The sounds were unlike anything she had ever heard. Arachne had been so completely focused on the repairs she was sewing into her torn backpack that she didn't even look up until it became nearly-deafening.
What the – what the hell was that thing? She had read about 'satellites' when she was younger - and sure, she'd only understood a third of the textbook seeing as it was written in English – but she knew that people had launched them into the sky centuries ago. Maybe one was failing?
To her immense concern, it didn't seem to be slowing down as it plummeted to the ground. At the last second however, a type of fabric burst from it. As it crashed against the ground Arachne came close to losing it.
From the basic calculations she could make based on its trajectory, that stupid, stupid thing had just likely landed on top of her secondary nest, where she had been storing all of her food for the winter. A small shriek of rage escaped Arachne – after all, just last week she had picked the nearby trees empty to gather all of her favorite nuts and pack them away. And Gladia's favorite choices of dried meat were in there. Her pet would be an absolute nuisance until she could replace those.
With a feeling of anger still clouding her judgement, she pulled her mask down over her face and attached her grappling hook to the nearest connector cable of the web she was in before she began moving towards the crash site.
Arachne's secondary nest was a thing of beauty, seeing as her position amongst the tribe was incredibly respected. And with her brother as one of the head architects amongst her people, she had been built a home nearly forty feet up in the trees, camouflaged well and with nine cables in her personal web that she used to travel from tree to tree around the immediate area when she wasn't in the mood for manually grappling.
Another thought struck her as she traveled quickly towards the disaster site – Trikru would be incredibly angry by this fallen satellite. She only hoped that the Anya wouldn't take it out on Arachne's clan. The Familia Osseorum – the Skeleton Clan – had been on very good terms with the other clans and Trikru in particular, mostly because the healers of the Skeleton Clan had been able to save Commander Lexa's lover two years ago when their own healers could not.
A pity the girl was killed later anyway - she'd been sweet for a member of the Trikru.
For now, Arachne was simply trying to prepare herself for the damage the piece of metal had most likely done to her nest. Hopefully some of it was salvageable. Of course if it was destroyed she wouldn't starve, nothing that drastic. But her older twin siblings Minerva and Mercury would be insufferable if they had to provide for her this winter. She was twenty-one years of age, an adult. Some of the oldest people in her tribe were already wary that someone only barely past two decades had risen the ranks to become their head priestess. Being babied by her siblings would be humiliating not only personally but due to her position as well.
It only took a few minutes for her to find the clearing where the crash had taken place, but when she did she was entirely taken off guard.
There were children dancing about this enormous satellite and Arachne noted that it wasn't actually a satellite at all, it was some sort of transportation. There were – there were people in the sky still? But she'd thought… she'd been taught that anyone who had theoretically gone up to the sky before the earth was ravaged would have been dead by now. Had their been some sort of family in the sky the entire last century?
The children were causing an enormous amount of noise. It was a wonder that no Trikru scouts or warriors were here yet. Arachne immediately searched the trees surrounding the clearing that had been created by the metal monstrosity and saw no other people from her clan wearing their skull masks in the trees, so she figured it was safe to get closer without risking a talking to from her protective older siblings.
Once Arachne was perched in a tree close enough to differentiate the kids – a tree that had once been a valuable part of the zip line route that took her to her now destroyed nest – she could make out some of what they were saying. Although she'd known it was the most likely possibility, it was still annoying that they were speaking what sounded like English.
Damn. Arachne really wished she'd paid more attention to her English lessons. Her clan's language – Oldspeak – was a crude and somewhat nonsensical combination of Latin and English, so she could figure out approximately what they were saying, but the exact meanings were lost to her.
Her English vocabulary lessons as a child didn't seem to be coming back to her. The fact that her older brother's lectures about her slacking off in lessons were proving to be true was equally irritating. Mercury was smug enough as it was.
These children seemed to be posturing already and Arachne nearly let out a snort of derision. These Caeli Genus – People of the Sky – were about to have many more problems than inter-clan squabbling, and unless they had some sort of plan, the Trikru would destroy them for this apparent invasion.
There was a large number of people in the clearing, and Arachne changed her mental description of the people from 'children' to 'teenagers'. And none of them looked suited for battle or even survival. Dear gods.
However, it was fascinating to watch the reactions of these teenagers. A number of them were dancing about with glee while others were looking around with wonder.
Arachne's attention was drawn to a group of individuals standing near the metal monstrosity and saw to her amusement that there was already a fight breaking out. The Skeleton Clan wasn't at all violent – remaining neutral in regard to every other clan by providing medical support and information to any that needed help and in turn having a solid treaty and permission to nest in almost all of the territories – so Arachne could admit to herself that seeing the teenagers already coming to blows was entertaining.
What followed, however, was less entertaining.
Arachne saw on the periphery of the clearing that the ship's impact had made that a small group was gathering. They were fairly conspicuous amongst the others, what with their shouting and angry body language. When the small group that had been formed set off into the woods, Arachne was taken aback.
They were walking directly towards Mount Weather, which housed people who conducted human experimentation and who used air toxins. Were they – what the hell was going through their minds? Did they have some sort of agreement with the Mountain Men? If so, they had to be eliminated immediately.
They'd be meandering right through Trikru territory. Though it was macabre, Arachne was already mentally guessing how many of the teenagers going on their little expedition would be killed.
Two or three seemed like a reasonable bet.
Arachne felt a strange pang of pity for the group below her. They were just so – interesting. They were foreign and new. Exactly the sort of thing that Arachne loved to watch and examine until she understood it. But already she knew that it would be a bad idea to become too involved with the group. If any Skeletons found out she was even this close she wouldn't hear the end of it.
By the end of the month they'd likely be dead, whether due to Trikru's execution of them for invading – even if from what she could tell it did seem to be unintentional – or their own inability to survive on Earth.
Still, it couldn't hurt to just look at them, right? Besides, she'd have to explore their impact site in the hopes that she could salvage some of her belongings. Arachne might as well observe the teenagers before venturing into their camp.
As the day went on time passed languidly, as it always did when Arachne didn't have assigned work to complete, and it was strangely soothing to watch the teenagers dance about and marvel at the land. The forest was beautiful, and she knew her clan had only begun building in these parts forty or so years ago – taking it for granted wasn't in her nature.
Eventually feeling secure enough in her knowledge that the children had no idea she was present, Arachne began using the cable system to travel from tree to tree as she had been taught since she was old enough to walk. When she saw the teenagers getting rowdy once more as the sun fell below the horizon, Arachne let out an annoyed breath and left to travel back to her primary nest, far away from the Caeli Genus so she could hopefully get some sound sleep.