Adles stumbled backwards landing onto a large rock. He sat on the rock staring speechlessly at the other boy. The color had drained from Orn’s face, a sharp contrast to the dark ichor smeared over the lower half of it.

It looks as if he was... eating, Adles shook his head to clear the thought. The motion caused a wave of vertigo to rush over him. Aldes closed his eyes and held his head in his hands. When the feeling passed, he slowly opened his eyes. The rock he was siting on was not a rock, but a dead spider.

Adles slowly looked up, and around the space. It was littered with dead spiders. There are so many of them. How did he do this?

His attention drifted back to the unconscious Orn. He was not moving, but Adles saw the faint sign of his chest rising and falling. The confident hunter who traveled with him was replaced by just another boy his own age.

He is not much different from me, Adles thought looking from Orn the bodies in the space. We are the same age and have the same path. But he did all this, while I fell down unable to even draw my sword.

What should I do? the question echoed in his mind, but nothing came. He tried to remember any advice that the highlanders had given him on their trips into the hills, and remembered the one trip his grandfather had felt well enough to join. One of the highlanders commented that the character in a campfire tale had made the worst possible choice. Adles Grandfather had disagreed. No, the worst choice would have been to do nothing. He chose poorly but at least he chose to act.

The memory of his grandfathers; words rang out like an accusation. I need to do something, but instead I was sitting here waiting for the solution to land in my lap.

He slowly stood up, and paused to let the feeling of vertigo pass before working his way around the space. There were several large spider bodies on the floor, and several spiderweb cocoons. Two of them were torn open, and he assumed the second belonged to Orn. Another of the bundles was on the ground covered and Adles chose to investigate it first.

The bundles was mostly flattened as if someone had walked on it. As he shuffled forward to better see his foot struck a small ball. He watched the of white orb roll to a stop against the bundle and saw the shadow of a spider move inside it. Adles stared at the egg, his eyes widening as he realized what it was. Without a second thought he stomped on it. A quick scan of the area led Adles to find more that he finished in the same manner.

Once he was confident he had crushed the last of the eggs, he finished his circuit around the cave. There was a crack in the ceiling that let the light in, a vertical crack in the wall behind Orn, and a lower horizontal opening near the cocoons. The crack in the ceiling was the most direct way out, but it was also more than twenty feet straight up. He scanned the walls and saw not good way to get up them without being a spider himself. That just left the two cracks in the walls.

The vertical crack was closer and at a glance Adles felt it would be hard to move in. The horizontal crack by contrast was dark. But he felt confident he could crawl in it more than a few feet without getting stuck

After settling on the horizontal opening he just needed a way to navigate its darkness. The lantern was gone, probably left in the tunnel by the spiders. Adles knew that meant he would have to wander the tunnel in the dark and hope, or find a source of light. He glanced around, his eyes falling onto the unopened cocoons. Adles swallowed thickly at the thought and drew his knife.

Despite knowing what he was likely to find, the sight of a dead man’s emaciated face shook him. Adles closed his eyes and did his best to turn his thoughts away from what could easily have been his fate. Then, despite the shaking in his hands, he continued to cut at the web.

Adles muttering prayers asking the men and the goddesses as he removed them from the cocoons and rifled through their pockets. Eventually the men lay on the floor, beside a distraught Adles, who was holding a worn stub of a candle.

With no other choice Adles caught the wick on fire and did his best to shelter the small light from going out as he moved slowly to the opening. He spaced a quick glance at Orn’s still form and with a final prayer he began a painfully slow crawl through the narrow space.

Stolen novel; please report.

Every flicker of the candle caused the uneven walls and ceiling to cast ominous shadows in the small space. This only compounded the constant second guessed, of his decision to take this path. Will the candle last long enough? Should I have left Orn behind?

Adles continued at a snail’s pace until he saw a dark shape ahead blocking a large part of the passage. He held his breath, and slowly extended the candle forward. I the dim light he made out the straps of Orn’s bag.

As it came into view, a wave of relief washes over him. Without thinking he released the breath he had been holding, and the tunnel is plunged into darkness. Unable to relight the candle Adles was left to swear into the darkness.

…

After several terrifying few minutes scrambling backwards through the tunnel Adles reemerged in the cave with Orn’s pack. Adles excitement at making it back to the cave fades as he sees Orn is still unconscious.

At least I found the pack with means I found, Adles froze, remembering how Orn seasoned their food with goblin’s bane. If he has more medicines maybe one can help him.

Adles quickly rifled through the bag and found several pewter and clay pots. Each had a powder or salve, but none were labeled. Adles had no idea what any of them were, but he knew using medicines he did not understand was more likely to hurt than help.

With a sigh, he pushed them aside. The inability to use the medicines was disappointing, but he knew the way the spiders had brought them in. A way he hoped would get them out.

Adles walked over to Orn and pulled the other boy off the spider. Holding him around the chest Adles dragged Orn to the opening he had just crawled out of. Adles gave the candle’s remains a long look before climbing into the hole legs first. Then turning slightly he grabbed Orn’s form and continue down the narrow space.

As they went, Adles did his best to feel out the path with his feet before pulling Orn forward. The low ceiling made this slow going and frequently resulted in Adles banging his head on it. For more than an hour, Adles struggled down the tunnel. Then Adles feet hit a wall. He felt around for a few moments thinking it was a large rock or turn in the path. They had passed several on the way but he felt panic building as he could not find the edge.

The ceiling as slightly higher in this space and allowed Adles to turn to face the obstruction. His hands ran over the cold rock and spider silk of a dead end.

It is a dead end, Adles did not think he had missed a turn but in the darkness he easily could have. What if I got us lost? Orn is not waking up, and if they find the cavern without us will they keep looking? Is anyone even looking?

Adles shook as he fought back the tears. They were going to die, lost in a spider tunnel, and it was his fault.

He fell back against the wall and felt it shift. He froze thinking it was his imagination. Then as if to confirm it was, he pressed his back against the wall and shoved. As he pushed the wall shifted slowly opening into a dark space beyond. Adles pulled himself away for the wall as it started to swing out nearly dropping him into the darkness beyond it.

Adles stretched out into the darkness, his hands moving through empty air beyond the door. Then the he heard something coming. He tried to grab the edge of the door and pull it back, but paused when he made out what he thought was a word. Adles froze and strained his hearing against the distorted echoes.

Those are voices. There are people coming, Adles let go of the door and yelled that they were here.

The call was answered by other voices and he could hear the sound of people running. He turned back to where Orn lay in the darkness. Hang in there just a little longer.