Three Foot Predicament

Collecting all of my eight dark legs together into a hunched position, I slowly crept to the edge of the bare gnarled branch. All ten of my beady eyes were focused on the long nose peeking out between the ancient leaves. It has been a long time since anyone strayed this far into the woods. Not since we, the spawn of Ungoliant, took over the depths uninhabited by the elves.

Occasionally we see them, hunting with their quick feet and nimble bows. They rarely ever come for us, only when we get too close to their halls. The great King Thranduil rules over this forest, but not us. He warns them not to stray too far. Ever since the great darkness fell over his realm, they have been wary of strangers. These woods were once joyous, called Greenwood the Great. Now it has fallen under a shadow, and we came with it.

Mirkwood is what they call it now. None dare enter without good reason, and those that do have good reason, seldom dare to face the risks. Even without the unknown dangers and creatures lurking from border to border, if you were to stray off the path just a little, you would be lost forever. The darkness, the silence, the danger, they play tricks on your mind, and you will be driven into madness.

Only we, the Great Spiders, and the Wood-elves know our way around. But that does not make us allies. Disgusting beasts they are, a misfortune for the whole world. Their oldest ancestors, their fathers, the Eldar, celebrate all light. It is sacred to them. We absolutely detest it. Terribly bright, it burns, burns your body, mind, soul. They have no heart. The king throws away any who enter this forest without permission into his dungeons. For how long we do not know. Never have we seen anyone come out again.

To the Wood-elves, the starlight is most precious. That is how we were aware of the strange trespassers. The Elves were having the feast of starlight. Mereth Nuin Giliath they call it in their horrid tongue.

They stay up all night feasting and having a huge celebration. The king is known for throwing the most extravagant parties. They have greens and berries and roast meat and mead and wine and so many other disgusting foodstuffs. But this time something was different.

We stay away from the light of their fires throughout these distasteful festivities. Hidden by what shelter we had made with our intricate, thick webs, we watch, warily, and wait for the nonsense to end. We had been sensing something different in the forest. The still air seemed somehow disturbed. As we sat, we pondered on what it might be. Our questions were soon answered.

Suddenly all of their lights went out. Their fire was quenched, and everything went silent. Slowly we rose, one by one skittering closer, silently, to investigate. Although the Elves were silent, something else wasn't. We heard shouting, crying, crashing, and crunching. Eventually everything went quiet, and we slunk back as we watched the lights reappear silently a little way off. But soon enough the lights went out again, and this time the noise was much worse.

Much later the lights reappeared and we observed once again the pitch black taking over the forest and a loud clamour filling our ears. We speculated on what the disturbance was, and we listened to it become further and further away. The oldest and wisest of us were sure this had to do with whatever had changed in the forest.

Without delay we skittered across our dark webs that stretched across from tree to tree. Spreading out, we each chose a place to attack. Before long it was obvious what had come. They were dwarves, twelve of them that we could detect. Somehow interrupting the Elves' feast and scaring them off. But there was something else. Though we could not see it, it killed one of us as we were hunting down the dwarves. It escaped us unnoticed, for we were searching for dwarves, and did not notice it's odd stench.

I aimed for the first dwarf I could see. His large nose gave him away, sticking out between the leaves like an arrow pointing to his hiding place. Springing off of the branch, I quickly leapt from web to web before landing directly in front of him.

Without hesitation I leapt into action. But alas, as I hurdled over his stocky build, he was not late to react and swiftly pricked my underside. Wincing, I spun around angrily, before speedily lunging at his right arm that was poised for another attack. I heard him shout out in discomfort ere his short recovery.

Swinging at my hairy limbs with his twin swords, he managed to give me a few cuts and I was briefly discombobulated. This gave him an advantage and he was able to strike my abdomen with one of Kia throwing axes. But the second attack did not hit it's mark.

Wasting no more time, I suddenly jumped and was able to temporarily paralyze him with my sting. After wrapping him up in my thick web without a struggle, I dragged him up into the trees using his blue hood and hung him up beside the already forming line of unconscious dwarves. Eight now we're hanging, and before long four more were dragged into the area. After they were hanging, we debated on how to prepare our treat.

"Hang 'em awhile longer."

"Not too long!"

"Kill 'em now! Then hang 'em!"

"They're already dead now, I'll bet."

"No they're not! I saw one struggling!"

The last to speak made his way to the dwarves to prove his point and prodded the particularly fat dwarf. Without warning a foot came out and smacked him right in the torso. Angrily he lunged at the pudgy dwarf, but out of nowhere a large stone landed straight onto his head. The carcass fell through the webs and landed on the ground as it curled up into a ball.

Right away another stone followed, snapping a web, and taking another arachnid down with it. Furious, we stormed in the direction we were being attacked from. But the stones began to come from another direction, and many of us were killed. Then something began to sing. It called us Attercop, old fat spiders, and Tomnoddy. This infuriated us and we sped in that direction. Luckily we weren't that disorganized, and began to work together by creating a wall with our dense webs around the voice, to trap it.

The last few strands though, we're loose and made hastily. As a new song was started up, calling us Lazy Lob, Crazy Cob, fat, lazy and insulting our webs, we saw a sharp, shiny object appear and cut through our weakest link. Then the voice sped through the forest. Full now of rage, we followed it, but after a time it escaped us. Disgusted, we gave up and slunk back to where the dwarves were hung.

As soon as we got back, our rage was renewed when we saw six of the twelve dwarves had escaped. Standing beside them was the voice. Nasty he was, with large hairy feet and a sting by his side though he was smaller than the dwarves. Eyeing him warily, we planned out our next move, for we were well aware of how many of us he had already defeated. To buy us some time, we spat insults and threats at him as a group of us again tied up the fattest and least conscious of the escapees. But what escaped our eyes that were clouded with madness, was that the rest of the dwarves were helping each other get out until we only had the one captured.

Soon they had even untied the last one. All twelve jumped to the ground, leaving us with the peculiar being up in the web covered trees. It seemed it would be an easy fight.

But really it was a battle. The dwarves from below, picked up sticks and stones, and the odd creature had his sting. Many of us were defeated or killed, but soon we began again to create a fence of webs from tree to tree. The ring became smaller and smaller until suddenly the blasted creature disappeared again.

Once again we were being called Lazy Lob and Attercop, and all at once the dwarves sent a shower of stones down raining on us and they tore through the circle. Then the singing stopped. We chased the dwarves through the woods, attacking from all angles and dropping webs from above. Things were looking up for us, but that was before the creature appeared again. Sending the dwarves away, he fought us alone.

Terrified of his sting, we kept our distance, and our prey was moving slowly away. After what seemed like hours we gave up. It was not worth it. Besides, from the beginning we could tell the dwarves hadn't been eating well, and didn't have a large amount of meat on their bones. Slinking back into the darkest parts of the forest we pouted, feeling quite embarrassed and sorry for ourselves. We never had to deal with them again, for they stayed in spots were the Elves had been. Places that we avoid. Eventually we saw or heard them again and assumed that they perished in the dark.

That was a terribly humiliating time, and we do not like to dwell on the subject. We hate dwarves even more now, and if we ever come across another of whatever that beast was again, I can guarantee you this. It will suffer our vengeance.