[The nest]

Adles’ drifted in and out of consciousness. His mind was like an exhausted swimmer in deep water. He struggled against the force pulling him down, managing brief moments out of the darkness before he was pulled back into the darkness.

… cold. The thought crossed his mind for longer than the short flashes that had preceded it. He tried the hold onto the thought, but it slipped from his grasp and the darkness overtook him again.

…

Eventually the disorienting flashes of waking transformed into something coherent. He was balled up in a fetal position, and felt something soft wrapped around him. He struggled to move, but his joints were stiff, the movements slow. Despite his attempts he could to turn his head, leaving his blurry vision to stare at his legs and midsection in a dim light. This was made worse by the sweat that started running into his eyes as slowly forced the locked joints to move.

Adles felt weak and his attempts to wiggle free of his restraints had no effect. After struggling against the bonds for over an hour, he had not made any progress. Whatever held him was too strong for him to simply push his way out.

Soaked in sweat Adles fuzzy brain finally remembered the small knife he kept on his belt. He slowly slid his elbow along his side until it grazed the top of the handle. It was still there.

Eventually he was able to work his opposite arm across his body to the handle. A little tugging later and the knife slipped free of the sheath. Without thinking he pulled the arm back and felt the sharp lade drag across his side. He grit his teeth against the pain and turned the blade, parallel to his chest and leg.

Despite a few scratches and a couple slips where the knife nearly fell from his stiff fingers Adles felt the knife slide into what held him. Then he began to slowly saw at the fuzzy substance holding him.

…

The tear was small, but let dim light from outside slowly filter in to him. None of the situation made sense to him. He remembered being in a near pitch black tunnel, then monsters attacking. But despite the stiffness and fuzzy headed feeling he did not hurt. In fact he was wrapped in what felt like a soft blanket, if that blanket was wrapped around him and tied like a sack.

The pressure holding him slowly loosened as he cut with his knife. At first the slight change just allowed him to saw a little easier or move his neck a little. Then as the hole became wide enough he could see light outside, he felt the hole opening more easily.

Soon there was enough room to look out the hole, which had started to expand by itself. Adles poked his head out into the cool cavern and his eyes adjusted to the brighter light outside of the bundle that held him.

The space in front of him is covered in spiders. He froze his head sticking out of a whole in what he now realized must be a cocoon like the other handful hanging in the space. Almost as an afterthought he pulled his head back into the bundle to hide from the spiders.

The spiders did not make any movement at his appearance from within the cocoon. Adles stared out as the tear in the cocoon grew ever wider by itself. As he stared out his eyes met that of a nearby spider. His breath caught, but again the spider did not move. The creature was only an arms length away and staring right at him, yet its eyes stared blankly ahead. At least those it still had.

Two of the creature’s eyes were missing. A dark color stain ran from the void where the eyes had been. It is dead, the reality of the situation slowly dawned on Adles.

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Slowly poking his head back out of the large hole he looked from spider to spider seeing the telltale sign of drying liquid tracing back to some serious injury. They are all dead.

Adles gingerly started to pull himself out of the cocoon, only to sprawl onto the floor as his fingers lacked the strength to properly ease him out.

The fall hurt. He was not sure how long he laid there staring a the ceiling, but he finally mastered himself enough to roll onto his side. Across from him he caught sight of a familiar figure laying face down over the body of a spider. ORN!

Adles slowly and painfully used the cocoon that had held him to pull himself up. A wave of vertigo rushed over him and he barely managed to keep his feet under him as the empty cocoon swayed with him.

The body of the other boy was laying on top of one of the larger spiders in the space. Unlike the spiders closer to Adles this one was missing several of its legs.

Adles half stumbled, half fell, toward the body using the bodies of the spiders as support as he crossed the room.

Finally reaching Orn’s side he laid one hand on the spider and grabbed the other boy’s shoulder. Using all the strenght he could muster he flipped Orn over. Adles stared at the other boy’s face in a look of pure horror.

…

{an hour earlier}

Kao sat on the floor near Orn’s cocoon, her arms wrapped around her knees as she rocked slowly. Unable to help and unwilling to look into the cocoon at his pained face she stared silently at the spider silk ball.

Just before dawn broke, Orn’s cocoon started to move. At first it was a simple shiver, then the movements slowly grew more pronounced. Eventually the webbing starts to bulge and tear. Kao watched as the silk struggled to hold the figure inside. However, something did not feel right. Orn was tearing his way out, but she could not feel his presence. She could always feel his presence.

Suddenly a bloody finger poked through the cocoon, followed by another.

“Orn?” Kao asked worried as she scrambled to her feet. “Orn you are hurting yourself. Use your knife..”

The bundle froze at her words, and uttered a guttural clicking noise that made her freeze. The struggling in the cocoon turned into thrashing, as a second torn hand emerged and began tearing at the silk even as the tough thin fibers cut into the hands.

Kao watched in horror as the thrashing bundle fell to the ground, and tore open.

Driven by a fear she could not explain, Kao backed away. She wanted to help Orn, to apologize, to comfort him, to be mad at him for how normal this was for him. But all she could feel was fear. Even as his upper body left the cocoon and pushed itself up, she cannot feel her knight. Instead she stared at his body moving like a poorly puppetted marionette as it made goblin sounds.

In the dim morning light, she watches Orn’s scan the room. Just before its eyes land on her, Kao wills herself to be unseen.

Orn stops for a moment, staring at where she stands. His gentle blue eyes now glowed green, and seemed to hold an inhuman hunger. For a brief moment those eyes stared through her and she saw the ghostly form of a goblin’s face hang like a spectral mask over Orn’s. The image passed as soon as it appeared and before his attention focused on the nearest spider.

The not Orn, as Kao refused to acknowledge what she was watching was Orn, did not bother to finish freeing its legs form the cocoon. Instead it simply crawled across the floor dragging the cocoon with it. The thing made a guttural clicking sound as it grabbed the leg of the nearest spider and pulled. The spider rocked and Orn’s form was lifted up, before a crack was heard and the leg broke at the joint. With a wrenching motion the not Orn tore the leg free.

Kao watched in horror as it then began to eat...