Webber's POV

"Tyler!"

Tyler Tyler Tyler. Why was that name so familiar? Who was speaking, and who were they talking to?

"Tyler, come on! Mom and Dad are going to yell at us if we're not at the naming ceremony!"

Tyler... Erika. Tyler and Erika, Erika and Tyler. Brother and sister, sister and brother. Tyler, Tyler, Tyler...

White fangs, glowing eyes. Two spiders, one white and one black, stalking towards the two children. A brother and sister. Twins. Tyler and Erika.

Heat and fear and slipping on their own blood. Screaming for each other, trying to reach for each other. "Erika, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Don't die, please!"

My name is Tyler.

"Tyler, why do you always fall asleep when something important is supposed to happen?"

My sister. She hadn't done anything wrong. She was just a little girl following her brother into an adventure.

Erika, I'm sorry...

"Tyler, you big goofball!"

I opened my eyes to see a girl standing above me. Her eyes were brimming with amusement, and her hands were on her hips.

"We were supposed to be back an hour ago, Ty! I can't believe you fell asleep again!"

I slowly sat up, groaning at the nagging ache in the back of my head. I blinked up at the girl, rubbing my head and squinting just a bit. "Erika," I whispered, recognizing her almost instantly. She was just as beautiful as I remembered her being, with long, thick brown hair and glimmering, richly colored amber eyes. She likely would have grown to be a very pretty woman.

But she never grew up.

She reached a hand towards me, a small smile on her tanned face. I took her hand, shocked by the color of my own skin, which was equally as sun-darkened as her own. As she brought me to my feet, I brushed a hand through my hair, relishing the feeling of a messy head of hair rather than short fur.

I was sleeping- dreaming- but it felt so real. So rich, I could almost taste the grass.

Webber was my spider's name. The day Erika was killed was the day I was eaten whole. I woke up again weeks later with no memory of anything and a voice in my head. I called myself Webber because Webber was the only name I knew.

The memories were unrestricted now. They flowed in so intensely that I felt myself crumbling to the ground. My head felt empty with no scoffing voice poking and prodding and hiding every memory he possibly could.

Assuming he was the one that held these memories back.

I flinched back as Erika placed a finger on my nose and shoved her face into mine. "Are you daydreaming about that girl again, Ty? Or thinking about which pup you'll choose?"

"Pup...?" I tried to turn my expression into one of neutral curiosity rather than crippling confusion. She let out a long sigh.

"It's our birthday, remember? We're turning ten? So we're choosing our hunting hounds today? We're supposed to be doing that right now actually, but you keep dilly-dallying!" She grabbed my shoulder and shook me.

"Oh, um, yes... sorry. I guess I was still a bit dazed from sleeping, that's all." Despite the awareness that I was sleeping, I despised the idea of tinkering with the dream too much in fear that I would wake up. It would be best to just follow Erika and listen to what she told me. And... some part of me was so desperately happy to be standing next to my sister again. We had been inseparable, hadn't we?

"They'll never have to be alone." I kept on her tail, frowning only slightly despite the headache gradually building behind my eyes.

"They'll always have each other." I led her into those spider dens. I was just too curious, too infatuated with the strange creatures that we competed for food with.

"They're both so friendly and sociable. I couldn't be gladder that they were twins. They would not have done well if one was older than the other." She died in front of my eyes.

The day was pleasantly warm, which was a nice difference from the blistering heat of summer. At some point, we climbed a hill, during which I unconsciously noticed that our footsteps echoed deep into the underground caverns that stretched beneath our world. As we left the hollow ground behind, I looked behind to realize that I recognized that hill. It was more solid and tree-covered than I was used to seeing it, but it had to have been the same hill that housed the crumbling tunnel entrances in my time. All of the birds were sort of a muddy brown color, rather than the rich blacks and startling reds of the crows and redbirds.

Before long, she led me towards a shallow dip in the ground, where a huge ice hound lay sprawled out. Another, even larger ice hound sat beside the first, cleaning its ear diligently and occasionally leaning forward to lick the muzzle of its companion. I lagged slightly behind her, shocked to see the friendly nature in which she approached the hounds. It took me a second to realize that two small hounds, one with blue fur like its parents and one with peppery black fur- nursed at the larger ones belly, their tiny paws paddling her fur in hopes of milk. There was a particular pride in the biggest hound's eyes. I assumed it to be her mate and the father of the puppies. Erika beckoned me closer, and I tiptoed until I was beside her, only a foot or so from the nursing hounds.

"There you are! We've been looking for you two!" I glanced over my shoulder to see an older teenager join us. Her hair was a darker shade of brown than Erika's, but she shared the same shade of amber eyes. "Anyone woulda thought that you're trying to forget that you're ten today!"

"He is! I was looking for him because he has the worst habit of taking naps in inconvenient places!" Erika elbowed me in the side affectionately. "Come on, Alyvia, which one do you think suits me better?"

"Now Erika, you know you're supposed to allow the pups to choose you. I remember the litter I got Fang from..." her eyes glittered with amusement, apparently deciding to not finish the story. Then again, I mused. I'm probably supposed to know this story.

The pups had reacted to our presence when Alyvia arrived, and now they were raising their heads and sniffing curiously. Despite having not been weaned, they certainly weren't incredibly young. Their eyes were open wide, and their tails were wagging in excitement. Seeing the pure innocence of the two puppies warmed a place in my heart that had gone untouched in years. Alyvia stayed behind us, her arms crossed. "Go ahead, pups. Who do you want your owner to be?"

The little blue hound let out a small yip as it got to its paws unsteadily. I felt my heart swell in joy as I instantly recognized the glimmer of spirit in the hound's eyes. I saw the way it held itself and the pattern of faint dark blue highlights around its muzzle.

This was my hound companion, Popsicle. He was still so small though, much smaller than he was when I first adopted him. I shakily reached out my hand to him, praying with all my heart that he would recognize me as I recognized him.

He paused, his nose twitching on the end. I managed to catch his gaze. A moment passed, then he stumbled closer to me, his tongue slowly lolling from his mouth. Another minute, then he reached up and sniffed my outstretched hand. Curiosity and confusion passed across his face, then he brushed his spine against my fingers as he pressed his face into my stomach.

As if noticing that its brother had left, the black hound pup took its place near Erika, its little tail pounding the ground in excitement. "Looks like Ty was the one who got the elemental," Alyvia said with a laugh. She sat on her knees and put one arm around each of them. "Don't be too sad though, Erika, Fang's one of the best hounds around if I do say so myself."

"She chose me!" Erika responded, seemingly uncaring of Alyvia's comments. "Ty, Ty, we were chosen by the pups!"

"What are their names?" I asked softly, gently scratching Popsicle's ears. It's only a dream, I reminded myself. That's why I recognize this pup as Popsicle. That's why I remember these people as my family.

...it's only a dream. Dreams are weird. Anything can happen in a dream. The reminder only served to bring an ache to my heart. The reminder that my family was gone forever, and that I was never going to see them again... outside of a dream, that is.

I remembered the last time I saw them. It had been so long since I saw my family by the time I woke up in my current predicament. The only thing that I wanted was to see my sisters and feel my parents arms around me. I just wanted to go back home and be a kid again.

I couldn't even get to my home. I barely managed to get within the village before a rock hit me in the cheek. I had winced back, surprised at the way pain felt as a half-spider with another layer of skin shielding my own. Things had been shouted at me, but I didn't hear or understand most of them. The concept of language was only just returning to me.

But I remembered the pain.

God, I remembered the pain.

The pain of the rocks and the pain of the wounds they left behind.

Nothing, though, nothing could compare to the sting of those emotions. As I heard and saw people I grew up alongside and people who helped to raise me trying to shoo me away like some monster.

That's what I had become- a monster.

These memories-or... whatever they were- were bittersweet. These were the same people that were likely turning me into the person I had become when I first met my friends.

The dream wavered slightly. Friends.

But... would I rather have them over my family? Over what I have here? No, no way. My family means the world to me. If I could have them back, like... truly back... that would be the world to me.

"What about Pepper?" Erika said, causing me to jump. I blinked at her, then back down at the hound in my arms. "Do you think that suits her?"

"Pepper," I echoed. Dream or not, she looked so happy with the hound pup. I blinked slowly. "That's a cute name, Erika," I said with a smile. "Pepper..."

"Well, Tyler?"

"Well?"

Erika sighed. "What are you naming yours?"

I glanced from Erika, back to the hound. I smiled. "...Popsicle."