Prologue: Out of the Web

The last time the world went dark, something unusual occurred. At the height of all her long weeks of existence, the spider had never known such a traumatic event. On occasion, the sky above split open with terrorizing, blinding flashes of white light. The earth below shock and made her webs vibrate like nothing before ever had.

The tiny male next to her had held onto her webs with everything it had. It did not catch in the wind as easily as her, and held on easily. She struggled a bit more, but her strength was undeniable and in the end she braved fury of the earth and sky unscathed. What had she done to so anger the earth and sky? The thought, completely unlike any other she ever had before came unbidden to her mind and was instantly washed away by the work before her.

While her webs were vastly more enduring than required to laugh at the fury of the earth and sky, some of the the wooden branches she had chosen as anchors were not. The flew away and tore her home to pieces. Normally, this would not be much of a problem. Normally, as always, she would not have cared. Would not have been capable of caring. She would simply have respun as needed. But, today, something was different. Today she was bothered by something she did not understand.

Today, she was annoyed.

The spider began to weave her webs back into place. She was, however, still affected by the same problem. She worked with frustration and that made her movements filled with too much energy. That made her clumsy and inefficient. Some of her golden silk got into a tangle she could not get rid of. Annoyance made way to anger.

And still she hungered. Yet her belly was filled to the brim. She simply could not eat more than she already did. Yet, still she hungered.

Nearby, vibrations in her webs reminded her of the presence of the tiny male. He was moving away from her. Something primal in it sensed instinctively that something was wrong. Something was not natural.

Ground.

A rarely felt sensation. Herbs of all kinds were tickling her belly and sliding under her immense legs. On the ground vibrations came from everywhere. A chaotic and dangerous world.

- A worm tunneled away from her ridiculously slowly.
- The wind in the grass.
- Steps from a giant beast, far away.
- A snake several times her size stopped slithering when it felt the thud of her body hitting the ground.
- A bird of some sort, yelling loudly.
- The tiny male, slowly climbing up a tree.
- A ... thing, hard to identify, on a branch far above. Moving in place frantically.

Anger and hunger, made way for... dread.

The spider went, leaving behind her home and "family", in as much as one such as her could have one. She ran as fast as she could. The vibrations caught by her legs told her that the snake had resumed slithering and that the bird was still yelling loudly. She had lost track of the tiny male but was getting closer to the thing moving in place frantically.

As a member of the Nephila Komaci familly of spider, her leg span was an impressive six inch. Finding a hiding spot for a body this size was possible, but it was also difficult. A mere crack would not do, but trees sometimes had cavities and holes that could hold her in. She managed to find one after a few minutes. Her new home had an angle which did not allow her to see the ground below unless she poked her head out. But what she did see, was that her view from inside overlooked a butterfly attempting to leave it's chrysalis a mere few meters away.

As time passed, dread left her. For a time, she was once again, normal. Her craving was gone and her mind was hers. Calm, fearless. Completely, and utterly emotionless.

Patiently, has she had always done, the spider began to weaver her web. Nothing disturbed her peace. No thought or emotion came to trouble her mind. Until...

As she was making her way to what would be the top of her web, she noticed strands from another spider's web a few meters away. That would not be a problem, the food was plentiful. They could share a tree. Likely, they did before and never even knew. Yet, whenever she would work on the top portion of her webs, she would slowly begin to work her appetite again. That voracious appetite that does not leave even when her belly is full. That was confusing, but not as much as the other emotion she began to feel. She felt territorial and possessive, it seemed as if her tree was invaded by another's web.

The intruder spider came to defend its web with intent and purpose. It was confused like never before. While it did not have to deal with things like feeling, it was left with a truly puzzling conundrum: What would DARE ever attack a huge venomous spider's web?

It seems the answer is, alarmingly, a much larger spider. The fight began with pause or hesitation. A spiders, for all their patience, are not prone to doubts. Although the venomous Spider was fast, the Nephila Komaci was fighting erratically and that gave it the upper hand as its confused opponent barely reacted in time to dodge the first attack and utterly failed to dodge the follow up. This sad mistake cost it its left from leg, torn off brutally.

It was then that the venomous spider realized an important information: It was going to die today. Not very happy about that, it decided that it would likely be more prudent to retreat. It let go of the branch and fell below attached by a string of silk.

Spider Fact:

A blatant oddity that nearly ended horribly. The string she made barely latched on the wood before it was too late. A couple of meters below herself, she her free fall ended at the end of her string with a yank. Thankfully, her Exoskeleton was quite sturdy and held on. The shock hurt , but caused her no damage. And so, she was able to ignore it entirely.

Using her weight, she made the rest of the way down as fast as she could. Her enemy was apparently unharmed by the fall, but was in a serious predicament, as it landed on its back. It had managed to get back on its legs she arrived, but, it was still disoriented and wobbly. The battle resume, although with one party at a disadvantage.

She did not give the venomous spider any time to get ready for a fair fight. Its back was towards her and although it made a valiant to try to dodge anyway, she bit the venomous spider in the abdomen. Injecting her fatal poison. While the enemy was still alive, it's death was now guaranteed even if it somehow managed to survive this fight.

The wounded and dying spider tried desperately to defeat its attacker, out of pure instinct, truly, for there was no point to this. It's life was already ended, only the poison was taking it's time to kill. Three times, it attacked, one missed entirely, as it was reliant on a limb that was no longer there, the other two were dodged more narrowly, but still gracefully as the Nephila Komaci was keeping her distances. It was easy to see the attacks coming and move out of the way. It helped that the spider obviously slowed by the missing body part, the loss of fluid as well as the increasing effect of the poison.

After the third attack, the venomous spider did not stop its movement right away. It was now struggling with simple things like walking, stopping, turning. It was unable now to pursue such a complex task as fighting. It was, completely harmless.

The feasting began. Even with her belly still so full, she found she had quite the appetite for this meal. She craved that spider's flesh with ravenous hunger. Once the deed was done, and the other spider completely consumed, she felt stronger, more alive than ever before. Her strange almost painful hunger was gone, relieved at last. Her mind was at peace again at last.

She was on the prowl, a truly unnatural position for a spider of that family. Other spider, such as those which prey underwater. could jump surprising distances or drop down on prey were comfortable in such a task. But, the Nephila Komaci were nowhere near made for that.

Regardless, in some crazy way, this felt right. Her limbs, unused to long treks were infused with the power of her recent kill and journeyed on, untiring. She halted from time to time, sensing vibrations to try and locate the familiar ones of a web in the winds. Then she would resume her hunt, sometimes on the ground, sometimes going from branch to branch leaving some strands behind her.

She found no such thing, but she found what seemed to be a spider nonetheless. It did not have a web, and was, like her, stalking. It stood higher than her, on a trunk.

The Komaci was wise, her plan sound. She made her way above where her prey was, with great care not to be sensed. She was, however, extremely unsettled when she finally made ready to begin sliding down when her prey was... nowhere to be found.

She let herself fall and crawled under the branch. Before she could begin to reach for the trunk and gain height. She felt the vibration of the other Spider arrive land heavily where she stood only a heartbeat ago. That spider was fast, and it didn't travel by leg or web. It didn't try to reach her under the branch they shared and raced towards the trunk as well.

The enemy spider was not caught unaware. It's senses are sharp and it tried to dodge out of the way. It nearly did so, but the Nephila komaci was bigger and enough of a reach advantage to compensate. It was bitten on the side, and would likely die soon from the toxin.

As soon as the bite did it's job, the Komaci moved away while the spider was turning around to counter. The Nephila Komaci's next actions would determine her fate.

She reached the ground, fast as could be. Sensing the vibrations, she realized that her prey was running away from her as fast as her legs would take it. Which, as it happens, was actually very fast. It did not help either that somehow that spider could sometimes cease to generate vibrations by travelling without touching anything. It was jumping. And that made it very confusing to follow and pretty much impossible once it was out of the Komaci's sight.