Webber's POV
Our brain felt muddled. It was the best way to put it. Not quite hurting, not really throbbing with the threat of an oncoming headache, just... muddy. We woke up slowly, deep imprints on our hands from where we had clutched seashells in our sleep. Then, we had to take an extra moment to rub the sand and gunk from our eyes and reacquaint ourself with the waking world. Wilbur was still deep asleep beside us, tail curled over his snout as he snored softly.
It was lucky, really. Gave us an extra few moments to evaluate ourself.
It had been a couple of days since both of us had been present, what with the spider having appeared to crawl back for the time being, but a gentle mental prod brought resistance. Our thoughts were twisting, though, and not in the way that they usually formed together. Most likely, that was the source of the 'muddy' feeling.
For the longest time, it had been a solid power dynamic between us. The human had an inherently stronger will, and the spider obeyed without consent. It had been building up over time, with the spider growing more vocal and more there, asserting himself more, making himself more known. After... whatever happened a few days ago, though, the dynamic seemed to have been shaken furiously and rolled like a pair of dice. Twisting and weaving, thoughts coming together and unraveling at the last second. No real words formed by either side, but both minds acting equally strong.
It was pleasing.
No no, it was scary.
Exciting.
Terrifying.
In was in the midst of that mental confusion that Wilbur stirred. He immediately yawned and stretched out, tail quivering at the end as he extended it to its full length. Suddenly, one voice became more clear than the other, and the harsher one backed down.
"You look like you slept wonderfully," Wilbur acknowledged sarcastically. He began stretching each individual leg, and paw. "You didn't wake up vomiting though, so I'm going to say probably wasn't nightmares, eh?"
"I... honestly don't know." I rubbed my head, massaging my temple as I half-squinted at him. "I can't really remember... last night at all."
"That's probably not a bad sign." Wilbur appeared to have finished with his extensive stretches, because now he settled into a sitting position. His tail swished through the sandy grass at the edge of the beach. "I've got no knives in me so you didn't black out and attempt homicide, and that's all I really care about. Come on, we're about to hit the next leg of our journey!"
"Eh?" I turned my attention to the beach ahead, wincing at the brightness of the sand even in the faint dawn light. "It, uh, looks the same as every other part so far."
"I've also been really dragging my feet here in case you can't tell." Wilbur grinned at that, but before we could question it, he bounded forward a few steps. "But! We call this place the Archipelago for a reason!" He continued forward at a pace that I honestly thought way too fast for this early in the day, then skidded to a stop in front of the shore. I hurried after him, clutching my seashell collection to my chest as I gazed out over the ocean. "It's time for some sailingggg! I'm awful at building rafts, not really my thing, you know, didn't really need to for many years for reasons unspecified, but I can command the ocean like nobody's business."
"Is that another skill from one of your old companions?" I questioned, thinking back to the night before and Wilbur's surprising cooking skills.
"Actually, yes! Did you know that Maxwell actually thought we were the fancily-titled group?"
I paused at that. Wilbur didn't seem to notice, for he was already picking lengths of grass and seaweed, carefully examining it for strength, before adding it to a pile.
"There were five of us even back then. See, apparently, the old geezer had some sort of vision about being overthrown. This is before the titles were even known, so they weren't considered at all. If he is to be trusted, which he is not, mind you, take what I say with a grain of salt, there was only two people he could make out in that vision. One of those people being, of course, me." He paused for just long enough to thump a fist against his chest. "The other, naturally, being you."
"What?"
Wilbur turned to continue his gathering, but I grabbed his shoulder to stop him before he could. "'Naturally'? What do you mean 'naturally'?"
"Cause we're natives, duh." He brushed my hand off to continue his work. "I don't know the specifics. He thought it was for some other reason, but clearly not, since my group had a totally different native that did not include you."
I began to follow Wilbur's lead, gently pressing the seashell-filled coconut into the sand in order to start a fresh pile of driftwood and sticks. "Can you... tell me a bit about your old group?"
"Of course I can. I can say whatever I want about them and they can't protest. Although, perhaps it would be violating their memories if I lied too much or... whatever, so I'll be truthful."
"How truthful?"
"As truthful as I want to be, Tyler!" Something twinged in the back of my head, irritated, but it passed a millisecond later.
"Warly was the one I learned how to cook from. He was bossy in a way that he hated it when things didn't look perfect, so he would kind of pressure us to keep things looking nice. He got on my a lot about my fur, so I got into some pretty intense cleaning habits during that time, too. Kept sand from getting in his food, you know? He had a squeaky voice and he would get so indignant whenever I pranked him or anything similar. Once, I threw a crabbit at him like I did you, and instead of- oh, I don't know, catching it- he screamed and ducked. Could cook like a beast though. If you think I've got skills, just remember that I'm a second generation and not the original.
Then there was Walani, who was, for the record, 'not' his girlfriend despite them totally having a thing for each other for well over a year. She called him 'Wally' a lot and he would always get so offended by it. She liked to surf, tried to teach me. I nearly drowned on more than one occasion and put an end to that pretty quick. She was quiet, let the others boss her around however they wanted. A kind of a 'go with the flow' kinda person, unless it included hunting. She hated hunting. Always made me do it.
Woodlegs was a nuisance and you should be glad you don't have to meet that weirdo. In case you couldn't guess by the name, the man literally had two wooden legs and would craft himself new ones all the time and he would get so emotionally attached to them gross. The first time I met him I shattered both of them with a rock and he nearly killed me in retaliation. I swear he had a collection of those things, though. He had a boat that he would literally die for and basically if you ever got into a conversation with him it would turn into something about his stupid boat and you wouldn't be able to get away. Also you could barely understand the guy. It was like talking to a brick wall."
At this point, Wilbur grew very quiet. He had stopped scampering around and was instead twisting his gathered materials together into something stronger. His expression was unreadable.
"That's four."
"What?"
"Those three plus you only makes four. What about...?"
A small, sad smile grew on his face. "Well... we can't always save the ones we care about, right?" He turned away from his project, the makeshift rope growing slack in his hands. "Roselyn. Her name was Roselyn. She was... our Martyr. The only one that really fit the title when you thought about it." He laughed, but his voice cracked as he did so.
"You cared about her a lot, didn't you?"
"I loved her, Tyler. She was a prime ape, like me. And she was... perfect. Strong, smart, impossibly brave. She would do anything for anyone, even at the expanse of her own safety." He shook his head, sighing. "She saved me from dragoons, once. I could never keep my eyes off of her after that. We... we had a daughter together."
"Wilbur... you... you have a family?"
"Had, more accurately. Like I said, she... was our Martyr. She fought until the end. For our daughter, for our friends... for me." Wilbur looked up at me again, but his eyes were watery now, and it was clearly taking all of his strength to keep himself together. "That necklace belonged to her, you know."
"What?" I immediately ripped it from my neck, scrabbling back several feet. "You didn't- but I- why did you-"
"Hey, it's not like it's cursed!"
"I'm not wearing the necklace of your dead mate, Wilbur! That is so not okay! I'm not going to take that away from you if it's all you have left of her!"
"Well... um..." He poked a finger in the sand, forming a hole and decidedly not meeting my eyes.
"What? What's that 'um' about?"
"She... um... we were going to give it to... um... our... child...?"
I sucked in a deep breath through my teeth. "Then... why didn't you?"
"Don't you think I would've given it to her if I ever managed to find her?"
She's missing?
For a moment, we stared at each other, a million unspoken things flitting between us. He silently picked up the necklace, then lifted it up to me. After a moment of silence, I took it from him and put it back around my neck.
Something in the distance must have alerted Wilbur. He immediately shot into attention, back straightening and eyes searching. I took a deep breath, hoping to get some sort of hint of what had caused the sound, but my senses felt dull and gray. Wilbur, luckily, seemed to have plenty of an idea, because he suddenly looked quite annoyed. "Oh great, the welcome wagon's here."
The ocean exploded.
Teeth. Teeth and claws and scales.
Terror froze me to the spot as the water erupted into an arch, then fell around the body of a monstrous creature. I knew immediately that this was a Giant, something that I had hoped the Archipelago was free from. Its body was sleek and shining, teeth unnaturally white as it crawled onto land. It had a short tail that dragged behind it, weighed down with water, and two sharp ears atop its head. Its scales- fur?- was a shimmering orange, broken up by ebony black stripes.
Although its initial appearance was violent, now that its entire body was on land, it moved like a predator. Slow, calculated, and its slitted eyes focused entirely on its prey: An irritated monkey, who was now glaring at the creature as if it had interrupted him on a very bad day. And, given the previous subject matter, that was quite possibly the case. "Miss, ma'am, madam, please not today."
It rumbled something at him, and Wilbur looked even more upset about it.
"Ouch, that's a new insult. If you feel the need to call me that, I prefer 'ape meat', not 'monkey meat', aight Tiger Lily? We've been over this a million times."
It took a single step towards him, a rumbling growl in the back of its throat. It was like it didn't see me at all. Every ounce of its focus was on Wilbur, and I couldn't stop staring at those teeth, and then imagining everything they could do and my head was getting fuzzy and I couldn't think and two voices were screaming at me at once to move and my body stayed frozen because I was too slow too slow too weak too slow-
"Don't hurt him!"
Everything went still.
I could sense Wilbur behind me, eyes boring into my back, but my entire vision was swarmed with vibrant, poisonous orange. A massive creature, something that could easily eat both of us in the same bite. And yet, it stopped as well. Its ears moved back and forth, before settling on flattening to its skull.
When had I moved?
No longer was I on the sidelines. I stood in front of Wilbur, arms held out almost tauntingly. I winced and squeezed my eyes shut. My collection of seashells laid abandoned, scattered across the sand. "Don't hurt him," I repeated softly, surely too quietly for the creature to hear. It wouldn't care anyway. It had every intention of hurting Wilbur, and it would hurt me without a second thought to do so. The Giants were instinct-based animals. We were nothing more than food.
"Um... Tyler?"
"Just do it," I snapped at the creature, ignoring Wilbur completely. "You want to eat me, right? Do it. I don't care. Just don't hurt him. Don't-" My words broke, and my next inhale came as a shaky sob.
The Giant's body started twitching, some sort of unnatural sound rising from deep in its throat. I slowly lowered my arms, watching it carefully for a long moment before realizing it was laughing. "Kitten has spunk. Okay, Wilbur, today is break. Tomorrow, not so." It laughed again, harder this time. Somehow, against all odds, it spoke in broken spider.
"Oh thank me, that means a lot. Really, it does." Wilbur laughed along with it, but it seemed forced, uncomfortable. "Um... Tyler, this is Tiger Lily. She's... well, we're definitely not friends. My rival, I guess."
"Your... rival?" I asked tentatively. My stance was relaxing now, but I still kept myself between Tiger Lily and Wilbur. She was much, much bigger than him, and it would be so easy to just-
"Basically. We are around the same age, roughly 'really freaking old' years, so we both kind of fight for resources and stuff. Really we just try to kill each other every once in awhile and then continue along our way. It's basically tradition at this point."
"No fight. Hurt kitten."
"She's also basically the ultimate mother around here and is absolutely obsessed with kids, so you know. Look extra childish."
"She won't hurt you?"
"I mean, yeah, but she's not going to kill me."
"She won't kill you?" I whispered. I found it hard to believe, looking at this creature. The way its slitted eyes grazed over me like prey. The violent shifting of the ground with every step that it took to get closer to me. The shine of the sun on- its horn as it charges it's going to kill me I don't want to die I don't want to lose you too I'm so tired of losing everything and everybody and please I'm sorry I don't want to die I don't-
Stop.
And so it did.
Tiger Lily sniffed me. I shivered under her scrutiny as she looked me over, claws gently wrapping around my arms and moving them around for her to get a better look.
"Young Heir," she guessed. "Different from last time. More wound. Less year. How silly Wilbur find kitten?"
"He washed up on shore," Wilbur answered. "Really quite valiant for the esteemed Young Heir. Now, what do you mean 'last time'?"
"Last time, kitten swallowed by nightmares. Dark sky. Ancient fall. Wilbur not remember?"
"Listen, if this is from when we were kids, I remember literally none of that." Wilbur scratched his head. "That was like, four thousand years ago, okay? Anyway! So, since you're conveniently here, we could really use your help with something."
"No."
"It's not for me. See, our handsome perfect Young Heir here," he placed a hand on my side as he pushed past me, ending up directly beneath the creature's nose. "Is trying to get home to the Mainland. I was thinking maybe you could help take us back to the Seaworthy?"
So, we were just going to ignore the 'swallowed by nightmares' thing? I opened my mouth to say something about Tiger Lily's cryptic words, but I couldn't quite get a moment in to speak.
"Seaworthy," she rumbled. She looked back at me, a thoughtful glint in her eyes. "Mmm... kitten has Wilbur necklace?" Tiger Lily reached out gently, nudging the gem hanging from my neck with an extended claw. With the same claw, she swept a portion of my scattered seashells closer to my feet. "I see. Kitten very important. Yes, I help. Come kitten." She dipped her head to the ground, chin brushing against the sand.
"Um." I glanced at Wilbur, and he dipped his head encouragingly.
"Listen. She carries kittens around all the time. It's... probably safe."
I took my time, bending down to collect the shells again. I paused for a moment, clutching one of the shinier and smoother shells and running my thumb across its surface. By the time I actually stood straight again, Wilbur had already climbed on her head, babbling on to the Giant about something. "Four thousand two hundred and sixty-two years of rivalry set aside for a common goal! Can you believe it's been that long, Tiger? I most certainly can't. Goodness do I feel old. Yo Tyler, you joining?"
I cautiously stared at her fur. It wasn't that I had never climbed before, but climbing Giants had... well, never quite ended well for the Giant.
"Kitten's tiny claws not hurt," Tiger Lily rumbled. "Do not worry."
I nodded slowly, finally climbing up onto her head. She stood as soon as I stopped moving.
"Don't dunk your head in the water," Wilbur said. "I mean, the Sea Demon won't hurt you or I, but I doubt it will be very happy with someone who... well, isn't as old as it."
"How exactly old are you guys?" I asked after a moment, trying to keep my mind off of the very far distance below me.
"Listen, Tyler, I doubt that you will believe this, but Tiger and I have been around for longer than these islands." Wilbur puffed his chest out. "She and I were born in the Ancients. Which was, well, four thousand two hundred and... ninety-three years back? Honestly those memories are super fuzzy. Check my math, Tiger."
"Ninety-six."
"Dang, off by three years."
"You're... thousands of years old?"
"Indeed," Tiger Lily agreed. "Land die. Land reborn. Many years of nothing."
"Honestly, good riddance. The people from the old world sucked."
"Too powerful for own good. Bad experiments, bad people."
"How are you still alive?" I asked. Tiger Lily dipped her sleek body into the ocean, careful to keep the top of her head out of the water. I shuddered as the salty water lapped at my feet, and tucked them closer under my body.
"We don't die like you peasants," Wilbur scoffed. He dipped his tail into the water. "Dying of old age is the loser's way out. You'd have to actively kill us to get rid of us."
"Very hard." Tiger Lily sounded amused.
"You might want to focus on hanging on for now. The ocean can get rough." He shot me a cheeky grin, but before I could comment on how calm it seemed, Tiger Lily bucked to the side, nearly flinging me off of her back. I yelped, hunkering down and digging my claws in. "Trust me. Keep your mouth closed unless you wanna get real thirsty real fast."
I followed his advice this time, although that didn't stop me from wincing at the touch of water hitting me.
"You ready to get back home?" Wilbur asked with a smile that failed to reach his eyes.
I looked up again, squinting at the water ahead of us. A million possible answers ran through my head, because I wanted to get back home, I did, but I would... miss Wilbur. I tucked my seashell collection against my chest and let one claw brush against the necklace around my neck.
"I don't know."
