Chapter 6: Brother

Xaiax twitched. Something just struck the complex network of outer webs, which gave warning of approach. Probably too big to be food, hopefully to small to be gnawers. He focused all his thought upon the vibrations reaching his legs. Some Overland spiders could detect individual molecules bonking into their sensory hairs. Xaiax's tactile senses weren't that sharp, but spinners had far sharper minds. Struck the lower webbing near tunnel seventeen at running speed… Larger than a crawler... No hard outer shell…

"Ow!"

Ah. Sounds like a killer.

Curious, Xaiax scuttled toward the noise. Very small for a spinner, he easily wove between others without disturbing them. When his English teacher, Gox, lumbered into his path, he shifted to an especially taut strand and jumped. He landed on the cavern ceiling, zipped to a better vantage point, and came to a stop when his echolocation got a clear picture.

"Hello! Is anyone there? Hello?"

Wow, this intruder was noisy. But then… Xaiax could be too. He was one of very few spinners with a voice of air, rather than a voice of strumming. Most spinners exhaled passively, with air gradually leaving their many spiracles through osmosis. But perhaps one in a hundred could deliberately expel that air with sufficient force to produce clear sounds. Of those few, Xaiax had by far the greatest skill in controlling and shaping those sounds. Thus, he could speak or echolocate while still having full use of all eight limbs. His big brother, Treflex, could hiss loudly, but the only English word he could produce that way was "scissors," and with such a thick accent it made Xaiax laugh.

Now, Xaiax hissed and clicked softly, getting a clear image of the intruder.

Huh. He'd expected someone older. Though tall, this human was almost part spider himself, just skinny limbs and sharp angles. Except… something was wrong. At first, Xaiax wondered if the child had a massive tumor or spinal deformity.

"I am Gregor the Overlander. I come in peace. Anybody home?"

On closer examination, the noisy killer just wore a backpack.

With a head.

Huh?

He clicked a bit louder.

Ah… A second, smaller killer in the backpack. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaay less weird.

Hextel started wrapping up the Overlander.

Good idea. Might finally shut him up.

"Hey! You don't understand!"

Guess not.

"I'm the warrior! In the prophecy! I'm the one who calls!'

I can believe he "calls." Loudly. But "the warrior"? He ran right splat into the web, and has no sword. Not even a dagger. What a silly bluff.

Hextel worked efficiently. At Xaiax's size, it would have taken forever to wrap up a killer, even one this scrawny. But Hextel was chonky, and he could put out more silk in two minutes than Xaiax could in an hour.

"Ge-go!"

This squeal was so high-pitched Xaiax figured the boy should be embarrassed . But then he realized the noise came from the teeny killer in the backpack. Well, teeny compared to other killers. If she sat on Xaiax, he might splut.

Then the boy said the first thing that didn't make Xaiax want to stuff a wad of web in his mouth. "Vikus sent me!"

Hextel paused, as well he should. Vikus respected spinners more than just about any other warmblood, and his wife could be terrifying. Way better to stay friendly with Vikus than to risk waking up the Ironheart.

"Yeah, Vikus sent me and he's on his way and he's going to be really mad you're wrapping me up!" The probably-not-warrior waved around some magic light thing and Hextel backed off. Now that was a neat trick. Xaiax had never seen anything like it. He also liked how the weird boy talked. When rats chattered away in English, it seemed sloppy, lazy, and messy. But this unique Overlander who maybe knew Vikus and could shine light in a line… well, he gave the dialect an air of mystique that Xaiax quite liked. Squashing two words together to save time… maybe it wasn't lazy. Maybe it was awesome.

"So, do you know Vikus?" the probably-not-warrior-but-still-awesome killer asked. "He should be here any minute to have some official meeting with your king. Queen. Do you guys have a king or queen?"

Well… the rambling isn't as awesome…

"Or maybe it's something else. We have a president, but that's different because you have to vote for them."

Come on little "warrior." I wanna like you but you're making it hard.

"So… do you think you could unwrap us now?"

If Xaiax had any authority, he'd consider it. The light-flinging spider-legged boy with the baby backpack and the fun accent didn't seem like the sort to squish Xaiax. But Hextel was on guard duty, not him.

Treflex crept up next to Xaiax, and rapidly tapped out a message on his thorax. Not the audible speech spinners used when talking to other species, but the binary code they'd developed centuries before during a time of close friendship with the nibblers. It made no sound, with the taps so light other species might not even feel them. "Is the Overlander dangerous?"

"Nope," Xaiax whispered, softly enough there was no way the "warrior" could hear. "Just noisy."

Hextel snapped the anchor thread, and the two Overlanders sprang up fifty feet. "Hey!"

Treflex tapped away. "Yep. Very."

Gox finally arrived. She ran a leg over her thorax, producing a voice barely louder than a whisper. "Remember your lessons, Treflex. You need to practice your English. You do not want your little brother to outperform you forever."

"Not fair," Treflex insisted, his voice a bit louder and less smooth. "He is an air speaker. How could I ever keep up?"

"With dedication," Gox said.

There was no chance the "warrior" could hear them, not over the sound of his own hollering. He blathered and begged and insulted and complimented and generally sounded like a crazy person. But Xaiax found himself liking it more and more. His words and dialect, his expressions and references, they were all so… exotic. The Overland was a vast place, teeming with life, with more minds than all Underland species put together. Legends told of their wondrous technology and rich cultures. More and more, Xaiax found this killer… entrancing. Even at his most annoying, the boy was an endless source of the new . Then the teeny Overlander started singing something about spiders, but her voice was too high-pitched and it made everyone wince.

A mindless insect, some sort of cricket but bigger than Xaiax, blundered into the web. The silly things were so clumsy when flying, and conveniently, they were also delicious. But Xaiax was too focused on the Overlanders to get there first. Nuxen zipped in, sank in her fangs, and slurped the idiot bug's guts. Not all spinners made a distinction between prey that could think and prey that couldn't, but Xaiax, Treflex, and Nuxen did. Gox too. Of course, they'd eat anybody that was already dead, but they preferred not to, well, be killers . Some other spinners thought them too squeamish, and apparently crawlers tasted even better than crickets, but Xaiax wouldn't be bullied into compromising.

Eventually, the boy calmed down and starting talking with his sister. Xaiax sensed the relief of everybody nearby. Princess Xuxys arrived, and began to strum a soothing melody. A talented poet and songwriter, she soon had everyone feeling normal again despite the prolonged stretch of irksome noise.

Xaiax, though, was disappointed. Compared to the Overlander chatter before, the song felt boring.

Then the vast, interconnected webbing throbbed. A message from a distant lookout. More killers incoming, along with fliers and two crawlers. So, they really did think the Prophecy of Gray was underway. Maybe the skinny kid with the awesome accent was the warrior.

Apparently, Vikus was with this group, so orders were given to let them through. Xaiax and Treflex observed silently as the mixed company found the Overlanders, who were cut loose. The boy lost his balance, and pitched forward to land on his face instead of on the little girl in the backpack. The killers cut him loose with their swords, which were nasty, scary things that no spinner ever wanted to mess with if they could help it. In their conversation, it became clear they had killed multiple gnawers. Solovet, the girl queen, and the big Captain obviously knew how to use those swords for more than cutting webs.

Wevox and her court arrived, climbing down on silk lines to hang in the air near the humans. Xaiax knew he'd get in major trouble if he said anything, now that things were getting "official."

"Greetings, Queen Wevox."

"Greetings, Lord Vikus."

"Meet you, Gregor the Overlander, meet you."

"He makes much noise."

"The Overlander ways are odd."

Odd… and awesome! I wish we had more Overlanders!

"Why come you?" Wevox asked.

"The Prophecy of Gray is at hand. Gregor the Overlander is the Son of the Sun. Gorger's captive is Gregor's father, who is lost up ahead. This boy is the warrior who called, and we answered. The fliers and crawlers assent. The gnawers are striking to extinguish the rest, having killed many humans, fliers, and crawlers. If you assent, we hope Gregor will bring us back light. The sooner we act, the sooner light may come. With two of your brave spinners, the quest can begin. Please, noble Queen, allow two volunteers to join the prophesied mission."

Smooth. Direct, to the point, and not loud. If I were bigger, I'd volunteer just to observe the Overlanders up close.

Too bad it wasn't his call.

"As it is Vikus, we shall not drink," Wevox declared. "Web them."

Dang.

Powerless to interfere, Xaiax watched as the others worked together to rapidly build a funnel around the intruders, thirty feet high. Nuxen and Finlix stood guard at the tiny hole in the top for watching the prisoners.

Well… that's not great.

This web was made of a silk that dampened sound, so the noisy prisoners wouldn't give everyone a headache. It also meant Xaiax couldn't listen in on their conversations. Bummer. He was getting more obsessed with the Overlanders by the minute, but apparently he was the only spinner who felt that way. At least we're not drinking any of them…

Waiting in silence, hoping against hope his Queen would change her mind, Xaiax pondered. The Underland was a great place… but the Overland was bigger. Spinners were advanced, with their many silks and the complex ways they could employ them… but the Overland had too many marvels to count.

At last, Xaiax came to a conclusion.

He had found his calling. His life ambition. The object of his every thought and action.

He would visit the Overland. He would explore it, and watch, and listen. He would study the many marvels that had made the skinny boy so unique. Xaiax was small, he was quick, he could jump, and in an emergency his venom was vicious. No matter what happened to these two Overlanders, Xaiax would learn about their world. No matter how vast the Underland seemed… there was a far grander world awaiting him.

Author's Note:

Wohoo. Three chapters in one day. I might not get to write again for a full week, so I tried to get in some extra today.