Re: Prologue: Out of the Web

by **Seb** Thu 10 Oct - 8:29

Not even remembering the last spider she had eaten, she did not know where to wander. In a world that seemed too huge for a little (?!) spider such as her, she needed to feel accompanied at least.

She headed back to where this had all started: her ripped apart web, where she, until recently, had a tiny male with her.

by **Admin** Thu 10 Oct - 22:13

To find her way back, she turned around and did as all spiders did to locate their webs. She followed the silk that she always left behind her. This had never failed her, this one link to her home was her entire concept of orientation and positioning.

The last two days however were days filled with firsts and vastly more travelling than any other of her kind had ever done. Sure enough, mere hours later she reached the severed end of the line. In a very real and physical way, her orientation was broken.

by **Seb** Thu 10 Oct - 22:24

Lost and alone. She had nothing left, but still, could not find (at least yet) what humans called despair. She did not know much, and little she knew had always been enough for her.

She climbed on a tree, and made herself a new home, so she would not be lost anymore. She spun, and spun.

by **Admin** Sat 12 Oct - 20:19

It took slightly less time than it usually did to make her web. Her new size made it faster and easier to travel, not to mention she was much stronger. The deed was completed in less than an hour. A full web. A new home. A new starting point for her concept of orientation and space. This was much more reassuring than she could conceive.

For a brief moment, the simplicity of pure existence reasserted itself. She was not invaded by strong and alarming emotions. She was not in the thralls of a strange new hunger for the flesh of other spiders. She was simply home. She was just alive. Nothing more was needed.

by **Seb** Sat 12 Oct - 21:38

She stayed there and hid, waiting for prey to get caught in her lethal net. That, she would do for a while, since life seemed "back to normal", at least for a while.

by **Admin** Sun 13 Oct - 13:34

Normality remained for a few days. During this time, she was simply "content". Which was to say she felt nothing at all. The way things were before. No tiny males came to her, for those only had the courage to come near females while they were molting and defenseless. It was only then also that the cowards would come to mate. After which, they would tear off their own reproductive organs inside the lady's. Presumably to keep any future males from mating with their female.

She would have likely enjoyed remaining content in her webs even alone. But, it was not meant to be. Her hunger returned, as ferocious as ever. This time, it did not leave her. She left her home again to hunt for the flesh of other spiders to consume. Her emotions were somewhat more in control, less frequent and less severe. That allowed her to be more ruthless, more efficient. She gained size quickly over the next few weeks, but it took a severe toll on her. She would reach points where her body just had to shut down for entire days to keep up. But those strange moltings that weren't paid off amazingly well. Now, her webs could trap dogs and all manners of small mammals. When taken by the normal hunger, she could now eat both.

For she was now a true abberation of nature. She was a 4 feet wide abomination of a spider. She was the terror of her corner of the jungle.

by **Seb** Sun 13 Oct - 13:53

Now having reached new heights in matters of size and cunning, hunting huge prey was not only necessary for her, but very normal to her. Her webs were much stronger, and better designed. A killing machine on eight legs, now, she often weaved several webs in a perimeter so they would catch regular prey while she was on the prowl for more spiders. When she came back, some preys would have fled, the strongest of them having torn the deadly trap. Some others were still there, and she would roll silk around them and eat her fill.

Spiders were less of a problem. She often just stuck her leg into one's body, pinning it down, waiting for it to weaken before she would consume it. Although she ate all she saw, larger ones were more to her liking. She also liked small colonies of hundreds of baby spiders: a feast she she found easy and appealing.

She also found monkey to be a preferred "regular" prey. They jumped from tree to tree, and the smaller ones got stuck in the web. Their flesh and blood was most delicious.

That morning, she woke up to a now normal hunger for spiders, and went on the morning hunt for dew-covered webs. She had evolved to the point of understanding that she was to build new webs in new places on a regular basis. This morning would be the discovery of such a new territory.

by **Admin** Sun 13 Oct - 14:01

Thus she made her way to find new grounds to hunt spiders into. She found 3 small spiders on the way. One of them a tiny male, alone in a half destroyed web...

by **Seb** Sun 13 Oct - 14:06

She went into hiding immediately. Whatever destroyed webs was never good news. Hunting spiders had become so easy she knew it would be wiser to skip the tiny meal in favor if not becoming a bird's next prey.

Patience was her greatest quality. Unlike humans, she never became full of herself. She was a predator, and lethal chances were seldom taken.

She waited, for movement, visual or from her unnatural tremorsense.

by **Admin** Sun 13 Oct - 14:26

There was nothing of the sort. But the more she waited, the more she studied the environment, the more she realized that this area was familiar but everything was wrong, was, small. She even recognized the tiny male as her own. And that was disturbing.

by **Seb** Sun 13 Oct - 15:33

She realized, with such concrete proof, the "odd feeling" she had had for the last weeks: that she was growing much larger than she was supposed to. She did not know what to make of it.

And then, she acted upon instinct. She fell upon the tiny male, ruthlessly ate him within two swift bites, and swallowed her old web. The solid proof that she had been different had disappeared.

She had been lost, once. She built herself a new home and no longer was lost. Now, this made her disturbed, and she destroyed it, reshaping reality as she once did, but this time through destruction.

by **Admin** Tue 15 Oct - 10:09

She left the area, but found it harder then it used to be to simply forget things. Her memory now lasted far longer. Both good and bad would come of such. Lack of reliable long term memory had the advantage of keeping everything much more simple. Those days were now gone. Like her webs and her male. Reshaped in such a way as to no longer cause her distress.

She knew she'd found the right location when she saw several small spiderlings in the air. Indeed, when spiders were born, they formed little parachutes with their webs and allowed the winds to carry them away. Those would make for a great meal if she could catch them.

by **Seb** Tue 15 Oct - 10:59

Weeks ago, she would have simply tried to find a way to catch what she saw directly in front of her, or simply abandoned the task out of lack of means. But with the memory that lasted, as painful and odd as it sometimes was, also came the weaving of cunning plans and sometimes vague understanding that is there was something here, something else was going on elsewhere.

In this case, smaller spiderlings flying meant that there was a web releasing them, likely very near, where she would find more of them, and perhaps their parents as well. This was the kind of deadly mind she was now mustering.

The whole family would make for a satisfying feast.

And so she tracked down the source of flying food.

by **Admin** Tue 15 Oct - 14:11

Several thousand years ago a tiny baby spider thought it could follow the wind and safely fly away from predators and find itself its own territory.

Today, a huge unnatural spider thought it could wal kagainst the wind to find a nest and feast on baby spiders.

The meal was quite good, the parents were easily dismissed and dispatched. She knew by now how they would move and think. They were simple to outwit and to predict. Even the jumping kind of spiders no longer posed a threat. She's gotten too big, they didn't even try to hunt her anymore. They just hoped she didn't see them.

These days, the dangers were the kind of things which used to largely ignore her. Big predatorial mamals and lizards who had no idea what she was, and had no fear of her. Thankfully, there seemed to be none close by as she finished her meal.

by **Seb** Tue 15 Oct - 14:45

In her latest days, she had started having an odd bevahior, one that could only come from her new lifestyle. With her size, she met with new predators, which had indeed never taken notice of her. And herself, took notice of tasty mammal's blood. Other, bigger predators, such a lizards, were also a danger.

And this is where what she was becoming started influencing her the most.

She observed, patiently.

When she was not sleeping or eating, she was hanging on a branch, and observing those strange animals that suddenly, were important to her. Her survival depended on it. Her newfound understanding of existence made it possible for her to retain memory of other animals' manners and habits. The giant Komaci still was not full of herself. She was a predator, and for the very first time (at least in her perception) a predator was changing worlds, from that of insects and spiders, to that of furry mammals and other giants amongst. The world was getting smaller by the day. She knew how monkeys flew from tree to tree, and how they lived in families, but that sometimes, there were slower ones, easier to catch. Near the water, the bigger mammals were eaten by bigger lizards, which she dared not approach now. Water was not her domain. Things such a these she knew about the life that teemed around her in the jungle.

Now that she had feasted upon a family of spiders, she would move for more. She would not rush, however. Her size made her all the more conspicuous, and she cared more about not being caught by anything much bigger and savage than herself than satisfying this undying hunger for her own kind. She was simply more systematic in her approach, and less greedy.

by **Admin** Tue 15 Oct - 16:03

As she moved, vibrations alerted her to a large creature coming her way.

by **Seb** Tue 15 Oct - 16:16

It was easy, it was natural. She went upwards, and crept on a tree, and in the branches she waited stealthily, and watched. What is quick? What is trampling the ground in general, or what is rather rushing for her? Since she had elevated herself, that last information she could glean with the vibrations, at least.

by **Admin** Tue 15 Oct - 16:32

The thing turned out to be things. Two large mamals with their youngs. They seemed to be scavenging for food. Looking here and there at bushes and trees for fruits or something to kill. They were walking slowly on four paws. The young ones were smaller than the Komaci, but the parents were another story altogether. They were easily twice as high on four paws.

by **Seb** Tue 15 Oct - 17:19

What did they look like, more in details, the spider wondered? Were they clawed, and did they seem stuck on the ground? Some of them, such as monkeys, small and big, were able to climb in trees. The spider would approach, very closely (almost in slow motion) to get a better angle, and see how she could position herself, perhaps to eventually poison one of the young, seeing how a web wasn't an option at the moment.

by **Admin** Tue 15 Oct - 20:08

She was familiar with claws, and recognized them quickly. These creatures had mean ones on all four paws. What she wasn't familiar with was the senses of these creatures. Even when she wasn't making vibrations, they somehow often knew where she was. One of the large ones was getting nervous and noisy. It had detected something and was looking for the source, but there was no way to know if it was prey or if it was her.

by **Seb** Tue 15 Oct - 20:15

She stopped moving, and observed, and would not move aggressively. It seemed, in the end, very dangerous seeing how they acted and hunted together. The Komaci would instead stop. And follow, from a distance. Perhaps, later, in their sleep, they would be vulnerable.

by **Admin** Sun 20 Oct - 16:34

The big creature somehow spotted her and produced a meaningful snarl and growl. Of course the spider did not have the organs to hear the sounds, but the pose and stance were universal enough for her to grasp that this was a warning growl to stay away. Since she'd always planned to do just that until they were sleeping she got off easy. They did what they had to do and moved on.

by **Seb** Sun 20 Oct - 18:55

And so she followed them from a distance, knowing their pace and their directions from the the vibrations on the ground. She stayed from a great enough distance so they would not see her. She would probably need to wait until night fell, but this did not affect her much. Not anymore. This was now part of her tactifs, or her cunning.

by **Admin** Sun 20 Oct - 19:04

As she followed the creatures from a save distance, she noticed she wasn't the only one following them.

Another group of creatures passed under her, seemingly oblivious to her presence as they were completely focused on the first group. They had comparable height, but had a significantly thinner build. They also had the distinctive feature of being the only creatures she'd ever seen that walked upright for extended periods of time.

by **Seb** Sun 20 Oct - 23:04

She went on, preying on the prey's predators. This was now her nature:being at the top of the food chain. She would follow the second group, and wait for an interesting situation. Perhaps they would fight, and she would be able to take advantage of this in a way or another.

So she went on, stealthily.

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