the male, who was still not awake, she'd have to move up her plans a little. Still, at least she'd retrieved some of the dried flesh they'd had at their nest, though exposure to the falling water probably shortened the span during which it would be safe for the tool user's consumption.

With her main body, She began designing another specialized appendage. Originally, She'd planned on waiting until She had a better grasp of the tool user's vibrations, but if she was to get the female's help in time, some form of communication was necessary, even if it was...lacking in complexity.

Meanwhile, She needed to care for the male. First, She'd need to compensate for the nutritional deficiency it was experiencing due to cold and hunger. Usually, the tool users would chew their food, but with the male unconscious, it was incapable of doing so. It would be simple for She to dissolve the dried flesh into a more palatable paste, but She also needed to make sure none of the processing agents she used would harm the tool user.

Upon closer inspection of the mandible area of the tool user, it became apparent the bony structures that jutted out of the top and bottom of their orifice did much of the work in preparing the flesh for consumption. But they also secreted a thin mucus-like substance, probably to aid in consuming the pulverized flesh.

Grinding the flesh into a paste was easy enough, using two stones as tools to do the job. Then, to remove any microbial additions the stones provided, She simply consumed the flesh first and regurgitated the remnants into a paste whose only chemical additions were virtually identical to the mucus the tool users produced from their mandible orifice.

It was a novel experience, using external objects to resolve a complication like this. Her time observing these tool users was obviously impacting her problem-solving methods. Whether that would turn out to be a strength or weakness is something only time could tell.

With the flesh-paste now prepared, She placed a small amount inside the mandible area of the male. After a moment, the tool user swallowed the gelatinous flesh, so She repeated the process, intending to ensure the male's survival until the female could be brought to his aid.

-

Scott stumbled back to his lean-to in defeat. After a night of searching, he'd found nothing. A small voice in the back of his mind told him that she was likely dead, but Scott shoved those thoughts to the side. He'd get a little rest, then resume his search. Just a short nap is all, an hour or two at most.

He collapsed onto the leaf mat, stripped off his soggy clothes to let them hang dry, and promptly passed out.

-

Luckily for She, the female had returned and seemed to be resting. Now was the best time to try out her new appendage. She readied her new vibration-producing self. It was far smaller than initially planned to allow for faster construction, but She could incorporate the successes and failures of this experiment into more complete selves down the line.

She's plan was simple. Call out to the female to wake it up, then explain that the male was in her care and that the female's presence was needed to prevent further complications. Given She's lack of understanding of the vibration-based language, it was best to keep things succinct and direct.

-

Scott awoke to an odd, almost ethereal voice calling out to him. "Brother. Brother. Here brother!"

That made Scott blink. At first, he thought he was dreaming, but the voice continued. "Here, brother. Here!"

Whatever was calling out to him, that was NOT his sister. The voice sounded...wrong. It was as if two people were speaking nearly simultaneously but not getting the timing right. One seemed to be talking while gurgling water, while the other sounded like it had marbles in its mouth. Still, as disturbing as the voice was, he had to know more.

Thankfully, the voice stopped and waited while he got dressed. Scott noticed His clothes were mostly dry. More time had passed than he'd first thought. Then, grabbing hold of his spear for comfort, if nothing else, he lifted the improvised leaf door and stepped out of his lean-to.

As he stepped out, he looked around, not seeing anything, until the voice spoke again, drawing his attention down to what was best described as an almost normal-sized spider with a mouth. But not a regular spider mouth, which was already disturbing enough. Instead, it had a human-ish one, or at least close enough to make Scott shiver in something between fear and revulsion while it spoke. "She has munchkin! Brother come! Or else!"

That got Scott's attention. He brandished his spear. "Who has my sister? Where is she?"

But the spider just repeated itself. "She has munchkin! Brother come! Or else!" Then, it started scuttling over to one of the larger spider monsters and got on its back. The spider monster then repeated its action from the previous night of walking a few steps, then stopping and looking back while the mouth spider repeated, "Brother, come!"

This was...wrong...on so many levels. Scott was sure this was all some weird nightmare, and he just needed to wake up to resume his search for his sister, but when he pinched himself, all it did was hurt. Meanwhile, the mouth spider seemed to grow impatient. "Brother, come now! Or else!"

Scott wanted nothing more than to attack the mouth spider and wipe it from existence, but it had said munchkin. That was his name for his sister. Given the storm last night, there were two probabilities. Either whoever the mouth spider was talking about did have his sister, or she was most likely already dead. Since, in the latter situation, there wasn't anything he could do, Scott decided to follow the horrifying mouth spider riding on the back of one of the larger spider monsters and find out what was going on.