TERATO

Dream Weaver

//no lemon, though I was tempted. Archie is my sweet bab, and I have drawn him before. Please love him back.
//see the end for notes.

You had always been afraid of spiders.
You weren't sure if it was the legs, the eyes, or the way that they moved, but spiders were just... disgusting.
You didn't have a problem with insects or anything. As a matter of fact, bugs had always held your fascination. They lived in cycles much more observable than other creatures, and they came in such a vibrant array of colours.
But spiders? No.
The colours of earth if you were lucky; vivid colours were pretty on anything, but on something capable of biting it was less than desirable. No, you much preferred bugs.
As a matter of fact, you preferred bugs over people in most cases.
Which is why you were knee deep in a swamp somewhere, field journal tucked away in the pack slung across your shoulders (wrapped in plastic just in case), a map clutched in your hands, and sweat misting across every inch of bare skin.
You squinted at the map, frowning. Perhaps going into such an unknown place as this had been a bad idea...

You were woefully turned around, and as someone who preferred travelling alone, you had no one to help you. You groaned as a light rain began to patter around you, rolling up your map and stowing it away. The rain would soon become overwhelming, you knew. You trudged on, cursing your luck as the rain began to fall more heavily.
You reached the edge of the swamp, luckily not encountering much of anything. As soon as your feet were clear of the swamp, you heard a faint hiss from the water. You turned quickly to see a pair of bright, glowing eyes.
Your luck was slowly spiraling downwards, it seemed, as the eyes only seemed to multiply. You took a step back, watching as the crocodiles swam closer.
"Well, shit." You muttered, turning and running for your life. Your hat flew off of your head, connected only by the string hanging from each sides for such instances as this. You could hear the crocs pursuing, and you were sure you were about to become reptile food. You came to a stop at the bottom of a large tree, leaping up with all the faith you could muster and digging your fingers in. Luckily, you managed to grip it enough and started climbing. You felt the breeze on your heels as the crocs snapped at you, climbing up the large trunk and towards the lower branches. You stopped as soon as you reached the first thick, supporting branch, looking down at the crocs below.
Reptiles were known to be persistent, so you were sure that they would wait you out at the base of the tree. Even from the relative safety of your perch, you weren't fooled into thinking that you should stay put. Crocodiles weren't the only fearsome reptiles in these parts.
You decided to climb higher up, hoping to get a better vantage point and gain an understanding of your positioning. The farther up the tree you went, the more you noticed your hands seemed to adhere to the bark. It was slow going, but the thought of returning with pictures of the particular insect you were hoping to find spurred you on. You were nearing the middle of the thick canopy, which had been largely untouched by the torrential rains, when you first noticed the fine webbing around you. Your heart plummeted in an instant.
Of course, you were the type of person that believed that one could speak things into existence, so immediately your mind wandered to silkworms. As odd as it would be to see silkworms in such a place, it would certainly be better than any other possibilities. Or crickets, perhaps? You'd read of a species of cricket that spun webs.
You looked up, feeling your skin begin to crawl as you took in the complex lattice work of the webbing. It didn't seem to form a coherent web, but rather drew certain branches together.
"Oh, lord. The amount of spiders that it must've took to make this..." You began, looking down and pondering your chances with the crocodiles. You were about to make a decision when you felt something velvet soft land on your hand. You looked down, gasping and trying to shake off the web. More of it landed on you, and when you looked up you beheld a sight so frightening that you genuinely fainted.

🕸🕸🕸🕸🕸🕸🕸🕸🕸🕸🕸🕸🕸

You had heard of monsters before.

No, not the Boogeyman or that person who pours the milk in before the cereal; actual monsters. Man eaters that looked part man themselves, the likes that seemed to have crawled straight from a fairytale, or a nightmare, or Hell.
When you came to, you couldn't recall how you had gotten where you were. That is to say, you had no idea how youd come to be wrapped up from toe to shoulder, suspended in midair by what you could only assume was more web. Perhaps you had hit your head, or you had come into contact with a neurotoxin by accident. Perhaps that's why you couldn't remember what you had seen.
You had heard of people blanking out particular memories. Forgetting things on purpose when they couldn't understand them... or when they were too horrific to stomach. You hoped that this wasn't the case.
'I've hit my head. This is a hallucination. Where was I before...?' You struggled to recall the events before this, shuddering when you remembered the crocodiles waiting somewhere below. A wooden floor was not too far below you, but you wondered if that was a hallucination too. You wondered if you were actually tangled up in vines, the crocs snapping up at you in a frenzy as you hung dazed. 'God, what a twist.'
You were about to close your eyes and try to focus on the things around you, so sure that you were hallucinating, when something moved on the edge of your vision.