Private Tales Naked and Alone..ish

[Míriel Fëanorna]

Miriel actually looked bemused at the title of Princess.

"She would consider it a good death if I died doing something to protect our Kin," her arms folded over her chest and tore her eyes from the cavern entrance to the man who was meant to be her partner in this fight. "I would be more concerned about getting yourself eaten than me," she had over 200 years of experience in fighting and she very much doubted he had similar. Her eyes ran over him in open criticism. The ill fitting manner of the armour was beginning to bother her probably as much as it was digging in to his flesh.

"Here, you at least need to be able to move if we're to fight together," she put a hand on the metal before he could protest too much. It would begin to feel warm though not unpleasantly so as it groaned and then stretched outwards until it fit him almost as well as if it had been made for him from scratch.

"Right, let's go see if there are any signs of there being one of your imaginary spiders in this cavern, I don't have all the time in the world."

 

[Jorg]

"Wow if you can make me feel that warm with armor on..." Jorg decided to trail off before he ended up with a sword stabbed into his stomach.

A cough erupted from his throat, clearly forced before he shook his head.

Elves were miraculous things really. Jorg had met a few of them before, though mostly in isolation. They had always been wise, always had some sort of magic. They had a way of making ordinary men feel inferior.

It was a good thing he was no ordinary man.

With a quick jump step Jorg followed after the Elf woman, falling into place behind her as he glanced upward towards the Ravine. They made the climb easy enough, reaching the entrance to the cavern without much delay.

To his surprise, webs covered the entrance.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

"I can't quite decide if you have the worlds worst luck or best luck for being correct," Miriel commented with an airy tone that was a mix of disbelief but also amusement. The look on his face however brief it was suggested that he had been playing a wild card here in the hopes that she wouldn't kill him before he had had a chance to get away from her. Perhaps he had been planning to bash her over the head then leg it once they were deeper into the cavern.

Either way it seemed they would be dealing with this nightmare come reality they had found themselves in.

The webs didn't bother her much and she drew one blade with a silent kiss of steel against fur lined leather. With a murmured word to the blade it lit up for a brief moment and when she slashed through the webs they glided off the steel rather than trapped her in them. Slowly she began to cleave them both a little path.

 

[Jorg]

As it turned out, he was a really good guesser. A part of him wondered if he'd actually known about this all along. Something the Wolf had planted into him subconsciously, but he quickly decided that was all sorts of nonsense.

The wolf had better senses than he did, it made him stronger and faster but...it couldn't see the future anymore than he could. "Whatever do you mean?"

He lied.

"I told you it would be here." He let out a loud 'tsk' sound with his tongue. "You Elves are so mistrusting. I bet this is why I'm the first to try to set up a Trade Deal."

From his back he pulled the Elven sword, slipping it free, but not touching any of the webs with it. He knew better than that.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

"You are not the first," Miriel gave a derisive snort and threw him a look that was hard to read. As if some little fort city on the coast would be the first to approach her people. Perhaps he was ignorant but others knew their name, some even feared it. Their cavalry set them apart from the unique way their horses were trained to run through the jungle growth and the relentless training their warrior women went through. They were as deadly as they were beautiful.

"We watched your little city grow from some swamp town into what it is now," it wasn't meant to be patronising merely a statement of truth though it might have come across as the former. "It has been... impressive how quickly you have grown. But human kingdoms fall far quicker than they are built," at least in the eyes of creatures who could live for thousands upon thousands of years.

 

[Jorg]

"Tell me about it." Jorg said with an air of disinterest. "I've been telling dad for years."

Mallian was an impressive city by most standards, even Elven ones apparently, but he had no doubt in her words. If things continued the way they were currently going the city would fall into rebellion and everything would burn.

Jorg himself had no real love for the peasants, hell he had no real love for the nobility either, but he had been intricately connected to both.

A sigh escaped him. "What are you gonna do though, ri-"

Jorg cut himself off as he heard loud chittering echo within the cavern.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

The sound of many legs on rock made Miriel freeze in her downward swipe through the web. The darkness was all consuming beyond the webs though; even her elvish eyes were struggling to pick anything else out. She glanced behind her towards the sunlight that still hit their backs and that had lit their path so far. It was sunlight they hated the most and so it was sunlight they needed to bring into the cave. She sliced through the web with renewed vigour, forcing the light deeper and deeper into the cave. The sound of many of the creatures began to fill her ears as they screeched and retreated further, their furry legs hammering on the rock. They sounded... small though. They weren't giving off anywhere near the level of vibrations the adults would have.

"It's a whole nest of them," she said with disgust. that could mean anything form a handful to an army's worth of the things. Her skin began to crawl.

 

[Jorg]

"Now you understand why I had to strip naked and run." He said flatly. Jorg's voice didn't shake, didn't even betray a hint of what he was truly thinking. He knew at his core that this was a bad idea, that they likely couldn't kill even a dozen Waywatchers alone.

Yet he didn't object.

Stupidly, idiotically, as if it somehow would make things okay, the only thing he said was simple. "We need fire."

A single Waywatcher could be scared away with a big enough flame. They didn't like the heat. A whole nest of the things though? Well, he had absolutely no idea. He'd never actually walked into one of their nests.

"Can your little heat trick do that?" He asked quietly.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

"That was metal bending," she sighed almost impatiently. How humans couldn't tell the difference between subtle forms of magic sometimes was beyond her. Still she did know a spell that would at least start a spark of a fire. She used it for campfires but it should do the trick here. Glancing around she picked up a piece of splintered wood and then tugged at the bottom of her tunic so a little appeared under her armour. She ripped off strips she could reach and then wound them about the stick in a makeshift torch.

She did this twice before murmuring a word in elvish that set them both slowly flickering to life.

"I'm afraid no fireballs from me so that will have to do," she sliced through another piece of the web.

 

[Jorg]

"Better than nothing." Here he thought Elves were good with all sorts of magic.

Learn something new every day.

The firelight lit up the tunnel ahead of them. Jorg could heat quiet skittering, the chorus of thousands of tiny legs moving over rock and stone. Fingers tightened on the Elvish blade in his hand as he tried desperately to recall what else he could about Waywatchers.

He swallowed quietly. "One will be the broodmother."

Jorg had absolutely no idea if Miriel would know this information, but he'd spent the last five years of his life traveling in and out of the Wilds as a guide. Waywatchers had only been one of the monsters he'd had to kill.

"We have to kill her last." His fingers tightened. "Otherwise we migh-"

Jorg stopped as the cave opened up into a massive cavern ahead of them. Thousands upon thousands of eggsacks hung from the ceiling, webs criss-crossing everywhere as he saw tiny spots move throughout the dark.

There was no sign of the Broodmother or her mate.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

A shudder ran down her spine as the cavern opened up before them to reveal the true magnitude of the horror they were going to have to deal with. She wondered briefly if he was regretting his lie as of yet. Miriel was certainly cursing him in her mind for being right by some fluke she imagined. If every egg in here hatched and left this cave the area would be overrun within a day with the horrible creatures. Her breathing slowed as she became more conscious of the spike in her heart rate - the last thing they needed was to attract their attention to two victims who had wandered willingly into their lair as food.

The room went on for what looked like a good couple of miles and every inch was covered in eggs. She tried to resist the urge to simply throw the torch into the hole and run. Perhaps they could just seal the cavern behind them and lock the monsters in with the fire.

"I don't particularly want to meet the mother that spawned all of these," her words were a bitter murmur as she clenched her hand on her sword and held the torch with the other.

 

[Jorg]

"Well." He said quietly, his voice so soft that it could barely be heard. "Mom's orders."

Now was a terrible time for a joke, but Jorg couldn't really help himself.

He had laughed in the face of death a dozen times. He was a mercenary, a werewolf, a monster. He had survived the Desert, the Wilds, the worst storm the Spine had seen in a hundred years. What was a couple spiders to someone like him?

At least that was what he tried to tell himself.

Swallowing hard, Jorg stepped forward and besides Miriel. He reached out and grabbed the torch from her, or tried to, and looked at her. "Follow me."

He tried not to sound like he was shitting himself.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

Miriel was more than happy for him to go first and gave over the torch gladly. They were not a creature she had personally fought before and she her steps were cautious as she walked. Of course she had heard of them and her Sisters had fought them before countless times. There were things to look out for from their stories, but she hadn't heard of any of them dealing with a whole nest. She swallowed a lump in her throat.

"You know if you had just told her why you were really naked in our lands we could have been having tea right about now," she slowly eased the other sword from her back now both her hands were free once more. It made her feel more comfortable to be armed.

 

[Jorg]

The torch was put in front of him, casting through the webs and slowly burning them away as he continued to walk forward.

"We're here." He told her sternly, his voice still a whisper. "No real use complaining about the why."

As far as he saw it, Jorg was doing them a favor. Sure he had been lying, but Waywatchers were dangerous, and it seemed this brood was due to hatch soon. They would have had to deal with it eventually anyway. Why not do it now.

Slowly they moved deeper into the cavern, Jorg avoiding the egg sacks as best he could. "There will be a webnest."

He told her softly.

"Craddle of food for the young." Where they would feast. "If we destroy that they'll starve."

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

There was every reason to complain; she wanted to know why exactly he had been there. The truth of it. But she bit her tongue and said nothing more as she followed him into the darker parts of the nest. She had the horrible feeling that tiny spiders were crawling over her skin but every time she brushed what she thought was one away she found there was nothing there.

"Sounds like a plan," she glanced over her shoulder every now and then to make sure none of the beasts would creep up on them from behind, her elvish ears twitching at every little noise. "So is this what you do, you're a Monster Hunter?" Miri lifted a brow as they crept onwards.

 

[Jorg]

Fingers tightened around the torch as the skittering continued. Some of the children had already hatched, that much was clear. None of them were brave enough to strike, not when the human and elf were so much bigger than they.

Of course that begged the question...where were the parents? A broodmother did not abandon it's layer, and the Patriarch was often not very far. "Call me a connoisseur of the Wilds."

Most of his living was actually spent escorting nobles, scholars, and whatever else through the Wilds itself. He had been a mercenary for a while, traveling with a Band, but that sort of thing was rather difficult when you were a Monster.

"My father's scholars instructed me well on the monsters in the jungles." He said softly as they came upon a massive section of web. "And It was the only part of my education I took to."

His words died on his lips as he cut through the first layer of the web, revealing a huge cocoon bundled in the very center of the cabin surrounded by hundreds of cat sized spiders.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

The small insight into who he was was a welcome one. At least she knew she wasn't walking into this fight with a complete moron. It took a certain level of smarts to survive in the Wilds as it was but then humans had a tendency to think themselves invincible. It always boggled her mind considering they were perhaps the easiest to break. She was about to ask a follow up question when he moved aside another layer of web to reveal the horror on the other side.

There seemed to be a moment where both the spiders and they looked at one another with the same levels of alarm. The creatures scuttled back from the fire then froze, Miriel and Jorg also took a step back then froze. Then the spiders launched themselves at the duo.

Miri had never had a fear of spiders but after this she had a feeling she would never be putting them outside again.

Her sword cut through one and then another, their black blood splattering her armour.

 

[Jorg]

"Don't let the blood touch your skin, It's acidic!" Jorg hissed in reminder as his own elvish made blade sliced through the first spider with enough ease to send it's blood splattering onto it's kin.

He was astounded at how smoothly the blade went through the spiderlings carapace, and he decided that he was going to steal this word after everything was said and done.

The swarm of spiders however continued, and Jorg found himself quickly cutting through legs, heads, and abdomens as fast as he could. "Need to get to the nest!"

He called to Miriel as he stepped forward.

His boot crushed the head of one of the spiders, stomping it as he rushed forward and towards the nest just up ahead.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

Miriel put her boot on one of the creatures and used her weight to wrench her blade free of a particularly large offspring. She fought not to let the bile rise in her throat at the smell of all the death and ploughed on through the creatures. There was hardly a break. For every one she cut down three more seemed to appear. She thought through the spells that might be helpful in such a situation and as she kicked another creature from her she put her hand out.

"Fárëa!" a pulse pushed outwards and suddenly the creatures froze and began to float towards the ceiling of the cavern. They tried to move and the odd one could be seen to twitch but other than that they were harmless.

"Go, I don't know how long I can hold this," she shoved him forward to stop him gawking.

 

[Jorg]

Magic.

There it was. He knew that Elves had more than one trick up their sleeve. With a smile Jorg half bounded forward. His sword cut through several spiders on the way their, slicing them right down the spine as they floated helplessly.

Might as well take advantage. "Get ready to run!"

As Jorg reached the edge of the nest he peeked inside for just a few seconds. Thousands upon thousands of tons of web were wrapped around all sorts of different creatures. Horses, Lizards, even a Hydra were all contained within the web.

"Fuck." He swore quietly as he spotted the nine headed monstrosity, shaking his head as he took the torch and tossed it into the nest itself.

The spidersilk caught fire almost immediately, sparking into a flame that grew into an inferno within just a few seconds.

Jorg turned and began to sprint. "Go go go!"

He shouted loudly.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

Miriel didn't need to be told twice as the flames leapt up towards the roof of the cavern. The magic faltered a little but she regained control and began to sprint back the way they came. The only issue was was that the spidersilk carried on all the way through the cavern right to the entrance where they had first begun to cut their way through in to the next. She could see the fire licking its way through the tunnel behind them and the sheer cliff drop in front of them fast approaching. They wouldn't be able to climb down it safely and quickly.

"Jump," Miri didn't give him much choice in the matter. The fire was practically licking at their heels now so she slammed the heel of her palm into his back and shoved him over the edge at the same time her other fingers came up to give a shrill whistle. The pair began falling incredibly fast towards the ravine below as the fire spat itself out of the cave entrance and the screams of a thousand dying spiders filled the air. Then suddenly black feathers were below them and they landed on Thorlion's back with quite some force. Miri was the quickest to recover and slid herself into the correct position whilst trying to haul Jorg up behind her.

 

[Jorg]

Jorg tumbled down onto the horse with none of the grace or elegance that Miriel did. He landed with a loud 'oof', practically crashing against the mounts backbone.

The wind was knocked out of him, and lips thinned as he felt an elven had grab at him. "WHAT IS IT WITH YOU PEOPLE STOP GRABBING AT ME!"

He shouted as he felt himself suddenly yanked into the correct position.

His arms flailed, but he gave no further suggestion as a cloud clicking suddenly erupted from the cavern above. "Oh shit."

Jorg said, as suddenly from the entrance of the cavern a massive spider appeared. Covered in marks of flame and burning embers the Waywatcher Broodmother skittered from it's home, a clacking erupting from it's mandibles.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

"Fine I'll let you plummet to your death next time," she shouted over her shoulder even as the wind tried to whip her words away. Thorlion tilted his wings and she did in fact let go of Jorg so he could fend for himself as the horse did so. It was far different to galloping across terrain. His wings beat twice then evened out to spin them in a tight hairpin turn back towards the creature which was scuttling down the side of the cliff face. With her brood gone it would be in a foul mood. They would need to kill it before it found someone to take its rage out on. Thorlion flew after it with speed but stayed wisely out of the reach of its claws. Miri leaned over the horses shoulder and peered down at it before giving Jorg a shrug.

Then she slid from the saddle.

It was quite a far drop even still but through the spattering of clouds he would see she had indeed landed on the creatures back.

 

[Jorg]

Jorg let out a curse as the woman dropped from the horse, his lips turning to a scowl as he looked down at Thorlion with a scowl. "What a bi-"

The werewolf could not finish his sentence as the Mount suddenly turned a little bit too far to the right. His grip slipped, and Jorg suddenly found himself falling towards the ground. His arms flailed everywhere, a shout echoing from his lips.

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Jorg screamed out, his fingers grabbing tightly onto his sword as he suddenly crashed directly against the spiders abdomen.

There was a crack of carapace and bone, Jorg's sword going flying as he landed.

 

[Míriel Fëanorna]

Miriel stood on shaky legs as the beast still scuttled onwards and drew her blade once more. She had been about to plunge it through the creatures neck when Jorg hit it at quite some force. The creature let out an ear splintering shriek which offended her sensitive ears. With a cry she covered her hands and fell to her knees on the creatures back, twisting at the hips with a snarl. It took a moment to get over the shock before she slammed her sword down hard through the back of the creatures neck.

It let out another howl and came to a stop to direct all of its attention to trying to get the elf off her back and the man off her abdomen.

"Stop screaming like a baby and help!"