Hello everyone and welcome back for another update of this story! We're now a third of the way into this story as we are now about to see more of the horror aspects of Primordial. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter Three
A year had gone by since Tsuna dealt with her bullies. It felt like yesterday, her mother was overly concerned when she saw how her daughter was bruised and covered in blood.
Despite being beaten to a pulp, Tsuna stood her ground and ever since then, no little Üngana ever saw her as a push over. Both her father and brother were proud of their little ape and saw that she had the makings of a strong Üngana.
One other thing that Tsuna learned from that experience was the thrill of vine swinging. Ever since that day, Tsuna honed her skills as she would often climb up large trees, before leaping off them to grab several vines, allowing her to travel across the jungle with ease. She loved the feeling in her gut as she fell to the floor before the rush of wind blew through her black hair.
Vine swinging was something that only she could learn. While her brother wanted to learn more about this activity, he was starting to grow a little bigger, and the vines would not be able to support his large weight. While he could make an attempt, it was best that he did not try. For now, he was fine with using branches to help him keep up with his sister.
On this particular day, sounds of laughter are heard in the treetops of the jungle as both Tsuna and Maku are testing their skills. While Maku sat on top of a large branch, he watched little Tsuna quickly made her way up the tree.
He was happy to see how he didn't have to wait that long for his sister to reach him. Soon enough the two smiled at one another and nudged each other while making several gleeful panting noises.
Still slow. Maku panted as he placed his hand on Tsuna's shoulder.
No way! Tsuna responded as she playfully pushed Maku. She then looked around for a nearby vine and had a big smile before she looked back at her brother. Catch me!
Tsuna then leaped off the branch and reached for the vine, leaving her older brother behind. Not wanting to be left in the dust, Maku races after her as he watched Tsuna swing from vine to vine. The two siblings playfully chased one another in the game of tag.
The human child happily smiled as she swung her whole body, from one vine to the other. Using both her hands and feet to grab onto the foliage, Tsuna flexed her body in multiple ways to travel through the jungle quickly. At one point she propelled her body onto a branch that was high above her.
She looked behind her and saw that Maku was far from sight. Feeling ever so confident, the human girl leaps off the branch and grabs onto a nearby vine. However, it would seem that this one was far too old, as Tsuna quickly saw the vine snap in half.
A shock went through her body as she quickly realized that there was nothing for her to grab onto. Time seemed to have moved slow in this moment, as Tsuna watched the trees around her grow taller and taller as she plummeted to the jungle floor. She didn't have any time to see where she was landing, before she felt her back make contact with the ground beneath her.
She braced herself as best as she could for the impact, hoping that perhaps she might be able to survive the fall. But instead of feeling immense pain, she felt the ground crumble beneath her and was confused as she saw the jungle above her shrink as darkness enveloped her. The next thing that touched her tan skin was a substance she never felt before.
It was sticky, but at the same time, firm, and also bouncy. Tsuna's body bounced and tangled itself in thin white vines that stuck to her body, and the child soon saw how her world was upside down. Whatever her body was entangled in, it saved her from a fatal fall.
On the surface, Maku panicked as he watched his little sister plummet to her doom and screeched as loud as he could. He made his way to the pit she fell in and saw how she was far deep inside a cave filled with white sticky vines. The young ape looked down and saw how Tsuna was still alive, but could not move.
In an attempt to reach her, Maku's hand touched one of these vines and was stuck to it. Not liking this feeling of being trapped, he yanked his hand away and howled as he looked down at his sister. Knowing, that their father would be able to get her out, the little ape howled at the human girl before leaving her to reach Taruk.
While her brother left to get their father, I'm Tsuna dangled inside the black cave as she did her best to free herself from these strange vines. Using all her strength, she yanked her hand out of one of these vines before the force of the yank caused her body to dangle even further into the cave. Anger, and frustrated, she looks at the hole leading to the surface world and is blinded by the sunlight beaming on her before looking away.
She looks down and sees that she's pretty high up from the ground beneath her and further struggle could lead to her falling on the solid rocks in this cave. However as she looked at the round she saw something strange.
She focused on the ground and saw small bones of different animals that may have fallen into this exact pit. Soon enough she began to put the pieces together before she felt a vibration come from one of the vines that tangled her left arm.
Tsuna looked deep into the cave and felt the vibration of the vine grow stronger before hearing an eery noise echo from one of the tunnels in this cave. A chill went down her spine as she stared deep into the tunnel and saw a large shadow appear. Her heart began to race as she watched the shadow grow larger and larger before seeing the creature approaching.
The human girl first saw what looked like a thin branch before several other branches began to shortly follow. It would appear that it had eight limbs in total that were attached to a large round body.
Soon enough, eight bright red orbs appeared at the center of the body as it approached the struggling Üngana. Crawling towards Tsuna was a creature from the nightmares of Primordial - a pit spider.
For as long as this island has existed, this species of arachnid serves as the dominant race of all spiders. Standing at nearly five feet tall with limbs extending as far as seven feet long the pit spider is one of Primordial's most terrifying creatures. Burrowing itself beneath the surface, this spider creates a series of tunnels, interconnecting a whole network of traps it lays out for unsuspecting victims.
Disguising its pits with fallen leaves, branches, and mud, the spider spins a vast arrangement of webs before retreating to the center of its tunnel system. Once an animal falls into the pit, the spider senses the vibration in the webs before following the source of the struggle where it can feast on its prey.
Such victims include small dinosaurs and other creatures that aren't strong enough to break through its webs. A four foot child would be a delicious addition to its pallet.
As Tsuna struggled to free herself from the spiders webs, she watched the creature slowly approach her, allowing her to get a good look at all the details of the arachnid. Eight of its eyes were a glowing shade of red, while its body was covered in white fur. Its legs were as black as the night sky with its two front appendages hardened from all the digging, while its remaining six legs were delicate.
The little Üngana could feel her heart race as she saw the mouth of the spider where its two front mandibles split wide open, revealing its large fangs and an array smaller teeth within its pink mouth. Tsuna panted in fear as she struggled to free herself before a small glimmer of light shined on the spider's face. The light was too much for the creature as it caused it to stumble away in terror.
The spider was frustrated and rushed over to the human and released a loud hissing noise. The little six year old screamed in terror as she saw the spider's mouth up close and personal.
She could feel its saliva drip onto her face as she shed tears of fear and panic while her heart felt like it was gonna burst out of her chest. This small moment felt like an eternity of terror as Tsuna cried her eyes out before watching the frustrated pit spider retreat deep into the cave.
It would seem that after spending so much time in its dark cave, the spider has grown sensitive to sunlight. While it had Tsuna tangled in its webs, the pit spider could not stand daylight, it would have to wait.
Despite being given some time to try to escape, there was only so much time the little Ungana had on her hands. True the sun would not set for a few hours, but all the spider needed was the sun to pass over its pit.
As the human child struggled to free herself, she watched the spider patiently wait as it sat far across and stared at her with its horrible red eyes. In a frantic panic she used whatever strength she had to rip off any web attached to her as she also released a terrifying howl, hoping her family would rescue her. But while she desperately tried to free herself, she saw the light beneath her begin to shrink before looking up and see the drool dripping down from the spider's fangs.
Just as her body was beginning to lose its strength, a shadow appeared above her. She looked up and saw it was her father, Taruk. Her heart was instantly filled with excitement as a big smile appeared on her face before her ears heard a terrifying noise.
The spider grew impatient, as it somehow knew that at any moment Tsuna was going to be rescued. But seeing as how the jungle girl was covered by a shadow, a window of opportunity appeared.
Tsuna's heart raced as she could feel her father's hand reach close to her foot. While Taruk desperately reached for his daughter, Tsuna saw the spider race its way towards her.
With its mouth wide open, the spider charged at quick speeds until the little girl saw her own reflection in the arachnid's eyes. But just before a fang could touch her delicate skin, the human child was ripped out of the webs.
Tsuna watched as darkness was washed away by sunlight as she could finally see the green leaves cover the jungle canopy while rays of sunlight warmed her face. She landed in the arms of her father and buried her face in Tarik's fur before she cried to her hearts content.
The male gorilla cradled the human child as he looked down and also saw Maku reaching over him to comfort Tsuna. The two apes were relieved to see that their precious Tsuna was safe and out of harms way, and soon made their way back to the tribe.
However that night, while the Üngana slept silently in their nests, Tsuna tossed and turned as sweat dripped down her hear, and the sound of her heart beat echoed in her ears. That night she dreamt of her terrifying experience with the pit spider and remembered every detail of her encounter.
She remembered the creatures horrifying fangs and soulless eyes, it caused her to wake from her nightmare in a panic. The little girl looked around and saw that she was surrounded by her ape family who were quietly asleep. She might have been safe in that moment, but her memories of the spider will haunt her for the rest of her life.
And with that, that will conclude Chapter Three! When my friend was creating the character of Tsuna, while she is a strong woman, he did want to give her some weaknesses and one of them was that she is deathly afraid of Spiders.
Seeing as how Primordial is home to very abnormal and prehistoric creatures, I wanted to make the spiders as frightening as possible. I'm happy with how the chapter turned out as this moment will be referred to in future chapters.
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