Through a Canine's Eyes

Chapter 23

'How the fuck does something like always happen?' I mentally screamed to myself. 'HOW?'

This morning had started off perfectly normal. I had been sitting up on top of the cabin all night as I lazily watched over the ship. This was almost a nightly occurrence; I kept watch over the ship all night and one of the others might pop up occasionally to help for a few hours to give me a break. I really was like a guard dog. Zoro had been out for a few hours last night, helping me keep watch on the ship. Jeez, and the others complain we have too many naps but they generally actually get sleep through the night.

Anyway, that had been all good and stuff, nothing seemed to happen all night but the ship rocking on the water. The sun had begun to rise on the horizon, casting it's soft light over the sea. Seeing that it was almost time for me to take a nap to offset the sleepless night, I had jumped off the cabin roof and onto the decking just outside the kitchen door. I stumbled the landing a bit as my sore leg refused the hold any weight causing me to grind my teeth together as I tried to keep my balance. My leg was a lot better after a short rest, but it still refused to hold my weight correctly even with the bandage on it.

I heard something shuffle around on the main deck just outside the main door, so I had scrambled down the steps quickly, presuming it had been one of the others that had woken up and came onto the deck. I jumped the last few steps, landing awkwardly again but I quickly corrected myself and spun myself around to face the door. This takes me back to the start of the story, an explanation for my exclamation before.

I came face to face what seemed like a large silk thread straight in front of my face. I stopped, blinking before looking around. It seemed like there was millions of the large silk thread all over the deck. How had I not noticed this whilst watching over the ship last night? Then I saw it.

Against the side of the cabin was a spider. But no, it couldn't just be a normal spider could it. Nope, because things don't like be nice to me. This spider was in no way what I would consider 'normal'. The best word to describe this odd spider that was perched on the right side of the wall next to the door was 'titanic'. But, even that description was an understatement. This thing was fucking ginormous. It was the size of a small car and it was clinging to the wall. On our ship. Right in front of me.

I stared awkwardly at it, not really sure how react straight away. It seemed to be in the same predicament as myself as it's eight huge black eyes blinked back.

'Fuck my life…' I cried in despair at the spider finally chose what to do.

"Hsss," It made a grunted hissing sound and raised its front two legs up in a defensive position, flashing its two huge fangs as it opened its mouth.

I watched as something dripped off its left fang, splattering on the deck. The wood sizzled under the liquid, a small stream off smoke rising as the wood seemed to be eaten away by the liquid.

I still, to this point, hadn't really been able to decide what I was feeling. It was a mix of shock, fear, awe, anger, defensiveness, and horror. The emotions seemed to keep flipping and switching around as different thoughts ran through my head. First, how the fuck had we not noticed this thing before? Second, how does a spider get this big? Third, what the fuck was I going to do now?

I lived in Australia as I grew up as Braylie, so spiders were nothing new to me. I had seen my fair share of spiders in my life; spiders were a daily occurrence in Australian life. I was never scared of spiders, they ate insects and so long as they weren't in my room I ignored them and let the go about their daily business.

This was a completely different matter altogether though; this was no normal house spider that one would find in an urban situation. Hell, you wouldn't find this thing anywhere in real life. It was way too damn big. Why did the Grand Line need to have creepy stuff like this? We only just got here for God's sake!