Creepy Crawlies

With the dawn came morning sickness, followed swiftly by Rune’s ministrations.

Kalia was already awake and discussing strategy with Rune which made Midori wonder when the woman ever slept, if at all. Just another way that the woman was superior to her.

Midori watched her and Rune as sat close together, the way she occasionally leaned in.

It all made her incredibly uncomfortable, and she was thankful for the distraction as Sahaela floated over top of her.

“How’s the morning sickness?”

“Still awful, but less so since Rune’s been making me this.” She gestured to the bowl in her hands full of still steaming porridge.

“That’s good to hear. You’ll need all your strength for dealing with the upcoming creepy crawlies.”

“Ugh, yeah I’m really not looking forward to that.”

“You really hate spiders don’t you?”

“I don’t hate them! I just…find them incredibly creepy. Honestly? I think they’re kind of fascinating,” she said. Looking up at Sahaela she could see the surprise on the ghostly face.

“I think it’s just really interesting, how they developed unique methods of survival depending on the environment. As creepy as I find them I also find them weirdly…inspiring I guess?”

Sahaela laughed so loudly it made Rune and Kalia glance over.

“You are so delightfully weird Midori. God I wish I had met you growing up, I think we would have had a lot of fun.”

She smiled, “yeah. I wish we had too, maybe I’d have felt a bit more comfortable.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…I was one of the only kids in my school with dark skin. I always felt like some kind of sideshow attraction.”

“Okay I definitely know what you mean there. I was always some kind of spectacle for the kids to mock-”

“Or something exotic to sample-”

“Oh my god yes!”

They laughed together and it was the first time Midori had ever truly felt seen. She had tried to explain it so many times to Sara, her mother, and other friends but they just couldn’t understand exactly what she meant. They didn’t fully understand the nuances of it, the sidelong looks, the comments, and the general isolative feeling of it all.

Glancing over at Rune and Kalia, Midori motioned for her ghostly mentor to come closer.

“What do you think of her?”

“Kalia?” Sahaela looked over at her quickly before turning back, “she seems alright. A bit pushy though. She was pretty demanding when it came to asking about my past.”

“Really? How so?”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure she was just trying to ‘do her duty’ or something. Still came off as a bit rude though.” Sahaela glanced over at Midori, “why’d you ask?”

Chewing on her bottom lip she finally answered, “I feel like she’s testing me some times. And I just feel a bit weird with her being here. She’s Rune’s ex, so even if she isn’t actually testing me I sometimes feel like…she’s the one I’m expected to live up to, and I definitely can’t do that.”

Sahaela chuckled softly shaking her head, “trust me Midori you do not need to live up to anyone besides your own expectations. Rune cares for you greatly, maybe you should bring it up to him?”

She shrugged before asking, “have you ever had anything like this happen?”

“You mean fall in love with a walking golden retriever who happens to come from another world? No I can’t say that I have.”

Midori laughed loudly, “no you dork. I mean like…have you ever been around your partner’s exes before? Is this like, how it always feels?”

“Oh, well uh…” Sahaela rubbed the back of her neck, a gesture that Midori found mildly humorous, “I’ve never actually been in a relationship before.”

She couldn’t help the slightly shocked expression on her face, before realizing that this was the first real relationship she’d been in since high school.

“Yeah? Did you just never find anyone who struck that fancy?”

Sahaela shrugged, “honestly I’ve just never really had much interest in dating. It was kind of a silver lining coming here, I’m pretty sure my family would have pushed for an arranged marriage if I’d stayed.”

“Maybe you’re ace?”

“I’m an ace?”

She giggled, “I mean, you are an ace when it comes to magick. But I meant asexual, sometimes people just call it ‘ace.’ Sorry, modern day terminology.”

“What’s that?” Sahaela said with her brow raised in curiosity.

“It’s used to describe people not interested in sex or romance, there’s a spectrum of it.”

“The world really changed in the time I’ve been gone,” Sahaela said. There was an evident tone of melancholy to her words.

“I’m sorry that you couldn’t experience it.”

“I get to learn about it through you, which is better than nothing at least.”

“Hey you two,” Rune called, bringing them both back to the cavernous expanse of reality they had wandered into. “We’re about ready to head out.”

“Oh joy, spider time.”

-----

Midori was incredibly thankful that the spiders seemed less than eager to swarm them.

The first few they encountered were mercifully small, or at least small enough that she was only mildly freaked out as they skittered quickly toward them and across the webbing that covered the walls and ceiling.

Kalia was able to easily dispatch them without even drawing her spear, Midori could see the aura roaring around her. She hadn’t seen anything like it since watching Roy and Rune try and kill one another, yet she knew there was more the general was holding back.

It wasn’t until they came to another large cavern that things went awry.

The walls and floor were covered in the thick, netting like webbing typically seen among funnel web spiders, but the ones that now hissed and threatened them were enormous in size. Each one roughly the same size as a dog, with a few of them even beyond that close to the size of a very small car.

“There’s no way these things just moved in after Sahaela left, they had to have been down here the whole time.” Rune’s hands burned with the same blue fire from before as he backhanded a spider sending it careening into the rocky wall.

Rune had explained that it was an aspect of the Herald power he was tapping into, but that before now it had always been uncontrollable and dangerous like what she had tapped into in Nythe. He had called it ‘Untethered’, something about giving in to darker emotions and impulses that peels away the humanity of a Herald, literally burning it as fuel to keep their enraged form going.

She had begun learning how to tap into it the way Rune now seemed to, in a controlled fashion, but her abilities seemed less suited for combat than his. Thankfully she had magick for times that required combat.

Forming thin blades of water she threw her arm outward cutting through a trio of spiders that were bearing down on them from behind.

“So glad I’ve watched anime!” Midori shouted while throwing out another blade of water at the oncoming arachnid swarm.

Together Rune, Kalia and Midori were able to whittle down the swarm to what looked to be just over two dozen. They paused suddenly and what had seemed like a mindless assault was beginning to feel slightly more calculated.

It’s like they were learning.

They hesitated, before all at once releasing a horrid shriek that echoed through the cavern and tunnel walls, reverberating for what seemed like ages.

The silence that followed was momentary, for another howl came from much deeper within. It was louder, deeper, and angrier than the rest. And then the ground began to shake.

“What was that!?” Midori screamed, trying her best to contain her freak out.

“Well if I had to guess,” Kalia began calmly. “These are the babies, and that’s the really pissed off mom.”