"What are we going to do?"

"It has to be killed, obviously."

"I know that, but who's going to do it? It's killed dozens of villagers! It's not afraid of us. There are children in this village! It's taken one already."

"I could go dispatch it easily, but I don't like the idea of roaming the forest and hoping to stumble upon her nest," said Lydia. "I don't want Lucian playing outside until it's taken care of, in any case."

"Same with Aydin," said Strianna, sitting next to the elven sorceress.

"And Willem," said Eve, the third woman at the table.

"Speaking of the kids," spoke up the bat nestled on Lydia's shoulder. He flicked his ear towards the kitchen door, where three small boys were huddled against the doorframe, trying to listen to their mothers. Willem was the oldest at eight; Lucian was six; Aydin was barely two, toddling around on unsteady legs.

"Lucian, sweetie, what are you doing?" Lydia asked the middle boy, standing up slightly.

"Are you talking about the big spider, mom?" asked the little, white-haired boy curiously.

"Yes, we are, sweetie. But this is a grown-up conversation, okay? Go play with your friends," said Lydia gently.

"Actually, I think it's time I took Aydin home," said Strianna. "I want to get home before dark."

"That's a good idea," said Eve. "Willem, honey, we're going home."

"Aww," all three boys groaned.

"Hush," said Eve, taking Willem's hand. "We can come back and play tomorrow."

Eve led Willem out by the hand while Strianna picked up Aydin and left too, hugging Lydia before she left. When everyone was gone, the bat on Lydia's shoulder transformed into his vampire form, sitting next to her and leaning back in his chair. Lucian walked over; the vampire picked up his son and put him on his lap.

"What are you gonna do about the big spider?" Lucian asked his parents.

"I'm not sure, sweetie…Zyphre?" she asked, turning to her husband.

"I'll go out and kill it tomorrow morning, when I have daylight," said Zyphre, tipping his chair onto its back legs.

Lucian leaned against his father's chest. "Dad, I'm getting hungry. When are going out to feed next?"

"How about tomorrow night?" said Zyphre. "After I've killed the big spider, it'll be safe for you to go out, okay?"

"Okay…"

"Lucian, sweetie, it's your bedtime," said Lydia. She picked her son up as Zyphre allowed his chair to fall on all four legs again with a thud.

Lucian awoke in the early hours of the morning to small rocks hitting his window. He groggily opened his eyes and looked out his window. It was still dark. He closed his eyes again and rolled over, trying to get back to sleep. More pebbles tapped his window. Lucian groaned sleepily and rolled out of bed to investigate.

"Willem?" he asked, opening the window and rubbing his eyes. "What're you doing? 's really late…"

"Let's go kill the spider," said Willem in a hushed voice.

"What?" asked Lucian, leaning out his ground-floor window.

"Let's go kill the spider," Willem repeated.

"Willem, that's a really bad idea," said Lucian, wide awake now. "We can't kill something like that…it's killed a lot of people already…"

"Who says we can't do it?" asked Willem. "It's just a bug. It can't be that hard to kill."

"Willem…"

"Look, all our parents are really worried about it," said Willem. "What if we managed to kill it? We'd be heroes! And our parents would be happy again! Do you want your mom to be happy again?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

"Then what's the problem?" asked Willem. "We can do it. I know we can. It'll be easy!"

"Willem, I really don't want to…"

"Well, if you're gonna chicken out, fine," said Willem. "But I'm going. And I'll just claim all the glory for myself."

He turned to go, and had gotten a few steps before Lucian called out, "Wait! I'll go."

Lucian climbed out of his window and ran to catch up to Willem. Willem patted the younger boy on the head. "I knew I could count on you, Lucian," he said happily. "Let's go!"

The forest was as dark as it always was in the dead of night. Lucian had been in this forest this late many times, as this was where his father trained him to control his vampiric powers. Without the strong, protective figure of his father next to him, however, the forest seemed much bigger, darker, and more menacing.

"Willem, are you sure we should be doing this?" asked Lucian in a hushed voice. "We don't even have any weapons to kill it with if we do find it…"

"We'll just step on it," said Willem. "It's a spider. It can't be that big. You're not scared, are you?"

"N-no!" said Lucian. "I'm not scared!"

"Then stop acting so scared!" said Willem loudly. "I wouldn't have brought you along if I had known you would be such a baby!"

"I'm not a baby!" said Lucian. "I just don't really wanna be here! Why did we have to come when it was so dark out?"

"Because our moms won't let us go during the day, and we want to surprise them!" said Willem. "It'll be light out soon, you big baby! See, the sun is starting to come up already!" He pointed through the canopy of leaves to show that the small bits of sky visible were turning grey.

"Don't call me a baby!"

"You are a baby!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Unfortunately, the two of them didn't notice that the volume of their argument was steadily increasing. As they grew louder, they began to attract the attention of the very thing they were trying to find. By the time Lucian whispered, "Did you hear that?" it was too late.

Willem screamed right as Lucian felt a sharp, stabbing pain on both sides of his thigh. The ground rapidly left as he was hoisted into the air by his bleeding leg. Crying out in pain, Lucian twisted around to see what had him. He screamed loudly, his blood running cold.

It was enormous; its body was easily four times the size of a fully grown man. A tangle of eight thick, black, hairy legs, the front two rising up to hold up its struggling prey. Eight shining black eyes stared at him; he could see his own terrified face reflected back at him in each one. Two giant, black, gleaming pincers sat under its eyes, each one driven into his thigh, blood dripping down from the wounds.

The dire spider sped off with its prey as Lucian screamed again. Lucian craned his neck to try to see what Willem was doing, his terror increasing as he saw Willem running away as fast as he could. Lucian called after him, but he didn't even look back and the dire spider carried him to his fate.

"Zyphre!" cried Lydia, reentering the bedroom where her husband was still snoozing. "Zyphre, Lucian isn't in his bed!"

"What?" he asked sleepily.

"Lucian isn't in the house!" cried Lydia. "I've looked all over; he isn't here!"

"Oh, shit," said Zyphre, transforming into a bat and darting out of the room. "Lucian!" When he got no answer, he shouted at Lydia, "Check outside!"

They had barely been outside for a minute when Willem came pelting out of the forest, his eyes wild with terror. He saw them and ran straight for Lydia.

"Miss Lydia! Miss Lydia!" he panted. "L-Lucian and I…we…"

"You and Lucian what?" asked Lydia. "What happened, Willem? Tell me."

"We…we thought we could go kill the big spider…to make the grown-ups happy…and…"

"And what?" asked Lydia, kneeling down. "Willem, where's my son?"

"The…the big spider got him…!" said Willem in a hushed, terrified voice.

"…Oh, gods. Willem, you go straight home! Go!" commanded Lydia. He ran off without argument. Lydia strode off towards the forest. "Zyphre!" Zyphre flew down to land on her shoulder.

The forest grew darker the farther in they went. Lydia strode on fearlessly, finding her baby the only thing on her mind.

"We can find him faster if we split up," said Zyphre. "I'll fly above and scout ahead."

"Good idea," said Lydia. "Stay safe."

"You too," replied Zyphre. There was a flutter of wings as he took to the skies and disappeared into the trees. Lydia walked on alone.

Lucian couldn't move. He was completely cocooned in sticky, white webbing. His arms were pinned to his body, his legs trapped together. He had webbing over his mouth, unable to say a word. His wounded leg throbbed and seared with pain, but there was nothing he could do about it. He could barely even move his head, the sticky webbing tugging at his hair every time he tried.

He could see the dire spider out of the corner of his eye, wrapping up a kicking deer in the same sticky webbing. Small whimpers escaped past the webbing covering his mouth. He regretted ever leaving his bedroom. He wondered where Willem was. Had he told someone? Or had he just run home and hid in his bed, abandoning Lucian to die?

The dire spider clicked its pinchers horribly before sinking them deeply into the doe's neck. The doe struggled violently, getting weaker, before the struggles gradually ceased. The deer seemed to get smaller as the dire spider drained her of her fluids. When the dire spider was done, it removed its pinchers, clicked them horribly, and turned all eight eyes to Lucian.

Lucian let out several loud whimpers, trying in vain to back away as the spider inched closer on its horrible, hairy legs. It opened its pincers and brought them to Lucian's throat, preparing to bite down. Lucian's scream was a very loud, high-pitched, shrill sound that managed to escape past his closed lips and webbing cover.

As soon as his shriek of terror died away, a massive ball of fire smacked the spider in the side. It cried shrilly, stumbling away from Lucian, a tangle of legs. He managed to lean his head back enough to avoid the pincers nicking his throat. He turned his eyes towards where the fireball came from to see his mother, looking positively livid. Her eyes were black fire.

"Stay – away – from – my – son!" she hissed, punctuating each word with another fireball, moving closer with each one. The dire spider squealed loudly, a high noise that hurt Lucian's ears. It twitched and writhed horribly as it burned, as Lydia lit it on fire repeatedly. She was right over the spider, a steady stream of fire coming from her hands at it, when it quieted and its struggles finally ceased, curling up and becoming a tangle of legs.

Lucian's heart pounded and his leg burned with pain. "Mmm! MMM!" he whimpered.

Lydia turned towards her son, her eyes fading to their usual emerald green again. She ran over and ripped the webbing away from his mouth. "Are you okay, sweetie?" she asked, ripping the webbing away from his body and tearing the webbing a bit away from his hair so she wouldn't pull it.

As soon as he was free, Lucian threw himself into Lydia's arms. The tears came out of nowhere, sobbing into her chest. "Mommy! I was so scared!" he cried.

"Shhh…I know. I know." Lydia hugged him tightly, stroking his hair comfortingly. She noted that he called her "mommy," something he hadn't done since he was little older than three. "Did it bite you? Does it hurt anywhere?"

Lucian nodded. "My leg hurts," he whimpered.

Lydia looked down to see two huge tears in his pants, deep wounds visible in his thigh. The pressure the webs had put on it and his vampiric healing had stopped the bleeding, but blood still soaked his pants and it looked very painful.

Lucian wrapped his arms around Lydia's neck and his legs around her waist, sobbing. "Mooommyyyyyy," he whimpered.

"Shh, I'm here, baby," she said softly, standing up and hugging him to her body. "It's all over; I've got you now. You're okay. Let's go home now."

Lydia walked through the forest towards home, holding Lucian, who could only cry. They hadn't gotten very far before Lydia heard a cry above her.

"Lydia! I can't find him anywhere!" came Zyphre's voice.

"I've got him, don't worry!" she called back to the bat diving down towards her.

He transformed into his vampire form and dropped the last ten feet, moving swiftly over and touching Lucian's hair. "Is he okay?" he asked.

"Daaaaddyyy," Lucian whimpered, looking up at Zyphre, still crying softly.

"He's fine," said Lydia. "Scared out of his wits and healing a nasty bite wound, but he'll be okay."

"Thank the gods," said Zyphre, hugging Lydia with Lucian between them. "And the dire spider?"

"Dead," said Lydia. "Very dead."

"Good," said Zyphre. "You! What the hell were you thinking!"

"We thought we could kill it," said Lucian brokenly.

"Why would you think that!"

"Zyphre!" said Lydia sternly. "Not now."

Zyphre transformed and nestled onto Lydia's shoulder. Lucian simply buried his face back in his mother's chest and continued crying. He stayed like that as Lydia ran into Eve and positively screamed at her for letting her son drag her son into something so dangerous, and how she and Willem were lucky Lucian wasn't killed. He stayed like that as they returned home, only letting go when Lydia had to bandage his wound. He clung to his father for awhile after that, and slept in his parents' bed that night.

And from that day, spiders have done nothing but haunt him.