Heirs to a Nothing Throne

Chapter 11

I jumped, startled. Her shrill voice pierced the silence like an axe through warm butter, tearing everyone from sleep. Jasmine shot up, and her head collided with mine. I fell backwards, the world spinning

"Ah... I'm-I'm sorry," I apologized.

"It's all right, it's all right, no, I'm sorry..." she half muttered, extremely dazed. We looked at each other for a second, and then remembered Eva.

I ran over to where she had been sleeping. She was no longer there; now, she was several feet away, her hands at her mouth. The others had gathered near her.

"What is it?" I asked calmly.

She pointed to where she had been sleeping. "Spider..." she said, her voice squeaking. Jasmine and I backed away from the spot, scanning the ground.

Andrey sighed and walked over to us. I followed his lead, stepping back up.

He grumbled something as we glanced around, upset to be bothered over something minor.

"Whoa!" I said, pointing. "Andrey, I think we can excuse her for this one."

It was a brown and green tarantula, with hair designed to blend in perfectly with the jungle. For the most part, it looked like a normal arachnid, with two enormous fangs and eight fuzzy legs. Its pedipalps were huge, though, almost as long as its legs. The legs themselves seemed about eight inches long each.

"That... that's massive." I was so taken back that I lowered my guard. When it leaped at me, I screamed.

"Wait! Wait! Get off!" I cried, and I swung at it with my arm. It flew off of me and landed on the ground. The nearest target was now, unfortunately, Eva again. She stared for a moment as it scuttled towards her before reacting. With a shriek, she attempted to scramble away but tripped immediately. The tarantula gave chase and was much quicker. I fired and missed a few times, along with Andrey. It was too quick and too small.

It leapt onto her back, and, overcome with horror at the sudden weight, she fell backwards. A different kind of horror crossed her face, along with a tint of green. She rolled over again and threw up. This gave us a lovely view of her back, which was totally covered in the guts of the massive predator. I could still make out the basic shape of the legs and head. I gagged.

I looked over at Verwarr. "We did bring extra clothes, right?"

"We did, we did." He assured me.

"Please, give me some!" Eva shrieked. "Now!"

Raven unzipped her pack and took out a shirt.

"You guys," Angelique said. "Turn around." We respectfully did so. There was the sound of wet clothes coming off, and a bit more gagging, and finally Angelique giving the all clear. We turned around. Jasmine was sitting beside Eva, who now had a clean shirt on, and had her arm around her back. Eva looked traumatized.

Raven looked slightly traumatized. "Do you think those will be commonplace in here?"

"I hope not," I said. I trudged over to Eva, feeling partly guilty, and apologized for not keeping a good enough watch, telling her I'd been on the lookout for Chevaliers or larger animals. Jasmine said nothing, although she likely knew that was a half-truth.

Angelique stood on a fallen log and cleared her throat. We quieted down.

"Thank you," she said. "Now, while what just happened was real scary or whatever, between the screams and the gunshots, we've probably shaken everything on the island out of its sleep." She looked at Eva. "Including the spiders."

"Obviously they were awake anyway, though..." Andrey said.

"Shut up. Anyway, we're going to get moving. Now."