Embraces

Something caught them.

Sol’s back struck thin cabling that absorbed his momentum and he watched Grief land on her side as well, suspended above the torrent below. Both of them held the cabbits in their hands and on their chests, with a few others dangling over the side, screaming in terror as they hung above the dark water.

Sol pulled the rope quickly, dragging the remaining cabbits to his chest as he tried to understand how they were elevated. Grief patted the near-invisible suspension in disbelief as the dozens of furry ones clung to her.

Whatever was holding them was swaying slightly beneath their weight, giving the faintest creaks of tension. Sol tried to steady himself but his thumb slid through an opening. Once the little ones were stable on him again, he sat up slightly and looked down. Light from his eyes slid along thin, almost imperceptible lines that latticed across the entire expanse.

“Spyder silk,” Sol replied in surprise.

“Spyders?!” Wretch shrieked in concern.

“No, no. Not actual spyders. They would sell this webbing. It’s not a trap,” Sol said as he observed the patterned binds that were holding them.

“It’s a net. Not a web.”

Wretch crawled to the edge of his head and looked down. When his eye light shined on their salvation, she could see that it was in fact an immense network of overlapping strands. Above them, more machinery hung silent and forgotten.

“It seems like this was a loss prevention system for the humes,” Sol posited as he looked at the netting spanning out beyond the edges of the curved center opening.

“I guess it was a way for them to catch any goods that may have fallen through. Spyder silk is incredibly durable,” Sol said.

Grief moaned as she tried to steady herself.

“May we not linger here admiring the commerce tricks of these humes?” she groaned.

“I’d much prefer to not be suspended over a watery death,” she added as she clasped several cabbits close to her chest.

All of them nodded in agreement.

Sol looked up and saw that the machinery was too out of reach and weathered to be of use to them. Netting covered the entirety of the round gate, so they were able to crawl to the other side. No openings awaited them on the edges of the dam. Even if they made it across the netted gate gap, the water would be their only way forward. Sol measured their options, then accepted they needed to start moving nonetheless.

The rope tethering all of the cabbits together was still in his hand. He looked to Wretch.

“Do you want to separate from me until we cross? I may fall through again, but all of you are much lighter.”

Wretch and several others debated quietly.

“We are too unstable to try to balance ourselves on the spyder net. Many of us are not able bodied,” said a woman beside Wretch.

Burden nodded and scooted herself further onto Sol’s head.

Sol had partially hoped they’d ask to separate from him. He’d pulled them all to this precarious perch without meaning to. It was just another way he’dfailed he’dfailed he’dfailed he’d failed them. Accepting that they wanted to stay connected to him and Grief, he began the remaining rope to the end of one of his eye hooks. Touching it sent a jolt of excruciating shock through his skull and he grunted without meaning to.

Wretch slid down to his shoulder and extended her paws.

“It… It will be easier for me to tie,” she said softly as she looked away with a strange expression.

Sol relinquished the rope to her, and she carefully slid it through the hook’s ending clasp. Once the knot was tied, she stepped back.

“Won’t that hurt you quite badly if we fall and pull on it?” she asked.

Sol nodded.

“All the more reason for me to keep you from falling,” he said.

Beside them, Grief followed suit and tied the rope end around the lower point of her right antler. Another set of cabbits helped her as well, making sure they were well secured. Once it was done, all of the tiny ones crawled back onto the bodies of their massive hosts. Sol debated the best course forward, and began to lay onto his stomach. All of the cabbits settled on his head, shoulders, and back.

“Lay down?” Grief asked.

“I think so,” he replied.

“My idea is that maybe our weight will be better distributed this way?” he pondered, unsure of his logic.

Grief thought it over.

“It makes sense. Versus having all of our pressing concentrated in just our feet or knees?” she attempted to agree.

Both were only partially confident in their thoughts, but it made the most sense. Grief slowly lowered herself down and Sol found himself unintentionally gazing upon the contoured dip in her lower back where her dress was open. Pale stone skin arched along low ridged muscle, and the fabric curved downward as it caught between the point just beyond where her small tail met her buttocks.

He cleared his throat in confusion and shook his head to look away, not realizing Grief had been watching his eyes. A fluster built in her own chest and she also shook her head for focus.

Now each distracted and somewhat alighted in their hips, the two massive beings settled into position beside one another.

“D-Do you want me to go first?” I am smaller, and lighter,” Grief offered.

Sol sighed and nodded, though he was not excited about the prospect of her exposed back and bunched fabric now being directly in front of him. He resolved himself to simply look down at the roaring river below. It would somehow be more welcome.

In truth, Grief could feel the fabric clinging between her tail and backside, and though she would not admit it, she found herself wanting to leave it that way. It was an intrusive, unplanned thought, but as she slid forward, slow and serpentine, feeling the netting graze along her stomach and breasts, her lips parted just enough to pull in a slight taste of the air, and she secretly hoped he would look again.

They began to crawl, one after the other, both begging their minds to focus on anything besides their companion.

Bit by bit, they shifted their weight forward, taking care to keep all of their mass distributed. Beneath them, the river waited, jaws open, waves dark and loud. Above them, the dammed kingdom stood quiet and abandoned but just out of reach.

Occasionally, the netting would creak out some strained warning that they were straying too far from a strong point, and they would slowly drag themselves to another direction. All of the cabbits sat on the backs of the gods, quiet and sweating from nervousness. Ears raised to better detect strain in the fiber, and they began to call out warnings before the gods could hear.

Burden’s foot tapped as she fidgeted, wanting all of it to be over. She was beginning to realize that they might have to go into the water. After the suffering of the blood pool, she was not desiring to be submerged again any time soon. Peering at the net offered little comfort for her when she sized its openings against herself and realized that she would fall straight through if it came to it. She closed her eyes and tried not to panic.

On and on they crawled, crossing the massive gate that once controlled so much waterflow and commerce.

Sol took a moment to observe the distant waterfall, trying to preemptively plan for a potential path. If they were going to have to jump into the river’s rage, he wanted to know what to expect. When he looked down from the centerpoint of the gate, he saw channel trenches and stony pathrails placed along the river. Chunks of weathered, rounded stone rose from the water like statues, and he could make out the ends of hover shards. They were gone now, offering no aid.

Nothing but the waterfall’s drop of death awaited them below.

So they crawled. Bit by bit, they made their way across the gate, until both of the gods reached the opposite side from where they’d started. Relief coated Sol, but only for a moment. Now they had to figure out how to cross the rest of the stone wall.

Sol knew the little ones would drown in the water. It was likely that the ropes would not even hold them in the torrent and would snap.

“We need to stay here. Elevated,” Sol said.

“We cannot reach the upper tiers again, though,” Grief said.

Sol sized her up as he debated their options. She was smaller than him. Thinner and lighter. Bony and easy to get hands around. He crawled to the edge of the netting where it met the wall and pressed against the smooth, cold stone. There was nothing sacred to it. No infusion of runic power or mystical blessing gave them strength. Each stone was simply that: stone.

An idea came to him.

“Sister. I need you to mount me,” he said.

“W-what?” Grief stuttered as strange prickling sensations rose in her lips.

“Mount me and wrap your arms and legs around me,” he said.

“Sol, this is not the, the, moment?” she stammered.

Wretch’s eyebrow raised in utter bewilderment. Only then did Sol realize his wording was too hasty. Warm embarrassment rushed into his scarred cheeks.

“Get onto my back. Wrap around my waist and hold on. I’m going to carry us across.”

Grief sighed. His answer had only made things slightly better.

“Come little ones,” she groaned as she lifted the edges of her dress, revealing her hooved heels and narrow ankles.

The cabbits crawled from her to him, finding seating along her shards, broad shoulders, and the ringed headpiece that rose from his skull like ornamentation. When they were in place, he moved to his knees and lifted his fist.

He swung at full strength, striking the wall flush with his knuckles and pulverizing the stone so that his hand now had a crevice to grab onto.

“I’ll carry us the rest of the way like this,” he said as his large hand traced the opening for grip.

Grief watched his fingers slide along the contours of rock as she lowered herself onto him and wrapped her exposed legs around his body. His back was warm against her thighs. Knees bent and ankles crossed as her hands slid around his neck.

When they were all in place, he punched another hole for anchoring. He muttered a prayer to himself and slid off the netting, out over the water.