The creatures had changed quite a lot ever since the curse of darkness had been lifted from their land. Despite being much safer to go out in the wilderness, there would always be dangers, scrimpoins and sharkobras for example, are territorial and dangerous by nature. As the climate slowly changed and the environment became less hostile, new animals moved in, old ones also returned, and the ecosystems rushed to accommodate them all into its complex web of life. These new residents sparked curiosity and wonder, but it was unwise to not be careful.
The jade spider building its web on a roof was proof of that, its shiny gemstone carapace reflected the rays of the sun as it covered the ornaments shop with a blanket of sticky white web.
"We swear to the heavens, we thought it was a shiny rock…" Miclessa explained as he looked up to it, sighing in frustration. No one suspected a thing when one of them held out a particularly shiny jade and placed it with the rest of their findings. It was not unheard of to find these kinds of rocks scattered around, they thought they had gotten lucky and found one so large.
"This is not your land! Go!" Selene shouted, tossing a pebble at the intruder, who hissed as it brought its legs together, the protective layer of stone shielding its body and giving it the appearance of a large jade rock. Unfortunately, other than inconvenience and delay its web weaving, it did not have much effect.
"Either you get down from my shop or I'm fighting you myself, and my sword is already out!" Shama threatened, his knuckles gripping the handle of his speed tightly. He was, of course, ignored.
"How did you not notice that it was an animal?!"
"It can disguise itself! We wouldn't have brought it if we knew it was a bug."
"It's an arachnid, actually."
"Whatever."
"Y'all better stop fighting and find a way to solve this," Mariah's stern scolding successfully stopped the argument that was sure to break out if left alone. The creature seemed satisfied with its new home and rested peacefully on the roof, "the chief heard that scream and I barely managed to convince him not to leave home."
A tense silence settled before them, struggling to think of any way to make the creature leave without harming the Bloom Booth. They couldn't just jump in or else they'd be trapped in the web, and couldn't use bows and arrows and risk causing much damage on the shop's structure in case they missed. And judging by how few visible weak spots the spider had, they were bound to miss a few arrows.
"What's ….going on?"
"Sakina, hello... feeling better?"
Selene spoke quietly as said Seedling stepped closer, but still far enough from the crowd to avoid getting anyone else sick. It surely was strange seeing the usually loud and upbeat young man so quiet and sluggish, thankfully he appeared to be in much better condition than the day before. Shalara followed close behind, letting out a startled gasp as she took in the sight of the web covered shop.
They really just wanted to buy a small souvenir…
"Don't worry, we got this."
Isaac stated confidently as he and Levi ran towards them, the latter holding a large bug catching net. The onlookers stepped aside to create a path for the two, holding their breaths as the librarian kneeled down just beside the web, searching on his bag until he pulled out an empty beetle carapace. The Seedling poked the web with it, simulating a struggling prey. The vibrations on the web got the jade spider's attention, the young man jumped back as it crawled down the web to inspect what it thought was a newly captured beetle, ready to be turned into its dinner. Without wasting time, the Serkah lowered the net, trapping the struggling spider inside it.
"Nice!"
"Good catch, guys."
The crowd cheered and sighed in relief as the spider was dragged away. Taking off the web would take a bit of work, but at least the Bloom Booth was no longer in imminent danger.
"Uh...hey what are those things coming out…?"
Confused, they returned their gaze to the trapped arachnid, eyes widening as something dark began to escape from the holes in the net. Upon close inspection, the strange dark mass revealed itself to be a few hundred small spiders scattering around, creeping on the grass and crawling on the net. Levi let out a startled yelp as he let go of the net and jumped back to avoid the baby spiders from crawling on his hands. Thankfully, the mother was still trapped on the net… although maybe dealing with one big creature might have been better than the thousands of crawling mini nightmares.
"It gave birth!"
Selene jumped back, shaking her leg in an attempt to knock down the arachnids that were attempting to climb on her. The rest of the crowd soon scattered, screaming as they ran back to their homes.
"It's on you!"
Yehani was knocked right off his feet as Lili smacked the back of his head, striking the baby spider off of him.
"I got it!"
"Ow…"
"Oh god, they're everywhere!"
Most of the buildings were now home to at least one or two nightmare crawlers, the tiny things with oversized legs and gigantic eyes stood out in the vegetation as they began to weave their webs, some solitary, others joining forces and making enormous clusters of webs that could cover the foliage of trees.
A small leapard puppy squealed at the intruders, hissing as it attempted to drive them away.
"Daiye, no!"
Roto picked up the furball and made a run for it before the tiny, yet fierce, little thing could get into a fight and possibly be trapped into the cluster of webs.
"What the hell is happening?!" Shakuro took a few steps back as a few spiders stuttered past him, swatting a few that were trying to build their homes on their windows. Behind him, Jamileh hesitantly walked out, whimpering and hiding behind her brother as she saw the chaos unfolding before them.
"Peep!"
"Stand still! We can't help if you're running!"
With their white and black feathers covered in spiders, a poor Noot ran for their life as they screeched in fear, they flapped their wings in a vain attempt to get the things off. Reuben tried his best in catching up to them, but Serkahs weren't made for speed.
Shakuro wasn't exactly a fan of the Noots, the nightmare he had a while ago and the Noots peeking out through his window made him always feel on edge around the feathered folk. Despite that, the Seedling wasted no time in running after the poor Noot as well, quickly outpacing Reuben and grabbing the poor thing's wing.
"Thanks, Shak…" The Serkha gasped for air, taking a few seconds to recover his breath before helping the wise Seedling in taking the spiders off of the Noots' feathers. It didn't take long for his sister to catch up and join in as well, hesitantly swatting them away.
After a couple of minutes of work, the Noot was completely spider free. Although there were some webs still stuck to their feathers. The bird folk tweeted in thanks, but they could still see how uncomfortable they were.
"Let me bring you...to the water spring…" Jamileh carefully took their wing onto her hands, "so we can get water to get that cleaned up."
"Peep!"
The Noot bounced in glee as they were guided to the spring, they couldn't wait to get the nasty, sticky thing off their beautiful feathers.
"...okay...what is happening?"
There were more screams, and more spiders running around. Shakuro caught a glimpse of Levi running off towards the main gates while holding a large net, several other people followed, yelling something about burning "putting that thing back where it came from".
"Basically, mistakes were made."
"Well, yes I can see that."
There was the sound of something crashing, someone was chasing the spiders, smashing them with a piece of broken wood.
"We need the Chief!"
"No way! He needs to rest!"
"Where's Shakuro?!"
He couldn't help but flinch, looking around with wide eyes as it dawned on him that he'd most likely be the one expected to come up with a solution to the utter chaos that was before him. He didn't even see what happened, he was as lost as everyone else.
"...what do we do now?"
Reuben's uncharacteristically soft tone snapped Shakuro out of his panic, something almost numb replacing it, he tried to ignore the feeling of helplessness that kept crawling on the back of his mind.
"...i don't know…"
His job had always been advising, analysing the present situation and giving his view on it, discussing with the Chief on what would be the best action to take. He had an easier time adapting to this than the others, and was usually able to come up with solutions to their problems. It wasn't all that difficult before, he's dealt with things like that all the time. Errors in stocking, unforeseen circumstances during expeditions… those kinds of things would happen occasionally, it wasn't much difficult to deal with them.
That was completely different, now the people were panicking, they were dealing with a creature no one has ever seen before. Even he was starting to panic himself.
"Hey?...hey! Shakuro?!"
Only now he realized that the Serkha's hand was firmly gripping his shoulder.
"You're... looking a little pale there...are you okay?"
He nodded, taking a couple of deep breaths to bring himself back into the present. He was stressed, tired and overworked, but the Oasis needed them now.
"That's it! Get out of my house!"
A door slammed open as Ida chased the arachnids out, slamming her broom on the ground.
"I...I need help in calming everyone down," Shakuro sighed as a couple of Lagoras came to assist the angered Drauk. Their new tactic resumed in burning a few specific flowers, the same one they used for the winged stingers, and using the smoke to drive them away. Thankfully, it seemed to be working so far, if the dozens of spiders escaping the Oasis was anything to go by, "Do you think you could-"
Before he could finish, there was a startled yelp. Both looked back to the mess, finding the three frozen in shock as the last remaining spider began to run around in panic, failing to douse the fire on its back. By Aziz's feet were a few ambers they used to burn the flowers.
"...?"
"It...tried to build a web on the ambers, fell out, ignited itself by accident…" Ida rolled her eyes as she put her hands on her hips, watching the scene with an unamused stare.
"Well, they aren't very smart...but we still-"
"Guys? The fire's spreading."
"...what?"
The brave, yet dumb spider was finally able to put itself out and wasted no time in fleeing the Oasis, but the grass where it had previously passed through was now being consumed by the flames that were quickly spreading out and growing in size.
"...I think this is punishment for our sins." Reuben groaned, following the others to put the flames out. Unfortunately for them, grass was very flammable, they barely had time to put out a small part of it before it had already spread somewhere else. The weather was dry, the grass was covered by spider webs that were also easily burned, all it took was a panicking spider and a few seconds for the fire to grow.
"I can't believe we did it…"
"Yeah, let's throw these out, I never want to see another spider in my-"
Jorah and Hanoch stopped in their tracks as they were greeted by tall flames consuming everything in its path. They almost dropped the boxes they carried, filled with the baby arachnids they were able to trap.
"I know there's a "burn the house down and get a new one" saying, but isn't that a little extreme?"
"Help us, you two!"
Reuben shouted, using a bucket of water to douse the flames, Shakuro and Aziz right behind him with sand and dirt.
"Maybe...it could rain again…? Just a suggestion…?" Aziz put his hands together as he looked up to the sky, only to be answered by the remaining rain clouds retreating, letting the sun rays shine above in all its glory.
"Yeah, figured that's too much to ask."
…
…
…
Wake…
Tethu quickly sat up, cold sweat drenching his skin as he looked around, being greeted by the peaceful quiet of his home. The gifts he had received from the residents were carefully placed by the wall for him to organize later, some medicine and water on the stool placed beside his hammock.
There's something wrong…
His head still hurt and his body protested against it, but that did not stop him from getting up, leaning against the wall to recover balance.
I need to leave…
It was so difficult to breathe, he's gotten used to the discomfort in his lungs for the past couple of days, but that was something else. If he hadn't looked down on himself and saw that he was otherwise fine, he'd assumed he was being burned alive. His legs were unstable and he constantly had to lean on something as not to fall, but the urge to leave and resolve whatever problem was going on made him continue despite it.
He wasn't on his right mind, and even if he were, he doubted he would have fought against that instinct. The scream while Mariah was there was still engraved on his mind.
The warm air made it all more uncomfortable, he immediately missed the pleasant cool of his home, but couldn't even think about going retreating. The eerie lack of residents walking around raised a red flag, the spider webs covering the buildings and trees were...strange to say the least. Tethu wasn't sure how he knew which direction to take, maybe it was the smell of smoke, but knew the way.
…
There was soot everywhere, the ashes littered the once green and lively ground with a lifeless gray. Many of the larger trees had survived the hunger of the fire, but their trunks were covered by a layer of black. The pain he felt slowly relented, a cold feeling of dread was quick to take its place.
"We still need more water!"
Leaning on whatever he could find nearby, the Seedling made their way towards the commotion, wincing in pain as a weak began to flow around him, whatever magic he could muster at the moment guiding the air to flow as he wished. Thankfully, it was still strong enough to blow off a nearby pile of sand. More than just a few people yelped in surprise as the wind brought the sand onto the burning melody wheel, successfully putting out the fire that threatened to consume it.
"..."
"He-...hey Chief…"
He didn't answer. The crowd stepped aside to form a path for him as Tethu made his way to the destroyed garden. The dewadems shimmered like stars as they were thrown up, forming a small dark cloud and returning to the ground in the form of clear water droplets that shimmered with magic. The ground hissed as the cold liquid evaporated, cooling down the burned area. Small green sprouts began to peek out of the ground, returning some of the green that once painted their ground.
The effect was immediate, the dead land began to appear just a little more alive, and the discomfort in his heart soothed, the chief let out a relieved breath as small flowers began to bloom as well, the grass quickly covering the ash covered ground.
"...I... I'm sorry. It-it was an accident…"
Shakuro stuttered, unable to raise his head and meet the Chief's eyes, who patiently waited for him to find his words. Tethu wasn't exactly the most talkative fellow, sure he could go on and on about something he liked, but otherwise he preferred to listen and speak only when needed. That was a different kind of silence. He wasn't frowning, crossing his arms or glaring as he usually did when annoyed, but the blank and tired stare was much more unnerving.
They didn't have any explanation to give, that was clear when several seconds passed and all they had mustered was stutters and mumbles.
"...who...is keeping the dewadems…?"
Shakuro flinched, almost unable to muster the words out.
"Jamileh."
"Yahya."
Shakuro and Miura answered at the same time, promoting the two to give each other a confused look.
"Both of them!"
Thankfully, the gods had mercy on them and Potipan had come to their rescue, smiling innocently in an attempt to seem natural.
"...right...tell them to bring it here...I'm not gonna have enough to fix this on my own."
"R-right away."
That...could have gone better.
They had spent the next few days making sure the Oasis was back on its feet, rebuilding the structures that were no longer usable, replanting the crops and clearing out the webs.
Dawn arrived before long, chasing away the dark shades and painting the sky with a pleasant blue. A figure sat down beside the water spring, leaning against a tree. A cold breeze blew but he wasn't too bothered.
Tethu flinched as droplets of water were splashed in his direction, the cold water sending a chill down his spine. Esna's bright smile greeted him, she let out a mischievous giggle as she submerged once again, swimming towards him and peeking her head out of the water just a bit.
The Seedling responded by sending a small gust of wind towards her, the spirit squealed and submerged once again.
"Oi, what's up, Chief?"
Shakuro smiled as he walked towards them, sitting down beside Tethu at his invitation. Levi slept peacefully under the shade of another tree, some snacks and cards left scattered on the grass beside him. Esna emerged from the water, her ghostly body barely causing any ripples to form.
"Oh, Esna?"
"Hi! Guess what?"
The Seedling hummed, tilting his head in confusion as the water spirit quite literally began to bounce, her tail waving quickly underwater.
Upon seeing him shrug, she lifted her hand and brought it close to him. There was something drawn on it, a holy symbol appeared to have been painted over the back of her hand, a faint white glow around it. Shakuro let out a surprised gasp as he adjusted his monocle, he did recognize it, most guardian spirits had something similar on their bodies, especially those chosen by the gods themselves. Or so the stories told, he'd never before seen one so close.
"Basically, we caused so much chaos in less than two days, that the heaven itself bent its rules to make sure we don't get ourselves killed before time." Levi laughed, rubbing his eye as he stretched. "Now we have our personal guardian angels, yay."
"Esna and Nour will be watching over us until they reincarnate." Shakuro's eyes were widened as he processed their words. He had a bright smile on his face as he turned back to Esna, he instinctively reached out for her hand, but phased through it as expected.
"That's amazing! I certainly didn't expect them to let you guys do this, but if we're getting a guardian spirit, I'm glad it is you two."
"Thank you! I will protect this place with my life!"
Esna sunk into the water, only her nose and up were not submerged, looking like an aquatic predator hiding in the water, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
"You're dead, Esna."
"I'll protect this place with my soul!" She retorted before diving back underwater, laughing as she swam around in glee.
"Say...is Nour here too?"
"Apparently they got into trouble after coming back here a bit too many times," Tethu played with the water as he spoke, "I don't think they're allowed to be both here at once."
"He lost rock paper scissors to me!"
"Really?"
Tethu couldn't help but laugh at that, as skilled as Nour was, he did usually lose at that game. Levi joined in their chat, listening to Esna's tales about the spiritual plane with great interest, she wasn't allowed to say much, apparently, but she sure made those small bits of information work, and exploited whatever loophole she could find. That and some sweet, tasty blackmail material for a certain older brother of his.
He let out a sigh and closed his eyes, letting sleep claim him as he listened to Esna's tales. The sun brought a new day, and with a new day comes new adventures. He couldn't wait to see what the future will bring them.