New writing style! I was trying to imagine the festival and I think it'd be more akin to a large party/meet up since their sizes (and the fact that they're spiders) would make doing anything else a bit difficult. Real life is taking such a toll… I also now know a bit more about spider anatomy from AP Bio.

Shadow's wondering if this festival was a good idea. He's forgotten how… rowdy, they were. Luckily he's not an outsider, but he does wish some of his more embarrassing stories remained untold.

"When you were younger you'd do nothing but pout nonsense about becoming a Spider Rider's mount. Then you got all old and moody after Rose left you. If I didn't know any better that idiot's done wonders for you."

The other spiders listening in laugh and some of them know exactly what Lahel is talking about. Being solitary creatures doesn't mean they all can't congregate every once in a while to converse.

"He's getting a bit smarter. Well, he was always smart, he just didn't know how to use his head," he replies.

The wine colored spider laughs brashly.

"I wanna meet this kid now! He seems interesting!"

Shadow sighs then chuckles weakly. The alcohol that seems to be flowing freely about becomes more enticing by the minute. It would be foolish for a warrior to drop his guard like that though. The conversations seem to become more and more outrageous as time passes as the spiders wander around to soak up their fill of social interaction before needing to part ways. Mounts are probably the few groups of spiders that are constantly in contact with each other, and that's only if their Riders don't go solo. Disjointed music from webs reverberates through the area.

"Well, keep the kid safe and make sure his head doesn't get too scrambled either. I also heard about the Widows being up and about, so tell the others too, alright?"

"I understand," he replies. There's a slight pause, and he warily asks something.

"How's Rose?"

Lahel stares for a second or two at him before speaking.

"She's fine. Out on her own, one adventure after another, comes back sometimes to chat, leaves. You know, the usual."

Shadow noticeably twitches as she sidles by his side.

"Could it be that you're still interested?"

"Back off! I'm just asking!"

"Liar."

"Well, maybe, someday, if Hunter ever stops fighting, then-!"

A large blob falling from the sky smacks down foliage as it hits the ground. Every spider sees it clearly once it lands though and either instinctively flee or prepare to fight. It's a corpse, and it's landed disturbingly close to Shadow. Lahel gasps.

"The eyes!"

The shiny orbs are not there. In fact, from the empty sockets and other injuries seeps something that looks like blood but isn't. Rather, it kind of resembles dinner from a few days before…

Intuition makes his arthropod heart beat faster and his entire body tenses. He remembers something eerily familiar to this. Except the victims that time were his family members. Only one thing could have done this.

As the webs are shot and the bodies land everything becomes terribly clear. It's the Black Widows, and they've finally come after hiding for so long. Those that have fled are long gone and some of the Widows give chase, but a majority stays behind to take on those still here for them. Their fangs glimmer with poison and Shadow makes sure he gets in the first strike.

Once he breaks the tension, the battle begins. He carefully makes sure their poison doesn't pierce the soft parts of his body, like the joints. He wishes Hunter could help armor him, but then he realizes that hot-blooded Hunter would just carelessly join the chaos and get himself poisoned. He's boxed in and lashes back fiercely as poison is carved into his exoskeleton.

He could somewhat understand how spiders could be driven to become Widows, but that doesn't make it any less disturbing. Wracked with grief and sorrow from the loss of a mate or child, their minds disintegrate into not-quite-primal instincts that turn them onto fellow spiders. No one's sure how it happens, but it does, and Shadow's mother became one of them. He fights with deadly precision and accuracy, sacrificing aesthetics for brute strength and speed. He was a warrior before Hunter partnered with him, and he is not helpless on his own. Lahel is there as well, doing even better than him, crushing heads without hesitation. Again, that strangeness about Hunter weakly calls out from the back of his mind. That eagerness to kill and utter ruthlessness is strange for someone so young. All the other Riders steeled themselves against death by telling themselves that Invectids were the enemy or simply becoming accustomed to killing. It took him a few years to properly stomach murdering individuals.

Lahel brutally crushes in one of the major sinuses of the Widow about to pounce on him.

"Stay sharp!"

"Yes!"

The fallen Widow refuses to die peacefully. She screams and shrieks and howls as if she's possessed.

"Kill! Kill the blue one! Or we will not live to see the next night!"

Shadow finishes her off himself.

"What was that?!"

"You could've left her alive for a minute!" Lahel lectures. She shoots one of her specialty webs and an unfortunate Widow flies straight into it, slicing herself in half. Shadow groans and knocks another Widow down. He snaps its legs and helps the rest of the group finish off the other Widows. By the time they're done, the number of dead overwhelms those of the living. Shadow's only comfort is that the majority of the corpses are Widows. He turns to the one whose legs are broken.

"Hey, answer me. Why were the Widows active again? We almost wiped all of you out years ago."

It struggles with its mutilated body and hisses.

"The mistress! The mistress! She will kill me if I am to speak!"

"You're already dead. The moment that 'mistress' of yours sent you to fight, you were dead."

She stares at Shadow with glassy eyes. Her hazy mind can still process logic.

"True are the words you speak. The mistress is the Fallen Oracle. She promised us food if we succeeded and death if we failed. We were to kill you as she planned to murder the Oracle's Knight. Oh woe is us who have strayed from the Oracle!"

Shadow's heart goes still for a few moments as his entire body is enveloped in cold. A horrible, clenching feeling around his organs and sinuses makes his body stiffen. His lungs can't get enough air and his breathing grows erratic. Panic.

Panicpanicpanicpanicpanicpanicpanicpanicpanicpanic panicpanicpani-

"SHADOW!"

Lahel's voice snaps him out of his dementia.

"Think!"

He nods weakly and forces his body to slow down. His mind is running through possibilities.

"Who's the Fallen Oracle?"

"That was what the Mistress called herself. Her power was just like the Oracle's as well. She muttered grudges and maledictions day and night," the spider replies. It seems to have resigned itself to this fate.

"How did she look?" Lahel asks.

"A young human girl, with hair like coal and sparkling amethyst eyes."

Obsidian. The Fallen Oracle is Obsidian. She dragged away Igneous and Magma. She could have lured Hunter away when he was gone with those two as bargaining chips. That old woman was not her abusive relative then. More likely a victim that she manipulated to garner sympathy. She took the two to… somewhere. Remember! Remember!

Lahel whispers chants layered with small encouragements to Shadow.

"You know the answer, don't you? Stay calm. Empty your mind. Think."

"Forest… Yes! I know where they are!"

"Hurry! I'll finish up back here!"

Shadow's off, and as she kills the Widow, she looks at the carnage all strewn about.

"What a way to end his first festival in a while," she says to herself.

"I'm sorry Obsidian. I couldn't let him know."

"That's fine. You did your part Lahel."

"Why is your hair wet?"

"He was a bit testier than I expected. Would you like to return to the Manacle now?"

"Thank you."

Lahel is sucked back into the gem and she sighs in relief.

"Are you feeling better?"

"Yes, the healing effects of the Manacle are working. Thank you for allowing me to live much longer."

The kind smile on Obsidian's expression is sweet enough to make a young boy swoon. She polishes the gem on her bracelet with her thumb and keeps on smiling.

"You are my partner and friend. It would not do to let you die. Soon, you will be completely cured. Are you alright turning against this world that you loved?"

"I don't love this world. I just wish Shadow didn't have to get caught up in all of this."

"Hunter Steele is dead. Your former student's only injury will be to his heart. Otherwise, he will live on."

"I'm not so sure," Lahel says softly, "he completely changed after Rose left, and now this Earthen has made his world open again. To him, that boy is like a valuable treasure. He just doesn't realize it. When you talk to him about this 'Hunter', his talking becomes more animated and his emotions more pronounced. Before, he seemed as if he had lost his ability to feel, and that boy fished it back out from the depths of Shadow. Will grief really be the only injury he sustains?"

Obsidian is silent. She can't answer that. She doesn't want to hurt her dear friend nor lie to her partner.

"Be there for him then."

"Will you let me?"

"It's pragmatic. You can comfort your student as well as glean information from him."

"I understand."

Everything besides his path is a blur. His only focus is on a destination. The fact that he's injured and the fluid leaking out of his exoskeleton makes gathering enough pressure in his legs to jump difficult. A mound of rubble tips him off and he skids to a stop in the circular plain. A small hill of rocks and mud all clumped together. A strange growth of thorns is near the edge, as well as a discarded knife. So Hunter tried to fight back. As long as Hunter tried to fight back, it means that he's alright. He'd never go down if he still wanted to live. A scrap of cloth caught on a jagged stone in the mud pile catches his attention. It's a piece of Igneous's cape. There are drag marks going into the trees. Silently, he hopes that everyone is alive. He hopes that Hunter is alive. Even against a goddess, he tells himself that Hunter would never give up. He'd find a way to stay alive.

Unless he fought to the very end, a mean spirited voice inside his mind whispers. He shudders and follows the marks into the woods. At the very least, he knows that they all were strong enough to tear their way through the plants. For some reason they didn't summon their spiders, so he's still worried. A light beckons to him from further off, and he begins to sprint again. He bursts through to see Igneous and Magma kneeling in front of a pool of water where the light is coming from.

"Igneous, Magma! Are you guys alright? Where's Hunter? Why didn't you have Flame and Brutus hel-"

His voice catches on a delicate snag, in the middle of a scale of notes as he finally notices what the light is.

"Shadow. Don't panic. I think he's alive. Don't worry," Igneous says quickly, his teeth clenched, "Flame and Brutus are both hurt; stay sane."

"Listen to him Shadow," Magma grinds out. The two of them are covered in mud and water and look like they've been dragged through a swamp, but Shadow's attention is solely on the block of crystal in front of them. Its four corners each have an Oracle Key imbedded in it.

Incased in the center, is Hunter Steele. His Rider and friend.

So, that's that! Next is going to be the past arc, I think. R&R?