“Pssst, Wyne, are you awake?”

Wyne sighed as she slowly opened her eyes and closed them again.

“Yes, I am. Why are you still up?” She asked grumpily.

“Oh, it’s nothing, I just can’t fall asleep, that’s all,” came the reply.

Wyne doubted that. Nyma, the girl she was talking with, was famous for being one of the heaviest sleeper of the village. There was obviously something the matter with her, but Wyne was not in the mood to ask her about it.

“Go look at the stars or something, that usually calms you down, right?”

“Yes,” Nyma answered. “Maybe I’ll do that.”

She kept silent for a while, but Wyne knew that she hadn’t moved at all. She opened her eyes again and groaned when she saw Nyma’s large black eyes staring back at her.

“Just tell me what’s wrong already so I can go back to sleep, will you?” She said.

“I just think it’s weird,” Nyma began. “Haven’t you noticed strange things happening lately? Suddenly, spiders start appearing in our village out of nowhere, and not even a week later they are gone again. I haven’t seen a single spider since yesterday, have you?”

“No, I haven’t,” Wyne answered. “But I don’t really care, honestly. We were lucky they didn’t bother us as much as I thought they would. As long as those spiders don’t come anywhere near us anymore, I’m not complaining.”

That wasn’t exactly true, she had to admit. In fact, Wyne had been curious about the spiders’ whereabouts for a while now too, she just didn’t want to say it out loud. As the Elder of her village, she had the responsibility to keep the villagers out of trouble as much as possible, so she was hesitant to look into dangerous matters like these.

“Say, I think we should we investigate it ourselves. There’s something going on the forest and I need to know what, or else I won’t sleep at night anymore, thinking about what might be out there,” Nyma said.

“You’re never going to stop complaining about it, are you?” Wyne groaned while Nyma smiled apologetically. “Of course you aren’t. All right, just this once, we’ll go adventuring. I’ll come with you, as long as you don’t do anything stupid, you hear me? Otherwise we’ll be going straight back to sleep.”

“I promise,” Nyma said.

“Good.”

Wyne wasn’t too keen on creeping through the forest in the middle of the night, but as long as it was only Nyma coming with her, she didn’t mind too much. Her plans were quickly thrown off though when she heard voices behind her.

“Can I come too?” Someone asked.

“That’s not fair, going without us!” A young person yelled.

“I think it won’t hurt if we tag along as well, am I right?” A deeper voice asked, after which Wyne sighed.

“Great. Now you’ve woken up the entire village,” she said grumpily to Nyma, who was trying to avoide her gaze in shame of her actions.

“No, were simply having the same thoughts as you had,” An old voice spoke in the night, making Wyne turn around.

The voice belonged to Dyan, the oldest person in the village. The man had been village Elder for over fourty years, up until Wyne had one day taken over that position, something she still regretted to this day. He was still a highly respected member of the village though, and Wyne valued his opinion more than anyone. Listening to the man’s voice made her remember how she had become Elder a few years ago.

One day, the role had suddenly fallen upon her the moment she found out she had a talent. A skill, which granted the user to exactly know how powerful someone was by simply looking at them. Not a very useful skill to be honest, but according to their village rules, the most skillful person was to become Elder, no questions asked.

Nobody had objected to the decision, which Dyan himself had made, even though Wyne had only been twelve at the time. She remembered the day she had unexpectedly been initiated as Elder, barely understanding what was going on at the time. She was fifteen now, and she still thought Dyan made a far better Elder than her. He knew the villagers, and he could interact with them better than she ever could.

As an outsider, better getting to know the villagers was hard for her. The villagers were very kind to her of course, but Wyne knew them for only five years now. Besides Nyma, the other children didn’t bother talking to her that much. She was grateful for having at least one friend in the village that could tell her about the rest of the inhabitants.

“We are a family, Wyne,” Dyan continued, shaking the girl from her thoughts. “If we do something, we should do it together. Just because you are Elder, doesn’t mean that you should take everything on yourself. Have a little faith in us as well.”

Wyne wanted to send them back to sleep, but all of the villagers she could see from where she was standing were nodding vigorously. They were looking as if they were prepared to die tonight, something that Wyne was trying her best to avoid as much as could. Still, she couldn’t refuse them if they were truly determined to go. Sighing, she finally complied.

“Alright then, have it your way. If you all want to go investigate some dangerous spider nest in the middle of the night that badly, I won’t stop you. You can all come along if you want. Just promise me to hide when I say so.”

Everyone smiled and nodded, some of the children cheering. It seemed they were due to some excitement after weeks of remaining in the same place.

“Alright, what are we standing here around for? Lead the way, Elder,” Nyma said excitedly, detaching herself from her tree.

All of the villagers did the same, loosening their brown and thin limbs from the bark they closely resembled. Movement erupted near every tree in the area, and it didn’t take long until around fourty small shapes had gathered between the trunks, illuminated only by the weak light of the moon.

“Alright, let’s go,” Wyne said when all of the villagers were present.

They went on their way, creeping through the forest without making as much as a sound. The Treefolk stealthily walked during the night, their small forms undetected by any creature as long as there were trees present to hide on.

---

After half an hour of walking, they finally arrived at what appeared to be the spiders’ territory. The trees were covered with silky threads at their bases, which made it a little harder for the villagers to hide effectively in case of an emergency, Wyne noticed. She pointed it out and Dyan agreed by saying it would be dangerous to continue with such a large group.

“Dyan, Nyma and I will go further from here. You lot stay behind, and we’ll come get you once it’s safe,” Wyne said, adressing the group.

Her words resulted in a bit of resistance, especially among the younger people, who were fired up to finally do some exploring after walking all the way here. They would have to wait though, as Wyne wasn’t planning to let them come to harm in such a dangerous situation like this.

“Why can they go, but we can’t?” A boy slightly younger than her asked angrily.

“Because Dyan is the only one here with at least some form of self preservation, and Nyma won’t let me sleep ever again if I don’t take her,” Wyne answered just as angrily as the boy. “It was a mistake going here with such a large group already, I won’t let you put your lives on the line for something like this, you hear me?”

The boy didn’t say anything anymore, but was looking dissapointed at the floor instead. Everyone was looking dejected as a matter of fact, but Wyne ignored them. She turned around and walked into the spiders’ territory, Dyan and Nyma eventually following her from a distance.

“They are just a curious about things, you know? You shouldn’t be too hard on them,” the old man said when they were far away enough to talk without the villagers hearing them.

“Curious enough to get themselves killed, yes. Let’s put that aside for now, we have more important matters at hand. If we want to know where the spiders are, we need to look inside their nest first,” Wyne answered bluntly and Dyan remaind silent.

The spiders’ territory was large, larger than Wyne had expected it to be, but the spiders themselves were nowhere to be seen. The trio carefully peeked inside the numerous webs and holes in the trees, but no matter how hard they looked, their former occupants didn’t show themselves. After ten minutes of searching, they finally stumbled across what seemed like a dome of webs laying on the ground.

“What’s that?” Nyma whispered nervously, looking at the structure with confusion and fear.

Dyan inspected the large cluster of webs carefully without coming too close and answered.

“That, my dear, is the spider’s nest. It’s best if we don’t get too close, if there are any spiders left in this area, they will surely be residing in here.”

Wyne looked around with a cautiously.

“I don’t like this, this place is gives me the creeps. Let’s hide on those trees over there and wait for the spiders to come out,” she proposed.

Nyma looked like she wanted to leave the nest as far behind as possible, but Dyan cut her off before she could say anything.

“I agree. We are not prepared for combat, and these types of spiders aren’t the friendly ones that catch flies all day. Besides, Wyne can appraise them from a distance, so there is no need for us to be seen. Let us do what we do best, which is hiding,” he said in a serious tone.

Nyma still looked scared, but she didn’t complain. The trio walked off and each picked a tree with the least amount of webs on them, standing in such a way they were practically invisible to the eye. They stood out a little because they weren’t covered in cobwebs, but they were hidden enough for now. It wasn’t like the spiders could see that well anyway.

Wyne’s kind, the Treefolk, was one of the weaker species around with almost no combat potential to speak of, but if there was one thing they were good at, it was hiding on trees. After waiting for about ten minutes, the trio finally saw something moving inside the nest. Holding her breath, Wyne closely inspected the shifting cluster of webs as something tried to make their way out.

Six large spider popped out of the nest, each one as large enough to wrap itself around Wyne’s head. She gulped as she saw the monstrosities walk around the area, inspecting if anything had disturbed their precious livingspace. The spiders started making some adjustments to their giant fortress of silk, which gave Wyne a good opportunity to appraise them from a distance.

Feeling the mana course through her body, she stared at the spiders. She almost gasped when the information about their physique, skills and strength reached her mind through the magic connection. Although they looked strong, she hadn’t expected them to be this powerful.

According to the information her magic provided, their muscles were more potent than those of most insects, which, combined with their hard exoskeletons, provided both a strong offense and defense. That was impressive on its own, but the spiders had more up their sleeves.

Their silk was perfect for catching prey as well, as it turned out to be both sticky and sturdy enough to trap even small beasts. On top of that, their large fangs were able to produce some weak sort of poison, enabling them to paralize their prey with a quick bite. It didn’t take long for Wyne to realise that these spiders were the top predators of the insect world, capable of hunting strong enemies even in their unevolved forms.

And yet, something felt odd to her. If these spiders were supposed to be the mightiest creatures of the insect world, why were they hiding here inside their nest, covered in wounds? They could have been wounded by a stronger animal perhaps, but there were no such creatures in this part of the woods. Besides, a boar or something along those lines would probably think twice before picking a fight with a horde of poisonous spiders.

No matter how hard Wyne thought about it, she couldn’t think of anything capable of defeating these type of spiders. Her thoughts were interrupted though when one of the spiders suddenly turned around and started strolling in her direction on its large hairy legs. When she carefully looked up, she saw Dyan and Nyma were being approached by spiders as well.

All three of them remained as still as possible, but Wyne could see the others were nervous too, especially Nyma. Dyan, being the oldest one around, managed to set an example by staying as still as possible, silently telling them to do the same. Nyma had it more difficult though, and although she managed to stay in the same place as well, Wyne could see she was pretty close to simply booking it as fast as she could.

Wyne looked down again at the spider, which was standing at the base of her tree now. It seemed to inspect her, but Wyne didn’t have the impression it knew she was there. Finally, it was done looking at her, but instead of walking of like Wyne hoped it would do, it slowly started lifting its massive body upwards.

Wyne tried her best not to flinch as the spider slowly started climbing up her legs, crawling until it eventually reached her face. The spider’s claws hurt a lot where they grabbed her skin, but still she didn’t move an inch. Looking at the spider’s underside, she waited for it to do something. And after a few seconds, it did indeed something.

Wyne felt something warm and sticky on her skin, but it took a moment for her to realise what it was. She was surprised to find out the spider had simply shot some threads on her face, and was now busy weaving them into a loose structure around her head. For a second she feared it had found out about she was a living creature and tried to capture her, but the spider didn’t seem in a hurry at all, which she found weird.

She quickly shot a glance at the other spiders, which were still making adjustments to the nest, and finally she realised why the spiders were behaving this way. They marked out their territory with silk, which provided both a defense barrier as well as places to hide in, so of course they had “repaired” the silk on the Treefolk, which they had mistaken for actual trees.

Wyne felt relieved when she realised they were still hidden to the spiders as long as they stood still. After the spider was finally done covering her with silk all the way down, it backed off again and returned to its former task of repairing the nest along with the other spiders. Wyne carefully looked up to see how her companions were doing, but horror filled her when she saw what was happening to Nyma.

The spider on Dyan had finished refixing the webs as well, but Nyma’s spider was still unsatisfied with its work. Frustrated, it started tearing down the threads on Nyma’s legs in an attempt to start over again. Nyma’s skin however, just like the bark of normal trees, wasn’t strong enough to withstand such great amounts of brute force, and it didn’t take long until the skin on Nyma’s legs let loose completely.

Nyma’s screams of pain resounded through the woods, alerting all six spiders at the nest of her presence. They abruptly turned around to see what was the cause of the strange noise, and found Nyma lying on the ground, still screaming while holding her legs between her hands. Wyne fliched when she saw clear green sap dripping onto the ground out of the wound, where skin had been ripped off.

The spider that had approached Nyma before slowly walked over to her while dangerously slamming its fangs together, creating some sort of clicking sound. The other spiders started clicking as well and walked over towards the crying girl on the ground. Nyma’s spider circled around her until it stared her in the face. Nyma stopped crying for a second and looked back, before she screamed again, overcome by fear.

The spider prepared to jump on her face, but before it left the ground, a hard slap threw it off balance and caused it to fall on the ground. Wyne looked up and saw Dyan bending over Nyma, while the spider rolled over trying to regain its footing. The creature had been wounded on one of its legs before, otherwise it probably wouldn’t have over fallen in the first place.

“Look out!” Wyne shouted at Dyan.

All spiders kicked into gear now, running towards the two treefolk at top speed while their brother was still trying to get up back on its feet. Wyne, who had finally mustered the courage to leave from her hiding spot as well, tore down the wires around her and ran towards one of the spiders. Before it could notice her with its single eye, Wyne kicked from underneath as hard as she could.

Although all of her force had been packed into the kick, it still wasn’t strong enough to kill the spider. Its exoskeleton had a small dent in it now, whereas Wyne’s foot seemed to hurt a lot more. Still, the desired effect had been achieved, which was giving Dyan enough time to rise up again and prepare for the spiders’ attacks.

A new problem had arisen as well though, namely the spiders focusing on her instead now. She managed to kick the same spider again before it could jump at her, but this gave the other spiders the opportunity to strike at her. One of them lunged itself forward and grabbed her leg, pushing its fangs deep into her skin.

Wyne screamed as she felt a numb feeling spread through her entire leg at a fast pace. She sunk to the ground, unable to reamain standing, while Dyan shouted something she couldn’t hear. Her vision started to become blurry, and all she could see now were the spiders slowly closing in on her, their prey.

Just when she thought it was all over, a something red flashed at the nearest spider, and when Wyne looked up, all that remained of the spider were two halves laying on the ground. She blinked and tried her best to look at the scene, but her her mind was too heavy to process what was happening right now. All she could see were red creatures, three of them, cutting up the spider at an insanely fast speed.

She closed her eyes again, and when she opened them a while later, she noticed someone was trying to drag her away from the fighting. She didn’t know who though, since she still couldn’t move because of the poison. All she could do was watch while the spiders were being eliminated within half a minute.

A hand slapped Wyne in the face, which helped her regain her focus a little. She looked up and saw Dyan’s face with a frightened expression above her. Apparently he was asking if she was alright, so she nodded. She looked to her right and saw Nyma lying unconscious next to her, apparently dragged away from the fight by Dyan as well.

Wyne looked at Nyma’s leg and saw Dyan had tried to stop the bleeding using leaves and the spiders’ own strings to make some sort of bandage. It looked like it managed to stop the bleeding for now, so Wyne wasn’t too worried about it. She looked down again and noticed the same type of bandage being strapped around her own leg as well.

“What happened?” She asked Dyan, who was trying to wake up Nyma as well. He turned around and looked at her with a worried expression.

“You were out for a few minutes, after that spider had bitten you. We were saved, but I don’t-”

The old man suddenly shut up and Wyne turned around to see why. When she looked, she nearly dropped her jaw on the floor at the sight. A giant ant, larger than any of the spiders, was staring back at her with it’s red compound eyes. Judging by the green blood on its mandibles, this ant was responsible for killing the spiders.

It inspected the trio intently while Wyne held her breath, unsure of what to do, but to her surprise the ant suddenly turned around and walked off, leaving the frightened Treefolk behind without a second look. Wyne was perplexed, but the surprises didn’t stop there. When she looked at the spiders’ nest, she noticed a large hole in one of the sides.

Wyne could spot more ants through the hole, carrying spider corpses and eggs between their mandibles and carrying them away. All ants were about as large as the one who had inspected them, although they didn’t look as powerful, except for two. Wyne couldn’t help but stare as they directed the other ants while helping them cleaning up the remains of the spiders’ nest.

“Knights,” she wispered in awe. “They are knights.”

Dyan looked at her with confusion, but Wyne ignored him.

“Dyan, go back to the others and bring Nyma to safety. Explain to the villagers what happened and make sure they don’t follow me,” she said while standing up.

“Wyne, come back! Where are you going?” Dyan asked as she walked off.

“I’m going to follow them,” Wyne said as she dissapeared between the trees, leaving the stunned old man behind without any further explanation.