16 - Broods

Run, run run!

That was all Sariel could think as she sprinted through the cave. All around her, she could hear the chittering and skittering of thousands of tiny - and some less tiny - legs. Eight legs at a time, the swarm was coming for her.

She skid to a halt, hiding behind a stalagmite to catch her breath. But when she leaned back against it, she felt a wet, sticky slime against her hand. Her heart leapt as much as her body did. It wasn't a stalagmite, it was a mound of hundreds of spider eggs. And they were hatching.

Sariel took off down the cave as fast as she could. She could hear the big spiders getting closer. Their huge legs pounded against the stone walls. Nothing she had was good here. Her bow or daggers would only take out one at a time, and the tunnels were filled with spiders. She had already used her magic, and there wasn't time to rest. All she could do was run.

As she raced forward, the ground felt unsteady. With but a split second to react, she jumped as far as she could through the air. The cave floor opened up beneath her, crumbling away into darkness. Darkness and thousands of spiders. Sariel landed in a heap on solid ground, but felt something on her thigh.

It was a spider. Then two. Then a dozen. Within a second, they were crawling all over her. She wanted to scream, but if she did, they would surely find their way inside her mouth. As thousands of spiders crawled over her, the most Sariel could manage was a whimper.

She was overcome by terror, paralysed as she felt the spiders crawl under her armour. They were biting her, but these ones were too small to pierce her skin. The ones close behind them would have no such troubles. That thought was all she needed.

Sariel rolled backwards to her feet, then sprinted forward. Most of the spiders fell away, but she could feel them writhing against her skin.

Ignore them. You've been through worse.

A moment later, she came to the entrance of the cave - atop a cliff she had spent two hours climbing. There was no time for hesitation. She kept running out of the cave, into the sunlight, and over the edge.

A few seconds later, she slipped beneath the water's surface into the lake far below. The spiders entered a frenzy, and Sariel hurried to take off every last thing she was wearing. Even when she was naked, they were still in her hair. At least that was something a two minute trip to the bottom of the lake would fix. If she wasn't holding her breath, she would have sighed in relief. Now her biggest problem was finding all of her clothes.