Webber's POV

"One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand..." Our face was buried in the darkly colored bark of an old pine tree. Our breath was hot and moist on our fur. "Twenty-one thousand... twenty-one one thousand... twenty-two one thousand..." The thrill of the hunt was boiling in our blood. Our claws twitched with excitement. "Forty-eight one thousand... forty-nine one thousand... fifty! Ready or not, here we come!" We leaped away from the tree, our eyes closed tightly as we breathed heavily in, then out. Our whiskers twitched with concentration. Then, finally, we sucked in a breath that brought us the scent of our target. Turning on our heel, we took a final moment to determine where the scent was coming from before dropping to all fours and running. The fresh spring air blasted us in the face and we weaved around obstacles with nary a thought. We threw up mud and dirt in our wake.

We broke into the desert, the hot sand feeling nice against our chilly, damp feet. Buzzard cawed overhead as we kept low to the ground. We could see him now, sitting in the sand just over a ridge. The sun glinted brightly off of him. He seemed deeply lost in thought. We licked out chops and slunk closer, whiskers twitching intensely.

Closer... closer... closer...

Then, we were leaping, crashing into WX-78 as hard as our inertia would allow, bowling him over. He let out a shout of indignation, twisting and burying his foot deep into our ribs. We bared our teeth. "Scared ya', didn't we?"

WX grunted with annoyance. He pushed us off and brushed the sand off of himself. "I COULD NOT POSSIBLY BE SCARED BY YOU."

"Yup! We scared you!" The desert was quickly drying the water that had gathered on our fur. "Whatcha doing out here?"

"GETTING AWAY FROM YOU." The robot frowned deeply and crossed his arms. "WHAT ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE DOING?"

"Wilson told us to explore a bit," I explained.

"SINCE WHEN DO YOU FOLLOW ORDERS?" WX huffed.

"When there's nothing else to do and we planned on exploring anyway." We shook the sand off of ourself. "And, to be fair, we aren't following orders! We're following you!"

"WELL, YOU CAN FOLLOW THIS!" The robot picked up a stick and threw it. We stared at it for a long moment, then back at him.

"Really?"

He threw his arms in the air in frustration. "DON'T YOU HAVE SOMEBODY ELSE TO ANNOY?"

"Nope! Come on! Let's explore!"

WX crossed his arms and growled. "FINE." He turned angrily away, marching past. We grinned, counting it as a victory, and followed. Much of the walk was spent in silence, which eventually devolved into awkwardness. He seemed upset about something, but we couldn't be bothered to care. We were jogged out of our thoughts by the sound of a low, distant rumble. WX paused, looking confused.

"It's an earthquake," I informed him. "Just underground. It shouldn't bother us."

Turns out, the world didn't like it when you claimed that it did something harmless. Despite the many times we had fought, it was easy to forget how heavy the robot actually was. We were cresting a hill when we saw WX stumble slightly in the corner of our vision.

Then, the ground crumbled away beneath him.

He let out a short exclamation of surprise, quickly cut off by the thick darkness below.

"WX!" I cried, lunging forward to grab his hand. Of course, a seven-year-old trying to hold up a robot that was easily over a ton didn't work very well, and it only succeeded in sending us both into the hole.

The darkness swallowed us both, but it wasn't until we hit the bottom that everything went dark.

…

Blackness. Shadows. We opened our eyes groggily to see nothing but a tiny beam of light above our heads. We slowly rolled over, groaning at the ache reverberating through our whole body. "WX?" I croaked, before instantly dissolving into a fit of coughs. "WX, are you okay?"

We managed to drag ourself to our knees, waiting for our eyes to adjust.

"I'M HERE," came the rough voice as WX dragged himself closer to the light. He looked worse for wear but otherwise fine.

"Any idea where we are?"

WX's eyeless gaze slowly drifted down. "YOU'RE BLEEDING."

We touched our chest, only to bring our hand away soaked in blood. "...guess we are." We flicked our hand, tiny droplets scattering the ground. "That doesn't matter right now. We're just glad that both of us are alright. We need to get out of here."

A hiss drifted from the shadows, announcing the arrival of someone new. A spider. WX stiffened as if startled, but we found a tiny spark of hope. "Hello?" I hissed in his language. "Who are you? Can you help us leave?"

Two red eyes slowly neared.

"What are you?" The spider spat back as it finally made itself shown. It was completely white sans its bright red eyes. It moved carefully and precisely. Its mouth was twisted in a snarl. "You aren't one of us."

It hit, but we didn't let it show. "Is there a problem with that?"
"Surface spiders aren't welcome here." The spider snarled. It slowly stalked closer to WX, who appeared to be readying himself to attack. "Nor is your kind."

"Hold on, WX." We waved him off. "We just want to leave."

It turned to the ceiling and let out a long, loud hiss.

Thousands of eyes opened in unison.

We slowly stepped back until we backed into WX.

"BACK AWAY YOU PESTS!" The robot shouted.

We can take out... maybe twenty together? But that's way more than twenty... We quickly assessed our options. We couldn't run or else risk angering the monster of the dark...

"Don't touch them!"

We snapped our gaze upward as one of the spiders broke away from the legions, shoving the leader angrily. This one's eyes were closer to pink than red, and her voice was distinctly feminine.

"Father, they did not mean to intrude! They fell from the surface! Just let them go!"

There was something... familiar... about her?

A girl with sparkling amber eyes, grabbing my hand and jumping up and down with glee. Gleeful laughter pierced my ears.

The leader shifted his gaze carefully across both of us, before resting them on the newcomer. "Erika, this is not your place," he growled. "You have no right to interrupt me."
"I do, when you're about to kill two innocent victims of M-" she cut herself off. "Him. Besides, look at him! He's injured! They both are!"

"WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?" WX growled softly.

"Debating our life or death," I replied grimly.

"Ignore my father," 'Erika' sighed, flicking one of her front legs. "You're welcome here! Come with me! Let's fix you up!"

"Erika, you may be my daughter but you are not in charge here."

"He's kind of a killjoy at times." Erika winked. "We can fix up that wound, but... that... what is that?"

"Someone we're stuck with for the rest of our lives," I replied with a grin. Startling ourself, we reached up and touched the edge of our grin. …Why are we... smiling? "He pretends to hate me, but we're absolute best friends."

"O... kay? He's going to have to stay here. My voice isn't loud enough to tell the entire colony to stay away." She turned and beckoned us.

"...WX, would you mind staying here for a while? We shouldn't be long."

A knowing look passed over his face and twisted into a sneer. "OH, I UNDERSTAND. YOU WANT SOME PRIVACY." We tipped our head in confusion. "ALL RIGHT. GO HAVE FUN. BUT NOT TOO MUCH FUN."

"...what?" We would've protested more, but our wound was really starting to bite. "You know what? Nevermind..."

The leading spider was grumbling angrily, but Erika ignored him. She bounded into the darkness, but we hesitated, unconsciously shifting closer to WX. "

"We... can't go into the darkness. The mo-"

"She won't touch you here," Erika cut us off. "There's- actually, I think it'd be cooler to let you see yourself!"

We looked into the darkness, feeling as if we were directly staring down the monster of the dark herself. ...we trust her. I don't know why, but we do. "Alright. Lead the way. We'll... be back soon, WX. Don't get too lonely."

Before the robot could even respond, Erika eagerly pushed us into the dark, her grumbling father following behind.

…

We could understand now why Erika was unconcerned about the monster of the dark. The darkness only lasted for a short time before red light suddenly flooded the area. We took a disoriented step back as spots danced in our vision. Erika looked amused. "Yeah, a lot of outsiders react that way."

"Didn't your father say that no outsiders were allowed here?"

"He's all bark and no bite," Erika said dismissively. The rest of the spider army had gone to do other activities, but that didn't stop the occasional skitter of spider claws behind us. No matter what we felt or thought, we would never be alone in these caves. "Slinger! Come over here! We've got a wound that needs tending to. Slinger is our medic," Erika explained. "He can speak twenty-four languages, including everything from tallbird to hound."

"Yes, Erika!" Another snow-white spider dropped from the ceiling, nearly right in front of our feet. We yelped then quickly brushed ourself off in an attempt to keep our composure. Erika let out a giggle. "Oh boy, that's a pretty bad wound. How are you walking right now? Hey Slasher, come look at this guy!"

"Yeah, boss! That's a pretty bad one. You should probably do something about it."

We glanced uncomfortably at the ceiling. How many spiders were hiding up there, out of sight, watching our every move?

"Alright, alright, let's get you fixed up! Come with me, come with me!"

We followed him, slower this time. Was it wrong to choose to go with the spiders? Were we about to get eaten alive? Spiders weren't strangers to cannibalism- we remember with a sickening twist in our stomach... the bitter, rotten taste of spider meat sitting in our otherwise empty belly like a lead ball...- and they definitely were not strangers to trapping each other and group-attacking them. Uh oh. We're about to get eaten by our own kind. Eat your hearts out, spiders! You're gonna get a huge surprise once you get past the tough, outer, chewy layer!

"This might sting a little," Slinger stated, before quickly and efficiently binding the wound on our chest with silk. We decided not to think about where the silk came from. However the method, soon, the weak blood flow was staunched, and Slinger stepped back to examine his work. "There! All nice and clean!"

We gently touched the makeshift bandage. "...thank you."

"No problem, weird-looking spider! Come on, Slasher!"

"Of course, boss!"

After they left, we were left along with Erika.

Well, Erika and the four thousand spiders watching our every move.

"So... um... could you show us to the surface now?"

Erika laughed. "With that wound? Of course not."

Yup, we're definitely going to become this spider's lunch.

We've lived for seven years. That's a... well, not 'long' but it was a life I guess.

"Just get some rest, and you'll be better in no time! Good night, er..."

"Webber." But the name didn't sound right and there was an intense want to say something different but there was nothing different to say.

"Webber. Huh. You've probably already heard my name a hundred times, but it's Erika."

Snow battering my face as the winter chill turned my nose red. Snow condensed into a ball colliding with the back of my head. We turned away, trying to drive away the half-formed and fuzzy memories. "Goodnight Erika," I murmured, curling up on the silk beneath and closing our eyes.

"When was the last time I slept on silk? Oh, it's been so, so long! I've missed it. I'm surprised that she is still alive, I will not deny. After... you know."

What? What are you talking about?

"...nevermind." A small chuckle resonated in the back of our head. "You'll find out soon enough."

…

Slinger hummed and hurmed at the gash we received from the fall. The 'dangling depth dweller', as Erika had explained them to be called, clapped his front legs together. "You should be able to return to the surface today!"

We perked up, our eyes widening. "Really?" While only two days had passed, it was hard not to have gotten sick of the never-ending darkness. We only knew how much time had gone by because of Erika.

"Erika! It's time for our guest to leave," Slinger called into the darkness. His cry was almost instantly answered by the pink-eyed dangling depth dweller. She looked almost... sad? Nostalgic?

"Already? Yes, yes, you have your friends on the surface to tend to." She tapped on the floor, then forcibly brightened. "Well, I guess this is goodbye until you and your friend fall down here again!"

"Until then," I responded with a smile. We hesitated, then added: "will you be the one to show us the way out?"

"Of course." Her expression softened, but she shook her body as if to scatter thoughts. "Come on! The Nightmare Lights won't stay lit forever. We only have a short amount of time." The white spider turned and scurried away, but her rush shocked us. There's something off about her. I'm not the only one that feels it...