Cringe

To make a long story short, I saw a cobweb this morning on my kitchen ceiling which eventually lead to this. This one was a bit rushed because I was trying to finish it before heading out to work. The meticulous part of me wants to rewrite it til my fingers are raw but that would defeat the purpose of calling this a freestyle

In A Tight Spot

            “Archie, get away from that!”

            “Most interesting,” said Archie as he gazed at the eight reflections of the giant spider’s eyes. Sharp cracks cut through the muggy jungle air as each spindly leg took turns lurching itself towards the ever curious prey. “Judging by the narrow form of this arachnid, I would surmise it to rely more on cunning and agility rather than the traditional means of entanglement to hunt its prey.”

            “Judging by its hungry eyes, we need to get out of here!” said Lan. He thrust his hand out to latch onto Archie’s arm and pulled him aside to run only to turn to the sight of two more spiders patiently approaching them.

            “Most curious,” noted Archie. “Arachnids are known to primarily be lone hunters lacking any form of community within its own species. In fact, some classes of this organism are notorious for its fatal mating practices.”

            The faint slivers of sunlight pierced through the umbrella of trees in the jungle forest as the gargantuan spiders edged closer towards the two young travelers. Lan could see their mouths fluttering with excitement as they drew closer. He let out a gulp. “I don’t think these spiders have mating on their minds!” He cringed closer to his companion. Was this it? After all their close calls with Alpha, this was how it was all going to end? As nourishment for the inhabitants of the Babylonian jungle?

            “Quite curious,” said Archie, “Seeing how the ratio of predator to prey is three to two and most spiders ingest through liquefied consumptions, how will the spoils be rationed?”

            Lan removed his pack from his back and swung it towards their assailants in a last ditch effort to keep them back. “How about figuring out how there will be no spoils at all?!” said Lan before one of the spiders snagged his pack away from him with its fangs and shredded it apart with its two protruding fangs like paper.

            Suddenly, a high frequency buzz emanated throughout the jungle, causing the spider with the remainder of Lan’s bag to cease its oral rampage. The eight legged behemoths turned to face the same direction and stood there losing all interested in Archie and Lan.

            “Auditory signaling? This is indeed most interesting!” said Archie.

            Lan grabbed Archie’s arm. “Whatever it is, its giving us a window to escape!” He pulled his friend to head to the opposite direction of the spiders were facing only to have one of them cut off from its supposed trance to scurry over to block them from their escape with a hiss that raised every hair on Lan’s body. Before they could react, the spider spun around with its abdomen pointing right at Lan.

            “I was wondering if these arachnids possessed that particular function,” said Archie.

            “What?” Lan turned his attention to his friend. “What are you blabbering about now?!”

            Lan’s answer was clear, translucent to be more precise. A thick stream of webbing jettisoned out of the spider’s abdomen with such force that it knocked Lan to the ground. With the webbing still attached to both of them, the spider grabbed hold of him with its two front legs as the two back legs threaded out more webbing from its abdomen.

            “Fascinating,” breathed Archie. He watched the spider feed more of the silken fiber onto Lan as it wove it around him with the precision and expertise of a seasoned craftsman until his whole body was wound tight like a cocoon save for his head. When it was done, the spider returned to its previous position and continued to face the same direction.

            “Just kill me now,” sighed Lan.

            The buzzing came to a stop. “That,” said a deep voice, “depends on why you’re in our forest.”

            Lan struggled to look as he wiggled his body to behold a sight that left both of them in awe. The spiders moved back to make room for a man dressed similar to Lan and Archie. He patted one of the spiders on its head as he walked past them, heading towards the two confused travelers.

            “Care to explain?”