The Light of a True Oracle: Chapter 1
Middi: I've been having a fetish for Spider Riders. All there is to it. Ya.
Symphy: Don't own Spider Riders, all we own is the plotline blah blah blah. Shadow might seem a little OC in this one but we're not quite sure how to do him. And we don't care if we get things wrong, our story, not yours.
~Oo0oO~
Hunter Steel sat on top of one of the flower hills of the Arachna Kingdom before dinner, contemplating his role in the Inner World. Now that the Great Bug Lord Mantid was gone, there was no particular reason for the Spider Riders to exist anymore. It's been two months since the defeat of Mantid and the Spider Riders had been helping rebuild Arachna up to its former majestic composure. Buildings needed repairs, crops needed to be replanted, treaties and agreements needed to be signed between the Invectid Empire and the People of the Inner World. But that was all done and gone, everyone is at peace, so what has Hunter's emotions in utter turmoil?
"…Y'know Shadow, what's going to happen to us now that we've beaten the Invecteds?" Hunter asked his best friend, his battle spider Shadow.
The giant arachnid just turned his body to face his friend, sighed, then looked back up at the wonder of the Oracle Moon. Shadow's blue body was almost un-seeable in the night if you didn't look for him. The Oracle Moon's beams of light were glinting on the body of the spider. The colors of green, red, yellow, blue, and very faintly black were seen with the patterns on his body. The sky was darkened by clouds of purple, and grey.
"Actually, that's up to you Hunter. I, unfortunately," Shadow said with sarcasm. "Don't have any say in the matter."
"What do you mean?" Hunter asked; his aqua eyes wide with confusion and head tilted to the side.
Shadow looked at Hunter with fondness only a real and true friend can give. Hunter was the type of person to face life head on, and give total and the utmost care to the rest of the people. He had a heart of gold, and always tried to move forward, because he didn't like getting stuck in the past. His spiky pink, red hair always shone, even in the darkness. But his smile was one to inspire and cheer up the saddest person. And with that smile, no one, not even a former cold hearted stubborn spider could deny the smile that came to Shadow's aura.
"Well Hunter, a spider can only go where his rider goes. The manacle is the pact you made with the Oracle. Long ago, there was a war between humans and warrior spiders, many lives were claimed to death, so the Spirit Oracle used her power to create a pact between the two races. The manacle. And as the pact goes, the spiders give the rider transportation and, because of the manacle, total control of us. While the rider makes the pact to protect the Inner World, and all who live in it. And they give us a special character trait to help us live our lives." Shadow explained.
"Do you know what trait I gave you?" Hunter asked, genuinely curious of what special thing that Shadow got from the great Arachna Champion Hunter Steel.
"Hmmm. I believe you gave me kindness, or the ability to accept. And…"
"Well that doesn't sound like things I would give someone." Hunter replied, frowning.
Shadow chuckled, slightly disagreeing, and in the back of his mind wondered why Hunter would think so little of himself of that. He shook his body, as to disagree with him, and slightly nudged Hunter to make him fall in the flowers.
"So, back to explaining the whole 'you go where I go' thing please.", while still on the bed of flowers.
"Anyway, there was a great light, and the first Spider Rider was united with his battle spider. The manacle was created, and since us spiders can coexist in the manacles or out in the world, our lives rest in the hands of our riders. Though it's not completely proven, so I could be wrong."
"You wrong? I need to record this day." Hunter teased.
"Shut up! Anyway but it's only myth. The legend of the two first Spider Riders I mean, and, maybe the whole manacle thing. But the legend is that the two brought about peace and prosperity to the world. Their names were… Rin, the spider, and Yami the rider, I believe their names were. But it's just a legend."
Hunter's eyes only widened and narrowed at Shadow's story. Of course he knew the legendary first rider and his spider. But he didn't want Shadow to know that, so he decided to feign innocence and awe. Even if inside he wanted to destroy that man, and what he did. No one ever thought that Hunter, hyper and cheerful Hunter would ever have a dark past…and that was the way he wanted to keep it.
"Do you know what he did to stop the war? I mean a vast number of humans and spiders would've been in the war so…how did they win?" Hunter didn't need anyone telling him this story; he could recite the actual prophecy done by the…Oracle at the time, by memory alone, no thinking involved at all.
"Well, apparently they fought their comrades and friends to show them they could work together in peace. After the battle was fought, they left on a journey to show their sides that friendship knows no bounds." He finished, trailing off.
Hunter laughed at that part. It was his favorite part of the story.
"A little like us huh? You wanted to destroy me at first. But," Hunter smirked. "After I saved you from that big Invectid bug you 'an me were buddies till the end!" Throwing his fist up to the sky.
"Heh, ya right Earthen. If you remember correctly I saved you." Shadow countered humorously.
"No way! I grabbed onto your back if you remember. That doesn't count!"
The two laughed. But it still didn't solve Hunter's question. Then Hunter got an idea. He looked up to the Oracle Moon and frowned, how long had it been? It had been almost ten years since he left, but how long was it from the time he wanted to leave? Long had it been since he left his…home, for lack of a better word.
"So what do we do now? I don't like to think that it's just me making the decisions Shadow. We're partners, a team. We both make the choices we choose together." Hunter said seriously, his mood doing a one-eighty.
Shadow glanced at his companion. Hunter was the only one he knew that could be so happy and jovial one second, and serious to the point where Igneous was rivaled at the next. Hunter was a strange one. He smiled when he battled and frowned at the… Moon? Where did that come from?
"Well, we could always go on a journey." Hunter began; unsure if his battle spider would agree with his idea, or make fun of him until eventually he comes up with a good one. "When I first came here I came to see the majesty of the Inner World, not to become a Spider Rider. But when I saw the chaos that the Invectids were wreaking here, I couldn't just lay back and relax, so I decided to help. But then, I couldn't see myself doing anything but being a Spider Rider. Now that we're done our adventure, what's left to do but see what the Inner World has to offer us?" Hunter put his hands behind his head and gave Shadow a slight grin.
"That's actually…"
"If you're about to mock my idea, shut up." Hunter warned.
"…a good idea I was about to say." Shadow finished.
Hunter sat up and gave Shadow a look that held surprise. Then he smiled, and elbowed him to lie back down.
"We'll tell the rest of the tomorrow morning, at breakfast. Then we can leave after the big festival celebrating the finished product of Arachna Kingdom later in about a week or so? How does that sound? M'kay Shadow?"
Shadow just looked at Hunter and then back at Castle Arachna a ways away. He contemplated leaving Hunter here and going back to the castle to get someone to pick him up, but decided otherwise.
Hunter had already closed his eyes and began to drift off to sleep by the time Shadow had gently picked Hunter up with one of his legs, placed him on his back and started for the castle. All Hunter felt was feeling safe, and calm, and protected. His face held a smile all the way to the castle when Akune saw them and helped Hunter into the dining room. In some mysterious way, Hunter actually called Shadow back into his manacle while he was sleeping. Hunter knew what he felt with his friends, and all of it was a warm feeling deep inside his chest. Forever being there.
Dinner was an actually quiet event, and that was a bad sign. Hunter still ate the same amount he usually does, but he was quiet until he announced that he was going to bed. Everyone was actually surprised he was there; because he wasn't talking they assumed he wasn't present. This would've been a feat in itself. Hunter felt conflicted but resolute in the fact of his resolve to go on a journey.
What Hunter would feel next, though he didn't know it, would put the words, excruciating pain into a new perspective. Little did he know that the very people he was running from in the beginning were in the Inner World at the very second Hunter left. They were the people who utterly destroyed his life forever. The people who Hunter made a vow upon to destroy. And the very people who murdered his mother in cold blood to get the secrets and power of the Oracles.
And they were the people who were ordered to capture Hunter and bring him back to their Master.
Dead or alive.
~Oo0oO~
Middi: Ya guys like it?
Symphy: It'll probably pick up next chapter because we only have three characters in this one. But the next one will be the whole gang!
Middi: Read and review plz!