Between the Veil and Crown

Kylin 46

Kylin nudged Vicious over. "Spiders? The giant ones near the mountains in the west?" They had an agreement with them. They would stay in their corner and the Rangers would not exterminate them.

"No," the dryad gasped. "They're . . . they're worse. Their heads are unnatural. Their legs . . . their legs are like swords. They can hurt us. They can . . . hurt us." It was obvious that the dryad was having a hard time getting the words out.

"How many?" Kylin asked.

The dryad mouthed wordlessly, shaking his head.

"Do you know what they are?" Ofjaet asked Kylin.

Kylin pondered the few details he had been given. The answer came to mind sooner than he'd like, his stomach twisting in disgust as he considered it. "The only spider creature that I know of that was a result of the evil is the spider bull."

"Oh, the name of that is bad enough," Marta groaned.

"They would have been warped like the owl, and come up from the giant spiders," Kylin said, as though Marta hadn't spoken.

"Is there a specific way to kill them?" Ofjaet asked.

There was a tense pause, all of them hoping that Kylin's answer wouldn't be fire. It would take the dryads' trees as well as the spider bulls.

"They can be killed just like any other beast," Kylin answered. "However, their breath is toxic, and their blood will make you sick if it touches your skin."

"Well, that will not make things difficult at all," Ofjaet said dryly. To the dryad, he said, "Show us what is happening, as close as you feel safe and comfortable."

The dryad nodded and trudged back the way he came. At one point, he motioned for them to dismount.

Kylin didn't need to see them. He could hear quiet shifting of their bladed legs, plucking sticky strands of web strung out between the dryad trees. He could hear the clicking of their jaws, the occasional snapping to indicate their hunger.

They stepped into view of the Cedar Clan, making sure to conceal themselves. There were no dryads hanging out in the clearing, chatting and having fun as they were prone to do. There was no hint of merry making. Instead, the trees were wrapped with thick webs, creating barriers between the spaces of the trees. The trees also sported gashes where the spider bulls had slashed at them. All the dryads were hiding in the safety of their trees, or whatever protection it offered.

In the shadow of the leaves were hulking black masses. There were some glints, giving just a hint of their deadly legs.

Kylin heard someone make a quick movement behind him. Before he could glance back to see who it was and what had happened, he saw a rock sail through the air and smack the base of one of the trees, rolling across some of the strands of web as it dropped to the ground.

One of the hulking masses excitedly scrambled down, hoping to catch its prey. Halfway up the legs were all bladed, the spider bull carefully poised on the sharp tips. Its massive body did not seem too different from a normal giant spider. Shaggy dark fur covered all of it, though. It was the head, however, that was most disturbing.

It had a bovine-like structure, with its snout elongated and its nostrils flaring. At that top of its head were two curving bull horns, as thick as Kylin's torso, and taller than him. Fangs as large as the horns poked out of its mouth, warping the lip. Instead of two, or even eight, eyes, there sixteen. A line of eyes went down the middle, with one row of three and one row of two on each side of the line. The sizes varied according to placement. Like a spider, the eyes were pupilless, but the shifting of the iridescent green clearly indicated that it could move its eyes and was searching for the source of the noise. Clacking its teeth in frustration, it pulled itself back up, hiding its ugly face from view.