Sap and Spider Webs

“I hope my friends are praying for my safety. I know it’s just a placebo effect to me, but I love some confirmation bias.”

Kitezh had no idea what happened to Jadwiga and Marigold. She had no idea if they’re looking for her right now. However, she knew waiting was not an option. She was up against a giant spider with a dragon’s tail that was ready to slice her to pieces.

Kitezh normally wouldn’t be afraid of going one-on-one with a giant spider. The problem is that she knew this creature was something related to an enemy phenomenon. She didn’t want to take the risk of fucking around and finding out what its full potential looked like.

Kitezh slowly backed away from the strange creature and turned herself invisible.

“Oh God, this thing better have no hearing sense,” she thought to herself.

The spider crept forward. It seemed to be hunting its prey. Kitezh noticed the dragon tail was swinging around. It was acting on its own, causing the spider to wobble whenever its tail swung to one side.

Kitezh looked behind herself, and saw the smoke screen coming out of the tunnel from before. Kitezh did not want to suffer through the smoke again. The entrance to the station was being filled up with the smoke, so she couldn’t pass through it either. She took the gamble of escaping through the trees surrounding the funicular station.

Kitezh walked off the pedestrian path, and slowly walked around the station. She felt the cold stone of the wall as she walked against the perimeter. She looked back at the spider dragon, as it meticulously investigated the area.

“HIIISSSSS!”

It spewed out creepy sounds as it opened its mouth. Kitezh could tell the spider was not happy. She saw the way it was gnashing its mandibles, ready to sink them into her the moment it catches her.

Suddenly, something snagged Kitezh’s foot! She felt like she was in a glue trap. In a panic, she stumbled onto the ground. She was covered in a sticky substance.

“Shit, is this spider web?!” Kitezh thought as she frantically looked around for the spider monster.

The spider monster wasn’t hunting after her and continued investigating as if nothing had happened.

Kitezh looked down to see what kind of trap she had fallen into. It was not white, spider web. It was a light brown, clear substance. She accidentally walked into a thick coat of tree sap on the ground, the kind that Whistle Mountains were famous for.

Kitezh held her breath for a moment, but calmed down knowing that the spider wasn’t following her. Kitezh took her time to pull herself out of the sap. It was sticky, but she managed to free herself. The problem was the sap residue created her outline on her invisible body.

Kitezh turned all the sap in a widespread area invisible. All the glistening bronze goo appeared to be cleaned up from the earth. She was aware that she couldn’t see what was beneath her anymore, so she had to tread more carefully now.

As Kitezh trudged through the invisible sap, she heard sounds of girls screaming as if they were fighting for their lives.

“Jadwiga and Marigold. They’re in danger. I need to get to them fast.”

Kitezh planned to navigate around the base of the funicular station and figure out a way to reach the top to find the rest of her part.

“AH!” Kitezh suddenly gasped, as she turned around the corner of the station.

Large, white webs were draped over trees like an unraveled silk scarf. Through the white threads were another mutant creature. A large dragon, but with the abdomen of a large, brown spider.

The dragon was gripping one of the trees. It looked around and then quickly sprang to another. The dragon didn’t have a clear direction, but Kitezh had one thing in mind.

“Does it know I’m standing here?”

Kitezh couldn’t just stand there all day. She had to make her way around the station fast.

“I doubt my dagger could cut through this web easily. I can’t make it invisible to throw off the enemy, as touching it will make me completely trapped.”

She looked at the obstacles in her path, trying to figure out some easy way through. However, time was running out as she heard voices of struggles from above.

“It looks like I need to get through this the hard way. I can distract it by tossing something invisible into the web.”

Kitezh looking at the ground. She saw the perfect branch on the ground made for disrupting a spider’s work. She picked it up from the ground.

SNAP!

“AH!” Kitezh accidentally yelled, and she scared herself backwards.

Kitezh had forgotten the sap on the ground was invisible. The branch was actually stuck in the sap. Now, Kitezh herself was stuck sitting in the sap, quickly trying to pull herself out. Her struggling intensified as she saw something horrific coming her way.

“GROAAAAR!”

The dragon with the spider abdomen perked up from Kitezh’s mistake. It kicked from tree to tree, trying to hunt the location where Kitezh made a sound.

“Damn, this one can sense hearing unlike a spider.”

Kitezh was still invisible, but she knew it was a matter of time before it decided to incinerate the whole forest just to kill her. Kitezh sunk her hands in the gooey sap, as her butt slowly lifted out from the sap.

As Kitezh desperately pulled her hand from the sap, she saw the dragon fly in the air, and stuck out the spider abdomen

SPURT!

A stream of spider web sprayed out, covering the branches and grounds of the woods. It was spraying in a wide area.

As the ground started to coat with white, Kitezh’s heart began to palpitate faster. She it aim its abdomen at her, as if it knew exactly where she was. A white stream was shot out, and she prepared worst.

“HISSSSS!”

Kitezh shut her eyes, and saw the result, a white, gooey substance covered her hands. However, she didn’t feel stuck.

“Ah! Now’s my chance!”

Kitezh smeared her hands against the ground. She could feel a syrupy goo wipe off, and the spiderweb was smeared onto the ground.

The tree sap ironically saved Kitezh she was caught in. By having her hands covered in one sticky substance, she was saved from coming into contact with the spider web. It was like gloves made of amber.

However, disrupting a spider’s web like that meant one thing.

Kitezh heard fast tapping noises. She turned above at the pedestrian path she was on, and saw the spider with the dragon’s tail crawling down to the spider web-coated woods.

Meanwhile, the dragon with the spider’s abdomen was scanning the area, having no idea where its victim was, despite shooting the web itself.

“What the hell? Why did that spider come down here? I thought that the web belonged to…”

Kitezh finally came to a realization. A spider with a dragon’s tail where its abdomen should be. A dragon with a spider’s abdomen where its tail should be.

“The spider and dragon parts belong to one creature, respectively! Whatever the spider abdomen feels from the dragon, the spider’s main body feels it. The dragon can’t feel it. Still, it’s almost like they both know they are working together,” Kitezh pondered.

The spider was crawling up a tree, swinging its dragon tail like a pendulum. The dragon with the spider’s abdomen slowly flew down on one of the trees, looking at the spider. They were both deciding who was going to make a move.

Kitezh, with her body sticky yet free, had no other choice now. She was backed against the funicular station against two monsters. She could no longer sneak around to join her party.

“If I were to harm one body of the creature, it would affect the other one. Alright, if my hypothesis is correct, I’m ready to fight now!” Kitezh idealized, as she took out an invisible dagger.